by John O'Brien
Lynn and I climb back into the idling Humvee. Driving past the man and guards, we exit the gate with the rest of the vehicles following.
“What do you think that was all about? Do you think he could possibly have been a night runner?” Lynn asks.
“I really don’t know but looking at the state of his clothes and lack of memory, I suppose it’s possible. We’ll have to talk to him when we get back and see if he can remember anything. If he can, that will give us an insight into the night runners,” I answer.
“You know that means you could have been right about Julie. She could have been one as well like Drescoll mentioned,” Lynn says.
“Yeah, I know. You get to ask her about it though,” I say.
“Fucking no way!” She retorts.
“Okay, well perhaps Drescoll can again but he’s already done that and came up with nothing,” I say chuckling.
We continue our drive north talking about the ramifications. Following the map, our little convoy makes several turns and we pull into a huge expanse of warehouse buildings. I stop just inside the open gate awed by the size. One extremely large warehouse sits across an equally sized paved lot. Tractor trailers line a humongous loading dock in front of rolling warehouse doors which are all closed. Many other semis are parked in the lot. The immensity of the one building is almost overwhelming. I just hope it’s not full of night runners and we don’t have to clear it.
We drive forward and pull to a stop near one end of the loading dock. A steel security door is set into the wall near the first bay. Setting up a perimeter with the teams, Lynn, Bannerman, and I walk to the door with Red Team. There is a coded security panel next to it but pulling on it, it swings open. With no power, the magnetic locks must have disengaged. Red Team enters at the ready but it is for naught as nothing greets us but mountains of pallets stacked ceiling high. The area in front of the sliding loading dock doors is clear with several fork lifts parked randomly. The inside is almost as light as the outside as the roof, almost four stories high, and is filled with skylights.
“Holy shit,” Robert says softly at my side.
It doesn’t appear anyone has touched this place since everything went down. The immensity of goods and supplies stocked within cannot be adequately described. There are mountains of items stretching far into the distance. Bannerman begins heading toward the stacks. I reach out to grab his arm.
“Wait. We still need to clear this place as I’m sure there are dark corners somewhere. There may not be night runners in here but we have to make sure we are alone before we start looking around,” I say. He nods stepping back.
“While we clear it out, think of a way to keep the doors secure when we leave,” I add. “Lynn, bring Black and Blue Teams in to clear the area. Red Team will keep an eye outside and be a response team if needed.”
“You got it,” Lynn says and calls outside to bring in the teams and organize the search.
It takes a couple of hours searching the entirety of the building, having to look between each and every stack, but we find it empty. Bannerman, along with Blue Team, begins inventorying the stacks. He even comes across a stack of blueberry flavored mini-wheats much to my delight. It takes a large part of the day and we still don’t cover the entire building. We check out the other buildings and find a tremendous amount of supplies. One building is entirely devoted to medical supplies, both over the counter and prescription medications. Another is a refrigerated warehouse that can no longer use the definition of being refrigerated. It emits an odor that reminds me of the slaughter yard down south. We close the door immediately knowing there is nothing inside that will do us any good.
“I think this will do us nicely,” Bannerman says as we prepare to depart. “I’ll have some of the drivers head up this way and begin carting supplies south. I think we can inventory all of this and leave a lot of it up here, replenishing as necessary. We’ll also have to gather more shipping containers. The only problem might be securing the place sufficiently. We can lock the rolling doors no problem but the security doors will be the problem. Anything we put on the outside can easily be cut. I suppose we could restore the generators and search the office spaces for the security codes.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I say happy we won’t have to continue going into possible night runner lairs searching of supplies.
We’ve been fairly lucky to this point but we push the odds each time we have to go inside a building. Plus, we can now clear out the area around our sanctuary without any fear of destroying supplies we need. This has been a good find. We load up and head back south. Passing by the bases, I see the sign for Madigan. The thought of our wall keeping the night runners in surfaces and I’m curious about the results. We don’t have much daylight left but make a note to visit tomorrow. Arriving back in the compound, I take Robert and Bri out for training before the sun begins to cast the last of its rays across our little space on earth.
Bannerman gives a basic rundown of our inventory at our meeting. He describes a plan for organizing crews to gather additional shipping containers, a full inventory of supplies, and provide a list of items to keep stocked on hand. He’ll take a couple of teams with him to provide security and to help search for the security codes.
“We’ll have plenty of supplies now so that just leaves the housing to work out. The walls will be up soon. When do you think we’ll be able to move into the housing?” Bannerman asks finishing up with his brief.
“I was thinking of taking Red Team up and look at the walls around Madigan tomorrow. With our supplies settled, I want to start clearing this area out and will take Craig, Robert, and Bri up to start getting them acquainted with the AC-130. I’ll gather the manuals as well and start training on the weapon systems. I was thinking about using Red Team for the crew. Anyway, my point is that we’ll look at the walls around the hospital and see what’s going on before making plans to move into the housing up there,” I answer.
“We can make do with what we have for the time being but it’s growing a touch crowded in here. It’s only a matter of time before that spills over into tempers,” Bannerman says.
“Okay, I’ll let you know what I find out. What about the man at the gate today? Did you manage to find out anything?” I ask Drescoll.
“Nothing. He doesn’t remember a thing. Only vague recollections but nothing of significance,” Drescoll answers. “I’ll keep talking with him but I don’t think we’ll get much. Julie’s memories haven’t returned yet either.”
“Alright but keep an eye on him. What turns once can turn back. I almost want to quarantine him until we can be assured. Julie seems to be okay, providing she was even one of them once. I’m still not convinced that’s what happened but we need to be safe,” I say.
“I’ll make sure someone keeps an eye on him until we’re sure,” Lynn says.
“Okay, I guess that’s all unless anyone has something else,” I say. No one does and we head to our small rooms for the night.
The next day I head north with Craig and Red Team. We’ll check out the walls and then take the AC-130 up for a quick flight so everyone can get used to the small differences. Most of the differences are in the back so we’ll pull the manuals and start studying. I’m anxious to get started clearing the area around Cabela’s now that our supply situation has been satisfied. I would just take bulldozers, copious amounts of C-4, or just use Bradley’s but I want to actually take out the night runners rather than just clearing possible hiding places for them. The AC is ideally suited for that.
Pulling up to the large steel gate, I open up and cast outward. I don’t sense anything within the immense facility but I can’t trust that. I didn’t sense any when we were getting our chutes down south but they were definitely there. I exit and, with the rest of Red Team, open up the gates. Looking to the sides with the possibility of seeing night runners where they starved to death outside, my heart stops. I mean literally stops before starting again with a heavy pound.
“You h
ave to be fucking kidding me?” I say.
“What the hell?” Robert says at my side. “Why would anyone do that?” He says looking at a stack of chairs, tables, lamps, gurneys, pillows, and other miscellaneous stuff piled against one of the walls.
“Oh shit!” He says as the realization of what happened filters in.
“Oh shit is right,” I say feeling the icy feeling of dread sink to my stomach.
Just when things seem to be going right and we actually seem to be becoming more secure and safe. Staring at the piles of objects stacked against the wall, I now feel as if we were actually barely treading water and are now sinking. I walk over to the area and notice the grass trampled flat to the point that most of the area is bare earth. There is no doubt in my mind they scaled the wall and escaped. The sheer number of night runners it took to trample the area flat like this must have been immense. It almost makes me feel like giving up as we just can’t seem to get ahead. The walls, which we’ve spent an eternity on and relied on to provide safety, are not exactly rendered moot but they aren’t as secure as we thought.
“Base, Jack here,” I say into the radio staring at the large pile of crap still not believing what I’m seeing.
“Go ahead, Jack,” I hear.
“Get Bannerman and Lynn but clear everyone else away from the radio,” I say.
“Will do, Jack. Stand by.”
“Jack, what’s up? Why clear everyone away from the radio?” I hear Lynn ask.
“Can anyone else hear me?” I ask.
“No, Jack. You’re good. What’s going on?” Lynn says. I tell them what we just found.
There is a pause on the other end. “That’s all kinds of fucked up. Are you sure that’s what happened?” Lynn asks.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I answer. “Is Bannerman there?”
“Yeah, I’m here, Jack,” I hear Bannerman say.
“Okay. We need to divert the wall crews now. We’re going to need an inside walled compound built with towers. Lynn, if you can still hear me, gather the other team leaders. I’m on my way back. Think about how to tell the others as well,” I say.
“I’ll call the crews now and divert them. Lynn says she’ll get the others. See you when you get here,” Bannerman says.
“Okay, let’s turn this around,” I tell Red Team.
“Sir, what does this mean?” McCafferty asks.
“It doesn’t mean we are exactly fucked right now but the doc is lubing up his gloved finger,” I answer.
“We’ve been through worse. We’ll get through this as well, sir,” Gonzalez says.
“Damn straight. We’re going to get the manuals right now and study them hard. Then we’re going to turn the Spooky (AC-130) loose,” I say.
“Hooah, sir,” Gonzalez says. I sincerely think she says that just to see me roll my eyes.
After dropping by the aircraft and picking up the manuals, we head back to Cabela’s to discuss this new development. The fact that the night runners were able to get over the walls drastically changes our plans and our measure of feeling secure. The knot that has formed in my stomach tightens even more with the thought that the night runners have the capability to penetrate the walls.
Pulling into the parking lot at what I once thought to be our secure sanctuary, I hurry inside. Lynn has gathered the team leaders that aren’t out on assignments. I quickly detail my observations at Madigan which brings a silence to the group as each ponders for themselves what this means.
“Well, it’s obvious our walls aren’t going to be able to hold the night runners out on their own,” Lynn says breaking the silence.
“So much for our move to base housing. At least I’m assuming we won’t be able to do that as the houses themselves aren’t secure,” Drescoll says.
“Yeah, I think we need to drop the idea of moving to the bases for now,” I reply.
“That still leaves us with the problem of housing then,” Bannerman says.
“True. I believe we need to think about building quarters here in the compound. I think that will be quicker than fortifying the houses up there and it will leave us with the building here as a secure fall back point. Let’s table that for now though and talk about what we need to do to beef up our security here,” I say.
“I think your idea of building another inside wall to create an inner compound is a good idea,” Robert chimes in.
“I agree,” Frank says. “I’m thinking that should be our priority.”
“We need to put up some towers along the perimeter and have them manned at night. They should be self-defensible in case the night runners scale the walls. In other words, they should be designed so they can’t be scaled and far enough away from the walls that they can’t be leapt on from the top,” Lynn adds.
“My thinking is that, if we do build the additional walls, then we need to plan it so that whatever housing we build and the storage containers with our supplies are inside of the inner compound,” Bannerman says.
“I agree with that. I think building the inner wall and towers are our priority right now. I want to make sure we have the entire inner area covered by cameras with thermal imaging and the monitors manned at night along with the towers. There should be plenty of cameras on the bases. We should think about putting an overhang on the walls like we have on the roof to make it more difficult to scale the top,” I say adding my two cents.
“What about mining the outside of the walls?” Greg asks.
“And lay claymores around the exterior of the building here?” Drescoll adds.
“All great ideas,” I say watching Bannerman madly scribble on his clipboard.
“We should seal up the shipping containers at night as well,” Bannerman says looking up from his writing momentarily.
“Shouldn’t we build the barns and stables up more too?” Bri asks. Trust my wonderful girl to be thinking of the animals. Bannerman nods in her direction and his pen dances across the paper.
“We’ve mentioned a lot here. We also have a lot of projects going on. How are those going to be affected? I guess I’m asking how we want to prioritize all of these things. We have the water tower that I think needs to be in place prior to winter. The walls around the vehicle maintenance and storage hangars will be finished in a day, well, two now that we diverted the crews. Let’s see, we also have the inventory and movement of supplies from the distribution centers. We won’t need the teams on supply runs for the time being so we have those freed up,” Bannerman says.
“Don’t forget the searches for other survivors,” Drescoll says.
“There is also the search for families which is time critical and clearing out the area,” I say.
“Well, like Bannerman mentioned, we have a lot going on. We have a lot of resources people-wise but it’s not unlimited. I think we need to prioritize what we are going to do and Bannerman can assign crews. We keep going down the list until we run out of people keeping in mind we still need security and there are our daily tasks as well,” Lynn says.
“Are we at a point where we can create additional teams?” I ask Lynn.
“No, not yet. I think we need to increase the teams at the earliest opportunity but we can’t forsake training,” she answers.
“Okay. We’ll work with what we have. I think our first priority is building the inner wall and towers. Any disagreement with that?” I ask.
“Not going to find any disagreement here,” Greg says to which the others agree.
“We have some time critical elements and need to decide if we’re going to do them or at least where they fit on the priority list; the water tower, vehicle storage facilities, and the search for families,” I say.
“I think we need to throw the idea of fortifying the animal enclosures, as Bri mentioned, up close to the top,” Frank says.
“I think clearing out the area is important as well. That will hopefully keep the night runners away, or at least diminish their numbers, and if we level the ground, we’ll at least be able to see them comin
g from a distance,” Robert says.
“Alright. So perhaps we keep the crews in place to finish the vehicle maintenance and storage facilities and then have them start on the wall. I was a touch hasty on diverting them. If we have the resources, we can design and start building the towers once we know where the wall will run. Keep the water tower crew on what they’re doing. Assign truck crews and a team to inventory and begin bringing supplies back making sure to secure the containers at night. We also need to find the security codes and bring the generators online up there. Along with building the towers, we can fortify the animal enclosures. Red Team and I, along with Craig, will begin learning the weapons systems and train on the AC-130. We’ll need others with us for support. Are we okay with resources to this point?” I ask.
“I’ll have to work it out in more detail but I think we should be okay at this point. There isn’t a need for a security detachment for the work inside the compound,” Bannerman says.
“Keep in mind we need at least one team on standby as a response team,” Lynn says. “And if you want to gather more cameras, mines, and claymores, we’ll need teams for that and for deploying them. We can have others dig the necessary holes but we need those knowledgeable about arming the mines to actually put them in place and mark their locations.”
“Will we have enough to put skylights in the maintenance facilities as well to deny them to night runners?” I ask.
“We’ll be stretching ourselves thin but I think we can manage that,” Bannerman answers.
“So, we finish the maintenance wall and start on the walls here, build the towers and fortify the animal enclosures, work on the water tower, put in skylights, start bringing supplies down, clear the area when we’re ready, and then search for the families afterwards. Do I have that right?” I ask.
“It’ll be tight but that sounds about right,” Lynn answers.
“What about the search for other survivors in the area?” Drescoll asks.
“We’ll have to do that as time permits,” I reply.
