by Joe Kelly
Steve and Ronnie were on the right flank steadily creeping forward, while Chris and Logan covered the left.
Towards the back of the cemetery, in the tree line Jared found a snow shelter, and a trail that led west and down. He circled the cemeteries edges and found a sniper blind where someone had lain for long periods of time watching the camp. From this position the one eyed intruder had, had a good view of the Center and the farm.
“Report” he finally said into his microphone. “Clear right” Steve responded. “ Clear left” Chris stated. Jared wanted to snarl in frustration. It wasn’t like he had really believed they would find the man sitting up here oblivious to the world eating Doritos and waiting for his evil plan to neatly wrap up.
“set up the screamers” He ordered. Ori retrieved the duffle bag and began to set out the audible alarm sensors along the ridgeline. The motion sensors were disabled, but the old school trip lines were still effective and in this case the best option since they could be set below the snow line and be essentially invisible. There weren’t a lot of them, but Ori sighted them in the areas he thought were the best to snipe or watch the Farm and Center below.
“Should we try to follow that trail?” Chris asked over the radio.
“No, think about it, he had to walk from the shelter to the blind and back, and outside to pee too. And yet the only path we see is the one heading west. He took the time to cover his tracks, all of them but that one path. I’d lay good money there’s booby traps along that route.” Jared responded. “Lets head back to the Center.”
They moved back down the ridge, to the valley floor, silent and alert. A loud boom shattered the night. Echoing back and forth across the valley as a fireball bloomed from near the center. “Son of a bitch.” Jared snarled as he sped up.
Twenty minutes later they pounded onto the pavement of the center’s parking lot and into pandemonium. On the far side of the parking lot the truck that had been loaded with 55-gallon drums of gas was now a twisted mass of metal. Fires were sizzling out around the area. Inside the center, Jared could hear the screams of panicked kids. “ bomb” Ori stated.
“there might be more” Jared couldn’t argue with Ori on that one.
“Think you can figure out how he did it” Jared asked.
“Not without an FBI lab, or someone finds the detonation device.” Ori responded.
“Ori, I want you to get under the bus and look for any bombs.” Jared said, thinking about how Terrorists liked to plant two bombs, one to kill a few people then once a crowd of first responders and citizens had gathered, the second bomb detonated to get the maxim body count and if that was the case, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the kids bus might well be the target for the second bomb. Their intruder might know or suspect that one of the first things Jared and his people did during any attack was to get the kids loaded and ready to leave. Only this time it hadn’t happened.
Ori hesitated then said. “and if there is one” he looked decidedly uneasy about the whole idea.
“we move all the vehicles from around it. Don’t even try to disarm it. Unless your damn sure you can do it.” Jared replied. Everyone in the Dirty Dozen knew the reasons Ori had gotten out of EOD and into the Scouts. The stress of dealing with Ordnance disposal had finally gotten to him and Jared was not going to push him into doing this but Ori would have a far better idea where to look for any bombs and what they might look like, than any one else in the group. Not to mention have more than a clue how to dispose of the damn thing.
“what if our one eyed ass hat has a night vision scope and is watching us just waiting to set off the next bomb?” Steve asked as Ori rushed off.
“Then he might be watching. Truth is, he doesn’t need night vision. Either he has more bombs set up on timers, or on remote and there’s nothing we can do about it with out finding them.
Either way I’m betting he is sitting there laughing his ass off right now. And…..” Jared said then paused as a thought hit him. “go find Kevin, get him into the safest place you can think of.” Jared told Chris, who nodded and rushed off. “I need to go check on Bridget” Steve said.
“Go, just get back with me if she’s all right” Jared said angry at himself for not even thinking about it. Steve nodded and raced off heading towards his RV on the far side of the lot.
It was pure chaos out here, with people rushing around putting out the few still burning fires or checking the wounded who lay sprawled around the area.
Spotting Linda kneeling next to someone on the ground, Jared rushed over and swore softly seeing Jim, Lloyds right hand man lying there with a huge piece of chassis metal in his stomach.
“He was coming over for dinner and stopped to talk to Jeff.” Linda explained.
“Jeff” Jared asked feeling panic set in Jeff was his oldest friend in the world. They had been friends since before high School.
“he is okay he was standing next to his truck. which shielded him from the worst of the blast when the bomb went off. ” Linda replied
“how many others were hurt” Jared asked kneeling beside her.
“four, Sharon had parts fly thru the window of the RV and got beat up badly.”
“and the baby” Jared asked feeling a cold wind blow up his spine.
“to soon to tell Jared, but I’d say the odds are very good the baby will be fine.” Linda replied He breathed a sigh of relief at that. If Marks baby died, he was damn sure Sharon wouldn’t be far behind.
“John, Logan’s Guy, lost his left hand. He was heading out to do guard duty down at the bridge. Gary, got beaned in the head. but otherwise seems fine. And Melanie, one of the girls from the farm, who was leaving Chad when it happened got cut up by flying glass and metal, but not to badly..”
“John Madoc?” Jared asked, Madoc was a pretty fair shot and steady in a crunch if they had lost him it would put a major crimp in their combat power.
“No, John Wells” Linda replied. Jared nodded, he hated feeling relieved at the news but he couldn’t deny he felt that way either.
“I’ll help where I can, its been a few years but I went through the advance first aid and combat life saving training in the Army.” Jared said.
“Start with Susan, she’s over by the Deuces.” Linda said without looking away from her patient. Jared nodded and headed towards the deuces stopping only long enough to grab what he called his first aid bag from the van.
Jared had just finished with Susan, when Steve knelt by his side. “Bridget’s fine, just shook up.”
“Thank god for that” Jared said as he finished applying a pressure bandage to Susans leg. The cut was deep but not fatal.
“Get Ronny and Organize a patrol, take the NVG’s I want that one eye’d ass running.” Jared said as he pulled off the NVG set on his forehead and passed them to Steve.
“my pleasure” Steve replied his voice hard. Taking the NVG’s he headed towards the snowmobiles.
By Dawn, things were calming down, The wreckage had been pushed out of the parking lot with a bulldozer. While Ori had cleared the school bus, and the remaining fuel trucks without finding any bombs and had moved to examining the RVs.
`1 `
Jared exhausted squatted beside his Van, watching his people get the parking lot cleaned up. Out of thirteen people caught in the blast, two had died, three had been badly wounded and the rest were only minor wounds.
“I want to talk to you.” Beth said storming up. Jared looked up, he had been expecting this confrontation most of the night. “I can’t believe you have Ori looking for bombs. You know why he moved to another job in the army and yet…”
“would you prefer you or the kids get blown up, because I decided to go easy on Ori.” Jared asked his voice hard then relented continuing on in a softer tone of voice. “I hated asking him Beth, but he is the only person in the camp, hell maybe the world that has any experience in bomb disposal. He knows what to look for, I don’t, do you?” her glared softened, then vanished as the anger, spawned
by her fears died. “I know you’re worried about your husband” man that felt strange to say, Jared thought. “I am too, but I also have to worry about everyone else, Ori understands whats at stake that’s why he said yes.”
“I know you’re right Jared, but he also said yes because you asked.” She stated. “don’t get him killed because he is so loyal to you.” She said, feeling a little ashamed at herself for taking that jab at Jared. He was just as loyal to Ori and would risk his own life for Ori or any of his friends. For that matter anyone in the group. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I know you wouldn’t take advantage of Ori, I..” Her voice trailed off.
“I know Beth,” he said gently as he rose to his feet and hugged her. She was just as scared of losing Ori as he was of getting Ori killed. As he held her he decided that Ori needed to pass along his knowledge like Doc Winston was doing. We can’t just rely on one person, because as cold as it sounds, if we lose them we lose the knowledge and we can’t afford to lose any more knowledge than we already have.
✽ ✽ ✽
.
Around ten that morning Ori walked wearily into the center and was surprised to find a full plate of Eggs and bacon with the rare biscuits waiting for him. Sitting down across from Jared who looked just as tired after having taken it on himself to check out the barns, the corn cribs, and root cellars for bombs after everything else he had done during the night.
“I still have our private vehicles to check.” Ori said after he had eaten half the plate. Not even feeling guilty at the large meal that no one else had gotten, if anyone had bitched Ori would have dragged them along to check for bombs with him.
“I’ll do it myself” Jared said thinking of Beth.
“no way in Hell brother, let me finish this food and I will check them you don’t know what to look for.” Ori replied. Jared watched Ori rub his eyes, and yawn.
“Tell you what, you come out there. and walk me, Logan and Chad thru it.” Jared said, “your too tired, you might make a mistake. So let us handle it”
Ori ate another forkful of Egg, and then nodded, “why not I hate doing this crap anyway. So If I am going to get blown up, I might as well be sitting comfortable on my butt.” Ori said with a tired laugh.
Two hours later Ori was being carried to bed, after teaching them how to check vehicles for bombs. Jared damn sure understood now, why Ori had quit doing this for a living it was friggen nerve wracking.
The only two bits of good news that day was that Henry and Linda had located just enough of the medicine needed to treat Stephanie in the haul from the Bergstown Hospital. The second bit of good news was Sharon’s baby was fine.
Thank god for all the stuff we snatched at the hospital back in Bergstown, Jared thought At least we don’t have to run a mission to a local hospital. Jared had not looked forward to that at all. It was bound to be full of shambling pus bags with no other goal in life than to take a bite out of my butt.
The News from the patrols scouring the area for the one eyed killer had not been good. They hadn’t located a single sign of a man or men lurking around the ridge or any other area that it was possible to look down onto the Farm and surrounding area.
Over the next two weeks, Jared got work crews organized and with the dozers built up an earthen wall around the Center and its parking area. The new walls meant the farm would not have to worry about being cut off from the Center and its hot water and lights if they came under attack.
The rest of the defenses around the farm were finished and some were improved then several new cabins and root cellars were built. Jared was making sure that any work that needed a lot of hands on the farm were finished before he and his people pulled out as it was even with Jared's Group pitching in manpower was tight. Especially when faced with increasing the number of patrols scouring the area for undead and enemies, which meant more warm bodies had to come from somewhere.
✽ ✽ ✽
Mikhail was really getting sick of these people, they had more than made up for their slack security. It was getting harder and harder to sneak in and out of the farm. and yesterday evening he had seen a man with Night vision goggles climbing up into the look out nest they had built in a day, that was going to make his job even harder.
What was life without challenges. He asked himself. For now he was letting his grudge against the cripple slide. He didn’t want it to keep him from doing what he was here for and he had no doubt that the old fuck had spilled his guts to the Red headed man so they would be guarding the cripple for now.
The Red head, the same man who had decided not to follow the trail Mikhail had made sure they could find, he hoped they would come charging down it and hit the booby traps, which would have killed one or two of them. But no, the red head had suspected a trap and avoided the whole trail. At least my opponent is not the typical worm, he will prove to be a challenge.
Case in point, the barn fire Mikhail had set a week after his plans for the cripple had failed, was put out with fire extinguishers and only burned out half a wall. Which the people down on the farm had promptly used as an excuse to add a wing onto the barn after ripping out the burned wood and replacing that wall with a large arch entry into the new wing. Someone had been on the ball to get that fire spotted and put out so quickly and Mikhail was positive it had been the red head.
His sabotage of the dozers two nights later had been interrupted by a patrol that he hadn’t expected, so he had only been able to sabotage one dozer instead of two. It took their mechanic three days to get it back up and running. the Park service must have stored spare parts or there was no way it could have been fixed.
He had planned on burning down the smoke house and corn cribs, but they had expected that as well having posted men around all the critical buildings. Whoever had set up the guard positions had known his job, the men had bad been deployed in such a way as to make it impossible to take them all out silently without having an alarm sounded. he had settled for setting two cars on fire in the parking lot instead.
And then last night he had found all sorts of interesting little things scattered right around the area he had been using to slip into the farm. Someone had set up Strings with dangling cans, hanging from trees at various heights and locations. Trip wires, homemade caltrops, and various other booby traps had been set up as well. If this kept up he would have to start using the river to slip into the farm and he would probably freeze to death doing that.
No sooner or later he was going to have to end his little terror campaign and get back on the road where he could set up a few traps for them to stumble across on the most likely routes they would take to head to the coast. He smiled coldly but before he left, his last little act would definitely send them a message. He smiled to himself. One that the Red head would not like in the least.
✽ ✽ ✽
Jared stomped thru the deep snow, feeling excellent. Tomorrow Lloyd’s people would have the lock installed for the Irrigation channels they had dug. After that it was only a simple matter of digging out the last twenty feet of earth to connect the channel to the river.
Thank god for the backhoe, though it had sucked up a lot more fuel than Jared was happy with. The wall along the hillside behind the farm was finally finished. Lloyd was hoping to get up the road and dismantle the old historic gristmill apparatus and haul it all back down here and install it. He even had plans on getting the mills turbine up and running. That had a lot of people excited. Jared wasn’t sure how well that would work out, but it wouldn’t be started on before his group pulled up stakes and headed out.
His people departure was not far off. The weather was already changing, the temperatures were starting to rise a bit now and stay there. There were many more days of blue sky, and Jill had sworn she saw geese flying north.
The last three months had been hectic, and cold, damn cold. Jared thought. there had only been the occasional attacks by the one eyed prick who just ghosted in and would set a fire or sabotage equipment and then van
ish back into the snow. He was waging a war of terror, not really trying to do much of anything at this point. But that would escalate Jared was sure of that. One more thing Jared was sure of, when they left so would One eye.
Reaching the Center, he headed to his quarters, where he found Sharon and Jill sitting on the makeshift bed talking. He waved to them and grabbed the notebook he needed and headed back out into the common area.
Sitting down he flipped open the notebook and went over the notes and ideas, that had been talked about at the last meeting. Meetings, he had thought that they would be a thing of the past. But turns out you need meetings at the end of the world too. It almost amused him.
Tomorrow was set to be a big day for both the farm and Jared’s folks. Tomorrow Jared was leading the team to an RV park on the other side of Cherokee to secure more rides. They had decided that there was a serious need for RVs, to many people crammed into regular vehicles. RV’s would give ever one, especially the kids, a place to spread out and feel sort of at home and they needed those RV’s if they were going to continue riding around like modern day nomads.
