by Eric Vall
All the male civilians were herded into the secondary building once it started to get dark, and then a couple soldiers were placed outside to stand watch.
“We’re coming in,” Anna called out from somewhere in the forest behind us.
I turned around, nodded, gave a thumbs up, and a moment later the redhead came into view. Rolly and Bailey emerged behind her shortly after.
“Welcome back,” Paige said.
“Thanks,” Anna said as she hunkered down with us.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
“Not too bad,” the athlete said. “We were able to find a spot a little closer.”
“Notice anything that might be important?” I asked.
“Not really,” she sighed. “It was pretty dull. Kinda looked like most of the soldiers just sat around most of the day or beat on the civilian guys.”
“Yeah, we noticed that too,” Tara said.
“The patrols seem pretty irregular,” Rolly said. “I noticed them stop a couple times and chat even.”
“That’s good to know,” I said. “We might be able to exploit that.”
“It’s also important to know that the dog is pretty cute,” Bailey said.
“Noted,” I chuckled.
“So what do we do now?” Anna asked.
“Let’s stick around until it gets dark and see if anything changes,” I said. “I want to see if they increase patrols at night and what they use for light sources.”
“Alright, we’ll grab some cover and sit tight,” Anna said.
I gave her a nod and went back to watching the outpost.
As it got darker, they started to light fires, torches, and lanterns. Each of the towers had a lantern in it, and there were torches set up along the fenceline every twenty feet. The front gate was the most well-lit area and they even lit the road in front of it for a good hundred feet.
The patrols each carried a lantern of their own, but it seemed they still only had two groups running at night. The number of troops in general dwindled as more and more soldiers seemed to retire into tents or the main school building.
“This could work to our advantage,” I muttered.
“What’s that?” Paige asked.
“They can’t see very far outside of their base, and even the inside has some really dark areas still,” I explained.
“The fence line is pretty bright though,” Tara said.
“Their torches should be closer,” I said. “There’s a lot of heavy shadow we could hide in once we get close. The biggest problem is going to be those patrols, especially the one with the dog. The space is pretty open, and if those guys are even half paying attention, then it’ll be hard to get close enough to hide.”
“So what do we do?” Paige asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I don’t think we can learn much more tonight,” I said. Then I pulled back away from the treeline and pushed myself to my feet. “I think it’s time to go. Fall in behind me.”
Once everyone was up and on their feet, I started to make my way back through the woods towards the truck.
The trip back was uneventful, but there was a palpable sense of relief as we broke through the trees and onto the road once more. It took us a second to find our camouflaged vehicle, but once we did we all climbed inside.
The truck was flooded with light as I clicked on my hand charged flashlight. I hung it by a string in the truck and took a seat among all our stuff.
“Well, I feel like today went pretty well,” Anna said.
“Me too,” I agreed as I started to pull out some food for the team. “We learned a lot.”
“I can’t believe how stressful it was just being that close though,” Bailey said.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of guys in that outpost,” Paige said.
“I know, but I think we can manage,” I said as I started to pass around cans of baked beans.
“Does that mean you have a plan?” Rolly asked.
“Not yet, but I think we know enough that we might be able to stitch one together,” I replied. “Eat first though. Take a minute to unwind.”
The truck fell silent as we all opened up our beans and ate our food. As I looked around, it was clear that my team was tired. While the day had not been physically taxing, I knew the situation would wear them down. If I had had more time to train them before this then they might have been a little more comfortable, but that had not really been an option.
The girls were doing a good job, though, and I had confidence that they would rise to the occasion.
As we ate, the mood seemed to lighten. The fact that our location was hidden and several miles away from the outpost probably made the girls feel safe enough to smile again.
“Beans are nice and all, but I am really looking forward to whatever the Millers make for us once this is all over,” Bailey said as she scooped out of the last of her food from the can.
“Oh man, you should have been there when Betty made us breakfast,” Anna said. “It was amazing.”
“We had bacon, eggs, and even some toast,” Rolly said.
“Yum,” Paige said as she set aside her empty can. “You think she’d make some of that for the rest of us sometime?”
“I have a feeling one of us might be able to talk her into it,” I grinned and winked at Rolly.
The handyman laughed and even in the dim light of the truck we could see him blush.
“So, what’d we learn today?” I asked as I brought us back to the mission.
“Well, it looks like they are kinda light on patrols,” Paige said. “Two groups doesn’t seem like a lot.”
“They also don’t have a great setup at night,” Tara said.
“We can definitely take advantage of both of those things,” I agreed with a nod. “Those towers work great in the daytime, but once night falls they can only see the areas lit up by torches.”
“Does that mean those will be easy to take out?” Bailey asked.
“It means that we should be able to avoid them,” I said. “Trust me when I say that we don’t want to take fire from those things.”
“I believe that,” Rolly said.
“Alright, what else?” I asked.
“Well, the area is pretty full of non-civilians,” Anna said.
“That means using grenades is not an option for us,” I said. “At least not during our initial assault. They seemed to be rounded up and moved to that small building when it got dark, but I’m pretty sure I still saw a few of them out there doing stuff like cooking.”
“We know they don’t have many trucks left either,” Paige said. “That means it should be hard for them to just run away when the fighting starts.”
“True,” I said with a nod. “I don’t think we will have to worry about them trying to run away though.”
“What about that dog?” Bailey asked. “We don’t have to hurt it do we?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’d like to avoid killing it if possible,” I said. “I spent some time working with dogs on my second tour. If this thing was trained similarly to the dogs I worked with, I might be able to keep it from attacking us. Though the real trouble with the dog will be getting inside without it barking.”
“Yeah, it seemed like the guys thinned out a lot once it got dark,” Anna said. “If we could get inside without being noticed then maybe we could catch them with their pants down.”
“That’s what I'm thinking too,” I agreed. “Alright, we know a good deal about our enemy, and it was clear by how lax everything was that they aren’t expecting an attack. I think it’s time we came up with a plan.”
Chapter 4
I gave the flashlight a couple cranks, pulled out the map, flipped it over, and drew a rough mockup of the outpost on the blank side. I made a note of all the defensive features such as the towers, the razorwire, and any barricades inside the fences. Then I sketched out a couple boxes to represent the buildings, and I made ‘T’ marks where the tents had been located.
After I
was done with the map, I started to write down a list of problems under it. Our biggest hurdles to getting in undetected would be the patrols, the towers, and the dog. The patrols were our biggest concern though, and if we could take them out without being noticed it wouldn’t, in theory, be difficult to sneak into the towers and take out the gunners.
“So I think what we need to do first is take down the patrols,” I said. “We’ll wait ‘till it gets dark so that they can’t see us get close to the fence.”
“We can’t take them down from outside the fence though can we?” Anna asked.
“Not without making too much noise,” I said. “We can’t take them out one at a time either. We’ll have to split up and take them out at roughly the same time.”
“How are we going to time things without radios or phones or anything?” Tara asked.
“We’ll have to come up with a signal,” I said. “I’m not sure what yet, but we’ll figure it out.”
“So what are we doing after we take down the guards?” Rolly asked.
“Once the guards are down each team will sneak through to the tower on their side and take out the gunner. Taking out those machine guns is going to up our chances of survival by a lot.”
“It’ll make me feel better too,” Paige said.
“Yeah, I don’t want to know what it feels like to get shot at by something that big,” Anna added.
“Once we’re inside what do we do?” Bailey asked. “There are still a ton of guys in there.”
“Yeah, it really feels like we are underpowered here,” Paige admitted.
“I know you’re a badass Tav, but can we really take out fortyish guys?” Rolly asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that, and you’re right, in a straight fight, I don’t think we’d win,” I said.
“That’s fucking comforting,” Anna groaned.
“I wasn’t done,” I said. “I was going to say that there might be a way to thin down their numbers before our actual assault.”
“Sorry, I should have assumed you’d have a plan to deal with that,” Anna sighed and hung her head a bit.
“It’s alright, we’re all going to be a little high strung until this is over,” I said. “We have to trust each other.”
“You’re right, sorry,” Anna replied.
I smiled at the redhead and squeezed her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her a bit.
“So how are we going to thin their ranks?” Paige asked.
“Well, their convoy isn’t coming back, so they’ll probably send a group out to check on them,” I said.
“Really?” Bailey asked. “When do you think that will happen?”
“Any day now,” I began, “but my hunch is tomorrow. At any rate we know where the convoy was last seen, and if we can intercept these scouts, then we’ll cut the number of guys in the outpost down even farther.”
“Oh, I like this plan,” Tara said. “If two of us can take out some guys in a truck, then it should be no problem for all six of us.”
“Especially if we can ambush them,” Anna said.
“That’s my thought too,” I said. “We can block the road and take them down before they even really have time to react.”
“I am much more comfortable with this,” Paige said.
“Yeah, but how are we going to know when to set up this ambush?” Bailey asked.
“We watch,” I said. “We’ll get up early tomorrow, head back to the outpost and wait for them to start loading up one of their trucks.”
“What if they don’t do that?” Rolly asked.
“Then we wait until the next day,” I said with a shrug. “They don’t know we’re here, so if we are patient they’ll make a mistake we can exploit.”
“I really hope they decide to go check on their convoy,” Tara groaned.
“They should,” I said. “At the very least because they would be concerned the convoy guys went AWOL.”
“Won’t they increase their security once even more of their guys go missing?” Anna asked.
“It’s harder to predict what these guys will do since they have gone rogue, but it will probably take them a while to realize there’s trouble.” I said. “As long as we run our attack on the same day, I think we’ll be okay. If these guys still followed standard military procedure, I’d be able to plan a lot more effectively. As it stands though these guys are kinda doing their own thing.”
“You mean it’s not normal to enslave civilians to build all your shit for you?” Rolly asked in mock surprise.
“No, not usually,” I chuckled.
“So, we kill the fuckers in the truck they send out, then we take out these scout guys, and then go to set up for our assault that night?” Tara asked after she tried to stifle a yawn.
“That’ll be the best chance we have, yes,” I said with a nod.
“Sounds like tomorrow is going to be a long day,” Paige said.
“It will be,” I assured her. “That means we should probably get some sleep in while we can.”
“Yes please,” Bailey said as she yawned and stretched out.
“Since we are so close to the outpost, we can’t all sleep at the same time,” I said. “We need to leave at least one person up on watch. I don’t think those guys are going to leave the comfort of their little base, but on the off chance they do we need to see them coming.”
“The truck is hidden though, won’t they just pass us by?” Anna asked.
“That’s the most likely outcome, but what if they don't?” I asked as a counterpoint. “Rolly and I would be dead before we knew what was going on and you girls would probably get taken back with them and thrown in with their other slave women.”
“No thanks,” Paige said with a shudder.
“Alright, a watch seems like a good idea,” Tara quickly said.
“Good, I’ll take the first shift,” I said. “After about three hours one of you will come and relieve me, and three hours after that a third one of you will take their place.”
“Sounds easy,” Anna said.
“I’d guess the hard part is staying awake and alert,” Rolly said.
“Yeah, I can’t imagine it’s going to be very exciting out there.” Paige said.
“Well I’ll take second watch,” Bailey said.
“Then I volunteer for third,” Anna said. “I like being up early anyway.”
“Great, then you guys all try to get some rest,” I said. “I’ll see if I can flesh out our plan a little while I’m out there.”
“Wait, where exactly should we be when we’re on watch?” Bailey asked.
“I’m just going to find a nice spot in the trees off behind the truck,” I said. “As long as you are hidden but can still see the road I don’t really care where you decide to hang out.”
“Easy enough,” Anna said as she pulled up a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Have fun on watch,” Tara said as she snuggled next to her redheaded friend. “Wake me when it’s time to go.”
“Should we make sure you’re up early enough to do your makeup?” Paige teased.
“Very funny,” Tara said with a scowl. “I made sure to add enough sealer to look good for at least a couple of days.”
“Let’s hope no one smudges it in their sleep,” Anna said with a smirk.
“Don’t you dare,” Tara warned.
Rolly looked from the girls to me and raised an eyebrow. “You sure you don’t need a second person out there?”
“I’m good,” I chuckled. “Just get some sleep.”
“I’ll try,” Rolly groaned as he looked back to the girls.
“Come on, we wouldn’t do anything on purpose,” Paige said.
Tara huffed and smacked Paige with her pillow.
The brunette laughed and pushed her platinum blonde friend lightly.
“Hey, make sure you actually get some sleep,” I said to the girls with a smile.
“I’m already halfway there,” Bailey mumbled from where she
sat propped up against the cab. “If the rest of you would keep it down, I might be asleep already.”
“Yeah Tara, quiet down,” Anna teased.
“How bout we all be quiet?” Rolly suggested with a grin.
“Sleep well guys,” I said as I shook my head. Then I rolled up the map and slipped outside into the cool night. I took up a position a little ways away from the truck on top of a couple rocks tucked behind a large tree and some bushes. After I took a seat, I rolled the map out on my lap and used the faint light of the moon to look over everything.
As I sat there in the darkness and watched the road, I started to think of ways to take care of the patrols. The two guys without the dog wouldn’t be much of a problem. I figured all we had to do was pick them off and hide them in a shadow. Though we couldn’t let their light go out or the camp would know that something was up so it would be important for both teams to keep the patrol teams torches burning.
The easier solution to the dog was to have Tara use the silenced pistol and take it out at range and then finish the men off before they could sound the alarm. That plan was flimsy though, and any number of things could go wrong. Tara might only wound the dog, or the soldiers could react too fast and shout to the camp before we got them. Then both teams would be caught out in the open and take heavy fire from the towers and whatever soldiers were left outside.
A better option would be to bait the dog out. If we could find some rabbits, foxes, or a deer in the area then we might be able to lay it out and get the dog to come investigate it. In fact, if we worked fast enough we could mask our approach by making it look like the animal made a hole in the fence. Then, when the guards slipped out to follow the dog, they’d be easy targets. Though them leaving the compound might draw some attention from the towers, but that was a risk we’d have to take.
I sighed and focused on the road for a while as I turned over the ideas in my mind. No plan was going to be perfect, but I had to eliminate as much risk as possible. There was no way I was going to lead these girls into that outpost until I knew I had done everything in my power to ensure they would come out of the fight alive.
