by Wade Ebeling
“Whoa, whoa…Daniel. This kid is alright. He left with me. We both left the Warehouse before…well, during Bob’s take-over,” Tony interjected when Brian shot him a fearful glance. “He had nothing to do with…Daniel? Where are Corinne and Rebecca?” His voice had gone from strong and forceful down to low and imploring when he asked the question about Daniel’s family.
Daniel’s brain scrambled; it was caught off guard by the question. Somehow, over the past few days of planning to approach the group, Daniel had completely blocked out any thoughts of his suicidal wife and murdered daughter. It would have been easiest to just blame their demise on Bob and his band of assassins, but he had no way of knowing if someone in this, now hushed, crowd might know the truth. Not the truth that Corinne had shot Rebecca and then turned the shotgun on herself, but that they were already dead before Bob even showed up. Trying to buy his mind a little time to hide the stark reality of what had really happened, Daniel blurted out, “They are dead, Tony.”
“Did Bob? Did he? What happened when he came to your house, Daniel?” Tony tried to ask this with compassion, but the ruckus behind him, caused by the appearance of the food buckets, was becoming louder and louder. “Will you guys…please…take those over there?” Tony commanded. Turning back around, he said, “I’m sorry about that. Where did you get that stuff from anyways? Never mind…What happened to Corinne and…?”
Daniel again ignored the sunken-eyed stares of the crowd, which were searching him up and down like he might be hiding more food in the folds of his clothing. “I left them to go check on the Warehouse. To see…if maybe…I don’t know. I was thinking of trying to get them inside. But those bastards were killing people,” Daniel replied, looking at Tony to see if he would fill in some missing blanks.
“I know, Daniel. They killed…Well, Bob started killing people, and chasing the others off,” Tony sighed, nodding his head at the people behind him. “That’s why I left. People had nowhere to go. I just couldn’t…stay there and watch it all happen. But where is Corinne?” Tony had to gulp back emotions several times to get his words out.
“It happened when I was gone. This Dad and his sons…I don’t want to talk about that,” Daniel said dismissively. The same unfinished lie that he had told Jason found a way to come back out. “When Bob came, with all of those people…I just ran away. They stole everything and burnt my house down…But I found this note that my Dad had left for me. It led me here…Well, over there a ways,” Daniel said, nodding similarly to the way Tony had, pointing out a very non-committal direction. “There’s more…maybe. Some more food and a bunch of guns and ammo, in a cache my Dad left for me.”
“What do you mean ‘maybe’?” Tony asked, narrowing his eyes. “You see that we have nothing, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve been watching you,” Daniel replied smoothly, matching Tony’s gaze without matching his expression.
Tony turned to the crowd that was now full-on arguing about the food and who would get it, shouting, “Will you people shut the fuck up, already?” He then took a couple steps towards Daniel, knowing the next part of their conversation should not be overheard. “Well? What do you want?”
This took Daniel aback briefly. For just a second he believed that Tony was losing his decorum, giving him the first advantage. Suddenly, it now felt like Tony was one step ahead. Daniel quickly shucked off the feeling, realizing that beating around the bush with the tall man was just wasting breath and time. “I want Bob dead. I don’t care about the rest of the…people in there. If they die, they die,” Daniel stated flatly, giving the words the perfect depth of dark overtones that he was going for.
“Do you even know why Bob came after you?” Tony scoffed, seizing on his chance to take the advantage back.
“Yes. My Dad’s letter…It explained everything.” Daniel had prepared for this particular question.
“Alright…But do you know who told Bob?” Tony sneered, certain that a shift in the winds was soon coming. “Do you want me to tell you how he found out?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t really care,” Daniel said in a bored tone.
Unable to hide his smile completely, Tony laughed a low laugh, and said, “Oh, I’m pretty sure you will care. You see, you’re mother-in-law told him. Just before Bob went crazy, shooting Troy, and then…her.” Tony stood almost triumphantly, searching Daniel’s face for the cracks that were sure to appear.
“Well, that is unfortunate,” Daniel sighed.
Feeling slightly guilty, Troy stepped forward and laid a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. Trying to fold Daniel into his group, he said, “I’m sorry again, Daniel. It’s probably best that you know straight away.” But, before Tony could pull the trigger, telling Daniel that it would be all right if he would just join up with the group, he was rudely interrupted.
Breaking Troy’s grip with half a step backward and a sharp look, Daniel hissed, “No, I mean that it’s unfortunate, because it means I won’t get the chance to kill her myself.”
By the look on Tony’s face, Daniel knew he had won the battle. Tony tried to look appalled, but his confusion would not let him pull it off. Adjusting the strap on the rifle, even though it was not biting in any way, reminded Tony just who was holding most of the cards.
Flipping over another of his trump cards, Daniel steeled his voice, and roared, “Susan had my father killed all those years ago. She deserved whatever she got…” Bringing his voice back down to a civilized level, he added, “Why don’t we take a little walk? I can tell you what I think we should do about Bob, and his stolen power. Maybe you should tell the rest of these people that they are not leaving today?”
……..
Saturday
After showing Tony the stored weapons and food, Daniel told him that they then needed to use the time it bought to plan how to recover the Warehouse. Daniel allowed Tony to return with two additional pails of the freeze-dried food, but none of the guns. It was still far too early to give the group everything, especially a way to kill him and take the rest. The easy choice was still to just abandon the area, and with it, the Warehouse. This choice would be made all the easier with all the provisions that Daniel could supply, and this would not do.
Given that Tony did not ask any of the questions, of which Daniel had been dreading, he knew that convincing the group would not be that hard. Tony did not ask where Daniel was sleeping, or how he had been preparing the food without any evidence of a campfire nearby, let alone a pot to boil water in; Daniel had not gotten the chance to fully prepare the collapsed building yet. Tony did not even ask any questions about the fictitious letter from Allen.
It seemed that just getting the food had quelled Tony’s drive to be the leader, and he supplicated to Daniel. The promises of how easy it would be to retake what was lost, especially when previously believed to be impossible, became the thing that bound the group together again. This new sense of purpose had been hand-delivered to them by Daniel. The means to accomplish this goal, however, was being withheld.
The group coalesced around Daniel, trying to prove themselves worthy of his promised gifts. Daniel offered suggestions rather than issuing orders. If the group felt it was in their best interest, and it would bring them closer to the new goal, they would oblige with amazing speed and effectiveness.
“I think that the first step should be to put some people, hidden mind you, around the Warehouse to see if we can spot any patterns. What do you guys think?” Daniel would offer, in an off-hand kind of way. This implanted suggestion would then be met with a predestined chorus of agreement. “Well, if we have three pairs of people, where they can see all sides of the building, you know? That should be enough, right? Oh, we should try to find them something to write on, that would help too, I think. So, like, after a day, or whatever, we could send another pair out to replace them. Then whoever was out there could come back and tell us what they saw. Stuff like how many guards they saw, and when they switched them out, that kind of stuff. Makes sense, right?”
Knowing that most of the group felt obligated to show Tony some kind of loyalty, Daniel always conferred with him about the minute details of the forming plan. These details then got transmitted back to the group via Tony. This managed to keep up the façade that all of this was a group effort. After three days of watching the Warehouse, Daniel called together their first real meeting.
“Could you join me up here, Tony?” Daniel asked, after everyone was gathered and mostly settled. “Okay everyone, listen up, please. We just got a piece of information, from young Brian here, that has changed the plan a whole lot…But it is very much so for the better,” Daniel said, smiling broadly. “But, before we get to that, I think we should take care of some other business first.” He gave the murmuring crowd a chance to settle down again before continuing, “With the key to our success just handed to us,” Daniel said smoothly, while nodding at the befuddled-looking Brian, “I think it is time to elect our leader…for when we retake the Warehouse. Now, now, just listen to me for a second. I nominate Tony Jenison…”
The majority of the crowd broke out in cheers. The few who didn’t knew there was no way to change to tides, and they remained silent. There was no need to put it to a vote, it was obvious that Daniel had picked the crowd’s favorite. Cutting the congratulations short, Daniel held his hands up to get everyone’s attention again.
“With Tony being our unanimous leader,” Daniel oozed, simultaneously making himself part of the group while at the same time degrading those who did not approve of Tony. “I will leave the next choice up to him. I think it is time, but I leave it up to you, Tony.”
“What is going on? Are we attacking them now?” Tony stammered, not quite low enough for just Daniel to hear.
“Soon enough, if I’m right. Probably…tomorrow, I would guess. Hold onto that for a minute. The choice I want you to make is…is if you think that we are ready to hand out the rest of the food, and the guns!” Daniel shouted, while egging the crowd on with ‘Come on!’ motions with his hands, urging them to shout out what they thought.
This time the whole of the crowd cheered and yelled. When Tony started to yield to the numerous pleas to go retrieve the remaining stores, Daniel had to intervene.
“Wait! Wait! We can go get the food and pass out the guns in a second!” Daniel playfully shouted, his wide engaging smile reassuring the crowd. “I promise this will be quick, and that you will want to hear it!”
“Alright, let’s listen to Daniel for a second, Could we?” Tony asked the already attentive crowd; trying a little too hard to jump headlong into his reclaimed role.
“Now, would you all like to know…how…we are going to get into the Warehouse?” Daniel called out over the last vestiges of sniggers that were aimed harmlessly at Tony. “I guess I’ll have to ask Brian to come up here. C’mon, they’ll want to hear this. Won’t you?” he said with a hearty laugh, his hand clasped on the back of Brian’s neck.
Shouts of “C’mon!” and “Get up there!” gave Brian the wherewithal to address the grinning members of the crowd.
“Well, I didn’t think much of it at the time. Daniel here seems a might happy about it, though,” Brian stammered.
“Go ahead, tell them what you told me,” Daniel said, the wide smile still in place.
“Um, like I said, I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. All I told him was that I saw ‘em putting a fresh batch of mash in the still,” Brian said sheepishly.
……..
Mack Jones knew he had to leave Detroit or he would die, if he wasn’t dead already. Something was poisoning the air, and everything around them was dying. The rats, bred in cages scattered across the work camp, gnawed at their own limbs, and the people who ate them, or the mulberries from nearby trees, became sick. The Department of Continuance had finished putting its bandage on the nuclear wreckage to the south, and had pulled almost all of their personnel out.
All of the ways to get out of the city were blocked, including the long tunnel that the State Street Slayers, a small gang that Mack had joined when he was a teenager, once used to get out of Detroit and through the military cordon. That gang had been wiped out by just a few people in an apartment complex, and the over-sized Mack had only narrowly escaped that first foray out of the city by returning to the tunnel, and running back into the forced captivity of the work camp.
Using a combination of brutality and intimidation, Mack forced himself into the cushiest job in camp; pressure spraying the contaminated tires of the trucks leaving the work zone. Slowly, over the course of years, Mack gained the confidence of the guards, becoming a sort of trustee for them, able to move about nearly unrestricted and unnoticed.
With the camp in lock-down mode, and with just a skeleton crew left to deal with the workers and maintenance, Mack was using his limited freedom for a purpose other than keeping himself in pain pills and hooch. A bit of cord from here, a sharp nail from there, and soon he would have everything in place for the escape.
Chapter 25
Sunday
There was no way the group could use the tactics that Jason had told to Daniel. They did not have the time or resources to complete a prolonged siege on the Warehouse. The idea of harassing attacks made perfect sense against an entrenched opponent, if one was not in a hurry. Constant assaults would leave the besieged with few options. If this went on long enough, it might even split the people inside apart; just like the group did in the story that Jason had shared. All this way of attacking would take was the one thing that Daniel’s group did not possess, abundant food.
Even if Daniel gave the collective the remaining stash of food, there would be no way to tell which would happen first: Would the will of those inside the Warehouse break? Or would the food needed to continue the siege run out before that? Besides, the current plan seemed to have fallen right into Daniel’s lap. This way meant that the group would not have to show their hand until the last possible moment. Utter surprise, in an all-out attack, was the group’s only real hope of success.
Over the past day, all of the scouts were reporting the same things: the people running the copper still were working overtime, and two huge piles of split firewood were being assembled on the south side of the Warehouse. Daniel told the group that all of this planning meant Bob Donner was setting up for another party; just like the one that had woken him up under the willow tree.
This party would bring the majority of the people, usually huddled safely inside, out into the open. It also meant that most of them would be drunk, increasing the group’s advantage even more. The combined factors of a surprise attack, against a bunched-up group of partygoers in the dead of night made the plan seem infallible. Almost like the Warehouse was being handed back over to the group on a silver platter. No one could find any reasons to believe this to be otherwise. Finding out that the helmets, which Daniel had seen on top of the Warehouse, were nothing but dummies on sticks only served to punctuate everyone’s feelings.
The only preparations that Daniel felt were being rushed along were those of how to deal with the APCs. He had come up with the plans for immobilizing them after seeing the way they were parked inside the fence. They would, most likely, be the most dangerous part of the whole operation. Daniel divided the group into separate assault parties to deal with the various aspects of the raid. Most of the women and older children were tasked with fortifying positions on the south side of the Warehouse, along both sides of an old, collapsed building that sat seventy yards away. From here, anyone caught around the bonfire would be caught inside a deadly crossfire.
There were four teams, comprised of three people to each team, to take on the two APCs. Each one of the teams was responsible for a different aspect of the plan to disable the armored sentinels. The vehicles had gun ports along the sides and back, and a hatch that could be opened on the roof. A head-on assault had the greatest chance of being successful. One member of each group would stand over watch so, if the guard stationed inside the MRAP spotted the othe
r members of the team approaching, attempting to engage them by means of the top hatch, the over watch would have an easy shot at them.
If the noise of the raging party did manage to cover the sounds of the other team members cutting the fence, they were tasked with immobilizing the APC. Using tight bundles of dried wood and paper doused with oil and old fuel from the RVs to accomplish this. The bundles were to be packed inside the framework of the vehicle, underneath the engine compartment. Once these bundles were set ablaze, hopefully burning through wires and hoses preventing it from moving, the two team members were to move to the back of the APC. Once the guard was trapped inside with the heat and smoke, if he chose to go out the back door or front, he was dead. If he chose to seek escape by going out the top hatch, they would be in no better shape, the over watch would take care of them.
Daniel tried his best to convince anyone in the group, who was showing signs of trepidation, that even if a guard inside one of the APC’s saw the team members coming, and started the vehicle before it was rendered useless, it was still no big deal. “If he is driving around, he can’t be shooting at the same time,” Daniel would say. In reality, and Daniel knew this, if just one of the armored behemoths escaped the initial attack, the whole plan would be in jeopardy. Other members of the rogue Police Force could find cover behind them, or, worst case scenario, pile inside them. This would almost certainly end all hopes of retaking the Warehouse.
Despite convincing the group into believing the raid would really be quite easy, Daniel knew better. In all probability, a lot of the people within this group would soon be dead. If just one APC survived, they would pay hell trying to stop it. If just a few of the police escaped back into the Warehouse, those who were charged with chasing any stragglers down would be put at such a large disadvantage that Daniel did not envy them. But the amount of casualties about to be inflicted on both sides was of zero concern to Daniel; even after the group’s children had taken to calling him “Uncle Danny”.