The Blastlands Saga

by DK Williamson

  The message was from his uncle, who lived inside the besieged settlement of Kings Town. How did he get a message out of there? he wondered.

  . . . . .

  Kings Town was located in the southwestern corner of the Freelands, the westernmost settlement in fact. Situated on the western side of a large lake, the town was accessible by roads around the northern part of the lake and by two bridges—one a rail bridge and the other a road bridge—that crossed the lake until the Cuervo raiders began their campaign against the area. The settlement of Tishomingo to the north, and the main overland link to the rest of the Freelands, had been overwhelmed by raiders and the surviving residents were forced to flee, cutting off travel overland into and out of Kings Town. The small settlement of Madill, on the road between Tishomingo and Kings Town suffered a similar fate. The two bridges were cut off from use when raiders occupied the western end of each bridge and fired on any vehicles or people attempting to cross. Efforts to dislodge the raiders at the bridges by forces from Kings Town were repulsed, as were relief efforts from Mead—on the eastern side of the lake—where attacks across the bridges and amphibious attacks proved fruitless.

  . . . . .

  By the time the train pulled into the platform at Mead Ranger Base in the waning daylight, there were nearly fifty Rangers on board.

  Once the train stopped, Jack disembarked with the other Rangers, stiff and sore from sitting for so long. He stretched, then gathered his gear and followed the street that led to the Ranger base headquarters. Walking with several Rangers, he entered the middle of the small town and heard the voice of Mike Pitts calling to him. “Hey, Jack. What the hell are you doing here?” he said as Jack approached.

  “I was in Heaven and got drafted. What happened?”

  “It was a serious fustercluck, Jack,” he said with a disgusted look. “Straily had us try what amounted to be an infantry assault toward Tishomingo. A couple of the teams got caught out in the open by raiders on horseback and got worked over badly. We had to divert everybody to mount a rescue, so no attack on Tishomingo. A lot of Rangers got hurt. There’s talk Straily wants to try again in a couple of days.”

  “What about Jennifer Lewis? Word was a female Ranger medic got killed.”

  “No, Jack, no medics,” he said shaking his head. “There was a Ranger from Horns that got killed. She was the only woman that died. Jennifer did great. She got to one of the teams that had been surrounded and started patching folks up. They got cut off again, till we finally managed to get everybody out and back here. She’s fine.”

  Jack let out a deep breath. “That’s a relief. Thanks, Mike.”

  “You need to check in at operations, but I think I saw Ranger Lewis headed for the supply warehouse over there a while ago,” he said as he gestured up the street. “In case you wanted to say hello or something,” Pitts said with a smile.

  “I’ll do that, thanks again,” Jack said, grinning as he snatched his rucksack from the ground and trotted toward the building. When he arrived, he entered the warehouse and saw a pair of men unloading boxes just inside the door. He asked if Ranger Lewis was inside and one of them gestured to the rear of the building, saying offhandedly, “Upstairs, I think.”

  Jack made his way to the rear and saw stairs leading up to a large open loft, and found the grated door to the stairs was locked. He yelled up to see if anyone was there and heard a man’s voice respond with, “Hang on a second.”

  Moments later the man looked down and said to Jack, “What do you need?”

  “Is there a Ranger Lewis up there? I need to speak with her.”

  “Yeah, I’ll get her,” the man said as he disappeared from view.

  Jack could hear him yell, “Jen, there’s a man needs to talk to you downstairs.”

  A minute later Jennifer looked down from the loft and exclaimed, “When did you get here?”

  “About five minutes ago. I need to check in at operations, but I had more pressing matters here. I could come back later if you want,” he said with a smile.

  “Don’t you even move. I’ll be right there,” she said, grey eyes sparkling. Moments later Jennifer came flying down the stairs, through the door, and ran to Jack. She glanced to the front of the building, then grabbed Jack by the front of his shirt and shoved him backwards into a tall stack of boxes and kissed him.

  When she finally broke the kiss she said, “Wow, that was something! Fireworks. C’mon, I’ll walk with you to the HQ.”

  Jack hesitated, still leaning against the boxes and said, “Give me a minute, Jennifer.”

  “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong... just let the world stop spinning first, okay?”

  “Jack Traipse...” she said holding his hand.

  Jack looked at her for a few moments, “Equilibrium restored. That’s some ability you have there. I did say something about compensating for my lack of boldness.”

  Jennifer laughed. “I suppose I did.”

  Jack’s smile faded and he said, “It’s not your doing, but you had me scared out of my wits, Jennifer.”

  “How so?”

  “The Rangers in Heaven had word a woman Ranger medic got killed. I hoped it wasn’t you, but still...”

  “I had no idea. I’m the only female medic at Mead right now. The woman that was killed was a Ranger from Horns. Her name was Barker. I’m sorry, I wish I had known. I would have sent word or something.”

  “It’s not on you at all, Jennifer. Just be more careful next time, okay?” he said, smile returning. “Rushing into harm’s way again, Miss Lewis? I thought we agreed—”

  “Me? What about you? I see at least a half dozen scrapes and bruises on you,” she said with a broad smile. “It seems you’ve been in more peril than I. Story time, Jack Traipse. Tell me what happened.”

  He sighed wearily. “I could tell you about that, or... I could relay some interesting news about one Jason Marcus.”

  “Tell me about Mr. Marcus on the way to the HQ, I imagine it’s a shorter tale.”

  “Fair enough,” he said as the two of them walked to the front of the supply building. “Concerning Mr. Marcus. You may be surprised to know that you have prophetic abilities,” Jack said as she gave him a questioning look. “I seem to recall a comment made by you one morning in Ranger training about his future occupation...”

  . . . . .

  Jack and Jennifer stepped into the operations center and discovered bedlam. A mass of confused and irritated Rangers asking questions, trying to find out where they should go, asking of the fate of friends, others attempting to provide answers, all filling the room with shouting.

  Jack yelled over the noise at Jennifer, “I guess we didn’t need to be in such a rush.”

  Barely audible over the noise, Jack heard a woman’s voice calling his name. Looking around, he saw Barbara Louis waving him over to the other side of the room. Jennifer and Jack pushed their way through, eventually making their way to Barlo.

  “How did you end up here, Jack?” she asked. “No matter, it must be fate. We received a package from your uncle Gordon a couple of days ago, brought to us by a small group that snuck out of Kings Town. I forwarded a note to Heaven from him addressed to you. The package contains several pages of information from your dad. He found out what the rads were doing five years ago when Hardin went missing. There is TGG involvement also. Gordon has a lot more, but he says he won’t risk sending it out until things get settled, and he won’t send the info by radio.”

  “I got the note from him just before I left Heaven. Thanks for sending it. He said he needed to see me personally. Is there a way I can get into Kings Town?”

  “That won’t be easy, Jack. You’d have to sneak in through the raiders—hey, there’s an idea. We can’t communicate with Kings Town securely, because they don’t have a TROG. We were going to try and infiltrate a team in with some codes. They tried it a few weeks ago, but the team got made and had to return here. With the folks that got out successfully a co
uple days ago we thought we might try it again. We’ll need to talk to Commander Straily about this. Come with me.”

  Jennifer told Jack she would return to the supply building and finish her work, then meet him later. She squeezed Jack’s hand as they parted, and Jack followed Barlo to Ranger Commander Straily’s office.

  Jack had seen the Ranger Commander a few times in the past, but they had never spoken. He was fully aware of Straily’s feelings toward Hardin, Gordon, and Art, having grown up hearing tales of their differences and the heated verbal exchanges between them.

  After brief introductions were made, Barbara made the suggestion to the commander that Jack should be part of the team that would attempt to make their way into Kings Town.

  “You’ve been out of training for what, a month? And two months training at that. What makes you think you are qualified to do this?” Duke Straily asked with a hard look.

  “The two month training concept was your idea, was it not, Commander?” Jack said calmly.

  “Watch your tone, but true enough,” he said with a scowl. “Geiger seemed to do a good job with that, and your classmates here are doing an adequate job. Geiger speaks highly of you, and that carries some weight with me, but is this a personal thing?”

  “Partially, yes. The job needs to be done in any case. The fact that my uncle has some information important to me is secondary. That information sounds like it may be important to all of us.”

  “Ah yes, Gordon. Eating up what little clear radio time we manage with personal garbage. You know the raiders are jamming the radio signals, and cut the phone lines too.”

  “I am aware, Commander. I doubt Gordon would do that unless he thought it was important. TGG and rads sounds like something we ought to be concerned with. Might I see what Gordon sent out?”

  “Traipse,” Straily said, making the name sound like an insult, “you’re every bit as insolent as your pa ever was. You leave what the Rangers need be concerned with to me, got it?” he said, glaring and pointing a finger at Jack. “If you want to see what Gordon has you’ll have to go to Kings Town. Our concern is Joe Crow and the damned Cuervos right now. We get this cleared up, then maybe we deal with Gordon’s ghost project.”

  “Ghost project?”

  “That’s right. Your pa’s been gone five years. Gordon is chasing a ghost.” Straily paused, then said, “You go and sneak into Kings Town without getting your ass shot off, deliver the codes, and you find out what he has. Favor for a favor. Barlo can brief you on the mission. That’s all, I’m busy,” he said dismissively, then turning his attention to the paperwork on his desk.

  “Thank you, Commander,” Jack said.

  He followed Barlo out of the office. As he passed through the doorway, Straily looked up with a glare and muttered, “Just what we need, another damned Traipse.”

  . . . . .

  Barbara led Jack through the still busy and loud operations room and into a small office. She unfolded a map that showed a representation of the Kings Town area.

  “The plan is to cross the lake after dark between the two bridges and land somewhere in the vicinity of this cove on the western shore,” she said pointing to a spot on the map. “From there the team will go overland to the northwest until you get to the walls of Kings Town. It sounds simple enough, but finding your way in the dark will not be easy, and navigating across the lake with any kind of accuracy will be impossible because you won’t have any points of reference, unless you get lucky and the raiders build a fire. The bridges might help you find your way. You won’t be taking a TROG with you, in case the raiders get their hands on it, so using one for nav is out. Once you get on the western shore, you will need to find your position. The easiest way will likely be to find a road. That might also be the fastest way to get to Kings Town also, but if the raiders have a patrol or two on them...”

  “Yeah, it will be a case of who spots who first,” Jack said. “Who is going across with me?”

  “I don’t know. There will be three Rangers, with you being one of them. They will have to bump someone, and that will be Anne Anders decision. I’ll call her and let her know about you.”

  “When do I need to head to the lake?”

  “Tomorrow morning. I’d suggest you get a little sleep in the afternoon before you cross. If things go sideways, it may take all night for you to reach Kings Town.”

  After looking over the maps in detail, Jack returned to the supply warehouse and helped Jennifer finish her work while they talked. He told her of the ogre and his mission to Kings Town, and she spoke of the aborted attack on Tishomingo. When they finished they went back to the operations center and found that Jennifer was to go to the hospital in Durant the following morning to assist in caring for the many wounded.

  . . . . .

  Jack left for the lake after seeing Jennifer off on her trip to Durant. He rode in a truck carrying supplies to the Ranger position near the edge of the lake, and there found Anne Anders and met the Rangers who would accompany him in the attempt to get to Kings Town.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Jack,” Anne said as they shook hands. “Barlo let us know you were coming. Good timing too. I need somebody to keep an eye on this pair,” she said gesturing at the Rangers standing next to her. Both men were young, short, and wiry, one with blonde hair, the other brown.

  “Ranger Jack Traipse, meet the cousins Dando, Stan and Will.”

  As they shook hands, Stan, the brown-haired cousin said, “Ah, Jack Traipse. I’ve heard something of you. It wasn’t good,” he said with a mischievous smile.

  “And what was this you heard?” Jack asked.

  “He heard you have the attentions of the lovely Ranger Lewis, from the lady herself when she rejected his advances!” Will said with a laugh. “He was crestfallen. It was quite funny.”

  “I take it you two have a... somewhat antagonistic relationship?” Jack asked.

  “I wouldn’t go that far, it’s just that Stan is from the less fortunate side of the family.”

  “You always get that backwards, cousin,” Stan replied. “His is the less courageous side of the family. He couldn’t muster up the gumption to even speak with Jennifer Lewis.”

  “Stan, that is not—”

  “You see what I mean, Jack,” Anne said.

  “They’re not going to be doing this while we’re sneaking into Kings Town, are they?” Jack asked.

  “No, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that, unless they do it in whispers. They are both quite stealthy and sneaky, I am told. I suspect they’d be sneak thieves if they weren’t Rangers,” she replied with a grin.

  “You wound me, Anne,” Will replied. “Stan maybe, but not I.”

  “Cousin, that’s enough out of—”

  “I’ll leave you to get acquainted,” Anne interrupted. “We’ll go over the mission in a little while.”

  As Anne walked away, Will said, “So, Jack, about Ranger Lewis...”

  “Yeah, this is going to be a long fucking morning,” Jack grumbled.

  Later in the day, Ranger Anders went over the mission with the three Rangers. The plan was very much as Barbara Louis had laid out. The Ranger team would follow the highway bridge, using the concrete supports that rose from the lake’s waters as a guide, to a point about two-thirds of the way across the lake. They would then turn southwest and head for the western shore, and then land if they could find the cove that was their intended landing point or an alternative. Once ashore they would conceal the boat, and make their way overland to the walls of Kings Town.

  “Make sure you get all your gear squared away for stealth: buckles, sling swivels, magazines, anything that might make noise while you move or if you bump into something. You are going to be on your own out there, with lots of raiders keeping an ear out for the likes of you, so check everything, then recheck it,” Anne said.

  “I have a compass with glow paint for you to use. If it gets cloudy it will be the only thing you have to navigate by in the boat, but
you will probably have enough moonlight to see well enough and stars to help with your nav. Remember, there will almost certainly be some wind on the lake, and there is current to contend with. Both of those things will make it difficult to hit your intended landing spot, so keep that in mind.

  “We have an aluminum johnboat for you to use. It has oars, but be sure to switch to paddles when you get near shore. If raiders on shore hear something, they will fire at the sound.

  “This afternoon you need to try and get some sleep. At least get some rest. We’ll get everything loaded in the boat before dark, and you’ll set off once the sun is down.”

  . . . . .

  The three Rangers were off as soon as stars were visible in the sky. They followed the bridge, counting concrete supports as they passed them to determine the distance they covered. They turned southwest at the planned distance, hoping they would find the cove in the scant light. As they neared the western shore, they set the oars inside the boat and switched to burlap-wrapped paddles to ensure they stayed as quiet as possible. The Rangers found they had ventured a few hundred yards too far south and missed the cove entrance, but were able to make their way north and into the cove without incident.

  Finding a dense growth of trees and underbrush on the southern bank of the cove, the Rangers quietly slid the boat onto the shore and dragged it from the water. The air smelled of mud and stagnant water. The Rangers turned the boat upside down and pulled it further into the brush, hoping it would be out of sight in daylight.

  Jack led the way out—headed south with the intention of finding a road that would lead to Kings Town—with Will close behind with the compass in hand, correcting their course as needed.

  Less than a mile south of their landing point, the Ranger team came to a road and the rail line that paralleled it. They followed the rails west, then northwest as the rail line curved, the Rangers staying at the edge of the tree line. As they neared a creek crossing, they stopped. Stan Dando went forward to scout the area ahead, returning about twenty minutes after he departed.