The Blastlands Saga

by DK Williamson

  “I’ll drop your gear over at your place, Jack,” the wagoner said. “Women’s barracks for yours?” he said looking at Jen.

  She shook her head. “The Hays’ house.”

  “You got it. Welcome home.”

  Jack thanked the man and with Jennifer, entered the nearby building. The sign in front read GENEVA RANGER POST, HQ.

  There was but one person in the large training and briefing room, a small blonde wearing a Ranger star and bent over a table studying a large grid map with a determined look on her face. She heard Jack and Jennifer enter, looked up, and broke into a smile. Amanda Hays was her name and she was Jack’s oldest friend dating back to childhood. Her smarts and technical background made her a natural to serve as an intelligence and communications specialist. “Welcome back, old buddy. You too, Jen. The LT is in his office. I’m in the middle of something. We’ll talk later.” She bent over the table once again.

  Lieutenant Geiger smiled broadly when Jack entered the office, noticing Jack’s limp, the result of an injury incurred during the fight against the Cuervos raiders near Kings Town. Geiger stood and offered his hand to Jack. As they shook hands, Dan said, “I think we may need to limit the amount of your trips, Jack. A few months on the job and the Ranger Commander bucks you up to sergeant. You keep this up and the next time you come back you’ll be Ranger Commander.”

  Jack shook his head and started to reply, but Jennifer interrupted. “There were more than a few Rangers in the hospital at Mead Ranger Base that suggested that very thing. They were not being entirely facetious, either,” she said.

  Jack was not amused. “I’ll move to the Deva State before that happens.”

  From outside the lieutenant’s office came a voice calling from the training room, “Jack, where are you boy? Jack?” It was Ranger Corporal Art Sierra, Jack’s uncle, mentor, and friend.

  “Art is going to have a field day with this,” Jack muttered as he closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “What do you mean?” Jennifer asked.

  The pained look on his face remained. “You’ll see,” he replied as Art walked into the room.

  “There he is! Good to have you back Sergeant Traipse!” Art said with theatrical grade enthusiasm. Jack could do little but shake his head and let Art have his fun. Dan and Jennifer tried unsuccessfully to keep from laughing.

  “Until now it was good to be back, Art,” Jack replied.

  “Sergeant Traipse. Righter of wrongs, hero to all in the Freelands, returns to us, lady in tow, draped in glory and accolades.”

  “I’m taking enough crap already. Now I have to put up with this from you?” Jack said as he looked at the ceiling in exasperation.

  “Put up with what? It’s nothing less than a personage such as yourself deserves. In fact, I directed all the Rangers here in Geneva to show you proper o—, dammit LT, what was the word?

  “Obeisance,” the lieutenant replied.

  “That’s right, thanks LT,” Art said with a broad smile.

  “You’ve gone all out, haven’t you? Memorized lines, cracked open the dictionary and everything. Impressive,” Jack said. “Enlisting the LT’s help is low, Art. Low.”

  “It was nothing. We just wanted to make you feel at home.”

  “It’s like I never left,” Jack said sarcastically.

  “I know! Seriously though, we are proud of you,” he said clapping Jack on the shoulder. He looked at Jennifer and smiled. “And, it’s good to see you back here young lady.”

  “Thank you, Art. It is all Jack’s doing. He’s friends with Commander Straily now, so he pulled some strings and here I am.”

  Jack grumbled. “If you are all going to gang up on me I’m leaving, I’ll catch a nap or something,” he said as he limped to the door.

  “I didn’t pile on, Jack,” Lieutenant Geiger said.

  “Obeisance, LT? Really?” Jack said over his shoulder as he left the room and the laughter.

  Amanda saw him headed for the building exit and said, “Where are you headed, Sergeant?”

  “I have a host of friends,” he muttered as he went through the doorway. “A host of friends.”

  . . . . .

  The next morning, Jack stood on the dirt training ground near the benches where a great deal of Ranger instruction took place. Lieutenant Geiger was speaking to the current crop of trainees about dealing with threats sourced from outside the Freelands. One of the trainees raised his hand.

  Geiger pointed at him. “Baker. Question?”

  “Lieutenant, why does it seem that the settlers and townspeople and the like do better in a fight than the people who attack them? I mean, I know the crazies are nuts, and mutants aren’t what you’d call intelligent, but the raiders, or the rads, or the other predatory people out there are thinking human beings like us, so what is the difference?”

  Dan nodded. “Good question, and not one I can satisfactorily answer for you, but I’ll tell you what I think.

  “Humanity has always fought. Always will if history is any indicator. People fight for gold, glory, land, king and country, all sorts of reasons. But you give me a person who fights for something they truly believe in, something close to the heart, a family they love, a place they see as home, and I think they fight harder than those trying to take what they have. All things being equal, I believe a person motivated by something near and dear beats a person trying to take that which doesn’t belong to him.”

  Geiger began pacing slowing in front of the trainees. “Remember this, things are rarely equal and history is full of aggressors having their way with lesser forces, no matter how hard they fight. If the predators out there in the wastes were to attack with a large enough force, they could just take what they want, look at what happened down south. Until some unifying force gets them all together again, they’ll keep doing what they’ve been doing, attacking merchants, homesteaders, and whatnot, with the occasional alliance between groups trying on one of the settlements.

  “The good guys don’t always win. One of these days, you’ll see a homestead that got hit by those bastards out there. You’ll see what they do to innocents and it’ll break your heart. You’ll see those folks fought as hard as they could, and it just wasn’t enough. Being right doesn’t mean you’ll win.

  “The brutes that prey on folks who are just looking to make a better life for themselves might be sadistic and cruel and will risk their lives trying to take what isn’t theirs, but they usually won’t put it all on the line just for loot. Those people fighting for their lives are willing—or have no choice—to put it all out there, because they are fighting for what they hold dear.

  “As I said, it isn’t a completely satisfactory answer. You tell me if you come up with a better one, okay?”

  Lieutenant Geiger took a couple of steps to center himself in front of his charges and glanced at his watch. “Everyone take ten, and meet back here for a presentation by Corporal Sierra.”

  Dan turned toward Jack and pointed at the Ranger HQ. “We’ll talk in my office.” As they walked, Geiger pointed at Jack’s left leg. “Is that knee going to limit your duties?”

  “Afraid so, at least for a couple of weeks.”

  “Not a problem. The Ranger Center told me the basics of what happened down there. They also told me about the discovery of your father’s remains. You’re clear to pursue that whenever you want. Do you know where you’ll be going?”

  “Somewhere south and west of Old Holdenville.”

  “The Ravaged Lands. You’ll want to talk to Chuck Harstens. He knows them better than anyone.”

  “That’s what I had in mind. There’s a salvager named Kay Rush I need to speak with also.”

  “I know her. I’ll find out where she is. When do you plan on leaving?” Geiger asked as they walked into the Ranger headquarters building.

  “When my knee says it’s ready, unless we’re still shorthanded here. It’s been five years, it’ll wait until we have enough Rangers. Until then, put me to work.” />
  The two Rangers took seats in Geiger’s office.

  “We’ll not be short for long, although Sergeant Tucker’s team will be gone longer than originally intended. He elected to head north to look into something. The rumors about The Greater Good running teams up there looks like it’s fact. Tucker’s team took down a TGG unit transporting a large amount of explosives into the Blastlands and he thinks there may be more.”

  Jack shook his head. “Any clues as to what they’re after?”

  “No, that’s what Tucker is looking into. Does this tie into the issue Hardin was pursuing?”

  “I don’t know, LT, it might. I guess we’ll find out. What do you want me to do in the meantime?”

  “Do you mind working with the trainees? I’ll have you and Art do the bulk of the training for the next two weeks. Lew Braden’s out with Tucker. The current class is off the crash course now that the issue in Kings Town is coming to a conclusion, so we’ll return to the regular curriculum and schedule.”

  “I’ll do what I can, LT. You sure I’m qualified?”

  Geiger laughed softly and pointed at Jack’s Ranger star. “You’re supposed to have three chevrons on that. Among the many duties with which Ranger Sergeants are tasked, none is more important than serving as trainers.”

  Jack smiled. “An exact quote from the manual, LT. I’ll do my best.”

  . . . . .

  Sergeant Tucker’s team moved north looking for evidence of foot and cart traffic in the area the recovered map indicated a trail might exist. Some of the paperwork gave the impression there was more than one TGG team sent east, but did not specify when this may have occurred or how many teams were involved.

  The area that far north of the Freelands was likely to contain nearly every threat imaginable: rads, raiders, aliens, mutants, crazies, and more. Tucker chose to take the cautious approach and move slowly and as stealthily as possible. “Remember, we’re ghosts. We’re out here to get info, not play Billy Badass,” he said to the team. The journey would take longer, but they would also be more likely to return to Geneva in one piece as well.

  Several days into their sneak, they came across clear wheel marks and footprints west of a small abandoned city called Old Paola. The tracks headed east.

  Corporal Braden surveyed the impressions left in the ground. Renowned for his tracking skills, Lew Braden was best equipped to estimate how old the marks were.

  “Bad news, good news, Tuck,” he said.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “Bad news is these are nearly two days old.”

  Tucker was obviously irritated at the news. “The good?”

  “We’ll catch up to them tomorrow morning.”

  “We’ll make up two days that fast? How?”

  Sean pointed at the wheel tracks. “The lead cart has something wrong with it, right?”

  Braden smiled and pointed at Trahearn. “On the dot. The left wheel is badly out of alignment. Probably a broken or bent axle. It’s making the cart crab badly. They took some of the load off the broken cart and put it on the other one. See the depth of the wheel imprints? That means they aren’t making good time. They have more people than the other team we ran up against, ten it looks like, but they’re struggling.”

  Sergeant Tucker nodded. “We follow them then.”

  . . . . .

  Jack’s knee improved daily and he enjoyed being home in Geneva, but the need to recover his father’s remains was always in his thoughts. At Jennifer’s urging, he took more time than he originally intended to rehabilitate his knee. Once he was confident the joint was fit, he told Lieutenant Geiger he was ready to return to Kings Town if the Geneva Ranger force could spare him.

  “Jack, you can go whenever you wish, but would you do me a favor?”

  “Sure, LT.”

  “My wife is supposed to arrive tomorrow morning. We’re going to look at a house, and if all goes well, the family Geiger will soon be residents of Geneva.”

  “And we get a new nurse at the clinic. Her replacement finally ready?”

  “He’s taking a medical course in Heaven that should be concluding shortly. As soon as the doc in Pea Ridge gives the okay, Annabelle and baby Arthur will be on their way. I’d like you to command the station in my absence tommorow.”

  “Broadening my horizons, LT? I thought Ranger Tibbs or Amanda usually covered for you.”

  “They do, but Sergeant Tucker’s team is still out. They’ve already had a run in with a TGG team, and they found evidence of another passing through recently. If they get into another situation, someone here may need to make a command decision. Art will have the trainees out for training. Tibbs has to go to the railhead in Humboldt to pick up supplies. Lewis will be at the med clinic. The other Rangers have the usual observation posts and patrols, so you and Hays have the station.”

  “All right, LT. I’ll try not to burn the place down.”

  Geiger smiled. “You’ll be fine.”

  . . . . .

  Jack stood by the bench in front of the HQ building, within earshot of the radio inside. Just as Dan said it would be, Art had the trainees out on a field exercise, Jennifer was at the clinic, and just then, Amanda was at lunch. He had the place to himself. The area around the Ranger Station was desolate. He put his fists on his hips and took in a deep breath and let it out audibly. The loneliness of command, Jack thought with a smile. He took a seat.

  Within minutes, he was bored. He sighed and stood. As he turned to the doorway he heard the sound of a horse drawn wagon approaching. He leaned against the doorframe and waited.

  A minute later a flatbed wagon stopped in front of the headquarters and an unfamiliar Ranger climbed down from his seat beside the wagon master. He pulled a bag from behind the seat and thanked the driver.

  “That’s some haul from the railhead to here,” the Ranger said as he walked toward Jack.

  “We’re the Freelands’ northernmost settlement. Out of sight, out of mind. They’ll get the rail up here before too long. Until then, we have a bit of a walk. I’m Jack Traipse.” He offered his hand.

  The man took it and they shook. “Ranger Jerry Michaels. I’ve heard of you. A lot of Rangers talking about you in Heaven. You did well at Kings Town.”

  “I was but one of many.” Jack waved a hand. “Come on in. What brings you to Geneva?”

  “The Ranger Center dispatched me here on temporary assignment. They tell me you’re shorthanded because of the stink around Kings Town. I’ll be your intel and commo specialist until Barbara Louis gets back.”

  Jack stopped and turned toward Michaels. “We have one of those already. Ranger Hays.”

  “They told me she was pretty green. I’ve been on the job for eighteen months. Maybe they thought my experience might be beneficial.”

  “She’s been doing a fine job for weeks now.”

  “That’s just what they said, Sergeant. They didn’t tell me much. My lieutenant didn’t say who ordered it. They say where to go and I go. I’m not trying to ruffle anybody’s feathers. In any case, with more Rangers coming up here, the intel, commo, tech job gets tougher.”

  “True. I know you’re in a tough situation here. I suggest you treat her as a peer. She knows Geneva better than you do. You have more experience. Work with each other, not against. Got me?”

  “I understand, Sergeant. I’m just here to help. Is Lieutenant Geiger around?”

  “He’ll be back tomorrow. Why don’t you get settled in. We have a small barracks, or you could rent a room. Corporal Sierra would probably let you stay at his place for nothing.”

  “The barracks is fine.”

  Jack pointed. “Right behind the HQ. Find an empty bunk and locker, then I’ll give you a rundown on our situation here.”

  A few minutes after Michaels left, Amanda returned. Jack apprised her about the new arrival. She wasn’t happy.

  “Don’t blame the new guy. It wasn’t his idea, it was some paper-pusher at the Ranger Center. He or she looked at our ros
ter and saw that poor little Ranger Hays was all alone in Geneva with so little experience and assumed you needed help.”

  “All right, Jack, but I’m still going to grump about it. Besides, if we get an influx of Rangers before Barlo gets back, we’ll likely need him.”

  “True. Michaels is in a tough situation. I suggest you treat him as a peer. You know Geneva better than he does. He has more experience than you do. Work with each other, not against. Got me?”

  “I will.” Amanda paused and then glared at Jack. “You gave him the same spiel, didn’t you?”

  “Pretty much,” Michaels said as he stepped inside. “It doesn’t mean he isn’t right.”

  Amanda nodded. “No question he’s right. I just happen to know the devious mind games of Ranger Sergeant Traipse.”

  Jack smiled. “No mind games. It’s an old Ranger Sergeant technique for creating harmony and happiness within the unit. Works like a charm.”

  Amanda glared again. “Go to lunch, old Sergeant. I’ll give our new friend the rundown.”

  “I’m going.” Jack stopped in the doorway and looked back. Amanda was pointing at the large map table. Jack smiled. “Harmony,” he said as he moved down the steps.

  . . . . .

  Jack spent the last part of the day working with the trainees. He had enjoyed his time with them and couldn’t help but notice the sharp contrast in the pace of training compared to his own just months before. The intensity was the same, but the pace was much slower as there was now much more time to cover all the bases. They’ll know more than me, Jack thought, and I was training them.

  Jack had worked with the trainees prior to his involvement in the fight down south, so he was already familiar with them before this current stint. He came to know them better as the days went on. Even so, word of the action that led to his appointment to sergeant had preceded him, and most of the trainees acted differently toward him than they had before. One exception was Trainee Anthony Baker, one of the best in this class of fourteen now whittled down to eight. Jack and the trainee got along well and they talked often when training was not in session.