by Lee Thomas
“Sheldon to the bridge, Sheldon to the bridge!” the intercom rang out suddenly. I sighed as I placed the reports back down and groaned as I stood and my knee popped. I limped to the door and made my way slowly to the ladderwell. As I drug myself up the stairs and into the bridge I reminded myself to look for a new knee brace.
“We have a problem.” Chief said after he turned and saw me walking in.
“How serious?” I asked, leaning on the counter.
“Dave sent us an emergency message. The wall is under attack, they need help.”
“Page the chopper crews, tell them I want them in the air in ten minutes. I want them heading that way fully armed asap. Get the ground crews armed and on them.” I ordered, not bothering to make it sound like a suggestion.
“There is a small problem, though. The attackers are human.” He informed me, looking at me concerned. We did not make it a habit of attacking or killing other humans, and this was the first time we had to deal with another group attacking us.
“While I don’t relish the idea of killing other humans, I am not going to allow us to roll over and be killed either. Get the choppers in the air, and if the attackers don’t stop by the time they get there, take them out.” I said after contemplating it for a few minutes. I didn’t want to kill other humans since we would need all we could save to keep humanity going, but I wasn’t going to allow my people to be needlessly slaughtered either. Chief nodded and started passing orders, getting the gears in motion, and I shuffled into the radio room to try to reach someone who knew what was going on.
“This is Tim, Sheldon. No one is hurt yet, but there is a group of survivors that have holed up somewhere in the neighborhoods near the wall, and they have come up and fired at us several times. It seems they are testing our defensives, and not willing to talk.” Tim reported, when I finally got a response. He went on to tell me that they didn’t seem to have vehicles, or at least none had been seen, they had automatic weapons, and they seemed to be good at keeping out of sight. There had been two brief firefights with them, with one of their men being killed, and the guards were sure another two had been hit. I was told a detailed account was being written up and would be sent later.
“Tell the guards to conserve ammo, only fire when fired upon, but if it looks like the wall is about to be breached, rain hell down on them. If they don’t want to talk, then we don’t want to talk. I hate the idea of just killing them outright, but if they want to play that game, we are in the stronger position, and we will play. I am sending help, which should hopefully dissuade them from further attacks.” I told Tim. He told me he would pass along the message to the guards, and that just made me worry about Angie, since she was always so determined to be on the wall. I sent another message asking for an account of who was where on the wall, and where exactly we had been attacked at so hopefully I could set my mind at ease about her being in danger. I decided I would go join them, so I went down to my cabin, got into my armor and grabbed my weapons. I stopped back in the bridge long enough to leave Chief in charge in my absence, which I knew none of the sailors would protest, and then went out to meet the flight crews, who were just finishing their pre-flight checks. The ground crews were also assembled and waiting.
“No, absolutely not, you are staying here.” Tony tried to tell me as I walked up to the choppers.
“Listen old man, if you’re going, I can certainly go. My project, my people, and my responsibility.” I replied. With the military mindset that the group seemed to have developed, not many people would question me like that openly, but since Tony had known me for so long, we were not commander and subordinate, we were just friends.
“Exactly my point, what happens if something happens to you? You know this group looks to you for leadership, what do you think will happen if you’re gone?” Tony retorted. The rest of the men and women simply started loading up, but you could tell they were listening.
“Have you not noticed? I have several people in place in key positions that will allow this place to run smoothly and efficiently even without me. Jeff can easily take main control, you are running the guards, and Dave runs the base. Every key area has someone in charge running it, who all report to me. I’m not needed anymore, which was my plan to begin with. When have you ever known me to be a leader, anyways. The stress is killing me, and now that we have the wall built, and are hopefully almost done making this area safe, I can relax and let things run naturally. Now, if we are done arguing, can we please get back to the business of saving the wall?” I retorted, turning and taking one of the last seats in the chopper. Tony sighed and climbed in, filling the last one. He nodded to the man in front of him who reached around and tapped the pilot on the shoulder, indicating we were all seated and strapped. We took off, followed shortly by the second chopper, and banked as we climbed, turning towards the south to rescue the wall.
The flight was uneventful, and no one spoke as we hurried southward. The flight time would be roughly forty-five minutes or so, and each man used the time differently in his own head. As we started crossing the bay, everyone started sitting a little straighter, doing last minute checks of weapons and buckles, checking clips one last time, making sure everything was ready in case we needed to fight. I checked my pistols, made sure they were chambered and safety was on for now, then checked the straps for my swords. My regular helmet was between my feet, which I would put on after landing. I had instructed the pilot to swing west and start from the end of the wall and follow it down its length until we saw the attackers. The other chopper followed suit, but stayed far enough back and to the side that if we were attacked we wouldn’t be risking both birds at the same time.
Flying at a decent speed, fast enough to avoid any easy attacks, but slow enough we could search the area, we followed the wall, only slowing as we neared the few blocks that the attackers were assumed to be in. It was still daylight enough that the FLIR would probably not be very useful, but the co-pilot was trying it anyways. If they were inside a house they wouldn’t show up though, unless we happened to catch them in a window. My assumption was that if they were trying to figure us out, they would probably bunker down in a nearby house and send scouts out one or two at a time, which was who we hoped to catch.
I was looking out the door, scanning the ground and watching for movement, not seeing anything moving on the street or in the yards we were passing over. The tension was starting to ramp up through all of us as we passed street after street without seeing anything. Wherever these people were hiding, they seemed to be dug in with no plans of showing themselves. Whoever they were, they were determined to not be seen, but I would not allow them to stick around this close to us, not with them threatening us already.
“Contact, seven o’clock, times two.” Called out one the men on the other door. That meant he saw two people moving. Whether they were infected or our attackers we would have to determine, but we hadn’t seen any infected for a few days now at all, so bets were on people.
The chopper slowed and swung back around to get a closer look, while the other bird also slowed and banked the opposite way. As we came back around, we saw the two men running down the street and duck into an alleyway. We followed and came over the alleyway just in time to see them dart into a fenced yard and run towards the door of the house. I had a man mark the house on the map and circled around it while the other chopper searched the blocks surrounding us. If this was a decoy, meant to draw our attention, I wanted to make sure our backs were covered.
“FLIR pick anything up other than those two?” I asked into the helmet’s mic.
“No personal signatures, sir, but there is a heat signature coming from the top of that chimney.” The co-pilot responded.
“Land us behind the wall and let us out, then get back in the air and keep an over watch. You two stay onboard for that. The rest of us will find a way on land.” I said. The other chopper circled back around to maintain a watch on the house while we banked back towards the wall. The cho
pper landed as close to the wall as we could get, and as soon as the last man unloaded it jumped back up into the air with the two men at either door. The rest of us now on the ground jogged over to the gate and met the guard detail captain there.
“We first spotted them walking down the street. Once they saw the wall and realized we were here they split up to either side and slowly made their way towards us. We counted approximately twenty men or so, all armed.” Conner told us as he walked out to meet us. I didn’t know him well, but had met him a couple of times when I had meetings with the guard leadership. He seemed capable enough and obviously, he grasped the reason we were here right off, which made him a valuable asset to the guards.
“How did they move? Did they seemed coordinated like they had training?” I asked.
“No, not that smoothly, but they did seem like they had worked together for a while, using hand signals we could see before disappearing behind cars and the houses. Once they crept up far enough, several of them fired on the guard towers. No one was hit, thankfully, but a couple of ricochets were close. Several guards returned fire, at least one of them was hit and dragged off, alive.” Conner replied as we stepped into office/radio room for the gate. It was a small room, so Tony and I stayed with Conner while the rest of the men stayed outside.
“How long was the firefight?” I asked.
“Roughly thirty minutes from the first shot. Once their man was hit, they dragged him off with cover fire, and then retreated. We’ve been keeping watch ever since, but haven’t seen them return.” Conner answered.
“I heard about a second firefight as well, was that one not here?” I asked him.
“No, that was a few blocks down, not here at the actual gate. It was also a short fight, with two of their men being hit, but not killed. We have several new holes in the storage containers, but none of our men were hit.” He told me.
“Tony, get our group ready, we head out in ten. Conner, if you haven’t already sent for more ammo, do so. They don’t seem to be in the talking mood, and I will not let anyone else destroy what we have worked for.” I said, clapping Conner on the shoulder and following Tony out. The team didn’t relax much, so they were pretty much ready to go already, and we started walking over to the sally port, entered the gate, and once the inner gate was closed, we waited for the outer gate to be opened just wide enough for us to exit. There was a door in the side of containers, about fifty feet from the gate, but it was hidden from outside view, and I didn’t want the others to know about it if we could help it. Since the road out from the gate led straight down the residential road, we turned slightly right and headed for the cover of the buildings as soon as we exited the gate.
Since this was all residential area, we ducked from house to house, jumping fences as we went to avoid being out in the street. All of this just reminded me how out of shape I was. I started to think I should take Tony’s advice and step back from these missions. The lead woman stopped at the corner of the next house, raising her fist to indicate we should stop. I crouched down on a knee, trying to catch my breath, waiting to see what she said. When I looked at the map, it was apparent we were close to the house that the FLIR indicated the heat was coming from. We could hear both choppers overhead circling, and looking up I saw they were smart enough to keep the running lights off so they couldn’t be seen very well.
“We should be close. Since we’re not sure if they are all in the same house or not, we should assume they have watchmen in another location as well.” Shelby said, kneeling with the rest of us.
“What do you think?” I asked, looking towards Tony.
“I have to agree that should be a good assumption. It’s getting darker, so I think we should find a good place to hide, and watch, and send the choppers home. They probably need fuel by now, and if they leave, the others may think they are in the clear for the night.” He suggested.
“Is there a house nearby that would be suitable?” I asked.
“Not a house, but there is a four-story office building at the end of this block. We could try to take that, and the upper floors could provide a high enough vantage point.” One of the others said.
“What’s to say they haven’t already thought of that and put their own watchmen in that building?” another man pointed out.
“Point taken. Look, we could check this house out here. We can get to it from this street, which would block the view of the house we think they’re in, get in through the back, and then we could keep an eye on them.” Jared said, pointing at the map.
“Radio the birds, send them home. Have them make one last pass with the FLIR and let’s see what it shows. Then we make our approach.” I said, ending the discussion. Tony nodded to show me he agreed with the plan, and the one with the radio passed along the message. A few minutes later we could tell by the sound that the birds had turned to go home. The quiet shortly followed their departure, and we stayed in place for some time, listening and watching for movement. I didn’t want us to stay out much longer as it was getting darker, and infected or mutants could come by at any time.
Slipping past the corner, we started moving single file towards the house across the street, darting glances back and forth, watching for movement down the street, or any sign we were being watched. We jumped the fence surrounding the front yard and crouched behind the bushes, waiting for any alarms to be raised. After a few minutes, we crept out of the bush, slowly made our way to the front door, and Jenny tried the front door. A shake of her head indicated it was locked, but Henry motioned us over to a slightly open window down the porch. He quickly and quietly cut the screen away and eased the window open all the way. There was no sound coming from the house, and the air smelled stale, which meant there probably hadn’t been anyone inside it for quite some time. With a nod from Tony, Henry quickly scooted inside, followed by two more men, and the rest of us went back to the door for one of them to let us in. the door made only a small sound as the hinges moved for the first time in who knew how long, and we shut it quietly.
Searching the house quickly, we discovered it was empty, and other than the usual signs of someone leaving quickly, it didn’t appear that anyone used it to stay in for a long time. There was still canned food in the pantry, nothing in the fridge, but nothing looked ransacked either. We had two men keeping watch on the front, in case we were spotted, but after a thorough search, and finding out they hadn’t seen any movement, we assumed we were in the clear and decided to head on out the back, locking the front again, and jump the fence into the next yard for the house we intended to use. There was no alleyway on this block, so we landed right in the back yard. There was a swing set and a sandbox, plus a dog house, but the dog was obviously long gone and the grass was overgrown, just like most everywhere now. We slid silently through the jungle of a yard, the low swish of the grass against our clothes the only indication of our passing. The back door slid open as we gently pulled on it, and we filed in one after the other, quietly shutting the door before searching the house.
The kitchen was bare, and the front room windows had been barricaded at some point, which pointed to someone trying to hold out here for some time. The basement had bunkbeds and shelves that still held some bottles of water and a few remaining MRE’s, but no people remained. Each room showed signs of somewhat recent occupancy, and the fireplace had scorch marks that were not too old. We set a watch in case whoever was living here came back, but my assumption was that it belonged to some of the survivors back on the base.
“Ok, so the house directly across from us is the one with the heat signature from the fireplace. The pilots reported the heat was still coming out of it on their last pass, so we should assume someone is in there other than the two men we saw. It looks like the windows on the first floor are boarded up completely, or have blackout curtains since there is no light showing through.” Tony said as we gathered around the dining room table.
“Thoughts, suggestions?” I asked.
“We know they starte
d with approximately twenty, right? One was killed, and two more seriously injured. Let’s say we start with twenty-five, that puts them down to twenty-two. Without knowing the layout of the house, it will be impossible to come up with a solid plan, but we can hash out a basic one and modify it as we go.” Henry said.
“We need to watch tonight, see if we can spot their movements, maybe even intercept them as they are leaving or returning. Maybe even take the house while they are gone and surprise them when they come back.” Shelby offered.
“Has there been any sign that anyone is actually there?” I asked.
“Other than the smoke from the chimney, no.” Marceline answered.
“What if this was a diversion, intended to get us to focus on this house? The two could have probably lost us if they had tried a little harder, and the smoke from a fireplace would be pretty hard to hide.” Jared asked.
“That’s my fear. Radio back to the wall, see if Conner has seen anymore movement, or anywhere else on the wall for that matter. I also want to make sure the entire wall is on alert. We will keep watch here for the rest of the night, unless we see something or get an opportunity. Otherwise, let’s find a bed and get some rest, rotating watches, say, two hours each?” I suggested. I knew I was tired since I had been up early, and since it was pushing midnight now I assumed everyone would be starting to droop also. We split up the watches, covering front and back, and then the rest of us found a bed.
“Sheldon, wake up.” Jared whispered, shaking my shoulder.
“What, what is it?” I answered him groggily. It felt like I had only just gotten to sleep, so it took me a bit to shake the cobwebs loose.