They hadn’t heard any talk on either radio about what they were doing at the factory, working on the trucks to install the radios. “I don’t think they’re that close to us, not able to directly observe us… If they’re observing us at all,” James had said.
“Yeah, could be they’re just listening to each other,” Conner had agreed. “But I think they’ll both be keeping an eye on us. They have to know where Molly and Susan got to, so if they’re not hidden across the river watching us from the cliffs, they must be somewhere down the road watching our exit so they have an idea of where we are and when we leave.”
“So,” Conner said now, “we’re going to head out to outer Washington Street. We’re going to make it look good. If we hear them talking about us, we’ll know that that’s the State Street bunch, because the North side bunch wouldn’t be able to track us. That will tell us who’s using which channels. We’ll pick up a few things from Jan’s lists and we’ll be listening. If it sounds like they’re about to come after us, you guys sit tight. We’ll take care of them. We’ll be ready. We’ll deal with them and then come back here as fast as we can.” He paused for a second and looked from one set of eyes to the next.
“If, on the other hand, it sounds as though they’re going to attack here we’ll double back just as fast. We have eight machine pistols. We’re taking three with us. I want two up top and two at the block on this end, the last one for the other end. I don’t see anyone coming from that end though.” Conner's eyes were serious.
“Listen, it’s a shoot first and ask questions later situation. None of you should be thinking about what they might be doing, second guessing yourselves. Just shoot,” he said. Everyone nodded, and there was a low buzz of conversation as Conner continued.
“So we should know pretty fast which is which. I still believe they’ve been listening to us as well as each other, so everybody might start yakking here in a few minutes,” he finished.
It was just a few minutes later when they rolled through the road block, the two trucks they had left angled across the road, and then rolled out the end of Old River Road. As soon as they made the right hand turn onto Old River Road, one of the radios came to life. The C.B.
“Coming… Coming at us,” A voice said.
“Who?” Another voice asked.
“Them factory people,” The first voice said.
Then the F.M. Started.
“They’re talking…Uh, tracking them others,” a voice said.
“Where at? … Coming at us?”
“No… No, negative. Going at them… They’re talking it up on eighteen,” the voice said.
“Guess that answers that,” Conner said. “But we’ll make it look good.”
Within a few seconds, a war of words had started on the radios. It became obvious that each side was aware of the other side’s transmissions. Now they were doing their best to block and interrupt each other.
“Maybe we won’t get much after all if this keeps up,” James said.
Conner agreed.
When they reached the small strip mall area on outer Washington Street, Conner found what they were looking for and parked in front of the buckled doors to the shop, the passenger side door just a few feet from the door to the shop.
The sign over the leaning front entrance way had collapsed backwards onto the roof, but looking through the front window, Conner was sure he would find what he wanted.
The front windows were cracked and spider webbed so badly that Conner was surprised they were still in their frames. Most likely, Conner thought, if they had not been heavy safety glass they would have ended up in the parking lot or scattered across the show room floor long before, glittering diamonds scattered everywhere.
Dozens of boats covered the large, open floor space inside the building. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, but Conner was sure the things he needed would be here.
“Listen as best you can,” Conner said. He switched positions with James, putting him in the driver’s seat, handed his machine pistol to Nell, thumbed the safety off the Forty Five caliber pistol in his holster and worked his way over Nell to the passenger door. “You guys got it. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said. He opened the door and stepped out into the shattered doorway.
It took only a few minutes to find what he wanted. Several trips later there were no more to be found. He made his way back to the truck carrying a large marine style battery for show. James got out, came around and unlocked the back of the suburban so Conner could set the battery into the rear compartment area. Conner made three more trips until four of the large, deep cycle batteries graced the rear cargo area. One last trip, and a high powered charging unit went into the back along with the batteries, but the real stuff, VHF Marine radios, Nell brought in through the open passenger door unobserved.
After they had loaded and fussed with the charging unit and batteries, they got back into the truck, eased it off the shattered sidewalk and headed back toward the factory.
The radio games were still ongoing, each side trying to block the other side, but a few snatches of conversation came through.
“Looks like batteries…” Clearly came through. Since they knew the context, it was easy for them to understand, probably not easy for the North side crew to figure out.
“…something… trees,” the F.M. Squawked.
“Wha…”
“Batteries…”
“Oh for fuck's sake,” came through clearly.
Nell laughed, Conner and James joined in.
“I guess they’ll do more to keep each other screwed up than we can do to them,” Nell said.
“Think so,” James agreed.
The radio battle began to die down as they drove back to the factory. The initial wave of blocking either too hard to sustain or not as interesting to them as it was at first.
“They just got some heavy duty batteries,” a voice on the C.B. Said.
“Copy,” another voice replied.
“They followed them somewhere and they picked up heavy duty batteries… Don’t know why,” a voice on the F.M. Said.
“What kinda batteries?” another voice on the F.M. Asked.
“Vibrator batteries for yer old lady's dildo,” another voice cut into the F.M. and heckled.
“Fuck you,” the first voice said, and the radio war was back on. Squawks and squeals accompanied them on the drive back to the factory.
~
The two trucks rolled back smoothly and let them in. James drove the truck down to the entrance, parking the same way Conner had at the boat store. Nell unloaded the radios and walked them into the factory as James, Conner, Aaron and a few others from inside fussed over unloading the batteries and charging unit.
Twenty minutes later they were looking over the radios in the factory. Mobile units, hand held units, and a very impressive base unit that had the scan feature of the C.B. and F.M. radios. They had nothing to power it with, anymore than they had anything to power the battery charging unit with, but Conner hadn’t wanted to leave it. He hadn’t wanted to leave any of the VHF radios in the store, convinced they would take a look inside to see what else they might have taken.
He was sure they wouldn’t miss the radios if there were no others around, but if there had been one left to make them think about radios in the first place, maybe they would. They would buy the battery excursion, maybe to get deeper cycle batteries to use in the trucks, and since they now had them, that was exactly what James intended to use them for. He would make a public event of it out in front of the factory so that they would see him.
By mid afternoon, James had hooked up one of the base units in the truck inside the factory. It flipped quickly through the channels one by one. Smooth static.
Later in the afternoon, after scanning for hours with no more hints of conversation, Jan had marked the C.B. radio with South side, North side on the F.M. unit. She had spent the morning on guard duty up top, and instead of sleeping when she had come back down, she h
ad helped James install the radio, handing him the wire cutters, or screw drivers, a roll of tape, sometimes seeming to know what he wanted before he even asked for it.
Conner had watched her briefly. She didn’t seem overly upset, but she did seem a little worried. There were circles under her eyes. He supposed they were all losing a little sleep just lately. She’d caught him looking at her and smiled a question at him.
“You just look tired, Janna,” he had said.
“Not too bad,” she had replied.
He nodded, not really knowing what else to say.
She looked at him. The little worry lines he had seen from across the factory returned. “We… We’re not going to let this stop us from leaving are we?” she asked.
Conner shook his head. “Not if I can help it,” he answered.
“Good,” she said and handed James the electrical tape.
“Well,” Conner said now. “Let’s test it.” He depressed the button on a hand held unit. “Test… Testing one two three.”
The scanning model in the truck caught testing and followed the rest, then waited in the smooth silence for more conversation. After a few moments, the scan feature kicked in and the radio went back to scanning all the channels.
The C.B. and the F.M. remained silent. He had sent radios down to the truck block and up top, as well as the other end of Old River Road where it dead ended.
“One,” he called now. “How do you read me?”
“Clear. One out,” Dustin’s voice said.
“Two,” he asked. “Can you read me?”
“Got you,” Amy said.
“Three, you there?”
“Three, got you,” Jake’s voice said.
“Okay. From now on this is base and we’re on if you need us. Base out.”
“Read you,” Jake said.
“Okay,” Dustin said.
“Two reads you,” Amy said.
Conner listened to the other two silent radios. Both in scan mode, both picking up nothing. “Well,” he said. “If they did catch that, they’re playing it real cool.”
James shrugged “I don’t think they understand cool… or subtle, if the earlier stuff was any example.”
“We still don’t know what set that off yesterday,” Conner said. “And that bothers me a lot. I don’t want to believe that they’re so unpredictable that they’d just snap at the drop of a hat.”
“It seems to me like it was about them, not us. Maybe us as a secondary, but it seemed like they tried to take each other out,” James said. “It just didn’t go the way they wanted it to go. Maybe they’ll think twice this time... especially when it comes to us.”
“Maybe,” Conner agreed. “Maybe.” He paused. “I’m going to go see my woman. Spell Amy so she can spend a little time with Aaron,” Conner said. He pushed away from where he’d been leaning through the truck window listening to the radio.
“I’m going to finish this truck up,” James said. “May as well. We got two sitting here. I’ll get them done, then I’ll swap these two for the ones out on the block and do those two, like that.”
Conner nodded. “Okay. You know where I’ll be.”
~
Conner was gone little more than an hour when the VHF portable he was carrying squawked at him.
“Conner,” James called.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“I’m sending someone to relieve you. Uh, you probably want to be back here. Something’s going on, on the radio,” James finished.
“Like?” Conner asked. “This is secure, James.”
“It isn’t that, Conner… it’s… I don’t know what they’re doing. Maybe working out a truce, but they’re also talking about us. You’ll want to hear it, Conner. You should hear it.”
“On my way,” Conner said, returning the radio to his belt.
“Love you,” Katie said.
He kissed her and then left reluctantly.
He passed Lilly on her way to share the post with Katie. She nodded shyly and said hello on her way by.
James was the only one sitting in front of the radio as he walked in. Everyone else was either on watch, sleeping while they could, or preparing the night meal. The two little ones, Brian and Janelle, tired from a day of hard play, lay curled on a stack of sleeping bags close to the truck. The dog raised his head and wagged his tail from where he was stretched out beside the children. Conner settled in, took a cup of coffee Jan brought to him and began to listen.
They were talking on one of the F.M. Stations.
“… … Wasn’t.” One voice said.
“Someone shot first... It wasn’t us… We were happy.” A voice answered the first.
“They haven’t said their names yet,” James interjected.
“Well,” the first voice continued. “We had everything to lose. It was one of the others. Probably sneaked up to ambush us. Someone broke those women out of where we had them… had to. My guys said they saw someone, couldn’t give much of a description, but we saw them again later after they gunned down some of our guys. They were trying to catch those three women. Tall… Thin… Dark haired young white guy… Shot them down, run right out and took their rifles too. Must’ve been others with him. Bunch of shots came all at once, but they only saw the one. Them shots took out three of mine… They killed one of the women too,” he finished.
“Why would they do that?” The other voice asked.
“I ain’t them. How would I know? My point is they killed my guys and one of the chicks. The other two bitches they got,” he said.
“So?” the other voice asked.
“So is this… That was probably the plan, to get us to fight each other, I mean. Then they can steal the women, see?”
“What I see is, you got a dozen machine pistols and I was supposed to get three women. Not only didn’t I get three women, but I gave you weapons you turned around and used on my own men… You see how that makes me look?”
“Yeah… Yeah… And just what in fuck would you do if you was shot at?”
“Okay. Point taken,” The voice said. “What you wanna do?”
“Well, stop killing each other to start, then go after them that did it... Get them others. If we come together, we can take them easy. We figure that they got maybe thirty people… Maybe thirty five tops. We can’t take that many on our own.”
“These guys are sure full of it,” James said.
“Thirty,” Conner asked. “Maybe it’s good they think that.”
“Maybe,” James allowed.
“How many you got that can fight?” One of the voices asked.
“How many you got?” The other voice from the F.M. Asked.
“I don’t want to play this fuckin’ game,” the first voice came back.
“Yeah… I tell you, you know… You know how strong we are. You attack.”
“And I could say the same.”
“…Ten,” The F.M. voice said.
“Oh come on. I say nine, you say ten. Cut the bullshit. You only had seventeen to begin with… counting kids and women. You lost some just like we lost some.”
“… … Seven,” The voice said.
“So if we get together we got nineteen. Nineteen against thirty... maybe thirty five.”
“Yeah,” the other voice said quietly.
The radio fell silent. Crackles and pops of static spitting into the silence in the factory.
“I got to talk this over with my people. I’ll get back to you in… Say an hour from now?” the first voice asked.
“Me too, but you better be straight with me. I’m gone,” The first voice said.
Conner and James sat in the silence listening to the pop and crackle of the static.
“Well?” James asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but they’re lying to each other. One of them started that fight. The one, whichever one that would be, knows that, knows it wasn’t us. So I’d say that person is setting up the other side. Has to be, because we know for a fact i
t didn’t go down the way they’re trying to paint it,” Conner said.
“How does that help us?” James asked.
Conner shook his head. “I don’t know yet, James, but I’ll figure it out. We’ve got an hour before they decide. We’ve got a little time to get our heads around it.”
James nodded.
Conner stood. “I’m going around to everyone on post… let them know… lay it out. See how they all feel and listen to the feedback they got for me. You think about it while I’m gone, James. Talk to Jan… the two new women too, Molly and Susan. Feel them out about it, what they think, what they feel, whether they think they really will come for us. I’ll be back, and we’ll have our own plan regardless of what their plan is.”
“Okay,” was all James said.
The radio continued to spit static. James reached down, pushed a button and switched it back to scan mode.
Conner thumbed his own radio. “One… Two… Three… I’m coming around in that order. We’ll talk about this new thing.” He released the button.
“Got you… One.”
“Two, got you.”
“Three, standing by.”
“Alright, James,” Conner said. He turned and walked out of the factory entrance. The daylight was fading; night was coming on. The air was cold, not snow cold, but cold nonetheless. He walked down to the truck barricade.
~
The radio crackled to life a little over an hour later.
“You there?” The first voice asked.
“Yeah,” the second voice replied.
“What do you figure to do if we do team up with you? What I mean is, who gets what? Like the factory… them women?” the first voice asked.
“What I understand, it’s a big factory. We could share it, I guess,” the second voice said.
“No… Can’t do that. That’s like making us all one people. My people are my people. We got the North side sewn up. You can have the factory. We got something over here, but, let’s say you get the factory… Should be a better split for us on the women, is what I’m thinking... See?” the first voice asked.
Earth's Survivors: box set Page 49