by Chris Hechtl
“Other sites?”
“We're reopening Sams, Costco, Target, the Super Wal-Mart and here,” she said indicating the Winco store. “Among others. Most of the Towngate area. At least during the day. I think we're going to use them as factories at least until we can do something about an outer curtain wall.”
“Wall?” The first guy asked, brows knit in confusion.
“Yeah wall,” she said indicating the area off to their left. “Big ass wall. Right now we're going to do one around the mall. Turn it into a castle. We're going to have a series of curtain walls around the perimeter of each section. Anything that comes up gets roasted.”
“Oh, cool,” the second guy said. “Wicked. I always wanted to live in one. Ever since I was a kid.”
“Well, now you're about to get your wish,” Sheila said with a lopsided smile. “For now everyone's going to be inside the mall at night. I think from now on everyone's going to be forting up. Seems like the only safe thing to do,” she said.
They looked over to see a crew using a four wheeler to drag alien carcasses from the parking lot and shivered a little. “Yeah,” the first guy said. “Yeah it does.”
“Then let's get to it then shall we?” the lady said.
“You heard the lady,” the second guy said pulling work gloves out of his belt.
Chapter 26
“Are we seriously reopening the other sites?” Bob asked coming in and slamming the door behind him. “You have any idea how stretched we are?” he snarled.
“Thin,” Hernandez said with a nod. “But we're overloaded here. We've got eleven or twelve thousand people here in the mall. There are what?” He glanced at Jayne. “Two hundred maybe three hundred beds, and twenty to thirty toilets? Its nuts man,” he said, shaking his head. “I'm not sure how you're keeping up with it all Jayne, Sheila,” he said nodding to the two.
“We're not, that's the problem,” Sheila said looking tired. She rubbed at her face. “We've got to get a handle on our population. People were trying to fight as individuals from their own homes or banding together in gangs. And by the way the population is more like fifteen thousand right now. We've got about a thousand beds though. People are sleeping two or three to a bed.”
“Not me,” Mateo said.
“That's because you men stink,” Sheila said, wrinkling her nose.
“Gee thanks,” he said dryly. “Never thought personal BO would let me have a rack to myself.”
“The survivors in the area are coming to us,” Jayne said shaking her head. “You can't fight these things on their own ground. Not and win,” she looked at Hernandez who nodded grudgingly. Individually families were screwed trying to survive out on their own. More and more people were waking up to that fact... if they survived the night. Groups had started to band together all over.
“Which is why a castle strategy is the only way to go,” Bob said with a grudging nod. Shane had been right as usual. It had just taken the others a while to realize it. Now he understood why he wanted the cement plant reopened. They'd argued over that one yesterday.
“Did you see the news broadcast last night?” Jerry asked shaking his head. Bob looked from one to the other.
“What newscast?” Walt asked. “I've been kinda busy,” he said. He'd been stuck over seeing a transmission rebuild for one of Bob's loaders. The idiot driver hadn't noticed the clutch burning up until the thing stopped moving.
“There was a newscast, you can watch the replay. We TIVO everything now since its intermittent,” Gabe said from the television screen. Bob glanced his way and then nodded slightly.
Gabe's screen split as a window opened. He minimized his own image so they could see it. “Here,” Sheila said reaching over and tapping the controls. The video moved to the main conference screen.
They turned in unison to watch it. Bob folded his arms across his chest and tugged on one ear.
The view changed to a scratchy view of a news conference. “...rise. Ladies and gentlemen the President of the United States,” an announcer off screen said. The president walked into the podium and nodded to the media.
“Ladies and gentlemen good evening. I'll keep this brief for those of you with limited electrical power. Our nation, our world, our species is facing a threat like one we've never faced before. Our armed forces and our populations have been decimated by this unprecedented invasion. However as Commander in Chief of our armed forces I guarantee to you the world, that we will come back fighting.”
“The surviving joint chiefs have assured me that the military bases have regained some control of their perimeters and are working to reduce the aliens. Please work with them. Our aircraft carrier battle groups are either serving to break up large nests abroad with the help of our allies or are steaming for home to help here.”
“As I speak a battalion of troops made up of all three armed forces are sweeping an area around the capital, taking the battle to the enemy.”
“No, no... Shit,” Shane muttered shaking his head. “Fools,” he muttered. Sheila hastily paused the screen. “They have no idea what they are doing. None at all.”
“What?” Wayne asked. “Sounds like a good idea to me!”
“That's the problem. It's not,” Ross said shaking his head. “You're thinking about the battlefield right?” he asked looking at Shane. Shane nodded. The East coast was three hours ahead of them. It was just dark in DC now... wait. He looked at the clock. No, this was recorded earlier he remembered. He winced.
“Exactly. You don't fight on the enemy’s terms unless you can't help it. You deny them support; you hit them when you hold all the cards. Fighting at night when they are active, when they can roam... and fighting them in the field!” Shane demanded. “They are about to get corn cobbed.”
“Essentially,” Sheila said nodding. “I... well,” she turned and touched the remote. “Just watch.”
The president flickered back into motion. “I turn your attention to Brigadier General Grieves, in command of the armed forces in contact. General?” he asked turning to a screen behind him.
The screen split in two. One side showed the president, the other the general. The general was outside in full combat dress. He hefted a rifle and came to attention. “Mister President.”
“General, the situation?” the president asked.
“Ah, mister President is this live?” the general asked as weapons fire could be heard. Over his shoulder they could see soldiers firing at a rampaging animal. It looked a lot like a Hellhound. The thing ignored the small arms fire, slashing through men like wheat. The general turned and waved to another group who engaged. The animal seemed to stall, screaming under the fire, head down. Then a marine tossed a grenade at its feet. It went off and tore the animal apart.
“As you can see the fighting is particularly vicious Mister President.”
“I see that,” the President said gulping a little. “General how goes...”
“In a word, badly mister President. We've sustained fifty percent casualties in the first half hour and it's getting worse. I'm not sure we'll be able to hold out until morning,” the general said, shifting his eyes back and forth.
“I... see,” the President said subdued. “Good luck General. Carry on.”
“God bless the USA. SEMPER FI!” The general said as his signal was cut.
The President looked a little put out as he turned to the lectern. “Ladies and gentlemen we are making every effort to combat this alien menace. In doing that I am issuing three orders. The first is martial law. The second is a mandatory curfew at one hour before sundown. The third is a mandatory recall for all surviving military personnel on duty, in the reserve or retired. Report to your nearest military base at first light.”
He paused to look firmly at the camera, gathering himself. “Ladies and gentlemen, together, only together can we combat this invasion. Work together. Fight. Kill the aliens wherever they are. Share information and resources. Remember that a neighbor isn't just a neighbor now; they are y
our brothers and sisters in arms. They will come to your aide if you go to theirs.”
He paused and then nodded to someone off camera. “Good night and good luck ladies and gentlemen. God bless the United States of America. God bless all of mankind.” The signal cut to the presidential seal, then a flag waving. Finally the Emergency broadcast black screen. Sheila clicked the remote off.
“Shit,” Bob said shaking his head. “What the hell were they thinking?”
“They were thinking that they had to do something. That they had to go out and show people they were trying to kill the damn things, no matter the cost,” Jayne said in disgust. The others glanced at her.
“They have to keep morale up. Show people that they can win,” Shane said softly. Their attention turned to him. “But taking the battle to the enemy at this, the early point isn't the way to win.”
“What is?” Bob asked. He threw his hands up. “They had training, weapons, tools...”
“And they got their heads handed to them. Literally,” Hernandez said, not looking happy. “Did they even listen to the intel they had? To the basic rules of war?” It hurt for him to say that. Technically what he was doing was insubordination to a superior officer. But damn, they needed to fight smart. The arm chair generals were fighting like it was the last war, a war with humanity. Not with aliens.
“That's because they didn't fort up. The only way. The only way to beat these things is on our own terms. That's where you come in Bob,” Shane said nodding to the big contractor. “By building walls and then defending the walls at night,” he said nodding to Hernandez. “Standard siege tactics. Leverage our range to the maximum and let them break themselves on concrete and steel. Break them on the defences then follow up with an offense during the day. It's going to be hard. Hell its been hard. We've been at it two weeks and its one hell of a steep learning curve. But what we're doing is the only way to do it. We've just got to get that point across to others before they wipe themselves out.”
“We need more intel,” Jen said looking at a tablet in her hands. He looked at her screen. She was replaying the general's portion of the video with the sound off. She had the screen zoomed into the Hellhound.
“Gabe can you get me some screen grabs of the Hellhound and any other aliens in the video? With something to compare scale?” she asked.
“What?” Gabe asked blinking. “Yeah, uh sure,” he said looking off screen. He bobbed a nod and looked back. “Okay. Why?” he asked.”I'm curious about this animal. I want the video enhanced as well. Its smart and vicious. Its also bigger and it looks different than the animals we have here.”
“We all know they are growing,” Hernandez sighed. “Probably why the general was trying to take the battle to them. To kill them before they got too damn big.”
“Didn't help him did it?” Shane asked. “With something like that you need to fight it from behind a wall. In a bunker or somewhere it can't get at you, but you can still hit it. Range. Range and firepower.”
“Yeah,” Hernandez said grimacing. He had his hand on his MP-9 in front of him. “These apparently are worthless against the big ones.”
“Not if you hit it in the right spot private,” Jen said looking up. She held her tablet up. “The problem was they were hitting it from the front and the top. This thing and others have to be hit from below or the sides.”
“Which you can't do from the top of a wall,” Bob growled shooting a glare at Shane. Shane shrugged.
“No, but the wall will stall them long enough for us to get something else into play to hit them. Mines for instance. Area denial. Claymores.”
“Mines?” Bob asked. “Where are we going to get them?” he asked.
“We'll have Kyle or someone else figure it out. We've got a lot of people, highly motivated people looking into it. But that's also why we need a moat.”
“A moat. You're really bent on this castle thing aren't you?” Bob asked with a snort.
“Damn straight. These things are pure hell up close. So we deny them that. We deny them the melee and fight as we want to fight. Ranged attacks. Eventually we're going to run out of ammunition. When that happens we'll be down to what we can improvise.”
“Arrows,” Wayne said with a wince.
“Ballistae and catapults,” Walt answered. Wayne and Hernandez glanced at him. He smirked a little. “Punkin chunkin,” he said, answering their silent inquiries.
“I was actually thinking of even simpler things, but do explore those avenues as well,” Shane said. He tapped his fingers. “What I was thinking was fire. Flame. Napalm. Think of this Bob,” he looked at the big man. “Think of your moat filled with water and covered with an oil slick. They get close or try to ford it and whoosh....” He grinned evilly at them. Bob slowly smiled and nodded.
“Now you're talking my language,” he said rubbing his hands together. “But we can't do any of that now. We can't hold them off as we are now. Not that,” he said.
“No, for now we've got to hide. But eventually, eventually we're either going to be found, or grow so big and strong we can take them attacking at night.”
“You're sure?” Bob asked. “I mean. We've got some stuff but...”
“We can do it. With the right mix,” Ross said nodding.
“Right. We'll also need lights all along the perimeter. They don't like lights so that will help hold them off. It could be a deterrent all in itself if we play it right,” Shane said. Hernandez nodded.
“Which means more generators and power supplies,” Walt said with a nod. “There goes my vacation,” he joked.
“What about the gas? That's not going to last forever you know,” Wayne said.
“No, but we can also make wind turbines,” Walt said. “I've got a crew making a few prototypes now. They don't have the power of the generators, but they work. Well,” he grimaced. “When the wind is blowing at any rate.”
“We'll do what we can with what we have,” Shane said shrugging. “Bob, the wall...”
“I'm running out of material,” Bob said. “Even with what the guys are bringing in from construction sites yesterday and today,” he shook his head. “Not enough. Not nearly enough.”
“So we need to figure out something to fill it in,” Jayne said. He glanced at her. She shrugged. “Have you considered buses?” she asked.
“A bus?” he asked.
“No buses plural,” Sheila said. “Some of the enclaves are using them to block off streets and other areas. I saw the video of what they did on Cactus and Nason. They used school buses. They can be mobile or fixed in position.”
“Um... Not very practical, I mean...”
“Oh no,” Sheila said holding up the remote and keying it. The main video screen came on and showed an image of a bus. The windows and skirt were covered with improvised metal and wood. “This is what we're talking about. You can use it as a temporary barrier or...”
“Or just bury the damn thing,” Hernandez said with a shrug.
“No, pull the engine and fuel system. They run on natural gas. At least the public ones do. We can use that,” Walt said suddenly. “But yeah, I see where this is going. But burying it will crush the roof. You won’t use up as much space as you'd like,” Walt said.
“No, but it'll take up some,” Bob said nodding. “And we can always flip them on their sides and stack them too. But not all buses have the gas thing. I was actually thinking of school buses.”
“Which we can get at March or the other schools. The abandoned ones anyway,” Hernandez said nodding. “Also a crap load of used brick and shit if we want. Dozer a building then scoop the rubble up and haul it back here.”
“It’s something to think about. Bob, Walt, guys, go look into it and let us know. Go make it work,” Shane said nodding. He looked at the clock. “We're about to hit...”
“Dark. Crap. Better go,” Hernandez said getting up hastily. He scooped up his rifle, checked it and then headed for the door. Wayne followed.
“Meeting adjour
ned,” Shane said getting up himself. “Until tomorrow ladies and gentlemen,” he said nodding to each.
...*...*...*...*...
Hernandez nodded to a knot of soldiers on the wall. He smiled a tight lipped smile as he checked out their gear in automatic reflexive inspection. A few of the old sweats straightened under his scrutiny.
They had a mix of gear. One guy had a standard army helmet but two had motorcycle helmets and three others had bicycle helmets. One guy had a baseball helmet of all things. It was the same all along the wall. Hard hats, baseball hats, pads, whatever worked or at least seemed to do the job. All lovingly painted with camo spray paint. He tried not to wrinkle his nose at the smell. One guy had just finished his apparently.
“We're good?” Their section head asked coming up behind him. He turned to let the guy pass. He was wearing a football helmet and pads decorated with crow feathers. “Mad Max,” he muttered.
“Excuse me?” the guy said turning. He hefted a sawed off shotgun.
“Nothing. Just commenting about the times,” Hernandez said. “How are you doing for ammo?” he asked knowing the answer.
“Not as much as I'd like,” the section head, Benny said. “But I'm pretty sure everyone's saying that right? Any idea when we'll get more?” he asked. Hernandez shook his head. “Thought not,” the man said. “Guess we'll have to make every shot count,” he said glancing at his men.
“Don't start anything unless you have to. Use a spotlight or something to scare them off if you can,” Hernandez cautioned. They nodded reluctantly. One guy hefted a fire ax.
A woman came up wearing a hockey mask. She paused as she got to them. “This section four?” she asked.
“No, section five. Four's over there,” Benny said jerking his thumb to the left.
“Shit. Thanks,” she said with a wave.
“We're letting women fight now?” Benny asked.
“You want to tell them no?” Hernandez asked amused. “I suggest you do it from a distance. And hope they aren't armed,” he said shaking his head. Benny's lips puckered and then he grunted. “Right now we need every hand we've got. I'm not going to complain if they want to fight as long as they can handle it.”