by SD Tanner
“What’s the upshot?”
“It means we can probably pull together enough fuel to make a small number of crossings, but when we’re out of fuel, we’re going to end up paddling between the continents.”
It wasn’t the news he was hoping to hear. Ted had taken three large transport ships across the pond with around seven thousand people on each boat. In a desperate attempt to maintain food supplies, they’d shipped twenty thousand people to the UK and based them on the Isle of Wight. Thanks to Ruler, one ship was infiltrated by super hunters, and to save the island and the people already there, Ted had bombed the ship in the port, killing two thousand of their people.
He’d been surprised Philip had chosen to make the dangerous trip across the pond to find the survivors they’d left there. When they’d shipped them out, food supplies were dwindling and it was the safest place for their most vulnerable. Being originally from the UK, and having led a flotilla from Europe to Florida, he would have thought Philip might want to return to his own country. As it turned out, he’d married an American woman and now called the U.S. home.
“Why did you go to the UK, Philip?”
“It wasn’t my idea. My wife, Larissa, said I should go.”
“Doesn’t she like ya?”
Philip rolled his eyes. “No, she just knows me well. I wasn’t a pilot by accident. I like to travel, and I guess she could tell I was getting itchy feet. I don’t settle well into domesticity.”
Philip was always an odd guy. He was highly intelligent, very capable and able to command, but he reminded him of a wandering musician. Although he could take on complex missions and make them his own, he never set his own direction. It seemed as long as he was on the move, he didn't care where he went or why. It didn’t surprise him the expedition to the UK had been initiated by his wife. She obviously knew he needed a mission and loved him enough to let him wander.
“So, I guess she won’t have a problem with you hitting the road again?”
Philip shook his head confidently. “No, Larissa’s a people person. She’s living in Waycross, Georgia and runs a day care center. I mean, I’ve got three kids now, and my homecoming has been…active so to speak. I expect I’ll have four kids shortly.”
Chuckling, he replied, “You’re livin’ like a sailor. Pull into port, get the wife pregnant, and then clear off.”
Snorting, Philip replied, “I still think of myself as a pilot, but I was never home much then either.” As if dragging up a long forgotten memory, he added, “Maybe that’s why my wives always divorced me.”
“Yeah, the military track record wasn’t good that way either.”
The ships in the small harbor had reminded him of the second ship Philip had sailed with. “Do ya know what happened to the other ship you left with?”
Philip sighed unhappily. “No, and I don’t understand why it hasn’t come back. There’s nothing much on the water now, and the weather is very mild. I don’t know what could have happened to them. Maybe it has something to do with what we found in the UK.”
He agreed with Pax that their mission wasn’t clear, and he’d told them they needed to look for the problem, not wait for it to present itself. Philip had said there was something wrong in the UK without being able to tell him exactly what the problem was. He’d said the land was dying, but he didn’t have the faintest idea why or what it could mean. Staring at the motionless ships, he replied, “I still don’t understand what was wrong in the UK.”
“I don’t know either, but the north didn’t look right. The land beyond Stonehenge was dead. The UK has never been a barren country and since Eden arrived, the whole island should have been overrun by forest. The Isle of Wight was so densely forested it was almost impenetrable, and mainland UK should have gone the same way.”
“I can understand why you cut your recon short, but we need to finish it. We can go north and see what the problem is. We’ll take a coupla combat squads with us to deal with any trouble.”
“Do you think we should try and find the survivors and bring them home?”
He was less concerned about the survivors. They’d made a pragmatic choice to leave, and the U.S. wasn’t the same now anyway. Their flag was no longer flying over a unified country, and America had changed. Even if he brought them back, he wasn't sure it was home anymore. He figured providing the survivors had what they needed it didn’t really matter where they lived.
“I appreciate ya wanna bring them home, but…” He waved his hand vaguely at the land around them. “It ain’t what it used to be. The U.S was a diverse country full of different cultures, people and landscapes. The cities are gone now, there’s no central government, and the land looks much the same wherever you go. I dunno what I’d call it now. I’m not even sure we’re a country anymore. If anythin’, we’re just a collection of disconnected towns. I dunno if there’s a home to bring them back to. Providin’ they’re safe, they might as well stay where they are.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Having spent his life in the Army, he’d taken enough pride in his country to fight for it. It had never occurred to him America could cease to exist. He’d believed it would continue to grow for as long as people were prepared to fight for it, but in Eden no one had anything left to strive for. According to what TL told him, the towns had developed grudges against one another, and we're fighting over borders and scavenging rights. Their arguments were turning into gun battles and lines were being drawn. TL’s briefing about the Council of Eden had left him too depressed to be angry. Over half of the town leaders had walked out, refusing to work together to build a country they could call America again. To say it was disappointing was an understatement.
He shook his head and sighed deeply. “I never saw it comin’. We waved our flag in everyone’s faces, proud to be American, but we’re undone now. There’s no point havin’ a flag unless it stands for somethin’, and it can’t stand for every man for himself, but that’s kinda what’s happenin’ now.” Shaking his head again, he added, “I dunno how we got to be this damned stupid so damned fast.”
“Well, there’s the problem, Gears. Life really is about every man for himself. It’s how societies function. We earn our own keep, pay our own bills, and only ask for help when we genuinely need it. What makes us come together as a country is a recognition we need laws, roads, services, and a structure we can share. A small town that can largely supply its own needs becomes a country in its own right. The towns are operating like fiefdoms, but that’s how all countries start out. They’re always a collection of small fiefdoms that eventually unify so they can grow.”
“But we had a country. We were already unified under one flag. Are ya tellin’ me we’ve gotta have another civil war, ‘cos the last one didn’t work out so well.”
Philip laughed. “It worked out fine, and so did the ones that took place across Europe and the UK. It’s how our countries were created. Small power bases formed, and they fought with one another and consolidated, until there were only a few players left. Eventually there’s always a huge argument, and one side takes control. The winning team does exactly what the other side would have done, and pulls the country together under one rule…and one flag.”
In a grumbling tone, he muttered, “Still feels like a backward step to me.”
Philip slapped him on the shoulder. “It won’t be in the longer term, but in the meantime there’s going to be some battles. You might as well stop resisting reality, and be grateful you have nearly half the towns on your side.” Nodding, he added sincerely, “TL pulled off quite the coup. You’re not looking at it the right way.”
He’d been disappointed by the results of the second meeting of the Council of Eden, but giving Philip a thoughtful stare, he decided he was probably trying to run before they could walk. The country had disintegrated in a way he hadn’t predicted, but it didn’t mean it was lost. With what looked like over ninety-nine percent of the population dead and the land reborn, it was inevitab
le they’d lose the structure that once held them together as a single nation.
Nodding, he asked, “So, how are we gonna do a recon?”
“I don’t know. The UK isn’t easy to travel across anymore. The road system is almost gone, and the forest was thicker than here.”
“We need to do a fly over.”
Philip contemplated the boats moving slightly in the small harbor. “We could take a fuel ship with a Black Hawk. That way we don’t need to dock. We can park it near the coast and fly inland. The UK’s a small island, so the fuel demands aren’t too great.”
“Given we’ve got no back up once we leave here, let’s take two birds. Hatch should bring a team of good pilots with him. We’ll need your Navy team again.” Looking at Philip, he asked, “Do ya think they’ll be up for another trip across the water?”
Laughing, he replied, “Are you kidding me? They hate being stuck on land as much as I do.”
“I can sort Hatch and the birds, but how long will it take to set the boats up?”
“No time at all. The Navy guys like working on the boats, so despite their appearance, they’re still operational and fueled. The engineers will want to do a final check, but that won’t take long. I think we could be ready to go in less than a week.”
“Okay, we’ve got about a thousand of Axe’s original army stationed at the Marine supply base. I’ll bring a coupla the squads just in case we run into any trouble. I wanna head out as soon as possible, so you get the engineers checking the boats, and I’ll bring the pilots, birds and shooters over in the next few days.”
“Between the ship’s crew and your teams, we’ll have about sixty people. You’ll need to get supplies from Cutter for the trip. Just remember, there was no animal life in the UK, so it’s best to bring enough food for at least two months.”
He didn’t want to be gone for that long. “I was hopin’ this wouldn’t take longer than two to three weeks.”
“It shouldn’t, but if the ship breaks down, and it might, it's better to be safe than sorry.”
Nodding, he replied, “Okay, let’s aim to be pulling out in three to four days.”
Turning to walk back to his truck, there was a rustling of bushes and Ip appeared looking disoriented.
“You okay, honey?”
The stars are home, we are no longer alone.
“Whatdaya mean?”
Not so foolish and not quite the same. Who has made the living lame?
“What’s the problem?” Philip asked.
“I dunno. We might be telepathically linked, but I don’t understand the half of what she says.”
Laughing, he replied, “I had exactly the same problem with all of previous my wives.”
CHAPTER EIGHT: Pax
“Dammit, why don’t those assholes stay on their own side of the country?”
The Crusader flag was flying on all fifteen trucks driving the long, straight stretch of road with tall, leafy trees on either side. He’d dump Hellfires on their asses, but the first of them was already heading along the main road of the small town. It was a typical country town, with a single long main road and shops lining the street. From the air, the surrounding small clusters of houses were visible, with larger homesteads further out. There were cars parked along the main street, and several generous side roads led to it. People were running across the roads, dragging children with them, and disappearing into the buildings.
Ever since they’d attacked the thousand strong Crusader convoy heading to their bases in Florida, his job was to monitor the main routes across the country from west. He considered it to be good training for his fledgling army, and he frequently joined them on their aerial recon missions. Despite their preference for ‘on the ground’ training, he and Ted agreed the squads weren't ready for head-to-head combat. If too many died too easily, they’d lose what little confidence they had, and their rookie army just might quit.
There hadn’t been much activity in the past few months. Having declared themselves an enemy, whenever they saw the Crusader flags flying, they bombed them without even bothering to ask questions later. Knowing the squad with him wasn't ready for combat, he’d wanted to avoid any battles on the ground, but it didn’t look like he’d have much choice today. Even from the air, it was obvious the Crusaders were driving through the main street with all guns blazing. This town wasn’t one of the ‘God’s Will’ settlements, and they were fighting back fiercely.
Someone must have lobbed a grenade at the fifth truck making its way down the main street, and it bucked and erupted into flames. Men dressed in black were tumbling from the vehicle, and it careened out of control, finally slamming into a shop front. They were taking fire, but many of them managed to make their way into the surrounding buildings. It made him wonder where the Crusader horseback riders were. Trucks and riders were their standard modus operandi, and he suspected they were attacking the homesteads surrounding the town.
“Do a flyover and take out the vehicles in the rear that haven’t made it to the main road,” he ordered the pilot. To his team, he added, “We’ll swing back to the middle of the enemy convoy and land. Bring the anti-tank M3s with us. We can blow their trucks from the ground.”
Other than Benny, he had six inexperienced men and women. His main concern was their lack of aggression. He was used to the young being very angry with a lot to prove, but his new recruits were a relaxed bunch, and they treated their training as a bit of fun. They weren’t the sort of soldiers he was familiar with commanding, but he’d be happy enough as long as they got the job done.
Their pilot landed them on a side street about two hundred yards from the main road. Selecting three of his shooters, he said, “We’re gonna make our way to the main road. You’re now Alpha team, and I want you to stay behind cover and fire the M3s at any enemy vehicle to the left of you.” Turning to the remaining three shooters and Benny, he added, “You’re Bravo team, and you’re gonna do the same to any enemy vehicle on the right. Both teams remember to cover one another. Once you blow the trucks, the enemy shooters will be scrambling to get out. Shoot ‘em before they get themselves sorted. A dead enemy is one less asshole that can kill ya.” Addressing the pilot, he said, “Have the co-pilot man the M240 in case we need air cover, but don't shoot us.”
Watching the squad closely, he hoped they’d understood. While each shooter nodded nervously, Benny seemed disinterested. Since being infected by Lucie with a version of the hunter virus, he didn’t understand him anymore. The remaining six shooters looked scared and uncomfortable with their orders, but at least none of them looked like they were going to run.
“I’ll be monitoring both teams and I’ll give you back up,” he added. “But watch out for friendly fire. We dunno how well the shooters in this town are trained.”
Appearing bored, Benny said, “Let’s go.”
Each four-person squad hugged the walls of the buildings lining the side street as they made their way to the main road. The shop fronts were largely free of glass, and dust and debris had blown inside the stores from the street. Most appeared to be unused and presented a gloomy interior. The enemy trucks were driving slowly, unleashing gunfire at both sides of the street. Their gunners were sitting so low in the turrets they couldn’t possibly see what they were firing rapidly at, but he guessed they didn’t care. Everyone in the small town was a target, and they weren’t bothering to take aim at anyone in particular.
One of his shooters was already targeting the M3 at the vehicle only one hundred yards to their left. Quickly moving behind the woman, he took her arm under his and adjusted her aim.
“Deep breath, hold steady, exhale and fire,” he instructed.
The M3 shell hit its target and the truck bucked under the impact. Now disabled, the enemy shooters inside were sitting ducks for as long as they stayed in the vehicle. The back doors snapped open, and men dressed in black with the now familiar red emblem were practically falling out of the doors.
“Fire at will!” He ca
lled.
Tugging the shooter who’d fired the M3 down to the ground, he pulled her behind a parked car, taking aim as he did. The enemy shooters had no time to return fire before they were cut down by his own troops. He was impressed. His shooters hadn’t hesitated, and the enemy didn’t even manage to get to their feet before they were killed.
Glancing further along the road, the next truck had slowed to a crawl. It was taking fire from both sides of the road, and he assumed the townspeople weren’t going to lie down and die. He could never be completely confident what a town would do when it came under attack. Some were well defended to varying degrees of capability, and others had no weapons at all. The ‘God’s Will’ crowd annoyed him. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the sentiment. Despite being capable of extreme violence when necessary, he didn’t want to kill if he didn’t have to, but in his view, you got the life you fought for. He was more of a, ‘God helps those who help themselves’, kind of guy.
“We’re gonna need to move closer to the next truck,” he said through his radio mike. “Give one another cover and get behind the car in front.”
One by one, his shooters gave each other cover while they ran to the next car parked on the road. Once they were in position, the woman raised the M3 again. Helping to correct her aim, she fired and the truck engine exploded. When the enemy shooters tumbled from the vehicle, his squad opened fire.
So far so good, and he radioed Benny. “Benny, gimme a sitrep.”
“Two trucks down, one to go,” he replied.
There were five trucks along Benny’s side of the road. “What happened to the other two?”
“Town shooters got ‘em.”
“Nice.”
The third truck in their line was close enough to be fired on from where they were. “Take aim at the third in line.”
“It’s a bit far isn’t it?”
“Nope, it’s well within range. I’ll help you aim again.”