by Rob Buckman
“I take it you didn’t subscribe to political correctness in your line of work.”
“As a soldier and instructor I couldn’t afford to cater to that line of thinking. If a recruit or team member screws up, people could end up dead, so we said it like it is.”
“Tough life.”
“True, but rewarding in its own way. We did things that no one else wanted to do, the hard stuff, even the things that people said couldn’t be done.”
“Heard you SAS types were hard core.” Decker chuckled and shrugged.
“No, not really, just a different mindset to other people is all.”
“Which reminds me? You like to tell the story of the wolves, sheep and sheepdogs but no where do you mention the shepherd in all of that.”
“Oh him, he’s the man, you know, the man… or woman upstairs that gives the orders.”
“Yes, I know who the man is, but why leave him or her out of the story?”
“The man isn’t part of the equation.” Decker sighed. “If the shepherd isn’t there, the sheepdog still goes on guarding the flock just like now. The man or the government no longer exists as far as we know, but that doesn’t relieve us of our duty. Hell, I’m not even supposed to be here.”
“What? I mean, why not?”
“I completed my military service two days before the aliens arrived, and was supposed to be on my way home to England for discharge from the service. After that home to be with my wife and little girl…” Decker broke off and swallowed hard. “I’m nothing but a glorified civilian who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Kim Drummond looked at him and blinked slowly.
“Oh lord, you poor man…” Seeing Decker grit his teeth, she stopped. Sympathy wasn’t what this man needed.
“The government or shepherd is like the wolf in many ways. To him the general population is rather like a flock of sheep,” Decker continued as if he hadn’t heard her, “they pray on the flock as much as the wolves but in a different way. To the people at the top, the population in any country is seen as nothing more than production units and always has been. Go back as far as you like and look at who was in charge. Kings, princes, presidents, prime ministers, dictators, you name it. They look at people and see sheep to be sheared and butchered as needed to serve their needs. Oh sure, they look after the sheep and keep them contented and reasonably happy, give them what they think they need, but in the end it’s all about keeping them working and producing to keep the power structure in place for the rich.”
“That’s a pretty cynical view of the world.”
“After twenty years of fighting and killing around the world for god only knows what reason, you tend to ask yourself those kinds of questions. Most of the wars we’ve fought in the last thousand years have been about power and money. Maybe this time we can do it differently… if we humans survive that is.”
“You think we won’t?” Decker shrugged.
“Not unless we find a game changer. Nothing we have at the moment can really hurt the UFMs. With that great big mother ship and those bombardment units up there able to drop rocks on us, and the shield defense on their ships, it’s like a bunch of Stone-Age warriors with sticks and stones fighting a modern tank regiment.”
“That’s a bleak assessment, but one I think is correct. What do we do?”
“As I said in the beginning. Lie down and die, or keep on fighting.” Decker looked at her in the soft light from the small fire, seeing the shadow play across her smooth face. Despite the ghost of his wife and daughter, Decker felt himself stirring, and the need to kiss her. He pulled himself back, but something must have passed between them as Kim stood, and after one quick look back vanished into the darkness. Decker let out a soft growl and unrolled his sleeping bag.
“Keep your mind on business, dumbass.” He muttered. Kim Drummond stopped just outside of the firelight and thought about going back, hearing Decker’s soft comment. He was right. This was the wrong time and place to do anything about what she felt.
“Me and ninety-five other lonely women.” A sarcastic voice said in her head. Just as he was about to turn in for the night, his ear bug crackled to life with static.
“Alpha team leader to Wolf Pack Leader.”
“Wolfman actual – go.”
“We found one of the lost girls, Boss – She’s about half a mile to the south of our position.” Decker donned his helmet and looked for Krista's icon.
“I see you – hold until I arrive.” He replied as he pulled his boots on.
“Ten-four, Boss – Will hold here.” Decker gave June and Grace a heads-up and headed out south along the dried out aqueduct, using his night vision to locate Krista and her three man team.
Rather than vent his anger, he kept his thoughts to himself seeing one of the girls lying naked on the ground. She’d been head shot and stripped but he couldn’t tell if she’d was raped before it had happened, not that it mattered. Finding the other four girls was their first priority. Using the inferred setting in his helmet it was easy to follow the footprints of the group that attacked the girls as they headed south. The trail led to a narrow canyon cutting back into the hills, and following the old stream channel as it cut back and forth it wasn’t long before they saw the light from a large camp fire and heard the sound of coarse laughter.
“Go active cammo.” He whispered, steeling himself for what they’d find.
“Fuck!” Krista snarled in his ear as they moved up under cover of the dried out shrubs and bushes. Decker signaled for them to move left and right of him as he switched to the general push frequency.
“Take these assholes alive if possible – move up.”
The scene inside the clearing made him sick, seeing three of the girls face down on their knees, tied wrist to ankle with several of them men having their way with them. The fourth girl was tied the same way, beaten and bloody on her knees, servicing two more with her mouth. The last two of the ten men sat on a log, swigging from a bottle and laughing.
“That’s it, give the bitch what she needs!” The older of the two yelled.
He must have been a little more sober than the others, as he turned and brought his rifle up at the sound of rushing feet. All he saw were flickering shadows coming at him across the clearing, but for a moment he couldn’t figure out what he was seeing. Decker didn’t give him a chance to get his weapon in action and quickly shot him in the head. The team took care of the rest, felling them one after the other with a rifle butt to the head.
As if reading his mind, the girls stripped them men naked and tied them up the same way as they’d tied the girls. While they did, Decker and Krista took care of the moaning girls, but it took an hour before they’d calmed down to where they could talk. Black coffee and a shot of whisky helped, but they were still shaking as Decker had the seven remaining men dragged over and knelt down where he was sitting on the log. Apart from their leader, two more died due to having their skulls caved in, but that was no loss as far as Decker was concerned.
“Hope you boys enjoyed yourself.”
“Who the fuck are you?” One demanded, shaking with fear.
“Not so funny when you’re on the other side, is it.” Was Decker’s answer.
“W…what you going to do… shoot us?”
“Me? Good heavens no. Calm yourselves. I’m not going to do a thing to you.” His cold gray eyes said differently. “The girls on the other hand have a few things they are going to do.”
“W…what the fuck man. We was only having some fun.”
“Oh is that what you were doing. Did you ask the girls if they were having fun?”
“That’s all these skanks are good for…” Krista stepped over and hit the man with her fist as hard as she could. He hit the ground and lay there crying.
“Wh… what you going to do…” Another asked.
“I’m not going to shoot you if that’s what you’re worrying about. The girls have another punishment in mind, one that will send a message to
anyone else like you not to fuck with us.”
“S…so what you going to do?”
“Oh, we’re going to let you live as a warning to others.” He let that sink in before continuing, remembering what the girls had done to Burrole men. “The girls on the other hand are going to cut off all your fingers to the second knuckle first. That way you will at least be able to feed yourself, but you’ll never hold any sort of weapon to threaten people with ever again.” All seven went white, as out here it was tantamount to a death sentence. “After that they are going to cut off your cock and balls and make you eat them.”
“Oh god…. No.”
“God has nothing to do with this.” Decker nodded and the girls moved in. “I hope you enjoyed raping these poor girls, as they will be the last pussy you will ever have.” Three of the men started screaming as the girls grabbed them, while two fainted. Not that it helped, as they soon came awake, screaming. The bloody work done, only five survived, and untying them, the girls gathered up the gear and followed Decker back to the Pack. To Decker’s mind, justice for the girls was served, but sadly, one of them grabbed a pistol and took her own life, screaming that she couldn’t take it anymore. They buried her with due respect a little distance away from the assholes camp, and after a short prier they headed back to Indian Wells and the Pack.
CHAPTER TWELVE: INDIAN WELLS AND ROAD TAX
Decker took one last long look at the alien structure out on the desert floor, seeing much the same as he’d seen in Bakersfield, only larger and more complete. The big ugly machines were digging up the desert floor, and laying a wide strip of black something behind them, around the mega towers and giant domes. He could only conclude this was a city they were building, with a lot of it underground. He took a few photos to add to the ones he already had, and loped off after the Pack.
The long slog along the base of the mountains, alongside I-14 and I-395 to Bishop, was something none of them would forget, or wanted to remember if they could help it. Between desertion and those that just gave up, the team lost eight people. Another five died from heart attacks and unknown medical causes that Doc Mason couldn’t identify with her limited equipment. Another ten died in firefights with marauding gangs, and sadly, this included three of the children. Now the team was down to sixty-two hard-eyed souls with no illusions about what was to come. To the west, loomed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and one look and they all knew that yesterday was an easy day compared to what they faced now.
Bishop was as deserted as most of the towns along the way, with piles of desiccated corpses or half-eaten bodies, showing that at least a few people had survived for a while. The aliens and marauding gangs had seen to the rest, not that they lasted long when they ran into the Pack. Any semblance to mercy had long since been purged from the girl’s systems and they didn’t hesitate to kill anyone who threatened the Pack in any way. Decker called a halt in Bishop for a week, to give the team a good rest and let them scavenge for the winter clothing they were going to need once they got into the mountains proper. The date was what worried Decker, as it was now July, having taken far longer to reach this point than he’d anticipated. No matter how hard he pushed them there was no way they could make it to ‘Truckee-Tahoe’ Airport before winter closed in. That meant they had to make it to a place they could last out the winter months until the snow and ice cleared off the passes. His objective was Mono Lake, or barring that at least Mammoth. Both had good size communities and maybe people, but at least a place to winter down, and plenty of places to scavenge for food, to add to the game they shot.
A week later, they were ready as they could be and started off for their next stop in Round Valley and Mesa, a small town of fifty houses, making good time from just after sundown to dawn the next morning. The rest helped and they made a fast night march, almost up to the speed Decker would have done on his own. Their next hop was from Mesa to South Landing on Lake Crowley, a 2,000 odd foot climb up highway 395. Now the going was a lot tougher hauling the loaded carts, but the team leaders were wise enough to switch out the people pulling them before they got too tired. A couple of punctures set them back a couple of hours and they didn’t make South Landing until 9 AM, and took greater care when they heard the warning whistle of an approaching destroyer. A nights rest and they were off again the next morning before dawn, heading for their next stop at Mammoth, not that Decker intended to stop, or go there. To his mind, it was too much of a trap if the bad guys had taken up residence, and the benefit of rescuing more prisoners he couldn’t look after or take care of didn’t outweigh the risk to the team.
He wanted to push the Pack hard, and get into the mountains proper, as apparently, that's where the aliens didn’t want to go, the cold maybe, or they didn’t like to climb? They stopped a few miles short and spent the night in a burned out school off the highway, when the scouts reported back that they’d seen several hundred men and women in the town. The place looked a mess instead of the rich winter playground it had once been. The nights were also getting colder with the temperature dropping to 12 degrees, and having burned off any extra body fat they had, the girls were starting to feel the cold. That prompted Decker to give them a lecture about keeping warm and winter clothing, stressing the need for layers rather than one thick bulky coat or parker and dry feet. That was going to be a problem, and he was hoping they could find a winter clothing store along the way, as what they need was polypropylene socks and gloves for everyone so that any moisture was wicked away from the skin. Many of the mountain resorts along the way should stock a few, and barring scavengers thinking of the same thing, they should be able to find what they needed. Normally scavengers went for the booze, cigarettes, food and ordinary clothing as well as any guns and ammo available.
So far, arms and ammo hadn’t been a problem with what they’d started out with and what they’d picked up along the way from the bad guys. The pre-dawn found everyone up and preparing breakfast and ready to move out before the cold dawn streaked the eastern sky. After a few soft words on the radio, the Pack moved out across country, paralleling highway 395 until they picked up the old interstate highway a mile or so from the school. Decker opted for this rather than 395 out of caution, expecting the bad guys to have pickets out watching the main road.
The team now moved silently, but not the damn woolies, the silly beasts kept bleating, and Decker wished he knew a way to shut them up, short of killing them. Keeping them with the Pack was a calculated risk, but they could mean the difference between life and death for the Pack, as finding food supplies was getting more difficult, what with survivors scavenging for food. All went well for an hour, until they moved past an old propane storage facility, and the TAC radio sounded a warning.
“Bravo Team to Pack leader - we’ve got movement on the perimeter!” An urgent voice whispered in Decker's ear. The girls didn’t need instructions now, and simply moved into their defensive positions as they sank to the ground and made like sheep.
“Ten-four Bravo Team - let them pass and move in behind them. Over-watch, keep an eye on the road from Mammoth for any reinforcements.”
“Ten-four Wolfman.” Decker smiled, but he felt like swearing at their bad luck. Getting into a firefight was something he wanted to avoid right now, not because they couldn’t win, they could, but having a bunch of pissed off bad guys behind him wasn’t the good idea. The leader might just send people after him, and who knew what problems that would cause later. As the would-be raiders moved closer, Decker could hear them talking to each other, and shook his head. Definitely not military types or they know better than to chatter while creeping up on someone.
“Told you I could hear sheep bleating, Jocko.”
“Yeah, I can hear the fucking things now. Spread out and shoot any that bolt.”
“Has to be someone with them, Jocko, woolies wouldn’t be wandering around out here otherwise. There’s nothing for them to eat.” With his visor set on night vision, it was easy for Decker to see them and the weapons the
y carried.
“Keep your eyes peeled.” Five men and one woman spread out in a skirmish line, peering ahead in the pre-dawn darkness for signs of the sheep, but other than a few white blotches, it was difficult to make out anything.
“Well fuck me! There’s a whole flock of the little beasties.”
“Lamb chops anyone?” One of them chuckled as they moved past Decker’s position.
“Freeze, asshole!” Decker called from behind them.
“What the fuck!” Even so they froze, turning their heads to look over their shoulders. For a moment, they didn’t see him as he stood, until he switched off his active cammo and pulled the face hood back.
“Who the fuck are you?” The leader, presumably ‘Jocko’ asked. By the expression on Jocko’s face, he was shocked to see Decker appear out of nowhere.
“I’m the owner of the sheep you are intent on stealing.”
“What… no… road tax, that’s what we were here to collect.” He slowly turned as he spoke, so he could get his weapon into action if need be.
“Road Tax, huh? I’m sure the state of California and the Federal Government would be interested in hearing that.”
“Shit! There ain’t no government no more.”
“Probably not, but that doesn’t give you the right to rob people.”
“Nar, we’ve just trying to survive. You give us a couple of them woolies and you can go on your way… by the way, where you heading?”
“None of your business and no I’m not going to give you any of my sheep.” Jocko slowly lifted his weapon, one very similar to Decker’s.
“I don’t see where you have much choice, dickhead.”
“Really? Did you ever hear the story about the difference between dictatorship and democracy?”
“What… what the fuck are you talking about?” Now all six of them had turned and brought their weapons up, pointing at Decker.
“Dictatorship is two wolves and a lamb voting on what they were going to have for lunch. Democracy on the other hand is a well-armed lamb disputing the results.”