Stunned at the statement, the defiance fell off Jennifer’s face. “Ian, we can’t get in trouble,” Jennifer said meekly.
Lifting his chin up, “It’s the principle,” Ian said and turned around, heading for the shop.
Jennifer turned to Lance who just shrugged. “We leave in three hours,” Lance said, then followed Ian.
Walking over to Jennifer, Lilly put her arm over Jennifer’s shoulders. “Man, they take pranking to a whole new level,” Lilly grinned.
“That’s why they call them deeds,” Jennifer said. “A prank is playing a joke; a deed is teaching a lesson. The lesson; don’t piss them off.”
They went inside and fixed some food and brought some out to the shop. Only finding Lance, Jennifer went to the back near the fence and found Ian. Sitting in a chair at a folding table, Ian was working on blocks of clay. Then Jennifer saw C4 on the blocks. Involuntarily, she stepped back.
“Babe, you would have to be over a hundred feet away to survive the blast,” Ian told her, not looking up.
“Food,” Jennifer said, feeling sweat bead on her forehead.
Shoving a rod with two wires into a block, Ian set it to the side. “Thank you,” he said, taking the plate.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to put the cap in until you set it up,” Jennifer said.
“Won’t hook it up until we set them up,” Ian shrugged. “We’ll have to move fast.”
Never taking her eyes off the table, “I know it sounds stupid, but please be careful,” Jennifer said.
“We’ve read all the books and watched all the videos that Uncle Doug had,” Ian said, shoveling his food down. “I would like to do a test but can’t, since stinkers would show up.”
Giving Ian a kiss, Jennifer hurried back down to the cabin.
Three hours later, Lance, Jennifer, and Ian were rolling out the front gate in the buggy Ian had made. Backpacks that contained supplies for the deeds filled the bed of the buggy.
Sitting behind Ian, who was driving, Jennifer looked out and tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Dino sitting behind Lance. Seemingly very relaxed, Dino was just looking out and panting. “I’m the only one who’s nervous?” Jennifer mumbled as Ian drove through the chute.
“Lance, why did you put a stinker in a metal coffin connected to big oxygen bottles?” Jennifer asked, trying to calm down.
As Ian slowed along the ridge, Lance lifted his AR and looked around through his thermal sight. “Seeing how much hydrogen sulfide stinkers put out after they die,” Lance answered. “Those oxygen tanks are empty and hooked up to a compressor.”
“Okay,” Jennifer said as Ian took off. “Why?”
“Hello? Hydrogen sulfide is flammable and that means, we can use it to run machines,” Lance responded as Ian crossed the next valley.
Looking through the trees, Jennifer saw a few stinkers had spotted them. “Smart,” Jennifer said. “I take it, we aren’t killing stinkers?”
“No, the more we can pull to the east, the better,” Lance said, lifting his AR and scanning around with the thermal. “Use your thermal to scan around for lookouts. We haven’t caught any radio traffic, but you never know.”
Turning on her thermal, Jennifer scanned her side ahead of them. “They don’t have lookouts?”
“Very close to the compound,” Ian said over his shoulder.
The casual attitude the two had, bothered Jennifer for some reason. The Nazi compound was over twelve miles from their patrol zone. It was going to be the furthest anyone had been away from the cabin since they’d gotten there.
Rolling along the ridges and valleys, Jennifer didn’t see any houses or civilization of any kind, except for the occasional dirt road. Covering her area, Jennifer thought the boys seemed a little too familiar and relaxed with the area.
When Ian stopped on a spur, Jennifer climbed out and saw a dirt trail below them. The trail sat in a saddle between two spurs and looked well used. “Keep us covered and try to use your bow,” Ian told her in a low voice as he grabbed a backpack.
She and Dino moved down the slope with them as Lance and Ian pulled out folding shovels and plastic bags. Digging two holes only five inches deep, Ian pulled out two wooden wedge-shaped objects with no backs, and had springs connecting the flat and angled pieces.
Hooking wires to the wedges, they covered them up with dirt and then ran the wires to a tree ten yards further up and beside the trail. As Ian hooked up a box to the tree, Lance pulled a three-foot-long, two-inch-around cylinder from his pack. Looking up in the sky, Lance moved around until he seemed satisfied. Putting the cylinder on the ground, Lance pushed stakes in the bottom to hold it upright, then pulled bushes and other debris over to hide it.
With Dino beside her, Jennifer kept scanning around as the boys moved with the speed and precision of a NASCAR pit crew. Ian was hooking up wires to his box and Lance was putting another smaller box on a tree further back. Checking the two covered wedges, Lance pulled some leaves off a bush and sprinkled them around the area.
Jennifer glanced at her watch when they motioned back to the buggy and saw it had taken them eleven minutes to set up whatever they had done. From the grin on Ian’s face, she knew it wasn’t going to be good for someone.
With a last glance around, Jennifer climbed in the buggy as Ian moved off. Moving a quarter mile along the ridge, Ian stopped beside another trail and Jennifer could tell this was an ATV trail with ruts.
When the boys climbed out, Jennifer and Dino joined them. Lance went to work digging a small circle on the mound between the ruts as Ian put another box on a tree. After glancing around the woods, Jennifer turned to see Lance pulling a metal object the same size and shape as a can of snuff out of his pocket.
Putting the object in the small shallow hole, Lance pulled out a metal disk connected to a very small wire. When Lance held the disk over the object, the disk jerked down with a ‘clink’. It was then that Jennifer realized that the object was a powerful magnet. What they were using it for she didn’t know but by their grins, Lance and Ian had no doubt it would do whatever they had planned.
Not even ten minutes later, they were climbing back in the buggy and Jennifer knew the boys had been here before. They were moving to spots that couldn’t have been seen with the satellite photos, but knew the Nazis were using them.
Ian drove along, moving closer to the camp and stopping every so often for a deed to be placed. When they came over a ridge and Jennifer saw a road at the base beside a railroad track, she knew they were very close to the camp. With the sun touching the horizon Ian parked under the trees, and she looked up and down the narrow valley and then directly to the hill across from them.
After having looked at satellite photos of the area over the last three months, Jennifer knew the Nazi camp was directly over that ridge, sitting where three small valleys converged. When the boys got out, Jennifer wanted to ask why they were so close, but just kept her mouth shut and climbed out.
When they gave her a backpack, Jennifer was actually shocked. Seeing each of them put on a backpack, Jennifer realized they needed her to carry it. Having no idea what was in it, she put it on and grunted with the weight.
Ian and Lance covered the buggy with a camouflage net, then Ian leaned to her ear. “On the ridge directly across at the highest peak is a guard tower. We don’t know if they have thermal,” Ian whispered. “Just do what we do and from here, only use your bow if a stinker gets close.”
Nodding and reaching up to feel her NVGs flipped up on her helmet but still there, Jennifer followed them down the back side of the slope. Off to the south, she could see some kind of factory plant. Following the boys to the base of the valley, she could see a few stinkers near the plant heading south.
Before they reached the valley floor, looking to the south, Jennifer saw the road that cut between two spurs that led to the camp. On the road, she could see stinkers moving down the road feeding between the two spurs. It wasn’t
a lot compared to the flood of stinkers a few days ago, but it was more than she wanted to deal with.
Reaching the bottom, the boys went to work on the dirt road that ran up a wide draw. Making a list of things to ask, Jennifer kept swiveling her head and watching for trouble. As Ian and Lance moved back to her, Jennifer swore the two were getting faster.
Now that the sun was gone, everyone flipped down their NVGs. Then, she watched them head back up the slope they had just walked down. Not about to ask questions now, Jennifer followed. After moving two hundred yards up the slope, Lance turned east to walk with the slope, rounding the spur.
With the road and railroad tracks below them, Lance stopped at a small draw. He knelt down next to a large tree as Ian moved over, kneeling down and putting his back to Lance’s left side. Having seen them do this, Jennifer moved over and put her back to Lance’s right shoulder and Ian’s left.
Dino came over and just laid down in front of Jennifer as the three sat in a triangle back to back. Feeling Lance move after an hour, Jennifer paid it no mind but when he whispered in her ear, she almost yelped. “We have to move fast across the road. You will stay in the middle. A stinker or two might follow, but don’t worry, they can’t take the path we will use. When we reach the fence, leave your bow and quiver,” he barely breathed.
Not turning her head, Jennifer just nodded and felt Lance stand up. Getting up, Jennifer turned and eased down the draw behind Lance with Dino beside her. “Dino is only worried about me,” Jennifer mumbled to herself.
Reaching the base of the slope, Lance looked up and down the valley and could only see a few stinkers, but all were heading south toward the large group at the main compound gate. Looking across the railroad tracks and road, Jennifer guessed the valley was only eighty yards to the other hill slope. But the slope across from them looked much steeper than any ones they had moved on before.
Scanning up and down the valley, Jennifer saw Lance raise his rifle, scanning the opposite slope with his thermal sight. Jennifer gave a startle when Lance suddenly took off in a crouched run. Pushing out of the trees, Jennifer followed and saw Dino doing a slow, loping jog beside her.
Dino was so relaxed, his tongue was hanging out as he casually looked around as they crossed over the railroad tracks. He paid the stinkers a hundred yards away no mind as he ran across the road.
Running across the road, Jennifer looked at the very steep tree-covered slope and with each step, it only seemed to get steeper. When Lance reached the trees, he stopped looking north and saw two stinkers moving a little faster toward them. Looking up a small draw, Lance started up the slope.
Watching Lance shove his AR to his back, Jennifer did the same and then hung her bow across her back. Moving behind Lance, Jennifer copied how Lance used his hands and feet to ‘walk’ up the slope. Only going where Lance did, Jennifer was surprised at how quiet she was moving.
What struck Jennifer was how steady Lance was moving. It was a slow pace, but fixed in a rhythm. Glancing over her shoulder, Jennifer couldn’t help but grin, seeing Dino’s massive form crouched low and climbing the slope behind her.
Two hours later, Lance stopped on the ridge next to a chain-link fence. Looking down the slope, Jennifer guessed they had climbed seven hundred yards up the slope on their hands, knees, and feet. Since the pace had been slow, she wasn’t that tired. Feeling a tap, Jennifer turned and saw Ian pointing at her bow.
Unslinging her bow, Jennifer sat it down and then pulled off her quiver from her belt. When she set them down, Ian moved them over beside a rock and covered them with leaves. As she pulled her AR off her back, Jennifer turned and saw Lance holding a box with two stubby antennas. Lance pressed a button and a light blinked once and Jennifer dropped down as the light flared in her NVGs.
“It wasn’t that bright,” Ian whispered in her ear. Hoping he was right, Jennifer straightened up as Lance looked up grinning and gave a thumbs-up. Putting the box back in his backpack, Lance moved over to the fence.
Jennifer looked at the barbed wire at the top of the fence, dreading climbing over. Knowing the boys only had the multi-tools in their vests, she knew those would make too much noise, cutting a hole.
Dropping her eyes down, Jennifer saw Lance feeling along the bottom of the fence. When he stopped, Lance pulled and a section of ground slid from under the fence. Jennifer’s mouth fell open, seeing the ‘section’ was a board three-foot-wide and four-foot-long with dirt and leaves over it.
Where the board was gone, she saw a shallow ditch dug under the fence. Adding to the list of things to ask, Jennifer took off her backpack after seeing Lance take his off. She watched Lance crawl under, then pull his backpack through. Copying him, Jennifer climbed under the fence.
Getting up, Jennifer put her backpack on as Dino ducked under, making everyone envious. After Ian had climbed under, he reached under the fence and pulled the board back, covering the ditch. When Ian had his backpack on, Jennifer followed Lance down the slope.
Unlike the other side, this slope was very gradual. Looking ahead, Jennifer saw the Nazi compound and wondered just how many times the boys had been there because there was no denying anymore. From the photos she had seen, there were more buildings. To the southwest, the valley made a sharp curve and she could see a fence stretched across the valley with shipping containers stacked behind it.
Then Jennifer looked at the fence and saw it ran down the slope they had crossed and it hit her, the line Lance and Ian had drawn around the Nazi camp in the bunker was a fence. Looking across the valley behind the curve, Jennifer saw some lights, but not many.
Usually when she looked at lights with her NVGs they flared up, but these lights didn’t do that. Out of curiosity, Jennifer flipped up the NVG. With her naked eyes, she could barely see the lights.
“Very low-level lights,” Ian whispered beside her. “Those are around the barracks, so you can walk around without tripping.”
Adding more to the list to ask later, Jennifer flipped her NVGs back down. Next to her, Lance was scanning the valley floor with his thermal. When he lowered his rifle, Lance stepped back and dropped to his left knee.
Glancing back, Jennifer saw Ian was looking at the fence across the valley floor. Then Ian lowered his rifle, moving next to Lance and dropped to one knee. Dropping to both knees behind the two, Jennifer put her face between their shoulders as the two looked down at the valley floor.
“No changes, except they added two more mobile homes to the east end of the valley,” Lance said in a low voice.
“About a hundred stinkers at the gate,” Ian said. “Guards are using long spears to spear them in the head. Still six guards.”
“I say, go,” Lance said, never taking his eyes from the valley.
“I say, go,” Ian said and both slowly stood up. Getting to her feet, Jennifer was wondering ‘Go where?’ When Lance moved toward the valley floor, Jennifer understood. They were agreeing to continue the deeds.
An hour later they had reached the valley floor and Jennifer grabbed Lance from behind, noticing a bright light from a pole. When he turned, she pointed to the right at the pole sixty yards away. She had seen their cameras around the cabin with IR light to know she was seeing a camera mounted on a pole, overlooking the road that ran through the valley.
“It’s taken care of,” Lance grinned and moved out from the trees to a large cluster of buildings set up in orderly rows. With Dino staying at her side, Jennifer gripped her AR tight and followed. Reaching one of the biggest buildings, Lance stopped at the wall and moved down the wall, stopping under a window. Slowly standing up, he peered inside and then dropped back down, looking back and giving a nod.
Jennifer knew that nod was for Ian because she had no idea what the hell they were in the Nazi camp for. Lance pushed his rifle to his back and pulled out a 1911 with a very long suppressor. Jennifer knew that gun, out of all the guns at the cabin, it was the quietest.
Peeking around the corner and not seeing anything, Lance sli
nked around. When Jennifer went to follow, Ian moved her a few inches further from the wall and Jennifer understood her backpack would’ve hit the wall.
Following Lance, Jennifer saw him drop down in front of a set of double doors. Knowing this from training, Jennifer passed him and covered Lance’s back left and Ian did the same on the right. Pulling out some lock picks, Lance worked on the lock for a second as Dino moved up, putting his nose to the crack between the doors.
When the lock turned, Lance eased open one door before reaching back and patting Jennifer’s shoulder. Turning around, Jennifer tapped Ian and they followed Lance inside. Stepping in, Jennifer saw it was a cafeteria; a very big cafeteria.
Lance moved over, handing her the 1911. “Watch from the bottom of the window beside the door. If one comes in, shoot him in the head. If more than one comes, snap your fingers,” Lance whispered.
Letting her AR hang under arm, Jennifer nodded taking the pistol. Moving to the window, Jennifer saw a huge picture of Adolf Hitler on the back wall and then saw a clock saying it was almost 2300. Not seeing any movement outside, she glanced back and saw Ian moving from table to table, taking the tops of the sugar containers off, pouring something in, and replacing the lid.
Not seeing Lance, Jennifer turned back to the window. Having grown used to Ian and Lance being fast, Jennifer started getting nervous after ten minutes. Turning around, she saw Lance coming from the kitchen, but didn’t see Ian.
Looking down at Dino sitting beside her, panting, Jennifer reached down and patted his head as she turned back to the window. Glancing back to check again Jennifer scoffed, seeing Lance standing on a table doing something to one of the ceiling fans. When Lance got down, he wiped the table and Jennifer knew Lance was removing any sign he’d stood there and then he moved to another table, climbing up. Then she saw Ian come out of a hallway at the back and moved to a table, climbing up. Feeling like a fifth wheel, Jennifer turned to watch out the window.
Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage Page 38