Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “Have no idea,” Dwain shrugged.

  “Oh, man,” Percy groaned. “I hope they aren’t doing anything cool.”

  Heath and Dwain both cut their eyes over at Percy. “What would define ‘cool’?” Dwain asked.

  Before Percy could answer, Heath popped off, “Don’t say shit about the research area.”

  Shaking his head, “No, like learning a new patrol technique or weapon. You know, something cool,” Percy stressed.

  “Percy, that’s every day for them,” Heath stated. The next day after the meeting at the research area, Percy had taken his sister Gail, Alvin, and Julie up to the research area. They’d been given the tour and from what Percy said, they had been just as blown away as anyone. Heath and Dwain took Percy’s word because they hadn’t gone. As Heath had told everyone, ‘I don’t ever want to go back’, and Dwain agreed with him.

  Percy gave them updates, even though they didn’t want any. For the last three weeks, the four had been going over what the boys had discovered and all the test results. They had been supposed to stay for a shift there of four hours, but the group rarely spent less than six. Four more desks had been added to the office but so far, they hadn’t set them up. The four had stayed in the break camper going over data. When they had been told, all understood the significance of the discovery and never dreamed of taking anything from the site.

  What bothered Heath, the four didn’t view the research area as deadly. Gail had told Heath and Dwain they knew it was dangerous but if they followed the rules, they would be fine. Heath thought there was definitely something wrong with them because the four weren’t terrified of the killer robots.

  Percy, Gail, Alvin, and Julie had been ecstatic that they were going to help, and vowed they would continue their regular work and still help out in the research area. Dwain and Heath had gone ahead and done the fours’ chores at the Bear Trap house, just for the chance that they themselves would never have to go back to the research area.

  Since nobody talked about what was actually there, except the killer robots, Grady had gotten excited. Grady had offered Percy to assist them and Heath had promptly punched Grady in the mouth. After Grady had woken up on the floor again, he’d found Heath standing over him with both fists balled up and ready to rain down. “You won’t even ask,” Heath had snarled. “You piss them off just by opening your mouth. You piss Ian and Lance off at the research area, the killer robots might follow you home and shoot one of us by mistake.”

  “I just want to learn what they know,” Percy sighed, staring down the driveway into the valley below.

  “Percy, we all want to learn what they know,” Dwain reminded him.

  Shaking his head, “Most of the shit they know, they already knew before this!” Percy cried out. “Shit, I didn’t know you learned wilderness survival and stuff like that in the Scouts. I always thought they sat around campfires singing. Have you seen all the merit badges on their sashes and metal ones on their belts? I looked over some and holy crap! They learned more in Scouts than most people do in school. They shot guns in the Scouts! Then they shot guns with their families! They hunted, fished, played sports, and took martial arts! Did you know they’re black belts in Tae Kwon Do and third degree brown belts in kenpo?”

  Never looking away from Percy, Heath just sighed. “Yes, and we know even doing all that, the boys still maintained straight As in school and in all the college courses they were taking in the gifted program. Percy, Denny was in Scouts too, and his troop didn’t do near what Ian and Lance’s troop did. Hell, Denny’s troop only went camping once a year. Ian’s and Lance’s troop went camping once a month, even during the school year.”

  “I feel cheated,” Percy groaned. “I was in the gifted program and I wanted to play sports, but sucked ass. I broke my wrist just trying to dribble the basketball down the court and tripped. I can play a little now, but my coordination still sucks ass.”

  “Join the club because we feel cheated as well,” Dwain agreed as he stared hard into Percy’s eyes. “Percy, don’t call them ‘sir’. I think you’re starting to get on their nerves with that.”

  “I tell them I’m sorry,” Percy whined. “Fuck me, they’re more mature than any professor I’ve ever had. Gail didn’t believe they were only thirteen until Lilly showed her Lance’s birth certificate.”

  Holding up his hand to stop Percy, “Percy, I’m just telling you because they like you,” Dwain told him, again. “They don’t see themselves as ‘sirs’. Sir, to them, is their father, sensei, scout leader or the like.”

  Cocking his head to the side, “Have they called you sir?” Percy asked.

  Shaking his head, “No,” Dwain answered with no shame. “They haven’t called anyone here ‘sir’ and why would they? They saved all of us. We don’t rank that high in their eyes.”

  “They’ve called Seth ‘sir’ once or twice,” Heath chimed in, and Dwain turned to object but stopped. “I assure you, they only did it because Seth is nearly sixty and still moves like someone twenty years younger.” Able to recall if he had heard it, Dwain finally nodded.

  “I’ll try harder,” Percy sighed.

  Glancing around to make sure no one was close, “Are you four going to be able to contribute in the research area?” Heath asked.

  Making sure himself that none were close, a huge smile filled Percy’s face as he nodded. “Oh, yeah. Alvin is redesigning the special battery. He’s positive it’ll be twenty to thirty percent more powerful. Gail and Julie are redesigning the collection system for the nut juice. From what we’ve learned, when they store it, the nut juice will be in hibernation until needed. I started on smaller special batteries this week.”

  Furrowing his brow, “Why smaller?” Dwain asked.

  Still grinning, “To put in drones,” Percy answered, and Heath fought not to pass out.

  “Drones, like in the kind that fly?” Dwain clarified, and Percy nodded. “What the fuck for?” Dwain gasped in panic as his eyes looked to the sky, expecting drones to descend from the sky and kill them all.

  Finally, the smile fell off Percy’s face in shock. “To keep a watch over us,” Percy answered.

  “Are they going to be armed?” Dwain panted.

  Shrugging, “I’m not arming them,” Percy answered, and this made both Dwain and Heath relax. “Lance and Ian were already planning for drones, but it was going to be months before they could devote the time to do it. From looking at some of their plans, I think they’ll arm some.”

  Oh, did that answer make Dwain and Heath lightheaded. “So, they already have plans to build small planes?” Heath asked.

  “Kind of,” Percy answered. “They have partial ones, but neither has ever built a plane. Both have only flown remote controlled model airplanes. Now they’ve built drone choppers, for what I don’t know, but I would love to know,” Percy informed them with a grin.

  “They want hover drones, too?” Dwain asked.

  Nodding, “Yes, I’ve built some of those, so it won’t be hard,” Percy answered. “Patrick and two of his brothers in the Beard Clan used to build and fly R/C planes, so Lance gave them a drawing of a plane and the payload they wanted.”

  Very surprised about that, “They gave an actual drawing?” Heath asked.

  “Oh, it was on a thumb drive,” Percy answered and Heath nodded, thinking that sounded more like what Lance would do. He had no doubt Patrick didn’t know the why or about the special batteries. To be honest, Heath had asked Ian and Lance to bring in Patrick and his brothers, but the boys had said, ‘not yet’. Taking that as the Beard Clan would be brought in sometime in the future, Heath hadn’t pushed. If the stipulation for the Beard Clan was he himself had to go back to the research area, Heath was going to ask they never be brought in on the secret.

  “Guys,” Percy said with a cringe, “you do know Ian and Lance have a hovering drone over us now, right? They told us at the meeting in the research area.”

  Heath nearly climbed in the UTV and left while Dwa
in thought about digging a hole and just hiding there. “Are you kidding?!” Dwain panted, never remembering any talk about a drone but knew he hadn’t been paying attention to what was said many times.

  Shaking his head slowly, “No, they sent it up at the end of September,” Percy told them. “For a drone, it’s huge, but it only has cameras.”

  Looking up at the sky through the leaves, “How high?” Dwain asked just tickled the drone wasn’t armed.

  “Four thousand feet,” Percy answered.

  A grin split Heath’s face. “They use it to watch for masses of stinkers moving toward us,” Heath stated, and Percy nodded.

  “When was the last time y’all went to Bravo area?” Percy asked.

  “Yesterday,” Dwain answered.

  “Are they still staying on schedule?” Percy asked in awe.

  Nodding, “Yes, and if I wasn’t seeing it, I wouldn’t believe it,” Dwain answered. For a solid month, those on Bravo had cut down trees. Two hundred and fifty acres of trees. All the trees had been cut down between the town of Bimble and the three mile perimeter. After the trees were cut down, they’d been pulled into a small valley and there the trees had been separated. Those thirty feet tall and straight were stacked to use as poles, and all others were stacked to cut into lumber with a sawmill.

  At first, this had made everyone, including those in Bravo, nervous. Cutting trees, the heavy machinery and sawmill made noise, but Ian and Lance had pulled thunder bots, gun bots, and battle bots to surround the work area and to date, no stinker had made it through. Even with all that, Ian and Lance still had Bravo keep guards up. Every morning, Ian and Lance would drive out and escort Bravo through the bots to the work site, and escort them back to the farm where they were staying every evening.

  Four days ago, Bravo had started on the first fence around Bimble. The night before, Heath and Dwain had gone to carry food to Bravo while Lance and Ian escorted them back to the farm. As Bravo worked, Ian and Lance had brought in eleven more people for Bravo, and Jarvis had taken them all. Since Bravo had started, over three dozen survivors had shown up on their own, wanting to join up. But Jarvis had only allowed twenty-eight to stay, the rest had been told they couldn’t stay and had to leave.

  Waiting until after the meeting with Ian and Lance, Heath had asked Jarvis how he’d decided who to keep in the group. Jarvis had said those who stayed weren’t in Bravo yet, they’d only been given a chance, but he was certain they would work out. Jarvis had explained that some of those he’d sent away had just given him a bad feeling. The others he’d sent away, Jarvis had said they were assholes and wanted someone to protect them while they did nothing. One thing that did surprise Heath, sixteen kids under the age of seventeen had shown up. Unlike adults with kids, those without adults always showed up alone or with one other kid. Those sixteen weren’t added into the number yet because Jarvis had said he was going to do everything he could to make sure the kids stayed. Now, Bravo was the largest of all the groups in the coalition at eighty-one. The kids weren’t counted, but they still worked.

  At that meeting, Jarvis had asked Ian and Lance if they could change the route of the wall in a few places. The wall would be just over eight and half miles around, but enclose nearly four square miles. Heath had looked at the map and saw the fence would travel around Bimble, staying on ridges, and with the changes Jarvis wanted, would enclose a tall peak to the southeast and one to the west. Before, those would’ve been outside and could look down into Bimble. He’d understood the reason, but Ian and Lance had just laughed. Ian had finally said, “Those high points weren’t going to be there outside your wall after you were done, but go ahead with the changes.”

  The next morning, Heath, Dwain, Patrick, and some of their clans had headed out with Ian and Lance to escort Bravo to the starting point in a valley floor north of Bimble. After moving the bots and getting the go-ahead from Lance and Ian, Bravo had started. A tractor would pull up to the marked line and using an auger, drill a ten-foot-deep hole. When it was done, the tractor would roll up five feet and drill another one. Since they were only half a mile from Highway 25E, stinkers had come for the noise but were met by gun bots that mowed them down.

  When the tractor had a hundred yards of holes dug, another group had come in and dropped sheered tree trunks in for poles. They weren’t each cut to thirty feet, the trees used just had to be at least thirty feet tall. Lance had told Jarvis they could trim them up later if they wanted to.

  With the tractor still digging holes along the line and the group putting in the posts, they had fifty yards up before another group came in. This group screwed up the cut boards. All the boards were two inches thick and ten feet long, but the width depended on the tree. Boards ranged from four inches in width to some at twelve inches, but all boards in each row were the same width.

  What had shocked Heath was how fast the wall was getting put up. After the tractor had dug a mile, it had stopped because it would leave the gun bot coverage area. By noon, a mile of completed fence was up and the boys had moved the bots to cover the next section. This time, a dozer had moved out first to level the ground since they were going up a finger that led down from a ridge. When it was a hundred yards into the job, the tractor had come in and the process started again.

  Rhonda had come with Ian, Lance, Jennifer, and Lilly. As the second mile was being put in, she’d eased over to Heath and asked why the next row of boards were offset from the row below. The ends of the boards from one row to the next never ended on the same post. Feeling very elated that Rhonda had asked him, Heath explained that if the boards all ended on the same post, that would make a section of the wall weak. By overlapping each row, the strength stayed constant.

  By the end of the day, two miles had been put up. Ian and Lance had told the Bear Trap and Beard Clans they didn’t need them tomorrow and to just continue on with the other tasks. Lance, Ian, Jennifer, and Lilly had gone out to move the bots and help cover while Bravo worked.

  When Heath and Dwain had ridden over yesterday afternoon to see if Bravo needed help, Heath had slammed on the brakes where Bravo had initially started. They could see Bravo working on the ridge to the west, and knew Bravo would be done before nightfall. After they’d driven over, they could tell Bravo was much faster than when they’d started. And like they had figured, Bravo was done several hours before sunset, but started working on the temporary gates.

  There were only going to be three gates. One at each end of highway 25E where it passed through Bimble and one gate to the north where they’d started on the valley floor for access to the coalition. Heath and Dwain had helped cover while the gates were put up on the highway to close the gaps. Unlike the gate to the north, these gates just looked like walls at the moment. A bulldozer was pulled up and parked behind the gate after it was propped up on the wall.

  The wall was built like a diversion fence. It was slanted to all approaches that the stinkers traveled. At each end of the highway, it would divert the stinkers south. There were stinkers inside the fence when they’d escorted Bravo back, but they were trapped. At the highway, gun bots had been moved to hilltops so they could shoot over the twenty-foot-tall wall and stinkers couldn’t pile up.

  As Heath and Dwain remembered all that, Percy was still waiting for more information on Bravo. “So, is the wall finished or what?” Percy finally asked because he had gotten home late yesterday from the research area.

  “Oh, sorry,” Dwain mumbled as he nodded. “Yes, they finished yesterday.”

  “I’m glad,” Percy smiled. “You think that’s where Ian and Lance are?”

  They both turned to look at each other, feeling like idiots. “Shit,” they both said at the same time.

  “Clearing out inside of the fence was the next stage,” Dwain grumbled.

  “Dude, it’s Sunday and unless they tell us different, we’re coming to eat with everyone,” Heath snapped.

  “I know,” Dwain snapped. “We should’ve figured that out and been over
here at sunrise to head out and help.”

  Listening to Dwain and Heath, Percy finally spoke up as he shook his head, “Um, they didn’t invite you, so maybe they didn’t want anyone to come?” he offered. Working in the research area, Percy had come to the conclusion that Lance and Ian were mastermind geniuses. One thing Percy had learned was he didn’t help the boys until they asked. Oh, he always wanted to stay beside them just to watch their minds work but when he or anyone else was close, the boys didn’t work as efficiently. It was Lilly who had pointed out the reason. Lance and Ian were worried Percy would do something or stand in the wrong place, inadvertently blocking an escape route if things went bad. After that, Percy watched from afar.

  As Dwain thought about that, Heath objected. “No,” he said flatly. “This is like patrolling. We should’ve thought about it and just showed up. Not all of us,” he stated adamantly. “But some of us should’ve been here to go and help.”

  Hearing Heath’s reasoning, Dwain nodded. “Yeah, that is straight man code.”

  Percy just looked at the two. He had memorized the code. Hell, there was a huge board at the research area that had all the rules listed. The board had many more rules than the code Ian and Lance recited every so often. The same one the Ladybugs recited every day. “Guys, I’ve memorized the code. That isn’t on the board,” Percy told them.

  Dwain turned, looking Percy in the eyes. “Men protect,” Dwain stated. Seeing Percy take a breath to recite the entire verse, Dwain held up a hand to stop him. “I know the verse, but that’s the gist.”

  Rolling that around in his mind and not finding any fault in the reasoning, “Do you think they’ll be mad that we weren’t here to help?” Percy asked.

  “No,” Heath scoffed. “They know everyone needs to rest. For fuck’s sake, look at what they did before any of us were even here. Percy, you do realize, we, and I mean all of us were a drain for them to even bring in. We still are, but at least now the majority of us are helping and working on their ideas, as well as patrolling.”