Passing through the east gate, the pungent odor hit them. Six hundred yards outside the gate there was a pile of several hundred stinkers that the gun bot overlooking the parkway had taken out. It had been set up yesterday and more than one person had wanted to ask and make sure Ian and Lance had turned the damn thing off. But they thought it might piss them off, and they were the ones controlling thunder bots, so everyone just prayed.
Everyone turned to look at the gun bot four hundred yards away, sitting on a ridge behind the wall that was six hundred feet over the parkway. Only when they saw the turret turned around over the frame did they relax, and only then did they notice a group from Bravo with rifles near the gun bot.
Driving the track that Lance was in, “Who cleared the bodies?” Lilly asked over the radio.
“I told Bravo to do it when we picked up Jarvis,” Lance answered.
In the track’s gun turret Allie spun it around, stopping to look down the parkway. On the flat screen for the gun she saw stinkers shambling towards them. “I got stinkers!” she cheered out.
RRRRRt, RRRt, RRRRt, sounded beside them as one of the thunder bots fired very short bursts and Allie watched the group of stinkers explode one at a time. In ten seconds, nearly twenty stinkers were down. The only sound was the ball bearings cracking the sonic barrier. “Let me shoot some goober smooching bitches!” Allie shouted over the radio.
“Allie, mouth!” Mary shouted over the radio. Mary was riding in Ian’s track beside them and Lilly could swear she heard Mary’s shout, even with the earphones on.
In Lance’s track, sitting on the right side, “Lance, let Allie shoot some,” Sandy told him over the radio.
“Hey, what about me?” Carrie called out, since she was in the gun turret on Ian’s track that Jennifer was driving.
“Take turns, girls,” Sandy told them, and Lilly just shook her head.
“What I wouldn’t have given to be treated like that when I was a kid,” Lilly mumbled, then she realized she’d said it out loud. In a panic, she looked down and sighed in relief that her microphone was off.
Allie and Carrie would call out targets and laugh as they sent a stream of half-inch ball bearings at a stinker. “Lance?” Sandy called out. “Why do the thunder bots shoot more than once? You said they’re just gun bots mounted on tracks.”
Making adjustments to the spacing of the three thunder bots he was controlling, “They are but when a thunder bot is rolling, I can’t get the stabilization system fine-tuned enough to do single kill shots, so it fires a burst. The burst is only ten or so projectiles,” Lance answered as Allie cut a stinker in half, literally. When it crawled away from the lower half Allie unleased another stream, evaporating the head.
Just over two miles outside the Bravo fence, they reached the small bridges that ran over Stinking Creek. The flow now couldn’t even be classified as a stream, it was now Small Stinking River. Without even being told the group separated, pulling to where they needed to be as Lilly drove over the eastbound bridge and slowed. The thunder bots pulled past and Lance unleashed them as Allie stood up out of the gun turret and used her AR on three stinkers that were close.
Two thunder bots continued three hundred yards down the road and stopped. The gun bots they’d been pulling unlatched from the thunder bots, with one sitting in the eastbound lane and the other in the west-bound lane. Both thunder bots pivoted and headed back toward the bridge while the legs at each corner of the gun bots extended out, setting down on the parkway and then extending out to lift the trailer the gun bot was mounted on off the ground.
The trailer was seven feet off the ground with the turret at ten feet when the computer started up, making sure it was level. In the track, Lance was setting the fields of fire and before the thunder bots pulled to a stop, he’d turned on one of the gun bots. Each gun bot held fifty thousand ball bearings like the thunder bots, but Lance and Ian had wanted to make sure if a mass of stinkers, a gang, or aliens invaded they could unleash hell.
At the other side Ian did the same, but his gun bots were set up to the side of the road since trucks would have to move back to get the rest of the supplies when they were needed.
“Are your children playing nice?” Lilly asked getting ready to climb out.
“If the bots are mine, then the Ladybugs are yours,” Lance countered and heard Allie gasp behind him. He turned to see she had climbed out of the turret and was standing on the wire mesh roof over the bed.
“Yeah, right,” Lilly laughed climbing out.
Standing well off to the side after the cranes set up, Jarvis watched in wonder as large metal frameworks were lifted off the flatbed trailers. The frame spanned between the bridges, with the footing on the roadway but rising over the guardrails. Over the guardrails, the frame dropped below the roadway. Jarvis watched as two more frames were lifted up and set in place so the framework reached from the abutment to the middle of the bridge span.
Forklifts lifted thin sheets of steel off another trailer as Jarvis watched kids and some adults donning welding gear. The smallest crane moved over and started lifting single sheets of one-eighth-inch steel sheets to cover the framework. As the welders went to work joining the three sections of frame together and welding sheets of steel, two groups went to work on each bridge. They moved truck-mounted drill rigs over the framework that supported the metal structure on the roadway.
Hoses were dropped down and pulled up to pumps being run by huge generators. Water soon covered the bridge as two-inch holes were drilled through the roadway. “I thought they only used drill rigs like that to drill for water,” Jarvis mumbled. Everywhere he looked, he could see people working. The only ones he saw not working were some kids who were standing guard.
“Pretty neat, huh?” Lance asked walking up.
Motioning with his chin toward one of the guards, “Why do you have so many? I know you like backup for your killer robots, but it seems a bit much,” Jarvis said.
“I wanted them to feel included,” Lance answered, pulling a tablet from a satchel at his side. Looking at the screen and tapping it a few times, Lance put the tablet away.
“Thanks for letting me watch. Not that I’m going to build one, but it gives me ideas on the wall,” Jarvis said. He felt Lance turn to him but Jarvis really didn’t like looking at that freaky skull painted on their masks, so he just watched the construction. “I wanted to ask you about your thoughts. We’ll mortar rock on the outside but on the inside, I want to just pile dirt up to form a berm.”
“Dude!” Lance cried out. “You have any idea how much dirt that’s going to take?”
Nodding, “Yep, and the three tallest and closest hilltops outside the wall will provide all the dirt,” Jarvis answered.
“Jarvis, that’s a good idea, but finding the fuel is going to be a problem,” Lance told him.
Shaking his head, “No, you said we were going to clear out Barbourville soon,” Jarvis replied.
“Jarvis, it’s just a small town. Even if the gas station tanks are full, which I can assure you they aren’t, there wouldn’t be enough,” Lance said.
“Trust me, I know where over twenty thousand gallons of diesel is at,” Jarvis grinned. “Remember, I worked for the railroad before becoming a pipeline worker for the oilfield.”
“That’s good to know,” Lance nodded.
It was only in the last few weeks that Jarvis had come to realize Ian and Lance really were over the Wild Ones. He’d thought there were adults but they were just staying in the background, which he couldn’t understand. Jarvis still didn’t believe they were thirteen. His twenty-four-year-old son didn’t act as responsible or mature as Ian and Lance did. Just the memory of his son caused Jarvis pain and he pushed it out of his mind.
“Lance, what did y’all come up with Bravo for?” Jarvis asked, and Lance didn’t turn to him or answer. “Each group inside the perimeter has a primary job, so what’s ours? I only ask so we can start.”
It was over a minute before Lance
even answered. “You need to get set up first.”
“I know one reason we’re there is to provide a safe haven for others because you can’t fit that many inside the perimeter,” Jarvis said. He didn’t know the size of the perimeter because what Lance and Ian had shown him of the area on the map to avoid was much bigger than the actual perimeter. “Well, I guess we could all fit, but I understand why you don’t want so many inside.”
Finally Lance turned to Jarvis, “Oh, do tell?” Lance smirked, and Jarvis knew he was grinning under the mask.
“The fewer who know what’s inside, the less likely others will find out. That level of mystery is something few will want to test if they attack. Just from what I’ve seen I know if we’re attacked, those folks attacking are in for a bad day.”
“Lilly said you’d figure it out fast,” Lance told him, turning back to the construction. “Ian and I thought you wouldn’t figure it out until the wall was complete, but she knew you would.”
“So, what is Bravo for?”
Giving a long, tired sigh, “Supplies,” Lance answered.
Since he had been scavenging with Ian and Lance a few times, Jarvis knew what Lance was talking about. They didn’t want boxes of stuff but if some were found, they would take it. They wanted things and would dismantle them to get what they needed. “We can start on that now since we cleared Bimble.”
“No, you need to get the fence filled, the real gates up, and get all your greenhouses ready. Yes, some are up, but you need them all up. We have supplies available, thanks to the Devil Lords, but I would really like to hoard those for ‘Oh Shit’ moments. I didn’t think Bravo would grow as fast as it has,” Lance admitted.
“Neither did I,” Jarvis agreed. “I’m shocked there are people still roaming around.” Bravo was now over three hundred and would actually be more if Jarvis hadn’t sent some away. He hated doing it, but those he’d sent away were trouble. Most who came were given a week or so to see if they’d fit in, and most did. Some were just plain assholes and others just wouldn’t work. All were escorted out at gunpoint and warned if they were seen again, they would be shot. Jarvis did embellish because the thunder bots were always around, and told those who were escorted that the thunder bots had their biometrics and would shoot them long before a guard even spotted those who returned. So far none had tested it, and Jarvis was sure the thunder bots were the reason why.
Turning to Lance, “Lance, I’ve talked to the others over groups. They all started working days after you and Ian brought them in. We’ve been here for months. We’ll start gathering. What do you need us to concentrate on?” Jarvis asked.
“Jarvis,” Lance mumbled like he was ashamed. “We had the other sites prepped before any who came in were brought there. We were going to, at the very least, have the trees cut down for the outer fence before gathering up people for Bravo.”
“Hey, you don’t need to hold our dicks for us when we piss,” Jarvis smirked, and Lance busted out laughing. “What do you need us to gather?”
Feeling relief with the laughter, Lance turned to Jarvis and got serious. “Everything,” Lance told him. “We have no more computers, electronics, steel, aluminum, or electric motors. As of right now, we don’t have the parts to make another battle bot and they’re the easiest to make.”
Since he’d taken a lesson from the boys, Jarvis pulled out a notepad and started making a list. “Oh, I’ll have a mountain of shit for you in two days,” Jarvis vowed. “I wish you’d have told me sooner, so we could’ve started. On the inside, I don’t like your terminator bots but on the outside, I want hundreds of them forming a wall of death around us.”
“Well, we’re clearing Barbourville next week so that’s more you can gather from,” Lance said, feeling relief that Jarvis was bound and determined to help anyway he could.
“So our job is to gather. Anything else?” Jarvis asked making notes.
“In time, what you gather you’ll separate but for now, just get us some shit,” Lance told him, turning to watch the drill rig move to drill another hole in the bridge. “Bravo will also be set up so we can trade with others to get what we need and not have to find it.”
Looking up from his notebook, “Trade what?” Jarvis asked.
Shrugging, “Food, supplies, and ammo,” Lance answered.
“Food and stuff I can see in the near future but ammo, you have enough stockpiled to trade?” Jarvis asked in wonder.
“Shit, no,” Lance huffed. “We’ll set up a small factory and make it.”
“That’s going to take some time to put together,” Jarvis replied.
“No, it won’t,” Lance laughed, watching a group carry over a ten-foot-long, two-inch-thick bolt and put it into the hole that had been drilled through the bridge so the framework could be bolted down. When Jarvis didn’t reply, Lance glanced over to see Jarvis staring at the side of his mask. “There’s a small ammunition factory near Nevisdale. We’ll just go and bring what they have here. Ian can make cordite in his sleep.”
“Cordite?” Jarvis asked.
“Smokeless gunpowder,” Lance answered.
“Didn’t know that,” Jarvis mumbled. “Lance, I know the place you’re talking about. It’s a small family business, not a ‘plant’. I doubt the building is ten thousand square feet.”
“I know, but I’ve never been there. They specialized in match quality ammo and could make uncommon rounds,” Lance said. “It’ll make enough that we can defend ourselves and trade. We just won’t be able to trade much ammo. Before you ask, I don’t know how much we could make. Uncle Doug’s notes only say the place could manufacture ten thousand rounds a day. I don’t know if that’s one caliber or what.”
“Why in the hell would you think I would ask if you didn’t tell me?” Jarvis scoffed.
“Sorry,” Lance sighed. “People ask us all the time for more information after I tell them all I know.”
“Oh, I definitely understand that,” Jarvis nodded emphatically. They both turned to see the semi-trucks returning and Jarvis couldn’t help but shiver. On two of the trailers were the seven feet tall and twenty feet long shredders. The third trailer held four smaller shredders, if one considered “small” being two feet tall and twenty feet long.
“Let me help them guide them in,” Lance said already moving off.
Jarvis had seen the ‘master plan’ to the north in action and seen the work done before the shredders had been put together. He just couldn’t get it through his mind what Ian and Lance thought of to have planned out, designed, and constructed the ‘master plans’. The seven-foot-tall pipes that formed the main shredders were nearly twenty-two feet around. When he’d seen them lined up along the valley floor below the build house, Jarvis had even known where the boys had gotten them near Woollum. In the past, Jarvis had helped deliver the monster pipes and the smaller ones to a farmer who’d bought them from the oil company Jarvis had worked for. At the time, steel was cheap and the farmer had paid the steel price since he was going to use them for silos to store feed. The farmer had bought sixteen of the mammoth pipes and dozens of the two-foot pipes, because he had gotten them so cheap.
How the boys had found the farm Jarvis hadn’t had a clue until Ian had said they’d found it while scouting the Pirates.
When you looked at the huge pipes now they looked closed in, but there was a framework inside each pipe. Again in awe, Jarvis wondered how the boys had gotten the framework inside because it fit perfectly and the outside rotated smoothly around the framework. Inside was one of the biggest electric motors Jarvis had ever seen and he’d worked in the oil field. Yes, he had seen bigger, but only on locomotives when he’d worked at the railyard. In the massive pipe was a huge seven-hundred-horsepower electric motor and the plate on the side said it weighed nearly six thousand pounds, and there was one in each of the huge pipes.
They had always been around, but it was the fact the boys had known where to look for them. Five had been pulled from water pumping stations an
d two more were pulled from farms that had used them to pump water. Not only had they found them, the boys had unhooked them, brought them back, and checked them over. There was another electric motor to drive the four ‘smaller’ shredders via a chain, but it was only five-hundred-horsepower and barely weighed a ton.
When the largest crane hooked up to the first large shredder, Jarvis saw it shift as it took on the weight. It was only then that he looked at the bridge itself, hoping it wouldn’t collapse because the mobile crane was a monster in its own right. Jarvis had seen cranes smaller than that one pick up a locomotive so he knew it could handle the weight of the pipe, even with the added weight of shredder teeth, interior frame, and huge motor. He was just worried about the bridge.
Moving his eyes to the control cab, Jarvis caught his breath to see it was Heath’s daughter Lori operating the crane. “She’s the best. That’s why she does the big loads,” Lilly said, walking over and taking off her welding jacket.
“Just worried about the bridge,” Jarvis mumbled.
“These, I’m not,” Lilly said jerking a thumb over her shoulder at the two bridges. “The bridges to the north we set up on, that’s a different story.” Jarvis nodded in understanding. Highway eleven was a two lane road but where they’d put the ‘master plan’, the state had been replacing the bridge and had built a temporary one beside the old one.
“I wouldn’t have thought of that in a million years,” Jarvis said to himself.
“Nobody would’ve,” Lilly laughed. “Lance told me you asked what Bravo’s job was. I just wanted to tell you, thank you.”
That startled Jarvis enough to make him turn to Lilly. “Thank me for what? Wanting to help?” he asked.
“No, well, I guess, yes,” Lilly admitted. “You’re willing to do what you can to help, which means to take some of the load off Lance and Ian.”
Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption Page 22