Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Turning to Lance, “I’m sorry I have to ask you, but did you tell them?” Jarvis asked.

  “They haven’t been back over, have they?” Lance countered.

  “We like for others in the coalition to come over, but those three never came to help,” Jarvis explained again. “I’m surprised they found their way home every night.”

  “If you don’t want Cory, Rhett, or Rita back, just say the word and I’ll ban them from returning,” Lance offered, and Jarvis shook his head.

  “Nah, when we get the gates up they can come back, but I’ve warned Trent that the drinking every time those three come over has to stop. Every once and a while I could understand, but damn,” Jarvis gasped. “I always expected Cory and Rhett to cause trouble when they were drunk, but Trent always kept them under control. I’m surprised Trent and Linda could work as hard the next day because I damn sure can’t after getting shit-faced.”

  “Corey, Rhett, and Rita have never been model workers,” Lance said, and Jarvis gave him a double-take. “Hey, they’re in the GTs so they’re Seth’s problem, not mine. When Seth can’t or won’t control them, then the three will become my problem.”

  Hearing another diesel engine, Jarvis turned to see a semi returning. On the trailer were two large metal boxes painted black, large being ten feet long, six feet high, and five feet wide. Each had four solar panels mounted on the sides. Jarvis wasn’t stupid and knew those four panels would take several lifetimes to charge batteries that size. He knew those produced power because he had seen smaller ones at the build house. Nobody had offered to explain and Jarvis had never asked. In truth, if someone had tried to explain he would’ve walked away, Jarvis didn’t want to know. One, it provided power way out of proportion to anything he knew about. The second, everyone seemed frightened of them. The only one who’d ever told Jarvis anything about the battery had been Percy.

  “Sometimes they just blow up,” Percy had said, and Jarvis had nearly walked right back to Bravo. “There are alarms so if you ever hear a loud beeping, run. Just make sure you run away from the beeping. If a ride is close, get in it and drive away.”

  The semi pulled over to the east bridge where they were standing and they saw Percy climb out of the cab with a huge grin. “I told them I could drive the semi,” he cheered out, and Jarvis didn’t really want to hear that with the explosive batteries on the flatbed.

  With a heavy duty forklift, also known as a telehandler, they moved the shipping containers by pulling them over and gently lifting one of the special batteries off. Having faith in Lance and Ian because he knew they’d designed whatever made the special battery, Jarvis didn’t find a place to hide. He did nearly take off when the backup alarm on the forklift sounded.

  Looking where the forklift was heading, Jarvis saw a huge transformer. Others guided the driver over to the place where the special battery was going. “I thought you hooked up the electricity,” Jarvis asked Lance as Dwain moved over carrying heavy wire.

  “I had to move those fuckers without ‘em. Them? They can hook the damn things up,” Lance popped off, finishing his bowl off. Because he had looked at the plate on the electric motor, Jarvis knew it was three phase and took over five hundred amps to run the seven-hundred-horsepower motor. The fact there was another one and a five-hundred-horsepower motor, Jarvis knew that kind of power was dangerous and it was coming from metal boxes. That’s why he knew if they blew up it would be big, and he would take Percy’s advice and just take off running.

  Trent and Linda returned wearing expressions of wonder. “Holy fuck, is that machine awesome!” Trent exclaimed.

  “I like it,” Lance nodded, rolling his paper bowl up and shoving it in his cargo pocket.

  “Um, why are there posts in the ground in front of the ‘master plan’?” Linda asked. “I’ve seen stuff like that around parking areas before.”

  “So someone or stinkers can’t shove a car in the shredder,” Lance answered. “Yes, the roadway’s clear now but when a large mob comes through, we’ve seen cars moved down the road for miles.”

  “Lilly said it could eat cars,” Jarvis said.

  Nodding, “Oh it can, but it wears the teeth down much faster and I’m not in the mood to sharpen them every day or even every week,” Lance told him. “My worry is someone will drive a tank or dozer in. Both are heavy enough to break the framework.”

  “Who the fuck would want to break it?!” Trent cried out.

  “Assholes,” Lance replied. “That’s why gun bots overwatch all our creations now, but a gun bot can’t do shit to a tank. That’s why the poles are there.”

  Glancing over at the gun bots around them, “How many are going here?” Trent asked.

  “Enough,” Lance answered. “Don’t worry, they won’t engage stuff behind them, that’s the job of the gun bots in Bravo area.”

  “When are you bringing in the Sterling engines?” Trent asked. There were two in Bravo to supply power. Lance and Ian had pulled them off the battle bot areas since they now had special batteries.

  “Not putting one here,” Lance answered.

  “I hung power lines before joining the Army, so I can help if you need some,” Trent offered.

  Grinning as he pulled his mask back on, “Won’t need any powerlines,” Lance said. Trent and Linda both turned to look at the second special battery the forklift carried over and saw the solar panels on the sides. It was then they noticed Dwain running a tube from what looked like a five-hundred-gallon propane tank near the transformer, but there wasn’t a generator. Dwain was running the tube to the first special battery that had been set out.

  “How in the fuck can you get enough power from eight panels to even think about powering the ‘master plan’?” Trent asked.

  “Skill, knowhow, and magic,” Lance smirked.

  Linda watched the gun bot out in front of the area take down a stinker with a single shot. “Those things are awesome,” she crooned. “I’ve read about them but never believed I would see one.” Nobody else commented and Linda seemed dejected. “Just how did you make one?” she finally asked.

  “Skill, knowhow, and magic,” Lance repeated looking off. Jarvis followed Lance’s gaze over to the other bridge and saw Ian and Jennifer looking at a computer tablet. Grabbing his radio, “Ian, what the hell are you looking at?” Lance asked.

  They watched Ian lift his radio up, “You’re not going to believe what got spotted!” Ian cried out, and broke into a run with Jennifer following.

  “Hope it’s not trouble,” Jarvis said, watching them sprint over.

  “If we see trouble on a monitor, we can kill it,” Lance assured him. “If you can see a bot kill area, a gun bot can see you. We have gun bots set up everywhere.”

  Ian skidded to a stop, holding out the tablet. “Look,” he said, but wasn’t smiling. Taking the tablet, Lance just groaned and passed it to Lilly as he walked away. Jarvis, Trent, and Linda moved over behind Lilly to look at the screen and saw two tigers moving along a valley floor. Behind the two tigers were three cubs.

  “Well, now we know why they left,” Lilly said, then thumbed to another image and this was zoomed in closer.

  “Left?” Jarvis panted staring at the large kitty cats.

  “Yeah, they used to live near us. We let them stay because they killed stinkers and anyone snooping around,” Lilly answered. She then explained about the zoos and circuses that released animals. “A word of advice, if you shoot them, make sure it’s with a big gun because they’ll get pissed off. If you wound one and it runs away, Ian and Lance will tie your ass up to use as bait so they can kill it.”

  “I hate big pussy,” Ian informed everyone as Lance came back over.

  “They’re outside the perimeter. If they try to return, what do you want to do?” he asked Ian.

  Pointing at the tablet, “Pussy is breeding. Those little pussies will be big pussies very soon,” Ian stated. “I suggest we just make it hard for them to return and if they do, we get really big guns and k
ill the mean pussy.”

  “Ian, mean pussy kills dogs and gangs,” Lance threw out. “I really want more shit out there that kills dogs.”

  “Dogs can’t climb trees. I can climb a tree to get away from dogs. That doesn’t work on pussy,” Ian replied.

  Thinking for a minute, “We could build them a treehouse outside the perimeter where we want them to stay. They seemed to like the one we built them near the cabin,” Lance suggested. “Ian, I don’t like mean pussy either, but I damn sure don’t want to hunt mean pussy unless I have to.”

  Glancing at Jennifer and getting a nod, Ian turned back to Lance. “Okay, we’ll build them another treehouse. Think we need to stash more heavy guns in the buggies and tracks?” he asked.

  “Dude, I’ll engage mean pussy with a centrifugal gun!” Lance cried out. “I can shoot their asses from three quarters of a mile and hit them with fifty projectiles a second. I know for a fact that gun can punch through an inch of rolled steel.”

  “Not all the buggies and UTVs have one,” Ian countered.

  “Ian, I’m not carrying a Barrett or the .458 Weatherby along with my gear when we patrol. We carry a 12-gauge with slugs and that’s enough,” Lance told him. “Worse comes to worst, I’ll use a fucking Javelin on mean pussy.” Liking the reasoning, Ian nodded as Trent looked back down at the screen.

  “How do you know where it’s at from the picture? There aren’t any identifiers for camera numbers or location,” he asked.

  “Dude, we know this area,” Ian said.

  Looking back at the image, “This was taken from high up. There aren’t any mountain tops that high around here,” Trent said. “Where the hell is the camera?”

  “Up in your momma’s pussy!” Lance shouted, startling them.

  Trent held up both hands. “Dude, I’m sorry for getting you mad. This is just really neat,” Trent told him. Jarvis was about to tell Trent and Linda to leave, but Lance spoke first.

  “Let’s just say nothing can get close without being seen. Anything moving in the open within ten miles can be spotted,” Lance said. Trent and Linda both gave gasps as Jarvis blinked in shock. “One person can move easily, but it’s hard to survive alone. Two can move easily and have a better chance at survival. After two bodies, each one you add, the effort to move and remain hidden compounds exponentially. So we had to set up to look for small bands moving around us.”

  Looking rather pale, “I had a team out patrolling to the south and saw three survivors last week, and you didn’t notify us,” Trent said.

  “Oh, that part just came online,” Lance shrugged.

  “Drones?” Linda asked.

  “Maybe,” Ian chuckled.

  Trying to swallow with his mouth dry, “Trent, Linda, get the others and head back to Bravo,” Jarvis told them. Turning to Lance, “You think a gang is going to hit us, don’t you?”

  “A large group would take huge losses, but I’m not going to say one won’t try,” Lance answered. “Hell, the Devil Lords, for the most part, moved in small groups. Granted, their fucking motorcycles made enough noise that it didn’t matter. They only grouped up when they were attacking. New Dawn? Now they moved small and if we would’ve left them alone, the Nazis would’ve taken out the Devil Lords in time. Training and intelligence trumps brute force ninety-nine percent of the time.”

  After Trent and Linda had left, Lilly leaned over resting her side on Lance, “Did we do good?” she asked.

  “Very,” Lance chuckled, and Jarvis wanted to ask but just left it alone.

  The sun was setting when Jarvis watched the last part being mounted on the ‘master plan’. It looked like a tiny house built on a platform between the two bridges and was the only wooden part of the structure. Looking at the front of the small house there was a door but it was just painted to look like one. Then there was a huge picture window that took up most of the ten-foot-long front. Jutting out from the front was a large overhang, like a covered porch.

  The window blinked when a projector on the overhang turned on. It looked like you were looking inside a house and it’d been filmed at the cabin. All of a sudden, everyone who lived at the cabin crowded to the window and screamed. Loudspeakers under the overhang let the scream sound out over the land in high definition sound. Jarvis had seen this at the one on the north ‘master plan’ before and still couldn’t help but laugh.

  It really looked like those at the cabin were inside the tiny house, looking out and screaming at something coming. Then the Ladybugs all ran around, waving their hands in the air and screaming while Ian and Lance yelled, looking at each other and then back out the window. When they left, the moms got in the window screaming and then each person ran to the window screaming.

  Shouting and screaming continued as those in the window kept running up and looking out. Then it suddenly stopped when Lance and Ian stepped to the window holding up both middle fingers. “Bitches!” they shouted, and everyone behind them busted out laughing.

  Then Denny jumped in beside them, holding up his middle finger. It was only then, Jarvis realized Chris and Tyler hadn’t joined Lance and Ian. He could see them running around and laughing in the background now, but couldn’t remember seeing them when he’d watched the entire episode at the north ‘master plan’. It was over an hour long and the longer it went, the crazier those on the screen acted.

  “Stinkers act crazy seeing that,” Dwain said walking up behind Jarvis.

  “Yeah, seen that at the north ‘master plan’ site,” Jarvis answered. All of a sudden, two butts were on the window and it looked like they were pressed against an actual window. “How?”

  “They had a huge pane of glass set up in front of the camera,” Dwain answered as Ian and Lance stumbled off, pulling up their pants and laughter sounded from everyone in the background. All of a sudden, three little butts were pressed up against the window.

  “Hey, stinkers!” Allie, Carrie, and Jodi sang out, and Jarvis saw Lance fall to the floor laughing.

  When the Ladybugs moved off pulling up their pants, Rhonda and Holly jumped in front of the window and lifted their shirts to expose their bras. “Get some, punks!” Rhonda shouted and then lowered her shirt. Holly had more trouble pulling her shirt over her belly than her breasts.

  “My god, how can your sister even walk without falling over?!” Jarvis cried out.

  “Hey, nobody on my mom’s or dad’s side had knockers, so we don’t know where they came from,” Dwain admitted. The group continued to act crazy with everyone except Tyler and Chris front and center in the window. Jarvis was tempted to ask but realized it wasn’t any of his business.

  Two butts filled the screen as Sandy and Mary looked over their shoulders. “Look, stinkers! Full moon mommas!” they shouted out, and the group howled in laughter. When Sandy and Mary moved away, everyone left the screen and it blinked again. Then it started over with everyone running to the window screaming.

  “Damn, didn’t realize I watched the entire thing,” Jarvis grinned.

  “I got a copy and play it at the house,” Dwain laughed. “I think it should get an Academy Award.”

  Jarvis looked around and saw equipment being loaded up, then turned to the east and saw a truck driving along the median. From the other site, he knew they were putting down cascading lights like airports used to direct a plane to land. During the day they were very bright so he figured during darkness, they would be seen for quite a distance. The blinking drew the stinkers because they damn sure followed the cascading lights, just like a plane would in order to land.

  “How far out do the lights start?” Jarvis asked.

  “Now, only a quarter of a mile, but Ian and Lance want to extend them out a mile at each location,” Dwain answered.

  A deep hum sounded making Jarvis jump, and he turned to look below the house to see the shredders turning. Of the two large ones, all that was exposed were the long teeth moving through slots of metal. The small shredders were mounted above the end to keep the stinker bodies m
oving. Looking down to where the ramp started between the two bridges, the first ten feet of the ramp sloped steeply so once a body stepped there, it was a point of no return. Jarvis had watched stinkers enter and if you blinked, you could miss a stinker getting reduced to chunks.

  The chunks were pulled through by the big shredders and dropped to the water below. Jarvis didn’t know why but was glad because nobody had to come and clean the ‘master plans’ like they did the battle bots areas.

  “Lance and Ian showed you the spots to block the roads, right?” Dwain asked.

  “You mean the spots all of you are going to block the roads?” Jarvis grumbled.

  Turning to Jarvis and taking off his mask, “Jarvis, they want to feel safe letting Bravo help. They, and we’ve put a lot of effort in getting your group set up. We don’t want to see that effort go away because a bunch of you weren’t prepared and ready to chip in without getting killed. They know you want to. Trust me, I’ve been there and so has everyone else in the coalition.”

  “They’re teens! How can they accomplish what they have and think on this scale?!” Jarvis cried out.

  “You figure that out, let me know so I can do it,” Dwain asked. “Like Heath told me, just be glad they allowed us to join with them.”

  Understanding but wanting to help more, Jarvis just nodded. “I think Trent and Linda really pissed them off,” Jarvis sighed.

  “Did Lance or Ian threaten to kill them?” Dwain asked and Jarvis shook his head. “Threaten bodily harm?” and Jarvis shook his head again.

  “Lance yelled at them,” Jarvis told him. “I think because they were asking questions. Shit, everyone in Bravo asks questions. The shit they come up with is mind-blowing.”

  “If Lance only yelled, they irritated them. Yes, I said them. If you irritate one, you irritate them both. If they threaten a beating, you’ve pissed them off. They threaten to kill, you’ve made them mad. I know because Heath and I’ve had all three,” Dwain admitted.