Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Slowing down some, Heath continued on hearing Amie call Rhonda on the radio. “Rhonda, I have a drone over you and see eight bodies in a depression north of the road in the valley.”

  “Copy. Can you do a circle around us to make sure there aren’t others?” Rhonda asked.

  “There are a lot of pine, holly, and cedar but we did a circle a half a mile out and didn’t spot any humans on thermal, but you have a few stinkers to your northeast across the valley in the trees,” Amie replied, and Heath glanced at the bare hardwoods around them. There were evergreens about and Heath usually liked them, but didn’t at the moment because they kept the drones from seeing what was moving through the forest. When there were leaves, an army could move through the forest without being spotted by the thermal on the drones.

  “Surprised they risked such a large group,” Dwain said, scanning hard with his rifle gripped tightly. Steering around a tree, Heath had to agree. Five in a group was all Lance and Ian risked on a large patrol that was going out far just to see what was about. Now the boys would each take a group and meet up, but a large group moving always seemed to be spotted by stinkers.

  “They won’t be going home,” Heath answered. “You realize Ian was right, don’t you?”

  “I’ve never known either of them to be wrong,” Dwain countered. “But what’re you referring to?”

  “All their creations have made a safe zone around our borders and if an enemy can reach it, they can move about watching us.”

  “I’m so sick of people,” Dwain sighed. “We’re facing extinction and some still act like assholes.”

  “Shit floats and the worst always seem to find a way to survive,” Heath stated as he reached the ridge that they had used to get the lumber. Grabbing his radio, “Rhonda, Bear Trap and Beard Clan coming south on the ridge in two UTVs.”

  “Copy, come up slow because Denny turned on the other gun bot and it’s covering our backs,” Rhonda answered. Unconsciously, Heath and Dwain both pulled out their cellphones to make sure they were on, then put them away.

  “I pray your son turned the gun bot on correctly,” Dwain said.

  “He always has, so I’m sure he did this time,” Heath answered, and prayed he was right. “Shit,” Heath mumbled and pulled to a stop.

  “What?” Dwain gasped in shock, shifting his eyes everywhere, looking for a threat. Not seeing anything, he turned to see Heath taking his mask off. “What are you doing?”

  “Making sure I have my mask and not someone else’s,” Heath answered, seeing his name printed in the mask. A person could wear someone else’s mask but it wouldn’t fit right and you’d know it wasn’t yours. But it was the fact the bots scanned faces now that made Heath paranoid. When you got in range, the bot knew from the signal from the phone who was supposed to be there and if the face or mask didn’t match the code, the bot engaged.

  Now doubting his own mask, Dwain pulled his off and saw his name. Before putting it back on, he glanced back to see Patrick and David were doing the same thing. “I like the bots, but sometimes I think the boys are making them too smart,” Dwain stated.

  “Don’t ever say that around any bot in case it makes them mad,” Heath replied and eased along the ridge. It only took a few minutes until he spotted the track ahead. When he saw the gun bot behind it with the barrel aimed at him, Heath wanted to go home.

  Feeling his balls pull up inside him as the barrel tracked them, Heath gave a sigh after seeing the barrel shift behind them to scan Patrick and David. Only when the gun barrel spun away did Heath feel better, but his testicles refused to come out of his abdominal cavity.

  Pulling to a stop behind the track, Heath spotted the other gun bot in the clearing ahead but turned off the engine and got out gripping his AR. The gun bot in the clearing jerked to the right quickly and let out a sonic crack, then swung its barrel back north. Even though it’d never spun around, Heath nearly clawed a hole in the ground to bury himself.

  “What’s going on?” Dwain asked as he climbed out. Before Rhonda answered, she cut loose a five second burst on the centrifugal gun.

  “Keeping their heads pinned down,” Rhonda answered, and Dwain spun his gaze to her. Rhonda didn’t unnerve easily and Dwain knew his sister was worried.

  “Where are Lance and Ian so we can help set up to hit this group when they leave?” Patrick asked, walking up and stopping beside the track.

  “Oh, they’re already across the valley,” Rhonda answered, and the four gasped in shock.

  “They are attacking an enemy that’s in defense and knows someone’s coming?!” Heath cried out. “Why didn’t they just go back and get a thunder bot then?”

  “You’re asking the wrong person,” Rhonda informed him, but heard Heath take a breath to continue. “Heath,” she snapped, stopping his retort before it came out. “I know that’s not how they operate. I’ve been out with them more than you. The only people who can say they’ve been out more with them are Lilly and Jennifer. I know this isn’t their normal actions.”

  “I love Dino, but they can’t get emotional. Hell, I can’t even count how many times they’ve told me that,” Heath panted.

  Shaking her head, Rhonda let off another burst. “Oh, they are way past emotional,” Rhonda informed him. When Heath’s phone rang, he dove to the ground and rolled toward his side by side. Only when his phone rang again did Heath realize what it was and dug it out of his pocket.

  “What?” he snarled as he answered.

  “Do you need us to send more?” his wife Robin asked.

  “No, stand guard there and wait,” Heath popped off, and hung up before he started cursing. When Heath stood up, he saw Dwain, Patrick, and David getting off the ground because they’d dived for cover as well.

  “Really, Heath?” Rhonda scoffed. “You left your ringtone on coming outside the perimeter?”

  “Rhonda, we were pouring cement when this happened, so back off,” he grumbled, but was turning his phone to silent and then noticed Dwain, Patrick, and David doing the same. Turning back to Rhonda, Heath saw her glance down to her right and knew she was looking at a monitor in the turret.

  “You have a camera on that gun,” Heath reminded her.

  “Duh,” Rhonda popped off. “Denny put the thermal image from the gun bot in the clearing on a screen.” No sooner than she’d finished talking, the four were moving to climb up on the track. “Don’t all of you get up here,” Rhonda warned. “I can’t traverse the gun if you do.”

  The driver’s hatch opened up and Denny leaned out, holding a computer tablet, “Here,” he said. Dwain was the first there and grabbed it. “Don’t tap the screen,” Danny warned, and Dwain almost handed it back.

  “If it can do anything to the gun bots, you keep it,” Dwain replied.

  “No,” Denny scoffed. “I just had to put in the digital key to link with the camera and I’m not doing it again. If you change views, it’ll dump the code.”

  Having no idea what Denny was talking about but understanding the bots wouldn’t kill him, Dwain looked at the screen with the other three looking over his shoulders. The camera was zoomed out to show a wide swath across the valley and Dwain could see the depression. Every tree near it had been shot down. The crosshairs were dead center of the depression and the readout said it was four hundred and six yards away.

  At the far left of the screen two boxes appeared but there wasn’t anything in the boxes. “What the hell?” Patrick said over Dwain’s shoulder, but didn’t point at the screen to avoid the risk of touching it. Then Lance’s name popped up on the top box and Ian’s name on the lower one. “Where the hell are they at?”

  “I know you can read,” Denny sang out, dropping back inside the driver’s hatch.

  “Yes, but they aren’t there,” Patrick replied, staring at the two boxes. At first he’d thought they were stationary, but they were ever so slowly slinking east along the slope.

  “They have on their ghillie suits,” Rhonda said, then squeezed off another
burst. “Their suits have a thermal lining.” The four stared hard at the screen, trying to see anything of Lance and Ian but could only see a thermal image of bushes that looked the same as any of the other bushes under the bare trees.

  Knowing the boys were good at moving silently and having witnessed it a few times, Heath just couldn’t grasp what his eyes were relaying to him. Stepping back and grabbing a spotting scope from his ride, Heath brought it up to his eye. He held it on the spot where the gun bot was saying they were, but didn’t see anything. “Are Lance and Ian waiting them out?”

  “No, idiot,” Rhonda said. “They’re moving in on them.”

  No one wanted to argue with Rhonda, but it really looked like the camera image was shifting more than the boxes were moving. “And you’re positive?” Heath offered to not anger his sis.

  Rhonda didn’t answer, but Denny did. “One foot a minute, Dad. Moving at that speed, it’s hard for the human eye to detect.”

  Lowering the spotting scope, “Look up ‘ninja’ in a dictionary and it’ll have a picture of Lance and Ian,” Heath stated.

  “Rhonda,” Amie called over the radio.

  “Here,” Rhonda answered.

  “One of the attackers, a sergeant, is talking to Buckhorn on the radio,” Amie said. “They’re asking for a helicopter to come up and help, but Buckhorn is telling them no. They gave the grid coordinates of the clearing you’re set up behind. The sergeant is telling them a robot gun is keeping them pinned down.”

  “Seems they scouted more than this spot,” Heath mumbled.

  “Copy,” Rhonda replied.

  “Rhonda, Percy has asked if he needs to bring a thunder bot out,” Amie called out.

  “Negative,” Rhonda answered. “Ian and Lance didn’t ask for one, and one better not show up.”

  “Copy,” Amie responded.

  “Percy,” Carrie’s voice sounded over the radio. “We keep the thunder bots here in case the butt-munchers attack. We use the thunder bots to push the attackers into one of the gun bots’ firing zones to catch them in a hammer and anvil attack.”

  “Percy copied cabin,” Amie answered.

  “If the Ladybugs ever get mad at me, I’m leaving,” David told everyone.

  “Like they would give you the chance,” Patrick scoffed.

  For two hours they watched the two boxes creep along the slope, moving forty yards to close in on the attackers. What shocked Heath was Rhonda was still sending bursts out every few minutes, even though Ian and Lance were thirty yards away from the impact area. About to say something, Heath turned to see Rhonda pull her cellphone out and look at the screen.

  “You got a text?” Heath asked.

  “Yeah, Ian just texted, telling me to fire in five minute breaks now, but after two times to stop,” Rhonda said, putting her phone away and glancing at her wristwatch.

  “Jesus,” Dwain gasped. “They’re that close and just pull out a phone to text?”

  “Yes, and Ian sent a picture of the group too,” Rhonda said.

  After the second time Rhonda fired, they watched Ian and Lance move much faster than before but it was still slow. Now the two boxes were at the west end of the depression. Before anyone could ask how or what the boys were going to do, they saw two objects fly through the air and into the depression.

  ‘BAM’ sounded, followed a split second later by another and two more objects sailed into the depression, followed by loud explosions. “Those grenades sound weird,” Patrick said.

  “Those are flash bangs,” Denny called out as two more sailed through the air. After they exploded, everyone watched the two boxes rush into the depression and then disappear.

  “What the fuck happened?!” Heath yelled, already moving to jump in his side by side and drive down to help.

  “They’re in the depression, Dad,” Denny said, and Heath stopped. “Gun bot knows they’re there but can’t lock on to them, so it blocked off that area as a fire zone.”

  Ten minutes later and everyone was antsy. When the radio went off, everyone jumped. “Rhonda,” Ian panted. “Get Denny to drive down here and tell Heath and them to come.”

  “Copy, moving,” Rhonda answered as everyone jumped in their rides and Denny started rolling. “Denny, you take the west slope down!” Rhonda shouted and Denny turned west, taking the much gentler slope.

  Five minutes later, the track and side by sides were pulling up to the lip of the depression. Everyone dismounted at once, staring down inside. Five men in camouflage were handcuffed with feet tied off and lying face down. There was a body near the lip of the depression with the head missing. Another body was at the bottom. The body of the soldier had a vest on, but they could all see three huge holes blown through the front and a knife sticking out of the skull where his buddies had made sure he didn’t get back up.

  “That damn gun can throw those bearings,” Heath mumbled.

  “Bring some rope,” Lance called out as he took off his ghillie suit. Rope was grabbed from each vehicle and brought down. The group watched as Lance and Ian proved they were Boy Scouts with the knots they were tying. When they were done tying up the five prisoners, Heath was certain the ropes would have to be cut off.

  “Any word on Dino?” Lance asked looking at Rhonda, and she shook her head.

  “We’ll load them up,” Patrick offered, only to have Lance stop him.

  “They aren’t riding in our shit,” he spouted.

  They all turned to the tied-up soldiers. “You’re going to leave them? After all that?” Patrick asked in shock.

  “Hell, no,” Ian spat. “We’re dragging their asses back.”

  Not waiting for an explanation, the others moved down in groups of twos and grabbed the ropes tied around the legs. One by one they pulled the five up, stringing them out behind the track. None of the soldiers really fought while they were being dragged out and Heath stopped and stood over one. Blinking his eyes like he was confused, blood was coming from the ears and the young man’s nose. “You just had to come and start some shit,” Heath sighed.

  Turning around, Heath saw Lance standing beside the track holding his laptop with Ian beside him, and both were looking at the screen. Shifting to the right and looking down into the valley, he could see the battle bot coming from the west along the small road. “Why in the hell did they do that?” Ian asked and Lance just shrugged. Both had a clueless expression as they stared at the screen.

  “What did they do?” Denny asked coming over and sticking his head between them to see the screen.

  “They tied the cow up and left it on the road,” Ian answered.

  Heath looked down at the road below where the head of the cow was and three feet of thick horn stuck out from each side. “Fuckers have balls,” Heath admitted. “That’s a Texas Longhorn.”

  “What do you mean ‘tied it up on the road’?” Rhonda asked, walking over and taking her mask off to look at the computer screen.

  “They had two ropes around the head and tied them off on each side of the road so the cow couldn’t run,” Lance said.

  “First, that was a bull, not a cow,” Rhonda corrected. “Heifers don’t have horns that big.”

  Shrugging, “It’s walking steak, don’t care about the sex,” Lance replied, then closed the laptop. “We’ll leave the battle bot in place for now,” he said, putting the laptop in the back of the track, and Ian dug out his phone.

  Looking at the screen, “Jennifer says Lilly’s done with surgery and Dino’s stable and off the vent, but Lilly’s leaving him sedated for now,” Ian said.

  “He turns his ringer off,” Rhonda spat at Heath, and Heath just ignored her. On a hunch, “Ian?” Rhonda said. “Were you texting Jennifer while you two moved?”

  “Yeah,” Ian scoffed, typing a reply. When he was done, Ian put his phone away. “You want to set up the second gun bot?”

  Thinking for a minute, “No, we’ll do it later tonight when we move the battle bot further north up the road,” Lance replied.

&
nbsp; “We only have two welcome wagons,” Ian replied.

  Climbing up on the track, “That’s all we need,” Lance said, then climbed in the turret. “Rhonda, Denny, on the sides for cover and make sure we don’t lose one of our guests.”

  From the look Denny gave hearing ‘welcome wagon’, Heath knew his son was the only one there besides the boys who knew what that was. Heath could tell Rhonda didn’t know but really wanted to ask. The fact she didn’t guided Heath to do the same, so he headed for his ride with Dwain.

  “Want us to follow?” Heath asked, watching Ian climb in the driver’s hatch.

  “Yeah, if the rope breaks and one falls off, try not to run over them,” Lance said and even with his mask on, Heath knew there was a grin on Lance’s face. “The Borg Queen is going to talk to them.”

  When Ian pulled off, Heath watched the line of tied-up soldiers trail behind like cans tied to a string. It seemed being pulled across the ground was shaking the woozy off as they started crying out in alarm. “Heath,” Dwain said as Heath started to follow. “If the boys have made a cybernetic organism to be the Borg Queen, I’m leaving. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m gone.”

  “I’m staying close to them if they have,” Heath replied. “If they made it, they can kill it.”

  When the line of soldiers was dragged onto the asphalt road, none seemed to be groggy any longer. All started to cry out in pain and Ian sped up, weaving the track from one side of the road to the other. This caused the soldiers to whip back and forth, rolling over onto their faces, and Heath cringed watching several get pulled along face first.

  All the screaming stopped and Ian slowed back down, driving straight as the soldiers rolled onto their backs or sides. Several screamed in pain because their hands were in front of them and the asphalt had removed several fingers and broken many others. Again, Ian weaved back and forth while speeding up. When the screaming stopped Ian slowed again, driving straight. The soldiers all learned quickly, scream and it got worse.