Chapter 6

Chang had launched the two inflatable tenders, he commanded one and Sid the other. The rest of us split into two parties with the sergeants distributed between the two boats.

To keep the noise down Chang and Sid drove slowly to the shore keeping the engines just above idle. As we reached the beach all of the shore party sergeants leapt out of the boats and fanned out up the beach in a rough semi-circle. Penny was at the point, her speciality being scout. The rest of us followed behind trying not to make too much noise as we clambered, somewhat ungainly, out of the tenders. Once we were all out the boats slowly reversed away from the beach and then headed back out to Spirit their engine noise disappearing quickly in the darkness.

We watched as the sergeants moved up the beach checking things out for us. It wasn't long before I could see one of them beckoning us to follow. By the time we reached Amanda, who had waved us over, Penny and the others had disappeared on ahead. Amanda spoke to me in a low voice.

"The others are checking out the immediate vicinity for life signs. We don't expect to find anything, the nearest town in about 3 klicks inland but all our assumptions are based on what things were like before IT happened, so we are being extra cautious for the moment."

She paused for a moment. "They've signalled that it's all clear and we should move up."

"Very good, please lead the way."

Without saying anything else Amanda quietly led us through the dunes and scrub until we met the others except for Penny who, I'd guess, was further ahead still scouting.

"There is a road just over the next dune which leads into the town." Ruth told us as we stopped beside them "Sergeant Whitehead has gone on ahead."

Just then three of the other sergeants left the group and moved off towards the road in the direction that Ruth had indicated that Penny had gone. That puzzled me for a moment until I realised that the sergeants were wearing ear pieces and were in constant communication with each other. Shortly after the three had moved on, Amanda started to move out indicating that we should follow her.

We kept up this routine all the way to the outskirts of the town where we all gathered. The data we had about the place was that it used to have around 10,000 residents, had a small shopping centre and other local amenities but nothing more than this. The nearest shopping mall was about 20 miles away in a larger town. For our immediate purposes, this small town suited us fine.

"There's no signs of life so far, no infra red heat signatures as far as we can see." Penny reported.

"How long will it take four of you to briefly scout the entire town?"

"About 30 minutes for an IR scan, longer if you want a more detailed picture."

"No, you only have about 45 minutes of useful darkness and after that your IR goggles won't work so well. Do the 30 minute once over and report back."

All of the sergeants except Amanda melted away in the darkness and left us waiting. This waiting around is always the hardest part but more so when you can't do anything to make the time go more quickly. Night watches on Spirit were much less bothersome since there were things to be doing. You could just walk around the deck looking at the stars if you didn't want to get on with anything constructive, but here we had to sit and wait for the four scouts to return. We didn't talk in case we were heard. This made the half hour seem to be much longer than it was.

Finally, however, Amanda spoke. "They're finished and moving back."

Sure enough within 5 minutes the scouts rejoined the shore party. Penny gave us the report.

"Nothing. As far as we can tell there's no one here. None of the houses or apartments show any sign of heat. Even body heat would have raised the temperature of a room enough for us to spot it. If anyone did survive here, they've moved on."

"Okay, did you find anything that we can use for transport?"

"Sergeant Tarrant found a petrol station on the outskirts of the town and there are many abandoned vehicles."

"We really need trucks or large vans."

"There's some sort of distribution depot near the centre of town, there may be something suitable there."

"Okay, lead us there."

I was glad to get moving and to be doing something. Just sitting around waiting is not my style.

I took us about 15 minutes to reach the depot where we waited for Penny to check it out. The dawn was upon us and I wanted us to be away as quickly as possible. We had much to do. Once Penny had reported that the place was empty of people, we went inside. We found a number of trucks and distribution vans, many suitable for what we wanted. Amanda even found keys for them in one of the offices all neatly labelled with the registration numbers of the vehicles. We eventually chose ones that were fully fueled and loaded another up with as much fuel as we could find containers for. Most of the trucks had diesel engines and had one or more jerry cans and there was a large diesel tank in the back courtyard. Fortunately for us it was above ground so we could fill our jerry cans by gravity even though there was no power to let us use the pumps.

We chose the drivers for the 4 vehicles, including one with a loading arm that I knew as a Hi Ab, and then headed out, a sergeant in each vehicle and two in the large truck I was driving. Getting out of town took longer than we expected since many times we had to stop and remove abandoned cars that blocked our way. Outside of the town things were better and we could just drive around those cars that were in our way.

Our plan was to drive to the next large town and see if it had an industrial area or shopping centre outside of the residential area. The data we had suggested that there might be something there but we didn't know for sure.

As we drove along we kept our eyes open. The sergeants looked for anything that threatened us, the rest of us looked for things that we might need. It soon became obvious that going out alone would be a very foolhardy thing to do. We saw packs of dogs roaming around and many carcasses and bones telling us that things were very wild in this area.

We drove through a number of small villages and saw no signs of life in any of them. It was disheartening, but then I suppose that anyone that had survived would probably have tried to band together and move to somewhere where they could start communities of their own.

I was musing about what we would find when Penny spoke.

"Trouble."

"What? Where?"

"Pull up."

I did as I was told, the others pulling up behind me. Penny climbed out of the truck and onto the top of the cab taking with her the binoculars that she has been using to look out for threats. For a few moments she scanned the town that we could see about a mile ahead of us, then jumped to the ground.

"It's serious. I'd advise finding another place to get supplies."

"Supplies are not our only needs. What is up ahead?"

"There seems to be some sort of small war going on. I can see people running around carrying rifles and I can hear small arms fire."

I have to admit that I could hear nothing, but if our scout said there was small arms fire then there was small arms fire without a doubt. She continued.

"We have no idea of the situation there and I strongly advise that we go somewhere else."

"I have a number of problems with that, Sergeant. Firstly there's no guarantee that somewhere else will be better, it could just as well be worse. Secondly, the very fact that there is a small war going on up there implies that there is something worth fighting about. Given out current situation, what they might be fighting over may be the very sort of things that we ourselves are looking for. Finally, that small war up there may well be people like ourselves defending themselves against those that want something for nothing. Whatever it is, I think we need to find out more. Given that we want to find out more, what would you advise?"

Penny thought for a moment.

"We should be able to get closer along this road especially if the three smaller vehicles stay close behind the truck, in effect hiding themselves. Closer in I can reccy (tr. recon) the area and find out more."

"Let's do it."

We got back into our vehicles and headed on towards the town. As we did so the sergeants prepared themselves. Penny soon had her face painted and had put on a strange suit that she pulled out of a haversack. It was covered with bits of material and I believe it's called a ghillie suit. Finally, Penny told us to stop and we all got out. The sergeants led us to nearby shelter and set up a watch post while Penny disappeared.

Once again we waited. Every ten minutes or so, Amanda would tell us what Penny had said as she reported in. She had quickly covered 80% of the distance from where we stopped to the town and then went in carefully. She saw no one on the way in and no one spotted her. Of that I was not surprised. Eventually she found a place to view what was going on.

"She says that there are a number of men surrounding a hotel. They have rifles and are shooting at anything they fancy. Most of the windows in the hotel are broken but the main doors are intact and blockaded from within. She can see several of the men drinking, others riding around on motor cycles."

"Well wouldn't you just know it. A freaking motor cycle gang. How clichéd can you get. Shades of Mad Max and Hollywood." I grumbled to myself causing the others to smile.

"She agrees with you and wants to know what you want to do about it."

"How many men can she see and ask her what she estimates their strength to be."

"She says she can see about 10 men and would estimate no more than 20. They're not bothering to hide themselves and there doesn't appear to be any return fire from the hotel."

"Okay, well all other considerations aside, those men have got to go. We can't leave them the way they are or we'll only have them to deal with on later visits. They are obviously the aggressors here so we'll take them out. As for whoever is inside the hotel, well, we'll deal with them afterwards. There's ten of us five of whom are a small army all by themselves. I suggest we get it to where Penny is holed up, pair up one sergeant to one civilian, deploy ourselves and stop the war. Us civilians are good shots but the next bit is up to you sergeants."

Amanda relayed this to Penny who told her the route that she had taken to get into town. We quickly covered the 80% distance then, like Penny before us, we crept the last of the distance.

Penny had not been idle as we worked our way in and by the time we arrived at her observation post she had scouted the area.

"There's 15 of them and one obvious leader. Some of them are drunk, most are not. I got close enough to the leader and the group of men around him to hear some of their plans for the people inside the hotel. It wasn't pleasant. I have to say, sir, that after hearing what they were saying I fully agree with your plans to take them out. They have no interest in anything more than survival by rape and pillage."

"You're our tactical expert, what do you suggest?"

Penny quickly described the situation and the area and after ascertaining our firearm skill levels assigned us each to sergeant. Then she told us where she wanted us to get to and what to do. Finally she turned to me again.

"We have two options. Take them out as quickly as possible or warn them first and deal with their reaction. The second carries a greater risk of harm to us."

"We take them out. They will not deal with us, they're not the type to do that. They will capitulate at first and then find a way to get us back by ambush. We'll take the less risky action."

"Good. Get to your positions and wait for my signal. You have your primary and secondary targets. Let's do it." She looked at me, "Sir you're with me." then turned and crept out of the building we were in checking every now and then to see that I was following.

We were going to get closest to the leader group. Penny was the best scout even being hampered by me, and she knew the area. The others were having to go by what she had told them so took the other targets.

By the time we reached our allotted position I ached and I do mean ached. We'd run, crawled, shuffled and climbed all the time trying to make zero noise. Since we were having to get close to the area where there were more targets, the others had reached their positions well before us. Penny leant in close and whispered into my ear.

"For a civilian you're not bad at this."

"Thanks, I think." I whispered back

"Your primary target is that mother fucker wearing the WWII helmet and your secondary target is the small idiot standing by the oil drum. Be careful, he keeps jittering around like he's high on something nasty. Ready?"

"Yes." I shouldered the rifle that I'd been given and centred the cross hairs on my primary target. I heard Penny beside me calling for status from all the others. Then "Fire."

I squeezed the trigger like I was supposed to then without checking to see if my primary target was down I move to my secondary target. He obligingly stood still looking in bemusement at the leader Penny had just shot and I squeezed the trigger again. Both my targets were down and not moving. The two that Penny had targeted were also down.

"Report." I heard her say quietly in my ear.

"Both targets down."

She called to the other teams in turn. Then we waited to see what happened. We continued to wait for another 15 minutes then I heard two more shots.

"Wait here."

I said nothing as Penny slithered out of our hiding place and went scouting again. I kept an eye out for any sign of movement.

I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, carefully, I trained my sights on the area where I thought I saw the movement. Nothing. I kept looking. Still nothing. Then I was startled by a small pebble hitting the wall beside me. I whirled round and saw Penny about 20 metres away looking at me. I pointed to my eyes with the first two fingers of my right hand and then pointed to the area where I though I had seem movement. She nodded and turned to where I had pointed, then she slowly ducked down and out of sight.

I looked again at the suspicious area but this time I kept looking around me and not concentrating exclusively on the area I was interested in. Finally I saw a foot move. The owner of the foot was sheltering behind a chunk of concrete lying by the hotel. What it was doing there I have no idea, however, someone was hiding behind it. Taking careful aim I shot the foot and was rewarded with a scream of pain. The foot jerked as the owner pulled it in out of my line of sight but in doing so he must have exposed himself elsewhere as there was another shot and the cries of pain cut off suddenly.

After another 10 minutes or so Penny reappeared by my side.

"Nice shot." She commented not bothering to whisper this time. "He moved his head just enough for me to see it."

"Thanks."

"They're all accounted for, what do you want to do now?"

I was saved having to reply to that by a man's voice calling from the hotel.

"Hello out there."

I looked at Penny who shrugged her shoulders and said "Your call."

"Hello the hotel." I shouted back.

"What are your intentions?"

"Peaceful." I called. There was a long silence.

"How do I know that?"

"You don't." Another long pause.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"No names." Hissed Penny.

"We're a group of survivors starting our own community some distance from here. We're out looking for supplies and people to join us."

"We don't need your help!"

"Not very trusting is he?" commented Penny.

"If you'd have been through what they have would you be?" I asked.

"You have a point."

"No problem," I called back "we didn't offer help. Good luck."

I turned to Penny. "Call the others in and let's get on with what we were doing."

"Wait." came the voice from the hotel "Where are you going."

"That's not your concern, you don't need our help."

"You can't just leave us like this."

That didn't warrant any reply so I didn't give one.

"Are you still there?"

I didn't answer that one either and we left him shouting as we slipped away to meet the others.

Carefully we returned to the place we had first gathered.

"There are a number of shops in the immediate area, none big but there might be a newsagent or bookshop that has a town map." Penny informed us once we had all reached the first look out point.

"How long will it take you to check that out?"

"About 5 minutes to get there 10 or 15 to find anything so say 30 minutes to get back here."

"Do it we'll wait. Take Ruth to watch your back."

The two of them slipped out of the building and once again we waited.

They were back in less than 15 minutes.

"Lucky on the first place." Penny held up a small booklet, then started flipping through the pages until she found something.

"According to this there is a trading estate north of the town. We can go through the town or round it to get there."

"Going aound is probably better if the last town was anything to go by." This comment came from Julie."

"Okay." said Penny "Let's get back to the trucks and see what's there."

We didn't retrace our steps getting back to the trucks but walked along the road. The sergeants kept a good look out for us. Closer to the trucks Penny had us stop and wait while she scouted again. She faded into the countryside and I couldn't see where she was. A little while later Amanda spoke.

"The trucks are clear, we can continue."

We walked up to the trucks, clambered back in and set off. Initially we headed for the town but soon turned off a road and headed west around the town. Shortly after we made the turn I heard both Penny and Amanda swear.

"Shit!"

"Goddamn!"

"What?"

"Ruth reports that there are three people running along the road after us."

I slowed the truck and stopped and we got out.

"Amanda stay with us, the rest of you sergeants take cover and watch out for us." The four sergeants scurried away, all in different directions.

The three approaching us were obviously female. Despite knowing that the female to male ratio was at least five to one, I was still surprised to see so many women around. As the three jogged closer I began to get a little worried. None of them looked to be in good condition.

"Amanda, may I borrow your binoculars?"

Without a word Amanda handed them to me and I took a closer look at the three still running towards us.

"Sharon, I think you may want to get out your medical kit."

There was a moments silence and then I heard Sharon run back to the truck she had been driving to retrieve her bag. When she returned I continued talking.

"Three females, I'd say 20 years old or less, very thin, wearing thin dresses that come to the knee, their arms are bare and I can see cuts and bruises. All are barefoot and one is beginning to limp. I can't say for certain but I think they are all crying."

I handed the binoculars back to Amanda and turned to my ladies.

"Li, you stay with me and Amanda, the rest of you are the welcoming party. I'll stay in the background a bit since I think they might prefer to deal with women rather than men.

"Amanda, ask one of your colleagues to stay and watch the trucks, the rest of us are going to meet them."

Amanda didn't reply but I could hear her talking to the other sergeants as we started walking towards the three still running towards us. Whatever they were running from was driving them pretty hard. They must have been in a bad situation to make them run towards a group of unknown people.

It didn't take long for the two groups to meet. I let my ladies deal with the three and stayed about 20 metres back along the road. Li and Amanda stood beside me but the group of people in front of us didn't stop us from keeping our eyes open for others.

To be honest Li and I initially watched the group but after we saw Amanda constantly looking round we did the same. Every ten minutes Amanda gave me a report from the other sergeants hidden around the area.

Finally Sharon walked back to us.

"You were right. They're both mal and under nourished, it looks like they have been beaten or whipped and their feet are in a dreadful state probably from running after us. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they've been raped and despite the run they're cold."

"Recommendations?"

"They need food, water and warmth. I need to give them a proper medical and they may need medicine of one type or another. They also need a good bath as they all stink."

"Have you been able to get information from them about who did this to them?"

"Some, it's a little incoherent but I gather that they were cheerleaders in the local high school before IT happened and the surviving jocks from the school decided that the remaining cheerleaders should look after them."

"Was that them in the hotel?"

"Yes. Two of the cheerleaders died from malnutrition, one committed suicide and these three managed to escape after we left. There are seven jocks in that building, two have gunshot wounds from the lot we dealt with."

"Any more girls in the hotel?"

"No."

"That's a relief, I wouldn't want to have to go back to get anyone out. How did they escape?"

"Apparently they've been planning it for some while and needed some sort of diversion before they could carry it out."

"And we were that diversion."

"Sort of. I gather that they fucked the unhurt guys til they couldn't get it up any longer and then while they were resting made a break for it."

"That didn't take them long."

"Not really, they were bedding the boys even while the fight was going on."

"Do we have to worry about STDs?"

"I don't think so, one of the girls mentioned that they used up the last of their condoms doing this."

"Sir?"

"Yes, Amanda."

"Sergeant Whitehead reports that two vehicles have left the town and are heading this way at high speed."

"Sharon, get those girls into the trucks and be ready to move out. Amanda tell Ruth to hit their tyres as soon as she can get a clear shot."

About two seconds after Amanda relayed my instructions there were three shots.

"She says that both vehicles have driven off the road and are now immobilised. One or two young men are staggering around in a dazed fashion."

"Call the sergeants in, and lets get out of here."

We walked back to the trucks and waited for the troops to return. It didn't take long and we were on our way again.

There were no further incidents on the way to the trading estate but that didn't stop us from keeping a watchful eye out for more trouble.

The trading estate appeared to be abandoned but it was clear that there had been substantial looting going on. Not surprisingly, all the food shops had been hit and the stench coming from one of the supermarkets even now was remarkable. We kept well away from that place. We did find a number of clothes shops and the Ladies all went in to find the three newcomers warmer clothing. I noticed that they were having difficulty walking and realised that their feet must be pretty cut up.

"Penny, you and Ruth case the joint and let us know if there are any problems. Li, you stay with the girls and keep them out of trouble. Amanda stay here and keep us informed and co-coordinated, Amelia and Sophie come with me."

"I walked away from the group accompanied by the two sergeants."

"Sir, where are we going?" asked Sophie.

"Our immediate needs are medicines, hardware, plants or seeds and food. The obvious places will already have been looted so we need to find the places where normal civilians can't get to."

"That would be where, sir?"

"I'm not sure, but things like a warehouse with locked freezers, safes for medicines that sort of thing."

"And when we find them?"

"Well, I happen to know two beautiful people, experts with electronics and explosives that should be able to help out."

Neither of them said anything at this but I could tell that they were pleased at my comments.

"Sir, Ruth and Penny just called in. They've not found any signs of life so they've found ideal places to watch from. Between them they can see the entire complex."

I looked around for a while until I spotted the tall lighting towers at each corner of the estate.

"The lighting towers, Correct?"

"Yes sir, are you able to see them?"

"No, it's just that they command a great view from up there."

It didn't take us long to find the warehouse for the supermarket. It too had been looted but there were several areas that the looters had not been able to penetrate. One was obviously a storage for drugs, the other for non-perishable foodstuffs. Obviously? Yes, they were clearly marked.

What was also clear was that many attempts to get in had been made and none had been successful. Well, not that we could see. I suppose that the looters might have broken in through a different way but not through the doors. The two sergeants made quick work of blowing the locks out of the doors and we found that we had hit two of the jackpots we were looking for.

"Get Sharon back here, she'll need to determine what we need drug wise and ask the lookouts if they can see a container lorry from where they are."

"Sir, Ruth says that there seems to be one just round the corner from here."

"Very good. Sophie, you're with me, Amelia wait for Sharon to arrive but keep out of sight."

"Suck eggs, sir!"

I laughed and went to find the transport.

It was big. I've seen them driving around, but I've never been in one or near one to get any idea of scale. Let me tell you, they're big.

We opened the container to find it empty, which was good, there was fuel in the cab's tank but no ignition keys. Sophie didn't let that bother her.

"Can you drive one of these things sir?"

"I don't know, but I'm about to find out."

I hauled myself up into the cab and with Sophie's assistance started the engine. Despite not having been started in a number of months, it didn't take long to get it running, roughly at first but smoothing out as it warmed up. I studied the controls. Being British I knew how to drive a manual car so the clutch and gear stick wasn't going to be a problem. What was a little more tricky was the number of gears and the weight of the vehicle. Still nothing ventured and all that and confidently I chose the lowest gear and dropped in the clutch.

I'd read that slipping the clutch on an 18 wheeler is the surest way to ruin it so I just dumped it straight in and off we lurched.

Hell, that was fun!

I drove around for a few minutes trying to get the hang of the gear and steering before heading back to the warehouse.

My hat goes off to the drivers of these things, it's hard work and with so much of the container behind the truck's cab turning corners is a very different thing from doing it in a car. You have to go way past the turning with the cab before turning or the real axle won't make it.

I hit a number of things before I managed to get a bit better, not very much better, only lots of practise would give me the experience, but if I drove slowly I didn't make too many mistakes.

When we neared the warehouse I saw that one of the loading docks was open and the shore party was waiting for me.

Now the much harder bit.

Driving forward is not too difficult.

Reversing is.

Carefully I lined up the truck so that I could see the dock in both mirrors and then headed on back. I didn't touch the accelerator, I knew that if I did I'd crash the thing. As it was I hit the dock really hard before stopping, but at least nothing was too badly banged up.

We spend the next two days loading the container and we all worked damned hard to do it. The sergeants took it in turns to keep a look out while the rest of us worked our asses off loading what we wanted into that container. The three girls, Angel (I kid you not), Joyce and Freya spend most of the time at first in the bed in the truck's cab. Their feet were too badly hurt to be walking around lifting things. I don't think that they were too displeased at this... The second day Sophie located a fork lift for use to use and things went faster after that.

Towards the end of the second day I began to think about how we were going to get all of this on to Spirit. We could take the fork lift with us on one of the other trucks, we'd need that to lift things out of the container. It's about one and a half metres from the ground to the edge of the container and lifting things that distance would soon wear us all out. The fork lift, however, wouldn't run easily on the sandy beach where we had landed. I guess there was nothing for it but to carry everything from the truck to the water's edge.