Bug out atlantic book 6, p.3
Bug Out! Atlantic Book 6, page 3
“Got you, man,” Freeze said, holding his FN, staring at the platform.
The others rushed over as more explosions went off, moving the bodies to the side as more drone missiles were fired, enemy fighters crying out in terror.
A UN Peacekeeper rushed into view, Freeze shooting him in the head. “That’ll get their attention. Hurry. We bringing the mole down here?”
“That’s the idea,” Dannon said, helping Dempsey with the last body, then getting on his phone. “It’s clear, come on down.”
“Roger that,” Tad said.
“Let’s move forward some to make room for the moles, but keep your eyes on that platform. The drones are gonna run out of missiles.”
{ 2 }
Chicken Factory
T ad moved the mole half-way past the far end of the subway station platform, the other two right behind.
Eve watched her screen, laying down a salvo of railgun projectiles and laser fire. “Hey Tad, take over the falcon drones, I can’t do both.”
“Got it,” Tad said. “How many missiles left?”
“Getting low. Are the bases set upright back there?”
“Yeah, I can get them reloaded in a hurry,” Tad said, flying the two birds, watching the video on his screen, seeing a cluster of enemy fighters trying to break down a door, hitting them with missiles from both birds, then turning the opposite direction, going near the turnstiles, hitting two men with a missile, both falling over the turnstile, blocking the way, enemy fighters in a panic trying to get out. Tad fired his last two missiles into the crowd, then flew the falcons out. “I’m out, going for more ammo.”
“One at a time,” Dannon said, “leave one there to watch.”
“Oh, good idea,” Tad said, landing one, taking the other one into the tunnel. It got to the charging and ammo base in less than a minute, landing, the new missiles loading automatically, the charger on.
“I think I killed everybody in reach,” Eve said.
“I’m watching the drone video,” Dannon said. “They’re all bunched up by the entrance. I don’t know why they aren’t just leaving.”
Suddenly there were explosions filling the air, smoke billowing off the platform into the tunnel. Freeze started laughing.
“What?” Shell asked.
“I’d know that sound anywhere. There’s a blockbuster out there, firing grenades into the entrance.”
“That means they’ll try to come back this way, so be ready,” Dannon said. A second later men started showing up, Eve firing the railguns and lasers from all three moles, hitting everybody visible, the reloaded falcon drone flying into the fray and opening fire on the panicked commandos.
“What should we do?” Moth asked. “Go up there?”
“You really want to go up there now, man?” Dempsey asked as grenades continued to go off.
“Yeah, I think our work here is done,” Dannon said. “Let’s get the bases in place and fly the drones back to them.”
“I’ll go,” Freeze said, turning to run back behind the moles.
“I’ll go too,” Shell said, following him, as Dempsey, Dannon, Moth, and Jones watched the platform, weapons at the ready, the gunfire subsiding fast, silent by the time Shell and Freeze were back with the crates.
“Follow me,” Dannon said, his thin phone back on the placement app, finding the first spot, Shell setting up the drone. Then they placed the second, Tad rolling the mole up to meet them, Eve still watching her screen. When the placements were done they got into the moles, taking off to the last location.
“Well that was fun,” Shell said.
“Just another day on the job,” Moth quipped, Dempsey shaking his head.
***
Pat paddled into the Lock 60 Recreation Area, one of her favorite places on the Schuylkill River since her childhood days. She knew every hiding place, every nook and cranny, every escape route, every trap. “Hasn’t changed a bit,” she said to herself, pulling the canoe up into some heavy brush, then taking out her phone, fully charged again after riding in the front with the solar charger on. She got on the Sons Of Liberty website, and navigated to her thread. There were sixteen thousand replies, mostly people congratulating her and cheering her on. “How do I let people know where I am without being too obvious? A good trap can’t be obvious.” A chat window opened.
Pat?
That’s the name they gave me.
What was our first pet’s name?
Craig?
Answer the question.
Tiger.
I love you, sweetheart.
Wait, how do I know? Where did we go on our second date?
Jenos.
I love you too.
So sorry what happened to you. Don’t say where you are. This is supposed to be secure, but I don’t trust anything now.
You really escaped the other night? Don’t tell me where you are.
Yes, I’m safe. What do you plan to do?
For starters, lure some enemy commandos out here and kill them.
That’s too dangerous, Pat.
Don’t even. I’m in this now. Sorry I was late to the party. Now I understand. We’re both in the resistance. Are you with me or not, Craig?
I’m with you. How can I help?
Remember where we used to go, before we started dating?
Yes.
Plant some rumors. You know I’ll be ready. I know this place like the back of my hand.
I’ll see what I can do. Love you. Be careful. I want you back.
Love you too, and you’ll get me back, or I’ll be dead.
Pat forced back her tears, then got up, to see if the secret spot was still there.
***
Albena and Penko were monitoring the new falcon drones in the intel room. Mayor Fine walked in with Tracy McCain.
“They’re up?” Tracy asked.
“The first 36,” Penko said. “We’re gonna place more, right?”
“Probably,” Mayor Fine said. “It’s dangerous. I don’t want to risk Dannon’s squad doing this. We’ve got other things for him to do, and I think Sturm is going to show up any time now.”
Albena shook her head. “I don’t know, Mr. Mayor… those subway tunnels are important. The enemy won’t be able to get the drop on us with these drones in place.”
“They’ll start dismantling them, maybe stealing them, won’t they?” Tracy asked.
Penko smiled. “If they steal them, we can blow them up… might tip us off on their home bases in the process. We can track them.”
“That’ll only work once,” Mayor Fine said. “Then they’ll just start destroying them where they sit.”
“We’ll see them coming and fight back,” Penko said. “We could put them on automatic in certain areas, you know.”
“Then they’ll kill anything that gets near them,” Mayor Fine said. “I could see that during a battle, but otherwise no. We don’t want to be killing maintenance people.”
“I second that,” Tracy said.
“Point taken,” Penko said. “All quiet so far. At least these do give us some peace of mind. They can’t compromise these like they did the video cameras. We’ll get an alarm if any of them is molested.”
Cary came in with Hector.
“They all working okay?” Cary asked.
“Yep, in place and protecting us,” Penko said.
“Good,” Cary said. “Just heard from Jared’s resource guy. They’re sending us some of those roach drones. Hector and I will be working with those.”
“Roach drones?” Penko asked.
Cary took a moment to describe them.
“That will be a good capability,” Albena said. “They might be a better thing to spread around the subway than the falcon drones.”
“Eventually you’re right,” Hector said, “but for now we need something that can attack. All we can do with the roaches is designate targets for the missiles, and that’s not going to work in the subway.”
“Yes, these will be most valuable in street battles,” Cary said. “We’d better go get ready for these things, just wanted to check on the drone video feeds.”
They left.
“I’ve got to go too,” Tracy said. “We’ve got a call coming up with some other state governments.”
“That needs to start, assuming there are some who aren’t dirty,” Albena said.
Tracy nodded, and left the intel room, Mayor Fine following her.
“I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Albena said. “Things are going too easy now, and Manhattan is riddled with thousands of enemy fighters. That’s what we need the roach drones for. We need to place them in all suspected no-go zones.”
“I’m still wondering where the bodies are from the neighborhood we overran near the armory,” Penko said.
***
Maggie was working the line, cutting fat off chicken thighs and putting them on the conveyor belt, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, her jet-black hair sticking out of her paper cap in spots. “When is it break time?”
The older, heavy-set redhead glanced at her. “You should get a watch. We only got another few minutes.”
“Thanks, Kit,” Maggie said. “This job sucks.”
“Pays the bills. Not supposed to be fun.”
They continued, trimming the thighs, tossing them onto the moving belt, others on the line doing the same on either side of them. Suddenly the conveyor belt stopped.
“Hey, what the hell?” Kit asked. “Frank, what’s going on?”
“Frank is no longer in charge,” said a UN Major in an Italian accent, walking to the line with six UN Peacekeepers on either side of him. “Back away from the line, please, and follow us.”
“We don’t take orders from Euro-trash here,” Kit quipped.
The Major grinned. “Well, you won’t anymore, at least.” He nodded to one of his men, who leveled his assault rifle and shot Kit where she stood, the others screaming.
“What do you want?” Asked one woman through her tears
“We’re going outside to enjoy a little sunshine,” the Major said. “Follow me please. Anybody who gets out of line will be shot on the spot.”
“You can’t do that,” shouted a young woman.
“Take care of that,” the Major said, one of his men shooting her in the head. “Anybody else have a comment?”
The line of women looked down, avoiding eye contact, most of them crying.
“Okay, now that we’ve settled that, let’s go.” He led them outside into the yard, next to the parking lot and the truck bays. There were other workers there, lined up against the back of the building, a mixture of men and women, management and labor, all looking terrified.
“Line up on the far end, please,” the Major said.
“Oh God,” Maggie said. “Video cameras, see them? They’re going to kill us all.”
“No they’re not, this is just harassment,” said another woman.
“I don’t think so, Brit,” a third woman said. They lined up against the wall in the muggy Boston sun. The Peacekeepers stood before them, their guns pointed at the line, as another group came from a building further to the left, lining up as they just had. Then the Major was back, picking up a bull horn.
“Last night several hundred UN Peacekeepers were killed at our base next to South Station. This kind of lawlessness will no longer be tolerated. From now on, when such an attack happens, we will retaliate with a similar number of citizens.
The back of a semi-truck opened, UN Peacekeepers rushing out with assault rifles, getting into position.
“Rush them, make it hard,” Maggie shouted, running towards the men with the guns, some of whom panicked, backing up as more of the citizens joined in.
“Fire now!” shouted the Major, the men shooting, struggling to hit the running citizens, some of them getting to the line, only to be shot close range. It was over in less than a minute, the ground littered with dead workers, the Peacekeepers walking around, shooting those who were still breathing.
***
Janey was in the pilot’s seat, trying to steer the lumbering houseboat through the heavy chop.
Ken had a chart opened, spread on the table next to the pilot station. “They’re going to get us. If we don’t show up at Hector Quay, they’ll chase us in boats. Probably have some in the water already.”
“Do you want to give up?” Janey asked.
“I didn’t say that. We should ditch this boat and walk someplace.”
Janey was too tired to respond, watching the swells and whitecaps ahead of her as the boat rocked and heaved.
Carol came out of her bedroom, her eyes red from crying. “This is too rough.”
“This is nothing compared to what’s coming,” Ken said, backing away from the chart. “They’ll probably see us go past Hector Quay if we try to sneak by. The channel isn’t that wide, you know.”
“Hey, how about Loch Broom?” Janey said. “Remember when we summered there that time? We hung out at that Church, remember? The one that was across the bay from Lyon’s Brook.”
“You’re thinking they’ll hide us?” Carol asked. “That’s too close to Hector Quay.”
“No, mom, I say we go there and ask for help. Maybe they can get us hooked up with some transportation.”
Ken looked over at her. “Yeah, we could take the Trans-Canada Highway all the way to Quebec.”
Carol shook her head. “There aren’t any docks near that church, remember?”
“So we beach it,” Ken said. “Take off what we can carry.”
“We can’t do that. It’s not our boat.”
Janey laughed. “Are you kidding? If we get caught, we’re all gonna die. Do you want to die?”
Carol’s shook her head, and went back into her room.
“She’s not handling this well,” Ken said.
“Neither am I, but we can’t give up,” Janey said. “I’m turning that direction. Find us a good place to land that isn’t too far from the church. Hopefully the people I knew are still there.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Between four and five years,” she said, turning the wheel, the boat lumbering to the west, pounding into the wind-driven chop. “It’s rougher going this direction.”
“I think I found a place,” Ken said. “Says it’s beach, not rocks. This will be risky, though. If it’s shallow too far out we’ll be in the water, and it’s cold. Dangerously cold.”
“What about the inflatable?” Janey asked.
“We haven’t used that in about three years,” Ken said. “I can go check it out. It’s in the storage compartment under the rear deck.”
“Wait till we get closer. Guide me in.”
Ken nodded, folding the large chart so he could move it closer to the pilot station.
***
Jacob was reading the post from Pat Smetana, at his PC in the downtown Boston base. Sunshine came in.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You aren’t going to believe this,” he said, motioning her over. She read the post, her eyes getting wide.
“No way.”
“I’m sending a message to John Clancy,” Jacob said, changing to the messaging screen and typing.
Sunshine went to her PC and started it. “Hopefully we’ll be able to work without anything going crazy again.”
“Sent. Don’t know how long it’ll take to get a reply,” Jacob said.
“What if it’s really her?”
“If it’s real, the enemy better watch out. She sounds all kinds of pissed.”
Sunshine snickered. Henry and Jaak rushed in.
“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” Jacob said, eyeing Jaak. “What happened.”
“UN Peacekeepers went to the chicken processing plant, yanked several hundred workers out, and shot them. They put it on TV, saying that it was retaliation for the South Station attack, and that further attacks would bring more actions like that.”
“Crap, look,” Sunshine said, pointing to the video on their web page. The description said This is your future. “The enemy posted the execution video on our page.”
Jaak and Henry rushed over, looking, then glancing at each other.
“How can we keep them from doing this?” Sunshine asked, looking at Henry.
Henry looked at Jaak. “Do you believe they’re this stupid?”
Jaak shook his head. “Might not be them, might be somebody on our side who knows this will boost recruitment.”
“Shit, you don’t want to keep them from posting here,” Sunshine said.
“They’re right, honey,” Jacob said, watching the video himself. “Look, the people rushed the UN thugs, but there wasn’t enough of them.”
“That kind of bravery is going to move people,” Jaak said. “It’s moving me.”
“John Clancy answered my message already,” Jacob said, clicking on the message indicator, opening it.
“John Clancy?” Jaak asked.
“Yeah, I was about to call you guys in here,” Jacob said. “There was a message from Pat Smetana.”
“Who’s that again?” Jaak asked.
Henry turned towards him. “That’s Craig Smetana’s wife, I believe.”
Jacob read the message. “Yep, that was her all right, and Craig made contact with her.”
“Maybe we’d better read her post,” Jaak said, getting next to Jacob, who opened the post, Henry coming over next to Jaak. They read.
“Wow,” Jaak said. “That’s powerful stuff.”
Henry nodded. “How many replies are on that thread? It shows more than twenty pages at the bottom.”
“Yeah, it’s more than that,” Jacob said. “I can tell you exactly.” He copied the message code and went to the Admin page, inputting his password, then pulling his phone out. It was hit with a code a few seconds later, and Jacob input it.
