Road West

Art had begged out of driving the second of our vehicles he was tasked with ground defence at Fort Menzies so we barely saw him. Jigger was far too important to lose so in the week we'd gone back to Alan and stolen one of his drivers. Marcus, straight off he proved an asset. Willing to listen, quick to learn. We were about ready.

The young workers we have come from all over. The old train carriages we have buried under dirt and rubble are their homes. From the outside it just looks like a slight rise in the ground. There's a stand of gum trees down by the estuary, those and reasonably dense bush hide their presence and any activity.

Behind the bush, and trees are gardens, not huge but scattered and enough to feed thirty or so hungry mouths. There's a grazing area for small amounts of livestock and some of the kids are crash hot fishermen. The day to day care for these kids comes not from us.

When we got back from 'up north' we heard about a local monastery that was overrun and most sheltering there were slaughtered but for three of the brothers. I remembered the monastery and some of the brothers, so did Art. We went in search and found them starving, dehydrated and living in the flood drains.

They arrived at our place about the same time as the first kids, realised what we were doing and from there on took over the care, education and well being of the kids. Steph said it helped them self-heal.

One of the funnier incidents happened when some of the kids went fishing. They came back screaming into the workshop that pirates were invading. The boat was there, a ketch according to Jig. Anyway it wasn't pretty, fat and looked industrial to the eye but the brothers fell in love with it.

It was seaworthy and had two bodies that had perished a long time ago. The brothers plan was to stock it, and sail it north to an area that was a protected free zone with some of the kids that knew how to setup a camp for them all, drop them off and when ready come back, pick up more and go again.

Why wouldn't we agree with that? When Brother Henry said they were heading off, we all shook his hand and told him to make sure he had everything he needed and we'd see him when he returned. They were planning for the twenty-seventh.

Not that they wouldn't be pretty safe here, the full half mile of our road to the property was wired for explosives which would make it a bitch to get in and those inside the property time to escape. The charge was set off by a salt water switch down on the jetty. There was a turn-off a hundred yards from the house to get to the jetty.

The jetty wasn't used now because it was visible from the main road half a mile away. Under camo cover the aircraft were parked on the turn-off so the flight team could fly them straight off the road.

We would start here and head south to miss the berserk attacking Fort Menzies then we'd turn west using roads that would give us a straight line approach to our target. Airspeed for the aircraft was closer to one- hundred and thirty miles an hour now which meant we needed to be close all the time.

One of Constantines' Hippos would 'sweep' the road ahead of us and return to take up station eight miles from the fertiliser plant chasing off unfriendlys and awaiting our return.

--- --- --- ---

Alan Gales' spies had found out where some of the families of the press-ganged victims were housed, all one hundred and fifty of them. He'd take cargo trucks and bring them back to 'J'

Gale asked if we could check the route they planned to use for access with his vehicles. We agreed.

Rather than use vehicles I decided a couple of us doing a recon would be better. Art was up for it, he wanted out from Menzies for a few hours. We got dropped off with the stadium in site so we stayed hidden and moved toward Outpost 'J'.

I spotted the remains of an old tower block, if we could make the second or third floor we'd see the lay of the land from the stadium to the outpost. It was clear as a bell and good room and visibility. Roadways looked intact and because we and berjerk used them mines shouldn't be an issue.

Art wandered over to the eastern side of the building to check for unfriendlys who may have seen us enter, "John mate, come and take a gander at this."

"Where are we looking Art?"

"Three o'clock between the rubble, see that road going into that hole. That's subway right? I thought it was all destroyed."

"Nah they did all the strategic stuff like beneath the fort, city and the outposts and big sections were blocked but most of it goes nowhere now. Shit of a job, in some places tunnels on top of tunnels mate. They flooded the ones that were close to the harbour."

"What about that maintenance tunnel you talked about. The one you guys found as a kid."

"Yeah went from town to Glenfield, yeah that'd be history now too."

"Might be worth a look John. If they're getting' shit into the city easily."

"Alright. Let's call in a ride, go back, get some weaponry and I'll revive my memory where to find the entry if it even exists anymore."

"Nah mate, don't need guns. We'll be Jake, you got ya forty-five. I got my trusty colt." he said, tapping his holster and confidently smiling at me.

"Yeah. If we happen to need a coupla hammers."

You got to love the old guys that worked for a living. Smart. So back then when you built a public toilet what you did was look at the big picture and built it for easy access so maintenance was a breeze. If you built it adjacent to a subway inspection hole, well how easy was that. Lockable doorway for the railway workers. Job done.

Wasn't teenage boy proof though. I'd never met Art back then and Diana and Steph were, well. Girls. We spent hours down there. Got caught by the workers, their maintenance trolleys were never where they'd left them.

Art and I were staring at the remains of what was once a toilet block with concrete and brick walls eight inches thick reduced to a big pile of rubble.

Art looked at the mess dejectedly, "Well, thats fucked that idea up mate."

He turned and walked away, but I was looking at the far wall where the door was, not that we could get to it but I was betting the area behind it was intact. I was trying to picture the interior and I was pretty sure the old entry door was on the side of the original building, "John. You coming?"

"Hang on a minute Art. There's another way in."

We scrambled over the rubble and a heavy piece of iron covered rubble and roof below which was the wall with the door. Pushing the iron away and below that was an area big enough to stand, open the door and enter. I looked at Art with a smile. We both knew what this meant, berjerk were using it for their attacks. The door wasn't locked.

We found our way down into the tunnel. While it wasn't dry as a bone it was usable. We could hear faint noises in both directions but Art touched the rail, looked at me and shook his head, "Which way John?"

"Geesus Art, I don't think we need to mate. The evidence is as plain as the nose on ya face. Maybe we tell city and let them take the glory for it. We've got a shitload on our plate as it is."

Art wandered west up the tunnel, "Nah mate. Humor me. I had a sheltered childhood ya vandal."

We covered about a mile, in the dark using the one night light Art had sparingly. What was apparent was the sound of water running away from us down the tunnel, "John! Here. Here's the leak."

That wasn't what I was looking at. Magically the tunnel had brightened and a slight distant shine reflected on the rails, "Come on Art, theres a fucking train coming."

"Nah mate, son of a bitch. My fucking knifes stuck in the fucking... wall!" He was jerking, pulling and fell backwards when the wall released the knife. A solid chunk of concrete moved out. Not a lot, just enough for the leak to become a tap. Then a torrent.

The wall was making snapping noises, "Jesus Christ Art! What have you done? Run."

The noise got louder, became a roar and very quickly went from ankle, to knee and then waist deep. Then swimmable. The light from outside shining down the access hole showed us where the cutout and the ladder were.

Art floated past me, arms outstretched to grab the ladder, "Told ya we wouldn't need guns."

--- --- --- ---

City ended up catching up with and incarcerating all of the ones involved with the bombings and attacks. The mayor wasn't one of them. He was kept out of it by the ring leader, the mayor's security officer. Judge Golding had decided that apart from charging the mayor with being a trusting dumbass he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Two days later the mayor stood down anyway. Golding installed a judge in the interim, declared the city under martial law which went down well because with the bombings and attacks most of the populace weren't venturing out anyway. Golding decided to hold off telling the tunnel story until the attack on Fort Menzies was over.

As for the security officer? Well, he apparently had a bent for driving trains and as no one had seen him around the suspicion was he'd spend his time forever driving the lake express.

At the last minute Alan Gale changed the second air attack to the chemical plant deciding if things went right it would stymie the flow of explosives to weapon manufacture at the workshops. I think there was an audible sigh of relief from any of us that knew the original plans. We'd all thought that the plant should've been the target.

Quietly everybody was hoping losing the support from the mayor's office would put the berjerk off the attack on Menzies. Alan Gale had increased dirigible observation flights.

On the twenty-sixth day and with an increase in the amount of activity at the new encampment, out in the open meant it was on. The team hitting the chemical plant returned to Outpost 'J' awaiting the attack on Menzies.

A scrambled radio message at dawn of the twenty-seventh confirmed today was the day.

It never went the way the bejerks planned. The attacking 'crudies' teams deployed their mobile turtle bombs against the roadblocks hoping to clear a path. They used patience and stayed out of range. They explored down one side on the flat open ground and found we'd mined it and used the turtles to clear a good swarth through them.

Through field glasses Art spied berserk field commanders directing the assault. That was new.

He estimated a force of two hundred or more with the likely-hood of more in reserve. The beserk teams cleared both road and land successfully to start the next part of the attack. The teams came at Menzies in force and one turtle made the gate but never penetrated, another though did.

Small arms fire, mortar and the heavy machine gun were helping but the berserk commanders were calling up the attacking teams in waves. Art got his crews to make sure each bullet counted and as the next wave of riders descended towards the destroyed gate he sent word for the crew to be ready to destroy the bridge.

That was until the last wave of riders dismounted and shot the berserk crews who came before them. Once they'd accomplished that they raised their weapons and ran towards the bridge in surrender. White flags appeared. Some of the press-gang berserk were seen helping the wounded. The TCP officers guardedly saw what was happening letting them through but made sure to de-arm and corral them. The next wave was the same.

The waves after that weren't. Fire-fights erupted along the inner wall and Constantine who had his two Hippos hidden identified there were no more reinforcements coming and was ready to outflank them.

With the berserk attack failing, Art said they must have been warned that the Hippo's were coming. TCP were readying to launch a counter attack as well but with a small force.

'Real' wounded berserk were being incarcerated and taken away by city officers. Fortunately Menzies personnel suffered injuries only, we'd got off real lightly.

Alan Gale cleaned out the stadium and then used transports and two Hippo's to bring the detained families to safety. Then two Hippos were released to help Constantine with the cleanup.

Unfortunately the berserk had a secondary target. Art watched through field glasses with worry as the retreating warparty split in two directions, some turning east. Others going south. When the ones going south turned west Art knew that me, Steph and our covering Hippo were gonna run slap bang into them.

He knew we'd make a good fight of it. He was more worried about the berserk heading east bound though, he'd make the two necessary radio calls.

--- --- --- ---

In the early light I'd done checks on our vehicle. I'd opted out of using 'Diana' and we needed her primarily for weapons practice and training while the other three vehicles had wiring, remote controller and transmitter, video camera link and transmitter and antennas for all of it. Jig wanted to fit rotating gun mounts which tested great.

Horizontally forty five degrees outwards and two degrees inwards and vertically three degrees down and ten fully up. Only belts of one fifty rounds per side though. We shelved the minigun idea and used a pair of L 7's but Jig started adapting one on 'Diana'.

On the right side one small rack of rockets with a fire controller allowing ripple or individual fire. We were still short on weaponry and shared them between the two vehicles.

He'd mumbled something about other things but even the rocket rack was new two days ago so we'd never used it. I guessed Steph had the hot gen on the other bits but I'd not seen much of her except her pretty, sexy arse while the rest of her was upside down in a cockpit.

Actually both Jig and Steph were in continual short tempers and bad moods in the last days and I didn't blame them at all, there was a nervous tension all around although I smiled when I heard Alison lose her cool at Jig telling him he had to sleep sometime so unless he wanted to keep one eye open he should back well off.

But this morning the nerves had gone. No talking. People doing what they had to. Jig held out his hand, "Go get them John." then he hugged Steph. The call came through that there were berserk leaving their compound so Steph launched her plane from out of the car then switched to her main transmitter and video link while belting up.

"John radio check... You gonna do comms still ay? I'm gonna be busy 'til target time."

"Yep Steph, you just focus on delivering parcels. You got control?"

"Yep."

That was it. We were underway. The Hippo was on station five miles west and ahead but we would gain on them at about a mile for every five of theirs. Hopefully we'd cross over and pass in the last five or so from the target. We needed to be within one mile of the plant, enough that a visual could be seen of the run in if video failed.

Steph had memorised as best she could flight angles and heights at given distances from the very few video's she had taken during testing. I watched her playing the tapes through and through until she had a clear picture in her mind of how flat her approach angle could be or steep the angle could be to still hit the silos.

Her off-sider seemed happy enough if he was in the general vicinity but Steph wasn't leaving anything to chance.

The other team were at least hitting their target fifteen minutes before us so Alan was hoping to get the dirigible close to the fertiliser plant when we hit.

We couldn't go any closer so I'd have to judge and maybe overrule Steph if distance became a problem. The other thing was the egress speed out had to be fast. Very fast.

In the end everything went really well. Steph told me to stop a good two miles away. We could see the plane respond to elevator on its gentle dive in, we even saw some ground fire, ineffectual as it was.

Steph gave an evil little chuckle, "I've given it some flap and backed the throttle down so we can savour the moment John. Here we go."

Fuck. for a split second the plane seemed to suck the world into the silo with it. By the time Steph told me to move I'd turn the vehicle and I'd smashed the throttle to the floor. In our rear vision mirrors we could see the shock wave radiate out from the explosion as the fireball reached further skyward a secondary explosion fanned out radially

"Geesus John maybe all the silos were full. We were told just the one."

"They've gone Steph. Thats what matters. You've done this and you've pulled it off sucessfully. Its no longer a threat. I'm very proud of you Steph. Hopefully the other team got their target and the threat is totally eliminated."

A minute later Steph spoke, "Hey John look to your left nine oclock, smoke. Do you think?"

"Yep Steph. Without a shadow. Yep. Well done girl lets get you home."

Our Hippo and one of Alan Gales had been told that there were baddies coming at us fast so they'd met up and gone on to engage. Sure enough the Hippos had run head on into six four by four 'techs' with what look to be old mounted Bren guns and twenty or so 'crudies' some carrying 'turtles' the others carrying a mix of weapons.

The Hippo's have one turreted .50 cal heavy machine gun that will devastate most things but both sides were stationary and the Hippos looked like they had taken some hits from turtle attacks. It also looked like they may be slowly trying to withdraw.

Both Alan and Constantine were sending another Hippo each but when they'd arrive nobody would say. Both were miles away as Gale was evacuating to 'J' with his detainees.

Stephs video screen was now linked to a camera mounted above her on the vehicle roll cage, "Steph, can you get a clear shot between the two Hippos at the berserk line?"

I was going to suggest I move for a better shot when two rockets flashed past my cockpit between the Hippos before impacting two of the 'techs' and exploding. That was all the Hippo teams needed as they both moved forward focussed on the two remaining 'techs'.

I got a call that Constantines Hippo had been redirected to deal with another fight. Fortunately while I was talking Steph was watching, "Ummm John they know where we are and appear to be on the move our way."

Swinging the wheel right to bring the vehicle line ahead with the approaching bikes I spoke, "Steph, Guns. One burst when you're ready." Ten rounds most hitting. Yeah that made the fuckers angry,

"Okay Steph we're going back the way we came, draw them away from the Hippos and lose them."

"We're. What!" then a few seconds later, "Okay John. I got my head around it. Go for it."

I knew we could outpace them cross country but on seal not for long. We needed cover and a way to lose them. I asked Steph whether she could do a head count and she thought twelve. Most of the bikes had guns mounted similar to our L 7's but shit load more rounds than us. If they got close they were lethal. I didn't see any rocket ships or stupid mounted bazookas and if there were turtle carriers I'd pick they'd be back with the Hippos.

I needed to turn south and head for the country. There was an expressway that would do the job. We just had to find it, "Hey John, what's the switch marked 'smoke' do?"

"Geesus Steph, I wouldn't know. I only drive the bloody thing. Push it."

"Oh, wait a minute another panel on the side console with buttons numbered one to four just lit up. That's gotta mean four smoke what-evers doesn't it John."

"Yeah. Makes sense I reckon. Push it ... anything happen?"

"Nah, there was a pop of some kind behind us. Shit! Behind John. It's a smoke bomb. But they're coming through it though. Maybe we need a brick wall to drop one in front of."

That got me thinking. I may have a rough semblance of an idea. Worst comes to the worst we'd make the rest up on the fly, "Yep Steph that's exactly what we need. Now where's that expressway?"

Berserk were about hundred fifty yards behind when Steph saw what looked like an on-ramp. We got there and I turned north not south and got a break on the group of bikes because it was a split-arse turn to go in the opposite direction, easy. The bikes had no option but to slow.