First Strike by - (reading e books .TXT) 📕

Roberts patted Tammy on the head and then as casually as he could, he strolled toward a group of people standing around a roaring bonfire.

A man with a thick black beard saw Roberts and pulled a machete from his belt. “That’s close enough, friend. How can I help you?”

“I’m cold and hungry,” replied Roberts. “Can I come over by your fire? I have some things with me that I can barter with you for some food.”

“Like what?’ asked a woman with dirt caked on her face.

“I have a flint and a full bottle of Scotch.”

“Step close then, friend,” said the bearded man.

Roberts thanked the man and carefully walked over to the warmth of the fire. He saw that there were at least a dozen people wearing a mix of whatever clothes they could find.

The bearded man looked at Roberts for a minute. “Friend, I’ve never seen you around before. What’s your name?”

“Roberts, my name is Roberts,” he replied, holding his hands out over the fire to warm them up.

“Well, Roberts, my name is Manfred and the woman to my right is my wife, Nancy.”

“How come we’ve never seen you before tonight?” queried Nancy.

“I’ve been looking for my younger brother for weeks. This is the last place that I haven’t checked,” he answered, recalling Sheridan’s report about missing teens.

“He won’t be here,” Nancy pronounced glumly. “They took all the young ‘uns away a month ago. I ain’t seen anyone under eighteen for at least two weeks now.”

“Is there another camp nearby where I could look?”

“You could try back in the woods. I hear there’re people still living back there. They’re none too friendly though, or so I’ve been told,” said Nancy.

“Thanks,” replied Roberts, making a turn to leave.

“Hold on, friend,” said Manfred. “What about that trade?”

Roberts stopped in his tracks. “I’ll give you the booze for some food. What do you have?”

“Only the best,” crowed Nancy. “We’ve got Chosen rations we can trade with for your bottle.”

“Are they any good?”

“No, but it’s better than starving,” the bearded man replied.

“What will you give me for my bottle?”

“Four ration packs?” said Nancy.

“Make it six and we have a deal. I’m not going to haggle with you. Make up your minds now or I’m going to walk.”

“Deal!” said the man, thrusting out his hand to cement the agreement.

Roberts shook the man’s hand and then brought out a bottle from his pocket while Nancy left the fire to fetch the rations. “How come you have Kurgan food?”

“We do the odd chore for them,” replied Manfred.

Roberts was stunned to learn that people were collaborating with the enemy. “Like what?”

“We retrieve their dead from the city and stack their bodies out in the open field,” the man said, pointing out into the dark. “They burn them at night. I’ve lost count of how many bodies we’ve seen go up in flames.”

“Anything else?”

“No, we’re busy enough carrying their dead back here.”

“Here you are,” Nancy said, handing Roberts the rations. 

“And here you are,” Roberts replied, giving her the Scotch.

Nancy’s eyes lit up at the sight of the amber liquid in the bottle. She unscrewed the lid and took a sip before handing it to her husband who did the same. Both people looked to be in heaven.

“Thank you for your trade,” said Roberts, edging back from the fire.

Nancy looked over at Roberts, smiling. “Why don’t you spend the night and continue your search in the morning?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, rest here by the fire and warm yourself up,” added Manfred.

An uneasy chill ran down Roberts’s spine. It was time to leave. “No, thanks, I really must get going. My wife is waiting for me.”

Nancy said, “Bring her here as well. I’m sure she’d like to get out of the cold for a while.”

Roberts shook his head, turned about and walked as quickly as he could back out into the dark. 

When he linked up with his comrades, Roberts passed on what he had learned.

“Do you think you can trust them?” asked Cole.

“No way! If I would have stayed, I bet they would have sold me to the first enemy patrol they saw in the morning,” replied Roberts.

Sheridan said, “Well, there are two things we’ve learned from Roberts’ interaction with those people. First, the enemy has suffered grievous losses, so much so that they are ready to use the refugees to clear the streets of their dead. Secondly, that not everyone is willing to play along with the Kurgans. I suspect the people living farther back in the woods have no love for the enemy. I think that’s something we can use to our advantage, just not tonight. We need to find out what is going on in the Kurgan lines.”

“We could snatch a Chosen soldier and interrogate him,” suggested Garcia.

“Perhaps, however, I’d rather not have any interaction with the enemy. The longer we go on about our business undetected, the longer we’ll live.”

Cole pointed to another camp about half a kilometer away. “We may find what we’re looking for over there.”

Sheridan grinned. It was near where he had first spoken to a group of refugees when they had been trying to reach the capital. It was too much to hope that the same people were still there. With a nod, Sheridan started to walk.

The site was much smaller than the one Roberts had checked out. There was only handful of people standing by a fire. Sheridan instantly recognized Eve, the black woman he had spoken to almost a month ago. She looked gaunt and tired. He did not know anyone else. His gut, however, told him that he could trust them. 

Eve’s face lit up when she saw Sheridan walk into the camp. “My God, I never expected to see you ever again. We’ve been watching the nightly barrages on the city. It’s an awful spectacle. To be honest, I wasn’t sure there was a living soul left inside that abattoir.”

“It’s just as bad to be on the receiving end of all that fire,” said Sheridan. “Trust me, there are people still alive in the capital resisting room by room and house by house. We may be bloodied, but we’re far from defeated.”

Eve set a hand on Sheridan’s arm. “That is good news.”

Sheridan introduced his team. A man in his seventies wrapped in several dirty blankets lying by the fire slowly reached out and petted Tammy’s head. A smile broke on his muck-encrusted face when Tammy sat down beside him.

“These are for you,” said Roberts handing over the ration packs. “I got them from someone else and by the looks of everyone here, you could use them more than we ever could.”

The people thanked Roberts and then clawed at the rations, tearing the bags apart to get at the food.

Sheridan asked, “Eve, when did you last eat?”

She stopped what she was doing and looked blankly off into the dark. “I don’t know . . . I honestly don’t know.”

“Jesus,” said Cole under his breath. “One group is near dead, the other is sitting fat, dumb, and happy only a few hundred meters away. What the hell has gotten into those people? We’re all supposed to be in this together.”

“Some apparently don’t think so,” mused Sheridan. He looked at Eve. “Do you know what is going on in the Kurgan lines?”

Eve shook her head. “The only thing I can tell you is that they received reinforcements a couple of days ago. A former police officer searching for his wife wandered through our camp a couple of days ago. He said that he heard the Kurgans had brought in a fresh division of infantry and a regiment of combat engineers. He didn’t say why, though.”

“Engineers, now that’s interesting,” said Sheridan.

“I guess their failed attempt to take the bridge has made them adjust their plans,” said Cole. “I bet next time they’re going to try someplace else and build their own bridges across the river.”

“Looks that way.”

“Sir, shouldn’t we report this right away?” asked Roberts.

“We will when we go back tomorrow. Also for the love of God, don’t say ‘sir’ ever again while we’re outside of the city. Use my name. We’re supposed to be a group of friends looking for food, not soldiers.”

“Sorry.”

“You should rest here until the sun comes up,” Eve proposed. “There’s a hill nearby, you can use it to spy on the Kurgans.”

Cole nodded and said, “Well, Eve, I guess we are your humble guests. Is there anything you would like to know?”

The old man paying attention to Tammy looked up. “Is the fleet coming to save us?”

“I wish I knew,” Sheridan replied, looking up into the star-filled night. He wondered where Tarina was and if she was safe.

Chapter 29

Coming out of a jump inside a planet’s atmosphere was something that Tarina and Wendy had planned for. However, the harsh reality of going from a zero gravity environment in space to one with gravity was like being hit in the chest by an enraged donkey. Although tightly strapped into their chairs, the sudden jerk experienced when gravity took hold of their craft was a nasty shock to both women.

As calculated, their Avenger came out of its jump precisely one kilometer above a sports stadium. The ship’s computer seamlessly switched the engine to sublight propulsion; still they were falling through the air like a rock. A second later, Tarina felt the craft begin to respond to her controls. She adjusted the ship’s thrusters and slowed their descent.

“How does the landing site look?” Tarina asked Wendy.

Looking at the infrared camera image on her console, Wendy swore. “The stadium’s field is covered in tents. Go for the alternate LZ.”

Tarina felt her heart begin to race. They had planned this down to the last second. If they were off by even one second, they would plow straight into the side of a building. Through gritted teeth, she said, “I hope there’s no one there, or we’re gonna land right on top of them.”

The Avenger banked over as Tarina lined it up with the sports field of a school near the stadium. She looked out the side of her cockpit window. She could not see a thing. The ground below was blacked out. With seconds to go, she engaged the landing thrusters and prayed that there was no one below them. Watching her rate of descent on her heads-up display, Tarina slowed their speed and then brought her craft for a near perfect landing. The nose of the Avenger struck something in the dark, knocking it over. Quickly switching the power off, Tarina and Wendy removed their helmets, reached over and opened up the cockpit canopy. A gust of cold air blew inside.

“What the hell is that nauseating smell?” Wendy asked as a repulsive odor wafted in the air.

“That’s me,” hollered an angry voice from below. “I was using a portable toilet when you crash-landed into it and knocked it over. I hope for your sake you’re on our side, or I’m going to personally shoot you.”

Tarina peered over