ALICE, page 18
William, whom Jake met the day before, was the unofficial mayor of the town. He had them organized into a competent unit for defense, likely based on training from his grandfather. From what Sharon could tell, everyone who could hold a rifle shot, no one seemed excluded.
Seven had some stored video of attacks on the town, none larger than 12 to 15 aggressors. All attacks beaten back with little or no loss to the defenders.
For survival, they farmed, fished, and hunted, depending on the season and weather. The town still had plenty to draw from, so no one struggled for the basics like clothes, shelter, or other essentials.
The one huge hole in their existence was medical support. There wasn’t a town doctor and anything like one nearby. William’s wife died because of that, most likely either a sickness such as the flu or an infection, Sharon surmised.
Jake sat quietly through her briefing, looking somewhat distracted, but still attentive. When she completed, Sharon turned to Jake specifically and said, “I’m sorry Jake, that’s all there is for now.”
“That’s OK,” Jake replied, “we are just going to have to do this the old fashion way.”
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” he continued, “these people are a small isolated group, well organized, and friendly or they are so far, at least.”
“They are almost completely self-sufficient, short of medical and technological support. They also know about Seven, which makes just giving supplies a highly unlikely arrangement. If we think they are teachable and have the right attitude for what we do, I think we bring them in.”
That surprised everyone.
“Jake, do you think that’s wise?” Sara asked cautiously, “we don’t know anything about these people and once inside they could make real trouble.”
“Not as much as you might think,” Jake replied.
“Seven still acknowledges me exclusively as facility commander so the mutiny won’t work. We can also limit access to lessons, the armory, and other parts of the complex. Moreover, we don’t advertise it, but each facility has internal defenses, should someone go astray on us. We should also break them up, see if some families’ desire warmer climates, not just settle everyone here.”
“The kicker is if some, but not all, pass the review,” he said, “we all need to go to town today and meet as many as we can. Seven will be analyzing with us and can add her 2 cents in at the end. I do think we should give them a communicator, 10 rifles with ammo, and an advanced med kit to start with.”
Jake finished with, “OK, lets head to town, we can re-evaluate when we get back.”
With that, everyone got up and headed out to the hangar. They loaded up the jeep with the rifles and medical supplies and then suited up in full combat gear.
Like in Texas, Seven had an elevator to raise vehicles out of the hangar. Once everyone was inside the jeep, they headed to the designated location and Seven raised the platform to ground level, retracting the ceiling panel. With Jake at the wheel, they headed off across the field and on into town.
The road was rough, but still very distinguishable. As they approached Fairbanks, Jake made sure to slow down and give themselves plenty of time. He wanted to insure the town’s folk saw them well out, no need to startle anyone.
William, rather Bill as Jake recalled his preference, was there in the middle of the road at the edge of town as they drove up. He didn’t have his rifle with him, but Jake had no doubt he was in the sights of several others as he got out of the jeep. He told the others to leave their rifles in the jeep before they got out as a sign of good faith.
“Nice to see ya again,” Bill said as he stepped forward to greet Jake with a handshake.
“You too,” Jake replied, “I see you’re a trusting soul?”
“No point in a rifle with you all in combat suits,” Bill said with a laugh, “my grandpa told me all about them things, never thought I’d see one though. I do appreciate the show of good faith as well, leaving your rifles inside.”
“Well, we don’t want to be rude,” Jake said with his own laugh, “besides, we brought gifts. First, though, I thought we might get to know the rest of the townsfolk?”
“You wanna see what kinda folks we all are huh?” Bill responded with a nod, “I understand.”
Jake thought he did.
He asked Jessie to follow in the jeep as he and the others walked with Bill through town. As they walked, people came out of the various structures to join them. Some were armed, some not, until the entire town was there, kids and all.
They stopped in a park like area and Bill made the introductions. Jake and the rest of the team spent the remainder of the afternoon talking to everyone. They turned out to be better educated than any of the team expected. Everyone could read and write, the peak winter months dedicated to education as they were all mostly stuck inside.
Moreover, they all knew about the secret underground facility AKA Seven, via Bill’s grandfather. All five families had some kind of tie to the man and each had a story to tell about him. He was almost like a folk hero. He was young when the attack came, so several of the older family members still remembered him, first hand.
Seven brought his service record up at Jake’s request while the others were talking. He’d been an MP Corporal in the marine detachment, not of sufficient security clearance to enter unescorted. His fitness reports were excellent, and considered him an ideal marine. It was in fact Jake’s fault that he’d been prevented access to return to the facility.
Had Jake remained undiscovered until after the attack, Bill’s grandfather would have assumed command as the highest surviving command member and allowed admittance. Instead, all eight facilities remained in seclusion, waiting for Jake to awaken, his captain trumping a corporal.
The corporal’s influence was evident in his descendants, though. They were a well-disciplined and prepared people. Jake saw the storehouse, the homes, and common areas. All well-kept and very well organized. Fully stocked, their community had supplies for more than the winter. There was also plenty of firewood and other winter essentials for all the families.
Everyone they talked to was polite and well mannered. As the afternoon wore on to evening, Jake queried each of his team, separately, for their opinions. Everyone, including Seven, seemed to agree that the town’s people were worth a shot.
Jake pulled Bill aside and asked, “So what’s the general opinion of us being here?”
“Now that’s the question, isn’t it,” he replied causally, “why are you here?”
Jake explained why they’d come north and laid out the big picture for him. He described their current activities in the southwestern US to stabilize things. He also explained his interest in the town. He emphasized why they were different from other places. Finally, he delivered the proposal of incorporating the town’s people into the program they had for repopulating the facilities.
Bill listened without question, until Jake finished, then asked, “So, are you askin us to become Marines?”
“In a manner, I suppose so yes. As you pointed out yesterday, they no longer exist. However, the forces we are creating are very much of the same mold. Not everyone focuses on combat training, but everyone gets the basics. Would you folks be interested?”
Bill stared at Jake for a minute, then turned to the crowd, which was broken up in multiple smaller conversations with Jake’s team members intermingled.
“Folks,” Bill announced, “Captain Jake here has just asked me if we would like to join his Marines?”
Jake was sure the roar of the group could be heard throughout the valley. Once they settled down, which took a bit of time, he gave the standard speech about learning and jobs other than shooting people. His opinion though, was, after dealing with so many bandits over the years, most of this group was delighted at the prospect of getting to shoot people.
----*----
Bonnie completed her final review before they headed out. She hated not having real time data and the last update was three hours prior. That update still supported a business as usual state of affairs.
The team was in full combat gear and loading into the three vehicles on the elevator pad. They had exactly 55 min to get to the intercept point, 35 minutes away, before the patrol crossed the road at the location selected. She was cutting it close with a 20 min buffer, but didn’t want to sit out there too long either.
Once all seated themselves, ALICE-2 raised the elevator while opening the overhead doors. Bonnie, Sandy and Brian were in one jeep, while Abby and Jason were in the other. Bonnie assigned Joe the transport, with April as the gunner, since they both were the top scorers. If things went badly, the entire team could retreat to there.
As the elevator stopped, Bonnie asked Brian to take-off, leading the group, followed by Joe then Jason. Brian followed the GPS heading over open ground and they reach the intercept point right on time. It was typical Texas rolling hills and sparse trees and was all fairly flat. They’d traveled in a single file convoy, first across open fields and then up an old paved road.
Bonnie had them stop in a depression along the road the patrol used. The depression hid them from sight to within a few hundred feet. Once they identified the patrol, they would roll into view.
She watched as the time for intercept came and went.
“Bonnie weren’t they supposed to be here 10 minutes ago?” Abby asked over the communication line.
“Yeah, something’s not right. They have never been this far off their patrol time before. Let’s go ahead and slowly make for town,” she replied.
Brian slowly pulled forward, with Joe and Jason following as before. Bonnie asked everyone to scan the countryside looking for some sign of the patrol.
They could see the smoke before they saw the town. Several building there were ablaze and people were scrambling to put them out. At the sight of the three vehicles, several stopped what they were doing and grabbed guns, running for cover.
Bonnie directed them to stop and pull up three abreast, the transport between the two jeeps. She let things settle for a few minutes and then got out of the jeep.
“Everyone stays put, and for god’s sake, don’t shoot anyone.”
She walked out in front of the vehicles and stood there waiting. After several minutes, three men came forward, all armed. She could make out quite a few more hiding behind cover, all pointing guns at Bonnie.
She continued forward to meet them half way. When they were about 20 feet apart, one of the men shouted, “OK, that’s far enough, what do you want?”
Bonnie stopped as instructed and answered, “What happened here?” pointing to the burning buildings.
“We got hit by raiders,” one of the other men said, “a big damn group, musta been well over 100.”
Bonnie considered that for a minute, then asked, “how long ago and which way did they go?”
“About an hour ago,” said the first man, “then they headed off that way.”
He pointed off to Bonnie’s right, into the higher hills. She could see the hoof prints of numerous horses heading off in that direction.
“They take anyone?” Bonnie asked.
The third man spit in the dirt, clearly angry, and then said, “Ya, about 15 women and girls. Our patrol’s too small to take that many on,” he finished, as if the words tasted bad in his mouth.
“Not too many for us,” Bonnie replied, then said privately, “Alice, can you get me two helicopters up and looking. I want to know where they are, how many and where the captives are. Joe, you and Brian bring me up 20 rifles and ammo. Leave your rifles inside.”
“On their way,” said Alice.
“We were sent here to establish contact with your town,” Bonnie said, directing her attention back to the men, “we were hoping to help you.”
As she spoke, she could see the men suddenly more alert, watching the activity behind her.
“Those two men are bringing up 20 semi-automatic rifles with ammunition for your patrol.”
They watched as Joe and Brian carted up to boxes of 10 rifles each. They set them out in front of Bonnie, and then went back for the ammo crates.
The men were eyeing Joe, who was a good several inches taller than anyone there was. They also looked at the crates expectantly.
The first man offered up, “So what’s the catch?”
“No catch,” Bonnie replied, “we are here to negotiate a support agreement, but considering the circumstances, I’m giving you these as a gift and offering to take some of your men with us to get your people back.”
Without hesitation, the third man said, “I’m in,” and lowered his rifle, walking over to Bonnie.
“Rick!” the first man said, “we don’t know a damn thing about these people!”
“I don’t give a crap!” Rick replied, “They're giving me a gun and helping me get Susan back!”
Bonnie did some quick analysis and said, “Look, we only want volunteers and I will leave two of my people and a jeep here with you, OK?” she omitted the fact that one jeep and two troops could probably level the town on their own and leave unscathed.
That did seem to soften the first man though, so Bonnie continued, “I’ll have two of my men show you how to use these,” she pointed at the rifles, “While we locate your people, then we need to move quickly to go after them.”
Bonnie called Brian and Joe back up and tasked them with instructing the three men while she contacted the rest of the team and Alice.
“Sandy, I want you and Brian to stay here while we go after the hostages. Take the opportunity to start your negotiations. This should give you a hell of an advantage. ALICE, find the bandits, but stay as high as you can, don’t give them a chance to see the helicopters if you can avoid it. I want April on the transport gun and Abby on the jeep's machine gun, we do not shoot hostages!” she finished.
“Bonnie, why are we taking the locals with us?” Abby asked, “They aren’t trained on our gear, or tactics?”
“Good faith and familiar faces,” Bonnie replied, “we need them once we get to the hostages back, they would likely run from us as the raiders. Also, you heard how angry Rick was about not getting his family back. This reinforces us as enablers.”
“Don’t worry though,” Bonnie continued, “we won’t let them loose until the situation is under control. We don’t need any friendly fire incidents.”
“Bonnie,” ALICE cut in, “I have located the raiding party. They are about 21 miles east of your position and on the move all on horseback. There are 147 combatants with 18 apparent hostages spread out in the formation, but centrally located overall.”
They all got the video feed of a large column of horsemen, riding a dirt trail. The column was long with no more than three or four horses abreast. They were heading deeper into the hills.
Bonnie tried to manipulate the image from the helicopter, as she did the satellite displays, but it didn’t respond so she asked, “ALICE can you give me a bigger view of the area ahead, I’d like to see where they are headed.”
ALICE panned out and forward showing the trail passing through a pass about 2 miles ahead and on to a valley that looked to be their goal.
Bonnie now truly understood Jake’s warnings. Nothing was going as planned since they left ALICE-2. However, she didn’t feel her team was at risk and she knew she could save those people. She turned to Joe and Brian, only to see several more men come forward for instruction on the new rifles. Actually, it looked more like the entire patrol force.
“One of the men went back for volunteers,” Brian said, “they all volunteered so we cut it to the number of rifles.”
That gave Bonnie an idea, “ALICE can you bring one of the helicopters here, but please keep the other tracking the raiding party.”
Bonnie then instructed her team and the town’s patrol to gather, the townsmen eyeing the strangers somewhat warily. She grabbed a stick and started drawing in the dirt.
“We are here,” she indicated, “the raiders are here,” she sketched out the hills and their position in them.
“How do you know that?” one of the patrol members asked. As he did so, one of the helicopters hovered to land, keeping the gathering just outside the prop wash.
“Oh, that’s how,” he finished, answering his own question.
Bonnie continued, “they look to be headed through a pass here,” she sketched in advance of the raiders position.
“Then on to a valley here,” she finished.
“I want half your patrol, to go in that, with Joe,” Bonnie said, pointing to the patrolman who’d asked.
As she said that, she pointed to Joe and then the helicopter, “to a position overlooking this pass as a blocking force. Your job is to stop them from getting through that pass. The remaining half will go with us in that,” she pointed to the transport, “and come in from behind.”
Bonnie straightened up and surveyed the gathering.
“We need to go now, so please get your people split up. In addition, no one fires unless Joe or I say so! Joe you know what we need done, don’t let them get past you,” she finished.
To their credit, none of the patrol members balked at the helicopter transport. A couple hesitated getting in at first, but soon they were all off in good time.
She loaded her half of the patrol into the transport, and with April driving. Abby and Jason were leading the way, in the other Jeep. She noted Abby was on the machine gun. She then plotted the route for them to follow, in the navigation system.
Bonnie made sure to have Joe’s group review their rifles operation in the helicopter on their way out, unloaded of course. She ran her half of the patrol through the same rifle review in the transport, and then explained that once they stopped and the rear door dropped, they were to split five and five to each side of the vehicles and spread out along a line. Their job was to contain any escape attempts, let no one pass. She also reminded them the hostages were their people so if necessary, shoot carefully, and no one fires without her order.
ALICE dropped half of Joe’s group on one side of the pass with a communication box and Joe and the rest on the other side, where he ordered them all to lock and load. Once everyone was in place, she set the helicopter in the pass, right in the center effectively blocking the trail.
