Chapter 4 The Gears begin to Turn.

When I wake up again the alarm clock reads ten thirtyish. I moan as I pull myself out of bed and stretch quickly. I pull on some clothing quickly as I walk downstairs to the kitchen. Logan sits by himself writing on the grocery list. "Morning Aiden, everyone else is already gone. You want to join me in grocery shopping?" He asks as I flip the kettle on and grab a pack of instant oatmeal. "Happily just let me eat first," I reply as I wait for the kettle to boil. "Remember our first mission last week. We think someone guided them here. We are checking if any walkers are wearing pilot uniforms." I tell him as the kettle finishes boiling and turn off. I eat quickly and we grab the reusable bags for groceries. The streets are quiet with only a few people outside. I wave to two guardians biking past us on patrol. "Weird, they're not many people on the streets right now. Is something happening?" I ask Logan as we cut through an apartment project to take a shortcut to the store.

"Nope, we already watered most of the field this morning. We do have some groups out getting water from the river." He replies as we cross a bridge passing over a river. "I think most of the raiders have been called in for a briefing though. After that attack last night we have to do some crowd control in Orleans. I heard from others that we were the only group that had walkers lead to our gates." He continues as we walk next to the school field as we see a group of raiders running laps or training with weapons. "We also need to track down the group that attacked us. Marko is having the old police detective look through any evidence we found but that might take to long." I reply as we enter a short path through a forested park and end up behind the metro.

We push to slide the doors open as we walk inside. Standing guard are six guardians. Two are melee fighters armed with clubs and another had a bow. They get the joyful job of guarding the entrance while six teams of three patrol inside the store We aren't the only people in the store but it isn't busy. "Don't forget to read the instructions so you how many things to grab per person." A voice says over the speakers as he finishes talking. Logan has a shopping cart so we wander around the store finding the things we need. We also chat with the various guards some of them were part of the defense last night as well. "The shelves are looking slightly bare today. You said you were helping with inventory? What's our situation on food?" I ask Logan as I grab a bag of pasta and two jars of sauce. "It's in a weird state right now. We have food coming from farms and we have what people grow in their own yards. But we need to improve what we can grow ourselves. Focus more on foods that grow fast or in large amounts. We are lucky due to Arrowhead since they have those fields next to them. Although we do have a ton of eggs." He responds as we look at what meats are available. "Like how many chickens do we even have. The last time we counted it a like two hundred." He tells himself as I grab some venison. The hunters must have had a good haul last time for this much meat. We finish grabbing the last few items we need and head to the cashiers.

Buying food: to buy food we follow a system like food banks taking a select amount. To purchase them we don't use the money. We bring the food to the cashier and the food took is marked down. All items are given a number those are also written down to help track items taken and make sure none are missing.

"Have a good day," I tell the cashier as we leave with our bags, We walk home taking the same route and talk about the last few days. We get home and we put everything away and we get on with our days.

I decided to go see if I could get any information about that early morning meeting. I walk back to the school and as I cross the field I walk behind the group of archery training. I give some of them advice if I notice any errors. I continue past and I reach the upper field. I walk around the border since the majority if the field is now home to a cornfield. In the middle of the growing stalks, I can see a water tower. A few workers are taking the empty drums off and replacing them with full ones. I reach one of the school doors and pull it open. This hallway only has it's emergency lights on while other halls have all lights on. I wander into the den as a few raiders are chatting around the table. I notice that they are around their late twenties meaning these are some of the higher ranking raiders. "Good afternoon everyone," I tell them as they see me approach. "If possible do you know what the early morning meeting was about?" I continue asking them.

"Yeah, we might have a lead about those people that attacked us. We found some supplies in the back of the crashed cars." One of the older raiders says his deep voice catching me off guard. He looks around and in a lower voice, he continues. "They had some shirts in that has the Orleans bowling logo on the arms. We are having a team check that place out tomorrow," he says. "The team isn't decided yet but if you are interested we have an open slot in our group. Our last member is out sick." He finishes. I think about the offer for a few seconds before I decide. "That would be great if you have space," I answer as they start getting up to leave. "If you want to join I have to ask what type of fighter are you?" He asks as he gestures for to me to follow. "I am mainly a ranged fighter using a recurve bow with a fifty-pound draw weight. I also use two punch knives. Since I am a better hand to hand fighter." I reply as we walk towards the gym

"Wait you are a ranged fighter who also good at hand to hand fighting? What were you before the apocalypse?" One of the other members asks as we take a set of stairs up to the other second floor. Due to the odd design of the school, the drama, music and a smaller upper gym for wrestling are separated from the other half of floor. "I did some boxing off to the side for exercise. I started at sixteen but I haven't practiced much since this all happened." I reply as we enter the small gym. The floor has padded mats along with the lower parts of the wall. "Well let's see what you can do, shall we?" The group leader replied as he tosses a pair of boxing gloves. "You will be fighting Morgan he is the closest to your size. I am Roosevelt and our last friend here is Amber. She is our ranged fighter like you. She was working her way through police training." Roosevelt continues as we put our gloves on and enter the circle marked on the mats.

We don't fight for too long since we decided to use one round deathmatch. Morgan was a more brutal fighter as he pressed forward quickly, I had trained with an out boxer style but I made my own improvements to help avoid him. I manage to win with a slight lead. After we fought they had me show them my archery skill. It was late in the morning is almost one when we finished. We wound up back in the den talking about what life was like before the apocalypse. Morgan was twenty-seven and was working as an auto mechanic, Amber was twenty-five and was going through the police academy and Roosevelt was thirty-three and was a welder by trade working in Ottawa but comes from Manitoba. "So Aiden what is your life story?" Amber asks as Roosevelt finished talking. "Well, I was eighteen almost nineteen when this shitshow began. I worked in a deli part time and did some boxing for fun. My parents are alive but my father was a construction worker and is helping out in Apollo camp, my mother was in accounting and management and also worked as a secretary for a while. She works as a scribe so they are both in important positions. Taylor is my twin and I would do anything to keep him safe but its hard with this world." I tell them as they listen. "For about a year I was starting to pursue my lifelong career but something sidetracked it. Now I work as a raider and do construction in my spare time." I finish as they sort everything I told them. I hear someone running as their feet slapped loudly against the floor. "Aiden You are needed at the bank. Taylor and the others are being summoned as well!" a courier tells me as he catches his breath. "Let's continue another time!" I shout the others as I run for the front doors.

It takes a few minutes to reach the bank and I could see Logan and Blake were being driven in an ATV. We enter the bank and are directed into Marko's office where Taylor is sitting. "Aiden, Logan, Blake good sit or stand we found something important," he tells us as he passes a few pictures around the table. "Do you recognize anything important about those photos?" he asks as we pass it around. The photos showed a roadmap book and a few pages. "No nothing jumps out at me. These just have a picture of pages with circles and random marks on them." Taylor says as he passes them to me. I look over them for a few seconds before I notice a pattern start forming. "These aren't just random marks. These look like military symbols. Red diamonds mean hostile, green squares mean neutral etc." I tell everyone as I keep looking through.

"That's right Aiden how did you know?" Marko asks as I stop and look at the last three pictures these ones catch my attention. "I had a few friends when joined the forces and they showed me these symbols. We played a war game with them for fun. But look at these ones. This is Kingston I believe that this is fort henry. We know that a group took over. Its marked with a blue rectangle meaning friends The other is some random place slightly north-west of Toronto but its marked as an unknown headquarter. The last one is us marked with a red diamond. These guys have been strip searching the province looking for us but why us. The last time we were that far south was when we made a trade with the group at Fort Henry." I tell everyone. Marko stands up and walks to one of the bookshelves and pulls off a binder.

"Boys that will be all for today. Aiden, I hear that you are hoping to go on that mission tomorrow?" Marko tells us as we start leaving. "Yes sir, I have been bored out of my mind all week." I begin telling him

"You will be going on that mission. I will allow it since you have a good understanding of Orleans." He continues cutting me off. We leave the bank and we decide to get on with the rest of the day. I head home and open out the garage door. Due to our position on the street, we have a small armory inside mostly of spears and a few bows. This is incased we lose the schools we aren't completely weaponless. I check the sharpness or each blade and I begin to sharpen any that are dull. Afterward, I go to my room and dig out my set of armor. All raiders and guardians have a set at home that they are supposed to mostly use. The schools have all the unused armors these are meant for if we are under attack and we can't get to our homes.

Armor of the apocalypse - our armors range from kevlar to biking gear to football chest pieces. We also have a few sets of riot armor as well.

My armor is a set of Duhan motorcycle armor. It won't stop any bullets but the armor will prevent a walker from taking a bit out my chest, armors, and neck. Our mission at the airport last week was a special case though as we didn't wear armor due to our bags. It was more of a mobility mission that a combat mission.

The rest of the day passes without much interest as I prepared for tomorrow. The most exciting this I had to do was when I had a shift walking the walls. No walkers were spotted at the moment but we don't know how far away a gaggle of them could be.

The next morning I gathered all my gear together for the scouting mission and meet at the school for the briefing. I did a quick head count and About thirty people were here which was odd. To my surprise when Marko walks in I see the head of agriculture is with him and she is holding a bag with things inside. "Good morning everyone I hope you slept well since we will be busy today," Marko says addressing the room and we all perk up. I take out a small notebook and prepare to take down any important information. Here next to me is the head of agriculture Evie Mills. She has an important task for people to do. So she will take it from here."

"As you know if you lived in Ottawa we have many farms outside the city. We have a few groups who work some of the safer areas. We suddenly lost contact with our farthest farm. We want a few groups to stealthily check out the camp and report back. Aiden you will be part of the planning team you will also be joined by Wolfgang and two other of our strategic heads."

Evie tells the rest of us as we continue the meeting. "The farm is located around seventeen kilometers away near a large dig site. The house is across from the Berton farm sign. We want a sniper group in the cowbarn across the street. After that four teams will surround it and wait to see if anything odd happens." She finishes as the meeting continues.

"Oh, one final thing not a word of this meeting and later planning is to be talked about or even written! Aiden that includes you." Marko continues. I tuck my journal into my bag and shift back to my notebook…

(Two days later)

Running low to the ground my team of four travels across the field due to the season the grass is short and green in color. I feel a few droplets of rain on my head. "God I hate April but at least it isn't January," I mutter as we get closer to the barn. We pull open the door to find it empty which is odd. These farms usually have some type of farm animals and one horse in case they need to bolt or send a message. I climb a set of stairs to reach the window with the best viewpoint. Once again I use the Remington VTR. I extend the tripod legs and Logan takes a pair of binoculars to help spot for me. We wait until the sun starts to set and the other teams move across the field. "Something isn't right. We saw no movement in the house and all the animals are gone." I tell Logan as the teams enter the house. We see them move through the windows and in a few minutes I hear Taylors radio crackle. "It's completely empty. No food on the shelves, clothing in the rooms nothing living." A voice over the radio says as they walk out the front door. That is when everything goes wrong. I hear a loud whistling sound, the left side, probably the living room suddenly explodes sending debris flying.

"Shit, Shit! What just happened?" I shout as I start searching for the source of the sound. Then whatever higher power that's out there decides to fuck up my day. I hear another whistling sound but this time the roof of the barn to our left explodes. I get slammed into the frame of the window and lose my breath. "Taylor are you okay? Taylor!" I shout waiting to hear my brother's voice. "I'm okay Aiden but I can't move. I was walking up the loft stairs. Now I am under them." he says with pain in his voice.

"We are okay too you know. Don't worry about us unimportant people." I hear Blake groan as he crawls out from under a bale of hay. "Aiden that blast it came from the east. Look at the hole in the roof." Taylor says as he points to said hole. The blast has collapsed the southeast portion of the roof. "It explains the damage to the house the blast came from the back of the house. It means that the target it somewhere in the field south-southeast of the house. They must have seen the glint from my scope" I finish for Taylor as we hear a third whistling sound this one falls short of the barn. The barn creaks and grounds from the second blast and I hear Logan.

"We need to get out of here now! The first blast took out four, five, five and a half roof thrusts another good hit and this barn collapses onto us." Logan shouts as we start moving. That's when I notice my problem. The blast took out the only stairs on this side of the barn. The only things separating me from a fifteen-foot drop. "Logan, Blake get Taylor and leave now I think I know where they are firing from. " I order them as they start to protest but decide against it leaving the barn carrying Taylor. They make it out of the barn when the next whistle starts. This time hitting the west side of the barn. Causing it to collapse with me in it.