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Base of Coronado Heights, just north of Lindsborg, Kansas. 9:21 AM Central Time.

The Corporal crouched next to large tree with his rifle at the ready, looking up the steep slope of the heights. They had landed in a field between Lindsborg and the heights several hours before, using the cover of darkness to navigate their way to the towering landscape. But now that the cover of darkness was gone, their progress had slowed to almost a crawl.

"Remind me again why we're not just walking straight up the road?" Bee asked as she knelt right next to the Corporal.

"These people may have changed their tactics over the past few hours," came the reply as he started to move forward. Rolling her eyes, Bee grabbed Chris's sidearm from its holster and started to walk up the road. The Corporal started to protest, but stopped in order to catch up to the teen.

"Hey! Is there anyone still alive around here!" she shouted up towards the crest of the hill. A few people and rifle barrels appeared near the crest, watching the newcomers.

"Christ! We got more raiders!" shouted one of the survivors.

"Their too few to be raiders you retard, besides, that one has a military uniform!" shouted another. A man with a shotgun began to walk down the road towards the pair, flanked by two men.

"I see the army received our message," said the man, coming to a halt about six feet away. Both Bee and Chris came to a halt as well. The young Corporal took a moment to look over the safe zone's defenses.

"Not exactly here on orders of the Army," he replied. The man shook his head.

"I thought not, the army doesn't send only two people to reinforce a hill." The man studied the two of them again before turning and motioning for them to follow. Walking back up the hill, the small group entered the compound of the park. No walls surrounded it, just a few men watching each slope of the hill.

"No walls or fences?" Bee asked as they walked through the various objects and made their way to the crown jewel, a stone castle.

"No need, the infected cant climb a steep slope directly. They need some sort of help to do that. So we only put serious guards on the road and stairs," the man replied as he led the way into the castle. Many women and children sat on benches and picnic tables inside, either eating or sleeping. Walking up a set of spiral stairs, they found themselves on the roof. From here, you could see for miles in any direction.

"There's no smoke from the town," Bee pointed out.

"The police managed to maintain order long enough for people to be evacuated. But I fear that the town will belong to the dead soon, and then we will be surrounded," said the man. The Corporal looked around some more before he faced the man.

"What do we have for defenses?" he asked. The man shrugged slightly.

"Only decent shots we got are some Asian cowboy out of Phoenix and an Air Force pilot who went down near Salina," came the reply. The man looked closer at Chris's nametag before he looked out over the ramparts.

"Did you have a wife and kid go down in a chopper around here Corporal?" he asked. Chris nodded, on edge now.

"Well, I don't know if there the relation your looking for, but there's a woman and a child here with the same last name as yours, they're down by the benches if you want a closer look," he said. Chris thanked the man before he started down the stairs, but Bee remained where she was.

"We got flyers incoming," said a young man, standing in the tower with a pair of binoculars to his eyes.

"Thanks Cowboy, pop smoke!" the leader shouted as he brought up his own binoculars. A canister oozing out a thick green smoke was thrown into the center of the hilltop compound as four A-10 Warthogs passed by the ridge, their twin engines roaring as they passed.

Bee watched as they passed, headed for a base up north somewhere.

"Why do you need to do the whole smoke bomb thing?" she asked as the craft faded into the background.

"Ole Uncle Sam tends to bomb a group of people without a marking these days," said the Asian in the tower as he leaned back and put his rifle in his lap. The leader nodded simply as he looked out over the wall again. Below them, the Corporal was hugging his wife and child in a giant bear hug. Bee was touched as she saw the family reunited once again.

"Christ!" said the Asian as he shot to his feet, binoculars still held to his eyes.

"What do ya see Cowboy?" asked the leader, looking between the direction where he was looking and the man in the tower.

"Militia, 'round seventy five or a hundred. They got an M40 recoilless this time," he said. The leader cursed under his breath as he brought up his own binoculars.

"Everyone to shelter! We got militia coming in!" he shouted as he lowered the binoculars. People in the compound began to scramble to what few stone buildings sat on the hill. In the valley below, a thundering clap and a whoosh of smoke sprang up.

The loud whistle of the incoming shell sounded before it made impact. A tree and several branches on the edge of the compound were shattered, raining woodchucks down all around them.

"Run out those fuckin' mortars!" the leader shouted as he crouched slightly. Four men sprinted out into the center of the compound, two of them caring large metal tubes. As the men rushed to get the mortars set up, another thump came from below as the militia fired again.

This time the shell landed further inside the compound, smashing two concrete benches and sending one man flying through the air. The Asian, Cowboy as he was called, brought up his Springfield M21 and took aim. He fired off a few shots at the militia before the mortar teams opened up with their own payload.

"Militia's disengaging, they're falling back toward town," he said. The leader sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"This is the third time they've hit us, and each time they get more accurate," he said. Bee watched as the vehicles headed back for the town.

"How did you manage to get a hold of all this firepower?" she asked. Cowboy leaned back in his chair, looking out over the city.

"The right connections," he said. She looked out over the city as well, with one question burning on her lips.

"Why don't you just level the town?" she asked. The leader laughed and shook his head.

"If only we had the shells."