As this is the first part of an ongoing tale, I always knew the last few chapters would have to leave some characters with their stories left open, even though I don't enjoy doing such things. To make up for this, I've decided to post two chapters today so readers are not left with a bad taste.

Chapter 91

Go On Without Me

A genuine veil of despair hung over the ship One and All as they made their way south for the next two days. Upon arriving, anyone with medical or first aid experience was pressed into service to help as Haley was stretchered ashore. While the doctor performed his unenvious task, Jack and Cid met up with Smit and Shifty on the refloated raider vessel.

"By the looks on your faces, I'd guess things did not go well" Smit sighed.

"That would have to be the understatement of the year" Cid agreed "Not only did we fail to get help from the Raiders, but Haley got shot and as is having her left leg amputated as we speak."

"WHAT? NO!" Shifty cried out and ran to the dock.

Cid and Smit tried to call him back but he wouldn't be persuaded to wait.

"The doctor wouldn't let me stay with her so I don't think Shifty is going to get very far."

Smit wanted to comfort his lifelong friend but knew there was little he could say that would help. The news about Cid's daughter only made what Smit had to tell them much worse.

"Sorry to do this to you, but I don't have anything to lift your spirits" Smit began.

"And so it goes from bad to worse" Cid sighed "So what happened down here while we were gone?"

"When the time came to swap shifts at the bunker, we came up with a plan to get last week's group out without sending any new people in. We only sent four people in two trucks full of damaged machinery, intending to tell the guards we didn't have enough working trucks to do the swap in one hit. The plan was to tell them we would take the old group back to El Centro first, and bring the new people up later in the afternoon. All the other working vehicles were packed up and ready to head off as soon as we were all together again."

"Sage would have made it back to the bunker in the Hyperloop when we were still passing through San Francisco Bay" Jack noted "The guards must have been expecting trouble from the start."

"You're not wrong there" Smit nodded "When both trucks returned to El Centro, they weren't carrying our people, but instead they had armed bunker guards and raiders. Most of us got away but some of the people we' brought back from the northern end of the settlement were captured."

"Another disaster!" Cid threw his hands up.

"So Sage has the Bull Ant now" Jack realised "Well I suppose we won't need it anymore."

"Actually... I don't know where the Bull Ant is" Smit admitted.

"But you were on it?" Cid noted.

"Well yes but... that weird guy DeGroot, he kind of... stole it" Smit admitted.

"How the hell did he... more to the point, why would he steal an old railway car on caterpillar tracks?" Jack wondered.

"I can't tell you why but as to how, he said you told him to be useful so he volunteered to take a lot of driving shifts. I was happy to let him because it freed up the rest of us to go out in the pickup trucks and check the surrounding farms. Most of the people we found were okay and had already started rebuilding, so we told them all what we'd learned about the bunker, as well as our plans to leave. After we'd reached the northern end of the settlement, DeGroot offered to drive the Bull Ant back by himself, because we could return to El Centro much quicker in the trucks. The next day, I estamated he should be close to my farm, so I decided to check on his progress when I went to grab the last of my gear. To my surprise though, I didn't see him on the road so I kept driving north till I reached the place we'd left him between Rockwood and Calipatria; and when I got there... he was gone. I figured he just kept heading north for some reason, but I didn't want to waste any more time or fuel looking for him. It was soon after I got back to El Centro that we had to make a run for it."

"Reed always said he was a strange little man" Jack shook his head.

"Do you think we should try and find him?" Cid asked.

"Hell no!" Jack replied "If he wants to run away, then I say goodbye Mr. DeGroot. Besides if we go back to El Centro, we run the risk of more of us being taken by the bunker guards."

"Looks like we've got no choice" Smit noted "We have to keep running."

Cid sighed as his head dropped; he could not believe it had come to this.

"I'll go see the doctor about when we can move Haley, while you get ready to go" he said and turned away.

Down in the depths of the bunker, Reed Branson was having an even worse time than Cid. While Professor Adisa was forced to watch from the next room, Branson had been tied to a chair and beaten. Now with a badly swollen eye and blood running from his nose, Sage finally began to speak.

"I suppose you think you're very clever, getting a message from the Professor out to your friends" he sneered.

"I'd feel clever if it was some great achievement, but the guards here were so slack, they made it easy for me to do a letter drop" Reed grinned.

The guards in the room looked guiltily at each other, wondering if a further punishment would soon be coming their way later.

"And now you have made life very difficult for me" Sage continued "I had hoped to unite these people together by rescuing them from Redding's grip. Then they could help me mount a surprise attack on the Railgun, but now the people of El Centro don't like me and the two groups still hate each other; also Doctor Spencer will soon find out what I plan to do when your friends get back to the Railgun. I should have killed you, so can you guess why you're still alive?"

"I assume it is either my sparkling personality or the fact that I look great in a swim suit" Reed replied.

"No it is because of that stubborn old goat watching through the glass" Sage pointed at Professor Adisa. "He needs to know that I mean business, and he needs to be more co-operative."

"Fat chance" Branson smirked.

"It doesn't matter what you think, as long as Adisa believes your continuing life depends on his co-operation, I feel sure he will do what I tell him to."

Sage gave his men a signal and they untied Reed before leading him away. He was taken to a locked dormitory, designed to hold only a quarter of the people now in it. Some of them were the people once thought to be dead, while the rest were there recent captives from El Centro. The few that recognised Branson wanted to help him, but were forbidden by the guards. Three of them had risen from the bed they sat on to give the injured man somewhere to lie down, but the guards would not allow that either so Reed was forced to lie in a corner on the floor.

Twenty minutes later, Professor Adisa was pushed into the room. He looked around until he spotted his friend and hurried over to him.

"I'm so sorry about this Captain" Linton said "I would have told Sage whatever he wanted if it would only have stopped him from hurting you, but he seemed determined to go on before he questioned me."

"What did he want from you?" Reed asked.

"Nothing yet, but he tells me when we get to Sumatra, I must convince Sarah to surrender to him or we both die."

"Professor we can't help this guy take over the Railgun Complex, so we have to face the grim fact; we are both expendable" Reed said.

"That's okay for me Captain because I'm an old man; but you..."

"I may not be as old as you Professor, but I've lived a hard life. Some of the worst parts of it were when I was leading the refugee fleet, taking them towards Europe with no real idea if we were doing the right thing or not. When you and Sarah took everyone in, you made a friend for life out of me and I will not betray you just to save my own life, and I don't want you to risk the safety of our friends in Sumatra just to protect me. I don't want to die of course, but at least I know everyone from the fleet is safe for now."

"If Sage heard you say that, I doubt he'd let you live for another minute" Linton noted "We have to let him think he can still use you as leverage against me."

"Fair enough sir, but don't go too far; better to die here than endanger everyone else."

"You're beginning to sound like a support actor in a B grade war movie."

"Excuse me a moment while I throw myself on this grenade" Reed smirked.

With the sun low in the western sky, Smit looked towards the hills, back towards the home now far too distant for him to see.

"It's hard to believe we're leaving so many people behind" Jack said as he approached from the dock.

"We may have been able to pull off a rescue if that Sage character hadn't turned up" Smit shook his head.

"No point dwelling on it now I suppose" Jack resigned himself "I feel sure we'll come up with a way to get everyone back."

Smit took a deep breath and turned towards the dock.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked.

"I think so" Jack answered as they walked back to the ships.

"One thing I was wondering; does the raider ship have enough fuel to get all the way across the Pacific Ocean?"

"I'm afraid not" Jack replied "but we've jury rigged a few sails and we'll follow the North Equatorial Current, so we'll make in the end; even if it is a slow trip."

"Thanks for lending us a few experienced sailors" Smit smiled.

"I'll make sea dogs out of you in no time" Jack nodded "Assuming I can get your son out his hammock."

The two men went to their respective ships and soon they had both cast off, and were making their way out past Point Loma and into the open ocean. Jack stood at the bow of the One and All, wondering if they had made a big mistake in coming here in the first place. But as he pondered the alternative of staying in Sumatra, he realised it would have only been a matter of time before Sage and his army turned up at the Railgun unannounced and caught them unaware.

"Hmmm... at least we know what he's going to do, even if we don't know precisely when he's going to do it" Jack said to himself as he stared off towards the horizon.

Down at the bottom of the Sierra Highway, the man made Lake Palmdale still provided a steady source of water for several families trying to survive by farming in the area. One of these people, a young lady with a wide brimmed straw hat, was indulging in a little corn harvesting when she heard a very strange noise. Three hundred meters to the south, something big was approaching and to her complete surprise, it turned out to be a battered old twin decked railway car mounted on caterpillar tracks.

As the odd machine slowly trundled past, the driver looked down and noticed the girl standing a few meters from the road in mild awe, so he brought the tracked beast to a juddering halt.

"Excuse me" he called out when the machine had stopped "is this the way to Lancaster?"

"J-just down the road a bit, on the other side of Palmdale" the woman pointed north.

"And can I get to 'East Avenue J' if I follow this road?" he asked.

"Err... yeah eventually... it's on the right... opposite West Avenue J" she answered.

"Thank you" the man waved as the massive machine started off again.

By the time you read this, the next chapter should already be up and the last two should appear before the end of the weekend. (exciting huh?)