Chapter 5- Disease in the Jungle (1)
A few days after gaining a base, Harry and Johnathan noticed that Roy was becoming increasingly ill and spoke to him whilst he was sitting in a chair.
"You're not looking good Roy. I'm wondering if you've caught something out here." Harry said to Roy.
"It wouldn't surprise me if you had. The Jungles out here have lots of nasty little insects that carry diseases." Johnathan said, imparting some of his knowledge of the jungles on this island.
"I'm fine for now. It's the next few days I worry about." Roy replied.
"Well that means that we're going to have to scrounge around for preventative drugs. We'll start looking in the harbour for them." Harry suggested optimistically. Johnathan gave him a crushing disappointment.
"Harry, we've checked high and low around our base already. We have lots of medical kits and rations but the preventative drugs we need are non existent here." Johnathan said despondently.
Harry sunk into a chair, momentarily burying his head into his hands. He then wiped the sweat off his face.
Before they could do anything else, Kurt arrived with a small smile. "Good News everyone, I believe I have a solution to your problem." He then threw down a bunch of papers with numbers and significant places in the peninsula. "A list of convoy routes containing critical medical supplies, amongst them, preventative drugs."
Harry's, Johnathan's and Roy's eyes widened as they took in the information that had been thrown down in front of them. The delivery details were incredibly detailed, with exact quantities of the cargoes of each convoy and their escorts.
"How did we come across this information?" Roy asked astounded.
"I sent Ivan to raid a nearby abandoned village which had been established as an enemy communication post. He and his squad captured some new recruits and a few rifles and explosives. That's when they found the papers containing the information we just so happened to need." Kurt explained.
"Convenient." Harry commented dryly.
"Got to take every opportunity we can get Harry." Roy said to Harry, admonishing him for his apparent pessimism.
"Oh, I know that we need to take the opportunities presented to us. I just think this is too convenient for us. I mean, we just so happen to find a whole list of convoys carrying the supplies we need, just as we need to start searching for them." Harry explained to them.
"I'm fully aware that it's a little too convenient but I believe that this is a regular thing. Most of the shipments now come from a harbour or two to the east and Gene's bases stretch to the far west of the peninsula. Right up to the border in fact." Kurt pointed out.
Harry was mulling over what Roy and Kurt had said. He then came to a decision," Very well, we shall raid Gene's convoys. Three squads will intercept the trucks carrying the supplies but I will not take part in any of these raids."
Kurt, Roy and Johnathan looked shocked by Harry's decision. "Why aren't you going to go on these raids?" Roy questioned. Kurt and Johnathan looked as though they were about to ask that very question themselves.
"I believe that what we're looking for is not on this list. If I am wrong, then I will eat a ton of ants in front of all the men. If I'm right however, then someone has to get me a bottle of Firewhiskey and make me some treacle tart." Harry said confidently.
"You don't think the preventative drugs will be on those trucks, do you?" Roy asked Harry.
"Oh no, I have every reason to believe that there are preventative drugs on the trucks. I just think that they'll be the wrong ones for what we need." Harry responded bluntly.
"Who's going to lead the squads then?" Roy asked, wondering how things would go with Harry not getting himself involved.
"That's easy, Ivan, Natalia and Johnathan should go. They already have experienced what Gene's renegades are able to do as they were once part of his Army." Harry said confidently.
"We should give them about two squads worth of soldiers so we can steal all the vehicles in those convoys." Kurt recommended. Harry and Roy nodded in agreement.
Johnathan looked nervous, mainly at the thought of leading soldiers into battle when he himself had no experience at leading other soldiers. When they were told of their mission, Ivan and Natalia were also nervous, Ivan because, like Johnathan, had never led other soldiers before and had not been trained to do so. Natalia meanwhile had led soldiers before as she had been in charge of security at a vehicle workshop, which was somewhere between the prison they had escaped from and a railway bridge and was nervous because prior to creating their base, she had never been in battle before.
They got on with coordinating their attacks anyway, intending on capturing the maximum number of vehicles.
Sometime later, the trio and their squads reached ambush positions and waited for the convoys to arrive.
Johnathan's group ambushed the convoy coming in their direction very stealthily. Johnathan stunned the driver and passenger of the lead truck, which brought the entire convoy to a halt. The escorting soldiers then jumped out of their trucks and 4 wheel drive cars fanning out to hunt down the attacker. When they began leaving the road, the rest of Johnathan's group took out the escorts using CQC and automatic weapons with rubber bullets.
Just as they finished capturing the escort soldiers, a pair of tanks and armoured cars appeared and were scanning for enemies. The tanks were a pair of M4 Sherman tanks and the armoured cars were a pair of Panhard 178 armoured cars. Not seeing an enemy, the tank and armoured car commanders exposed themselves in an effort to find the enemy.
Johnathan's soldiers worked their way behind the vehicles and and climbed onto the vehicles, stunning the commanders and then they threw sleeping gas grenades through the hatches, causing the crews to fall asleep. The hard work over, they jumped into the trucks, tanks and other vehicles and began transporting them back to their harbour base.
Ivan's ambush was more aggressive than that of Johnathan's. His group had a number of machine guns and shotguns to control the enemy. They also possessed a Bazooka and a pair of Panzerfausts to deal with any tanks and armoured vehicles accompanying the convoy.
When the convoy arrived, Ivan knew he couldn't hesitate otherwise the opportunity would be lost and some of the men he commanded might be killed. He opened fire on the lead truck, killing the driver and seriously wounding the passenger. His men then also opened fire killing some of the enemy and wounding many more. Some of the escorts were able to return fire, lightly wounding some of Ivan's men.
Then the armoured vehicles arrived, firing wildly into the trees. A pair of M4 Sherman tanks and a pair of Panhard 178 armoured cars tried working their way past the traffic jam but all were knocked out and then recovered after undergoing some repairs. A Panther tank then appeared suddenly and wounded several of Ivan's men very seriously. It sprayed machine gun fire all around the area, causing Ivan's men to seek cover.
With renewed determination, Ivan and his men overcame the aggressive enemy Panther and stole the vehicles. The remaining vehicle escorts had retreated into the jungle, under the impression that they were under attack from a larger force than there actually was. Surprised that the attack had gone as well as it did, Ivan and his men took their haul and returned to the harbour base.
Natalia decided to effectively con the enemy, setting up a fake checkpoint and setting a few small fires. To make it convincing, machine gun nests were set up and barbed wire and sandbag barriers were erected. A number of sleeping gas mines and electro-magnetic mines were planted to cause the enemy troops to fall unconscious or otherwise stunned.
Her plan went exactly as planned. So convincing was the ruse that the enemy soldiers halted their vehicles and planned to delay their advance by a few hours. As the escort soldiers began getting out to rest up, the armoured vehicles struck the Electro-magnetic mines, which distracted the escort soldiers and they wandered onto the sleeping gas mines, knocking them out very quickly. Even the drivers were overwhelmed by the gas.
Their task done, they put the knocked out drivers and escort soldiers in the back of the trucks. The tanks and armoured cars, which were a pair of M4 Sherman tanks, a pair of Panzer IV tanks and a pair of Panhard 178 armoured cars, had their crews evicted from the vehicles and placed in the trucks as well. Natalia's group took the trucks and armoured vehicles back to the harbour base, although they did run into a few patrols which almost raised the alarm prematurely. Natalia took note of the location they used for their ambush, thinking that they would be able to pull it off again.
The three groups arrived with the captured convoys in the early hours of the night where Harry and Roy were waiting with more soldiers to examine the three convoys' contents. The prisoners were taken to be processed and the armoured vehicles examined by mechanics.
John came up to Roy once the preventative drugs had been found and injected him with a syringe full of the drugs. He then told Roy to rest for the night while the drugs took hold or at least supposed to. Harry and John shared a look that told each other that the drugs were no good in this situation.
Harry's doubts were proven correct over a day later when Roy got worse rather than better.
"You were correct Boss, the drugs didn't work." Johnathan said feeling downbeat. Ivan and Natalia were also feeling downbeat, thinking that their efforts were for nothing.
"Don't feel so down. Just because the drugs didn't work, didn't mean we couldn't narrow down the causes of this disease." Harry said optimistically.
Johnathan, Ivan and Natalia looked up at him sceptically. There were a lot of diseases in this jungle and the drugs they had seized covered a good number of those diseases. They didn't know what other drugs would be needed for this environment.
"We've narrowed it down to a type of malaria that's evolved over time on this island and a few others around the world. We don't think it's regular malaria as it would've been cleared up by now." Harry said, his eyes momentarily gleaming.
"Where we would we be able to find the drugs for it?" Natalia asked.
"Well, like I said, we still need to find out what type of malaria it is so we won't know yet. But we're closing down on it. I'll be going on a mission tomorrow to find out more." Harry said confidently to the trio.
"It's a good thing too. If he's able to find out what type of malaria and get even a few samples of the drug, then I might be able to recreate it myself and none of us will succumb to the disease." John said optimistically.
Hunting the drugs would take time but Ivan Natalia and Johnathan had hope for the future. They would find the drugs and Harry would get them, stopping any more cases of the rotten disease spreading across the base.
Once they got the drugs and this crisis was over with, the possibilities were endless; perhaps they would even join the WSF after all this was over with.
Please review and I hope you have enjoyed this chapter.