Sabre dancing with the Dead Ch 11.
07:45 April 17, 20xx
Day 4
Once more, daylight slowly crept into the cabin of the yacht Sabre Dance. This time the mop woke first. Kat lay there for a moment, looking up into the sleeping face of the man she had loved since high school. It had taken a while for her to admit that to herself, as she had gone through life looking for someone to match him. Finally, she'd decided to see if the spark was still there, and to try and fan it back into flames. She had written him, inviting him to visit her in Japan. He'd come about as fast as he could.
Pity the world had gone to hell in a hand cart. But given the events of the last few days, it appeared that Wolf was of the same mind. He too had gone a long time looking and had never found someone who could generate the same intense feelings he felt for Kat. Once he got the invitation, he'd been underway as soon as he could re-provision and fill his tanks. He'd pushed himself and his boat to the max, driven by an unconscious desire that had laid dormant deep within him for years.
Kat finally got up and slowly stretched the kinks out. Next she headed to the forward compartment to use the head. By the time she was finished, Wolf was up and getting dressed, carryall of toiletries sitting on the chart table. It took them less than 10 minutes to get to the clubhouse, where upon Kat disappeared into the kitchen to help prepare breakfast. Wolf headed into the shower room, where he'd leave the carryall in a locker so Kat could have hers after breakfast. He took a quick shower, figured shaving was a waste of time today and after locking up their gear, he headed out to the parking lot where the transport and the APCs were parked.
It was too early for any of the working parties to be in gear yet so he spent the time prowling around the APCs, checking them out, in preparation to having Shinji show him how to drive them and work the comm systems. He still wasn't sure why they needed 4 of them but here they were, fully armed and ready to rock. How this would alter the missions into places that were over run with critters was yet to be determined. Shinji must have a plan. Or was it Saburo? He'd been the one who said he'd thank him later.
Finally, the PA system came on and announced breakfast was ready to be served. Some of the people were already on hand to eat, while others came over by dinghy. In short order the dining room was full of people chowing down on a mix of Japanese and Western cuisine. This morning it was French toast for the Westerners. He also took a bowl of miso soup and some pickled vegetables. Looking at the natto and the way the people were eating it, he figured he'd give that a miss for now. Gross looking stuff and man, did it stink.
Breakfast done, half a dozen people stayed to help clean up, while he and most of the others went out into the parking lot to see about unloading the trailer. A couple of people got up into the trailer, and started handing down boxes of gear. As they moved forward, another couple would climb in and pass boxes to the back of the trailer. This continued until they reached the front of the unit, and the trailer was emptied.
The boxes were stacked according to the markings, with the crossbows and quarrels off to one side. Saburo asked round if anyone had any experience with them, and found a couple who did. They were assigned the unpacking and assembly of the bows. For the first go round he figured 20 ought to do it. Wolf joined that crew and they had the bows (which looked to be of excellent quality) assembled and checked out in short order. Each bow came with a mount under the prod, for 5 quarrels. As each bow was completed with its quarrels it was put aside.
In the mean time Eriko and her brother were rigging up a bunch of targets set against the Tsunami wall, using hay bales used to protect the shrubs and trees from the winter cold. This they covered with slabs of insulating foam left over from the club expansion that had recently been completed. As they were doing this, another group was checking out boxes of clothing, pulling the packing lists from their plastic pouches on the side of the boxes and making notes on what they contained. From what Wolf could make out, they were finding a lot of useful items for later in the year when the summer weather arrived. Kat would be happy as a clam with some of this loot. Not to mention the several cases of unmentionables that they had also grabbed. Having one set of undies was a royal pain in the ass for her. As for outer clothing, he figured the slops bag would have to do until the weather got warm enough for the summer gear. Give it another couple of weeks.
As he was finishing up the last crossbow he'd worked on, Wally came up to talk to him.
"Hey Wolf, got some news." he grinned, "We aren't the only ones still alive. I finally got some coherent transmissions from the bunch on the north side of the river, and also a couple of hits coming from the airport out there."
"How are they making out?" Wolf asked.
"According to the RTO up north, they have hunkered down behind rows of wrecked cars, trucks and buses. They seem to be holding their own." Wally paused before he spoke again. "The ones at the airport are in pretty shitty shape. The deaders keep coming in ever increasing numbers and they are running out of ammo and bodies to fight with. They lose people in every attack as the deaders break into a new area. They are retreating into an ever smaller space. They also mentioned some odd behavior from the deaders."
"Oh? How so?" Wolf wondered.
"The guy I got hold of said that some of them can now run. As in really fast. They ran into them several times and lost a few people because of that." Wally said.
"Shit, That's not good" Wolf told him.
"No it ain't. It's gonna make getting supplies just that much harder and more dangerous. I wonder if maybe we should be looking at moving on to someplace better suited for long term survival." Wally thought out loud.
"Hmm. It's a thought. What do you have in mind Wally?" Wolf asked him.
"Well all we are doing now is picking at the carcass of the city. We can get supplies but only at risk to ourselves. For now that is OK I guess, but at some point the risks will begin to outweigh the rewards. We lost Dave yesterday, but got a lot of arms and ammo. Pretty pricey stuff if you ask me. And to go and try to hit the medical supply joint is going to be a night mare." Wally explained. "It might be a better idea to try and find someplace where we can actually grow stuff and what not. An island off the coast someplace with a bit of arable land on it. Someplace we can clear the deaders out of and not have to worry as much about them."
"I agree with you for the most part. But for now we are in half decent shape. We can hold here for a while or we can cast off and head to the other side of the river where they are hanging on. Better organization there for sure. At least that's one option." Wolf started pacing back n forth for a bit. "But we need more info before we can even mention this to anyone. Try and get that RTO on the horn and find out just what they are holding. If they are holding all the way to the waterfront it might be a good idea to move."
"Can do, Wolf" Wally said over his shoulder as he turned and headed back to his boat and all it's radio gear.
Runners? What the hell was that all about? So far they only had to deal with slow sluggish critters, but if the buggers started to sprint while attacking, that was gonna make life a whole lot more interesting. No fun, but certainly interesting. He headed over to where Shinji and Saburo had the first crossbow course going. Not that there was much to teach besides cock, load and how to aim. The bows were pretty powerful, most of the bolts were going just about through the hay bales. From what he could see though, they were hitting the targets pretty well, so head shots might just be doable.
"So Saburo, what did you mean when you said I'd thank you for picking up 4 APCs?" He asked the JASDF Captain.
Saburo looked at him and started to explain. "It will make foraging much easier. You saw how well the truck worked at dragging the undead away from where we were getting ready to enter the armory? With 4 APCs and the truck we can make sure that we draw them away with noise. One or two APCs driving round with the driver yelling over the PA system will certainly draw them away from the truck and other APCs that park and shut down right up close to what ever it its we are about to try and enter."
"Yeah, I can see where that would work better with 4 instead of 2. Question is what mission next? Any thoughts on that? Wolf asked.
I'm thinking we need to make up some disposable noise makers. Something we can plant, and turn on from a distance that will keep the deaders occupied. Your idea with the car horns and batteries is sound. I think we should try an auto parts outlet for horns and batteries as well as strip cars in the area. And we need lots of cable to set up distant switches." Saburo noted. Let's go into the club and see where we can get the stuff we need.
The two of them headed into the club and got the map and phone book from Elaine. Sure enough there were several parts outlets along the shore road, and a cable and wire warehouse not too far away. Now came the question of who would come along. With Dave Cross' death, the people were kind of leery of going out of the compound. That would have to be dealt with before it became epidemic. The less people who helped, the harder and more dangerous each mission would become, not to mention the unfairness of having only a few risk their lives to feed and supply the others.
"I think we need to speak to everyone about this come lunch time." Wolf noted.
"I agree, we need to get more people involved in scavenging missions. Losing Dave yesterday will make that more difficult. We have to convince them of the necessity of scavenging, that we really are on their own here and need to pitch in." Saburo replied. "We will speak to them after we eat. I'm for doing a fast mission today to one of the parts places, and the cable outlet. They are both very close and we should be able to do both before dark. Then tomorrow we can wire up the horns and put some of them out a good distance away from the gate to draw the deaders away when we want to go out."
That decided they both went back to where the crossbows were being tested and trained. Both of they had a go, and did well. Head shots would not be a problem at near ranges and the silence was almost complete. All that could be heard was a thunk or twang as the bolts left the bow. Cocking them was also silent, unless you counted the grunting some of the less fit shooters were making as they tried to re-cock the 150 lb bows after shooting.
"I guess we are going to have to see about some upper body strength training here. It's not much use to have a bow to shoot if you need someone else to cock it every time." Dave Courtney mentioned as he watched some of the others try to cock one. Yamato was having a difficult time as were several others.
"Yeah, not much call to lift weights as a house wife or a teacher. I see our city manager is struggling to get his cocked again. Don't take no strength to push a pencil does it?' Wally chuckled as he came up to talk to the two of them. "I got hold of that RTO again. He is part of a mishmash of units made from small groups of surviving troops. His unit is the 37th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. They also have some bits of the 1st Tank Battalion, and some loggies tossed in for good measure. Apparently they are holding on to the shipyards which have been isolated by blocking all the bridges leading to the yards. So far they are holding OK, and are in touch with other units, including an SAT police unit and other cops on the Airport Island. His CO said that if we want to come over, come by boat."
"Well we'll keep that in mind. How are they making out for supplies?" Saburo asked him.
"Not too bad apparently. Their supply trains managed to keep from getting over run." Wally replied.
Over at the clubhouse, Fujiko appeared at the door and rang the bronze bell bolted to the wall. Lunch was ready.
Wally, Wolf and Saburo headed over to the dining room along with the others. So far it looked as if they have made a good dent in unloading the truck, and cataloging all the items of clothing. They would continue after lunch, but Wolf and Saburo wanted to have a go at the parts outlets.
Lunch consisted of soup, salad, rice and a meat or tofu dish. Not bad but Wolf would have killed for a burger and fries right about now. As people were finishing up, Saburo stood up and asked them to wait for a moment as he explained their next mission. As expected there were not many takers, to which he commented about the fairness of all hands working. Yamato was especially against it, and started going on again about how the "government" would soon have things in hand and that it was their decision to go out into the city for supplies that had led to Dave Cross' death. He said that had they stayed in the compound, Cross would still be alive and he was certainly not going to volunteer and he advised others to do the same and stay put.
Saburo put paid to that argument by simple advising everyone that when the food started getting scarce, they'd all pitch in or starve. He wasn't going to risk his or anyone else's life to feed those who wouldn't share the risk. After some looking back and forth at each other, several people volunteered and they got the numbers they needed to carry out the mission. Someone called out that Yamato should take his boat and head for the other side of the river, as that is where the "government" appeared to be making it's stand. Surprisingly, Yamato said he'd stay put. Someone else, who knew the owners of the boat Yamato was on, mentioned that it wasn't his boat anyway, and that they had not seen the owner or his family since before the epidemic started up. Yamato looked kinda guilty at that and said that he'd been invited to go for a boat ride and got here first. He was waiting on the owner, a "friend of his" from work. Things went down hill for him after that when the same someone said bullshit and called him a liar. The owner, a Mr Yamaguchi, didn't work for the city at all. Finally, Yamato, furious, turned and stomped out of the club and returned to his boat to sulk.
Shinji and Saburo got the mission organized and ready to roll in half an hour, taking 3 of the APCs and the Komatsu. Wolf would be driving it as usual and would be acting as drag, along with one of the other APCs. Drag was the term they'd decided on to describe the leading away of the deaders. The other two would park up close to the supply outlet and then clear the building and grab horns, cables, terminals, batteries and chargers.
Putting Wally up on the wall, they let him start the noise and draw the critters away from the gate. 10 minutes later they were on their way. This time the mission went as planned, great care being taken in clearing the outlet. They had only to knock off 3 critters inside before they rolled the two APCs up to the ground level loading bays. The 6 men then loaded up all the stuff they needed and pulled out to meet up with the Komatsu and the other APC. From there they moved on to the cable warehouse, which was wide open. The Drag crews motored around the building and the pickup people backed into the loading docks. As with Takagi's warehouse, they did a sweep of the much smaller place, killed off the half dozen deaders inside, and then loaded spools of cable into the APCs while two of the group kept high sentry on top of the APCs in case some deaders stumbled by.
Once loaded, they joined up with the drag group who'd taken their crowd about 6 blocks away and then doubled back as fast as possible. Here the Komatsu was at a disadvantage as the APCs were much faster. Still, there was no way in hell that the deaders could make 25 miles per hour, let alone the speeds the APCs were capable of. All together now, the 4 vehicles headed back to the club area, quite pleased with themselves.
They were about half a mile from the club when things went from bad to worse.
Author's notes: I don't own HOTD, or any of its characters. I just get to play in their universe. All characters in this story (So far) are my own.
Reviews gratefully accepted, as long as they are constructive and non-abusive.
RTO: Radio Telephone Operator. A unit's radio man.
Loggies: Logistical troops. Clerks, warehouse people, and other supply service types. Also known as REMFs, Rear Echelon Mother F-kers
Anyone interested in following the progress on the real life Sabre Dance is welcome to visit my builder's blog. Just search for Sabredancing. You'll find it.