Sabredancing with the dead Ch 15

Tokonosu, April 19 20xx

Day 6.

1020

They got everyone organized for the mission in short order, and by 10am they were in the APCs and heading towards the wholesaler. Their way of clearing the critters from the exit gates with horns worked as usual, especially since they had by now extended the horn network well past their own compound. Getting the gate cycled for the tractor trailer unit took more time but the critters were well away from the gate, clustered under a horn that was a good 500 yards away. Half a dozen crossbow armed residents manned the wall just in case one of them got curious or some appeared from up the road.

The APCs made good time along the shore road, and it appeared that there were fewer critters in the area now than before. Why was anyone's guess but it worked in their favor. As they turned East onto the road leading to the wholesaler, the number of critters increased, in masses both in front and behind the armored vehicles. Shinji rode the first one in line, and was riding with the upper hatch open so he could see better. He wove the convoy around any abandoned cars and they had no problems in that respect.

So far the number of critters didn't cause any problems for the vehicles and the APCs moved faster than the crowd could follow. They did have groups appearing from side streets and alleyways but most of them barely made it to the street before the convoy had passed. Those that did, disappeared under the wheels and the heavy APCs might have wobbled a bit as they rolled over them but that was all.

The run along the east bound road took about ten minutes and they soon arrived at the wholesaler. They found the place to be a long single story building, about 250 feet long and 200 wide, with a series of loading docks down one side. As they turned into the lot the last APC stopped on the road. The rest of them drove to the back of the lot, where they saw that it was blocked off by the back of another building with only a very narrow alley between it and the wholesaler. The loading ramp area where the trucks and tractor-trailer units backed into the building was fenced in with a high 12foot chain link fence with a gate at the road side. The whole ramp area wasn't much wider than 100 feet from loading dock to fence, and there were not too many critters in the area.

The circuit around the yard showed most of the loading docks to be occupied with straight trucks and a few trailer rigs, and the few docks that were open had the overhead doors closed. They noticed entry doors in 3 locations along the docks, which would be where the clearing team would make entry. But first they had to secure the lot.

Kuma brought the tractor into the yard and then backed into an open loading dock. As he did that, he noticed a pile of dead critters heaped up at two of the other open docks. He shut down and stayed put in the cab. Shinji now had all the vehicles in the yard shut down while that one APC on the street remained running. Once the others were in silent mode, that APC started the "music" at the gate, revving the engine, and calling over the onboard loud speaker. This drew the roaming critters out of the yard, and on down the road away from the gate. As they came out, the APC slowly backed up, drawing them down the street. When as many of the critters as possible had been drawn from the lot, Shinji signaled the APC and it shut down and went quiet. The crew sat back to wait for further instructions, lighting up smokes and sipping some water.

The noise from the road side APC succeeded in drawing out just about all of the critters in the lot, and once they had stumbled well clear of the yard, another crew got out of their APC, and closed the gate. Being electrically driven, they had to break the roller chain that moved it but they had come with the proper tools and it took no time at all.

So far, so good. The dismount teams now got up on top of their vehicles and picked off the few remaining critters with crossbows. In short order the yard was critter free. Swapping their crossbows for rifles, they now covered an other rifle equipped entry team as they moved ahead to the first entry door. Taking their time they opened the door quietly and entered one by one. The next entry team followed behind to give cover and help clearing the building.

Wolf was part of the second entry team, carrying his SKS rifle. Just as he was about to enter the warehouse, he heard the booming of shots coming from inside. Taking a dive through the door, he ended up behind a stack of pallets. Crouching down, he cautiously surveyed the area before him. He saw one man lying face down in a pool of blood, about 30 feet from the entry door, in the open space between the docks and the first row of shelving units. Another lay bleeding from a wound to the arm just past him on the left, near another stack of pallets. The others from the team were hunkered down behind pallet stacks and skids full of boxes. While the piles of pallets provided some protection from the incoming fire, the skids full of food and other groceries did next to nothing. Great for concealment but not worth a damn when it came to bullet proof cover. One of the guys over to his left pulled on a gas mask, and waited 'til the others (those who saw him) did the same, then popped a smoke grenade and tossed it towards the shelving units. As it billowed two men moved to different positions, trying to find better cover, while the remaining two fired at the shelving to keep the oppositions' heads down.

Having made sure the mask he had hastily put on was fitting right, Wolf moved to look around the side of the stack. He looked closely to see if he could find where the shots were coming from but saw nothing at first. All that was visible were stacks of boxes, and pallets with spaces of varying size between them. He looked to his left, and saw about 20 feet of open space before the next stack of boxes. No good for movement. To his right, the odds were better, as there were several large stacks of pallets in an area between the entry door and the first loading door. They were pushed up nearly to the wall but a concrete barrier left a walkway between them and the wall.

Here was a way to get around and perhaps flank the people who were doing the shooting. Reaching down to his webbing, he pulled a smoke grenade free, pulled the pin and let the spoon fly. Tossing it towards the shelving in front of him, he watched it roll under the row of shelves and into the first isle behind them. As it started to spew large volumes of smoke, he quickly ran to the first pile of pallets, and worked his way to the other side of the stacks. Here he peeked around, but saw no one. He did hear a lot of ragged coughing, so the smoke was working. By this time the smoke had covered a fairly large area, and the fire from his own people was still keeping heads down, so he ran across the open area and hunkered down at the end of the first row of shelves. Still seeing no one, he moved again, working his way farther into the building, row by row.

After crossing 4 rows of shelving he started working his way back to the right, keeping a close eye out for the people who were shooting at them. Finally, he spotted a couple of men hunkered down behind boxes, taking pot shots towards the loading area with a shotgun and an assault rifle. They didn't appear to be wearing any military gear, or helmets, so he figured they had scavenged the firearms. He slowly and quietly moved to a position with good cover, and crouched with his SKS lined up on top of a pile of pallets.

Shit, now what should he do? His Japanese was still pretty poor, certainly not good enough to tell these two to drop their weapons and surrender. He didn't want to just murder the guys in cold blood, but how to get them to lay down the guns? Finally, they both started to creep back away from the row they were hiding behind, and moved diagonally away from the docks and him. He followed them at a distance and watched as they both disappeared into an office near the front of the building. Constantly looking around as he went, he noted no other people. He decided to wait, until Shinji or Saburo showed up and hunkered down behind a skid full of boxes.

It didn't take long before the JSDF Sergeant came up on his six, and hunkered down beside him. "What do you have?"

"There are two guys in that office over there. One had a shotgun, the other an assault rifle. Could be they are short of ammo or getting more inside. I also heard a woman's voice and maybe some kids." Wolf replied, pointing to the office door just ahead.

"Well, I don't want to assault the place and kill anyone especially if there are some kids in there. I won't do that unless we have to. They are most likely just scared to death. I'll try to talk them into coming out, and maybe take them back with us. If not, then perhaps we can make a deal to trade for food and supplies. Our fishermen friends keep us well supplied, and with no power fresh food is becoming scarce. What do you think?" Shinji said.

"Shinji, we lost a man coming through the door. Maybe it was an accident, caused by them shooting before they knew who we were, but they could have talked to us just as well. Maybe we should just box them in, collect our stuff and leave?" Wolf told the Sargeant. Then he thought a bit and said "But then we'd have to deal with them again if we returned. Maybe you are right. It wouldn't hurt to try to speak to them."

By this time, a couple more of the dismount team members had arrived and Shinji waved them into positions on either side of the office door. In the back ground they could hear the sound of the loading door opening up, and pallets being moved onto the trailer with pump trucks. That crew would deal with the supplies while Shinji, and his group handled the people in the office.

"Ok, Wolf, I'm going to crawl around to the front of the office, just off to one side of the door. You cover me, and I'll try to talk to them." With that said, the sergeant got up and ran in a crouch to the wall of the office and dropped down. Speaking loudly, he identified himself as a member of the JSDF, and asked that someone speak with him. Muffled voices could be heard inside the office as someone opened the door slightly. Since his Japanese was still pretty bad, Wolf didn't make out much of what the two parties were saying to each other but after some back and forth, the shotgun and the assault rifle were slid out of the door and away from the office. Shinji spoke with them for a minute or two more and the door opened further and two men walked out, expressions of fear on their faces. One was apparently an office worker, judging from the grungy suit he was wearing. The second appeared to be a student, about 18 or so. They came out with their hands up over their heads, and after Shinji stood up and showed them his military ID, and assured them that they were not going to be gunned down, the older fellow turned back to the door and told the others to come out. Out came two women and a young child. From the way they now stood with the men, it was pretty obvious that this was the mans' wife and the students' girlfriend or sister. The young child clutched at the woman's leg and hid partially behind her.

By this time Saburo had come up to see what was going on. Seeing the child so obviously afraid, the fighter pilot reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of Pocky.

Getting the OK from the child's mother, he crouched down and offered a stick of the chocolate cookie to the kid. After a moments' hesitation and a reassuring word from mother, the kid stepped forward and took the cookie, very politely saying thank you to the pilot. As the family became more at ease, both Saburo and Shinji questioned them as to their story, how they got here and why they shot the men trying to enter the warehouse. As it turned out, they had started out hiding in their house not too far away but had to leave when the food ran out. Thinking of the Wholesaler a short way away, they had very carefully made their way to the warehouse, using much the same stealth methods that Wolf and Kat had put into practice. While marooned inside their home they had observed the behavior of the critters, noticing what made them move and how to draw them away using items tossed out of an upper window. Finally running out of food and water, they took the risk of getting to the warehouse. The trip had taken them the better part of a day.

Once they had made it to the warehouse they had closed off all the entry points, and killed off the critters that were still inside the building. Mom, the girlfriend, and the child had stayed in the office while the father and son had done for the critters, using clubs taken from torn down pallets. These they tossed out of the loading doors. A day or so after they had entered the warehouse, a group of punks hit the place, and terrorized the family with knives and clubs. Saying they'd be back to have a go at the mother and the girlfriend, the son had gone back out to where they'd passed an over run JSDF position, and picked up the shotgun and the assault rifle and whatever ammunition he could find which wasn't much.

The punks had come back, and after several of their numbers had been blown away, (the man was a former JSDF trooper) left for safer turf. Hearing the doors open and seeing the dismount team entering with rifles, they'd panicked and fired.

Saburo and Shinji stepped away, with Wolf in tow and discussed options.

Turning back to the family, "Sir, do you want to come with us? We have a secure location with about a hundred survivors. The accommodations are rather unique but so far it is working out well for us." Saburo asked them.

"Unique how?" the woman asked.

"Well, we all live on boats for a start. But we have a communal kitchen, running toilets, stocks of clothing for the summer to come, and we all work together to keep it running. We have critter proof transport, and can scavenge supplies to keep ourselves going. We've also been in contact regularly with the government forces securing the shipyard area. We may move there soon" replied Shinji with a grin.

At the mention of boats, the kid's eyes lit up and he started to pull on mom's skirt. Seems he wanted to go see the boats. Both of the men asked a few more questions, and then decided to accept.

Wolf helped them collect their belongings, few though they were, and then they all walked to the loading docks. Things there were well in hand, and the two men joined in the collection and loading of supplies. In an hour the tractor trailer was full to the doors with food stuffs, sanitary items, cleaning supplies, and other items that would improve the life of the "boat people". Checking the outside area carefully, the teams exited the building, secured the doors with a chain and lock, and climbed aboard the APCs. The child, whose name was Kirito, was in heaven, when Shinji lifted him up in the commanders hatch and let him see out as they moved in column back to the club compound.