Sabredancing with the dead Ch 18
Tokonosu, April 19 20xx
Day 7.
1435
One week had now passed since the dead started walking. After overcoming their initial terror, the people in the compound had settled down. (As much as could be expected in such an insane situation.) The community now numbered over 100 and everyone had pulled together well to keep it running. They had so far run five missions outside the compound, and were in good shape for a couple of weeks as far as food and water went. Sadly though, they had lost two of their people.
As they had taken to doing, the command group were sitting together at a table under the awning. They were discussing the latest news from the RTO in the JSDF enclave at the shipyards. Wally was in daily touch with them and gave the group updates every day after the noon meal.
"According to Kenji, they finally cleared out Tokonosu airport, and it is now free of deaders." He reported.
"Who is Kenji? The RTO?" Saburo asked him.
"Nah, Kenji is Lieutenant Kenji Todamatsu, one of the JSDF commanders in charge of coordinating the eventual move over to the island. I talk to him at least once a day, and he keeps me up to date. According to him, the Task force is still anchored off the island but they are offloading all supplies and materials from the various ships to the cargo facilities on the airport perimeter. It's a bitch of a job because of the EMP effects, but they are managing. Once that is done, they plan on sending some of those ships over to the yard to take about half of the personnel over to the island and get it organized and running." Wally informed them.
"So they plan on maintaining the ship yard as a secure beach head." Wolf thought out loud. "That makes sense; they'll still need a secure place to transship materials that they scavenge from the city. Even with all the supplies they have aboard ships now, they'll be constantly running missions just like we are. It's going to be a damn hard job feeding all the people who end up there."
"Yes, we keep coming back to the food problem. Somehow, we have to start farming. The city doesn't have infinite resources to feed us all. The whole place ran on the Just in Time concept and that has come to a screeching halt. At some point we will start running out." Saburo noted.
He paused to think for a moment before continuing. "So let's say we decide to start farming for food? Just how are we going to go about doing that? Any ideas?"
Wally spoke up. "Well, we know that there isn't much farm land anywhere near this city that we can secure and use. Most of the best farmland is on the other side of Japan on the Kanto Plain. However, we do have the island that was built for the airport and that is a good-sized chunk of land. That's gotta be at least 10 square kilometers. Less all the ramps and such, figure it to be seven, maybe eight square klicks. The island is now secure, so what we need to do is procure equipment, seeds and fertilizer and get it over there. What do you think?"
"Well for one thing it's gonna be a cast iron bitch to come up with equipment that works, not to mention getting it from where ever it is to here and then over to the island. We'd have to fight our way to wherever the stuff is, without any idea of where to find it in the first place. We'd need a hell of a lot of manpower to do that." Wolf noted with a grimace. He thought about it for a moment and continued. "Actually getting it over to the Island shouldn't be a problem. They had to get the cargo from the mainland to the island and back didn't they? Isn't there a rail and road link to the island?"
"Yes, there is, but it was cut off to try and keep the dead from the island. Unfortunately, they got on somehow anyway. The bridge is completely blocked and the landside end is over run with the dead. I know this from messages my commander received before we were overrun ourselves." Shinji told them.
He had been sitting quietly listening to the discussion. That was his first comment for the day. Now he spoke and stated a simple fact. "First thing we need is research on what is available in the local area, and Japan in general, and where it is. In addition, I don't know anything about farming, and I doubt anyone here does. Right?"
They all nodded.
"So we need more information on that too."
Wolf and the others agreed with him on that.
Shinji continued. "It's a great idea, one to be looked at in the future but for now it is impractical. We don't have any reconnaissance capabilities and we'd be walking blind into anything and everything, assuming we had someplace to go to get the equipment and a way to get it back. Perhaps a trip to the city library might give us some ideas of what we are facing in trying to set up a farming area but even that is a low priority mission from where I stand. We need to keep on top of the food and water situation, and we have limited ability to do that even with the APCs."
"Shinji, you're right. At the moment we have not got the wherewithal to attempt such a complex feat, and we may never get that far. I agree that if we are planning a mission that passes near the main library, we can perhaps stop off and do some research." Saburo said, acknowledging the sergeant's wisdom.
"Clearing out and holding something like a library may be a hard job. Dangerous. I wonder if we can convince anyone to volunteer for that one. As Shinji says, it's not a critical mission. Yamato for instance will have a conniption fit if we even suggest it." Wolf told them.
"Yes, perhaps you are right. No one is thinking long term right now, being too busy just worrying about surviving a day at a time. Maybe when we move over the Island things will be different. I suppose we will have to shelve the idea for now. Agreed?" Saburo asked them.
"Yeah."
"Yes, for now."
"Right."
"OK, so what do we need to do next?" Shinji asked them. "Have Kat or Fujiko said anything about what they might need? How are we making out for water?"
Wolf had spoken to Kat that morning. "Kat figures they are using about 450-500 liters a day for cooking, dish washing, and minimal personal hygiene like a sponge bath. So as of tonight we will be down by a thousand liters. Figure we get 10 days per truck, which gives us 40 days before we need to get more. I'm thinking on keeping 10000 liters in reserve for emergency use… Oh and our usage will increase as the temperature picks up. I know I can go through 3-4 liters in 3 hours on a warm day if I'm doing any sort of physical work. What do you think?" He asked them.
"Sound planning Wolf, it's always good to plan for problems before they hit." Wally told him. "Now, what are we going to do for clean fresh water?"
Wolf asked them if they knew of any sporting goods, camping or surplus outlets in town.
"Why do you ask Wolf?" Shinji queried.
"Well I have a couple of filters on board that are porous stone, which will filter up to 50,000 gallons of water. I was hoping we could find some more? If not, then perhaps we can dig up some chlorine to disinfect river water after we run it through a sand filter." He replied.
"Why in hell would you have filters like that on board?" Wally wondered. He asked Wolf the same.
"Hell Wally, I was a Doomer for years and always had stuff like this around to survive the end of the world. Doesn't every one?" Wolf said with a grin and a wink. "I never figured on having to survive a zombie apocalypse but what the hell, the principles are the same."
Wolf paused to take a sip of his daily coffee ration and continued. "When I was young, my buddy Neil and I ran a small group of survivalists. "Doomers" is what the press called us. We used to get together and practice field craft, shooting, field medicine and anything else that would help us survive if they ever decided to have a nice little nuclear war. We used to run field exercises summer and winter, evacing out of our area in older cars that were EMP proof and camping for a week in the bush. We did it for about 6 or 7 years, 'til various members got married or moved away. Our plan was to head up to Hudson's Bay and settle in an old abandoned trading post."
He took another sip and went on. "Anyway, when I decided to head out into the great wide world on Sabre Dance, I set her up to accomplish much the same thing. I have gear aboard to set up camp where ever I go and survive."
No wonder Wolf is handling this disaster so much better than most of the others were, Saburo thought to himself. Shinji was thinking much the same thing and their respect for Wolf took another step upwards.
"Anyway, if we can find the right store we might find some more filters like these or similar. Using them isn't much of a big deal; we only need a good length of PVC pipe, some glue and an end cap." Wolf finished off.
"Very well, something to add to our search." Saburo said as he wrote it down in his notebook.
"So what do we have to do today?" Wolf asked the group.
"Clear out the compound next door for the fishermen, and then string out some more of the cable and set up horns farther along the wall for a start. We could use a few more batteries too." Saburo mentioned.
Wolf put forth the idea that had been stirring in his mind. "I was thinking of taking a run over to the Takagi Warehouse. I'd like to check out the two ships that are alongside. One of them was over run but the other had the gangway up and we didn't see any signs of critters. I'm wondering if there are people aboard, and also wondering if that ship might take care of some of our water problems."
"How so?" Shinji asked him.
"Ocean going ships have distillation units on board to provide fresh water for the crew. If they have fuel, they can run the unit for a long time. Plus, depending on what is aboard and if there is still a crew, we could use the ship and it's cargo when or if we move to the Island airport." Wolf replied.
Saburo thought about it for a moment before speaking. "Very well, we will put together two working groups. One will clear the next compound and get the noisemaker net extended. Shinji, you can lead that one. Park an APC outside the farthest gaten of their compound, and start the music. One crew will watch from our dividing wall to see that the critters all move out. Once they are out, have the APC drag them away, while the inside crew hops the wall and closes the gate or gates. Once that is done stringing the extended noise maker circuits will be simple."
Shinji nodded at the assignment and left to organize his group. Saburo then looked at Wolf. "You and I will take a group and one APC over to Takagi and reconnoiter. I suspect the hardest part will be to get up on the ship if we can't make contact with any one aboard. We will need ladders or ropes if the hull is too high. Any way we won't know until we go and have a look. Let us go round up a few people to give us a hand."
With that, the two of them headed over to the club where several people were standing around, waiting for an assignment. They picked up six more people, armed them and got ready to go out and climb aboard one of the APCs. Tamichi Hara got the "music"
going on the wall, with the horn set farthest away. 10 minutes later, he gave the two groups the OK to open the gate, and they moved out and boarded the APCs while others closed the gate behind them. A few minutes later, Wolf and Saburo were on their way over to the Takagi Warehouse. The APC behind them stopped near the far end of the fisherman's compound, and started the music.
On arrival at the Takagi warehouse they found the gates still closed, as they had left them. The horde of critters following them was far enough back that one of the dismounts had time to get the gate open and then close it after the APC went through without any problem. He remounted and the APC headed down the length of the dock towards the first ship. This one had the gangway down, but unlike before, there didn't appear to be anyone or anything on deck. Saburo laid on the horn for a minute or two and sure enough a couple of critters staggered to the rail. Using one of the crossbows, they were taken out, and the dismount team made its way up the gangway and onto the deck. Here they found several pools of blood but no further critters. They made their way to the bridge, and found another deader there. It was killed in short order and the way to the Captain's cabin was clear.
Once they made it to the Captain's cabin, they found the manifests for the cargo on board. These were collected and the dismount team left the ship. Before they did, they raised the gangway a few feet off the pier. Saburo backed the APC into position and the men got off the gangway by jumping down onto it's back. This ship was now secure from any more boarders of the dead variety. If the manifests showed anything of value aboard, the ship would still have to be cleared cabin by cabin, space by space to make sure there were no more critters aboard. However, that could wait for the time being.
With his dismount team aboard again, Saburo drove round the end of the warehouse and up the other side to the second ship, which had its gangway up. Here again he laid on the horn for a few minutes. Sure enough, a few faces appeared to look down at them.
Saburo and Wolf climbed up onto the back of the APC and Saburo started to speak to them. After a few minutes of conversation, it was apparent that the ship's crew was indeed safe, had provisions to last a while and would be happy to become a part of Saburo's group. A couple of the crewmen then lowered the gangway and came down to meet face to face. The ship's Captain also came down, and he and Saburo spoke at length of the situation. An invitation to join the club people for dinner was extended and accepted. Capt. Nishizawa told them that he and his people would drop a motor launch into the water from the ship and come around the breakwater and meet them for dinner at 7pm. He grinned at them and hinted at bringing along some treats.
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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.