The Protagonist System

154 The Way Of The Dodo

It was downright easy to implement the things I had learned in the side world I had visited. No one questioned me about it, either. It greatly improved the lives of myself, Amy, Andrea, Carl, Sophia, and her mother Carol. They didn't ask where I was finding the supplies for them to use and I appreciated that, so I kept them all happy by secretly slipping them things.

Surprisingly, it was the facial tissues, toilet paper, and cereal that they appreciated the most. The paper towels were a close second and earned me a few cheek kisses. The small packages of candy I handed over to Amy to give to the kids when she babysat, earned me more than a few discrete handjobs. It also got her motor running when we managed to get away with doing that in public.

I kept things running at the camp as the days ran by and approached the end of December. It didn't take me long to realize that things had become easy to do. In fact, they had become too easy and I knew what that usually meant during a story, so I started preparing for the worst. It was only logical, right?

No one asked why I disappeared for another two days or where I had found two more miniguns. I set them up at the other two corners of the walled in camp and the men on guard duty looked happy to have more of them available as well as more boxes of ammo. I also added the traps I had learned about at Bill's place and seeded them all over the place.

I even made a large collapsible section of the road that was only held up by a few weak sticks and I covered it with a thin layer of gravel. No heavy vehicles could cross it and Dale gave me a worrying look when he realized what it was for. I whispered that I suspected we were going to have an unexpected visit by the new year and he looked determined as he spread the word.

Merle and his brother Darrel appreciated the assault rifles as backups and the bulletproof vests. They especially didn't mind being assigned to only man the miniguns during their watches for the next two weeks. The tarps covering them and protecting them from the elements would only be removed when the guns were needed.

I held another gun safety course for all of the adults and then distributed handguns and ammo to them all, which made a few of them uncomfortable. I reassured them that it was only a safety measure and that they didn't have to fight and only needed to protect themselves and their families. Glenn really appreciated that, because Maggie was huge and looked to be carrying twins.

Christmas had been put on hold so that everyone would be ready to act when it was time and they were all on edge. The tension ratcheted up as New Year's Day approached and I was both saddened and vindicated when a military helicopter flew over the camp on the morning of January first.

I snuck off to scout before I performed a human reveal spell out of sight of everyone and found a huge concentration approaching from the highway. The spell wasn't that accurate until they were closer, so I didn't know how many there were or if they were in vehicles. When I cast the spell again, they were much closer.

I rushed over to the middle of the camp and gained everyone's attention. “We've got a bunch of fast moving vehicles coming up the highway. We should be hearing them soon, so get ready.”

“We're more than ready.” Merle said and patted his assault rifle.

I nodded and patted my own that was slung over my shoulder. “I'll take up a flanking position in the woods over there.” I pointed off to the side. “I'll be out of your field of fire, so don't be stingy with the bullets.”

Merle laughed and punched his brother's shoulder. “Hear that? Aim and hold the trigger down and don't bother trying to finesse the best shots.”

Juan chuckled behind them and Jim smiled.

“I've got a sniper rifle if you want one.” I said to Darrel and he shook his head.

“I'd be useless with it without practice.” Darrel admitted. “If it comes down to close quarters, I've got plenty of arrows for my compound bow.”

I nodded and looked over everyone as the low rumble of vehicles started to come down the access road. “Let's show these assholes that no one takes what's ours.” Dale said and surprised everyone.

A second later, Merle burst out laughing and patted Dale's shoulder. “It's about time you manned up and started cursing like the rest of us.”

“Fuck you, Merle.” Dale said with a huge smile and everyone laughed.

I started walking away from the main group. “I'd say don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes, except we all know they are not here to talk.”

“You don't bring an entire strike platoon to a small survivor camp just to talk.” Jim agreed. “A hummer or two would be best with only a spare soldier and a driver in each one.”

“Also, they're moving fast.” Darrel said and cupped a hand to his ear. “Really fast. You don't rush an enemy position if you're not going to be hostile.”

“Then we all know what we need to do.” Dale said and took the safety off of his assault rifle. “I'll be inside the RV with the kids.”

I waved and jogged out of the camp, using the safe route to not activate any of the traps or to set off any of the extra defenses I had set up. Tripwires with grenades, flash-bangs, and a few packs of screws strapped to them were going to make the soldiers coming to capture us have a very bad day.

A very bad day indeed.

*

It was a massacre. The road trap worked even better than Rick had planned. The hummers were moving so swiftly that the first vehicle set the trap off and almost made it across anyway. It's front bumper hit the far edge of the hole and the hummer stopped dead with a clang of metal. Before it could drop down the ten feet to the bottom, the second hummer flew over the gap and slammed into the back of the first hummer.

Both vehicles crunched together, almost like an accordion, and the rear end of the first hummer and the front end of the second hummer dropped into the hole, making the two vehicles into a 'V' shape that left them sticking up out of the hole. This was terrible for them, because the next vehicle slammed right into the back end of the second hummer and shoved it forward, crashing into the first and nearly crushing both flat.

That third hummer almost made it across the hole and the fourth hummer rammed into the bumper, launching it like a catapult and it flipped over and landed on its roof. The fifth and sixth hummers crashed into the back of the fourth and all six vehicles were wrecked.

The driver of the troop transport behind them was glad he hadn't followed the hummers too closely and had avoided crashing as he brought the large truck to a stop, then the four miniguns opened fire and he wasn't glad anymore.

People were screaming and dying and he did the only thing he could do. He jammed the gears into reverse and stepped on the gas... for a second. Several bullets came from off to the side and tore through the door and his windshield, ending his attempt to flee. He barely felt the bullet that killed him a second later.

The leadership of the unit in the third hummer only lived long enough to scramble out of their damaged vehicle and activated the traps on the side of the road. They were torn apart by the improvised shrapnel exploding around them and that put an end to their capture mission.

When the surveying helicopter turned around to make a second pass over the camp to record the success of the mission, the pilot barely had any warning as a rocket launcher went off. He swerved to the left to avoid it and only managed to make his crew's deaths more painful.

The tail of the helicopter blew up from the rocket and the front end plummeted 150 feet to smash into the ground and right onto another improvised trap. The resulting explosion lit up the space around it and flaming bits of helicopter fell for nearly 30 seconds as they peppered the area and the hummers. The flames quickly died out and silence filled the air.

*

“Holy Mary, Mother Of God.” Dale said as he left the RV and he did the cross sign starting with his forehead, then he touched his heart, his left shoulder, and his right shoulder.

“Geeee-zussss.” Merle said and put the safety on his minigun. He didn't try to curse any more than that. He was too shocked at the brutal efficiency and they decimated an entire military platoon of experienced troops.

“There's no time for thinking about this!” Rick shouted as he ran towards the closest hummer. “They're all going to turn quickly if they aren't shot in the head!”

“Oh, fuck!” Shane exclaimed and took out his pistol. “We'll be overrun with so many of them this close! They're not even on the right approach for the path trick to work!”

“Shit, he's right.” Merle said and took out his own handgun. “Let's go!”

Only Merle, Rick, and Shane ran over to the wrecked vehicles to handle the dirty business of cleaning up the corpses and making sure they were going to stay down. The other men and all the women gathered at the RV to huddle close and they tried to not listen to how many individual bullets were being fired.

*

“Sometimes, I really hate being right.” I said and dropped a thick folder of papers onto the table. Everyone at the camp had to attend the debrief about the attack, mostly because I didn't want the blame for it to rest solely on my shoulders. I just knew it could be twisted to make it all my fault after all the fake trips I had to take.

“What is it?” Amy asked and opened the folder.

“Orders from their high command to hunt down and find survivors. They think some of us could be immune to the infection and won't turn when we die.” I said, trying to keep my anger in check. “They want to harvest us for parts to try and make a vaccine that they can give to themselves and to the people they think are more important to save.”

“I didn't hear anything about what the people under their command would be getting.” Dale pointed out.

“Shafted.” Amy said and held up one of the sheets of papers. “Even if they have someone to... harvest...” She paused as her face turned a little green. “...only a limited amount of vaccine can be produced.”

“Bastards!” Shane spat and didn't bother trying to hide his anger.

“How did they find us?” Lori asked, of course.

Amy flipped through several pages and held up another one. “This is a report of heat signatures during the winter for the whole state. Anything bigger than a car was marked as a target.”

“They must have been doing high overflights for weeks to get all that.” Dale said as Amy unfolded a large map of the state that had a few large red dots on it that were spread all over and a few smaller ones.

“This one's ours.” I said and pointed to the one next to where Atlanta would be on the map. “Medium sized and properly set up for the long haul.” I moved my finger slightly. “Those are the animals in the pens huddled together for warmth.” I moved my finger a few inches away and tapped the spot. “That's Hershel's farm and his animals.”

“With that to go by, they must have guessed we've been here for a while.” Jim commented.

“It's both the best point and the worst point of establishing a homestead. We can add a few more people and it won't be a strain on anything, so having kids won't be a problem.” I said and sighed. “It also lets others know where we are if they have the means to find us.”

Darrel spoke up next. “We can't camouflage the camp too much, either. We need the better sight lines for when the walkers show up.”

“And they will after all of that noise.” Merle said and I nodded. The explosions probably echoed for miles and miles.

“We should keep up the increased watch rotation for the next few days, just in case.” Dale said and motioned to Amy. “Is there anything in there about follow-up checks or anything?”

Amy flipped through it all and shook her head, then she let a huge smile grow on her face. “It just says we were the first ones they were going to hit because we were the easiest target.”

Merle and I exchanged surprised looks and then we both laughed out loud.

*

Clearing up the area of all the wrecked vehicles took quite a while. Rick's idea to crush the hummers after he had somehow cleaned them, was happily agreed to. The whole camp set up a kind of monster truck rally in the quarry and even made stands for everyone to sit on.

Dale had a great time using the tractor as he rolled right over one of the hummers and everyone cheered. No one bothered to ask where Rick had found the fireworks, since they all were used to expecting him to pull things like that out of nowhere.

All in all, the event was a huge hit. Plans were quickly made to start moving the broken down cars from the nearby highway every couple of months to set up another event and the crushed cars were easily added to the camp's defenses. No one they didn't want to be there was going to bother them.

A week after the monster truck rally, Morgan and his son Duane showed up at the camp. They had travelled in an old vintage car they had found in an old man's garage and Rick greeted them warmly.

“How have you been Morgan?” Rick asked him and led him and his son through the defenses and into the camp. “Why did you leave your safe place behind?”

Morgan sighed. “We were starting to run out of food after I stripped all of the houses on the nearby streets. When I realized there wouldn't be any more magically appearing, I'd have to leave Duane alone to travel much farther to find food.”

“Ah, you figured if you're taking him along anyway, you might as well keep going and try looking for me.” Rick guessed and Morgan nodded. “Then you're in luck. We survived a purge by the government and are much better for it.”

Morgan stared at the salvaged military equipment and the happy smiles on everyone. His son shouted in surprised whe he saw the kids playing tag.

“Go on over and join in.” Rick said and waved to a slightly pregnant Amy to get her attention. “We've got a new player that's raring to go!”

Amy waved back. “Great timing! Carl is 'it' this time and they're about to start the next round.”

Duane looked at his father with hope on his face.

Morgan chuckled and patted his back. “Go on and have fun.”

“Thanks dad!” Duane said and ran over.

The other kids greeted him and then Carl laughed and slapped his shoulder before running off.

“HEY! Get back here!” Duane shouted and the chase was on.

“They're best friends already.” Rick said with a laugh and put a hand on Morgan's shoulder. “Come on, I have to introduce you to everyone before I'm lynched for monopolizing the new guy's time.”

Morgan's eyes widened at his words and Rick smiled knowingly and led him over to the camp meeting that Morgan would later refer to as the shark pit.

*

“You know I have to do this.” I said and everyone at the table nodded.

“I really wish you didn't have to go.” Amy said and Andrea nodded.

“I know, and I'm sorry.” I said and kissed her. “I shouldn't be gone too long. The military caravan made it here, after all.”

“Are you sure you don't want anyone else to go with you?” Dale asked. “Glenn, maybe?”

“No.” Several people said at the same time, myself and Glenn included. We did not have to remind them about the last time I went out and Glenn came along.

“Doctor Jenner trusted me with his research.” I said and showed them the sealed hard drive. “The government is going to keep sending out those capture teams if they don't have his data to keep them busy.”

“And do you know what it says?” Lori asked, of course.

“Yes, I know what it says.” I admitted and everyone stared at me. “Do you want the bad news, the bad news, or the news I've taken from it?”

That question shut everyone up, even Lori. No one asked me to tell them, so I sighed.

“How about I skip the bad news, the bad news, and tell you what I think?” I asked and Amy was the only person that nodded. “We're doing what we can to live. That's all that matters. The walkers don't matter. The infection or virus or whatever doesn't matter. That we've come together to live our lives is what's important.”

“Being here for the people we care about.” Amy said and took my hand.

I smiled and leaned over to kiss her. “I'll be back in plenty of time to deliver Maggie's baby. The truck's filled up and it's designed for off-road, so I shouldn't have many problems... unless the idiots brought together hordes of walkers along the route from making so much noise along the way.”

“They're definitely idiots.” Merle said with a chuckle. “Keep your guns handy.”

The fight with the horde of walkers that the battle had brought to the camp afterwards, was quick and brutal. We would have been out of luck if there hadn't been thousands of rounds of ammo packed into the hummers and the troop transport for the soldiers to use. Refilling the ammo belts for the miniguns had been downright easy after finding them.

“I won't dawdle and I'll drop it off in Washington DC without being seen. The last thing any of us need is for me to get caught by whatever is passing itself off as the government.” I said and Amy squeezed my hand. “I'll head out in the morning and I shouldn't be more than a few days. I'll stay in contact on the long distance CB radio, too.”

The hummers had one installed in each of them, so we were flush with them at the moment.

“We'll be listening.” Andrea promised and both she and Amy hugged me tightly.

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