THE ARK

Bud lay face down in the mud, he fought to keep himself as low to the ground as possible. He had been waiting here for almost an hour. Tam was somewhere up ahead, but he could not see her. The storm was still raging, and while it should keep the mountain people from seeing her, it made him uneasy to not know where she was.

He had objected to her being chosen to crawl up close to their perimeter, she was young and less experienced, not to mention that they were lovers.

In truth he understood why she had been chosen, her small build would increase her chances of success and make a smaller target for their weapons if she was seen. Also the fact that she was new to the group meant that she knew less information to tell them in the event that she was captured. Bud did not like thinking of her as expendable but in the eyes of the others, she was.

Tam had been captured when he and the other raiders had broken into an underground bunker a year ago. Tam was the only member of her family, and one of the only inhabitants of the bunker to survive the attack. After many months of resisting, she had agreed to become one of them instead of remaining their servant and prisoner.

Now she was out ahead of the raiding party scouting out this new group. If the things that they had heard were even partially true this could be a fantastic opportunity. Some of the other raiders claimed to have seen some of these mountain people enter a deserted town and their weapons were new looking and in great condition. They even reported that these newcomers were using radio communications. They had followed them back to this mountain and alerted the rest of the raiders.

There were rumors circulating throughout the raiders that someone had seen a helo flying overhead.

Personally, Bud found this impossible to believe. As far as he knew there had not been any helos flying for years. Bud had seen a few helos at airports and military bases, but they were usually in real bad shape.

A few years ago, a raiding party had found one in good condition and the raiders had worked for over a month getting it working. Eventually, they had gotten it running and the engine had sounded quite smooth. Almost as soon as they got it into the air the flying machine had gone out of control and the body of the aircraft started spinning almost as fast as the rotors. It was only about thirty feet in the air when it suddenly dropped straight down.

Bud had once seen an old video disk that someone had found, and was running off a generator. There was a combat scene where a helo had fallen and immediately exploded.

When their helo dropped that day, everyone on the ground had run for their lives. After several minutes without an explosion, they carefully approached the helo to find that the two people aboard had died in the crash. That was the closest that Bud had gotten to see a real helo flying.

The raiders had a base camp in the mountains and there were about fifty members to their group. They had come from all over the area and joined together because there was strength in numbers.

Bud joined the Raiders years before after his parents had been killed. His mother was believed to have died from cancer, and Bud and his father had gone on living the best that they could. They foraged for food and stayed in sheltered areas as much as possible.

On one cold evening, Bud’s father was trying to get an old kerosene heater working. Apparently, the heater fell off the rickety table and covered him in burning fuel. Bud had tried to help his father but the fire quickly spread to the small house that they had been staying in and Bud had to flee leaving his dying father thrashing around on the floor.

Bud had met up with the Raiders shortly after and they had welcomed him. Initially, he was quite bothered by the violence that the Raiders exhibited towards others, but over time Bud had been numbed to it and it seldom concerned him anymore.

Most of the raiders were in their late teens or twenties and came from parents who had originally been in shelters. Many, however, were not related to former shelter inhabitants but came from parents who survived the radiation, either out of luck or skill and more than a little ingenuity. There were numerous stories circulating about those few that survived even though they took no precautions and made no effort to avoid the deadly radiation. There were no answers as to why they had survived when so many others had not, but the simple fact was that somehow they had made it.

All rumors aside, the raiders had decided that they needed to see what was at the mountain and take what they could back to their main base.

So today the raiders had selected their twenty-five best fighters and set out for the mountain. Their leader had agreed that any caves at the mountain would not be able to hold more than a couple dozen men. Since they were sneaking up under the cover of darkness, surprise would be on their side. The raiders had the advantage and they could easily overtake the few dozen men who did not even know that they were about to be attacked. Two squads were formed. Bud led one and a young raider referred to as Owen led the second. Bud was in overall command of the attack force.

The longer he waited the more his concern for Tam increased. That there were twenty-three other raiders all around him did nothing to ease his fears.

His team had left their motorcycles about a mile back and had crept to this point on foot. As soon as Tam got back with the report, they would sneak as close as possible and then attack without warning.

Bud’s concern increased as he noticed that the storm was ending and that the additional cover that it had provided them would soon no longer be available.

It took another ten minutes, but eventually he saw a lone figure crouched down running out of the darkness, he brought his old M-16 assault rifle up and centered the sites on the chest of the running individual. Bud knew that there were over twenty other weapons trained on the runner and that until positive identification was made that they would remain pointed and ready to fire.

When Tam was ten feet away, her young face became visible and Bud’s right arm shot up into the air signaling the others that her identity was confirmed.

As a group, the raiders slowly retreated about twenty yards and concealed themselves behind a large group of rocks.

“What did you see?” Owen asked.

“Yeah, how close did you get?” another voice called.

“There is a gatehouse at the entrance, there are two guards. One of them was asleep. There was a large pile of rocks about twenty-five yards from the gatehouse, I watched them for about fifteen minutes with the binoculars and the only activity I saw was when the one guard that was awake stepped out to pee.

“They have a vehicle, it’s a military Hummer. I couldn’t tell what kind of condition it’s in. The best part is that they have power and I could hear a small generator.”

Bud was more excited than he had been in a long time. Generators were always in short supply and bringing another one back would make him a hero to the other raiders.

“Did you see any weapons?” Owen asked

“I couldn’t see in the gatehouse, but one who stepped out looked to be carrying an M-16 or it could have been M-4. The light wasn’t good; I just got a glimpse of it. I think we should be able to get close enough to take them both without shooting and waking the rest of their people”

“All right”, Bud said. “We will move back up. Tam will lead us back up to the rocks she hid behind. From there, we’ll try to take them quick and quiet. Any questions?”

There was some muttered agreement but that was all.

It took the raiders over twenty minutes to move back into position. The first half of the journey was easy, everyone moving at a crouched run, but the rest of the way the raiders approached crawling on their bellies through the wet dirt and mud.

Finally, they reached the rocks and Bud took the binoculars and began studying the scene in front of him. The only difference that Bud could see from what Tam had said was that there was no sign of the guards. Their vehicle was just as described but they were nowhere in sight.

They waited for ten minutes but nothing changed. As they waited Bud listened to the sound of the generator, he was certain that could hear another mechanical sound coming from much further up. If that was another generator then this already was the biggest find for the raiders in a very long time.

Finally, Bud had enough; the two guards must be in the gatehouse sleeping and out of view. He signaled his men. Then he and Owen led their squads to the gatehouse. As they approached, Bud was aware that the sound of the other distant generator almost seemed to be getting louder.

Bud and four of his men burst through the entrance to the ten foot by ten foot gatehouse with their weapons ready. They quickly swept the room and noticed that the room was empty. No sooner had this registered in Bud’s mind, than the generator quit and all the lights went out.

Bud stopped moving and was trying to make sense of what was happening when Owen started yelling for him to come out. As Bud reacted, he noticed that the other generator in the area was still running and seemed much louder than only moments ago.

Bud raced outside and saw four vehicles racing toward them out of the darkness, Owen was pointing up and Bud felt his blood turn cold. Instantly Bud understood that second sound was not another generator. Instead, it came from the helo that now was hovering just in front of them. Even in the darkness, Bud could make out the deadly rockets and the massive cannon on the front that was pointing directly at him. Bud dived to the ground and noticed that the four new Humvees had formed a half circle, preventing them from advancing any further.

As he looked at the rest of the raiding party on the ground, he could see at least a dozen bright red dots of light moving back and forth over the team. Bud assumed these must be from laser scopes mounted on the rifles of troops waiting unseen out in the darkness.

Bud could just make out the man standing in the back of the nearest Humvee manning the mounted M240B machine gun. He was wearing a helmet and had a bizarre looking set of goggles on that gave him a bug-like appearance.

Bud had never seen anything like it but he had heard about strange looking goggles that would allow the wearer to see in the dark as clearly as if the sun was out. This meant that he could see one of them but they all could see him and the whole team.

Until these last two revelations, the option of fighting was on the table. Now it was run, and hopefully not get shot in the back, or surrender.

Bud had just decided that retreating sounded like the best option when suddenly someone lying about four feet away jumped up and opened fire on the helo with a shotgun. Instantly the other raiders were on their feet, some running for the gate and others shooting. As Bud turned to run, he was aware that almost all the raiders around him were shooting.

He had taken no more than two steps when he looked back over his shoulder and saw flames shooting out from the cannon of the helo. Instantly something smashed into him at waist level. He felt himself flip over in the air before crashing into the ground, the sounds of shooting ended quickly.

Bud was surprised at how little pain he felt. He moved his head to look around and saw that all the raiders near him were down, several were clearly dead. He could see Owen about twenty feet away. He was alive but wounded.

Lying next to Bud’s head was a severed leg. It took him a minute to recognize the boot and he instantly vomited when he realized that the leg he was staring at was his own.

Bud was aware that the generator by the guardhouse was started again. Then he heard three low pops, and in just a couple of seconds, the whole night was lit up as bright as day. Glancing up Bud could see the eight hundred thousand candlepower illumination flares in the sky slowly floating down in their parachutes. To his unaccustomed eyes, each flare looked like a small sun. About every thirty seconds, there was another pop as another AN-M26 flare was launched, each time a new flare went up the pattern of shadows on the ground changed. Bud was suprised that at a time such as that he would be aware of something like this.

He was feeling very cold now and he knew he was losing too much blood. All he could hope was that Tam had escaped with the others who had run.

Bud suddenly noticed a strange thing; none of the raiders were being pursued by these soldiers. It baffled him as to why these troops were not hunting down and eliminating his friends. Surely, that is what he would have ordered.

He slipped a hand down and felt his wounds. His hand jerked back when he realized that he had just touched a large loop of his own intestine that was eviscerated and partly lying in the dirt.

There was a whistling sound and the soldiers were suddenly moving toward his team with their weapons ready, and their night vision devices removed. They quickly worked to collect weapons.

There was an unexpected movement behind the gatehouse and Bud watched as Tam climbed out of a shallow hole that looked freshly dug. Without looking back, she walked to a woman in a gray jumpsuit and shook her hand. Bud could clearly see that Tam was still carrying her weapon. The pain at that site was equal to the pain of his wounds. He could feel his fury building but he was powerless to even cry out.

He could feel his vision fading but was still able to make out the image of Owen slowly bringing his AK-47 assault rifle up and pointing it towards Tam. Part of Bud wanted to warn her and another part was enraged because he could not be the one to pull the trigger.

There was a single shot and the last image that Bud ever saw was that of Owen’s head disappearing into a red mist.

As soon as all the weapons had been collected, Jill Warren increased the power to the AH-64 Apache and increased altitude. Her co-pilot gunner (CPG), Steve activated the thermal imaging systems and could instantly see the scene below in a whole different view. The heat of the people showed up brightly, but not as bright as the heat radiating from the generator and the engines of the Humvees. There were lesser heat signatures coming from the dead who had just started cooling or from the body parts scattered around.

Jill was disappointed; it had been looking like they would capture the raiders without firing a shot. Then someone did something stupid and the rest of the fools had joined in.

Jill guessed that close to fifty rounds were fired at her aircraft during the brief battle. However, only one round had made contact and it had ricocheted harmlessly off the armored fuselage.

She rose to one thousand feet altitude and slowly moved forward. It took less than a minute to pick up the heat returns from the fleeing raiders. Jill followed them and double-checked to make sure that all external lights were off. She was a lot higher than she normally would have been when trying to follow a person, but her orders were clear, she was not to be detected.

The Apache’s crew watched as the raiders reached their motorcycles and got them started and sped off into the night. Jill no longer had to worry about being heard so she dropped her altitude and began following the bright heat signatures of the motorcycles.

At one point, she thought how easily she could eliminate the whole group with a few well-placed rockets, but she shook her head. There were already more deaths tonight than they had hoped; this part of her mission, if all went well would not involve using weapons.