That night the small group ate cans of green beans. Most of the bikers turned in early because they were now out of Frosty Dogs. Daniel sat staring at the flames of the fire, deep into the night. Tomorrow night he would have his hands full. Tomorrow night he would be going into that compound to face an armed veteran.

The next day, Daniel got up early and watched the sun rise. He had intentionally slept very little so that he could get a midday nap. After they ate more canned fruit, the bikers spent some time cleaning and tuning up their bikes. By noon, Daniel was back in a hammock, with his eyes closed. The gang members headed off to find the items that he needed.

Hambone stayed behind to watch Daniel, but after poking at the fire embers for a bit, he climbed into a nearby hammock. Withing five minutes he was snoring loudly. Daniel’s eyes popped open, and he silently slid out of his own hammock. He left his boots off so that he could walk quietly. He thought about killing Hambone and leaving, but killing a man in his sleep just wasn’t his style. He wasn’t ready to go that dark.

Instead, Daniel made his way over to the command module. Once he reached the door, it automatically slid open. He rapidly made his way in, shivering at the memory of the last time that he was in one of these and had seen the frozen woman.

It was identical to the one in the apple pod, only larger. Same five monitor screens, pads, and buttons, although there was no secondary examination room with glass sliding doors. In fact, there was no secondary door at all. The back half was reserved for the seekers quarters which must be accessed only thru their rear door.

Daniel studied the console in front of him. There was a black pad, probably for fingerprint access just to his immediate left. He wasn’t about to try that. No telling what kind of bells and whistles the fingerprints of a pod escapee would set off.  

He studied both operating monitors, seeing that they each held a different view of Medford. It took him a moment to realize that the scenes were slightly moving. The monitors were being fed by the drones. The three black screens were probably for when more drones were needed in the area. 

“I did the same thing.” The voice came from behind Daniel, startling him.

When he turned around, he saw Hambone leaning against the frame of the sliding door. Daniel tensed up, expecting a fight now that he had been discovered.

“Relax man. I hate those dirty SOB’s as much as I am sure that you do right now.” Hambone shifted his weight to the other side of the door frame. “When they ‘liberated’ me, they blasted my wife Sarah. We had been together over twenty years, and she was pregnant. That was just about a year ago. I’ve hated them ever since.”

“And you’ve stayed with them this whole time?” Daniel didn’t trust the red-haired man or his story.

“Look around you man, do you see any other options? Sure, I snuck into one of these pods, and often thought about trying to kill them all. What then? Be taken out by the overseers?” he scoffed. “In case you haven’t been keeping score, we lost this game big time. Like a peewee football league taking on an NFL team. And this is the only game in town. The remaining clans in the cities are fighting each other and have resorted to terrible things to survive. At least here, we eat and drink.”

“Eat and drink? Is that worth your soul? Worth your humanity?” Daniel said and went to push past him.

Hambone grabbed his arm and advised, “Look Dat, I just wanted you to know that if you make a play against them, I won’t intervene. I have no dog in this fight.”

“Fair enough, but if you do get in my way, I will drop you too,” Daniel warned.

“Come on, tough guy, we gotta go. They are just up the street,” Hambone said, pointing at a screen that showed Stan the Man and Scooter walking past a nearby hair salon.

Eight hours later, after the sun disappeared from the sky, Scooter shook Daniel awake, saying, “It’s time to earn your keep, bato.”

The group gathered around a fire and handed over the requested items to Daniel. They had found everything that he had asked for. He removed one of the small pouches from his pack and after attaching it to his belt, put most of the items inside of it.

“I’m going to need you guys to build a fire outside of the old man’s fences in front of the back door. It will distract him.”

“Why not outside the front door so that you can sneak through the backdoor?” Horndog questioned.

“He is expecting that. He put twice as many devices around that backdoor. So, I need you guys to keep him distracted and focused on that back door while I work my way into the front,” Daniel explained.

“I like it.” Stan grinned from ear to ear. “All of our previous attempts were on that backdoor. Crazy old fart will be expecting us to try there again. Since you are taking all the risk, this is your show Dat. We will make your fire.”

The six men made their way to the decrepit house on top of the hill. They used a road flare, which the bikers always did, to start their fire. Once they threw in some old wooden chairs, the flames were licking the sky. After waiting around a bit, to see if there was a reaction, Stan the Man said that it was time.

“Dat, let’s talk for a second,” Stan said.

“Yes,” he answered.

“How long are ya thinking that this is going to take you?” the gang leader started.

“Depends on what I run into. Could be most of the night if it gets tricky,” he guessed.

“Give me your boom stick,” the biker leader ordered.

“Still don’t trust me?” Daniel asked, handing over the Thunder Ranch.

“I can’t have you getting an itchy trigger finger and blowing that old man away. He is a thirty-day ticket to more living. Also, try to take him alive. We could still hold him for another week, giving ourselves the maximum extension. Comprende?” the slender black-haired man questioned, handing him one of the overseers’ batons.

“I’ll do my best,” Daniel said.

“And to answer your question, fuck no I still don’t trust you. That is how I have survived so long in this f’d up world. So, if you get any smart ideas, I am going to have all sides of this house covered. I know that it is going to take you a bit longer to learn that this in the only option that you have left, and that we are your new family. Don’t be a dumbass. I won’t hesitate to gut you if I have to, bounty or no bounty. So, get in there, get this guy, and get out. Are you understanding what I am laying down?” Stan stared into his eyes, unflinching.

“One hundred percent,” Daniel answered, staring back at Stan.

“Good boy.” Stan ended the conversation and patted him on the back.

Daniel went out about fifty yards from the fire, before slowly making his way around to the front of the house, where he began to slowly craw straight towards the front door. He noted that there were no lights visible in the house at all. It also hadn’t escaped his thoughts that a smart old veteran might have mounted his sniper rifle with a night optics scope. If that were the case, at least it would be over quickly.

When he reached the barbed wire fence, it took Daniel about thirty minutes to cut a path through, because he had to move very slowly. The old man had put bells and cans with rocks throughout the length, to alert him to any would be intruders.

Once Daniel was through, he removed his knife and began slowly sifting through the dirt as he advanced. Twice he struck solid objects. Could have been rocks, or could have been mines. Regardless he didn’t risk it. He marked both placed with X’s in the dirt and went around them.

Once he reached the iron gate, he felt around until he found a thin fishing line. He followed along with his hand, until he came to a fragmentation grenade. Daniel hated to do it, but he had to risk using the red light. He held his shirt up over the flashlight and grenade to cover up as much as he could before switching it on.

The hand grenade had its pin removed, with the handle wrapped twice with the fishing line. If the line was broken, then the handle would release. Daniel took one of the bobby pins that the bikers had found and slipped it into the handle release hole, securing the grenade. He then followed the fishing line in the other direction and secured a second grenade in the same fashion.

While he was working on this, he saw a body behind him. It was one of the dead seekers farther to his left. The bald man with the band around his neck had obviously stepped on a mine. His legs were missing at the knees and his body was badly burnt. It was a terrible ending for any human, even one that had been mind washed by the overseers.

Daniel pulled out the five-pound hand weight that the bikers had found earlier. He tied the rope to the weight and tossed it over the nine-foot iron fence. It landed with a loud thump on the other side. Daniel waited for several minutes, listening to see if anyone had heard the sound.

Daniel pulled on the rope, causing the weight to raise off the ground and swing towards the iron fence, where he caught it in his hand. He untied the rope from the barbell, and retied it to the bottom rail of the fence. Daniel grabbed the rope and climbed to the top of the fence, slipping over. He dropped into the yard behind it.

He slowly crawled across the last ten feet of ground to the front door. He didn’t bother to sift this time. It didn’t make sense that this section next to the house would be mined since it was somewhat maintained, and would not have been accessible to the old man.

When he began crawling up the three wooden steps, a motion activated light came on, flooding the area with bright yellow light. Daniel reached up and smashed out the light with the bolt cutters. He quickly crawled off the steps and sat against the house, listening for any sound.

Damn, that was stupid, he thought. Even though the motion light had not been visible, mounted behind a beam on the porch roof, he should have suspected that the man would have such a thing. If the old vet was worth his salt, he would now be aware that Daniel was attempting an entry. He debated aborting for tonight, but after waiting for an hour and hearing nothing, he decided to risk it. Daniel cautiously crawled back onto the porch steps.

He reached the front door, without even so much as a creak. He searched all around the door finding no wires and nothing out of the ordinary. The door was locked, but with the help of the bobby pin, he was past the knob lock in minutes. Next, he used the screwdriver to dig at the wood as quietly as he could, and managed to release the bolt lock. Finally, he cut a chain lock with the bolt cutters and was in.

  No alarm sounded, but he didn’t expect it. There was no electricity, and he hadn’t heard or seen a generator during his reconnaissance. It was pitch black inside of the house. Daniel switched on the small red screened flashlight, revealing that he was in a parlor, with a hallway running back deeper into the house.

He slowly and cautiously cleared the bottom floor, noting that it was very dusty and didn’t appear to be lived in. He made his way to a staircase that ran up from the living room. He could see a closed door at the top of the stairs.

Daniel stepped on the first step which creaked rather loudly. He froze in place for several seconds, yet he still didn’t hear a sound. This old guy should have been all over him by now. He crept up the rest of the stairs to the door. He felt around it, finding no wires of obstructions.

Daniel grasped the knob offsetting himself to the side in case someone shot through the wooden door. He slowly tuned the knob, pushing the door open. It moved an inch before hitting something. He gave it a slight push, causing a loud noise as a tower of beer cans crashed to the wooden floor.

“Shit!” he said while he pushed his way into the room.

Now he could see that he was in a hallway with three more doors. The two on the side were open and after shining his red light into them, he knew that they were empty, save for some boxes. He did note that the windows had gun slats for firing out at encroachers.

The far door was way more intriguing, as there was a dim light coming from underneath the door. Daniel wondered what was going on. Something felt wrong. He had set off the sensor light, creaked a step, and toppled a primitive aluminum can tower alarm, yet no reaction. Where was this guy and what was he up to?

Daniel made his way to the last door in the house, knowing that his questions were about to be answered. After checking the door, he slowly pushed it open. Several things in the room caught his attention.

The fairly large room was lit by an oil lamp sitting on a table next to a bed. Also on the table were some rifle cartridges and six or eight empty pill bottles. There was a half empty glass of water and a booze flask next to that.

In the bed was an old white-haired man with a stubbled face who wasn’t moving, and appeared to be dead. He had very thin hair on the top of his head and looked to have been tall. Three sides of the room had windows that were covered in boards and then with mattresses.

Sitting on the bed next to the old man was a Vietnam era M40 bolt action sniper rifle. On the floor was a crate with the words US Army on it. In the crate were several fragmentation grenades.

On the walls were some old pictures. One was of the man, maybe ten years ago, with a woman his age. Probably his wife. Another was of the US Navy aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard.

The picture that really caught Daniel’s eye was one of the old man in a dress white US Navy uniform with several ribbons and medals on it, including the Navy Seal pin. He also had a Vietnam Ribbon and a Combat Action Ribbon. The name under the picture identified him as Chief Henry Hudson.

Daniel was pondering about what to do next, thinking that maybe he could make his stand against the bikers here, although it looked like most of the food was gone. Then he heard a low moan come from the man. He wasn’t dead!

Daniel approached the old man as his eyes fluttered open, followed by a low gruff voice. “Stan send ya? Guess he is finally going to get his bounty after all these years.”

“Chief Henry Hudson, I presume?” Daniel asked.

“My friends call me ‘Hank’, but I guess you can too,” he answered in a raspy voice, while trying to grab the M40, but was unable to use his hands.

“You don’t need that chief,” Daniel said, taking the rifle off the bed and setting it against the wall. “I’m not going to blast a fellow serviceman.”

“You were in the navy?” Hank asked.

“No chief, but you guys were our uber. I served in the US Marine Corps. I was a corporal when the wheels came off the bus.” Daniel chuckled at his own comment, because the navy used to transport marines all over the world.

“Ah, a jarhead.” Hank laughed. “Should’ve known it would take one of you grunts to get into my complex.”

“Wasn’t easy,” Daniel admitted.

“When I was younger, well hell, five days ago and I would have got you. You sounded like a heard of cattle stomping up here,” the old man groaned out in pain.

“What ails you chief?” Daniel asked.

“It’s the damn cancer. Been fighting it since before the invasion. Stupid cigarettes. Funny how I had all the information on how deadly they are, and I just couldn’t quit smoking ‘em. Anyways, once the overseers came, it got harder to get my meds. Used to be a lot of people around here to help me. Eighty-five thousand people lived in this town when the war started. Even after everyone fled Medford, there were still over a thousand survivors holding out here,” he replied.

“What happened?” Daniel asked.

“Groups like the Dirty Down and Dead happened. We fought a lot of them off. Killed a couple of entire crews here. We just kept driving them off. All except Stan’s group. They just kept coming back, bountying people each time. Eventually it was just me,” Hank explained.

“So, no more people meant no more meds?” Daniel deduced.

“Exactly. Ran out about six months ago. Stan’s crew took hundreds from here. Hey, does that jackass still call himself Stan the Man?”

“Sure does. Did you know him before the war?” Daniel questioned.

Hank became quiet and didn’t speak for a moment. Then he let out a rattly cough and said, “Yeah. You listen here. He is a stone-cold killer. Watch your self with that one. He will slit your throat without having a second thought.”

“We have all done things since the overseers have arrived that we aren’t proud of. We do what we have to do to survive,” Daniel admitted, pulling over a wooden chair. He sat down next to the dying man’s bed.  

“No, I mean before this mess happened. He and his crew used to party here. They would store their illegal contraband here sometimes. I turned a blind eye.” Hank shook his head, then continued, “One night he brought a couple of hookers over here. Stan was drunk and treating one of them rough, so she refused him. He strangled her to death right beside the fire pit. Killed her with his bare hands. She is still buried out there in the backyard. The Dirty Down and Dead members all pissed on her before they buried her. Make no mistake, marine, he is an animal. A heartless killer. I watched the whole thing from that window right over there.”

“You never reported it?”

“Two detectives showed up a couple of weeks later, wanting to dig around for the body. I guess one of the other prostitutes told what had happened. Cops had chased the gang all the way up to Washington state. Ended in a shootout at some bar. A cop was killed and two of Stan’s crew also died. Sparky and a guy they called Migs. Couple of real losers.”

“Oh man,” Daniel said.

“Yeah, some bad shit. Stan and his brother Butch got away with Scooter and a few others. Butchie was a good kid until he started hanging out with his older brother and his biker crew. Polluted him quickly. Anyways, overseers attacked the same night that the detectives were here. Stan has hated me ever since. Thinks that I was the one who put the police on him. Should have. I will always regret that, but I guess it really doesn’t matter now.”

“Doesn’t. Seems like you beat him in the end. He never got you.” Daniel chuckled.

“Isn’t that what you are here for?” Hank let out a long wheezing cough.

“I told you that I’m not going to bounty you chief,” Daniel assured him.

“What do they call you, jarhead,” Hank asked.

“Dat. Picked it up in bootcamp. Name just stuck,” he answered the dying man.

“Well, Dat, you listen good. I am a goner. I have a day, maybe two left. You bounty me. I want you to. It’s the least I can do for a fellow service man.”

“I can’t do that chief. I don’t want that mark on my soul . . . ,” Daniel started, but Hank interrupted him.

“That’s an order marine. Last I checked, a chief outranked a corporal,” the old man said and grabbed the end of the overseers’ baton.

The two men struggled for a second, with Daniel surprised at the old sick man’s burst of strength when he pulled the head of the baton into his chest. It must have been adrenaline because the muscular Daniel was having trouble controlling the elderly man. He still had some Navy Seal strength in him. Then Hank got his thumb on the square black button . . . and pushed it!

Green light flooded the room as a green power circle surrounded the dying man. Daniel stared into the chief’s eyes, who gave his arm a little pat, and with a flash, he was gone. Daniel sat in the chair for a long moment, collecting himself. He wiped a tear from his eye, saddened by the demise of the old man, then got up and searched the room. The box of grenades, the sniper rifle, a few cans of food, and a couple of jugs of water. That was about it.

He contemplated trying to stay here and fight off the bikers. He had the weapons and the defenses. They would never get in. Problem was, there was not enough food and he wouldn’t be able to go out to find some. No, it was better to use the bikers to get him to California. After thinking for a moment, Daniel picked up the sniper rifle and fired it into the ceiling.

When the sun started to rise in the eastern sky, Daniel made his way to the window facing the backyard. He moved the mattress and pulled down the boards that covered it. Once it was clear, the warm morning sunlight flooded in. After his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he could see all of the bikers staring up at him. He gave them a thumbs up and they all broke out into a cheer. The only one who didn’t carry on was Stan the Man, who just stood there staring up at him.

Yes, he still had need of the Dirty Down and Dead. He would use their protection from the overseers to get him south. Daniel still had Alcatraz in the back of his mind. He was praying that he could find something there. Something that he was losing. Hope.