It took a few days for Daniel to get back on his feet again. His nose had been set for the umpteenth time and his ribs still hurt, but it was bearable. Daniel had spent the down time learning about his new clan.

The Oakland Clan numbered 1,822 people, over a hundred of which were children. Another fifty or so were elderly. That meant that he had roughly just under 1,700 who could fight. That is if they had weapons.

The Oakland Clan armory consisted of 312 guns of various types, of which they only had ammunition for half. He recovered his Maverick Thunder Ranch and was happy to discover that they weren’t short on shotgun shells. That was because the armorer, a man named Mason, reloaded empty shotgun casings.

Daniel also commandeered a box of rounds for his M40 sniper rifle because the clan had no M40 of their own, but had a box of the bullets in the armory. In fact, the clan had collected a lot of rounds for guns that they didn’t even own.

Daniel also sought out and found Carmen’s 357 Taurus. One of the clan members had taken it off Scooter after he went down. He wanted the gun for a very specific purpose and he hoped that one day he would get the opportunity to fulfill his goal.

Daniel rounded out his armament by recovering his two remaining fragmentation grenades from Big Jim’s personal stuff. The lack of weapons left most of the clan carrying knives, swords, and a few crossbows.

Food was another shortfall. They were out. Maybe a week left of goods if they rationed. After convincing his people not to cook up a Big Jim stew, the new clan leader let them know that he would feed them all, and well. They just needed to fight. Water was no issue. They had a couple of decent charcoal water filters, so that was no extra worry for him.

Finally, the biker situation. Stan the Man had disappeared, like dust in the wind. One reason that Dat forced himself back on his feet so quickly was because, by his calculations, the Dirty Down and Dead had maybe a day left before the bounty came due.

If his theory was correct and nobody sent a bounty, then the gang probably lost all command module access, and their batons would stop functioning. So, for his idea to work, he had to move now. Olivia advised him that there was a command module located a couple of miles from where they were.

Once Daniel and Olivia arrived, they spent the morning studying the cameras. By noon, he saw Tiny relieving himself outside of an old tattoo parlor off Carson Street. Daniel went with Olivia, and after discovering that Hambone was also there, they convinced both bikers to come out.

Daniel learned that neither Hambone nor Tiny had seen Stan the Man since the shooting had started. Initially, Hambone and Tiny had made their way back to the El Campanil Tower and collected their things. After that they went to the gas station where the bikes were stashed.

Apparently, the pair had beat Stan there because they handed over his side bag to Dat, which contained at least twenty frag grenades. After the gas station, Hambone and Tiny went back to the campus. The two holed up in the Mills College library, but soon they started seeing Oakland Clan members searching for them, so they headed north.

After a few days, the two bikers believed that the rest of the gang were dead, so they decided to move on, and found the tattoo parlor on Carson Street, where they planned to stay until they came up with a survival plan. When asked why they chose the parlor, both grinned and showed new, albeit sloppy, prison level tattoos on their arms. It looked like they had cut and inked themselves.

With the motorcycle gang now defunct, Hambone and Tiny were well aware that they would no longer have the protection and supplies that the bounties offered. Once Dat found them, and gave them some assurances, the two readily agreed to join up with the Oakland Clan.

Now, over eighteen hundred people were packed into the boxing ring room, which was about three hundred over its originally intended capacity. Most in the Oakland Clan had heard about the possible alliance with the heavily armed Sacramento Clan. They were all waiting anxiously to hear what their new leader had to say.

“They call me Dat. I escaped from an overseers’ pod,” he yelled in a strong loud voice. Daniel waited a bit as this statement caused several gasps and some excited murmurs. “All I have heard since my escape is how the fight with the invaders is over. I am here to tell you that it isn’t. It is my intention to unite the remaining clans and launch a counteroffensive. Our enemy has had an easy time of raping and ravaging our planet for far too long!”

This brought a loud eruption of cheers from the crowd of people who had been without any real hope for a very long time. “Everyone who is able to fight, will, but not with each other. The killing and maiming of humans ends here and now. Short of defending yourselves, the killing of people is over with. Turn it on our enemy! Turn it on the overseers! Starting now, we kill them! We kill them all!”

The crowd broke into an uproar, shouting, “Dat! Dat! Dat!” Once his speech ended, Daniel made his way to a side room, where he met with some of the leaders of his new clan. Olivia was present, along with Hambone and Tiny.

There was also the light-skinned black man that Big Jim had punched out the first time that Daniel had met him. His name was Stiffy. Daniel had no interest in learning how the man had earned the name. Stiffy had curly short black hair with a well-trimmed moustache that matched his beard. 

Stiffy had been born and raised in Oakland. He used to work for the sewage department inspecting tunnels, and knew the underground city like the back of his hand. That was the kind of information that Daniel would be needing.

Another male, an older white man called Sterns, was also present. He used to have dark black hair, but it looked like white hair was starting to take over. Sterns wore a welding apron, and Daniel soon learned that he was a jack-of-all-trades concerning anything mechanical. Sterns seemed like he would also be a handy fellow.

“So, all of the fighting back and counterattack stuff was just talk to rile up the clan?” Stiffy asked.

“Depends,” Dat answered.

“On what?” Sterns bit on Daniel’s open-ended response.

“On how hungry the clan is and if they want to eat anytime soon,” their new leader stated firmly.

“What do you mean?” Olivia questioned.

Daniel spread out a map of the greater Oakland area on an old wooden table that was in the room. He had borrowed the map from the armorer Mason earlier, and stated, “You guys have been here longer than me. I am certain that you know where the overseer pods are inside of this city.”

“Off course,” Stiffy said, then added, “There’re at least twenty in Oakland alone, but they are all guarded, so we stay as far away from those places as we can.”

“We don’t have enough people to take on the overseers,” Sterns threw in his opinion.

“Do any of you know what they’re doing inside of those pods?” Daniel asked, ignoring their objections.

His five companions shook their heads no, wondering where their new leader was going with this, and after a short pause he answered, “Well I do, because I lived inside of one for over six years. They keep people inside of those pods. Slaves. And they’re producing food. Food for the slaves, for bounty hunters, and for God only knows what else.”

“So?” Stiffy shrugged.

“So, our clan is starving. I say we take that food for our people, and we free the slaves to expand our forces,” Dat explained.

Stiffy shook his head again, saying, “I said ‘so’ because we have all fought the overseers. It takes a lot of fire power to put them down and more show up within seconds. It is impossible to fight them.”

“I refuse to believe that. Don’t tell me that over the past few years, we haven’t learned anything about our enemy; about how to take them down?” Daniel questioned incredulously.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Olivia smiled at Daniel, then continued, “During my travels here, I was able to escape an overseer because I shot it in that lighted circle in the center of the chest. Just by chance really. It went down. They can die.”

“The little light that usually glows red?” Sterns asked.

  “Yes. It’s only about the size of a golf ball, but if you shoot it, they drop,” she assured the group.

“But remember, more usually come quick with those green circles,” Stiffy warned.

“And how long does it take for reinforcements to arrive?” Dat inquired.

“Twenty seconds, give-or-take a few,” Stiffy answered him.

“He’s right,” Hambone interjected. “I have seen it. They get there quick. Twenty seconds is pretty accurate.”

Daniel had the group mark all of the pod locations that they knew of throughout the city. Within a few minutes, there were now twenty-two black X’s on his map. The beginnings of a plan had formulated in his mind.

“Okay, this is how we fight these things. Hit and run tactics. We go in fast, and get out even faster. We hit, move, hit, move, and keep it up. We need to go in well organized and with a solid plan. I think that will give us a fighting chance,” Daniel strategized aloud.

“You’re the boss. We are behind you, Daniel,” Olivia backed him up.  

“Any ideas on how we can incapacitate twelve people? They’ll be docile at first, and won’t fight, until we try to take ‘em. I think that we’ll have to knock ‘em out,” Daniel speculated.

“Why would they fight us if they’re slaves?” Tiny spoke for the first time since the meeting had started.

“They don’t know that they’re slaves. They’ve been brainwashed. All they can remember is pod life,” Dat explained.

“I can make something,” Hambone volunteered. “A chemical that’ll put them down in about ten seconds. We can put it on a rag and gag them.”

“Perfect. I need it by tonight,” Daniel ordered. Then as an afterthought, added, “Another thing. The seekers are devouring our planet piece by piece. We’ll implement the same policy that you’ve already had with the drones. We drop every one of them that we see. I know that we’re short on ammo, but we do have plenty of .38 rounds. Every attack squad that goes out carries at least one .38 revolver to take out seekers. Understood?” he asked.

They all nodded their agreement.

“Also, Olivia Reyes is now my Second-In-Command. If anyone has any issues with that, then I suggest that you keep them to yourselves.”

The others heeded his advice, and nobody voiced a complaint.

“Okay, so I want forty of our healthiest people ready to go by darkness. Strong people who can climb and jump. Twenty of them need to be heavily armed. The other twenty need to have empty hands,” Daniel ordered. “Assign twelve of the unarmed clan members to carry the people out. The other eight unarmed members are to carry and fill all of the large packs that they can, with as much food as we can get our hands on. Also, make sure that we have plenty of road flares and a ladder that’ll reach eight feet.”

“Got it, boss,” Reyes said, her face showing no reaction to her newly revealed promotion, but her big brown eyes told a different story. They beamed with pride. Daniel was learning to read the pretty Hispanic woman quite well.

Once they had nailed down a solid plan, the strategy session ended with the group heading off to select people for the upcoming raid, and to get a nap in before darkness came. When the sun went down, Olivia came and got Daniel.

The petite woman was armed with a Remington pump action 12-gauge shotgun that looked just a little too big for her. Over her black t-shirt, Olivia wore a bandoliers that crisscrossed her chest.  They held at least forty shotgun shells in little rings. Her outfit was completed with a black ballcap that covered everything but her hair bun, and black military style cargo pants. She was ready for a fight.

She caught Daniel smiling at her outfit, causing the spunky woman to say, “What? If I die, it’s ain’t gonna be from lack of ammunition.”

“No, it certainly ain’t,” he said, teasing her.

His Second-In-Command led him through several tunnels to an area that was unfamiliar to him. In the shadows, a large group of his clan were waiting for him. Two of the unarmed men carried an eight-foot ladder as he requested.

Stiffy, who was carrying a .22 rifle, led the group out at a fast pace. The target site that Daniel had picked was a pod that sat right next to the San Leandro Bay. Not only had he chosen this one because it was one of the closest pods, but he was very curious about what the overseers were doing by the water.

It took the attack team about an hour to cover the three and a half miles of tunnel. They had to exit one spot and drop into a manhole cover to get into another tunnel system near Bancroft Avenue. This tunnel had about a foot of foul-smelling water in it. Finally, the small force reached the exit tunnel that they were looking for.

Once they were there, the group walked about a hundred yards through some gloomy warehouses, and set up in a drainage ditch. They watched the pod area for a half hour, detecting no lights or movement. Then they moved in, and avoiding two green power circles near the white milky pod wall, they set the ladder against it. Daniel climbed up and took the first look inside.

He shuddered at the memories once he saw that it was basically the same setup as his former orchard pod. There were six housing modules, a command module, and a dining module. As normal, the two overseer guards were standing next to the command module door. The only difference was that there was a large building positioned beside the bay, where his apple orchard would have been.

Daniel came down and advised the group that the compound matched what he had drawn out for them earlier. He explained to everyone where they should go. The large work building was conveniently next to the command module. He had two of the men move the ladder to a section of the wall where they would come down in between the two structures.

Slowly, and very quietly, the attack group made their way up the ladder and into the compound. By hanging over the edge, they only had to drop two feet. The last man pulled the ladder up and set it on the inside. He was the only one who didn’t have to drop in.

For the first time in months, Daniel found himself back inside of an overseers’ pod. He made his way to the edge of the command module, and pulling the pin on one of his grenades, tossed it around the corner.  

With the explosion, came the throwing of several lighted flares, and the sound of Olivia’s steady voice, counting, “1…2…3…”

Daniel’s people headed off in various directions, while he stayed with the food recovery team. They headed for the big warehouse, noticing that the grenade had scored a direct hit on the overseers. There was nothing left but smoking body parts. Still, the helmets were intact, although cracked. Daniel really wanted to get a look at the bodies, but he didn’t have time.

“4…5…6…7…8”

Then they were inside of the big building, so Daniel could no longer hear Olivia counting. He was surprised to see that it was a fish cannery, with several stacks of cans ready to go. The back end of the building faced San Leandro Bay and was wide open with no wall. There he observed a wooden dock the length of the building. Nearby, in crates, he could see the tailfins of fish.

“Hurry!” he ordered while his people expediently started shoving cans into their bags with both hands. Daniel, Stiffy, Sterns, and two other men stood nearby with their guns at the ready.

Once they exited back out, Daniel could hear Olivia’s voice again “21…22…”

“Over the wall!” he shouted, wasting his breath because his people were already going over it.

“23…24…25,” she continued, while Daniel grabbed a discarded ladder nearby and tossed it against the wall. Several of his food recovery people had large bluefin tuna in their hands.

“26…27…..” They continued climbing up, some handing fish and unconscious people over the wall, before escaping. About half of his people were back outside the pod now, “28…29.”

At twenty-nine the first green power circle opened and a moment later an overseer fizzed in by the command module. Daniel unloaded both shells from his 12-gauge Thunder Ranch center mass into the overseer from nearly point-blank range. The buckshot pellets shredded the glowing red circle in the black-suited being’s chest, causing his foe to stagger backwards and fall over motionless.

Another overseer appeared in the same green circle, before Daniel had a chance to reload his shotgun, with two more green circles opening nearby. It was about to get real dangerous, real quick. Daniel ran up and slugged the new overseer in the face, immediately breaking his wrist. Luckily it was his left hand since he was holding his shotgun in the right one.

The black suited alien punched him in the face twice, the powerful blows dropping Daniel to his knees, and aimed in on him with his baton. Olivia ran up and put her shotgun right over the lighted circle and fired. The blast sent the overseer toppling backwards to the ground. She helped Daniel up and the two of them hurried over to the ladders.

Red blasts started filling the air as more of the enemy arrived. A skinny woman on the ladder above Daniel took a hit in the back. The red circle enveloped her, and with a fizzle, she turned into black dust which sprinkled all over the clan leader. Daniel managed to grab her pack, but missed the .38 because his hand was broken.  

Then Daniel was over the wall and back outside of the pod. Climbing and jumping sent pain through his ribs and wrist, but at least he was alive. Some of his people were taking a moment to gather up the large tuna that they had dropped, before they had jumped down. Finally, they were all moving rapidly back towards the mouth of the tunnel, having left the ladders behind.

Once the attack team regrouped inside of the tunnel, they found that they were short a man. Another team member advised that when the missing man had jumped off the wall to get outside, he had landed in one of the green boobytrap power circles on the ground. They did a quick count and discovered that they had ten large tuna, as well as nearly a thousand cans of fish.

“Guess we should have warned you not to punch them. They are hard as steel. You aren’t the first one to break a bone trying to punch or kick an overseer,” Olivia Reyes said while gently wrapping his left hand once they were a safe distance underground.

Daniel had lost two people, but had gained twelve, making it a net gain of ten. He hated to think that way, but this was a war of numbers, and he needed every able body that he could get. They had also killed four overseers. As far as he was concerned, this was a hugely successful mission.

Daniel’s people seemed to agree. He could tell by the loud rancorous party that took place once they returned, lasting well into the afternoon. The following evening, everybody relaxed while napping and eating fresh fish. Most of them hadn’t tasted fish in a very long time.  

Everywhere Daniel went, he received loud cheers, handshakes, and slaps on the back. He could have done without the latter because he still had sore ribs. Still, the clan greatly liked their new leader. Oakland Clan Leader Daniel had given them something else that they had not tasted in several years. A victory.