A few moments later Matt and Mitch came running in and then stared at the wall.
“Any ideas?” Richard asked in an optimistic tone.
“Yeah,” Mitch replied. “Those are latitude and longitude coordinates, part of an old positioning system that was replaced by GPS navigation. If you can find an old topo map, it will have a number grid on the axis that should correspond to those numbers.”
“It’s a good thing we brought a redneck pilot with us, isn’t it?” Richard said as he looked over at Matt.
“I get it,” Matt remarked as he started looking around the house for a paper map. A few minutes later he returned from a back room holding a large faded green piece of paper.
“Is this what you need?” he asked as he handed it to Mitch.
“Yeah,” Mitch replied as he laid the paper out and used his fingers to see where the gridlines intersected.
“Is that close by?” Matt asked, while shining his light on the map where Mitch’s fingers had stopped.
“It looks like it’s just a mile south of here,” he replied.
“Let’s go see what the Troopers left us,” Richard suggested.
Mitch led the way, using the map as a guide while Richard brought up the rear so he could keep an eye out for any stray Augs. The coordinates led them to a tiny knoll that was no more than a mile outside of the town. Mitch, Ethan, and Matt searched the knoll carefully while Richard continued to keep watch.
“There’s something over here,” Matt yelled out, holding up a rusty piece of chain that mysteriously disappeared in the sandy soil. Mitch and Ethan ran over to help him pull on it, but whatever it was attached to didn’t budge.
“Richard, there aren’t any Augs around. Come help us,” Mitch said while holding up the end of the chain.
“Okay,” Richard replied, taking one last look around before setting his rifle down.
“One, two, three, pull,” Mitch said as they dug their feet into the soft soil. The chain went taut, and then a large concrete slab slowly slid open, revealing a bunker below them. Mitch dropped the chain and then shone his flashlight down into the dark hole. The beam of light revealed the bunker had several shelves along the wall partially filled with canned food and bottles of water.
“Shine it further back,” Richard said as he caught a glimpse of something near the rear of the bunker. Mitch immediately illuminated the back of the room and Richard’s eyes lit up when he saw several large dark green wooden crates stacked on top of each other.
“What do you suppose is in those?” Mitch asked.
“Something useful I hope,” Richard said as he tested the rusty ladder with his foot.
“I’m the lightest, let me go down first,” Ethan offered when he noticed the rung bending slightly from Richard’s weight.
“Are you comfortable going down there?” Richard asked.
“Yeah, just hold my light so I can use both hands,” Ethan replied.
Once he stepped on the ladder, it creaked a little, but he continued down it. When he reached the bottom he went over to the crates and wiped the dust off of the top one.
“It says; ‘Property of the United States Government; Ordinance, Class 1.1, High Explosives’.
“Look on the side of the crate, and tell me what it says,” Matt yelled down to him.
“Grenade: anti-personnel, blast radius twenty meters, date code twenty-eight,” Ethan replied.
“Damn, those are powerful little buggers,” Matt commented under his breath. “Open the crate and see how many are in there.”
“Okay,” Ethan replied as he pulled out his all-tool to pry at the edge of the lid. “There are a dozen of them,” he remarked.
“Toss one up to me,” Matt ordered.
“Is it safe to do that?” Ethan questioned.
“Yeah, just don’t pull the pin first,” Matt joked. A split second later a round orb came up from the bunker and Matt caught it in his left hand.
“Are they training grenades, or the real thing?” Richard asked.
“Oh, they’re real,” Matt remarked, recognizing it was nearly identical to the grenades he had used on a live-fire range back in basic training.
“I think we should each take a few, they could come in handy when we reach the production facility,” Richard suggested.
“What’s in the other crate?” Mitch asked.
“Let me check… um guys… you’re not going to believe this, but I think we hit the jackpot,” Ethan announced with excitement.
“What is it?” Matt asked impatiently.
“A dozen brand new Raptor XR600 pulse rifles!”
“Let me see one,” Matt asked in an eager voice. Ethan climbed up the first few rungs on the ladder and then handed one to him. Matt immediately turned on the power button and aimed it at a small brick shed just south of the bunker. “Is it okay if I give it quick test?” he asked as he looked over at Richard.
“Okay, go ahead…we need to know if they work before taking them,” Richard said after scanning the area with his night vision. Matt squeezed the trigger and a brilliant flash of green light lit up the night sky, followed by a deafening explosion and shockwave that knocked all three of them backwards.
“What the hell!” Richard exclaimed as he got up and dusted off his pants.
“I’ve never seen a pulse rifle do that before… have you Matt?” Mitch remarked.
“No,” Matt said as he looked down at the weapon in amazement.
“I think we had better head back into town and hide. That blast might have caught some Augs’ attention,” Richard said nervously.
“Should we try one of the grenades before we go?” Matt asked.
“No!” Richard replied sharply. “Let’s save those for the production facility.”
“Grab some more rifles and grenades,” Matt said as he peered into the bunker.
“Okay,” Ethan replied.
“Don’t you want one of the new rifles?” Matt asked as Ethan handed several up to him.
“Yeah,” Richard sighed. He felt a little guilty leaving her pulse rifle behind, but he knew she would want him to have the very best equipment available if it increased the odds of success.
“Damn, these are lighter than our old rifles,” Mitch commented as he slung one over his shoulder.
“Why did the Black Horse Troopers leave all this stuff behind?” Matt asked.
“I heard it was their emergency stash, but after the mosquitoes were unleased, I don’t think they wanted to risk coming back for it,” Richard surmised.
“Well, we’re going to put the stuff to good use,” Matt exclaimed as he helped Ethan out of the bunker.
“Let’s put the lid back on it, and resupply if the attack is successful,” Richard suggested.
“Are we coming back here?” Matt questioned.
“If we can,” Richard replied with a lack of enthusiasm. Matt let the issue go, but he didn’t feel that Richard was putting too much planning into the return trip.
When they reached Simms, the sun was on the verge of cresting the horizon so they hastily hid in a large house near the edge of town. Once inside, they spread out in the various rooms and made themselves at home. Richard found a queen bed in one of the smaller rooms of the house. After double-checking that the streets were vacant through a broken window, he proceeded to remove the dusty top sheet off the bed. Then he flipped the pillow over and curled up on the mattress. After spending so much time camping on the hard ground, it was a welcome change.
Later that day, Richard was awakened by a creaking sound of footsteps in his room. When he opened his eyes, he saw two yellow speckled orbs peering back at him. The Aug immediately jumped backwards when he realized Richard was a human, and then started to yell for his comrades. Richard immediately pulled the blanket back and blasted the Aug mid-sentence. The shockwave from rifle blew Richard off the bed and knocked him unconscious for a moment.