15 for 15 (June 2012)

June 10 – Rails

Lights. Faint in this fog. It could be a car joyriding on the tracks. We did that ourselves, once. Trains didn’t run this route anymore. Not since the first days. “Train,” he says. I know he’s right. There’s a rumble. Faint, like the lights. “Stay or go?”

They look to me. It’s my first raid as leader, natch. Trains. We don’t have contingencies for trains. But we need the supplies. “Go. Keep quiet.”

We dim our torches. In the dark it’s hard going. The lights are getting brighter. Good and bad. Good, less likely one of us will break our necks. Very bad because what we can see they can see. And I don’t know why the trains are running. Or who’s running them.

Half a mile, maybe a little less. The estates have electronic defenses. We have disruptors. Usually we win more than we lose, but we do lose. “Dogs.” He’s right, again. I’m so grateful they gave me Scout. Snuffling and shifting, not alert to our presence yet. A big break. We might have avoided them on the way in. Definitely not on the way out.

“Wall, put them to sleep.” I don’t hear her move, which is as it should be. A tense six minutes before she taps me on the shoulder.

“Three asleep. One down.” Ah, well. They’d know we were here when Fido didn’t come in tomorrow. All the more reason to get out clean tonight.

“Move on.” The ground shook. The train passed us by. Not nearly loud as I thought it’d be. But good cover. Another fifteen minutes puts us at the Fairmont Grounds. A golf course back in the day, an armed compound now.

The government trucks came Monday. We waited until Friday before heading out. Lull them into safety. Timing the raids is critical. Mostly we lose people when we get too predictable. Or don’t have good intel. “Guards.”

“How many?”

“Thirteen.”

“Sure?”

“Only hear thirteen.” Oh that was a problem all across. They always patrolled in pairs. Too easy to take one out and create gaps in the fields otherwise. So where was the fourteenth guard? “Stay or go?”

Staying was suicidal. We were five. If things went any more wrong, the clave couldn’t afford the loss of five. But we had two mothers close to their due dates. Nurse needed supplies.

“Stay.”