After the Fall: Catherine's Tale Part 2: The warrior's fight for survival begins by David Nees

Author:David Nees [Nees, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-06-09T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

The shapes of the convoy vehicles quickly disappeared into the dark as they rounded a house. They were in a suburban area of empty houses, long deserted. With the goggles the walking was easy. At first there was little to worry about as they quietly made their way through the abandoned neighborhood, although they still moved cautiously and kept an eye out for patrols or sentries. But soon they crossed the street with the single line of ruined houses on the far side, that were only mostly dismantled, and then they entered the zone that had been cleared of all buildings. They were in plain sight of the wall. The going was slower now. They dashed from hiding spot to hiding spot in a crouch, hunting for the few concealment points left in the open area, avoiding the open basements that now lay uncovered and filled with stagnant water.

“I hope the militia doesn’t have these,” Catherine whispered to Gibbs.

“We have to assume they do,” he replied.

At each hiding place, they scanned the area ahead. As the rubble wall came closer, they could see no sign of guard posts along its top or along its base, for as far as they could see along the curve.

“They’re concentrating on the entrance points. We should be able to climb over without being detected,” Gibbs said after a long look to left and right.

“More chance of someone seeing a whole big group trying it, though,” Catherine said. “Especially if they’ve got to bring heavy loads over. We have to find a place to get everybody else through all at once, fast.”

She saw him nod, but his voice was somber. “That’s a tall order. They kept things simple. All the smaller roads into town are just blocked by the rubble. And it’s at least as bad as this. Maybe if there was a really crappy thin point, they could just shove it over right there.”

“Hard to do that undetected. You think we could find a place like that?”

“We wouldn’t even know it if we saw it.” Gibbs sighed. “Better to just have everyone come straight across and climb.”

“You like that gamble?” Catherine asked.

“Better than getting caught and engaged in a firefight outside of town. That’s what they’d like. We’ll have to find a spot or do it the hard way.”

“Tough choices,” Thomas remarked.

The wall was about seven feet high at the point they were approaching. It was not as imposing as it had been around the main gate, there were no car bodies in its base, but it looked dangerous. Here it was really more of a construction trash pile, built up of building rubble, concrete blocks, rocks, lumber, metal beams, gravel, and miscellaneous debris. At any time one part of it could come loose as someone climbed it, burying them, or perhaps the whole thing would sag into a new point of stability, crushing anyone caught on it. Catherine suppressed a shudder at the sight. At night, without the goggles, it would have been nearly impossible to scale without incident.

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