Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (32 page)

"They built them back in the middle ages," I said. "I don't see any reason why we can't build one. We'll improvise."

"What about fuel?" said Snake.

"I'm not sure if we can get it hot enough with wood," I admitted. "We may have to scrounge up some coal."

"I guess we can search old power plants and factories," he said, scratching his beard.

"Probably our best shot, in this area," I agreed. "I know that the power plant on the south side of Springfield has a massive pile of coal. Worst case scenario, we'll make a run into Springfield."

Our planning session was interrupted by Corporal Winston, who came trotting out to us with an excited look on his face.

"What's up, Bill?" I asked, as he came to a stop and tried to catch his breath.

"We've picked up a couple of contacts on the radio," he said, smiling.

They had been busy setting up his Ham Radio set and rigging an antenna. I knew that under the right circumstances, a decent Ham set could reach halfway around the globe.

"Where?" I asked, suddenly smiling.

"The first is a group of survivors on some large boats," he said. "We got them on a good atmospheric bounce. Most days, my radio won’t reach that far.. They've banned together just off of the California coast. One of the boats is a converted Luxury Liner. The rest are Navy, I think."

"Good to know that they're there," I said, smiling. "They're too far away for us to get to. Besides, it sounds like they might be quite a bit better off than we are. Well, unless they run into the
Stalkers
."

"I warned them," he said.

"Who's the second contact?" asked Snake.

Winston gave him a brief look, but didn't immediately respond. I could tell that Bill didn't particularly like Snake and would have to get used to him before he'd treat him like one of us. Bill glanced a
t me and I gave him a slight nod. Bill just shrugged and smiled, a bit nervously.

"The second contact wasn't too far from here," said Winston. "It's a small group that
's held up in a store in Lebanon."

"That close?" I said. "They're right up the road. Are they alright, for now?"

"They held up in a Mega-Mart," he said, shaking his head. "They're in good shape for the moment."

"How do you seal off glass doors?" asked Snake.

"I asked the same thing," said Winston. "They used forklifts to pile full pallets of potting soil and other heavy stuff in front of the doors. They say it's holding pretty well, for now."

"Why didn't we hear from them before?" I asked.

"They only have a couple of handset radios," he said. "They don't have much range. The only reason we heard them is that I fired up the big radio and boosted the signal with the big antenna I rigged on top of the ridge."

"Good work, Bill," I said, smiling. "We might see if they want to join forces, out here."

"Who would want to live inside a store?" asked Snake.

"That
store
," I said, smiling, "might just be a treasure trove. If there's anything left, they could have hygiene items, clothing that isn't military issue, fishing gear, and tools. Hel, they might even have medical supplies."

"Good point," said Winston. "Think they'll want to join us?"

"Who knows," I said, shaking my head. "We're not going to force them to. I'd love to have access the what's in that store, but I won't take it from them."

"Would they
show us the same courtesy?" asked Snake.

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe not. Either way, I won't be the villain. If they attack us, we'll fight back. We won't attack them, first."

"Fair enough," said Snake. "The Third Noble Virtue. Honor. I like that about you, Wylie."

"We all need to try to live up to the Nine Virtues," I said. "If we can all do that, the world will be worth rebuilding."

"How many survivors in their group?" asked Snake, turning back to Winston.

"Over twenty," he said, smiling. "They said it's mostly women and kids."

"I doubt that they would have admitted that if they were looking for trouble," I said, knotting my brow.

"Me either," said Winston. "I think they're friendly. They were pretty damned excited to hear from us."

"Did you tell them where we are?" I asked, suddenly concerned.

"No," said Winston, quickly. "I just said that they weren't too far away."

I thought about that for a bit, not speaking. Even if they were friendly, that didn't mean that everyone who heard the conversation was friendly. We'd learned that the hard way with the
Freemen
. They monitored our radios and hit us when we didn't expect it. I knew Winston wouldn't forget that, either. None of us were likely to.

"Alright," I said. "Did you say you'd be in contact?"

"Yeah," he said, grinning. "We're going to talk again at 1800 hours, after we both had time to let our people know about the contact."

"Good call," I said. "If they ask us to pull them out, we'll see what we can pull off."

Winston nodded and headed back towards the bunker. Snake and I resumed our conversation about the construction of the forge and started making sketches on a small pad of paper. With any luck, we would have most of the defenses built and the forge functioning in a week or two, at the most. Then things would really start taking shape.

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."

-
Jack London

31 May

We spent almost two weeks on construction and building projects. Each night, we would seal ourselves inside the bunker and wait for the dawn. Despite our best attempts, we just couldn't seem to find where the
Stalkers
were hiding during the day. There were several times when we had to deal with wandering groups of the dead, but we still made good time on the construction.

We stayed in daily contact with the group of survivors in
Lebanon. They wanted to be sure that we weren’t going to try to take their gear before they agreed to meet up with us. I couldn’t say that I blamed them. In fact, I was worried about the exact same thing. As much as I wanted to trust people, the
Freemen
had taught me to be careful of other groups. We couldn’t afford another lengthy fight.

The forge was up and working, largely thanks to Heather taking over the project. Snake and I might be able to work the forge, but building it was beyond our skills. The construction of the defenses went much faster when we located some heavy equipment in a nearby shop. It was only one backhoe and a bulldozer, but it made all the difference in the world.

We'd even managed to scrounge up a pick-up load of coal at a nearby garage. Heather had constructed a bellows to force air into the coals and powered it with the engine off of a lawnmower. It forced a continuous stream of air into the coals and produced tremendous heat. Far more than they had been able to manage in the middle ages.

Snake and I had spent the better part of a day forging the Halligan bar into my new weapon. We had originally planned to weld the head off of the splitting maul onto it, but I decided that I wanted something with a little more weight to it. What we found worked out even better than we had hoped. We found a piece of steel
that looked like it had once been part of a bridge crossbeam. It was heavy and solid, but covered in rust and not perfectly shaped.

It looked...well…it looked like the head of a war hammer. We cleaned it up and heated it until it was red-hot. While it was heating, we cut the wedge and the spike off of the end of the Halligan, leaving the crowbar end intact. Once both pieces were glowing, Snake held them together with tongs while I started pounding it into the shape I wanted.

It was hot, tiring and heavy work. Three times we reheated the steel, only to begin the shaping with the hammer, all over again. Once it was one glowing piece of steel, we heated it until it was almost white hot. I held it aloft and screamed its name to the Gods.

“
Brjótanir!”
I screamed, holding it above my head.

Then I thrust it into a pool of spring water. The cloud of steam that erupted from the heated steel billowed around us and made it difficult to see.
The sky had been growing steadily darker as a storm rolled in. Lightning was flashing through the sky as I pulled it out of the water, for the last time. It gleamed in the dying light and I knew that it was ready.

The other crews had been busy, a
s well. We now had a moat and a fence that was high enough to keep the undead at bay. They flooded it by redirecting part of the spring. Our biggest concern now, was locating and destroying whatever place that the
Stalkers
were using. Our next priority was going to have to be tracking those damned things down and putting them out of the equation, permanently.

I could see the others were already making their way into the bunker, preparing to lock ourselves in until the
Stalkers
fled the morning light. Dropping the damper lid into place over the forge, Snake and I grabbed our gear and headed in with the others. My last sight of the world above ground was of lighting flashing through the sky and the rain beginning to pour down. In the flash of light, I could see the first
Stalkers
emerging from the far side of the river. Now I knew which way they were coming from.

We headed down the stairs and sealed the door behind us. Gunny was waiting for us with a clipboard, checking off names. Since we were the last two inside, he gave us a thumbs-up when we sealed the door. With the dead ruling the night, we couldn’t afford to leave anyone outside. There wasn’t much chance that they would last the night out there.

Snake and I hit the showers and then joined everyone in the dining hall for a meal. I fitted my new weapon with a nylon sling off of an M-4, and secured it down tight. It would work well as a sling to carry it with. The handle was already textured to prevent slippage in your hands, so I didn’t see any reason to wrap it with leather. The final step was when Snake created a bind-rune
[18]
that combined all of the runes making up the name,
Brjótanir
. This was etched into the head of the hammer with a chisel.

Above our heads, we could hear the rumble of thunder. It was going to be quite the storm. If we could hear the thunder this far underground, then it must really be loud on the surface. With any luck, the lighting would take out a bunch of the
Stalkers
. With the rivers already swollen from rain, this new storm was going to push them even farther above their banks.

After a quiet night with my family, we rested. Thankfully, I didn’t have any dreams. It was a good night. Karen had turned our small quarters into a nice little apartment. Even the dogs had their own places to sleep. Odin slept on a couple of inmate mattresses that
they had brought from the jail. Thor slept on a thick blanket, next to the boys.

Heather had started working with the dogs, using her training as a military dog handler. I was amazed how quickly the dogs were picking up the commands. Although not the most aggressive dogs I’d ever seen, both of them were very protective of their family. Mastiffs don’t have to be as aggressive as a German Sheppard. They make up for it in sheer size. Odin weighed in at almost a hundred and thirty pounds and Thor hit almost one seventy five.

01 June

By the time we finished breakfast, it was well past 0700 hours. I could still hear the occasional clap of thunder, so we knew that construction would probably be put on hold for the day. Besides that, if it was still overcast, we had no way of knowing if the
Stalkers
were still around. I was considering telling everyone to stay inside, but I had the feeling that I was forgetting something.

“I want to keep
everyone inside,” I said to Gunny. “No sense in risking everyone if the storm is still going.”

“Why do I have the feeling that you’re going up there, anyway?” asked Gunny, smiling.