"This is the accelerator; this is the brake. Move the gearshift to D for Drive, N for Neutral, R for Reverse, P for Park (to stop and lock movement), and L for Low gear if you want more power, but bear in mind it won't give you speed. That other lever is called the handbrake; release it to allow the van to move and crank it up to anchor it. Lastly, don't honk excessively or cause undue noise, and don't use your left foot for braking. The car in front will give hand signals; the car behind will give short light signals. When I signal left, we go left, and vice versa."
"Acknowledged!"
Without proper licensing or sufficient time to educate him, Adam had to give Hammerhead a quick lesson on how to operate a vehicle. Hammerhead was more confident than anyone else in his driving skills, but Solarium vehicles and Earth vehicles were two different animals altogether.
Most notably, the Wartopians complained that the driver's seat wasn't in the center of the cockpit, and the concept of a steering wheel was so alien that it short-circuited Sharp's brain when he wanted to give driving a go. Apparently, Solarium vehicles mostly operate on levers, much like a modern flying crafts, and feature too many buttons and functions.
With the van ready to transport the cargo, Adam took the truck along with Sergeant Elena, Kave, and Private Buzz, while the van carried Private Hammerhead, Private Biscuits, and Corporal Sharp. This small convoy, loaded with all manner of loot from Mallwart, finally started to move, with Adam's truck in the lead.
It was dark as the hour neared 2300; most roads were jammed with ruined cars and damaged tarmac, making it necessary to know when to drive fast, when to drive slow, and how to chart your way around certain places in order to avoid ambushes.
Adam had taken notes of the roads on their way to Mallwart, and on the way back, he tried his best to avoid all the ruined and congested streets that would require him to slow down and navigate them carefully.
Adam wanted to avoid driving during the day with loot because both Gobzkin and Hosts didn't care what time of day it was; they carried on with their usual business 24/7, with fresh raiding parties and tireless hordes.
Human raiders, on the other hand, avoided nighttime, as the world was filled with stray monsters that were neither Gobzkin nor Host. Such monsters would actively hunt humans, Gobzkin, and sometimes even the mutated Hosts. An example of this was the Purple Menace spider.
This tension created many diversions, as monsters hunted and roared all night long. The group encountered many Gobzkin actively hunting wolves and flying monsters preying on Host Blighters, causing the group to either hide under bridges or drive too fast when the streets were clear enough.
But halfway along the road, the radio Buzz was carrying started to glow red. Buzz picked up his handset and turned on the speaker so everyone could hear.
The voice of Dusty came from the other end of the speaker:
"ET-Alpha, do you copy? This is CCT! ET-Alpha! Do you read?"
"ET-Alpha, here. CCT, standard encryption protocol," Buzz replied, requesting a secure connection.
"Copy, ET-Alpha," Dusty replied, and exchanged a few numbers with Buzz, which Buzz then decrypted to find a secure frequency.
"ET-Alpha here."
"CCT, responding. Channel clear."
"What's the situation, Dusty?" Buzz asked.
"I was doing a regular frequency scan and noticed a spike. Once I tuned in, there was a repeated message," Dusty replied from the other end.
"Copy that," Buzz said and looked at Sergeant Elena in the front passenger seat, who shook her head without looking at him. "Dusty, the Commander stated that we didn't need to concern ourselves with such traps."
"Well, that's what I was doing, but the repeating message had a postscript. Want to guess who it was for?"
Everyone in the truck's cabin had a shared expression, their brows raised.
"For the Commander, I reckon?" Buzz asked.
"Yes. I recorded the message before it was cut off. You can hear it when you get back, or you can wait a minute, and I'll play it for you now," Dusty replied with an old, tired voice.
"Adam, this could be Megan," Kave immediately spoke to Adam in the driver's seat, and Adam could do nothing but tighten his grip on the wheel.
In truth, he was worried sick about her, but as commander of this operation, he couldn't afford to deviate given what had happened. The mindset of a leader and the heart of a lover were in conflict, but it was Elena who took the lead.
"If it is your friend, we can at least listen. I'll be the judge of our next move," the Sergeant said, fully taking the burden of a difficult decision off Adam's shoulders.
"Play it," Adam said right away.
Buzz transmitted the command, and the group waited in utter silence, interrupted only by the truck's engine and the unavoidable potholes plaguing the streets of Brighthaven City.
After a minute or so, Dusty came back:
"Rewinding message… Bzzzt! …"
A static noise came as Dusty connected the line from his handset to the base terminal where he had recorded the transmission. A moment later, a feminine voice was heard, and it was unmistakable.
It was her.
"I tracked the stolen military crates to a den three clicks east of Riverside Press Park in River Street. It's in a large garage, three turns before Central. Bring the crew, weapons hot. Oh… Adam, if you hear this—I hope you do—don't come just yet. Meet my guys at base, seven blocks northwest of our spot. Look for Raj."
Adam started sweating as he realized that something was quite strange about this message. If Megan had survived as long as he had, she should have been an expert in everything apocalypse-related, perhaps even more so than him, since she was already a survivalist, unlike him, a city rat. Revealing one's position like that was not just stupid; it was outright suicide.
"Buzz, turn off the speaker and give me that."
Beside him, Sergeant Elena snatched the headset and handset and told Dusty to repeat the message. She listened to it one more time and then returned them to Buzz.
"Smart girl!" In contrast to Adam's inner turmoil, Elena smiled calmly, even praising Megan.
"What? What's going on?" Adam asked, no longer able to compose himself.
"She's indoors somewhere, no other voices around her, but she's keeping her voice low. It's a distress message. She's probably in trouble but found a way to a radio and is now attracting every raider in transmission range towards whoever is causing her trouble."
"That…"
"Relax, Commander. If that girl is smart enough to have survived as long as you have, she isn't just lucky. With a head like hers, I could train another Sharp or Stone. Plus, she directed you towards her allies; she wants reinforcements, which means she can hold out for a while."
Elena's analysis was, as always, cold and objective, but she still praised Megan's actions. This meant that Adam could at least think straight before acting on emotion.
"Alright," Adam nodded and rubbed his fingers around the steering wheel nervously. "We can't do that now, though. We need to drop our loot at base first, and then resupply."
"That's true. Good thinking, Commander," Sergeant Elena replied, watching as both Adam and Kave sat silently, now that the road was finally clear enough for the cars to speed up and not be pursued by anything.
While it was ill-advised to celebrate early, their first Resource Acquisition operation was a success, guaranteeing the base a new phase of growth. But this growth would need more manpower; Megan and her allies might be just what was needed at the moment.
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