Survivors – A Novel of the Coming Collapse

The boy spoke nervously in a high, early-adolescent voice, “Hey. My family, we live in Dewey, on East Antelope Way. The La Fuerza gang locked down the town 24/7, but they are fools and let kids my age and younger walk and ride our bicycles around, without hardly even noticing us. So I got to see exactly what houses they were in, and where they had their pea cups and armored cars parked. My dad sent me on my bike up here to get your help. I was sent to Mr. Conley, and he promised to help, and he sent me back to Dewey and Humboldt, to draw maps, the last two days. We transferred the Humboldt map onto this. . . .”

Doctor K. and Ian Doyle then carried in a large whiteboard from another room and set it on a pair of the meeting room chairs. It was marked “HUMBOLDT-As of 1400, Wednesday.” The boy pulled a laser pointer from the back pocket of his jeans, and continued:

“Okay, so here is what I saw: about two-thirds of their gang is in Dewey, and about one-third in Humboldt. I counted four of the bank-type armored cars in Humboldt, and one of the Army-tank-looking ones, except on wheels.”

Ian Doyle corrected, “Wheeled APC.”

Jamie nodded and, using the laser pointer, said, “Right, APCs. I marked their positions, here, here, here, and a pair of them, here. As you can see, most of those are on East Prescott Street. I’m pretty sure of those positions, but of course they could have moved them since I left. I marked the houses with the gang members in them, in red. There were two houses on fire when I left. I marked those, and the ones that had already burnt down, in solid black. The ones that are just outlines I think are still either cleaned out by the gang, nobody home, or somebody at home but just waiting to see if the gang kicks them out. I marked some hills that you can use for cover to sneak up on the houses and the vehicles: it is what Doctor K. says is called a ‘defilade approach.’”

There were murmurs of approval. Lars Laine, sitting in the middle of the crowd shouted: “We need to get him an appointment to West Point!”

Jamie Alstoba went on, still quite nervous, “Well, sir, before you ’gratulate me, let me tell you about Dewey.”

Ian Doyle and Doctor K. carried out a second whiteboard, marked “DEWEY-As of 1400, Wednesday,” placing it on another pair of chairs to the right of the first whiteboard.

The Navajo boy continued, “I don’t have as many exact details for you about Dewey, since the town is so much more spread out than Humboldt. Okay, so I counted seven of the boxy bank armored cars, mostly at the east end of town, parked on the road called Apache Knolls Trail, and three APCs, and those were on Apache Knolls Trail and South Tomahawk Trail, which is, uh, parallel to it, just to the west. They also had twenty, maybe thirty pea cups, kinda scattered along Apache Knolls Trail and South Tomahawk Trail, Sugar Leaf Lane, and east Tanya Boulevard. I think they picked that part of town because it has whatcha-call ‘commanding high ground.’ There’s also some nice big houses there where they can party and crash. There are some hills with juniper trees on them behind them, which I think make the La Fuerza guys feel secure, but I think that is the best way to hit them: you sneak in on foot, coming down from those hills. And I noticed that their sentries spend all their time with their binoculars looking north and east, toward the highways, not looking behind them at the hills.”

Using the laser pointer, Jamie said, “They have machine guns on tripods set up in this house here, and this one here. For some reason they don’t park the armored cars and APCs in driveways. They keep them in a zigzaggy pattern all along both sides of each road. Doctor K. says that’s for ‘mutual supporting fire.’ And I’ve got to warn you, they sleep in some of their rigs. Some of their pea cups are in driveways and some along the roads. I didn’t see any of their rigs parked in garages or barns or shop buildings, but I could be wrong. Bottom line is, there is a boatload of pea cups, armored cars, and APCs. So what you have in Dewey . . . is what Mr. Doyle calls a ‘target-rich environment.’” The room erupted with laughter.

Jamie Alstoba waited for the laughter to die down, and then asked, “Any questions?

“Now, since then they may have looted a few more houses, but mostly for the last three days they seemed fat and happy. It’s just party-hearty time. They were pretty deep into Bizhee’ holoni-beer and booze drinkin’-even in the daytime. So if we attack them drunks in the middle of the night, we might catch them in a deep sleep.”

In all, fifty-eight men and three women would be going to Dewey and Humboldt for the raid, and a hundred more were involved in gathering the requisite gear and ammunition and upgrading defenses in Prescott.