Monday, February 25, 2008

Last Roundup (fanfic) by Shadow

The Visitors had been clearing out the towns surrounding Los Angeles and if the resistance didn’t stop it, there wouldn’t be enough people to recruit to fight. With Ham Tyler's and his associate Chris Faber's help, the L. A. Branch had begun trying to arm, train, and organize the local people to try to fight off the round ups, but there were so many towns and they weren't always able to get to them in time.

Through Mike Donovan's contact in the Visitor Fifth Column, Martin, they1d received intelligence of another sweep & this time they intended to spring a bear trap on the Visitors that would make an impression on them. They were also going to have to move camp again, having learned early on the danger of staying in one place too long and they chose one of the recently deserted towns. Tyler and Chris walked slowly down the deserted street, peering between the empty houses which stood like mausoleums in a cemetery, firearms slung over their shoulders with the safety's off in case they needed to cover a retreat. It was as dead as an old west ghost town. Chris stopped and looked at his partner, "Well, what do you think?" Tyler, his face as expressionless as stone, nodded "It'll do. Let's check out the cemetery just to make sure." Chris nodded and they continued their way silently.

At the cemetery entrance, Tyler signaled a split and Chris headed to the left while he took the fight path. He was heading up the incline of a hill when he picked up the unmistakable smelt of decaying flesh and stopped, frowning. That wasn't right, these people were six feet down and even if someone had been recently buried, there shouldn't be any smell. He grimaced and exhaled sharply, then continued to follow the scent until it got stronger and then he froze, his face becoming granite. Two bodies lay side by side, barely covered by clumps of earth, as if someone hadn't been able to do more than break the ground up or just didn't take the time to real1y dig. What got to Ham was the child, a girl judging by the long, matted, raven colored hair, lying between them uncovered, as though she didn't matter. His jaw clenched and a vein in his neck began to throb, the only sign that the sight even affected him at all. He pulled his radio from his belt and barked into it, "Chris! Get over here." "I'm on my way" the voice crackled back. Before too long Chris was making his way at a run toward Tyler with his shotgun ready, but stopped dead, any words he might have been about to utter died in his throat when he caught sight of the tableau. "Oh, hell" and he looked down shaking his head. "Town's been empty for weeks and lizards don't bury the humans they kill." Tyler stated flatly, looking warily around. "No, but we do." Chris said and with that walked over to pick up a shovel laying next to the graves. He reached down to pick up the body, but as soon as his finger touched it the body jerked and snapped into a sitting position. Tyler did likewise and one hand went instinctively for the Uzi he carried as his heart seized up for a beat. Chris, who'd just picked up the shovel, dropped it again in that second and unslung his shotgun, but didn't bring it up. His mouth dropped open in astonishment, then quickly snapped shut again. "Welt, I guess that answers the question of who buried them." Ham had begun to breathe again as he looked down into the wide, terrified, brown eyes which darted from one man to the other and back again. Ham squatted down on his haunches and ducked his
head to look her in the eyes as he asked, uWhat's your name?" She simply stared at him, breathing hard. Then he reached out to her, but she shrank back. "How about we bury your folks for you?" he asked. She looked at the outstretched hand, then down at the poorly done graves and swallowed hard, then looked at his face. She reached for the hand and he helped her up, then led her aside. Draping his leather jacket over her shoulders he took off to find another shovel. She wrapped it tighter to herself and inhaled feeting safer than she had since the attack on the town.

***

It was early evening when they returned to camp and went in search of Donovan or Julie to report the location. Ham found them in the "war room" pouring over a map. Two pairs of blue eyes looked up expectantly at his approach and Mike snapped irritably, "You're late. We're doing this job tomorrow night and we need to relocate tonight." Julie laid a hand on his arm, "Mike." Then she turned and looked up at Tyler and asked hopefully, "Is this place going to work for us?" Tyler nodded to her,"Yeah. It's far enough from the other towns that the Visitors shouldn't pick up on the fact too soon that we're there, but not so far that we can't make a quick getaway." Turning to Donovan he shot back, "We were on burial detail" "What'd you do? Bury that old jacket?" Mike couldn't resist a swipe, even if it did sound childish. Tyler gave him a smile that would've frozen a lake, "I was thinking of getting a new one anyway, maybe something in 'gator Your friend Martin looked about my size." Donovan lurched at him, but was stopped. Julie was getting tired of the boys-on-the-playground routine "Enough!" she snapped, "We've got a lot to do and we don't have time for this!" and she led them out of the room.

***

Part of the group, led by Elias Taylor and Chris under Julie's direction, passed out arms and the Teflon ammunition to the residents and took up positions inside the homes while others hid themselves in the shadows between the houses. Julie, Donovan, and Tyler set up with the other half outside the town where the Visitors would be landing. “Elias? Chris? Is everyone in place?" Julie called over her radio. "Ready to rock an' roll doc." Elias's voice came back from one end of town. Chris came back to her from the other end, "We're all set here. The lizards are in for one hell of a surprise." "Good. Remember, wait 'tit all troops are completely in and they begin storming the buildings. Julie out." Tyler called to the fighters around them, “Any make it back to the ships, we hit em when they close the doors and not a moment before." "I just hope we don't loose too many people, theirs or ours, in this." Julie couldn't help feeling a little sick at the thought.

As they had been doing, the ships came in the middle of the night and the moment they landed, shock troops quietly poured out of them and headed into the town like a flood. As they surged into the darkened houses to drag the people out and load them into the transports, they were met with gunfire that ripped them apart and those that ducked between the houses to fire back from cover were likewise met. The survivors retreated to the vehicles and as the hatches began to close and the engines screamed to life, they became bonfires as rocket launchers fired rockets into them. One lone transport made it away. People poured out of the hoses cheering and townspeople and resistance fighters alike gathered the few injured to be taken to the new camp to be treated. The fighters gathered themselves and made to head toward the new camp.

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