Recon.

“Kylie, Tom is worried about the whereabouts of Gina’s ex. We haven’t found him. Sure, he could be lying in a ditch somewhere, but what if he made contact with outsiders? Provided them with details about our setup here? Or has been talking to Russians? Or a self-proclaimed warrior clan?”

“I know, Alex. We have the same problem with Elfie’s father. If he thinks she’s gone or dead, he will have gone off the rails, bent on **** against anyone who he thinks is responsible. Or he’ll just become insane.”

“I have talked to Ella, about extra security measures, like primitive watch towers, using the binoculars of the sightseeing locations. Variating patrol patterns, secluded guard spots, etcetera. But we need to upgrade our scouting missions, and go beyond our bordering regions. Concentric circles in which we place extra rotating guards with radios...”

“Always more work... When will we be truly safe?”

“I doubt we ever will truly safe. That’s why I keep hammering on militarization of the villagers. Set up a true clan structure, incorporate the ones we deem too weak to defend themselves and train them to set out in neighboring areas. So we can gradually expand our sphere of influence and protection for all of us.”

“A NATO-pact?”

“Hmm... More like a Black Forest pact. Not that much interested in the rest of the world.”

“For now...”

“Perhaps new threats will emerge. After the Russians we still have the Arab countries and their continued need to subjugate women. If they notice Europe has an abundance of them... They could send out slaver ships. They have energy resources enough and aren’t shy of using ****. They have done it more than once in history. The most recent example is the enslavement of Yezidi women and girls in ISIS-territory. They captured them, killed all the men, divided the women in old, young, beautiful and ugly, with kids or not, and simply sold them... to do whatever they wanted with them.”

“But if they land and see all the women armed and ready to counter-strike, fierce and protective as we are...”

“They might think twice to try.”

“We can’t protect them all, Alex.”

“I know, but we should prepare anyway. Perhaps our community could be an example for others to follow.”

“Amazon warriors...”

“Call it what you want, we need everyone to be able to kill when needed, without mercy for those trying to conquer fertile land or women, men and children. And they need to be able to train others.”

“Alex, we haven’t even started with generating electricity for ourselves, and you are thinking about nation building.”

“One step at the time, I know, Kylie. But we’ll get there.”

“Right then, more scouting, more directions, more ground to cover. I’ll get on it.”

“Thank you, Kylie.”

“Tom, is your sniper ready?”

“Lisa is ready, yes, an excellent shot if I may say so, but please, don’t get her killed on her first mission.”

“Hmm... you could always go with us?”

“Oh... No... She has absolutely not the faintest idea how to differentiate between being my lover and being under command. Perhaps with you she will learn it.”

“I doubt it, I have Elfie and Ella with me... If Lisa is somewhat in awe for me, the so-called commander, it will soon fade away...”

“Crap... Well, good luck.”

“Quiet, Elfie, this is serious business.” Ella whispered. “He’s the battle commander now, you don’t want to fuck it up.”

“He is just Alex...”

“No, he’s the Commander now. There’s a real difference.”

“Quiet, you two.” I ordered with a stern voice and look.

“See what I mean?”

“Okay, Lisa, what do you have?” I asked her.

“Is it because of me, but I could have sworn I saw movement in those houses too.”

“Hmm... So our scouts went to Seewald, saw it void of food and life. The same with the village south of it. Kylie’s scouts expanded further east, but nothing to see in Hochdorf, Grömbach and Wörnersberg. But the odd thing of the last two was, that there were no bodies. So intel suggests either they collectively moved east, or they were buried by a friendly neighbor, or they were **** to go to this little city of Altensteig. Lots of good farmland around, as far as it wasn’t radiated. Lots of solar paneled roofs, even on farms. A river almost surrounding the city, the Nagold, with bridges blown up. Built upon a hill. Plenty of food sources in the area...”

“I’m not too happy about this, Alex. It has natural defenses, cities to the east are bigger and thus a target rich environment for the Russians. This one might have escaped their attention. Which means...”

“Yes, Ella, we might be looking at our first city-state of the new dark age, plundering and expanding more and more to the west. But we need to find out more about their intentions. It could be they persuaded their neighbors to go here, providing them food out of stockpiles in the city.”

“Sir, it might be I am pessimistic, but only a few would do that out of the goodness of their hearts.” Lisa whispered.

“Better to be pessimistic, Lisa. Right, Ella, Lisa, we need a prisoner. Preferably one we can carry around for a while. Assume they are hostile. I know, it is a brutal approach, but we live in a brutal world now. For now, look a bit around, check for signs of organization. If you think it is feudal based, go for the lowest on the ladder. If you see ****, don’t interfere. We need intel first, second and last. If there are no signs of that whatsoever and everyone is smiling all around, we’ll figure out a new approach. Elfie, you run back to our nearest checkpoint, leave a coded message and come back to the halfway point. Lisa, you go north of the city, Ella, you’ll have to cross the river and go south. I’ll stay here.”

“Of course I am the one getting wet...”

“Ella, finally you’re back...”

“You swim across an ice cold river twice next time... my nipples are hurting...”

“Report, Ella.”

She sighed. “Not happy at all, Alex. **** based system. Men with guns ordering women. Hitting them. I heard women screaming. Working on the fields, full of radiation poison. Working in the greenhouses. Slavers living in the solar paneled houses, everyone else in poorly isolated housing.”

I sighed as well. Lisa had given me the same report. She almost shot a guy. “Fuck, and Kylie says I am too forward thinking... these fuckers built a **** city state. There must have been an arsenal here. It is fairly close to the old frontline, before they all moved south. Let’s hope they aren’t soldiers.”

“None in uniform, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Any military training going on?”

“Nope, no shots heard, no signs of practice fields, no advanced weaponry, no trucks seen. Just a lot of solar panels. The men ride on bicycles. All armed. Moving around a lot, if you ask me. No patrols, no guards, but Alex, there are more than a hundred men here...”

“And if they venture out... to the west... We’re fucked if we don’t prepare. They keep continuous guard of their slaves?”

“Oh yes... We would have to shoot one or two first, before we can liberate a small group.”

“And we can’t do that yet. We can’t face a hundred men all at once. If they had IFV’s we could kill them on the road... but on bicycles, or on foot?”

“If they haven’t got guards, patrols, they feel too safe... They are over-confident. After all, they just are used to minimal resistance.”

“Hmm... If they were informed by Gina’s ex, if he is here, at least, then he would be able to report we have at least one section, fully armed and were able to defeat an entire platoon of heavily armed Russians... If that is the case, they could be scared or...”

“Waiting for an opportunity...” Ella said.

“Or waiting for a good enough reason to engage.”

“We could pester them.”

“Yes, Ella, women are very good at pestering men... I noticed.” I smiled. “Yet, they shouldn’t lock themselves in out of fear. If we pester them too much, use shock and awe, they would go into reinforcement. We don’t have the high ground here, and going from house to house... It’s not one of our strong points.”

“So pester them enough to get them to want to catch the naughty women... At which point we spring the real trap...”

“We need to get them out the city. In full ****. Yet spread around enough. So we can eat them bit by bit.”

“Like in The Last Samurai... but without that stupid charge at the end.”

“Yes, Ella.”

“I have an idea.”

“What a coincidence, Ella, I have too.”