Delnorin eased up on the throttle of the motorcycle as he began to approach a slow and lazy corner in the road turning left ahead. The older 1984 Honda Magna didn't have off road capabilities but it did have a rather large fuel tank and a quieter exhaust system. Distance and stealth had been the main pressing issues from the outpost on his way towards the city and the older street bike had been quite reliable each time he'd been sent in this direction.
He felt nervous though each time, preferring to travel in the night on foot felt less as if he were a target. Night travel with the bike, or with any vehicle, was out of the question because of the headlights revealing his position. Still, to be safe he stopped every mile or so and got off the bike, climbed either a tree or to the top of a rise in the topography and surveyed the area with his binoculars before leap-frogging ahead another mile. Traveling alone had its advantages of stealth, but also a large disadvantage of having no back-up.
As Delnorin eased up on the throttle the old jerky speedometer needle eased down towards the zero and finally came to a rest on the peg inside the dial as he put his feet down to steady the bike and flip the kick-stand out with the heal of his left boot.
Flipping the kill switch with his right thumb, Delnorin stayed quiet on the motorcycle and watched and listened around him. The aluminum block of the V45 engine crackled occasionally as it cooled and then the radiator fan kicked on to cool the bike. Frustrated with the noisy bike, he flipped the kill-switch back off and then turned off the key and pulled it out of the ignition and pocketed it.
Swinging his leg up over the back of the bike he pulled his binoculars out of the left saddlebag and put them into an old gas-mask bag he wore on his hip for storage and then he pulled his Winchester lever action .30-.30 out of the holster on the side of the bike and surveyed his planned route to the left up onto the rise that concealed what lie beyond the curve in the road.
A faint wiff of smoke caught his senses and he paused a moment before glancing back the way he came on the road; towards known safety.
A steady long breath and then he left the old two lane roadway and started the slow and gradual stalk up the hillside as quiet as he could manage. A glance at his watch told him he was about an hour away from the Bunker and still another twenty minutes from where he would drop off the bike and resupply before going into the city.
On foot now, Delnorin stopped more frequently to look and listen. Mostly he knew that listening would be his greatest asset. Animals could move around right next to you and be nearly silent, other than those freakishly pesky squirrels that took delight in scampering about and chattering at you from the branches above. But it was signs like this that Delnorin listened for. Squirrels in the distance or Bluejays that would reveal the presence of other people in the area. The smell of smoke though is what weighed on Delnorin's mind currently for it came on the wind and the wind was in his face. Whatever was causing the smoke was on the other side of the rise.
It took a good ten minutes to get up to where Delnorin needed to get on hands and knees and start inching forward at the crest of the hill and where he both thanked having the military helmet on and at the same time cursed it for its shifting down in front of his eyes so often as it tilted forward. Pushing the helmet back on his head as far as he could with this gloved hand the chin-strap strained until he released the brim of the helmet and put his hand back down onto the ground. His left hand held the rifle as he knee, knee, right hand, knee, knee, right hand inched forward and the land on the other side of the rise gradually came into view before him.
Slipping down onto his belly, Delnorin held his rifle across his elbows and inched forward now on his elbows for the last few feet. Coming to a stop at the base of a large black spruce tree he eased into the thick bed of decaying needles and stayed close to the darker shadows the tree offered. Grasses in the field on the downward slope of the hill ahead gave him additional cover as he placed the rifle just within reach to his right side and without removing his eyes from the scene in front of him reached down into the gas-mask back to retrieve the binoculars.
An old farm house that had been abandoned for a few months now lay down the rise and across a large field on the other side of two barb-wire fence lines and a sparse tree-line that had been planted to break the wind for the crops that used to be grown in these fields. Raising the field glasses to his eyes he flipped the caps off and then slowly worked the focusing wheel to bring the scene ahead into clear view.
The old farm house no longer appeared to be vacant. A thin whisp of smoke rose up from the chimney of the two story old house and it quickly vanished upon the wind that was drifting right towards Delnorin. The range finder on the field glasses said it was about 1/4 of a mile from his position and he grimiced as he knew he'd be missing his two day deadline in getting back. Rather than risk being spotted on the road from the Bunker, he knew he would have to stash the bike and wait until night, taking that last 20 minute bike ride on foot in the dark would take a good two hours. He also knew that on the way back he'd have to be lugging a jug of fuel from the refueling location so that he could make it back to the Bunker without running dry. Such was the way of every mission; something always raised it's head to cause a smooth plan to get a little bumpy. In the larger scheme of things, he was just glad it was something so simple as a detour.
Searching the area further, Delnorin very gradually panned the field glasses and paused to wait for movement or anything that would reveal itself. It didn't take long before he spotted something move. A flip of a knob on the field glasses magnified the view considerably and they zoomed in much closer. He sure liked this military gear they acquired, so many more advantages than the civilian gear he'd had before the world decided to turn upside down.
A slight adjustment of the focus and Delnorin squinted just slightly to make out what he'd seen move. After a moment or two he spotted a small twitch again and this time could tell it was a boot. The small shed or garage behind the farm house had its sliding metal door pulled back about a foot and just inside the shadows of the dark interior of the garage Delnorin could see the toe and bottom of an old boot. He couldn't make out much more in the darkness of the garage but the movement again revealed that whomever was wearing the boot must be sitting on a chair or a crate or something. The heal of the boot was on the ground and the toe up in the air, shifting left and right just slightly out of bordeum. A sentry.
The dark interior of the garage concealed the sentry further but Delnorin surmised that the person wearing that boot likely had a long range rifle with a scope or binoculars at the least. It was a good position that offered cover and a view of most of the roadway on the other side of the house, it offered a view across the large open fields as well. If Delnorin was a gambling man he'd guess that the back side of the old house had another sentry looking back beyond the garage and behind the first sentry where he would be unable to see from his position. Two great positions with wide open views. To sneak past the old farm house would have to be done at night and that meant waiting a good six hours until after sunset.
Whatever vehicles they may have must be in the garage with the first sentry, a smart thing to put a guard on their vehicle and likely supplies. Many that had kept alive in the chaos had learned to stay mobile and flexible and ready to move on a moments notice. Fight or flight had become all too familiar in the lives of people these days.
Delnorin slipped the field glasses away and then eased back away from the rim of the hill and made his way back to the motorcycle. He was pretty confident that the quieter motorcycle would not have been heard but he needed to conceal it while he went onward on foot after dark. Pushing the bike off the road was always a pain, the thing weight easily over 400 pounds and it only had a ground clearance of about six inches. The trick was finding a clump of pine trees very near the road. Pines are thick with cover and by lifting a few branches you could wheel the bike in under their cover and half the concealment was already done for you.
Delnorin spent a good half an hour collecting branches and weeds in the area to cover the bike properly and then made his way back up the rise and then again on his belly to ease up into his previous position under the black spruce to pull out his field glasses again and observe the farm house.
Delnorin brought the farm house into focus again and watched in silence as the hours slipped on. Due to the distance he could not hear anything happening at the farm; and if his wife was accurate he was nearly deaf anyway. At one point a woman dressed in bluejeans and a black t-shirt exited the back door of the farm house and carried a cardboard box to the garage. The sliding metal door of the garage pulled open a bit further at her arrival and the sound of the rusty metal wheels on the track did manage to make it to Delnorin's ears, just barely.
A man inside the garage became visible in the increased light through the door and Delnorin could see a bearded man with a black hair pulled back in a small ponytail behind his head. The man could be seen leaning a scoped hunting rifle up against the inside of the metal door as he accepted the cardboard box from the woman. Thankfully the scope looked standard civilian issue, no night-vision ability. A pair of binoculars around the mans neck also looked standard civi issue. The two exchanged idle chit-chat for a while and seemed in good spirits. The man seemed to be speaking about the area as the woman looked about and across the fields as he mentioned things to her. It unnerved Delnorin a bit but she seemed relaxed and not edgey as she looked around and she never seemed to lay her eyes on his position under the large spruce tree.
The woman didn't stay long before she turned and went back into the house. The bearded sentry though was now visible as he sat down in his chair and held the box in his lap, pulling out a sandwhich and revealing what had been delivered was his lunch.
As the woman entered the back of the house a mutt of a dog sprung out of the house for some fresh air and went running back to the garage to greet the bearded sentry.
Dogs... Delnorin frowned. Their sense of smell and hearing was so accute that they nearly always foiled any attempt at stealth. If it wasn't for the wind direction and the significant distance he was at, Delnorin figured he'd soon have been found out now that the dog was out and about.
Rechecking the wind direction again, Delnorin breathed a bit easier and then kept watching the house. If they had a sentry at the garage and one upstairs and then the woman, he figured the group must be at least five or six strong. Twelve hour shifts on sentry duty were a fairly standard arrangement in small groups when they weren't traveling. Larger groups could manage shorter shifts and free up more time for other duties. A larger group though would have more vehicles and Delnorin figured that at best two trucks could be hidden in the small garage.
Delnorin smiled a bit to himself as he watched the farmhouse for more time. It was good to see people back this near the city. He wasn't sure if it revealed that the UN troops had withdrawn from the area and people were feeling more secure and willing to come back to places such as this... or if the people were just ignorant and forgot how to stay out of the grasp of the UN snatcher teams. Then again, they could be working for the UN and be spotters for the roadway and have been given their freedom in exchange for keeping the Blue-Hats informed about what was going on in the area.
This latter idea troubled Delnorin as time slipped on and he waited for for the sun to set in the West.
This last idea caused Delnorin to search the roof-line of the house a little closer. Studying the roof of the house at maximum magnification it took him a good ten minutes to stop at a point on the back of the house near the peak. He hadn't noticed it before because there was no mounting bracket. A hole had been drilled through the roof and the shingles could be seen where they were chipped and ripped away by the drill. It looked to be about a 3/4 inch hole drilled through the shingles and in the center of the hole was a tiny little reflection coming off the top of a metal ball.. or antenta top.
Delnorin found himself holding his breath and his jaw tightening as he thought about the situtation. It looked as if an arial antena has been set up in the attic of the house so that at specific times or needs it could be raised up through the rooftop for sending and receiving radio messages.
Still, Delnorin could not be positive that they worked for the UN snatchers. It could be possible that they were part of a group of people just scouting and trying to keep in touch with a home-base much like Delnorin does with the Bunker.
It was a crazy world these days. To hold onto the old rules, laws and morality of civilized life was sometimes a great burden. You just don't go gunning down people like they do in the apocolyptic movies. You don't know the entire stories and what's going on at first glance as they always seem to know on the big screen flicks coming out of Hollywood.
It only takes one time putting a slug in a man's chest and watching him bleed out before you determine deep in your heart that you will never do that again unless there is no choice in the matter.
Avoidance, has kept Delnorin alive this long and kept the tally of lives taken by him to a minimum all this time and his prudence and careful nature he prayed would keep him and those he cares for safe for a good while longer.
Still; he needed to know which side these group of people were on. The road was the most direct and safest road by far to travel in to town from the Bunker and all threats along it needed to be verified and dealt with appropriately. He would have to wait until after nightfall and after the dog had been brought back inside.
*Modified*: Added lines about scope and binocs not being night-vision.
