Chapter 90 The Tail of the Tale and the Ambush
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"Major! Major, come quick! I see something coming down the road! I can't make out what precisely, but something is on its way!"
Hunter awakens and through sleepy eyes looks up to the young troop who excitedly is yelling in front of his tent: "Come, Major! Have a look!"
Hunter supposes the mercenaries probably would return along this road and turn in to one of the farms to their hide-out. Maybe a little further on but not too far. It seems to him that they haven't turned in out of sight. Earlier, he discussed his suspicion with Colonel Morrison and he gave him three troops to function as sentries on this strategic hill. He feels a bit worried about Robert and Kennedy alone on the smallholding, but this is too good an opportunity to waste.
Slowly he rises and follows the troop to the chair they use as sentry point and takes the binoculars.
"There Major!" The troop unnecessarily points down the road because it is the only way they can approach. The dots are now somewhat nearer and should be recognizable through the long-range binoculars.
Hunter focuses the binoculars and then he sees something very familiar. They are now near enough and he identifies three black Ranger cabs. He watches them intently.
Curiously the troop wants to know: "Does it look like them, Major?"
"Yep! But they are only three. I expected more. In town they arrived with six cabs. I suspect that they for such an important mission would have used the same force when you take into account that they suspected resistance. Very interesting! I wonder what happened on that smallholding and what happened to Captain Dexter and his men. Good work, Troop. Go and chase the men out of their tents and get mine too. Get the cab ready in the meantime so that we can move as quickly as possible. I shall watch them in the meantime and if we are lucky and they turn in to a farm gate, we then also discover their hide-out even before we depart here."
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Dexter can't believe his luck. Everything seemed totally lost and look now! Here they now are on a farm and ready for an ambush. Their pilot saw the camouflaged guy with the RPG 7 just in time to jump out before the projectile demolished the aircraft. He lived another day to pilot a helicopter again.
Dexter and two of his men were still standing in front of the 666 wall waiting for it to slide open when he heard the explosion outside. Chaos erupted. His snipers on the roof informed of the events outside. The man who came in from the bushes with a Scrambler, some or other way under the noses of the snipers, shot down the helicopter and then chased away at high speed while the snipers without success tried to hit him. He was the only attacker, nobody else in sight. And his timing was perfect. Just when the 666 wall was supposed to open, he zipped in, shot down the Puma, and was gone.
Dexter's priority at that stage still was the ten people that he should take back to the Eastwood Estate and they still waited inside. The wall didn't open on time, only ten minutes later. When it eventually slid open, they encountered a horde of growling monsters attacking them. Luckily they were ready and able and had enough ammunition to kill them all. They then advanced through a tunnel to the adjoining farm. There they found the carrier parked in the entrance put down by the mercenaries with a mobile crane after they had evacuated the ten people through that same tunnel.
Eventually, they had to admit that they were bamboozled by the mysterious group, probably the mercenaries. They didn't even know whether the group that they had to take back to the farm, was in cahoots with the mercenaries. Frustrated Dexter tried to fit the pieces of the puzzle and learned how they were fooled even with thorough preparation by the colonel for every possibility.
Before they departed to Port Elizabeth, Morrison coached Dexter about the tunnel. Morrison previously sent a team of operational soldiers through the 666 wall opening and they reached the neighboring smallholding via the same tunnel. Dexter with his best men went to the smallholding to investigate. It was desolate. Only a small building standing alone was the entrance to the tunnel. They followed the tunnel from there and were halted by a solid brick wall. They turned back and secured the door with a sturdy lock. He can now kick himself for not putting a sentry there who could inform them by radio if someone arrived there.
How and by whom the door was manipulated they didn't know. They only knew they were taken for idiots. He also now realized why the time the door should open was so important. The whole thing was planned meticulously and those ten people are important enough to take them away from Morrison's protection.
Luckily when they studied maps of the vicinity, Morrison pointed out that the smallholding is near the Eastern Province army camp and the air force hangars of Forest Hill. Dexter and his men immediately went to the camp and with a kombi, they found there drove to the air force hangars. They couldn't believe their luck when they to found a Puma filled up with fuel and the next morning they flew along the road. He was convinced that they would be late but they were lucky.
They found a group of monsters at the roadblock. It looked as if they were getting vehicles back on the road that had been removed by someone. Dexter summed up the picture quickly for he saw a bulldozer at the far end holding a chain with sharp objects fastened to it in the air while people were pushing the vehicles back on the road. Through his binoculars, he studied the people and could see they were far from normal. They had cloths wrapped around their heads and walked oddly and held their heads down as to avoid direct sunlight and their clothes were dirty, bloody, and shabby.
Dexter realized they were cannibals who were trying to block the road. The chain that was hoisted by the bulldozer was probably meant to avoid damage to the vehicles' tires. The picture made all the more sense. Someone must have gone through their barrage with the bulldozer. The bulldozer then held the chain in the air so that the rest could pass without damage. He was now convinced it was the group that had fooled them and that they have passed the barrage already.
He orders the pilot to fly over the encircling woods and he sees hundreds of monsters hiding around the barrage who only peeks at the Puma.
Dexter screamed at the pilot that the fuckers had gone through the blockage but not long ago. Maybe one day, ago because the monsters were trying to repair the blockage. He ordered the pilot to fly along the road in case the mercenaries had some trouble and stopped along the road.
The pilot screamed back that if they encountered some damage with their vehicles while crossing the blockade, they could have turned into a farm road to a farm to sleep over while the damage is being repaired.
This sounded feasible and they decided to investigate this option before they return to the national road. They followed the first turn-off and discovered a farmhouse. Two Ranger cabs were parked alongside the house. They landed and sneaked up to the farmhouse just to find it empty. The owners of the cabs were nowhere to be seen and their tracks indicated that 8 pairs of boots walked in the direction of the woods and gorges. The farm is situated on an open prairie and from there you could see the dense woods and gorges. Why they were going in that direction remained a mystery.
Dexter decided to hide the Puma behind a barn and they occupied the house with two sentries looking out who will warn them via radio when the people return. Dexter and his men leisurely stayed while they wait for the enemy to return. The farmhouse even has fridges working on solar power and they are filled with meat and also there is a storeroom filled to the brink with groceries.
They are now relaxed and living like kings. The ambush is ready and for once Dexter is playing the tune.
