Dark Sky

19 - Into The Shadows

Chapter Nineteen

1 Week After the Bombs

Travis studied a map of the county that was laid across a wooden table in front of a window. He needed what little daylight they got now to view the map clearly.

Two red lines had been drawn across the page separating the county into 3 separate areas, North, Central and South. They were not just random lines, they were the result of several scouting missions he had sent his men on and represented the areas of destruction.

The north of the county had the least destruction and did indeed home survivors, where as the central region was almost completely destroyed. Survivors were possible but unlikely. The southern area was guesswork. There was no way of reaching this area in a short period of time, but judging by the increased destruction the further south they went this area was completely wiped out. Nothing surviving.

This information would have been impossible to obtain had it have not been for the arrival of the stranger three days ago that had shown Travis that cars had survived the war. They were old cars with no electronics, but they worked and had made his town mobile again. He had a fleet of them now having sent people out to find them in neighbouring towns and using them to survey the surrounding areas.

Now he had a good idea what was out there and had even taken in other survivors along the way. He had quite a large following now and the task ahead would be to keep everyone fed. In only a week he had become the leader of many, which is why he need the intel of the surrounding areas.

There were hundreds of towns and villages out there that were void of life with supplies just sitting there waiting to be found. Supplies that would keep his town alive.

"We need to set up regular convoys out to these places," Travis told Jeb pointing to various points on the map. "We need to secure all the resources we can find before others do."

"We gonna need to keep the vehicles in fuel too." Jeb stated surveying the map too.

Travis pointed to the higher red line he had drawn on the map. "Filling stations north of here should still be intact. We just have to figure out a way of getting the fuel out."

"Some kind of hand pump should do it," Jeb thought out loud.

"I'll leave that for you to figure out," Travis assigned the job to him, "and don't take too much time, that fuel belongs to us."

Although Travis pitied anyone that got in his way, he wasn't ready for a war just yet. He needed to supply up and acquire weapons, then he intended to take the county as his own. Any survivors he met along the way would either accept him as their leader or suffer the consequences.

Dinford was already his and he had ordered some of the older generation to start building barricades around the village. It would be a slow process but he needed the more able bodied people to go on the supply runs. He himself planned to see if any of the local gun shops were still standing.

"You know Travis, there's an army base here." Jeb informed him pointing to an area in the lower part of the central region of the map. "It's unlikely to have any survivors, but should have all the weapons we need."

"That's a very good plan," Travis commented scratching his chin at the thought. "But we'll need basic weapons from the gun shops just incase anyone remains there."

Travis was feeling triumphant, his plan was coming together quicker than he could have imagined and soon he would have military grade weapons. Then he would be unstoppable.

As he studied the map some more, Jeb reminded him of another issue.

"What are we going to do with the prisoner?"