Under the cover of darkness, two boys stealthily guide their vehicles with small trailers in tow, southeast along the back roads of central North America. To avoid being noticed by the WO the boys only travel at night and sleep during the day. They travel without the advantage of headlights, GPS, or autopilot, all of which Black strips from every LND vehicle to help conceal their movements from the WO. The passengers fidget, but ride silently so as not to be a distraction as their drivers carefully guide their vehicles along the gray path projected on the large night vision image their light enhancement equipment generates on the windshield. The projectors are not perfect but if the boys do not go too fast, it is safe-ish. They also have good maps and a portable GPS with a scramble signal they will use in the morning to check their position and progress. Even with this help, it is easy to get lost while trying to hide from the WO. For now, their job is to stay alert for shadowy clues picked up by the night vision.
Two nights ago, they made it through the mountain pass and last night they drove through the nerve-wracking emptiness of the open areas along the east side of the Rockies. Now they are winding their way through the forested low foothills on the last leg of their first trip to the WO's recycle yard. They see no indication the WO has detected their presence and they all resolutely believe they will soon be on their way home with all the vehicle modules their trailers can hold.
They are retracing the trip the older LND men took in May because that trip was spectacularly unsuccessful. A roving security auto bot turned in an alarm when it stumbled upon a raider and that interruption cut the first raid short. Their fathers and uncles expected to get enough modules to keep them until next year, but once the security bot interrupted them, they felt lucky to just get out of the yard and not be detained.
Then Chad's power module went out. There was not time to get power modules, which left Chad hitching rides from Al until a spring raid could be planed. Then Bili's torque converter started acting up and eventually failed. The young men are hard on their vehicles and their modules do not last like those in the vehicles the older generations drive. When the kids suggest another raid before the winter snow closes the pass, the men of the community tell the young raider want-to-bees "...the modules taken in the first raid will just have to been enough," and they would have been if the kids would just be a little easier on their vehicles. "You will just have to wait until next spring," their leader informs them.
When the boys realize they all might end up stuck without transportation, as Chad and Bili are, they get together, and make plans to do what their elders are unwilling to do. The six, young LNDs, decide to make a trip to the recycle yard now, before snow closes the northern mountain passes for the winter and more of them are stuck without transportation until spring, begging rides or worse yet, walking.
When Chad suggests to his dad that they could go without the OK from the council he is told, "In no uncertain terms are you to be any part of going against our leader's decision." They argue about the trip the night before Chad and his fellow raiders' sneak off. None of the young raiders has permission. They are on their own.
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At twenty-eight, Al is the oldest in the party. He has been on three raids and is the one leading the raid. No one else has been on more than one. Joey, the youngest at seventeen, has never been east of the big mountains.
They are eager to show their elders how successful they can be but they do not dare take the van to carry off their takings. There is only one van in the community. The elders would never forgive them if anything happened to it. They are not going to take a chance at depriving their community of the only delivery van they have. They will be in enough trouble for going on this raid against the will of the elders; no matter how successful they are, even if they can pull it off just using their own vehicles.
