Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:48:55 +1300
From: Arthur <artcart65@vodafone.co.nz>
Subject: Elios chapter 1 book 2

				   ELIOS

				 CHAPTER 1

				  BOOK 2

				 BY ARTHUR



Notice: All of the rights to this continuation are subject to the same
rules and laws as all of the original story and remain the sole right of
the author, any copying of this story can be with the written permission of
the author only and can not be reproduced for any commercial reason or use.

This story contains sexual references concerning youths as well as language
and forms of abuse or weapons use, you read on at your own risk and no
thoughts or events can contained within the story can be used against the
author if you disagree with stories content.

All contact can be made at:

artcart65@vodafone.co.nz



Chapter 1:


They travelled through the darkness for hour upon hour, stopping only for a
quick meal and then starting off again, the kilometres passed under their
fast travelling wheels until, with weary bodies and tired blinking eyes,
they began to slow as the first rays of the morning sun rose slowly over
the far off flat horizon.

As had been planned the previous day, Elios had all the vehicles turn into
a circle until they were parked in a ring of protection around where they
hoped to be able to sleep and rest during the day, after setting a few of
the boys as guards for the tired drivers and navigators, everyone sat to
eat and drink, it had been a long and harrowing first night but the
distance travelled gave them hope that they had been able to outdistance
any Renegs that had a mind to track them and attack.

Around the circle camp, the land stretched endlessly in a flat white table
top, nothing moved in the white barrenness, even the winds were resting as
the sun rose higher, its brightness beginning to sparkle on the salt
crystals as the light got stronger and the days heat increased, it was
going to be a long and very hot day, the drivers and any other boys who
could help, pulled large canvas covers from the tucks and began to spread
them out to create enough shade for everyone to sleep under, the guards
would be rotated every hour by those boys that had been able to sleep as
the others drove through the night.

The sun was well past its highest point when the first of the drivers
opened his eyes, it was only moments later that Elios also awakened in the
intense heat, there was still no sign of a wind or even a light breeze, all
around the camp for as far as the eye could see was nothing but a vacant
white land, Elios looked up to the top of the vehicles and saw the four
guards still watching intently, their heads covered in loose cloths to keep
the worst of the heat off their heads, all of them had, as the others had
done, stripped off the ancients clothes and wore only their small
breechclouts to make it easier to keep cool.

After a full check of the camp, Elios began to organise the refuelling of
all the vehicles and to make plans for a big meal before they moved off
again as the sun sank towards night, it was going to be another long night
but at this stage they felt that the need for safety far outweighed the
dangers of night travel and the more distance they put between them and any
Renegs brave enough to try to follow them, was more important than comfort.

They continued to travel for another three nights before the ground began
to grow rough, they were nearing another range of low hills and the dangers
now inherent in night travel were becoming to much, Elios called a halt to
the travel early in the morning, he planned that they should rest well and
for the first time in five days, get a full nights sleep, if his
calculations were correct, they would be moving through the hills on the
next morning and were now no more than two days away from what he hoped was
their ultimate goal.

If Elios had followed the maps and his calculations were correct, the next
bunker should be just on the other side of the long low range of hills,
they should also be able to see the old ancient city of Salt Lake, or what
remained of it, once they had passed this next obstacle, according to his
old maps, there should be some form of roadway going through the hills but,
at this stage he could not see any indication of it, he thought about
waiting until the next morning to begin the search but, at the last moment,
decided to send out two jeeps, one in each direction, along the base of the
range of hills.

Elios called all the boys together and then set out his immediate plan,
each of the two jeeps would carry one driver and two guards, even though
the great stretch of barren salt flat showed no enemies, he was still not
going to take the chance on losing any of his friends or vehicles because
of carelessness, Elios sent the two vehicles off and joined the others as
they prepared to cook the morning meal.

They sat and waited for the return of the two jeeps, no one wanted to eat
until the six scouts had returned, to each and every boy it felt as though
they were being selfish to eat without the others and so, they waited
patiently for their return.

As the sun sank and the first long shadows of night began to settle around
them, they all heard the distant groan of the returning vehicles, one from
each side of the darkening camp, they all waited in anticipation as the two
jeeps drew closer, the food was heated and cold water was found for the
scouts to drink once they had arrived, the whole camp all of a sudden
became lighter and the chatter began to fill the silence, it was a good
feeling to know they were returning, hopefully all in one piece.

Finally the two jeeps lights could be seen close by, all the boys jumped to
their feet and called loudly as the two vehicles pulled to a halt close to
the circle, six very tired and weary boys looked at their friends around
the circle, the six boys looked like white ghosts as the salty dust settled
around them, their bodies were totally covered in the salt and only their
eyes, which had been covered by the tinted driving glasses, showed their
natural colour but their eyes were red and tired from the continual need to
watch for enemies and also to look ahead for the fabled road into the
hills.

It was the jeep that had gone north that brought the good news, after going
in and out of every small gully along the length of the hills, they had
eventually found what looked like the remnants of an ancient road about two
hours away, they had traversed it for a few kilometres before turning back
and had seen no rock slides or other barriers in their way, the camp
cheered the report and the boys that had found the way over the hills,
tomorrow would be an exciting day, they would finally get closer to their
ultimate goal.

The drive on the following morning was filled with anticipation, the mere
thought of being close to the next bunker had lifted the spirits of the
tired boys, this adventure had been the longest of them all and the boys
were at a stage of weariness that all long searches created. The scouts had
indeed found the start of the ancient road over the pass, although the old
seal of the road was broken and holes had appeared in its surface, the
convoy bumped and ground its way to the beginning of the first rise, above
them the road looked clear apart from the occasional small rock or pile of
stones.

Again, Elios sent one of the smaller and more mobile jeeps ahead of the
main convoy, slowly it whined its way upward, all the time it kept in
contact with Elios through their small com units, as they reached about
half way up the rise, Elios gave the order for the others to follow slowly,
every vehicle travelled slowly as the reports continued to come in from the
van guard jeep.

As they rose higher, Elios began to notice something strange about the
road, there had been obvious large slips along the road but they had been
cleared by somebody, not recently but also not long ago, at one stage he
called a halt so he could look closer at one of the slips, it had been
quite large and, had it not been cleared by the unknown hands, Elios and
his convoy would not have been able to pass.

Stepping from his Humvee along with Mita and two guard boys, Elios went
closer to the remains of the slip, to his amazement, he saw what appeared
to be marks similar to those made by one of his newly found tanks but it
was also apparent that whatever the vehicle had been, it had some sort of
attachment on it to push the rocks and detritus of the slip off to the side
of the road and over the drop, below he saw what he thought was the remains
of the rocks that had formed the road block.

These, to Elios, were obvious signs that someone else knew about the
ancients machines, he returned to his Humvee and they continued on upward
as he sat and thought about what he had seen, the chance of meeting people
who knew about all the technology that had been left was starting to give
him a sense of excitement, perhaps he would, at last, be able to know more
of the ancients.

By high sun they were all on the very top of the range of hills and looking
down at another wide expanse of salt plain, far in the distance he could
see, with the aid of his binoculars, the vague remnants of the fabled city
of Salt Lake, there appeared to be nothing much taller than an average one
or two story cave system, most of the area was nothing more than a pile of
rubble, only the sight of a strange symbol standing alone seemed to be
untouched, it looked as though it was made of two pieces of material, one,
the longest, stood upright, the second was fixed near the top making it a
cross, at this range, Elios could not make out what it was made of but it
was a symbol he had seen in some of the books far back at Home Bunker.

At a signal, the convoy began the long ride down the cleared roadway
towards what they hoped would be the next bunker. It was late in the
afternoon, much quicker than first thought, that the convoy turned a final
bend and saw before them the start of the salt flats, when they all had
reached the flat land, Elios called a halt even though there was still a
bit of time before the sun sank towards night, he felt it was a good time
to stop and rest, tomorrow would be spent looking for the entrance to the
bunker, they had to be close but now was a good time to rest and collect
their thoughts for the next stage.

In the early hours of the morning, just as the first rays of the sun were
touching the top of the range of hills, Elios was startled from his sleep
by a familiar sound, one that he thought was only made by his own people,
it was distant and echoed in the still morning air but he was sure he was
correct, the stirring of Mita beside him confirmed his first thought,
Mita's voice only went to reinforce his first thought.

"Did that wake you too?"

"Yes" Elios replied.

"I thought we were the only ones with weapons, who could it be, could it be
Renegs who have found out about the ancients?"

"I don't know, we'll have to go and investigate but we'll have to be very
careful, if it's the Renegs then we could be in real trouble, you better
get the guys up and ready, we'll have a light meal and then start forward
slowly, use one of the Humvee's first then the jeeps to follow, make sure
everyone is on full alert."

Mita nodded his head and began to go around the camp waking up everyone and
telling them what was happening, Elios continued to listen to the far off
shots, by the sound of them there were not a lot of people involved, the
shots were sporadic and spaced out as though someone was taking their time
to mark their targets but what concerned Elios the most was the evident
sound of replies, these shots were a little faster but still only from a
few weapons, this brought Elios to only one conclusion, someone was trying
to defend his position and others were trying to attack.

The next half hour was spent in eating a dry breakfast and readying their
weapons, each and every weapons was checked and the boys drew extra
ammunition from the truck, the vehicle weapons were cleaned of any dirt or
salt and rearmed, when all was ready, Elios Humvee took the lead and began
the journey towards the far off sounds, as they moved, Elios could not hear
any diminishing in the battle sounds.

Keeping their speed down to a slow crawl, the convoy made its way closer to
the sounds of battle, it took over an hour before they saw any signs, ahead
of them was a long flat strip of sealed land, it was made of the same black
covering as the road had been, down the centre of the flat strip appeared
to be faint remnants of a white painted line, far off at the very end of
the flat area was a new machine, one that Elios had never seen in any of
the other bunkers, even as far away as they were this machine looked to be
huge.

The sound of rapid shots pulled Elios head back towards the cliff face on
their left, answering shots came from the other side of the wide flat
place, it appeared that the two enemies were on each side of the sealed
divide, looking to his left at one of the protagonists, Elios could faintly
see what he thought were haws, or as he now knew from his reading practice,
horses, it was now obvious that they were Renegs and they were now armed
with the ancient technology as well, as Elios watched from a distance he
also saw that there were only about six of the Reneg that had the weapons,
immediately, Elios began to plan their own intrusion into the battle.

As they were still well out of range of the small battle going on below
them, Elios called all the drivers to him, he, along with Mita, then set
out their plan, first, the two Humvee's would circle to the far side of the
flat strip, the big trucks would remain where they were with a minimum
guard, the jeeps would stay close to the cliff face and make their way
slowly to where the defenders were hiding, the Humvee's would then attack
what was now obviously the Renegs, Mita would keep his distance and use his
large rifle to try and take out the gun users before the two Humvee's would
go in closer to either attack or scare off the others, Elios hoped that
with luck they would be able to finish off the Renegs altogether but that
remained to be seen, their use of ancient weapons worried him.

Just before they set off, Elios noticed that the sound of shots from the
defenders seemed to be less, there now appeared to be only two of them
still fighting, with little time to lose, Elios gave the order to move off,
when they reached the final flat area of the strip, they were still well
out of range of the smaller weapons of the Reneg, Elios stopped the Humvee
and watched as Mita jumped to the ground carrying his long rifle, within
seconds the rifle was out of its case and Mita was sighting along the round
tube towards the far off Renegs.

The first shot of the big rifle echoed out over the surrounding salt flat,
even above the sound of the smaller weapons being fired by the Renegs, its
booming noise filled the battle site and, as the sound of the first shot
faded into the distance, a second was sent on its way, the firing from the
far side of the long strip began to recede as the next four shots echoed
through the still air, the last one was the signal for Elios to start the
Humvee and race towards the far off attackers, he wanted to be among them
before they could recover and make to much resistance.

Mita had jumped on the second Humvee as it started to follow Elios mad dash
at the Renegs, the roof mounted quick firing gun was already in action as
they closed up on the few remaining Reneg as they tried to pick up the
fallen weapons and fire back at the vehicles, the speed of the Humvee's and
the heavy fire from their roof mounted guns was too much for the Renegs and
they began to run for their horses, even then, Elios and his boys were not
going to allow them even that luxury, with a fierce determination, they set
after the Renegs and, within a few minutes, all of them lay dead on the
glaring white salt, the horses had been so frightened that they bolted for
some far off place, after collecting the few weapons on the ground, Elios
turned the Vehicles towards the waiting defenders, he was just in time to
see the two jeeps closing with the place that held the people.

Elios piled on the speed and made his way towards the same destination as
the jeeps, within minutes they were parked not far from a mound of salt
that protected the defenders, Elios called a halt before they entered the
area, he wanted to make sure they knew that he and his friends were not a
threat to those waiting behind the small salt ridge.

Nothing moved as they sat and waited, after a short time there was a white
piece of cloth waving above the salt bank, Elios had no idea what it meant
but let his own curiosity take hold and so stepped from the Humvee without
his weapon, he then took four steps away from the vehicle and waited with
his hands held open and out from his body so they could see he was not
trying to trick them, this was the first time in a long time that Elios
felt really nervous and a little scared, he had no idea who or what awaited
for him behind the salt bank.

Elios watched as, slowly and with a lot of uncertainty, a small dark head
appeared above the salt bank, the person was holding a white cloth attached
to a stick of some sort, slowly, the person fully appeared, he looked to be
into his adulthood and was dressed in the ancient military clothes, he also
stood with his free hand out from his side so Elios could see he was not
carrying any weapons.

After a few minutes of silent inspection, both of them, as though on a
silent signal, moved towards each other until they were no more than a few
paces apart, the man looked to be in his twentieth years, he was tanned and
had a hard look about him that spoke of long training in the ways of the
ancients, behind the man, and still protected mostly by the sand bank,
Elios could see about six more heads moving to watch the two of them.

Elios decided to speak first.

"Hello, my names Elios, we thought you needed help from the Renegs."

The man took a long look at the small young teen before him, while he was
glad to see the boy, he doubted if the lad was really capable of any true
badness, even given the fact they had cleared out their attackers with an
ability of a trained warrior.

"My name is Captain Noel; I'm part of the Presidents protection party, what
are you doing way out here and where did you get those vehicles and arms
from?"

To Elios, the strange man sound almost angry that he had been saved by
people who were so young, if there was one thing Elios knew for sure, it
was that you never gave information to a stranger without having the chance
to see who you were dealing with, and who was this "President" the man
spoke of.

"What's a President?"

The man looked at Elios as though he was a very simple boy; the shocked
look on his face almost brought a smile to Elios lips.

"He's, well, he's the leader of the country, his Father was the leader
before him and his Fathers Father, they have always been the leader ever
since the horror, don't you know anything, every country has to have a
leader."

Elios thought about this deeply, how could one man be the leader of
everything, he was a leader only of this small group and if it was a major
decision then all the boys got together and talked about it until they had
all agreed, the idea of one man being the sole leader did not sit well on
his young shoulders, in this day and age how could one man do it all alone,
Elios decided to not ask any more questions about this, instead he went off
at another tangent.

"Are you here for the bunker supplies?"

"Yes but the codes don't work anymore, we only have a small amount of fuel
left for our vehicles and can't go very far, we're also nearly out of
ammunition for our weapons we were looking for a way in when those savages
attacked us, The bunker code was working two years ago, it must be a power
loss to the doors, why are you here boy?"

Elios didn't like being called "Boy" but he let it pass, he knew why their
codes didn't work but, with the man's attitude he wasn't about to tell him.

"We were travelling around trying to find a new place and heard the firing
so came to help, we come from over the hills, we can give you some fuel if
you need it, we have our trucks parked up the side further back."

The man looked at the young boy and shrugged his shoulders, it was plain
the boy and his friends were no threat to his charge but they did need
fuel, perhaps they could get enough to go on with their search to find a
bunker that the President could once again lead the country back to a
civilised state, at this stage they had very little to lose and much to
gain, it was obvious the boys were well protected and would not have been
easy to take as their other attackers had been, the Captain decided to
accept the offered help, if this bunker was no good to them, there was
always another one no more than four days away, that one he was sure would
bring results for his group, he had once been inside it and knew of a way
to get through the main doors without use of the code key, he had tried it
on this one but had failed.

Elios watched as the "Captain Noel" thought things over, finally the man
nodded his head in agreement and Elios spoke into his com unit to bring the
hidden trucks down onto the flat strip, Elios turned and went back to his
Humvee as the "Captain" returned to his own group to report the meeting.

An hour later and the trucks were all lined up outside the salt bank, the
fuel truck was of course the busiest, after filling all his own vehicles,
Elios had the boys start on filling the few vehicles of the "Presidents"
group, much to Elios surprise, the man called the "President" was a short
tubby man about middle years, he looked to be dressed in the best clothes
and was obviously better fed than the other men around him, he did very
little to help any of his people, it appeared he thought he was above
manual work, Elios disliked the man as soon as he saw him and this was
against his normal friendly nature.

Elios band of dusty and tired looking boys was held with a certain amount
of suspicion, even though they were willingly fuelling the vehicles of the
group and even offered them food to take with them, which of course was
accepted almost as though it was due to the small party, Elios thought
about returning the captured weapons to the group but changed his mind as
soon as he saw the "President" man, he felt they were doing enough for
these strange men who thought they owned the whole country.

Elios put the word "President" into the back of his mind, he would
investigate it at a later date to find out who the man was or what it
meant, for now he was just not impressed with the fat man or his group but
if helping them would get them away from his chosen bunker faster then
that's what he would do.

Elios watched the "President" man's vehicles being filled, his small convoy
consisted of three Humvee's and three large black people carriers, these
three vehicles had all their windows blacked out but Elios got the
impression of four people inside the cleanest and most polished one, this
was the vehicle that the "President" man got into and Elios had a quick
glance at two females inside, one older than the other, there was also, he
thought, a young boy but he was not sure, the other vehicles were all
driven and occupied by the men dressed in the military clothes.

Something in the back of Elios mind told him not to trust this man or the
men he had with him, Elios stood with Mita and the guard boys as they
watched the small convoy drive away in a cloud of salty dust, the group
stood and watched until the vehicles were well out of sight before Elios
turned towards the partially salt covered doors of the bunker he was
searching for.

Most of the loose salt and sand had been cleared by the "President" man's
people, Elios noticed they had tried to pry open the control box of the
doors but without success, Elios punched in the new code he had changed so
long ago for all of the bunkers at the home base, he heard a light clicking
noise from the doors but nothing happened, Elios pushed the green button
again, as he did, he noticed the small light in the button flicker and then
die altogether, even though they had lost a lot of information from the
ancients, Elios soon worked out that there was no power to the doors, he
would have to find one of the pipes that led inside and try to get the
power started again, it was going to be another long day.

It was close to sundown before they found the pipe they had searched for,
it was way above them near the top of the cliff face, after a long and hard
scramble, Elios and two boys managed to get to the opening, like all the
others it was covered with rusted wire mesh, Elios took out his small tool
kit and removed the cutters, a minute later and they were inside, their
torch lights thrusting their narrow beam of brightness down the long drop
to another wire mesh cover.

Elios tied the rope they had carried for just such an occasion, around his
waist and had the other two boys hold it tightly as they lowered him slowly
down the dark pipe, once his feet touched the wire mesh, he felt it give
under his weight then hold fast, still held mainly by the rope around his
waist, Elios carefully bent at the waist and began to cut the mesh while
calling out for the boys to be ready to hold him when the wire broke.

Again, it was only a few minutes work before the wire broke away under him
and left him dangling in the darkness, only his torch light giving him any
view of what was waiting for him, in the bright beam of the light he could
see below him the solid floor of a room, from the smell he deduced it was
either a fuel room of one of the generator rooms, he called for the boys to
lower him slowly again, when his feet touched the floor he looked around.

Like all other Bunkers, this room was enormous, it was also filled with
vehicles, all of which he had seen before in the supply bunker, now he knew
where he was, Elios released the rope and called for the two boys to go
back down and join the others waiting at the big doors, he began to make
his way down a long passage, hoping this bunker was the same configuration
as the others, if this were true then the main generator room was at least
two floors below him.

Elios traversed the passages as he made his way lower until, finally, he
was outside the door of the right room but now he had another problem, the
doors were obviously opened and closed by the same power he did not have,
this had not happened before so Elios was at a loss of what to do, finally
he took the only action he could think of and that was to sit down and
think it through.

Elios sat and thought it out, this was his strongest suit, don't rush in,
just sit and think about the problem, slowly it came to him, after nearly
an hour and, as his torch light started to dim from the long use, a spark
of an idea came to him, the ancients knew that if this sort of thing
happened, they would need another way inside, Elios stood and began to
inspect the faint letters on the outside of the door until, at last he saw
something that was familiar.

He could remember that the ancients always used red paint for anything
dangerous or for safety, to his left and about two feet away from the side
of the door, Elios could just make out in the dimming light the red paint
of two words, the first he did not know but the second one was easy to
read, "EMERGNECY LOCK" Elios reached for the long lever and pulled with all
his strength downward, it was very hard to pull until he braced both feet
on the wall and leant back with all his strength, slowly the lever
descended until Elios was almost lying on the floor but the lever was now
horizontal to the floor, the creaking and groaning from the door itself
also came to an end.

Elios stood and moved back to the door, it was now partially ajar and Elios
could see the large units that gave power to the bunker, going back through
his memories of other bunkers, Elios looked for the big control panels,
when he finally found them along the right side wall, Elios checked all the
dials he was able to read, it didn't take him long to find the problem of
no power, the four fuel gauges showed zero.

It was now getting harder to see by his torch light but Elios was
determined to find a way to open the main doors for his friends, going to
the first generator, Elios looked it over, while he was not as good as Elam
or Elvan, he did have his own sharp mind to work things out, Elios looked
over the generator, he knew it had to have a way for the fuel to get into
it, so it would need pipes to carry the fuel, Elios inspected the machine
closely until he worked out that there were only two pipes that could be
the right ones but, which one was the fuel line.

Elios looked at the two pipes in the dim light, he had very little time
left for his torch light to stay on, peering closer at the two pipes, Elios
saw one was a darker colour than the other, he had to choose one so he
picked the darker one and turned the metal tap that was attached close to
the machine, he thought he saw a small dribble of something run down the
pipe then stop, now he had to spend some of his valuable remaining light
time to work out why there was no more liquid, it was almost like a flash
of light in his mind, find the fuel tanks and see if they were open to the
pipe.

Elios knew the tanks would be close by so began his next search by
following the soft pipe along the floor and to the far wall where it
disappeared, Elios ran out of the room and down the passage until he came
to another door, this one was easily opened by a handle on the outside, he
pushed through and there he saw the huge tanks he recognised as fuel tanks,
going to each one he turned the metal tap and, in the last of the
flickering light from his torch, he ran back to the first machine and was
just in time to see the free flow of fuel into the machine, his next job
was to start the generator, this he had seen done before in home bunker so
knew what to do, going to the control panel he found the one marked with
the number 1, turned the small metal key and, with his eyes closed and hope
strong in his mind, Elios pushed down on the green button.

Hope began to rise as he heard the first slow whirring of the generator as
it tried to start, he had no idea how they started without power but he put
that thought aside as the generator picked up speed and, with a loud belch
and cough, fired into a dull roar, suddenly, as his torch light gave up the
last of its own power, the lights in the room flashed on brightly, filling
the generator room with brightness, almost above the loud sound of the
generator came a heavy sigh from Elios, he had no idea how long he had been
at his work but he felt drawn and tired, with slow footsteps, he made his
way back along the now lighted passage towards where he was sure the main
doors were.

Finally he found himself in the garage area and made his way to the now
familiar doors, everything around him was now brightly lit and his steps
echoed in the silence now that he was above and away from the generator
room, it was then Elios saw what had made the strange tracks up on the
mountain pass, parked facing the door was another large square looking
vehicle the like of which Elios had never seen.

It looked much like one of his newly discovered tanks but without the long
gun or heavy armour, this one was open so you could see all around it and
at the front was a huge curved piece of metal that was wider than the
machine and stood nearly as high as Elios was tall, at last he had an
answer to his question on the mountain pass, his inquisitive mind satisfied
for the moment, Elios punched the new code into the panel and the big doors
began to groan as they fought to open through the built up salt and
detritus of the long years of inactivity.

As the doors widened, Elios could hear the cheers from his friends, unknown
to him, they had begun to get worried for his safety as the time passed, it
turned out that Elios had been inside for more than three hours and it was
now dark outside, as the doors opened more, the vehicles were started up
and all their lights switched on, Elios was suddenly blinded by the strong
beams from the vehicles and stepped to the side out of the lights as the
first one started towards the opening doors, minutes later and all were
safely inside and the doors were again closing, although still with rough
grinding sounds as the built up grit crumbled under the pressure and
weight.

While the main garage was full of more vehicles, they just managed to find
enough space to park their own until at last they were all shut down and
the boys were piling out to find somewhere to sleep and rest, it had been a
long day of searching and waiting, they were all so tired they even forgot
about the late meal and just sank onto the floor and put their heads down,
there would be plenty of time in the morning to start their planned search
of the new bunker.

Elios and Mita opened their eyes to the sound of groans and mumbles as the
boys, who had spent the night in their sleeping bags on the cold hard floor
of the garage, tried to rise and work out the aches and pains of their hard
beds, normally these boys would be in the narrow beds of all bunkers but,
last night they had been to tired from the long day and had lay down where
they were, the hard floor was taking its payment on the stiff cold bodies.

Slowly the boys rose and began to look for something to eat, they had also
missed the evening meal and were now ravenous, with more grunts and groans
the garage slowly came to life and a little order was restored, not long
after the first groans were heard, the mouth watering smell of cooking food
could be sensed in the new bunker, it was not long before the sound of
eating spread around the room.

As the last of the food disappeared, Elios began to set the boys into small
squads for the internal search, he felt sure that they had found another
storage facility, this assumption was based on the number of large trucks
parked in the garage and the fact that only six Humvee and a couple of
jeeps were also here, he was happiest to see three large fuel trucks
instead of the single one they had found previously, he gave the word to
start the search as he headed off to where he hoped the office room was,
this had always been the best way to find what the bunker was for.

For over two hours, Elios searched the records of the bunker until he had
all the information that he could understand and gather, they were indeed
in a storage facility, this one was almost twice the size of the previous
one, there was enough food and equipment stored here to last the boys for
years, meanwhile, Mita had taken two of the boys that had been trained back
at Home Bunker as mechanics, down to the generator room, it took little
time for them to get all of the machines in working order, they also
checked the start up procedure for the generators, it was set so that as
one unit ran for twenty four hours, it then shut down and another would
automatically start, it would then also run for the same time frame and
then change to another, in this way, even if they had a break down they
would always have at least one generator working to supply the power
needed.

It was soon found that the store rooms were huge and completely stocked
with everything the boys were used to seeing, the armoury held all the
usual weapons and ammunition, now all Elios had to do was contact Home
Bunker and tell them of their discovery, Elios still had no idea how the
messages managed to get to the computers, only that the ancients used
something called "Satellites" but he had never seen one so didn't know what
they were, they must have been very high technology for them to still be
working after all the years that had passed since the Horror.

It was just another mystery of the ancients and Elios let it slip from his
mind as he started to tap out the message to all the bunkers that they had
arrived safely and what they had found, Elios then sat back and waited for
an answer, he had little else to do as the main search parties were under
Mita and would all report at the end of the day when they all sat down for
the evening meal, his main worry now was the armed Renegs.

His boys had collected all the weapons and kept them hidden from the
"President" man and, he was another worry, why did he think he owned all of
their world, it was too big to be run or owned by one man, this was a new
and confusing situation for Elios, he didn't want to put his boys in a
situation where they might have to fight two enemies, it was hard enough to
think about how to finally beat the Renegs and they had still not found
their main camp or heard of where it could be, what he needed were some
captives to question, the only time they had captured a Reneg had been when
they took the young one for information, Usof had made short work of him
and they now knew about one camp but Elios and the others were convinced
there was a bigger camp or at least a special gathering place for the
Reneg.

Elios though more about his plan to raid Lion Claw, the leader of the local
Home Bunker group of Reneg, now they had more supplies he would not need to
search for another bunker for a few more years, it was time to start to
plan to free his world of the hated Reneg, he also knew that the stream of
new boys pouring into the various Bunkers was still steady, the difficult
part was getting them trained in time to be able to defend their new way of
life.

The flashing light that told him of a message caught Elios eye as he sat
pondering over everything, quickly he read the reply and took in the
information it held, there numbers had increased by quite a lot since the
Renegs had been killed and dispersed, the new home cave boys found it
easier to get through to the bunkers and word had spread quickly about the
safe havens waiting for them, it was time to get ready to return to Home
Bunker, they would have to leave a light crew of boys here to defend the
new bunker and make arrangements for new arrivals from the other bunkers,
now they had their maps it was going to be faster to drive back and the
manning of the new bunkers could begin, there were now plenty of heavy
trucks to carry equipment and people to all of the bunkers, it would only
be a matter of time before they were strong enough to begin to hunt down
the hated Reneg.

At the evening meal all the boys reported their findings, Elios followed
their reports and checked with his computer plan of the bunker, it had
seven levels, the garage, living and admin rooms were all on the same
level, all other levels were taken up with storage except for the space put
aside for the generator and fuel supplies, it was a huge complex, Elios
then set about planning who would stay to defend the new bunker and who
would return to bring in more boys and build up the bunker to its full
compliment for defence and supply, it was an ideal staging area for any
further searches they may make in the future.

It was five days later when Elios, Mita and the guard boys turned their
vehicles towards Home Bunker, ahead of them was another long journey but
this time they did not take the heavier trucks with them, the small convoy
of two Humvee and two Jeeps was able to move faster than the larger convoy
they had come out with, Elios hoped that their extra speed would give them
some modicum of extra safety on the return journey.

His assumption turned out to be true as they only had to travel for four
days and nights, each driver changing at meal breaks and the other one
sleeping, apart from fuelling and meals, the vehicles hardly stopped, much
to their surprise they saw the valley of the first bunker coming at them
through the early morning light on the fourth day and all breathed a sigh
of relief, it had been a trouble free trip.

For the next four months, Elios, Mita, Elam, Elvan and Modou spent their
time in training the ever increasing influx of new boys, as the older boys
became more proficient in the skills they had selected, they were made up
into groups and either sent to other bunkers or allowed to become teachers
of new boys, slowly the bunker system became a hive of boys, most found
their own mates and this also enlarged the protectiveness of the bunkers as
each boy became aware of his mates value and, although there were those who
wanted to stay unattached, all knew what it meant to have a safe home and
what their responsibilities were to that home.

Modou was the best of the trainers for the guard forces, he knew the land
of the wastes and how to survive if under pressure, Elios spent a lot of
his time in the admin, learning all he could of the ancients way of battle,
how to best use the heavy armour weapons and vehicles, what to do when met
with bigger forces and how to set traps in the ground, for this he had ten
boys specially trained to work on hidden traps, these boys spent a lot of
time on the computer systems and reading the small manuals about weapons
and bombs.

The ten boys soon became very proficient in their chosen field although
many of the other boys that were caught out by harmless booby traps the ten
boys set to create a laugh for the rest, soon got tired and would then ask
to learn the same things so they could get their own back on the
perpetrators, Mita was in charge of the special sniper rifles and the boys
who were big enough to use them, again Modou came in useful for his in
depth knowledge of concealment out on the wastes.

At the end of the four months, Elios had his plans made for their first
venture into attacking the Renegs, at the top of his list was the leader,
Lion Claw, he knew approximately where his main base was and the number of
men he had with him, it was a good target to start out with for his
fledgling army, he was well aware of his overwhelming superiority of
equipment all that could be done was done to keep his boys safe during the
attack, he also built in an escape plan and defence if it was needed.

The day arrived when they would begin their attempt to take out the leader
Lion Claw, the convoy was, even in Elios mind, a case of overkill, all the
heavy tanks and other armoured vehicle were in the convoy along with ten
large trucks filled with armed boys, all of whom had selected their own
group leader. Each group had been given a job to do, some where to assist
in the direct attack, others were set out as defence guards for the
armoured vehicles, the boys assigned to traps would set up a defence line
around the heavy tanks and the boys trained with the long heavy sniper
rifles would be carried to their places by armed Humvee's along with four
guards to each boy, it remained now only for them to find the camp of Lion
Claw.

The answer to where the enemy was came in a most unexpected way, it was
something new that none of the boys had ever seen before and took most of a
full night for Elios to work out what he was seeing. He had, as usual, been
sitting at the computer in his admin office and trying to find the right
map for the area that he had been told was the place of Lion Claw's camp
when he noticed, not for the first time, that a small picture at the bottom
of the screen was flashing, every time he had gone looking for a map this
same picture would flash but he had ignored it as other things were on his
mind at the time, this time, however, he had little to do but the maps so
he looked closer at the small picture.

It was a strange symbol, it was silver in colour and shaped like a round
ball with four thin fingers poking out from the centre, Elios, ever
curious, clicked on the flashing picture, immediately his screen was filled
with one of the information windows which asked him, "Enter Activation Code
for C47 Satellite" Elios looked and pondered over the message, it was new
to him and he had no idea where he would find the code, finally he used his
brain and doing what he had done before when something new came up on the
screen, he clicked the right hand button on the small picture and a new
menu came up, among the short list was the one he was looking for,
"Act. Codes"

Elios followed his own intuition and clicked the line, his window reopened
with a list of names and asking for entry codes, he used the computer code
and the name of the long dead man in the box with the flashing black line,
almost instantly a long series of letters and numbers came up on the screen
with the words, "Activation Code C47" not knowing how to transfer the long
code, Elios sat and copied it out on a paper then, closing the other
windows, returned to the original window and carefully copied what he had
written onto the line in the screen, unknown to Elios inquisitive mind, he
had been at the task for over two hours but he was so absorbed by the new
information he ignored everything else around him.

As the last digit was typed into the small window, Elios screen changed,
from the flat map he had been working on he was now looking at a strange
and new map, this one showed a place he had never even dreamed of, it
almost felt as though he was high up in the sky and flying like a bird but
he wasn't sure where he was, staring at the unusual picture, Elios could do
nothing but marvel at what he was seeing, he had no idea where or what it
was but the view took his breath away, it was another of the ancients
miracles.

Slowly, Elios became aware of a flashing message at the bottom of the
screen, "Enter Search Location" this only went further to confuse Elios,
and he began his old way of working things out, ok, he knew what "Enter"
was, now "Search" that was to go out and look for things but, the new word
"Location" he didn't know, Elios sent the new window to the bottom of the
screen and opened up his school learning site, typing in the word
"Location" he waited while it was found and then smiled as he saw the
answer, ok, so "Location" meant a place, next, what place? Here Elios had
to think carefully, all this technology was from the time of the ancients
so they would have no understanding of the Renegs, so using Reneg was no
good.

Next he needed to din the area they were camping in, how did you do that on
the old maps, Elios checked the numbers that ran around the sides and
bottoms of the maps, the thin black square lines that went over all the old
maps began to make more sense to him, carefully, he used a ruler to run
along the lines until he though he was in the area of Lion Claw's camp, he
then looked to the side and worked out the line of numbers so that the
lines from top to bottom crossed over the lines from side to side, with
these numbers he typed into the small blank space after he reopened the
strange map.

Elios was mesmerised as he watched the new map start to move and change
until it settled in one place and the message flashed up, "Location Found"
Elios looked at it, there seemed to be little or nothing there although it
did look vaguely familiar in an upside down way, Elios sat and contemplated
what he was looking at, there had to be some way to see things better, the
ancients always had an answer for everything, all he had to do was find it.

"Ok", Elios though to himself, "If you want to see something better, you
have to get closer, how do I get closer on this map?" Elios began to look
at the bar on the top of the window, something here had to make it easier
to see small things, after a while he could still see nothing to make his
new map bigger, as a last resort and, just as his frustration was building,
he started to click on all the small square buttons on the top row above
his map.

Elios worked away quietly as one after another of the things he clicked on
proved to be no help, as each button was clicked he would then have to run
through each and every line on the small page that opened, it was slow and
time consuming but Elios had now gone into determination mode, this
computer was not going to beat him, he had been at this desk so long he had
no idea of time and, even when Mita arrived with food for him, Elios hardly
noticed, Mita felt no anger at Elios, he had seen his lover in this mood
many time before, he left the food on the desk beside Elios and quietly
left.

Elios worked on into the night, the plate beside his left hand was empty
and Elios had no idea how he had eaten or when, sometime in the early hours
of the morning and to Elios surprise, he heard a soft snoring sound coming
from the floor near the desk, glancing down he saw Mita curled up on one of
the small camping beds fast asleep, Elios also became aware of his aching
back, shoulders and right wrist, he also felt his butt was numb from
sitting for a long time, he looked at the screen with bleary, blood shot
eyes, his mind now almost numbed with the task he had set himself, he had
only two buttons left to go, with a long drawn out sigh he clicked on the
second to last button, it was a round circle that looked almost like glass
with a small handle coming out of the side.

Expecting to see another long list of things, Elios was pleasantly
surprised to see just two words on the small page that dropped down, "Max"
and below that "Min" Elios hovered the white arrow above the two words, the
word "Max" was the same name as a number of boys had but he was sure this
time it meant something different, the computer had been around long before
the boys were named so it couldn't be that, in his usual simple way, he
clicked on the top one first, as soon as he clicked on the "Max" button
another small window opened up on the top left of the map asking more
questions he did not understand, things like "Magnification %" "Resolution"
"Mode"

Elios sighed, now it was only his stubborn determination that kept him at
the screen, even the sound of Mita waking up could not pull him away from
this task, after thinking for a while and not even noticing the hot cup of
coffee put beside him by the ever thoughtful Mita, Elios clicked on
"Magnification %" this lead to another window with figures on it followed
by the % sign, Elios looked at the numbers, "Oh well ,start at the top and
work down." He thought to himself, Elios clicked on the number that said
25%, the result almost had him yelling out with happiness, the map on the
page moved in closer, he could now see a vague impression of mountains far
off on the map, for the next half an hour he slowly increased the % numbers
until he was looking at a swath of dessert, every track and mountain could
be seen clearly, at 200% he was sure he could even make out the marks of
one of his vehicles in the sand.

Elios sighed, he had cracked the problem but now he had to still find the
Reneg, he returned to the small menu page and went to "Resolution" not the
map became so clear it was as though he was standing outside looking at the
ground, he went back and decreased the % to 100 and saw a larger area but
still in great detail, next button was "Mode" this was a very short list,
it had only two words on it again, "Infra and NV" Elios knew what the NV
was for as they had used the glasses that could see in the dark but the new
one "Infra" was something he didn't know so he clicked on that one,
immediately the whole colour of the land was changed and gave off a
blackness but with red parts as well, it was only when he saw something
moving that he finally caught on, he was seeing a dog walking towards a
cave but it was all red and yellow, after a little more thought, Elios
finally decided he was seeing the temperature of the dog and not its body,
well not in the normal sense, now he began to understand what he had, he
could now find anything that had heat with this "Infra" item and, if it was
night time he could follow them the same as with the glasses but from way
up high where no one would look, at last he was done.

The smell of hot food and drink filled Elios nostrils as he leaned back,
every muscle in his body cried out for rest, even his butt had no more
feeling left but he was happy, he had cracked a new part of the ancient
technology, it had taken him longer than he ever though possible but was
well pleased with the result, after forcing himself to eat the food and sip
on the hot coffee, Elios rested his head on his hands to think what he
should now do.

When next Elios opened his eyes, he was in his own bed, his small body
still ached from the work he had been doing but he somehow felt as though
he had accomplished a very big operation, he had found a way to have a big
advantage over any enemy, next he would have to train the boys in admin to
work the new map system as well for when he wasn't there, with this new
way, they would not have to have guards out all night, instead they could
have one or two boys watching from the office and then warning the others
if anyone came for them, it would cut down on the number of boys having to
be outside and under a threat of night attack by the Renegs.

Elios stretched his still tired muscles and threw his legs over the side of
the bed only to be met by a hard hand on his chest, Mita pushed Elios back
down onto the bed, saying;

"Oh no you don't, after what you did, you're not going anywhere for the
rest of the day, now lay there and rest, I'll bring some food and drink for
you then I'm going to nail your butt to the bed."

"What? How long have I been here, I've got a lot to do, we have to set up
the new guard system, I can't stay in bed all day?"

"You can go and have a shower while I go and get you some food, you've been
out for a full day and most of the night and I need your butt so bad."

Elios could see that Mita was naked and his desire was very evident from
the rigidity of his manhood that stood out straight from his groin, Elios
almost felt his whole body blush as he looked at what was waiting for him
after food and a shower, he quickly scrambled from the bed and ran towards
the shower room, even his still tired body wanted what Mita was offering.

For the next two weeks, Elios spent time with four of his admin boys, by
the end of that time, they had all mastered the complexities of the new
revelation, now Elios and the other boys understood what the picture maps
told them, during night time hours they could watch over a large part of
their immediate lands as well as have one of the boys searching for any
infrared sings further out.

It was on the last day of their instructions and testing, that one of the
boys saw a large concentration of signatures in an area they had not been
to before, from the position of the red dots, it looked like a round camp,
using the now understood, "Zoom" button, the boy homed in on the new
signal, it was soon apparent that they had found a camp which held a larger
number of men than first thought that Lion Claw would have, the boy changed
the screen to NV and took another look, in this mode everything took on a
yellowish/green aspect but the men were easier to make out and could be
seen to be Renegs by their way of dress.

Elios watched over the boys shoulder as he went through the two modes, he
then took note of the map references and wrote them down, he now had a
place to look for their number one enemy.  Elios called for Mita and Modou
to join him, they were the ones that had the task of forming and training
the boys who would go on the attack, it was important that they saw how
many men Lion Claw truly had.

After both older boys had joined Elios in the admin office, they set about
looking over the records while Elios spent time on his maps, every
structure and rise in the ground was studied by Elios, he was looking for
any advantage for the attackers, next came the discussion on tactics and
positioning of the armour, it was plainly obvious that the whole camp would
have to be surrounded to stop any escapes but, to do this was going to
stretch their army of boys to their limits, it was Modou who came up with
something of an answer, they would have no option but to send out drivers
to all the other bunkers and bring back as many fast armed vehicles as they
could and still leave enough boys to protect the other bunkers.

This was the only solution the boys could see and so, the order was given
and the attack was put back for another two weeks while they waited for
more equipment, it was a relief that they now had a way to guard the
bunkers without having boys outside, it would mean they could seal the
bunker off and protect those on the inside without worrying about the
Renegs attacking another bunker while they were going after Lion Claw.

At last the time came when they could go ahead with the attack, Elios had
worked out all the time lines and the routes needed to bring those
travelling the furtherest distances, to arrive at the same time as those
going a more direct route, the encirclement of the camp had to be done
under the cover of darkness and the last few kilometres would be slower as
they could not take the chance on the sound of their many motors being
heard to early.

Every bunker was searched for the night vision glasses until almost every
boy had a pair or at least a hand held pair of night binoculars, the
longest wait was for the supply trucks from the newly discovered bunker,
with its larger size and bigger capacity, they held most of the extra
equipment the attackers needed but, they also kept to the time table set up
by the three leaders.

Elios had desperately wanted to go on the raid but was stopped by Mita,
Elios, he said, needed to stay and co-ordinate all of the factions, Modou
took charge of the land troops, Mita the long range snipers and Elvan came
to the rescue with the armour units, each knew the overall plan and had
also put in their own ideas, if everything went off well then they would
have the means to further defend or attack against their hated enemy.

Elios had spent many hours reading about the ancients tactics and ways of
using the armour and men on foot, it had taken a long time to work out most
of the language used by their military, it was almost a completely new
language to what he had taught himself from the computer, during his
readings he had come across the mention of "Aircraft" he thought back to
the strange large machine he had seen at the newest bunker and, after
looking at many picture of the ancient "Flying Machines" he now knew what
the unusual machine had been but the sheer size of it struck wonder into
the boy, how the ancients had ever got it into the air to fly like a bird
was beyond him, all he could do was take it for truth as he had with so
much of the ancients information.

Out on the sand flats of Home Bunker the attack vehicles were lined up in
their formations, there were now more than four hundred boys all armed and
ready to mount the trucks supplied for them, the six heavy tanks were lined
up together and would leave with the last convoy, they were being kept
together and would create what the ancients called "Artillery Units" and
would stay together for more effect, all of the longer range and faster
vehicles would go to the other side of the camp and use their fast firing
weapons to cause as much damage as they could before any squads of boys
would venture closer and take on the Renegs left after the heavy weapons
had reduced their numbers or caused panic, there was only one rule for this
attack, there would be no prisoners except for newly recruited boys that
were still young enough to change or any slaves that the Renegs held for
their own use.

Every kilometre of the ground had been covered with the new form of imaging
both at night and with the infrared, Reneg guard posts had been plotted and
even the places they kept their horses, the boys had no intention of
killing beasts that were not a threat to them, if all went well with the
attack then the boys would be able to start their hunt for more of dregs of
this worn world.

As the sun began its descent into night, the first of the convoys departed
for their positions, everything would be co-ordinated by the com units each
and every boy wore or had installed in their vehicles, if Elios had been
correct in his figures, they should be near the camp just after sundown on
the second day, for now they would travel under the cover of night and then
hide and rest during the day, each convoy had a target to reach before the
sun rose so they could stay hidden from any patrols of Reneges that may
venture out.

The first night went well and no convoys were detected by the Renegs, it
was almost as though the Renegs thought they were invincible and did not
worry about being attacked in their camp. The camp was made from and old
"City", it was surrounded by rubble that had been remade into crude high
thick walls with the shacks and tents of the Renegs in the inner circle of
protection, taller parts of the wall had been put up so guards could see
out over the limitless sand wastes but its one short coming was its
position.

While it looked well defended and would be almost impossible to attack with
the use of normal weapons, to the now well armed and armoured boys, it was
a sitting bird, the camp had been made not only in the centre of an old
city but was in a depression surrounded by low hills, it was on the hills
that the heavy tanks would stop and use for their attack along with the
APC's and Humvee's with roof mounted weapons.

The sniper boys would be a little closer but still under cover of the night
and the sands, with Modou's expertise at concealment in the sand wastes,
the sniper boys would be almost undetectable as they buried themselves into
the front side of the low hills, after the initial attack by the tanks, the
truck loads of boys along with the APC's and their crews and boys in the
back would charge down the hills from all directions, the Humvee's and
jeeps with their fast firing weapons would go with them to act as cover,
the plan was for all of the boys to attack at the same time from all
directions after the tanks had done their work, even with the large numbers
of Renegs in the big circular camp, the volume of fire should lessen the
risks.

Elios hoped with all his heart that he had been right in selecting this
plan of the ancients but he knew that even with their extra weapons
advantage, they were going to lose some of the boys but at least they now
had the chance to hit back at the same men who had terrorised the new boys
leaving the breeding caves each month, if they succeeded then there was a
way forward apart from just surviving until the next day under the threat
of enslavement or death by the Renegs.

The heavy tanks had been held back until all of the others were in position
as they made far more noise than the lighter vehicles that could quieten
down by going slower, it was Modou who saw their first problem, as he
looked through his night glasses he saw that the Renegs had positioned
small stone guard lookouts around the inner ring of wall, these had not
been picked up clearly by the overhead views, to this end he came up with a
small variation to the plan and talked to Elios about it on his com unit,
after the talk, Modou then sent out the new orders for the boys in the
trucks and APC's.

Those boys in the squads would now leave the trucks and make their way down
the side of the surrounding hills as quiet as they could and get as close
to the newly found guard positions without alerting them, when the heavy
tanks started to fire, the boys along with the snipers, would work to shut
down the small guard mounds while the tanks kept the main camp in disorder.

It was also decided that when the order to charge the camp came, only the
boys on foot near the newly discovered guard mounds and the armed vehicles
would go forward into the camp to mop up any Renegs left after the tanks
had been used, it also helped that there was only one roadway into the
camp, while it gave good defence for the Renegs, it also helped to keep
them in a place they could not escape from, the six tanks would sit astride
this one road to fire on the camp and the four squads sent to protect the
tanks would act as outer guards if any Renegs tried to get past the them
but the tanks being spread apart in a line across the road left very little
ground for any to get past unless they tried to clamber up the almost
vertical sides of the hills where the road had been cut through so long
ago.

Elios, Mita, Modou and Elvan checked that all was ready, it was now in the
very early hours of the morning and the camp below was almost totally
quiet, the cooking fires had now died down and were just flickers in the
darkness, even the moon was on the side of the boys as it hid behind a
thick blanket of evening clouds, Elios listened from his office as Modou
gave his one word of "Set" followed by Mita and then Elvan, they were all
ready for their first big battle with their hated enemies, Elios clicked
his own com unit onto Elvan's channel.

"Go now Elvan."




TBC

Artcart65@vodafone.co.nz