Survivors

According to Jack the people at the HFS had been able to track the attacks and the various Alien troop movements that followed. Apparently there was a discernible pattern to the movements, and that pattern showed that the net was closing. The Aliens were making their post attack searches in a smaller and smaller area.

“It doesn’t matter how random you thought you were being you would have created a pattern. Every time you attacked it would have just added one more piece to the Aliens jigsaw”.

“So how long do you think we’ve got till they come knock, knock, knocking at out door?” Asked Joe.

“Who knows” replied Jack “A month, three months at the absolute most”.

“A month!” Yelled Joe. “Then we need to get out. We need to, you know, disappear. You may not know this but we’ve already lived through two surprise visits from the Aliens, and I for one don’t want another one”.

“So what do we do?” Asked Holly. “Do we come with you Jack?”

“Hold on a minute, just hold on!” Snapped Luke “No disrespect, but how the hell do we know we can trust this guy. All we know is that he was with some blokes, who all got killed. We have absolutely no proof of anything he’s said. If there is a whole army sat on an island somewhere, why hasn’t anyone been in touch and why hasn’t he tried to contact them”.

“That’s out of order Luke” started Holly.

“No Holly, it’s fine” said Jack placing a reassuring hand on her arm. “Luke’s right to be suspicious. I’m sure that’s what’s helped keep you alive for so long”. He smiled. “Nobody would try and contact me here because we agreed before we left the island that we wouldn’t. If the Aliens found out we were on the mainland and were able to work out where we were, it might just have helped them track you down. That goes double for me trying to send a message from here. That would be madness. They would pinpoint the location of the message in minutes”.

“So how come the Aliens found you?” asked Joe.

“Just bad luck I guess. We dropped off five teams, two near where we thought you might be, and three dotted all over as red herrings”.

“Hang on!” interrupted Luke. “Did these men know they were red herrings?”

Jack looked embarrassed.

“Well did they?” insisted Luke.

“No” replied Jack “If they had known they might not have looked as if they were actually looking for something. We had to make sure that if the Aliens were tracking us that all five teams looked as if they were searching really hard”.

“So what was the deal then? You must have had a plan to get picked up” went on Luke.

“We were all to scout around for seven days and then go back to our various rendezvous sites for evac”.

“But during those seven days all of those men could have been killed for absolutely nothing” said Luke derisively.

“Not nothing” said Jack with controlled evenness. “Each and every one of them would have died trying to make sure that we got you and the weapons safely back to the island. They would have thought it was a price worth paying”.

“Err.. I’ve got a question” said Joe, putting his hand up. “Did all the teams have jeeps like you did?”

“Yes”

“Well I was wondering, how did you get the jeeps over here?”

“We flew them in. We’ve got some transport helicopters, Chinooks and the like. They can come in fast, drop off and extricate just as quickly”

“So when you say you want to get the weapons out, how many were you thinking of?” Asked Joe.

“How many have you got” replied Jack grinning. “The plan was to come and find you and then get you and as many weapons as we could out in a single trip”.

“Why a single trip?” Asked Holly.

“Because if we came back to the same place more than once the Aliens would definitely be ready and waiting as soon as we touched down”.

“So what now?” Asked Luke.

“Sorry?”

“What now? Your satellites would have picked up the fight you had with the Aliens, and then you missed the rendezvous. So all your mates in the HFS probably think you’re dead. How are you going to get home now?” Sneered Luke.

“I think” replied Jack sternly “You better wake up the fact that even though you may not like it, I’m the only friend you’ve got. It’s not about me getting home, it’s about all of us getting out of here alive. I will do whatever it takes, whatever I can think of, to get a message to the HFS, because it’s our only chance. You have done a fantastic job at taking the fight to the Aliens, but you’ve been lucky, very lucky. They will hunt you down and they will kill you, it is only a matter of time” he paused. “I’ll leave you alone so you can decide what you want to do. You obviously will have a lot to talk about”.

With that he got up and walked out of the room.