A few hours later the teams met back up after carrying out their individual tasks. Jay had taken a team to begin setting up traps for the raiders after getting some more information from Sarah about how they attacked.
"Each day, they drive into town mostly in trucks because they can carry people and items in the truck beds. They drive through the town firing their weapons into the air, yelling out and letting people know they are coming. Then they raid buildings seemingly at random to try to find any supplies they can." Sarah said. "People try to live in the buildings they have already hit, but they seem to have picked up on that and go back to some of the previously hit buildings to take what they can. As long as we just give them our stuff, they leave us be. But if anyone fights back, they are dragged out and killed where people can see."
"Sounds like traps are definitely our biggest advantage. Jay, we need as many as you can rig up. Everyone else needs to get their weapons ready so we can pick some of them off before things get hairy. DeeDee, you should be able to help as well with those vines." Tom said.
"I can do that. I can also make the vines grow thorns to try to take out tires." DeeDee added.
"That's an excellent idea!" Tom added. "Do that to stop as many vehicles as you can. We need them out on foot. Kiera, you will need to be in a high-up position and pick off as many as you can with your rifle. You will be a key player in the on-foot stage. Do you have enough ammo?"
"I stocked up really well. I'm good for a long time." Kira replied.
"Excellent. Briana, you will make some barriers to stop vehicles that get through or funnel them to this one area in the middle of town." Tom said looking at a map of the city that Sarah had drawn on a piece of paper for them.
"Seth, I need you to take out any troublemakers. Don't get bogged down in any one fight and move in and out as fast as you can." Tom said.
"You got it. No playing with them this time." Seth replied.
"The rest of you, we will be going in and taking out groups one at a time so be ready to run from place to place and watch each other's backs," Tom said.
Everyone was now in position and ready to go. All they needed to do was wait for the raiders to come into town. As the sun was finally beginning to set, the sound of vehicles approaching and a cloud of dust from the desert showed in the distance. Gunfire could be heard in the distance and as they got closer the crew could hear the whoops and hollers of the men in the backs of the trucks as they whipped themselves into a frenzy.
"We're as ready as we can be. Everyone stick together and follow the plan. But remember that no plan survives contact with the enemy, so we will adapt as best we can." Tom said.
Nodding in agreement, everyone took up positions. There looked to be about twenty trucks from what Tom could tell. That meant over a hundred people coming to raid the town based on the number of people in the beds of the trucks. They rolled into town and split into two groups going down two sides of the city.
From the group that went to the right, the first set of trucks rolled over a trap that lowered two stones tied to a chain that raised tight up in the air over the top of the trucks. As the trucks drove under them, the chains caught around the chests and necks of the raiders standing in the backs of the beds and clotheslined them out of the vehicles.
Drivers looked back at the cries of pain from people behind them and began to slam on the breaks. As their vehicles were stopping Kiera fired off her first rounds, shooting the drivers of the vehicles. Some of the trucks began to move forward again when the driver's feet slipped off the brakes and as they drove over the vines in the road with huge thorns, the tires were blown out.
Across town, DeeDee was busy sending the vines across the roads to cause the same clothesline effect on others as they drove through. Graham and a few others jumped out and began to perform guerilla warfare tactics of killing any that fell and rushing into side streets or other buildings that had secondary exits.
James would run from building to building shooting other drivers as well and if the trucks started moving they had to run over a bed of screws that the teams had placed in the roads from a hardware store they had found.
The plan was going very smoothly, and the teams were able to kill raider after raider with no issue until the second wave of raiders came into town. Apparently tipped off from the sounds of rifle fire, a second wave of trucks came barreling into town after the first had set off a majority of the traps.
Driving in behind their friends, the first few trucks ran past the ones that had stopped trying to get to their friends who were being slaughtered on the ground, ducking under the now visible clotheslines, but most stopped behind the first wave and the raiders hopped out of the vehicles with their guns ready to shoot anyone they didn't know. Those that did drive in still got the spikes or screws in their tires, but most were watching and didn't fall for the traps.
Tom sent an eldritch blast out at the ground and lit a trail of lighter fluid on the ground surrounding the back of the town and the raiders were trapped in the fire without an exit. As the teams moved in and out of the allies and backstreets, the raiders began to fire at them with their automatic rifles.
Seth was a blur of activity as he easily ran in and out of buildings killing the largest of the raiders with his katana. Kevin, doing what Kevin did best, ran out from a building at a smaller group of raiders that had been cut off from their group bellowing his war cry and slaughtering six of them in a matter of seconds with his greataxe before he disappeared into another building, gunfire at his back barely missing him and hitting the walls of the building.
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Raiders began to panic at the hit-and-run tactics and began to form into groups with their backs to each other to watch all sides. Kiera, lying down on the roof of a tall building, began to pick off the ones that appeared to be giving orders one by one.
James had found a window that had been broken out and was exchanging gunfire with a group like an old western shootout, popping up to fire and then ducking back down in between the shots.
Jerky even got in on the party and would appear on the shoulders of raiders to bite at their jugular vein before turning invisible before anyone could shoot at him. Squirrel was darting in and out of hiding to tear at the groins of many unsuspecting victims as he also performed hit-and-run tactics without standing to fight.
With so many of their numbers beginning to dwindle and not getting solid targets to attack, the raiders broke. Fear filled their eyes as they tried to hop into any still-drivable vehicles and when those were full just turned tail and ran. Jay and Kedron appeared in the GS2 and the H2 on the road out of town and blocked their retreat, Jay running over one poor raider and flattening him as he was further ahead of the group. As the retreating raiders were funneled to the single street out of town to the south, and were cut off from that exit as well as back into town from people attacking and running and Briana putting up barriers, they swarmed over each other to try to use anything or anyone as a shield.
The battle became shooting fish in a barrel as the teams charged in and attacked the remaining raiders. They were outnumbered about three to one, but with the panic from the raiders, the attack became a complete slaughter as anyone willing to fight back began shooting wildly, killing some of their own.
Near the end, the remaining raiders, about a dozen of them, had thrown down their weapons and raised their hands begging for mercy. One of the raiders had defiantly continued a spray-and-pray tactic against one of Briana's shields screaming at the people on the other side as he backed away from the advancing party members. His run had ended as he backed into Seth, who had run his katana through his back, the blade erupting out of his chest in a spray of blood. He gurgled as Seth had punctured one of his lungs. Blood ran out of his mouth as the assault rifle fell from his now limp hands before he fell forward as Seth ripped the blade out of him and shoved him to the ground.
Tom pulled out handcuffs from his inventory and the team set to restraining the remaining members of the raiders and sat them on the ground.
"So, that went well," Tom said.
"We got lucky. If they had another wave coming, we would not have done so well." Derek said.
"Don't be such a sour puss. Take the win." James said.
"I'm just trying to be realistic about this," Derek said.
"So what do we do with them now?" Kedron asked.
"We need to ask a few questions," Tom said.
Moving over to the group of raiders, Tom put his hands on his hips and looked down at them.
"How many more of you are there?" He asked the raiders.
Many of them wore cobbled-together armor that looked like they found pieces of it in the garbage. Others still wore things like football pads or hockey gear like in the old apocalypse movies. No one spoke at first. Rolling his eyes James fired into the air making all the raiders jump.
"There were about six hundred of us out in the camp," one of the raiders said.
"And how many of you came here?" Tom asked him.
The man looked up at Tom with tears streaking down his face leaving trails in the dirt that covered him.
"About two hundred and fifty," He said. "Look, man, I don't wanna die. I just joined these guys because they kept raiding the town and I needed food."
"So you thought it was ok to come in here and just take whatever?" Tom asked.
"I just wanted to survive. I saw them kill some of my friends and I couldn't go out like that." He said through sobs.
"And what if you killed someone here?" Derek asked harsher.
"I didn't kill nobody! I just stood in the back and helped them load things into the trucks." The man continued. "Promise! Please don't hurt me, I don't wanna die!"
Derek sighed as he looked over to Tom.
"This was another thing I worried about. Some of these people are just doing what they think they have to in order to survive. We can't just kill them. But we can't let them go back either. They'll tell the others and bring them all at once." Derek said.
"We could raid the raider's camp," James offered.
"There will be women and children there. You want to kill all of them too? We likely killed husbands and fathers here already." Derek asked.
"No," James replied looking down and feeling a little ashamed.
"We did what we had to here," Tom said.
"I know that. But the next step is slippery. More will come. We can fight them off, but we will eventually run into a point where we are dooming the others left because we are cutting off their suppliers." Derek said.
"They will have to figure that out themselves. They started this and they can figure out how to survive without raiding other innocent people." Tom said. "We need to get Sarah out here to get the rest of the people still here together so we can show them that they can defend themselves now."
A while later, Sarah had managed to gather most of the people in the town into one place. The sun had set so the area was dark, but the team had lit some fires in old barrels to light an area. The townspeople looked around at the devastation with disgust. A few vomited at seeing all the bodies piled together of the raiders. But none said anything to the team about it, thankful that they had helped them.
"People of Flagstaff. We have solved the first half of the raider problem for you. Now you have to work to defend yourself from whatever comes next. The number of their fighters should be low, but others will likely come. We will be staying here tonight should another strike come, but we cannot stay forever. You will need to work to defend yourselves as well. Life as you knew it is over. This is the way of the world now and you are going to have to get stronger." Tom said to the gathered people, which numbered about three hundred.
"You must be willing to protect what is left that is yours. You can do this. The weapons of the raiders we leave to you to use in your defense. But you must make the choice to defend or leave." Derek said.
Turning to Sarah, she smiled at them sadly.
"Thank you for what you did. But most of us are not fighters. We will likely be leaving to find another place to stay." She said.
"That's understandable. But eventually many will have to become fighters. This world is not a safe place anymore. And you can't pretend it is." Derek said.
"I know. And I appreciate you looking out for us. We will do our best and go where we can. Where are you all from?" Sarah asked.
"We're from Dallas. It's quite a journey. But we welcome anyone that wants to make the trip." Tom said.
"Dallas. That is far. But if you made it this far I'm sure some will want to join you." Sarah said. "For now, I'll show you where you can stay and if we need you before the morning we will let you know."