Storm and Fire Part 18

NOTICE: The part olf Chapter 17 there was is all there is and it will be continued in either chapter 19 or chapter 20.


Silvia woke up fairly late. She expected to see Paul, but he still wasn't there. This worried Silvia, but she had to leave soon. She left a note for Paul in the room saying that she was going south to train for about two weeks and not to worry about her. It was a fairly long time, but she would be allowed to rest in Wenatchee a bit before going to work after training. She dressed in her uniform and collected he belongings in a bag. She hurried to the military camp that was just outside of town to the south.
It took about half an hour to get there, and she ran the whole way. It wouldn't be good to be late on the first day! As she expected, Nathan was already there. There were over one thousand people there, all set up in their own tents. It was dry here, just like in the hills with the bandits, the ground was dry and sandy. And warm. It felt like it was radiating heat.
There were even a few tanks in the camp. They had solar panels on them, so they must have been converted from gasoline to electricity. Why did they need tanks for training? How far would they go south? It was only supposed to be two weeks until they got back to Wenatchee, so probably not too far. Hopeful not to the small war going on near Ellensburg.
Silvia decided to go talk to Nathan since he was there. He hadn't seen her yet, so she walked up to him.
"Hi, Nathan," she said.
"Silvia? Did you just get here?"
"Yeah, I didn't get up early."
"The explained some of the training to us. Apperently they want us to be trained near Ellensburg were we can see what kind of work we will be doing. It sounds like it will take a few days to get there. They are short on water, I hope you brought some. It's not too much of a problem if you haven't, they do have some, and there is more once we get to Ellensburg. I've heard that there's actually quite a large battle there.
"What they have told us," he continued, "Is that there are a few people that still believe there is a federal government and that we are rebels that have our rebel states that must be crushed." Seeing Silvia's look of confusion, he said, "I know it's strange, and there is no federal government, but these are very strong believers in the US government who say it will never fall. There's also some in the east that have been causing problems for East Wenatchee. Aparently they are employing bandits to help them, and that's our problem in Ellensburg. You could say Ellensburg is sort of the crossroads of Washington, or the center of a cross. At the top and bottom of it are Wenatchee and Yakima, and on the sides are the unknown locations of these Federalists in the east and west. They could have taken over the former capital as a symbol of their connection to the Federal government. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Ellensburg is were our two orginizations' areas cross: if the Federalists want a connection to their friends in the east, they want Ellensburg. Same with Yakima and us. As long as we can control Ellensburg when the real Federalist forces attack, they will be weak and disunified. That's just a summary of what they said, though, I would be better if you ask someone who knows more about it."
"No, I think I understand it well enough. Thanks for explaining it," Silvia said.
"Well, that's good. The only other major thing they said is that Yakima could betray us, though. It's not for certain. Well, look, it looks like we have to start marching. I'll try and explain more on the way."
They walked for days. It was sometimes hard keeping up with the pace, and it was hot and dry. A few people collapsed from exhaustion and dehydration, but the majority were fine. The terrain varied, sometimes they were going through desert with only a few grey, dead-looking shrubs around, other times going up ridges, across plains, even through a few streams. Every once in a while one of the leaders up in the front would shout for them to pick up the pace, that they needed to go this way or that, or a number of other things. Eventually they were crossing the last stretch, a desert with a bit of greenery here and there from irrigations. The town was somewhat visible ahead. Even closer was a large camp with several tanks, a vast array of tents, and even a few permanant buildings. Silvia guessed that was were she would be staying.
She was right. She set up a tent on the desert ground and unloaded her supplies. She would be staying there for the next week and a half. Nathan had a tent close to hers, only a about twenty meters away. She was told where things were, like the mess hall, the washrooms, the armories, the training areas. They were told that if they couldn't remember where to go for things they would never understand a battle plan, so the directions were intentionally rather confusing. She got it down quickly, though, she had been tracking things for the bandits for years. She even had to help Nathan, who hadn't understood the directions at all.
The next few days were training. They were worked hard, and had to work on their strength; their stamina, often having them run for nearly an hour; their aim, much of it was training with guns, and Nathan excelled at this and was able to help Silvia learn how to operate some of the guns that she hadn't seen in the NC. Some of these things really were from another age, and some of the technology they were using was so advanced even Nathan couldn't get her to understand it.
But agian, her training as a bandit let her excell and was often congradulated by her superiors about her great aim and skill with a gun, and her general understanding of warfare. Nathan did well too; his aim was even better than Silvia's and he understood some of the more advanced technology from his exposure to it. Nathan met several of his old friends there, many of them related to friends of his family. Silvia gathered that Nathan's family was even more influential than she had previously thought.
Nathan introduced her to some of them, his friends. There were Anthony, Ian, and James. They seemed to come from fairly influential families as well. On the fourth night Silvia went into the mess hall and saw all four of them sitting at a table, talking. Silvia grabbed some food, that didn't look very tasty or nutritious, and sat down at their table.
"Oh, hi, Silvia," said Nathan, "We were just talking about how well you were doing during the training. You never told me you had such good aim!"
"The officers have taken notice," commented Ian, "I overheard two of them talking about promoting you!"
"Yeah, promoting some one before they've even finished training is nearly unheard of," commented Anthony, "I've actually never heard of it being done."
"That could be a problem, though," said James, "It is odd enough that people could talk about the possiblity of you bribing them. Personally, I wouldn't accept a promotion until I've been in the guard forces for a few months, just do aviod suspicion."
"You think they would suspect her?" said Anthony, "I've only heard of people from wealthy families using bribes. She doesn't even have much money and has no relatives from Wenathchee, right? I doubt they would be suspicious."
"They could still suspect a bribe. It's not hard for some people to get their way, and there's some bais toward Wenatchee people in the guard forces. A few months isn't long, and could provide you with some extra time to get used to normal guard life. I think even if they wouldn't be suspicious, it's still best to wait." James replied.
"You could be right," said Nathan, "I don't think I'd be quite ready."
"What do you think, Silvia?" Ian asked.
"I really don't know. I'll just wait and see what happens."
"Well, that's just as good an answer as any. Waiting will help with a better decision," Anthony said.
They all agreed to that. They put their used plates in a rack and left the mess hall. They walked back to their tents together, talking about the weather. James was saying that it was getting colder and not that it was fairly late into fall the nights were getting cold. Nathan was telling them about his suit and they laughed at how ridicoused he look in all situations wearing it. Just as they got near their tents, an alarm went off.
A voice cried out into the night, "Bandits coming! Estimated force: five thousand. Prepare for armed conflict."