Limestone & Reconnaissance Suck

Limestone... I didn't even know what Limestone was until a few minutes ago...

"Everybeardy out!" The red panda guy ordered us out of the tractor trailer.

"You think I can get a bathroom break?" I wondered.

He shot me a dirty look. "No bearthroom bearakes! You can pee on the ground."

"But I'm a nervou-."

The red panda guy pulled out a cattle prod and touched it to my left butt cheek. There was a crack and a spark, while I felt a jolt of electricity go through my body. I jumped up in pain. "Okay, nevermind!..."

A dump truck suddenly pulled up and dropped a pile of large limestone stone blocks on the ground. "Ebearyone grab a block and start hauling!" Red panda guy shouted.

One by one the other captives picked up a coffee table-sized limestone from the pile, then began carrying it toward the massive half-built pyramid structure with a giant partially sculpted bear head at its peak. When it was my turn, I stopped and stared forward, as I was face to face with my greatest fear... manual labor!

Red panda guy zapped me again. "You're going to fall bearhind the group. Move, you lazy bear!"

"But-"

The red panda raised his cattle prod again, which immediately shut me up. Reluctantly, I turned back toward the pile and wrapped my arms around a loose block. As I lifted, I strained muscles in my arms that I didn't even know existed. One step at a time, I shuffled my way forward, in the direction of the pyramid.

"Faster, lazy bear!" I received another zap to my butt cheek, as I was once again reprimanded.

I stumbled forward, nearly tripping, but managed to catch myself. Taking a deep breath, I regained my composure and continued onward at a pace that was just slightly faster than a turtle.

Still not to the red panda guy's liking, I endured more zaps from his prod. I wasn't sure how much longer I could withstand this torture, but I persisted on with all my strength.

Once we got to the base of the bearamid, we were instructed to drop our stones into a designated pile. From there, they were taken by another group of enslaved workers to be used on the structure.

I let out a sigh of relief, as I was finally done-...

"No bearakes! Get back to the bearginning and keep moving rocks."

If I knew I wouldn't get electrocuted, I would have broken down into tears. All I wanted was to spend the apocalypse playing video games and yet here I was doing forced labor for a weird bear cult.

Despite everything feeling hopeless, I couldn't help, but think about Rom. If he were here, he wouldn't just let me give up. In fact, he'd probably be ramming my shin right now. Lifting my head up and straightening out my security blanket, I sucked it up and started back to carry more stones. For some reason deep down, I had a feeling that rom was still out there and if I was ever going to be reunited with my best friend, I was going to have to survive!

🪨🪨🪨

Night had hit, as the city of Lincoln finally came into view on the horizon. As we got to the outskirts, Jethro steered us off the beaten path and parked the van behind an elevated sand dune.

"Time to get to work, alien!" He picked me up in his hands and exited the van, then set me down on the ground.

"Now that we're here, what's the plan?" I wondered.

"First thing's first, we're gonna do some reconnaissance." Opening up the back door of his van, he crawled into it. For the next few minutes, I heard nothing, but the sound of rummaging, as he gathered the materials he needed. When he exited, he was dressed in a full ghillie suit and had a large camouflage duffle bag draped over his shoulder.

The first thing he pulled from the bag was a large tan tarp, which he draped over the van and staked down. In the dark it blended in with the sand, making our vehicle virtually invisible from a distance.

"That should do. Now let's scout the area." He led the way to the top of the dune where he brought a pair of night vision binoculars up to his eyes. Looking back and forth he scanned the path ahead, leading into the city. "Just as I expected, there's a guard outpost. We're going to have to get past that if we want to make it into the city."

"How many are there?" I asked.

"At least a handful , but I can't tell for sure. Lucky for you though, I got a plan." He reached back into the duffle bag where he pulled out a set of walkie-talkies and a roll of duct tape.

I let out a sigh. "Let me guess, you're going to tape some more crap to the top of me."

"You got that right." With the duct tape, he taped one of the walkie-talkies in front of my GBL speaker so it could pick up my audio. "Your small alien frame makes you inconspicuous, especially in the dark. You should be able to slip right past."

"Cool does that mean I get to ditch you." I sarcastically remarked.

"Don't get smart with me, alien!" He pulled a little red box from his pocket." Little did you realize, I installed a bomb inside of you. If you even think about betraying me, I won't hesitate to open this box and press the button inside of it."

"Wait, you put a bomb inside of me!" I exclaimed, whipping around 180 degrees to face him.

He chuckled with amusement at my shock. "Did you honestly think I'd just let you freely roam around me without some kind of failsafe?"

If I had a head, I would have been shaking it right now. "Whatever... Just tell me what I need to do."

Jethro pointed back out toward the guardpost. "Once you're in, I need you to relay to me all the guards' positions. Then I'll use my stealth skills to sneak past."

"Sounds like a plan..." Not that I really have a choice.

Picking me back up, Jethro carried me as close to the guard post as possible without being seen. From there, I was on my own...

I rolled up to an abandoned school bus that had been turned on its side to be used as a makeshift wall between two crumbling brick buildings. On top of it a woman dressed in a sloth bear costume sat in a plastic lawn chair.

As I made my way through an opening between the building and the bus, I could hear her call down to another guard in a high pitched voice. "I'm getting beary tired. Is it time to switch yet?"

"You're going to have to bear through it for at least another hour." The other guard, who was out of my field of view, responded.

Continuing forward, both slowly and silently, I inspected the perimeter, making note where each and every guard was stationed. Once I completed my task, I hid behind a pile of garbage bags just out of any of the guards' hearing ranges.

"There's one on top of the bus, two behind it, three in the building on the left and another two in the building on the right. Also, there's a pile of trash on the far side of the outpost. That's where I'm currently at." I transmitted through the walkie-talkie.

There was a long pause until Jethro finally radioed back. "How the heck am I supposed to know you're done talking if you don't say 'over'?... Over."

"Then you should have told me that earlier. Over."

"I shouldn't have to. That's just basic walkie-talkie etiquette... Anyways, I'm going to start making my way through the camp. Notify me if anyone moves around or anything unexpected happens. Over"

From where I was looking, back toward the bus, I could see a bush squeezing through the same opening I came through. Considering all the greenery in the state was probably dead, the ghillie suit Jethro was wearing was completely pointless. If anything, it made him stick out more.

Through a combination of army crawling and barrel rolling, Jethro weaved his way through the camp, masterfully avoiding detection. Without raising any alarms, he managed to make it to the trash pile where I was.

He started to whisper. "From here we'll make our way to one of the empty buildings just up ahe-."

He was suddenly interrupted by a rustling that came from the trash bags.

"Who just woke me from my hybearnation?" A voice spoke from under the trash bags as it stirred awake. A guy wearing a cave bear costume emerged from under the bags.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Jethro pulled a taser from his pocket and immediately tased the cave bear guy in the neck, causing him to fall unconscious, back into the trash bags before he even knew what was going on.

Other than that close call, we managed to make it in without a hitch. From here, we were able to make it deeper into the city. We took cover in an abandoned building, in order to determine our next course of action…