Chapter Five

Alexander retrieved a map of the city from beside his mattress, he spread it out on the floor in front of him. The map was divided into five sections the city centre, the northern territory held by the Fortifiers, the southern territory held by the Hunters, the eastern territory held by the Nomads and lastly the eastern territory controlled by Reboot.

"This is what I've been able to learn of the territories of the various faction outside the city and the dots you see across the city centre are known bases for the various scavenger factions" Alexander explained

"Reboot territory actually extends to here," said Rhodes indicating a bridge a few blocks west of Alexander's base

"looks like you're only good push from taking over this portion of the centre, so what's stopping you?" Alexander inquired

"A group of white wearing religious maniacs are blocking off the bridge, using hostages as human shields and we can't get our forces past them without a large number of casualties on both sides, so they sent me and Rhodes ahead to scout out for ways to take down their blockade" Bart answered

"They are called The Puritans, and as for ways to take down their blockade, one way would be to direct some of your forces towards the bridges to the north and south to try and flank them"

"We considered that but both bridges are outside our territory and ignoring territory restrictions would put our agreement with the Hunters and Fortifiers at risk" Rhodes responded

"There is one other way, it will take days and considerable resources but should you succeed you could easily flank the Puritans blockade as well as get your whole force into the centre without alerting any of the other factions," Alexander said

"What way is this?" asked Bart

Alexander pointed towards the train tracks where a derailed train blocked off both ends of the tunnel.

"Your joking right?" asked Elizabeth in disbelief

"Why not, if they can remove the train all they need to do is have part of their force head back to the last station and take the tunnel here, from here they can destroy the Puritan blockade from behind," Alexander explained

"Can you do it?" he asked 

"It should be possible, but we need a way to distract the Puritans to buy us time," said Rhodes

"That I might also have some ideas on, though I do have to ask if you have any problems being responsible for the destruction of churches and other religious buildings," said Alexander

"Alexander after the things we've seen damnation is the least of our concern or Reboots, what's the plan?" Bart inquired

"We're going to destroy the Puritans bases of operations, starting with those closest to the bridge, this will hinder their ability to replenish their troops as well as free any potential hostages, next we'll strike close to their main base distracting them from our objective and also drawing more of their troops away from the bridge, by the time we've secured the tunnel and funnelled a force through that blockade will be working at half capacity" Alexander explained

"That plan could work but how are we going to destroy these bases with just the four of us?" asked Rhodes

"We won't we'll sneak into the initial bases and free the captive hostages, then together with the hostage we'll burn the buildings to the ground" Alexander explained

Alexander rolled up the map and stowed it away again.

"Any more questions?" Alexander asked

Elizabeth raised her hand and said, "Yeah just one, how long have you been planning all this?"

"Since I first saw the Puritans executing people, seeing that made me want to burn them to the ground," Alexander said

Alexander could see the image in his mind, the screams the blood and the laughing man in white who carved men up like turkeys and stuffed his mouth as his victim's gaunt bodies lay around his dining table.

"How have you not gone crazy?" asked Bart

"Someone once said that one can only be crazy when their experience of the world differs too greatly from reality, I'm not the one that's gone crazy the world has" Alexander answered