Arthur Elios Chapters 15-20

In the earlier publications chapters 15-20 were book 2, chapters 1-6

They travelled through the darkness for hour upon hour, stopping only for a quick meal and then starting off again, the kilometres passed under their fast travelling wheels until, with weary bodies and tired blinking eyes, they began to slow as the first rays of the morning sun rose slowly over the far off flat horizon.

As had been planned the previous day, Elios had all the vehicles turn into a circle until they were parked in a ring of protection around where they hoped to be able to sleep and rest during the day, after setting a few of the boys as guards for the tired drivers and navigators, everyone sat to eat and drink, it had been a long and harrowing first night but the distance travelled gave them hope that they had been able to outdistance any Renegs that had a mind to track them and attack.

Around the circle camp, the land stretched endlessly in a flat white table top, nothing moved in the white barrenness, even the winds were resting as the sun rose higher, its brightness beginning to sparkle on the salt crystals as the light got stronger and the days heat increased, it was going to be a long and very hot day, the drivers and any other boys who could help, pulled large canvas covers from the tucks and began to spread them out to create enough shade for everyone to sleep under, the guards would be rotated every hour by those boys that had been able to sleep as the others drove through the night.

The sun was well past its highest point when the first of the drivers opened his eyes, it was only moments later that Elios also awakened in the intense heat, there was still no sign of a wind or even a light breeze, all around the camp for as far as the eye could see was nothing but a vacant white land, Elios looked up to the top of the vehicles and saw the four guards still watching intently, their heads covered in loose cloths to keep the worst of the heat off their heads, all of them had, as the others had done, stripped off the ancient's clothes and wore only their small breechclouts to make it easier to keep cool.

After a full check of the camp, Elios began to organise the refuelling of all the vehicles and to make plans for a big meal before they moved off again as the sun sank towards night, it was going to be another long night but at this stage they felt that the need for safety far outweighed the dangers of night travel and the more distance they put between them and any Renegs brave enough to try to follow them, was more important than comfort.

They continued to travel for another three nights before the ground began to grow rough, they were nearing another range of low hills and the dangers now inherent in night travel were becoming to much, Elios called a halt to the travel early in the morning, he planned that they should rest well and for the first time in five days, get a full nights sleep, if his calculations were correct, they would be moving through the hills on the next morning and were now no more than two days away from what he hoped was their ultimate goal.

If Elios had followed the maps and his calculations were correct, the next bunker should be just on the other side of the long low range of hills, they should also be able to see the old ancient city of Salt Lake, or what remained of it, once they had passed this next obstacle, according to his old maps, there should be some form of roadway going through the hills but, at this stage he could not see any indication of it, he thought about waiting until the next morning to begin the search but, at the last moment, decided to send out two jeeps, one in each direction, along the base of the range of hills.

Elios called all the boys together and then set out his immediate plan, each of the two jeeps would carry one driver and two guards, even though the great stretch of barren salt flat showed no enemies, he was still not going to take the chance on losing any of his friends or vehicles because of carelessness, Elios sent the two vehicles off and joined the others as they prepared to cook the morning meal.

They sat and waited for the return of the two jeeps, no one wanted to eat until the six scouts had returned, to each and every boy it felt as though they were being selfish to eat without the others and so, they waited patiently for their return.

As the sun sank and the first long shadows of night began to settle around them, they all heard the distant groan of the returning vehicles, one from each side of the darkening camp, they all waited in anticipation as the two jeeps drew closer, the food was heated and cold water was found for the scouts to drink once they had arrived, the whole camp all of a sudden became lighter and the chatter began to fill the silence, it was a good feeling to know they were returning, hopefully all in one piece.

Finally the two jeeps lights could be seen close by, all the boys jumped to their feet and called loudly as the two vehicles pulled to a halt close to the circle, six very tired and weary boys looked at their friends around the circle, the six boys looked like white ghosts as the salty dust settled around them, their bodies were totally covered in the salt and only their eyes, which had been covered by the tinted driving glasses, showed their natural colour but their eyes were red and tired from the continual need to watch for enemies and also to look ahead for the fabled road into the hills.

It was the jeep that had gone north that brought the good news, after going in and out of every small gully along the length of the hills, they had eventually found what looked like the remnants of an ancient road about two hours away, they had traversed it for a few kilometres before turning back and had seen no rock slides or other barriers in their way, the camp cheered the report and the boys that had found the way over the hills, tomorrow would be an exciting day, they would finally get closer to their ultimate goal.

The drive on the following morning was filled with anticipation, the mere thought of being close to the next bunker had lifted the spirits of the tired boys, this adventure had been the longest of them all and the boys were at a stage of weariness that all long searches created. The scouts had indeed found the start of the ancient road over the pass, although the old seal of the road was broken and holes had appeared in its surface, the convoy bumped and ground its way to the beginning of the first rise, above them the road looked clear apart from the occasional small rock or pile of stones.

Again, Elios sent one of the smaller and more mobile jeeps ahead of the main convoy, slowly it whined its way upward, all the time it kept in contact with Elios through their small com units, as they reached about half way up the rise, Elios gave the order for the others to follow slowly, every vehicle travelled slowly as the reports continued to come in from the van guard jeep.

As they rose higher, Elios began to notice something strange about the road, there had been obvious large slips along the road but they had been cleared by somebody, not recently but also not long ago, at one stage he called a halt so he could look closer at one of the slips, it had been quite large and, had it not been cleared by the unknown hands, Elios and his convoy would not have been able to pass.

Stepping from his Humvee along with Mita and two guard boys, Elios went closer to the remains of the slip, to his amazement, he saw what appeared to be marks similar to those made by one of his newly found tanks but it was also apparent that whatever the vehicle had been, it had some sort of attachment on it to push the rocks and detritus of the slip off to the side of the road and over the drop, below he saw what he thought was the remains of the rocks that had formed the road block.

These, to Elios, were obvious signs that someone else knew about the ancient's machines, he returned to his Humvee and they continued on upward as he sat and thought about what he had seen, the chance of meeting people who knew about all the technology that had been left was starting to give him a sense of excitement, perhaps he would, at last, be able to know more of the ancients.

By high sun they were all on the very top of the range of hills and looking down at another wide expanse of salt plain, far in the distance he could see, with the aid of his binoculars, the vague remnants of the fabled city of Salt Lake, there appeared to be nothing much taller than an average one or two story cave system, most of the area was nothing more than a pile of rubble, only the sight of a strange symbol standing alone seemed to be untouched, it looked as though it was made of two pieces of material, one, the longest, stood upright, the second was fixed near the top making it a cross, at this range, Elios could not make out what it was made of but it was a symbol he had seen in some of the books far back at Home Bunker.

At a signal, the convoy began the long ride down the cleared roadway towards what they hoped would be the next bunker. It was late in the afternoon, much quicker than first thought, that the convoy turned a final bend and saw before them the start of the salt flats, when they all had reached the flat land, Elios called a halt even though there was still a bit of time before the sun sank towards night, he felt it was a good time to stop and rest, tomorrow would be spent looking for the entrance to the bunker, they had to be close but now was a good time to rest and collect their thoughts for the next stage.

In the early hours of the morning, just as the first rays of the sun were touching the top of the range of hills, Elios was startled from his sleep by a familiar sound, one that he thought was only made by his own people, it was distant and echoed in the still morning air but he was sure he was correct, the stirring of Mita beside him confirmed his first thought, Mita's voice only went to reinforce his first thought.

"Did that wake you too?"

"Yes," Elios replied.

"I thought we were the only ones with weapons, who could it be, could it be Renegs who have found out about the ancients?"

"I don't know, we'll have to go and investigate but we'll have to be very careful, if it's the Renegs then we could be in real trouble, you better get the guys up and ready, we'll have a light meal and then start forward slowly, use one of the Humvees first then the jeeps to follow, make sure everyone is on full alert."

Mita nodded his head and began to go around the camp waking up everyone and telling them what was happening, Elios continued to listen to the far off shots, by the sound of them there were not a lot of people involved, the shots were sporadic and spaced out as though someone was taking their time to mark their targets but what concerned Elios the most was the evident sound of replies, these shots were a little faster but still only from a few weapons, this brought Elios to only one conclusion, someone was trying to defend his position and others were trying to attack.

The next half hour was spent in eating a dry breakfast and readying their weapons, each and every weapons was checked and the boys drew extra ammunition from the truck, the vehicle weapons were cleaned of any dirt or salt and rearmed, when all was ready, Elios' Humvee took the lead and began the journey towards the far off sounds, as they moved, Elios could not hear any diminishing in the battle sounds.

Keeping their speed down to a slow crawl, the convoy made its way closer to the sounds of battle, it took over an hour before they saw any signs, ahead of them was a long flat strip of sealed land, it was made of the same black covering as the road had been, down the centre of the flat strip appeared to be faint remnants of a white painted line, far off at the very end of the flat area was a new machine, one that Elios had never seen in any of the other bunkers, even as far away as they were this machine looked to be huge.

The sound of rapid shots pulled Elios head back towards the cliff face on their left, answering shots came from the other side of the wide flat place, it appeared that the two enemies were on each side of the sealed divide, looking to his left at one of the protagonists, Elios could faintly see what he thought were haws, or as he now knew from his reading practice, horses, it was now obvious that they were Renegs and they were now armed with the ancient technology as well, as Elios watched from a distance he also saw that there were only about six of the Reneg that had the weapons, immediately, Elios began to plan their own intrusion into the battle.

As they were still well out of range of the small battle going on below them, Elios called all the drivers to him, he, along with Mita, then set out their plan, first, the two Humvees would circle to the far side of the flat strip, the big trucks would remain where they were with a minimum guard, the jeeps would stay close to the cliff face and make their way slowly to where the defenders were hiding, the Humvees would then attack what was now obviously the Renegs, Mita would keep his distance and use his large rifle to try and take out the gun users before the two Humvees would go in closer to either attack or scare off the others, Elios hoped that with luck they would be able to finish off the Renegs altogether but that remained to be seen, their use of ancient weapons worried him.

Just before they set off, Elios noticed that the sound of shots from the defenders seemed to be less, there now appeared to be only two of them still fighting, with little time to lose, Elios gave the order to move off, when they reached the final flat area of the strip, they were still well out of range of the smaller weapons of the Reneg, Elios stopped the Humvee and watched as Mita jumped to the ground carrying his long rifle, within seconds the rifle was out of its case and Mita was sighting along the round tube towards the far off Renegs.

The first shot of the big rifle echoed out over the surrounding salt flat, even above the sound of the smaller weapons being fired by the Renegs, its booming noise filled the battle site and, as the sound of the first shot faded into the distance, a second was sent on its way, the firing from the far side of the long strip began to recede as the next four shots echoed through the still air, the last one was the signal for Elios to start the Humvee and race towards the far off attackers, he wanted to be among them before they could recover and make to much resistance.

Mita had jumped on the second Humvee as it started to follow Elios mad dash at the Renegs, the roof mounted quick firing gun was already in action as they closed up on the few remaining Reneg as they tried to pick up the fallen weapons and fire back at the vehicles, the speed of the Humvees and the heavy fire from their roof mounted guns was too much for the Renegs and they began to run for their horses, even then, Elios and his boys were not going to allow them even that luxury, with a fierce determination, they set after the Renegs and, within a few minutes, all of them lay dead on the glaring white salt, the horses had been so frightened that they bolted for some far off place, after collecting the few weapons on the ground, Elios turned the vehicles towards the waiting defenders, he was just in time to see the two jeeps closing with the place that held the people.

Elios piled on the speed and made his way towards the same destination as the jeeps, within minutes they were parked not far from a mound of salt that protected the defenders, Elios called a halt before they entered the area, he wanted to make sure they knew that he and his friends were not a threat to those waiting behind the small salt ridge.

Nothing moved as they sat and waited, after a short time there was a white piece of cloth waving above the salt bank, Elios had no idea what it meant but let his own curiosity take hold and so stepped from the Humvee without his weapon, he then took four steps away from the vehicle and waited with his hands held open and out from his body so they could see he was not trying to trick them, this was the first time in a long time that Elios felt really nervous and a little scared, he had no idea who or what awaited for him behind the salt bank.

Elios watched as, slowly and with a lot of uncertainty, a small dark head appeared above the salt bank, the person was holding a white cloth attached to a stick of some sort, slowly, the person fully appeared, he looked to be into his adulthood and was dressed in the ancient military clothes, he also stood with his free hand out from his side so Elios could see he was not carrying any weapons.

After a few minutes of silent inspection, both of them, as though on a silent signal, moved towards each other until they were no more than a few paces apart, the man looked to be in his twentieth years, he was tanned and had a hard look about him that spoke of long training in the ways of the ancients, behind the man, and still protected mostly by the sand bank, Elios could see about six more heads moving to watch the two of them.

Elios decided to speak first.

"Hello, my name's Elios, we thought you needed help from the Renegs."

The man took a long look at the small young teen before him, while he was glad to see the boy, he doubted if the lad was really capable of any true badness, even given the fact they had cleared out their attackers with an ability of a trained warrior.

"My name is Captain Noel; I'm part of the President's protection party, what are you doing way out here and where did you get those vehicles and arms from?"

To Elios, the strange man sound almost angry that he had been saved by people who were so young, if there was one thing Elios knew for sure, it was that you never gave information to a stranger without having the chance to see who you were dealing with, and who was this President the man spoke of.

"What's a President?"

The man looked at Elios as though he was a very simple boy; the shocked look on his face almost brought a smile to Elios' lips.

"He's, well, he's the leader of the country, his Father was the leader before him and his Father's Father, they have always been the leader ever since the horror, don't you know anything, every country has to have a leader."

Elios thought about this deeply, how could one man be the leader of everything, he was a leader only of this small group and if it was a major decision then all the boys got together and talked about it until they had all agreed, the idea of one man being the sole leader did not sit well on his young shoulders, in this day and age how could one man do it all alone, Elios decided to not ask any more questions about this, instead he went off at another tangent.

"Are you here for the bunker supplies?"

"Yes but the codes don't work anymore, we only have a small amount of fuel left for our vehicles and can't go very far, we're also nearly out of ammunition for our weapons we were looking for a way in when those savages attacked us, The bunker code was working two years ago, it must be a power loss to the doors, why are you here boy?"

Elios didn't like being called 'Boy' but he let it pass, he knew why their codes didn't work but, with the man's attitude he wasn't about to tell him.

"We were travelling around trying to find a new place and heard the firing so came to help, we come from over the hills, we can give you some fuel if you need it, we have our trucks parked up the side further back."

The man looked at the young boy and shrugged his shoulders, it was plain the boy and his friends were no threat to his charge but they did need fuel, perhaps they could get enough to go on with their search to find a bunker that the President could once again lead the country back to a civilised state. At this stage they had very little to lose and much to gain. It was obvious the boys were well protected and would not have been easy to take as their other attackers had been. The Captain decided to accept the offered help, if this bunker was no good to them, there was always another one no more than four days away, that one he was sure would bring results for his group. He had once been inside it and knew of a way to get through the main doors without use of the code key, he had tried it on this one but had failed.

Elios watched as the 'Captain Noel' thought things over, finally the man nodded his head in agreement and Elios spoke into his com unit to bring the hidden trucks down onto the flat strip, Elios turned and went back to his Humvee as the 'Captain' returned to his own group to report the meeting.

An hour later and the trucks were all lined up outside the salt bank, the fuel truck was of course the busiest, after filling all his own vehicles, Elios had the boys start on filling the few vehicles of the President's group, much to Elios surprise, the man called the President was a short tubby man about middle years, he looked to be dressed in the best clothes and was obviously better fed than the other men around him, he did very little to help any of his people, it appeared he thought he was above manual work, Elios disliked the man as soon as he saw him and this was against his normal friendly nature.

Elios' band of dusty and tired looking boys was held with a certain amount of suspicion, even though they were willingly fuelling the vehicles of the group and even offered them food to take with them, which of course was accepted almost as though it was due to the small party. Elios thought about returning the captured weapons to the group but changed his mind as soon as he saw the President man, he felt they were doing enough for these strange men who thought they owned the whole country.

Elios put the word President into the back of his mind, he would investigate it at a later date to find out who the man was or what it meant, for now he was just not impressed with the fat man or his group but if helping them would get them away from his chosen bunker faster then that's what he would do.

Elios watched the President man's vehicles being filled. his small convoy consisted of three Humvees and three large black people carriers. These three vehicles had all their windows blacked out but Elios got the impression of four people inside the cleanest and most polished one, this was the vehicle that the President man got into and Elios had a quick glance at two females inside, one older than the other; there was also, he thought, a young boy but he was not sure. The other vehicles were all driven and occupied by the men dressed in the military clothes.

Something in the back of Elios' mind told him not to trust this man or the men he had with him. Elios stood with Mita and the guard boys as they watched the small convoy drive away in a cloud of salty dust. The group stood and watched until the vehicles were well out of sight before Elios turned towards the partially salt covered doors of the bunker he was searching for.

Most of the loose salt and sand had been cleared by the President man's people, Elios noticed they had tried to pry open the control box of the doors but without success. Elios punched in the new code he had changed so long ago for all of the bunkers at the home base. He heard a light clicking noise from the doors but nothing happened. Elios pushed the green button again, as he did, he noticed the small light in the button flicker and then die altogether. Even though they had lost a lot of information from the ancients, Elios soon worked out that there was no power to the doors, he would have to find one of the pipes that led inside and try to get the power started again. It was going to be another long day.

It was close to sundown before they found the pipe they had searched for: it was way above them near the top of the cliff face. After a long and hard scramble, Elios and two boys managed to get to the opening, like all the others it was covered with rusted wire mesh. Elios took out his small tool kit and removed the cutters, a minute later and they were inside, their torch lights thrusting their narrow beam of brightness down the long drop to another wire mesh cover.

Elios tied the rope they had carried for just such an occasion, around his waist and had the other two boys hold it tightly as they lowered him slowly down the dark pipe. Once his feet touched the wire mesh, he felt it give under his weight then hold fast, still held mainly by the rope around his waist, Elios carefully bent at the waist and began to cut the mesh while calling out for the boys to be ready to hold him when the wire broke.

Again, it was only a few minutes work before the wire broke away under him and left him dangling in the darkness, only his torch light giving him any view of what was waiting for him. In the bright beam of the light he could see below him the solid floor of a room, from the smell he deduced it was either a fuel room of one of the generator rooms. He called for the boys to lower him slowly again, when his feet touched the floor he looked around.

Like all other Bunkers, this room was enormous, it was also filled with vehicles, all of which he had seen before in the supply bunker. Now he knew where he was, Elios released the rope and called for the two boys to go back down and join the others waiting at the big doors. He began to make his way down a long passage, hoping this bunker was the same configuration as the others, if this were true then the main generator room was at least two floors below him.

Elios traversed the passages as he made his way lower until, finally, he was outside the door of the right room but now he had another problem. The doors were obviously opened and closed by the same power he did not have. This had not happened before so Elios was at a loss of what to do, finally he took the only action he could think of and that was to sit down and think it through.

Elios sat and thought it out. This was his strongest suit, don't rush in, just sit and think about the problem, slowly it came to him, after nearly an hour and, as his torch light started to dim from the long use, a spark of an idea came to him: the ancients knew that if this sort of thing happened, they would need another way inside, Elios stood and began to inspect the faint letters on the outside of the door until, at last he saw something that was familiar.

He could remember that the ancients always used red paint for anything dangerous or for safety. To his left and about two feet away from the side of the door, Elios could just make out in the dimming light the red paint of two words, the first he did not know but the second one was easy to read, EMERGENCY LOCK. Elios reached for the long lever and pulled with all his strength downward, it was very hard to pull until he braced both feet on the wall and leant back with all his strength. Slowly the lever descended until Elios was almost lying on the floor but the lever was now horizontal to the floor, the creaking and groaning from the door itself also came to an end.

Elios stood and moved back to the door, it was now partially ajar and Elios could see the large units that gave power to the bunker. Going back through his memories of other bunkers, Elios looked for the big control panels, when he finally found them along the right side wall, Elios checked all the dials he was able to read, it didn't take him long to find the problem of no power, the four fuel gauges showed zero.

It was now getting harder to see by his torch light but Elios was determined to find a way to open the main doors for his friends. Going to the first generator, Elios looked it over. While he was not as good as Elam or Elvan, he did have his own sharp mind to work things out. Elios looked over the generator, he knew it had to have a way for the fuel to get into it, so it would need pipes to carry the fuel. Elios inspected the machine closely until he worked out that there were only two pipes that could be the right ones but, which one was the fuel line?

Elios looked at the two pipes in the dim light. He had very little time left for his torch light to stay on, peering closer at the two pipes, Elios saw one was a darker colour than the other, he had to choose one so he picked the darker one and turned the metal tap that was attached close to the machine. He thought he saw a small dribble of something run down the pipe then stop, now he had to spend some of his valuable remaining light time to work out why there was no more liquid, it was almost like a flash of light in his mind, find the fuel tanks and see if they were open to the pipe.

Elios knew the tanks would be close by so began his next search by following the soft pipe along the floor and to the far wall where it disappeared, Elios ran out of the room and down the passage until he came to another door. This one was easily opened by a handle on the outside, he pushed through and there he saw the huge tanks he recognised as fuel tanks, going to each one he turned the metal tap and, in the last of the flickering light from his torch, he ran back to the first machine and was just in time to see the free flow of fuel into the machine. His next job was to start the generator, this he had seen done before in home bunker so knew what to do. Going to the control panel he found the one marked with the number 1, turned the small metal key and, with his eyes closed and hope strong in his mind, Elios pushed down on the green button.

Hope began to rise as he heard the first slow whirring of the generator as it tried to start. He had no idea how they started without power but he put that thought aside as the generator picked up speed and, with a loud belch and cough, fired into a dull roar. Suddenly, as his torch light gave up the last of its own power, the lights in the room flashed on brightly, filling the generator room with brightness. Almost above the loud sound of the generator came a heavy sigh from Elios, he had no idea how long he had been at his work but he felt drawn and tired. With slow footsteps, he made his way back along the now lighted passage towards where he was sure the main doors were.

Finally he found himself in the garage area and made his way to the now familiar doors. Everything around him was now brightly lit and his steps echoed in the silence now that he was above and away from the generator room. It was then Elios saw what had made the strange tracks up on the mountain pass, parked facing the door was another large square looking vehicle the like of which Elios had never seen.

It looked much like one of his newly discovered tanks but without the long gun or heavy armour, this one was open so you could see all around it and at the front was a huge curved piece of metal that was wider than the machine and stood nearly as high as Elios was tall, at last he had an answer to his question on the mountain pass. His inquisitive mind satisfied for the moment, Elios punched the new code into the panel and the big doors began to groan as they fought to open through the built up salt and detritus of the long years of inactivity.

As the doors widened, Elios could hear the cheers from his friends. Unknown to him, they had begun to get worried for his safety as the time passed, it turned out that Elios had been inside for more than three hours and it was now dark outside. As the doors opened more, the vehicles were started up and all their lights switched on. Elios was suddenly blinded by the strong beams from the vehicles and stepped to the side out of the lights as the first one started towards the opening doors, minutes later and all were safely inside and the doors were again closing, although still with rough grinding sounds as the built up grit crumbled under the pressure and weight.

While the main garage was full of more vehicles, they just managed to find enough space to park their own until at last they were all shut down and the boys were piling out to find somewhere to sleep and rest, it had been a long day of searching and waiting, they were all so tired they even forgot about the late meal and just sank onto the floor and put their heads down, there would be plenty of time in the morning to start their planned search of the new bunker.

Elios and Mita opened their eyes to the sound of groans and mumbles as the boys, who had spent the night in their sleeping bags on the cold hard floor of the garage, tried to rise and work out the aches and pains of their hard beds. Normally these boys would be in the narrow beds of all bunkers but, last night they had been to tired from the long day and had lay down where they were, the hard floor was taking its payment on the stiff cold bodies.

Slowly the boys rose and began to look for something to eat. They had also missed the evening meal and were now ravenous. With more grunts and groans the garage slowly came to life and a little order was restored, not long after the first groans were heard, the mouth watering smell of cooking food could be sensed in the new bunker, it was not long before the sound of eating spread around the room.

As the last of the food disappeared, Elios began to set the boys into small squads for the internal search. He felt sure that they had found another storage facility, this assumption was based on the number of large trucks parked in the garage and the fact that only six Humvees and a couple of jeeps were also here. He was happiest to see three large fuel trucks instead of the single one they had found previously, he gave the word to start the search as he headed off to where he hoped the office room was, this had always been the best way to find what the bunker was for.

For over two hours, Elios searched the records of the bunker until he had all the information that he could understand and gather. They were indeed in a storage facility, this one was almost twice the size of the previous one, there was enough food and equipment stored here to last the boys for years. Meanwhile, Mita had taken two of the boys that had been trained back at Home Bunker as mechanics, down to the generator room. It took little time for them to get all of the machines in working order, they also checked the start up procedure for the generators, it was set so that as one unit ran for twenty four hours, it then shut down and another would automatically start, it would then also run for the same time frame and then change to another. In this way, even if they had a break down they would always have at least one generator working to supply the power needed.

It was soon found that the store rooms were huge and completely stocked with everything the boys were used to seeing, the armoury held all the usual weapons and ammunition. Now all Elios had to do was contact Home Bunker and tell them of their discovery, Elios still had no idea how the messages managed to get to the computers, only that the ancients used something called Satellites, but he had never seen one so didn't know what they were, they must have been very high technology for them to still be working after all the years that had passed since the Horror.

It was just another mystery of the ancients and Elios let it slip from his mind as he started to tap out the message to all the bunkers that they had arrived safely and what they had found. Elios then sat back and waited for an answer, he had little else to do as the main search parties were under Mita and would all report at the end of the day when they all sat down for the evening meal, his main worry now was the armed Renegs.

His boys had collected all the weapons and kept them hidden from the President man and, he was another worry, why did he think he owned all of their world, it was too big to be run or owned by one man. This was a new and confusing situation for Elios, he didn't want to put his boys in a situation where they might have to fight two enemies, it was hard enough to think about how to finally beat the Renegs and they had still not found their main camp or heard of where it could be, what he needed were some captives to question. The only time they had captured a Reneg had been when they took the young one for information, Usof had made short work of him and they now knew about one camp but Elios and the others were convinced there was a bigger camp or at least a special gathering place for the Renegs.

Elios though more about his plan to raid Lion Claw, the leader of the local Home Bunker group of Renegs. Now they had more supplies he would not need to search for another bunker for a few more years, it was time to start to plan to free his world of the hated Renegs, he also knew that the stream of new boys pouring into the various Bunkers was still steady, the difficult part was getting them trained in time to be able to defend their new way of life.

The flashing light that told him of a message caught Elios eye as he sat pondering over everything, quickly he read the reply and took in the information it held, there numbers had increased by quite a lot since the Renegs had been killed and dispersed. The new home cave boys found it easier to get through to the bunkers and word had spread quickly about the safe havens waiting for them. It was time to get ready to return to Home Bunker, they would have to leave a light crew of boys here to defend the new bunker and make arrangements for new arrivals from the other bunkers, now they had their maps it was going to be faster to drive back and the manning of the new bunkers could begin. There were now plenty of heavy trucks to carry equipment and people to all of the bunkers, it would only be a matter of time before they were strong enough to begin to hunt down the hated Renegs.

At the evening meal all the boys reported their findings, Elios followed their reports and checked with his computer plan of the bunker. It had seven levels, the garage, living and admin rooms were all on the same level, all other levels were taken up with storage except for the space put aside for the generator and fuel supplies, it was a huge complex. Elios then set about planning who would stay to defend the new bunker and who would return to bring in more boys and build up the bunker to its full compliment for defence and supply, it was an ideal staging area for any further searches they may make in the future.

It was five days later when Elios, Mita and the guard boys turned their vehicles towards Home Bunker, ahead of them was another long journey but this time they did not take the heavier trucks with them, the small convoy of two Humvee and two jeeps was able to move faster than the larger convoy they had come out with. Elios hoped that their extra speed would give them some modicum of extra safety on the return journey.

His assumption turned out to be true as they only had to travel for four days and nights, each driver changing at meal breaks and the other one sleeping, apart from fuelling and meals, the vehicles hardly stopped, much to their surprise they saw the valley of the first bunker coming at them through the early morning light on the fourth day and all breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a trouble free trip.

***

For the next four months, Elios, Mita, Elam, Elvan and Modou spent their time in training the ever increasing influx of new boys. As the older boys became more proficient in the skills they had selected, they were made up into groups and either sent to other bunkers or allowed to become teachers of new boys. Slowly the bunker system became a hive of boys, most found their own mates and this also enlarged the protectiveness of the bunkers as each boy became aware of his mate's value and, although there were those who wanted to stay unattached, all knew what it meant to have a safe home and what their responsibilities were to that home.

Modou was the best of the trainers for the guard forces, he knew the land of the wastes and how to survive if under pressure. Elios spent a lot of his time in the admin, learning all he could of the ancient's way of battle, how to best use the heavy armour weapons and vehicles, what to do when met with bigger forces and how to set traps in the ground. For this he had ten boys specially trained to work on hidden traps. These boys spent a lot of time on the computer systems and reading the small manuals about weapons and bombs.

The ten boys soon became very proficient in their chosen field although many of the other boys that were caught out by harmless booby traps the ten boys set to create a laugh for the rest, soon got tired and would then ask to learn the same things so they could get their own back on the perpetrators. Mita was in charge of the special sniper rifles and the boys who were big enough to use them, again Modou came in useful for his in depth knowledge of concealment out on the wastes.

At the end of the four months, Elios had his plans made for their first venture into attacking the Renegs. At the top of his list was the leader, Lion Claw, he knew approximately where his main base was and the number of men he had with him, it was a good target to start out with for his fledgling army. He was well aware of his overwhelming superiority of equipment all that could be done was done to keep his boys safe during the attack, he also built in an escape plan and defence if it was needed.

The day arrived when they would begin their attempt to take out the leader Lion Claw. The convoy was, even in Elios' mind, a case of overkill, all the heavy tanks and other armoured vehicles were in the convoy along with ten large trucks filled with armed boys, all of whom had selected their own group leader. Each group had been given a job to do, some where to assist in the direct attack, others were set out as defence guards for the armoured vehicles, the boys assigned to traps would set up a defence line around the heavy tanks and the boys trained with the long heavy sniper rifles would be carried to their places by armed Humvees along with four guards to each boy, it remained now only for them to find the camp of Lion Claw.

The answer to where the enemy was came in a most unexpected way. It was something new that none of the boys had ever seen before and took most of a full night for Elios to work out what he was seeing. He had, as usual, been sitting at the computer in his admin office and trying to find the right map for the area that he had been told was the place of Lion Claw's camp when he noticed, not for the first time, that a small picture at the bottom of the screen was flashing. every time he had gone looking for a map this same picture would flash but he had ignored it as other things were on his mind at the time. This time, however, he had little to do but the maps so he looked closer at the small picture.

It was a strange symbol, it was silver in colour and shaped like a round ball with four thin fingers poking out from the centre. Elios, ever curious, clicked on the flashing picture, immediately his screen was filled with one of the information windows which asked him, Enter Activation Code for C47 Satellite. Elios looked and pondered over the message, it was new to him and he had no idea where he would find the code. Finally he used his brain and doing what he had done before when something new came up on the screen, he clicked the right hand button on the small picture and a new menu came up, among the short list was the one he was looking for, Act. Codes.

Elios followed his own intuition and clicked the line, his window reopened with a list of names and asking for entry codes. He used the computer code and the name of the long dead man in the box with the flashing black line. Almost instantly a long series of letters and numbers came up on the screen with the words, Activation Code C47. Not knowing how to transfer the long code, Elios sat and copied it out on a paper then, closing the other windows, returned to the original window and carefully copied what he had written onto the line in the screen. Unknown to Elios inquisitive mind, he had been at the task for over two hours but he was so absorbed by the new information he ignored everything else around him.

As the last digit was typed into the small window, Elios screen changed, from the flat map he had been working on he was now looking at a strange and new map, this one showed a place he had never even dreamed of, it almost felt as though he was high up in the sky and flying like a bird but he wasn't sure where he was, staring at the unusual picture. Elios could do nothing but marvel at what he was seeing, he had no idea where or what it was but the view took his breath away, it was another of the ancient's miracles.

Slowly, Elios became aware of a flashing message at the bottom of the screen, Enter Search Location. This only went further to confuse Elios, and he began his old way of working things out. Ok, he knew what Enter was, now Search that was to go out and look for things but, the new word Location he didn't know. Elios sent the new window to the bottom of the screen and opened up his school learning site, typing in the word Location he waited while it was found and then smiled as he saw the answer. Ok, so Location meant a place, next, what place? Here Elios had to think carefully, all this technology was from the time of the ancients so they would have no understanding of the Renegs, so using Reneg was no good.

Next he needed to din the area they were camping in, how did you do that on the old maps? Elios checked the numbers that ran around the sides and bottoms of the maps, the thin black square lines that went over all the old maps began to make more sense to him. Carefully, he used a ruler to run along the lines until he though he was in the area of Lion Claw's camp, he then looked to the side and worked out the line of numbers so that the lines from top to bottom crossed over the lines from side to side, with these numbers he typed into the small blank space after he reopened the strange map.

Elios was mesmerised as he watched the new map start to move and change until it settled in one place and the message flashed up, Location Found. Elios looked at it, there seemed to be little or nothing there although it did look vaguely familiar in an upside down way, Elios sat and contemplated what he was looking at. There had to be some way to see things better, the ancients always had an answer for everything, all he had to do was find it.

Ok, Elios though to himself, If you want to see something better, you have to get closer, how do I get closer on this map? Elios began to look at the bar on the top of the window, something here had to make it easier to see small things, after a while he could still see nothing to make his new map bigger, as a last resort and, just as his frustration was building, he started to click on all the small square buttons on the top row above his map.

Elios worked away quietly as one after another of the things he clicked on proved to be no help, as each button was clicked he would then have to run through each and every line on the small page that opened. It was slow and time consuming but Elios had now gone into determination mode, this computer was not going to beat him, he had been at this desk so long he had no idea of time and, even when Mita arrived with food for him, Elios hardly noticed. Mita felt no anger at Elios, he had seen his lover in this mood many time before, he left the food on the desk beside Elios and quietly left.

Elios worked on into the night, the plate beside his left hand was empty and Elios had no idea how he had eaten or when. Sometime in the early hours of the morning and to Elios surprise, he heard a soft snoring sound coming from the floor near the desk, glancing down he saw Mita curled up on one of the small camping beds fast asleep. Elios also became aware of his aching back, shoulders and right wrist, he also felt his butt was numb from sitting for a long time, he looked at the screen with bleary, blood shot eyes, his mind now almost numbed with the task he had set himself. He had only two buttons left to go, with a long drawn out sigh he clicked on the second to last button, it was a round circle that looked almost like glass with a small handle coming out of the side.

Expecting to see another long list of things, Elios was pleasantly surprised to see just two words on the small page that dropped down, Max and below that Min. Elios hovered the white arrow above the two words, the word Max was the same name as a number of boys had but he was sure this time it meant something different; the computer had been around long before the boys were named so it couldn't be that. In his usual simple way, he clicked on the top one first, as soon as he clicked on the Max button another small window opened up on the top left of the map asking more questions he did not understand, things like Magnification % – Resolution – Mode.

Elios sighed, now it was only his stubborn determination that kept him at the screen, even the sound of Mita waking up could not pull him away from this task. After thinking for a while and not even noticing the hot cup of coffee put beside him by the ever thoughtful Mita, Elios clicked on Magnification % this lead to another window with figures on it followed by the % sign. Elios looked at the numbers. Oh well, start at the top and work down, he thought to himself. Elios clicked on the number that said 25%, the result almost had him yelling out with happiness, the map on the page moved in closer, he could now see a vague impression of mountains far off on the map, for the next half an hour he slowly increased the % numbers until he was looking at a swath of dessert, every track and mountain could be seen clearly, at 200% he was sure he could even make out the marks of one of his vehicles in the sand.

Elios sighed, he had cracked the problem but now he had to still find the Reneg. He returned to the small menu page and went to Resolution not the map became so clear it was as though he was standing outside looking at the ground. He went back and decreased the % to 100 and saw a larger area but still in great detail, next button was Mode this was a very short list, it had only two words on it again, Infra and NV. Elios knew what the NV was for as they had used the glasses that could see in the dark but the new one Infra was something he didn't know so he clicked on that one, immediately the whole colour of the land was changed and gave off a blackness but with red parts as well. It was only when he saw something moving that he finally caught on, he was seeing a dog walking towards a cave but it was all red and yellow. After a little more thought, Elios finally decided he was seeing the temperature of the dog and not its body, well not in the normal sense. Now he began to understand what he had, he could now find anything that had heat with this Infra item and, if it was night time he could follow them the same as with the glasses but from way up high where no one would look, at last he was done.

The smell of hot food and drink filled Elios' nostrils as he leaned back, every muscle in his body cried out for rest, even his butt had no more feeling left but he was happy, he had cracked a new part of the ancient technology. It had taken him longer than he ever though possible but was well pleased with the result, after forcing himself to eat the food and sip on the hot coffee, Elios rested his head on his hands to think what he should now do.

When next Elios opened his eyes, he was in his own bed, his small body still ached from the work he had been doing but he somehow felt as though he had accomplished a very big operation, he had found a way to have a big advantage over any enemy. Next he would have to train the boys in admin to work the new map system as well for when he wasn't there, with this new way, they would not have to have guards out all night, instead they could have one or two boys watching from the office and then warning the others if anyone came for them. It would cut down on the number of boys having to be outside and under a threat of night attack by the Renegs.

Elios stretched his still tired muscles and threw his legs over the side of the bed only to be met by a hard hand on his chest, Mita pushed Elios back down onto the bed, saying, "Oh no you don't, after what you did, you're not going anywhere for the rest of the day, now lay there and rest, I'll bring some food and drink for you then I'm going to nail your butt to the bed."

"What? How long have I been here? I've got a lot to do, we have to set up the new guard system, I can't stay in bed all day?"

"You can go and have a shower while I go and get you some food, you've been out for a full day and most of the night and I need your butt so bad."

Elios could see that Mita was naked and his desire was very evident from the rigidity of his manhood that stood out straight from his groin. Elios almost felt his whole body blush as he looked at what was waiting for him after food and a shower, he quickly scrambled from the bed and ran towards the shower room, even his still tired body wanted what Mita was offering.

For the next two weeks, Elios spent time with four of his admin boys. By the end of that time, they had all mastered the complexities of the new revelation, now Elios and the other boys understood what the picture maps told them, during night time hours they could watch over a large part of their immediate lands as well as have one of the boys searching for any infrared sings further out.

It was on the last day of their instructions and testing, that one of the boys saw a large concentration of signatures in an area they had not been to before. From the position of the red dots, it looked like a round camp, using the now understood Zoom button the boy homed in on the new signal. It was soon apparent that they had found a camp which held a larger number of men than first thought that Lion Claw would have. The boy changed the screen to NV and took another look, in this mode everything took on a yellowish/green aspect but the men were easier to make out and could be seen to be Renegs by their way of dress.

Elios watched over the boy's shoulder as he went through the two modes, he then took note of the map references and wrote them down, he now had a place to look for their number one enemy. Elios called for Mita and Modou to join him, they were the ones that had the task of forming and training the boys who would go on the attack, it was important that they saw how many men Lion Claw truly had.

After both older boys had joined Elios in the admin office, they set about looking over the records while Elios spent time on his maps, every structure and rise in the ground was studied by Elios. He was looking for any advantage for the attackers, next came the discussion on tactics and positioning of the armour, it was plainly obvious that the whole camp would have to be surrounded to stop any escapes but, to do this was going to stretch their army of boys to their limits. It was Modou who came up with something of an answer, they would have no option but to send out drivers to all the other bunkers and bring back as many fast armed vehicles as they could and still leave enough boys to protect the other bunkers.

This was the only solution the boys could see and so, the order was given and the attack was put back for another two weeks while they waited for more equipment. It was a relief that they now had a way to guard the bunkers without having boys outside, it would mean they could seal the bunker off and protect those on the inside without worrying about the Renegs attacking another bunker while they were going after Lion Claw.

At last the time came when they could go ahead with the attack, Elios had worked out all the time lines and the routes needed to bring those travelling the furtherest distances, to arrive at the same time as those going a more direct route, the encirclement of the camp had to be done under the cover of darkness and the last few kilometres would be slower as they could not take the chance on the sound of their many motors being heard to early.

Every bunker was searched for the night vision glasses until almost every boy had a pair or at least a hand held pair of night binoculars, the longest wait was for the supply trucks from the newly discovered bunker, with its larger size and bigger capacity, they held most of the extra equipment the attackers needed but, they also kept to the time table set up by the three leaders.

Elios had desperately wanted to go on the raid but was stopped by Mita, Elios, he said, needed to stay and co-ordinate all of the factions. Modou took charge of the land troops, Mita the long range snipers and Elvan came to the rescue with the armour units, each knew the overall plan and had also put in their own ideas, if everything went off well then they would have the means to further defend or attack against their hated enemy.

Elios had spent many hours reading about the ancient's tactics and ways of using the armour and men on foot. It had taken a long time to work out most of the language used by their military, it was almost a completely new language to what he had taught himself from the computer, during his readings he had come across the mention of Aircraft, he thought back to the strange large machine he had seen at the newest bunker and, after looking at many picture of the ancient Flying Machines he now knew what the unusual machine had been but the sheer size of it struck wonder into the boy, how the ancients had ever got it into the air to fly like a bird was beyond him. All he could do was take it for truth as he had with so much of the ancient's information.

Out on the sand flats of Home Bunker the attack vehicles were lined up in their formations. There were now more than four hundred boys all armed and ready to mount the trucks supplied for them, the six heavy tanks were lined up together and would leave with the last convoy, they were being kept together and would create what the ancients called Artillery Units and would stay together for more effect, all of the longer range and faster vehicles would go to the other side of the camp and use their fast firing weapons to cause as much damage as they could before any squads of boys would venture closer and take on the Renegs left after the heavy weapons had reduced their numbers or caused panic. There was only one rule for this attack, there would be no prisoners except for newly recruited boys that were still young enough to change or any slaves that the Renegs held for their own use.

Every kilometre of the ground had been covered with the new form of imaging both at night and with the infrared, Reneg guard posts had been plotted and even the places they kept their horses. The boys had no intention of killing beasts that were not a threat to them, if all went well with the attack then the boys would be able to start their hunt for more of dregs of this worn world.

As the sun began its descent into night, the first of the convoys departed for their positions, everything would be co-ordinated by the com units each and every boy wore or had installed in their vehicles, if Elios had been correct in his figures, they should be near the camp just after sundown on the second day, for now they would travel under the cover of night and then hide and rest during the day, each convoy had a target to reach before the sun rose so they could stay hidden from any patrols of Renegs that may venture out.

The first night went well and no convoys were detected by the Renegs, it was almost as though the Renegs thought they were invincible and did not worry about being attacked in their camp. The camp was made from and old City, it was surrounded by rubble that had been remade into crude high thick walls with the shacks and tents of the Renegs in the inner circle of protection, taller parts of the wall had been put up so guards could see out over the limitless sand wastes but its one short coming was its position.

While it looked well defended and would be almost impossible to attack with the use of normal weapons. To the now well armed and armoured boys, it was a sitting bird, the camp had been made not only in the centre of an old city but was in a depression surrounded by low hills, it was on the hills that the heavy tanks would stop and use for their attack along with the APC's and Humvees with roof mounted weapons.

The sniper boys would be a little closer but still under cover of the night and the sands, with Modou's expertise at concealment in the sand wastes, the sniper boys would be almost undetectable as they buried themselves into the front side of the low hills. After the initial attack by the tanks, the truck loads of boys along with the APC's and their crews and boys in the back would charge down the hills from all directions. The Humvees and jeeps with their fast firing weapons would go with them to act as cover, the plan was for all of the boys to attack at the same time from all directions after the tanks had done their work, even with the large numbers of Renegs in the big circular camp, the volume of fire should lessen the risks.

Elios hoped with all his heart that he had been right in selecting this plan of the ancients but he knew that even with their extra weapons advantage, they were going to lose some of the boys, but at least they now had the chance to hit back at the same men who had terrorised the new boys leaving the breeding caves each month. If they succeeded then there was a way forward apart from just surviving until the next day under the threat of enslavement or death by the Renegs.

The heavy tanks had been held back until all of the others were in position as they made far more noise than the lighter vehicles that could quieten down by going slower. It was Modou who saw their first problem, as he looked through his night glasses he saw that the Renegs had positioned small stone guard lookouts around the inner ring of wall, these had not been picked up clearly by the overhead views. To this end he came up with a small variation to the plan and talked to Elios about it on his com unit, after the talk, Modou then sent out the new orders for the boys in the trucks and APC's.

Those boys in the squads would now leave the trucks and make their way down the side of the surrounding hills as quiet as they could and get as close to the newly found guard positions without alerting them. When the heavy tanks started to fire, the boys along with the snipers, would work to shut down the small guard mounds while the tanks kept the main camp in disorder.

It was also decided that when the order to charge the camp came, only the boys on foot near the newly discovered guard mounds and the armed vehicles would go forward into the camp to mop up any Renegs left after the tanks had been used. It also helped that there was only one roadway into the camp, while it gave good defence for the Renegs, it also helped to keep them in a place they could not escape from. The six tanks would sit astride this one road to fire on the camp and the four squads sent to protect the tanks would act as outer guards if any Renegs tried to get past the them; but the tanks being spread apart in a line across the road left very little ground for any to get past, unless they tried to clamber up the almost vertical sides of the hills where the road had been cut through so long ago.

Elios, Mita, Modou and Elvan checked that all was ready, it was now in the very early hours of the morning and the camp below was almost totally quiet, the cooking fires had now died down and were just flickers in the darkness, even the moon was on the side of the boys as it hid behind a thick blanket of evening clouds. Elios listened from his office as Modou gave his one word of 'Set' followed by Mita and then Elvan, they were all ready for their first big battle with their hated enemies. Elios clicked his own com unit onto Elvan's channel.

"Go now Elvan."

The two guards lounging idly in the left hand stone trench stretched and looked across the narrow band of black road at the other two guards. It was just another night of fruitless guard duty, this duty was given to all those who upset the leader Lion Claw. Sometimes it was only for a single dark and a dei but, if you really got on his wrong side it could be, such as now, a full seven or ten dei's and darks. This was their fifth dark and they were bored with the useless duty, there was nothing in this world that would dare to attack a large Reneg camp, and definitely not the camp of Lion Claw.

The time was late when the two guards felt the first strange vibration under their butts as they sat with their backs against the stone wall. it was at first only a small movement in the ground, as they sat and tried to listen for anything in the darkness. The vibration got steadily stronger until it could be easily felt through the body.

The rumbling sound was like nothing they had ever experienced. Far away in the dark they could also hear a very unusual growling, it was almost as though a giant animal was coming their way. The two guards, along with their friends in the opposite trench, sat up to try and peer into the darkness surrounding them, the harder they searched the less they saw. Slowly at first, the rumbling started to decrease and then the vibrations also disappeared, the surrounding dark settled back into silence and the ground stopped its movement, perhaps it was just one of the rare land movements that happened from time to time or the falling of rocks from the nearby hills. The guards relaxed back to their sitting position and began to wish for the light of a new dei to arrive so they could eat and sleep.

It was the sudden bright flashes of six flames that brought the guards to their feet once again. It looked as though the flames were a long way away, just as their eyes got used to the dark again a strange whistling sound above their heads was heard. It was followed by a thunderous eruption of sound in the camp behind them as six huge fountains of flame and stone flew into the air in the middle of the encampment. The roaring thunder from these fountains rolled around the darkness filling their ears with a sound they had never heard before, but had been told about by the few survivors of battles with the boys from the wastes. The four guards began to shake with fear as six more whistles were heard above their trenches.

Time after time the high pitched whistles were heard along with an almost continuous thunder from the encampment. This was now mixed with screams of the injured and dying Renegs that had been caught asleep. The wild neighing of the haws and the thunder of the hooves as they tried to escape from the horrors from the sky upset the four guards even more, their once safe and secure camp was now a charnel house of blood and screams in the darkness.

It was fear that made one of the guards raise his head to look at where the flashes of fire were coming from. His friend heard him grunt as he slid down to sit once again. It took a moment before the other guard could make out the small round hole in his forehead and the thin trickle of blood from this new third eye. He had heard nothing amid the loud noises of the invading fire.

Quickly the remaining guard reached for his crossbow, as he turned towards the other trench he caught the vague outline of three boys dressed in strange clothes standing over the trench. He lifted his crossbow to take aim and then heard a soft cough behind him, turning his head to the side he saw another three boys standing above him and looking down. All three had some weird small black pipe grasped in their hands pointing directly at his head, they also had some funny looking things over their eyes.

Thoughts flew through his head as he tried to reason out what had happened, how could these boys see him and his fellow guards in the dark of night? How had they been able to move so close without being seen or stepping on the loose rocks around the trenches? They had made no sound and had seemed to have no trouble moving in the darkness. There was too much confusion in his head as these last thoughts ran through his mind, it was the last thing he thought of as a bright flash came from one of the boy's hands and something hit him in the head with the force of a haws hoof, and all was blackness.

Modou reached up to his com unit and reported the situation.

"Scout one to control."

"Control, go ahead Scout one."

"Guards silenced, you can stop firing now and advance to the entrance."

"Ok, Scout one, on our way."

The heavy firing ceased and the surrounding wastes and hills became silent except for the continuous screams of the injured below them in the now burning camp. Modou could faintly see the running dark figures in the flickering light of the many fires started by the tanks shells, the loud shouting of men giving orders could be heard above the tumultuous crackling of the fires and the screams of the wounded and dying.

Modou waited patiently with his small scout group as they heard the heavy rumbling of the tanks moving down from the heights above the roadway. The slightly higher pitched whine of the trucks could also be heard as they followed the tanks downwards. Every boy had his NV glasses on and was carefully scanning the ground before them as they waited for their reinforcements to arrive. They had holstered their side-arms and were now holding their rifles with confident hands. They knew that the real fight was still to come, the Renegs would not give up their camp without a fight. This was to be a decisive battle, both the boys and the Renegs would know this when the time came.

Modou could see through his NV glasses, the layout of the camp, where the single road went into the camp area it then split into three smaller tracks that were lined on each side with rough stone huts or old buildings that had the stone caves of the ancients. Many of these were now smoking ruins but there were still a lot of them standing or at least able to be used as cover for the Renegs that were left. In his greenish vision, Modou could also see the still figures strewn along the three tracks of those that had been unlucky enough to be caught in the firing of the tanks big guns.

They had taken a big toll of the Renegs with the tanks' guns but there were still many left. Modou put his sharp mind to work as he waited for the trucks to arrive with the rest of the attacking force. His friend Mita was on the other side of the camp where he could look down from the surrounding heights with his small group of sniper boys, they would work on the Renegs from their rear and cause more confusion in the ranks ahead.

Elios sat in his office with all of the screens turned on along the back wall. He was able to use the satellites to get night pictures and watch the attack, he desperately wanted to be there with his boy friend but was told to stay at the bunker and watch over the larger picture. The office behind him was also full of other bunker boys watching the attack through the miracle of the ancient's technology, most of the boys left behind were those that had not had time to be trained fully for such an adventure.

Modou watched carefully as some sort of order began to make itself known in the fire lit camp. He then heard the trucks pull up and stop not far behind him, within minutes they were unloading the boys from the back and the many young figures began to take up their positions in their individual squads. Every boy was armed with a rifle and side-arm as well as wearing the small NV glasses over their eyes, on their chests were the harnesses to carry the extra ammunition and under the harnesses were the heavy vests that the ancients said could stop the crossbow bolts from killing them.

Modou looked around as he held the shoulders of his two k'bines that still refused to leave without him. The twins were armed like all the others but seemed to be more worried about protecting Modou than anything else. Slowly Modou had the squad leaders spread their boys out in staggered lines like Elios had worked out, they were going to go into the town in something Elios called Leap Frogging. It was a design that the ancients used when going into places of danger, a number of squads would go a little way forward while the rest kept watch, the ones in front would then lay down and keep watch as others came up to and then past them for a short distance further.

Elios had explained how it would work in the close confines of the camp as long as each squad did it exactly right. Everyone that night knew there were going to be those who would not be alive in the morning and every boy hoped they would not be one of the unlucky ones and yet they still would not have been anywhere else, it was the first time in any of their known history where the boys had been able to fight back.

Modou gave the signal for the first squads to start moving forward. They had estimated that they could go forward about ten of the new metres before taking cover and calling the next squad to them who would then go past for another ten metres and wait. When they got to the three tracks they would split up into three sections and continue to use the same system, no squad moved forward until they could see no Renegs ahead of them and the ground forward was safe to run through.

As the first group of squads got to their first cover, Modou became aware of the swishing sound of crossbow bolts coming from the dark ahead of them. The Renegs had formed up their defences. Modou quietly spoke into his com unit so every boy could hear on the open channel, which had been selected by Elios so everyone could hear at the same time. The command channel was different and could only be heard by the group leaders.

It didn't take long before the sharp crack of the rifles began, the boys with their NV glasses could make out the Renegs more easily although it still took a little to get used to seeing everything in a greenish yellow light. The forward squads went about their task as they had been taught, there was no wild firing into the dark, each boy waited until he could see a clear target and then fire. This effect, although it made a slower rate of fire, was soon showing effective as the number of crossbow bolts slackened and then stopped.

The next group of squads got ready to go forward to their next place. Just as they reached the new position, the crossbows started firing again and the same system was begun. In the darkness the Renegs could only make out fleeting movements from the residue of the fires from the thunderous attack earlier, they were still confused as to how their attackers could see then so easily in the dark and the use of the black sticks was a big disadvantage to the defenders.

The boys just kept working their way forward in slowly forming groups that seemed to go forward and then stop while others came from behind and went further forward. To the Renegs it was like the waves of the ocean that just kept coming at them and each time they moved forward, the Renegs lost more men but unknown to the Renegs, worse was yet to come.

As the lines of boys arrived at the junction of the three roads they could see the heavy barricades set up by the Renegs. From side to side of each narrow street were piles of rocks and other detritus from around the area, behind the hastily built defences were large numbers of Renegs armed with crossbows, long heavy spears and slings. The boys slowed and looked carefully at the barricades, it was something like this that could cause a lot of casualties.

The defenders saw that the lines of boys had stopped and began to taunt them in the hope of getting their attackers out in the open. Surrounded by the heavy barricade the Renegs felt they finally had the upper hand, even with the ancient weapons the boys had, they would still be easier targets as they crossed the open ground to attack the entrenched defenders.

Modou looked over the barrier and then clicked on his com unit.

"Scout one to Elvan."

"Elvan to Scout one."

"We need some help up here; they've made a defence wall that could cause us some problems if we attack it over open ground."

"Ok Scout one, I'm on the way."

Modou called to some of his boys and relayed the message. Quickly all the boys in the attack line went to ground and took cover; they fired only at targets that showed themselves over the top of the wall. This, while not always a killing shot, was enough to keep the Renegs focused on the hidden boys.

For the next five minutes the odd sound of a rifle could be heard along the junction of the three streets. The answering bolts and missiles from the defenders were silent but could be seen by those who stayed hidden in the rubble and odd remains of the buildings. The sound of a deep rumbling was the first notice to the Renegs that something was not right, as the ground began to shake and tremble in the early morning heat.

It had taken six hours of hard fighting to get to this junction and the boys were starting to feel the effects of the long battle. For most it was only sheer determination and their hatred of the Reneg that kept them going, they now felt a sense of relief as they also felt and heard the tanks coming towards them. So far their losses had been light considering the enemy they were facing, there had been only four boys killed and fifteen injured in the attack so far. The losses to the Reneges were far greater but there were still many of them left and a long way to go before they had cleaned out this nest of theirs.

Modou looked up and back from where he was crouched behind a pile of rocks, the long barrel of the tank gun was just coming around the turn further back along the already cleared part of the road, its rumbling engine and the vibration of the metal tracks on the hard ground could now be felt by everybody at the junction.

At the first sight of the huge and threatening machine, the Renegs had their first real feeling of fear. This strange and ancient machine was like a bad dream from the worst place in their minds. It rumbled around the corner and almost appeared to be breathing smoke from its rear, as they watched in horror, a small part on top began to turn around until the long metal pipe at the front was looking right at them.

From a smaller pipe under the big one, a loud crackling sound accompanied the sight of fire spitting from the small hole, immediately the stones and rocks around the defenders began to erupt in small geysers of dust and whining hornets. The Renegs that didn't duck behind the walls were shattered by the hail of small missiles, now there was true fear in the eyes of the Renegs.

As the small pipe stopped spitting out its hail of death the Renegs almost breathed a sigh of relief. It was short lived as they next heard a booming sound from the machine. Those that had been brave enough to try to look over the top of the stone wall saw only a bright flash of flame and smoke from the larger pipe before their protected world came crashing down around the heads. Five more times the tank belched its death until the once strong defensive walls were no more than broken piles of rubble. The screams of the injured and terrified Renegs could be heard by the boys still hidden in the outer rubble.

At a signal from Modou, the boys rose and began to move forward again in their leapfrog system of advance. After the mayhem of the tank, their job now was no more than a mop up of any defenders who thought they could stay and fight. Modou called Elvan again and now, as each group of squads split up and went down each of the three narrow streets, a single tank followed them in case there were more defence walls.

For the boys advancing along the narrow streets it was no picnic, each and every place that a Reneg could hide had to be looked into and cleared. It was a slow and dangerous business and only the back up of the huge tank gave them some sense of safety. While the fighting was light, there were still some Renegs who wanted to stay and take as many of the boys as possible. Again there were losses although they were not as bad as they thought it would be due to the thick vests the boys wore.

Close to the middle of the day, when the sun was high and heat almost overbearing, Elios called all the commanders and told them to stop and rest. Their efforts during the night and all morning had now forced the remaining Renegs into a small central circle of defences. From the heights above, Mita and his sniper boys took any chance to thin the numbers as the Renegs showed themselves anywhere in the circle of buildings and ruins.

Modou had his boys pull back slightly and, after setting out guards, the others took the chance to eat and rest their weary and tired bodies. The attack had been a lot more difficult than they had first thought it would be, but Lion Claw was still out there, and still very dangerous. Although his numbers were now decimated he still had enough men to cause trouble. Elios and all the other boys knew they would have to totally destroy this nest if they were to have any peace in the future.

With the use of a number of heavy trucks, Elios sent up fresh water and hot food for the attacking troops. Mita and his boys kept up their sniping whenever there was an opportunity to keep the Renegs on the alert and to stop any ideas of counter attacking the resting boys. As the sun rose higher and the boys felt better rested, Modou gave the order to move onward.

Again and again the boys had to take cover as the defence got stronger. They were now approaching the centre of the Reneg camp, the resistance had grown stronger as they pushed the survivors further and further back, while the boys had the distinctive advantage of their weapons, the Renegs had their local knowledge and pre prepared positions.

In the close quarter fighting the number of killed and wounded boys had grown although not as high as the losses suffered by their enemy. The use of the tanks had been limited by the closeness of the enemy, sometimes there was little more than a few metres between the fighters and it was at times like this that the weapons of the boys became an advantage as their side arms, although not as accurate, were far more effective than the slowness of reloading a crossbow. In all instances, the boys avoided hand to hand fighting, they were smaller and weaker than the fully grown adult Renegs and would stand no chance so they tried to keep their distance.

As the sun sank towards the horizon and darkness got closer, the Renegs had finally been pushed back into a small square of old buildings. It was their last stronghold and the boys were now completely surrounding them. The continuous attack from all sides had not only demoralised the Renegs but had cut their numbers down to only a few dozen of the hardiest and most dangerous ones, including Lion Claw.

Modou, Elios, Mita and Elvan along with the squad leaders, began a conference over the com units. The Renegs were completely surrounded and at their mercy, it was now time to end it once and for all, as Modou and Mita described the last defensive buildings and how they were set out, Elios suggested bringing all six of the tanks in and levelling the area. The boys would only keep a tight circle around the outer limits to prevent any escapes, the others agreed and Modou gave the order for Elvan to bring up all six tanks and begin the final stage of the attack.

As the heavy tanks moved into position, some of the adrenaline in the boys began to dissipate, their bodies were tired and felt heavy. The smell of blood in the confines of the camp was also heavy in the air and the soft evening breeze pushed the smoke of fires and the dust of crumbled buildings out into the barren streets, covering everything in the after stink of battle, already flies buzzed around the many corpses of those fallen in the fight.

All the bodies around the camp were those of the Renegs, any boys who had been hurt or killed had been quickly removed by those following up in the trucks. The wounded were given help by the few boys that knew a little about first aid they had learnt from the computer modules back in Home Bunker. The one thing that the first aid boys noticed was that the crossbow bolts were cleaner than what a bullet did and therefore a little easier to remove and bandage. Any Reneg hit by a bullet had little or no chance, it was the one small thing in the day long battle that the boys were thankful for.

The six tanks took up position around the four sides of the last defensive buildings. At a signal from Elvan they began a piece by piece destruction of the defenders and their small fortifications, the noise was deafening and the smoke haze from the cannon began to swirl around the scene. Shell after shell buried deep into the old buildings and soon they started to collapse in on themselves as the fire continued to pour in. Most of the boys guarding the outer areas covered their ears from the loud crashing reports, from the Renegs there was nothing but screams and curses that could faintly be heard over the loud explosions.

Just before dark the tanks ceased fire. The sudden stillness and silence after the barrage was almost like a god send, if they had a god. In the stillness the sound of moans and curses could be heard from the few Renegs that had survived the terrible pounding although none had entirely escaped. Those that were left were all in some way injured either physically or now mentally. The continuous crashing of the guns had sent a few into a state of shock that they could only stare wide eyed at the destruction of everything they ever knew. The once powerful and deadly terrors of the wastes were now reduced to hollow skeletons of their former selves.

The boys moved in on the last Renegs left in the ruins, there was no fight left in the Renegs now apart from Lion Claw. As the boys dispatched those last Renegs, they looked up at where Lion Claw stood on a pile of stones. In his hand he held a long knife and dared the boys to come and finish him, from his forehead a thin line of blood oozed from a deep gash, his other arm hung uselessly by his side and there was blood seeping from another gash on his leg but. He stood there in defiance as he railed at the boys and their lack of manhood.

Modou moved forward and stood below the slight rise of rocks where Lion Claw stood. From somewhere under his voluminous white robe, Modou pulled a long knife, it glistened in the last rays of the dying sun as he stepped towards Lion Claw, his face set in a scowl of determination. To the surprise of the boys watching, Modou suddenly jumped the last few metres of space and, with a strong fast swing of the long knife, smashed the shorter knife from the remaining hand of Lion Claw.

As the knife fell from the unfeeling fingers of Lion Claw, Modou gave the signal to attack the man, ten boys jumped at the Reneg leader and, after shouts, grunts and even the odd scream of pain, Lion Claw was on the ground under a pile of boys. Although outnumbered and now outweighed, Lion Claw still tried to fight until Modou stepped up closer and struck him hard on the head with the butt of a rifle. The Reneg leader saw only darkness as both he and the sun sank into night.

***

The next morning found the boys camped well outside the Reneg camp, they had left the dead where they lay, the animals would feast well for a few days to come but the boys did not want the smell of death in their nostrils when they awoke. Lion Claw was trussed up and held in the back of one of the trucks under a four boy guard, he was to be taken back to Home Bunker where he would meet his final fate.

The huge battle had not been without its losses for the boys either. At the final tally they found that fifty six boys were wounded and they had lost a further thirty two killed. Modou and Mita had tried to take a rough count of the destroyed Renegs but had given up after they reached a figure of more than two hundred. Both agreed that the true figure was probably twice that as many were buried under collapsed buildings and other rubble, it was their first real victory over the hated Renegs. They had also learned a few good lessons about large fights with these terrors of the waste lands.

The arrival back at Home Bunker of the attackers became a loud joyful party, the wounded were treated as heroes and fussed over by those who had to stay behind, the truck carrying the dead boys was greeted with solemnity as those that had lived through their first full battle with the hated Renegs paid homage to their sacrifice.

The leaders gathered around the truck holding the hated Lion Claw. His wounds had not been treated as it seemed pointless to the boys, if they had been in his hands they would have received far worse treatment. The five leaders looked at their captive with distain, he was bound hand and foot and the smell of death around him only worked to reinforce the boys determination to make an example of the Reneg leader.

After he was pulled from the track, Lion Claw continued to glare at his captors. Even though he was over awed by all the new and strange things from the time of the ancients, while he did not understand any of the things the boys had, he now knew what they could do, there became a far away look in his eyes as he realised that, if the boys took their type of fighting further afield, then the days of the Reneg could be numbered. He also saw that for him, it was over. The looks on the faces of the five boys watching him, told him of little pity from them, now it was only a matter of time.

It was Modou who came up with the appropriate sentence for the Reneg leader, as he explained his plan to the others. Even they turned a little green but, as Modou explained, it was the way of his people that those who would enslave others should be treated and no enemy should ever be left to return another day, and so it was decided. Lion Claw would be made an example of for other Renegs who might have ideas of attacking the boys of Home Bunker.

That night all the boys assembled so the good words could be said about their dead friends, outside the Home Bunker they made a special place for the dead to be buried. It had been decided that they should always have this special place so any boys that came after them would know their story and be able to admire that they were the first boys to fall in the first attack on a Reneg camp. For those that were wounded, Elios had searched through the many store rooms of the Home Bunker for something special so that other boys would know that they lost blood for the bigger family.

It was one of the new boys that found what Elios thought would be a good symbol for those who had been hurt by the Renegs. In a box on top of a high shelf, the boy had been casually going through small brown boxes that had not been looked at before. It was in the first box he found the strange metal bars, they were like two of the number 1 joined together with a funny pin at the back, it didn't take the boy long to work out that the pin was so it could be fitted onto his shirt. He put one on to make his shirt look better and then went in search of his friend to show him, it was while he was looking that he came across Elios studiously looking for something in another store room.

Elios looked up at the boy as he smiled and greeted one of the leaders. Elios immediately saw the shiny glitter of metal on the boys shirt, it was just the thing he was looking for, it was highly noticeable and small enough to not get in the way of the boys equipment. When this Leader called for him and asked where he had found the small bars, the boy first though he was in trouble and had broken some rule about the store rooms. It was only after Elios had explained to him why he wanted to know about the bars, that the boy looked thoughtfully at this Leader, he had never though of honouring the wounded boys, perhaps that was why these boys were asked to be Leaders.

Quickly agreeing to show Elios where he had found the bars, the boy then took his off; he already found he did not deserve something that should be given to the real fighters of the Home Bunker. Elios and the boy scrambled up to the top of the high shelf, there they found many more boxes full of all manner of metal bars along with other designs, after a thorough search they had enough of the double bars and Elios took note of where they all were, in the back of his mind a plan began to form, it was only right that those who had done something special in a fight should be recognised.

It was after the special ceremony for the dead boys that Elios talked to the other leaders and explained his idea for the wounded, it was soon agreed by the others that they should have a special party and present the wounded with their small shiny bars as a mark of their sacrifice for the rest. The party was soon organised and, that night, all the wounded were carefully brought to the large common room, all of them were seated at a group of tables together. Elam and his boys had gone to special trouble to make a big feast with all sorts of new foods for the occasion.

Before the feast began, Elios stood and began his short speech, after he was finished thanking the wounded for what they had done, the five Leaders went together and carefully pinned a set of bars on the shirt of each boy. After a long round of clapping and shouts of congratulations, the food was brought out and the feast began. The boys of Home Bunker had started a new tradition. Lion Claw, meanwhile, had to listen to the happy sounds from his dark locked room near the big doors of the hidden home of the boys who had brought his empire down. There was nothing for him to do but rue the day he had decided to be a Reneg, he also knew he would get no pity from this mass of boys, his time had come.

As the sun got higher the next morning, the valley of Home Bunker was flooded by all of the members of the bunker. It was time for the last act of destruction of the Reneg. During the night, Elvan had worked hard on his new found ability to join metal with power from the generators, it had been anew experience fraught with problems until he had gone back to the computers and found what he needed to know but. Now he knew how the ancients had made so many metal items and how they kept them joined together, he found it was called Welding. He stood back and looked at his creation.

Elvan had welded together two long pipes in the form of a large X, early in the morning he had had six boys carry the X outside and, with grunts, groans and a lot of sweat, buried two of the legs in the sand of the valley floor. It now stood in the centre of the valley where there was no shade, at the top of the arms were two round rings and just above the ground were two more small flat platforms, one on each leg.

As the sun hit the ground at midmorning, Lion Claw was pulled from the room near the doors. Every boy in the Bunker was outside waiting as the Renege leader was pulled roughly from the doorway and out into the hot morning sunlight. There was no fight left in the terror of the Wastes now, he was dirty and crusted blood covered most of his body, he was also weak from hunger and his wounds. It was not difficult for four of the bigger boys to half drag and half carry the man to where the X was waiting for him.

It was Mita whom had found the metal circles of steel with a short chain attached; it was not until he had looked at them for over an hour that the use of them came to his mind, now they were in use on the hands of Lion Claw. When they reached the large metal X buried in the sand, the escort for the Reneg helped to put him up on the back of the truck that was parked in front and close to the metal pipes.

Once they had the Reneg standing on the truck, he was turned so his back was against the metal pipes. Modou, being the biggest of all the boys, took hold of one arm as Mita used the small metal key to open one side of the bands around d the Renegs wrists, Modou pulled one arm high enough for the metal band to be quickly closed in the small ring, within seconds, the other arm, although injured and brought a loud cry of pain from the Reneg, was soon also clamped high up with another set of the metal bands. The pain and hurt on the face of the Reneg leader from the injured arm brought no reaction from the multitude of boys gathered to watch the end of the hated Reneg.

Slowly the truck was moved forward until the Reneg was hanging by his clamped hands. It was Modou again who jumped from the truck and, with competent fingers, lifted and fastened the Renegs legs to the small thin platforms near the bottom of the X. The man was now hanging and fully secured to the metal pipes, he was also now open to the full force of the sun, his moans of pain could be heard by all of the boys present but, not one of them showed any emotion for the fallen enemy. It was a small price to pay for what had been done to thousands of boys over the years since the Horror had ended.

The placing of the X was in such a position that anyone entering the valley would have to see it. It was now not only a penalty of death but also a warning to any other Renegs of what would happen if they tried to attack the Home Bunker or any other Bunker that the boys now had. As the last band was fastened around the leg of Lion Claw, a unified sigh passed through most of the assembled boys. Their first big battle was over and was won. After a few cat calls and derisive remarks at the Reneg leader, the boys began to disperse and go about their other duties. Lion Claw would be left to the sun, while it was going to be a long, slow death, not a single boy felt it was unfair or that the man did not deserve his fate.

The only thing left for the boys to do that day was to give honour to the boys that had fallen in the attempt to attack the Reneg camp. Under normal conditions and in the way of the present, the fallen boys would have been left out on the wastes for the animals but this time, the boys felt they needed to do something special for their friends. They had now become somewhat of a family and felt the loss of the thirty boys like never before, it was a new feeling, one that they had never thought of as important, but now, under this new style of living, it seemed far more than just the loss of some unknown boys like in the old days.

It was finally decided by all the boys that they would make a small place outside the bunker and surround it with a fence of stones. The dead boys would be buried and a smaller stone put up so others would know who they were. It was a new idea but all of the other boys thought it felt right to remember their friends in this way, they had all fought to free themselves from the tyranny of the Renegs.

It took one more day before Lion Claw gave up his last reserves and died on the pipe frame, his body was blistered and burnt from the bright hot sun, the large black birds that hunted for carrion were soon all over the mound of putrid flesh as it hung by its arms. The heavy sickly sweet smell of death permeated the surrounding valley as the birds went about their work, by afternoon there was not much more than bones left and those were now in a crumpled heap at the base of the pipe frame where the animals of the night could clean them up. By the next morning there was no trace of Lion Claw or the terror he had instilled in the wastes.

For the next two weeks, all the various leaders set to work sorting out who would live where and then allocate the newly found bunkers to boys who had an interest in what each bunker held. The influx of new boys was still steady as the word spread about the great victory over the local Renegs, there was now a regular stream of new boys wanting to learn about the new things of the ancients.

The classes for the new boys grew and, as each one found his own interest, he was taken and taught more about that field of knowledge. Slowly the ability to read and write grew among all the boys, the ability to use the ancient technology grew and new ways of doing things was broadened. From the central Home Bunker boys began to filter out to the other bunkers, each had his own knowledge and talents and it was not long before the small number of opened bunkers were again being filled.

For Elios it was the hardest, the long hours needed to understand the computer systems and the way communication was done, took longer and the number of boys able to fill this important roll was limited. However Elios worked on and slowly built his little army of boys who could be then sent out to each of the bunkers to set up communications to the central Home Bunker.

Within two months all the bunkers were linked together through the communications of the ancient computers and the marvel of the newly discovered satellites that hung above them in some magical way by the ancients. How it was done did not interest Elios or the other boys, only the fact that it was there and could be put too use by the boys in the search for their own home was all they needed to know.

It was no surprise to Elios or the others that a large number of boys wanted to become involved with the people of the valley, the interest in growing food and tress seemed to spark an interest in a lot of the boys. It was as though something primordial was working in the middle of each boys brain to see something grow from the soil, it soon became vital for them to limit the number of boys that went to the valley, the last thing they wanted to do was overload the place so that it could no longer grow plants.

Another full meeting was called by the leaders of all the boys, each type of skill was represented by a leader, as they all gathered in the common room for the meeting. Elios was the first to notice the number of leaders, he was immediately amazed at how many branches of work there now was from the day the three boys had found their first bunker, it had now grown to be almost a small city of its own.

Mita was asked to take charge of the meeting, its first agenda was to find out what all the others wanted to do. There was a total agreement on the need to find and open more bunkers if they existed and also the need to improve the ways they could fight the Renegs and where they were hidden. It became apparent that they would have to create a specialised search team, it was also decided that each and every boy who joined the bunker system had to be trained in the use of the ancient weapons so they were always ready to defend their new homes.

Slowly a plan was devised for a number of small search groups to be trained especially for the job of finding and opening new bunkers. It was while looking at his map of bunkers on the computer that Elios saw something was not right with the small pattern of green lights, there was one more than there should be. Elios began his search and it soon came to him that the new green light was only days away from the last bunker they had found, could the Renegs have finally found a way into the hidden bunkers? It was one more problem to be solved.

While Elios and Mita enjoyed the companionship of their friends Elvan and Elam, they also had a longing for open spaces and new adventures, it was in Elios nature too keep looking further outwards and so, they decided to also become one of the newly formed search teams, Elios made sure that each of the five teams leaders and number two's had the new codes for the doors for when they did find a new bunker.

It took weeks of planning and training for the five search teams. There were new skills that had to be learned and training for the defence of the small mobile convoys, maps had to be printed and locations settled on as well as the boys had to learn about navigation and the problems that could arise with the travel conditions. It was all a long and slow process, supply lists and transport had to be sorted and how to pack them into the vehicles for the best advantage to the teams.

After long discussions and trial and error, the boys finally came up with a plan that they hoped would work. Each convoy would consist of two jeeps with a driver and three guards as scout vehicles, an armed APC with a driver and guard in the front, behind them would be the commander of the convoy who would be the navigator and communications officer, alongside him would be the boy in charge of the roof mounted weapon, and six more guards and equipment in the back, behind them would be two heavy trucks with drivers and guards loaded with the rest of their supplies along with four more guards and bringing up the rear would be an armed Humvee with driver and three guards.

Each vehicle would receive the most powerful communications equipment they had and one of the trucks would be filled mainly with fuel cans to serve as the tanker for the convoy. Elios spent a lot of time with the four other leaders to teach them about map reading and the new codes needed for opening the doors, he also saw to the training of two of the boys to find and enter from the concealed pipes if they had no power to open the doors.

The leaders got map references and other information about other bunkers from Elios huge store of data and selected which ones they wanted to go and look for, each convoy would be given two bunkers to search for in case some were not able to be used for some reason. Mita had insisted that each convoy had one of his sniper boys along as well, Modou had given them special training in survival and concealment out in the wastes for that purpose, those boys would often be an advance guard for the jeeps as they would have their own quad to use.

The day for the departure of the search convoys finally arrived and all the vehicles stood ready outside Home Bunker as the groups finalised any problems, Elios and Mita, along with Modou, who would be taking charge of the last bunker to be found, would all travel together to that point and then Elios and Mita would go on from there.

The first thing Elios wanted to check was the bunker showing on his computer screen that had not been visited by them before, he had his suspicions but; if he was wrong then it meant that the Renegs had found a way into the bunker and that, was not a good thought to contemplate, any use of the ancient technology by the Renegs could spell disaster for the boys' future.

The return to the new bunker took five days as the boys were not in to much hurry and they were able to check for things they might have missed on their first trip. On arrival at the bunker, they were met by the boys who had stayed to guard the bunker, with the influx of new boys and more equipment. The day turned into a party and everyone had a great time eating and laughing. The boys who had stayed behind to guard the bunker were intrigued by the story of the downfall of Lion Claw, the looks on the young faces changed to one of awe as the story unfolded and a new sense of determination came across their faces as they took in the fact that they were no longer at the mercy of the Reneg gangs.

For the next five days, Elios and the convoy crew prepared for the next stage of their search. The word of a newly found bunker had already spread through the vast waste lands and, even as they got ready to travel again, there were new boys wandering into the new bunker and slowly building its numbers. Modou and his two k'bines were soon busy setting up to teach the new boys about the life style they had now come into, it was becoming a busy time for the new leader of the bunker.

Elios and Mita set out towards the bunker that showed the green light on Elios computer. It was the first priority and needed to be looked into before they went further afield. Elios estimated it would take about four days to reach the place where the bunker was meant to be but they would travel slower than needed as they also wanted to keep a sharp watch for any Reneg gangs in this new area.

The second days travel was much as the first, long barren stretches of salt wastes that reddened the eyes of the drivers even though they wore the special driving glasses of the ancients. The guard boys were just as tired as they had to keep watch hour upon hour over the shimmering white flatness, by the time Elios called a halt for the night, everyone was worn out and some tempers were getting thin, only those not on specific duty could rest and relax during the driving hours but, at night they took over as guards and protectors of the camp as the others slept.

It was a monotonous two days but Elios and Mita knew that tomorrow things would change. They were now right at the edge of the salt wastes and tomorrow they would being to travel into sand and hills. While it would still be tough travel, they would at least be spared the glaring sameness of the salt flats and their eyes could finally rest from the stark glare of the bright sun off the prism like salt crystals that had seemed to increase the vast power of the sun.

There was little to distract the convoy during the night and, in the first light of morning, Elios and Mita called their troop together for a briefing of what they thought lay ahead of them. This led to a change in the positions of the convoy vehicles, Mita, along with one guard boy, would now go ahead and take up a position with his sniper rifle well in advance of the rest. He would then wait and watch until the slower convoy caught up and then repeat the exercise, with his two-seater quad he could easily speed ahead. It was in this way they hoped to be able to see any enemy or those from the forward bunker, before the strangers could see them. The two jeeps would now take a wider track to each side for a better side cover and all the trucks would close up and keep together with the Humvees around them while the APC took the vanguard.

After a fast morning meal, the newly configured convoy set off. Mita and his guard had already left and were out of sight as the other started their vehicles, the faint shimmering blueness of the distant hills beckoned them and Elios did not want to wait any longer on the last of the salt flats. He set a reasonable speed so the central trucks could keep pace without being stretched to their limits but he also did not want them to be ambling along as though they had all day.

By midday they had left the salt flats and were now a few kilometres into the sandy rises that would lead to the first of the low hills. Inside the vehicles, under the heat of three days of dusty travel, the boys were beginning to smell ripe, their clothes were inundated with salt and dust and their skin felt like it was covered with grit. The heavy scent of boy sweat filled each vehicle but, for those inside it was almost unnoticeable, all their senses were directed onto what was outside the vehicles, they were now into territory that could hold extreme danger and none of them wanted to be the one responsible for getting his friends hurt or worse, killed.

After travelling for an hour on the morning of the fourth day, Elios called a halt to the convoy as a message came in from Mita. He was positioned on top of a low sand dune overlooking a wide valley that led to another higher range of hills, he had buried himself deep in the sand so he was almost invisible to anyone below. With his binoculars he watched the far side of the valley below with an intense gaze.

As Mita had set out before first light, he was able to get to and up the ridge before the first rays of the sun showed over the next ridge line, what he saw below him gave him, gave him food for thought. The bunker they had been searching for looked to be closer than they had at first thought but, further to that it was plainly obvious that it was occupied by someone.

Mita watched as he saw four grown men come out of the bunker door. They were fully armed and on the alert as they made for what looked like sentry posts set up about a hundred metres outside the doorway. Mita stayed still and watched as the men took up their own positions to guard the door access. The first thing Mita noticed was that they did not look like Renegs and, unless he was mistaken, they looked very much at ease with the weapons they carried. The more he watched the more certain he was that they were part of the President man's group although there was nothing to indicate that apart from the way the behaved.

Mita called back to Elios with his information and then stayed to watch further as Elios pulled over the convoy so the noise would not carry to the bunker guards, from now on they would have to keep things very quiet. Elios sat down to think, they had to make contact but in a way that everyone would stay safe. He already was not very happy with the man who said he ruled everything but there was a faint chance they could be of help with the future of the Reneg gangs.

It was not Elios' wish to make enemies wherever they went, but they had been and seen enough to not want to be ruled over by a funny short fat man. Elios though he would have to spend some time to find out what a President man was, for the last few weeks he had been to busy to look into it and now felt he should have done it sooner. They had always held the advantage by knowing what was to come before they stepped into anything and now they were once again faced with this strange man and his troop.

For the next hour, Elios and his boy discussed what to do, keeping in contact with Mita, he passed on what was said so that he could also point out any suggestions or faults, finally it was decided to make an approach to the bunker with only a minimum of boys so that they did not look threatening. It was hoped they could find out what the others were up to, if they wished to join up with the boys for mutual defence then it was ok, if not, then they would leave them and go on with their search for another bunker. Although Elios felt it was not a good idea to leave someone behind them that could cause trouble for them later but, he also did not want to start anything that could hurt them either.

Knowing how the sound of the vehicles could travel long distances, Elios kept the speed down to a minimum as the closed up on the sand dune that Mita was still hidden on. Mita had estimated that the valley was about two kilometres wide and what looked like the entrance to the valley was a further three kilometres to their right. Elios slowly pulled all the convoy to a stop where he saw the quad partially buried in the soft sand. The guard boy was also half buried under the sand behind the quad using it as cover, as the guard saw the convoy close on his position he lifted up enough for Elios to see he was ok, as quietly as they could, Elios convoy pulled to a halt below the ridge.

Above Elios and the convoy, Mita kept a sharp eye on the four bunker guards below him. While he had heard the sound of the slow moving convoy, he felt sure the sand dune had covered most of the noise from those he watched below, a soft whispering of sand behind him, told Mita that he was being joined from below by one of the convoy boys. He didn't need to look around as the special smell of Elios hit his nose, only his eyes moved slightly to look at his boyfriend as he slithered in beside him.

"Hello my k'bine, how are things with the convoy?"

"Good, I only hope they didn't hear us coming up. What's happening down there?"

"Nothing much, the guards seem to be relaxed and I haven't seen anyone from inside come out so I don't know how many men are in there yet."

"Ok, well I've been thinking further on how we should go about talking to them."

"What have you come up with? I don't want you making a target of yourself for those crazies."

"Well, you remember when we first met them they had a white cloth to show they were not going to attack us?"

"Yes."

"Well I have cut one of those white bed coverings into a smaller piece. We use only one of the Humvees and fly the cloth on the aerial to show them we don't want to fight with them. I, a driver and two guards go down there alone, the rest of the convoy stays hidden behind this ridge. You can keep us covered from up here and the others can be ready in the jeeps and other vehicles just in case they start anything."

"That's fine but what if they try to hurt you? You'll be all alone down there with only the three boys and no way to escape if they try anything?"

"Don't worry, we'll still have the Humvee and we'll stay inside until I feel if it's safe enough. I'm not going to take any chances with them, besides, you'll be up here watching and they don't know we have all the other boys hidden down here. If we have to fight we can keep them inside the bunker until they want to give up."

"Are you forgetting how much equipment is inside these bunkers, they could stay in there for years if they wanted to and we couldn't get to them?"

"I know, if they do that then will just have to wait and see, but if they don't want to join us then we can just leave them. We have enough boys now and all those new ones coming in all the time, that we outnumber them if they try to make a fight of it. Besides, they are all older men, they can't last as long as we can and I only saw one boy that was with them."

"Ok, but if they make one wrong move towards you I'm going to start firing."

"Good, ok, well I think we had better get this started. I'll send half the boys up here to watch with you, the rest can stay ready in the jeeps, Humvees and the APC in case they're needed, keep your com unit open in case I need your help. When I start talking to them I will leave mine open so you can hear from here."

Mita turned his head and quickly placed alight kiss on Elios' cheek as the boy started to squirm his way back down the ridge to set up the other boys for what was to come. Within half an hour, everything was ready, Elios Humvee had a large cut piece of white cloth flying from the aerial as he started to drive towards the entrance of the valley some three kilometres away to the right. Elios kept his speed down to stop any dust from flying to high or any noise from carrying to far towards the waiting guards at the entrance of the new bunker.

It was twenty minutes before he reached the opening into the valley, once there he sped up the Humvee so that the sound would reach the waiting guards and let them know that someone was coming towards them with no attempt at concealment. Through his ear piece, Mita reported what was happening down in the valley as the louder sound of the speeding Humvee was heard by the four guards.

In the two defensive bunkers outside the bunker, the four armed guards heard the deep throated growl of a heavy vehicle coming from further down the valley. Mita, watching through his binoculars from his hiding place atop the sand ridge, saw the guards come to alert as the first signs of the speeding Humvee came within range, its hastily made white flag flying stiffly in the draft created by the speed of the vehicle.

As the Humvee drew closer, the four guards raised their rifles in the direction of the perceived threat, watching closely the guards saw the white flag and paused. It was an old system of truce and they had no option but to hold fire until they found out what was going on, seeing only a single vehicle, albeit and armoured one, the senior spoke into his com unit to his superior inside the bunker.

Elios stopped the Humvee about one hundred metres from the guard posts. There he sat and waited as he tried not to show any signs of aggression towards the four men aiming rifles at he and his small crew. It took a few minutes more before he saw the door of the bunker start to rise and the dark shape of six more figures came through the entrance. In the lead was the same man Elios had spoken to all those weeks ago, Captain Noel.

The Captain looked at the single Humvee waiting patiently a hundred metres from his guard posts. Too his mind there could only be one group that would have them apart from his own troops, in all their long travels from one bunker to another, they had never seen the waste land gangs with vehicles. It had to the young boys they had met some time ago. The Captain gave orders for his men to lower their weapons but stay alert, he then moved cautiously towards the Humvee.

As he drew closer, Captain Noel heard and saw the driver's door begin to open. The tension in the air was almost palpable as the small figure of the boy he knew as Elios, stepped from the Humvee. Apart from a side-arm and a combat knife fixed to his waist belt, the young boy was unarmed. The Captain gave a hand signal behind his back for his men to stand down, the boy was evidently no threat at this stage, although he did look incongruous in his cut down fatigues and large weapons on such a small frame.

Elios took a couple of steps towards the Captain and then stopped so he was still close enough to the Humvee to flee if had need too. Elios then waited for the Captain to approach him before smiling and giving a short greeting. Elios also remembered to keep his own com unit open so that his backup could hear everything being said. He waited while the Captain replied to his greeting and then began to explain to the man why they had come to see them.

"Captain, we came to see if you wished to join our bunker system, with the ones we hold now we could be of help to you and your people. We could also use the help you have about the ancients, it's obvious that you have a lot of knowledge we don't have and it would be best to keep the technology of the ancients out of the hands of the Renegs."

"Well, Elios, thank you for the offer but I can't make that decision. We would have to let the President do that, he's our leader and the leader of our country as he is your leader."

"What! No he's not our leader, we lead ourselves."

"I'd have to disagree with you there Elios. You see the President is the lawful leader of the North American States and, you are a member of those same States so, therefore you are under his command. It's all to do with the legal aspect of the constitution for which he is responsible in just the same way his forefather's have been."

"Well I don't know anything about forefathers, his or anyone else's, for that matter, I don't know what a forefather is, as too us belonging to your President man, well that's silly, we have our own leaders and we're doing ok just as we are."

"Look, Elios, it's the way of the world, someone has to be the overall leader. The President's family was chosen to be that leader as his forefather was the one who held the office when the Horror started. It's the way things are done, you have to have a leader, besides he's a very religious man and would not do anything to hurt you or your group, he's juts there to lead us through these tough times."

Elios thought back to his first meeting with the short fat man. It was obvious he had seen very little of tough times as he was well fed and had a special escort to keep him safe. Elios looked deeply into the Captain's eyes, even he could see that the man thought he was right and that he believed in what he was saying, there was no evident dishonesty in the man's words.

"I'm sorry Captain, but we have our own leaders. We only made this approach so that we could all be safe, we have a number of bunkers open and thought you may need help at some stage, there are still a lot of Renegs out there."

"I don't have the authority to make any decisions at this time Elios, perhaps it would be better to talk to the President about all this and then we can come to some sort of agreement on mutual help."

Elios thought about the offer to talk to the President man, in his ear and unheard by the Captain, Mita advised him about not going inside the bunker where he would be alone. They didn't know these men very well and he did not want his k'bine going into that sort of danger. Elios gave it more thought, finally he decided that he had to try, if nothing came of it then so be it, they would go there own way and keep away from the fat man who though he owned the world.

"I will meet with your President so we can talk about sharing things and information."

"Good, if you can give me a little time to set it up then we can get it all sorted out. Would you like to come inside and wait? We can get some food and drink for you and your boys?"

Elios listened to Mita in his ear as he thought about the offer, Mita was still not happy that Elios wanted to talk to the man who though he owned the world. If anything happened inside the bunker, Mita and the others would not be able to help him. Elios agreed but could not give up this chance to make their own small world stronger by having allies. Finally, Elios agreed to go with the Captain as long as he could take two of his own boys with him, the driver and gunner would stay with the Humvee. Elios said nothing about the rest of his group hiding up on the sand ridge.

Elios returned to the Humvee and asked two of the four boys to come with him, they would keep their rifles and stay with Elios during the meeting. The three boys returned to join the Captain as he waited patiently for the boys, once they were all together, the Captain led them through the cordon of ten men towards the open doorway.

As they moved inside the dark opening, Elios began to take notice of the number of men and, much to his surprise, women, all wore the same military dress that Elios and his boys wore. Elios also saw that all of them were fully armed and watching the smaller boys with an alert nonchalance. To these long time troops, any strange visitor, especially armed with weapons from a bygone age, was to be watched closely.

Captain Noel led the boys to one of the tables in the common room, there he called for food and drink for the visitors while he went to organise the meeting with the President. Elios and the boys drank and ate as they waited, in his mind Elios tried to sort out what he would say to the short fat man, even now, he was not sure of the man. There was something about him that Elios natural suspicion of adults did not trust, he could still not get his head around the fact that the man claimed to rule the world.

It was twenty minutes before the Captain returned. After a short message, the Captain asked Elios and his two boys to follow him to the President's office, behind the small group came six adult military, also armed. They were not going to trust Elios and the two boys close to their President. At the door to the office, Captain Noel told Elios that they could not carry their arms into the meeting, it would seem as though the boys did not trust the President and could cause problems with the talks.

Elios was not happy about being unarmed but there was little he could do now. The three boys were outnumbered and all that kept them safe was the knowledge that Mita and the others were still hidden within reach. Although the hidden numbers of armed adults in the bunker surprised Elios, there were far more here than they had seen when they first met. Elios felt for his com unit to make sure it was still on and that Mita could hear everything.

When they entered the office, Elios saw that the President man was seated behind a large desk, behind him were six men, also well fed and a little overweight. Elios was not happy to see the extra men, in his mind a talk about friendship was between the two men whom it concerned. He immediately felt the tension in the air and the President looked a little too comfortable and appeared to look down at Elios as nothing more than a young immature boy. Elios gathered this information before the man had even said a word to him, his natural suspicion of strangers, especially, adult strangers, was on full alert.

Elios saw the President give a half hearted smile in his direction and gestured for Elios to take a seat across from himself. He then went into an introduction of the six men behind him, Elios could not understand why he had to have Advisors, a leader knew what was right or wrong, if he was not sure he asked all the people what they thought and then, they all made the decision.

Elios could not follow all the names of the six men so let it pass. He was here to offer help and that was all. Finally, when the President had said his piece, Elios reiterated his offer of help and friendship by the two camps joining together for mutual safety. Elios watched as the President turned to his six men and they began to discuss what Elios had just said. Already Elios was bored with the long drawn out process, it took a further ten minutes before they even came close to making a decision. Each of the six men had to have his say and by the tone of the talk, Elios guessed that it would not go well; there was an aloofness about the men towards such a young boy coming to them.

The discussion rolled on and Elios soon became aware that what they were saying was not what they meant. The six men, along with the President, were slowly turning the meeting around to make it feel as though they expected to take charge of Elios and all the bunkers his boys had found and, that Elios and his boys would now come under the rule of the President. They would not be allowed to roam freely over the wastes but would spend their time here under the orders of the President and his advisors who would see that they would be made to work for the good of the States. Elios had no idea what these States were and so lost interest.

It was two hours later that Elios had had enough, rising to his feet, he thanked the six men and the President for their time but said he and his men would prefer to stay together and not join the group. From the corner of his eye, Elios caught a stiffening of Captain Noel's body, it was the first sign of something not being right, as he turned around to leave, the double doors crashed open and in ran six armed men, their rifles aimed at Elios and the two boys. It was a smooth voice of the President that broke through Elios' shock.

"I'm sorry, my boy, but you can't leave. We've decided to keep you here and any of your young friends that come will also join you. It's not right that young boys like yourselves be allowed to roam wildly out on the wastes, that's what started the wild gangs in the first place. We're going to keep you here and give you a proper Christian upbringing so that you can join us eventually and become a working part of our way of life."

Before Elios could open his mouth, he and the two boys with him were grabbed from behind and their arms quickly pulled behind their backs and fastened with the metal circles like they had used on Lion Claw. For just a second, Elios saw a look of sorrow pass over the face of Captain Noel, it made no difference to the way Elios was feeling at the betrayal, he had thought that the funny white flag was a sign of peace.

After they removed his combat knife and com unit, with his mind now in turmoil, he and the others were roughly pushed out of the office and taken away along a passage. From his knowledge of the layout of the bunkers, he could tell they were being taken down below the ground level, all he could hope was that Mita had picked up on what had happened.

Out on the ridge top, Mita heard everything. From somewhere deep in his gut he felt a surge of pure anger rise like a volcano, he had never experienced such hatred of any man but now. His anger almost radiated out of him as he continued to listen to the words coming from the com unit, which, it seemed, the men had not thought to switch off or, Elios had purposely left on for his benefit. Mita listened intently as the remaining men in the President's office continued to discuss the boys, the first voice Mita recognised was that of the Captain.

"Mr. President, I must protest, those boys came here under a flag of truce, we have no right to imprison them for their views."

"Not true Captain, those boys need a good dose of reality. They also need to be taught about the laws of God. They're like little heathens, doing things to each other against all that God stands for. They need to be kept here and be turned back to the ways of God, which reminds me, get the Pastor to start giving them lessons from the Bible. I'll not have good American boys become agents of the devil. You will need to send out patrols to bring the other boys in as well, with God's grace we will have this once mighty country back to following God's word."

There was silence on the com unit after that and only the closing of a door in the background told Mita that the meeting was over. While his rage continued to build, Mita did not forget the two boys down in the Humvee. With an urgent call in his com unit, he told the boys to get out of there fast and return behind the ridge. He and the others would cover them from the ridge. Mita then watched as the Humvee quickly fired up and turned to leave. As the Humvee sped off, Mita watched another ten armed men run from the bunker door to join those already outside but. It was to late, the Humvee was now disappearing in a cloud of sand and dust.

As the Humvee pulled to a halt below the sand dune, the rage in Mita continued to grow, his heart was now taking over from his head as he schemed on how to go down to the bunker and rescue his k'bine. Even the thought of the men capturing his boyfriend was enough to increase that same rage to breaking point, it was only the insistence of the boys around him that finally calmed him enough to re-evaluate the situation but the anger remained as a deep seated burning desire for revenge.

As the rest of the boys stood around waiting for Mita to calm down enough to tell them what to do, Elios and his two boys were being locked into one of the sleeping rooms by the six armed men. As he looked around the empty room, Elios hoped his boyfriend would not do anything stupid, for starters there were far more armed men inside the bunker than Mita would be aware of. If they wanted to escape they would have to take matters into their own hands.

As soon as he heard the lock on the door close shut, Elios began to strip off the combat clothes he was wearing. His two guards watched and then began to follow suit, when all three were down to their pre bunker clothes of brief animal skin breechclout. For some unknown reason, Elios put his forefinger to his lips in the universal sign for silence, he then sat on the floor and signalled his two guards to do the same, they were soon sitting in the form of a three man circle facing each other.

Elios looked at the necks of the two boys and realised they were not totally unarmed, as was the habit of all breed cave boys, all three of them still had their slings wrapped around their necks. It was the one weapon they had from childhood that had stayed with them even after finding all of the ancient's wonderful things. The sling was still a part of their existence, all they had to do now was find something to use in them.

As they sat and looked at each other silently, Elios began to use the sign language of the breeding caves. In the times of their boyhood, all boys had a similar style of talking silently. It was created by the boys themselves to keep the noise down when there were adults or the possibility of Renegs being around. As Elios signed he saw that some of the signs from the two other boys were different but it soon was worked out and they began to discuss what to do with the silent language.

The two boys agreed with Elios that they had to somehow find something to use in their slings but at the same time keep their captors from knowing what they were doing. The boys agreed that they knew enough about the bunkers to be able to make a break for it when the time was right. Elios only concern was for Mita, that his boyfriend would try to rescue him went without saying but, to do anything stupid while he knew nothing of the number of armed men inside the bunker concerned Elios the most.

Mita realised he needed to get help and there was only one place for that. Giving short, terse orders, he had the search troop start up and head back towards Modou's bunker. It was time for a new war to start, and Mita knew just where that was going to be, even as he watched the track ahead from the seat of his quad as he led the rest of the convoy back the way they had come. His rage boiled and built inside him, the trip back to the bunker was going to be at full speed and without stops except for a fast meal break and change of drivers. He hoped to be back at the bunker within two or two and a half days.

Mita had left the APC, Humvees and one jeep with the trucks so they could make their way back at a slower pace than Mita was prepared to move at. With him was the other jeep and, along with his quad, they set a very fast pace as they powered towards Modou's bunker. The rest of the convoy followed along as quickly as they could but were slowed a little by the support trucks, however they did not want to wait around at the other place in case they also were attacked.

In another room not far from where Elios and the two boys were being held, a man sat in front of a piece of equipment not seen by the boys before. He was wearing a headset and had a thoughtful look of deep concentration on his face, from the hastily installed microphone placed in the boys' room, there was no sound. While this was not usual he could not look into the room to see what the boys were doing, he had to surmise finally that perhaps the act of their capture had made the boys want to sleep for a while although it was only still early afternoon. But then he was aware of what shock could do to people and the young boys would probably be more subject to stress than an adult in these circumstances.

Elios and the boys continued their silent conversation as they tried to make their plans for the future. As they sat on the floor they became aware of a sound outside their locked door, seconds later the door opened and a tall thin man wearing combat clothes but with a strange white thing around his neck, came into the room with a bright smile on his face. Elios and the boys looked up at the man with blank stares of curiosity.

"Hello boys, my name's Pastor Robert, I thought I would look in on you and see if we can be friends."

The two boys looked at Elios to lead them and waited until he took up the speaking roll. Elios decided he didn't like this man, there was something hidden about him. It was not only because of the situation they were in but this man projected a sort of falsehood in every word he said, it didn't take long for Elios to be proved right.

"Is there anything you need or want?"

Elios looked up at the man and saw a strange look of hope in his eyes. This only made Elios more suspicious, there was more to this man than the words he spoke. Elios decided to lead the man along to try and find out more of what was happening, using a small hand signal, he told the other two boys to follow his lead.

"Well, Pastor Robert, you could let us go, that's all we want."

"I'm sorry, I'm not able to do that, perhaps we can fill in your time with more constructive things."

"Like what?" Elios asked.

"Well, it's my work to teach you about the real Christian reason we are all here."

Elios didn't know what this Christian thing to learn was but had a feeling it was not good and so he replied.

"We know why we're here, your President man captured us when we were only trying to be friendly and is now holding us down here against our will, that's not friendly. All we want is to go back to our own bunker, we are not slaves to your President."

"No, no, you've got it all wrong, young man, we want to teach you all about Christian values, after all, look at you now, sitting there half naked like little savages, that's not the true Christian way. Don't you know what God says about nakedness?"

"Who's God? We don't have Gods, we have each other and that's all we need, now go and tell your President man too release us or there will be trouble."

"I don't think you're in a position to cause any trouble here and, it's evident you really do need a better upbringing than what you've been given so far in your short lives."

Elios could hear the subtle anger in the man's voice, he decided to change tactics in the hope of getting out of the room to find ammunition for their slings. Even if it took days or, at the worst, weeks, he knew that Mita would be back for them and, in force, until then they would have to make do as best they could with what they had.

The Pastor looked down at the boys as they sat on the floor. It was difficult for him to understand why such young boys could not see the value in having God on their side. After all, his own people had survived since the Horror and God had protected them, even though their numbers had not increased by much, they still had the core of government and sufficient numbers to maintain the old way of life and, it was all due to God's hand, he had an overriding belief that, without God on their side, these boys would only turn into savages and then become the same as the gangs of the Wastes.

The boys looked up at him as he stood there contemplating the situation. It was as he stood silently and looked the boys over, that he noticed that each boy had a leather necklace, all three looked to be the same type, perhaps it was some sort of token that they used to identify each other. The Pastor shook his head to get his thinking back on track, it was now obvious that he would have to bring God into their lives before they lost their souls completely.

Elios was not slow in catching the Pastors hesitation, deciding to try and use the strange man for their own ends, Elios face took on a look of interest, the Pastor, not thinking that such young boys could have any ideas of deceit, thought to take this chance to introduce them to his God.

"Why don't you boys stay here while I go and get the Lord's good book, it will explain everything that God stands for and why we follow his words and ways, I'm sure you will feel your soul being freed from sin when you hear his words."

Elios looked up at the man and gave him a half smile then asked, "Why can't we come with you, perhaps you could tell us more on the way, after all, we have to trust your words, or should I say, your God's words, so why not trust us to be good while we are with you outside the room? We can't go anywhere, there's too many guards with weapons out there"

The Pastor again hesitated, while he would like to show some form of trust, he also had his orders and they were very succinct, convert the boys to Christianity and then educate them in the old ways so they could grow up as good God fearing humans in the future.

"I would really like to help you there, boys, but I also have my orders. Perhaps another time, after you have learnt a little about God and the way we believe in him and all his works, I'm sure the President will release you from this room as soon as you have taken to our way of doing things."

Elios looked the man over once again, from head to foot, obvious evasion was plain in his voice. Elios just nodded his head and then turned his back on the man as he left the room. Once the Pastor was gone, Elios joined the small huddle of three and they began to use their sign language to discuss further plans. It fell to Elios to decide that, until Mita came for them, they would pretend to listen to the man in the hope of getting out of the room and finding something to use in their slings.

As time passed, Elios and the boys put on a pretence of listening to the strange stories of the Pastor Robert. Even as young as they were, they could not believe in what they were being told, they had lived their lives on the wastes and breeding caves, they knew from their own experience that this mythical man who made everyone and everything could only be false. If the stories were true then how was it that so many boys died at the hands of the Renegs.

Each day, after the pastor had finished his two hour long stories of his Bible book, the boys would sit and talk about the impossible stories. Most of the conversations were held in sign language as Elios still had a strange feeling that the troops in the bunker could hear them speak, he had no proof other than his own instincts, and those he always listened too, they had kept him alive so far.

Far away, Mita was in the main office of Modou's bunker. He was using one of the boys trained by Elios to send out orders for help to the other bunkers and the reason they were needed, the response was almost immediate and the rescue of his k'bine was beginning to take shape, while Mita was not as good at planning as Elios, with the help of Modou and his knowledge of the wastes and of battle, the plan began to take shape.

As Mita did not know the true number of men in the bunker, he and Modou decided to go for overkill rather than be caught short of men or equipment if there were far more men than they had so far seen. Mita had Elam organise the required food stocks and Elvan to ready all the vehicles they might need, a signal was also sent out to the other search parties to return as soon as possible, their special skills would also be needed.

It took ten days for everyone to arrive and gather both outside and inside the bunker. There, Mita told them all what had happened and what he and Modou had planned, with the large convoy they now had, it would take them at least another five days to return to the bunker. Next he called all the leaders of the various troops and vehicles into the common room, there he would lay out the overall plan so each knew what they were to do when they arrived at where his k'bine was being held.

For the whole of the ten days, Mita had to work very hard to keep his temper as his missing k'bine filled his every waking moment. He knew deep within his self that, if they have hurt Elios in any way he would not leave a single one of them alive, even if he had to walk in their on his own to finish them all. His rage was barely suppressed as Elios' small, slim, body filled his dreams and the lack of his warm body beside him at night left Mita with bleary eyes from lack of sleep.

Finally they were ready, Mita and Modou stood outside the bunker and looked at the twin rows of vehicles. At the head of the two lines were the five tanks, as they were slower than the other vehicles, it had been decided they would set the pace, behind them came the armed APC's, next were the trucks with food and ammunition as well as water supplies and the armed boys. They also had with them two of the large fuel trucks, behind them were eight armed Humvees to cover their rear, out too the sides were ten jeeps, five on each side to secure their flanks, both Mita and Modou, decided to take a quad for their own use so they could keep better and faster track of the two long lines. Elam had stayed at home bunker and Elvan had travelled out with the convoy, he now waited at Modou's bunker as a means of communication if it was needed.

The return journey was slow as the long convoy moved towards their target. Mita had put on of his sniper boys in each of the jeeps, they would take turns in going far forward and searching ahead of the convoy as it came up slower. All of his boys took turns in this duty as both Mita and Modou had to stay to keep order as they moved the ponderous convoy closer to where his k'bine was held.

Elios and the other two boys could barely keep their eyes open as the Pastor droned on and on with his tales of how great God was and how lucky they were to have been able to hear his valued words. The three boys had now been in captivity for over two weeks, Elios was not worried, he was well aware that it would take his man time to get ready for their release, all he was concerned with was the manner in which Mita may do it. Even Elios knew that could get impatient if things were not going well, he could only hope that Mita's reward at the end of this episode would keep him calm, but he doubted it, he could only hope for the best.

The Pastor's next words surprised the barely listening boys, they had only been allowed out of the room for washing and toilet trips, and then they were under armed guard at all times so the Pastor's words nearly past over them.

"So boys, what do you think, the President says that you can go for a walk around as long as I'm with you. He thinks you have enough Christian ethics in you to be let out for short walks, so, where would you like to go first?"

Elios smiled innocently up at the Pastor, this was their chance and maybe their only one, he let his mind work on the problem of their slings and where they would most likely find something too use in them. Like a flash of light he knew where they should go but, how to get the Pastor to take them there. Elios continued smiling innocently at the pastor as he worked out his story.

"Well, Pastor Robert, when we were in our old home, we liked to play in that place they had the trucks stored, we sometimes helped with the work, do you think we could go there, just to have a game and watch the men working?"

The Pastor thought for a short while and could see no valid reason that the boys couldn't go to the garage. After all, there were plenty of men there and they could not escape, even if they wanted too but, he doubted they would want to leave now that they were fully immersed in the good work he had been doing to bring the light of God into their souls. He was sure they would want to stay now that they could see it was for the best and, so he agreed.

As they had planned for just such an occasion, Elios and the boys put on their combat clothes, not because they were in the least embarrassed about their bodies but, for the simple expedient of the clothes having pockets to put things in, especially small round metal things and so, with smiling faces for the Pastor, they dutifully followed him out of the room for their first foray into the heart of the bunker. Everywhere they looked were armed men and, strangest of all, women, Elios re-evaluated the numbers as the worked their way up and down the passages and elevators until the walked out into the partly empty garage.

The first things Elios and the boys saw were the black vehicles. At the best one was a single young man trying to make it look newer by putting some sort of grease on it then rubbing hard until it shined like glass, the other one did not get the same attention. Elios politely thanked the Pastor for all his trouble and agreed that their God was certainly good to give them such shiny vehicles. The Pastor glowed with pride as he heard those words for the first time, he knew now that he had them well ensconced in the lap of the Lord.

The boys drifted off in different directions so as to make it difficult for the Pastor to keep his eye on all of them at the same time. The three boys were accomplished searchers, they had grown up in the breeding caves and wastelands, their fingers were well adapted to finding and lifting anything they needed so that others could not detect it, especially bigger boys or men, a boy could get badly hurt if he was caught by a bigger boy.

The two boys with Elios kept his advice in mind to never completely disappear from the vision of the Pastor for more than a few seconds, but for these boys, that was all they needed. After half an hour, the boys returned to the Pastor and said they were tired and would like to go back to the room to rest. Elios had stayed near the Pastor and each time he got a hand signal from one of the other two boys, he would distract the Pastor for the few seconds the boy needed.

When they had returned to the room and there was no one around to bother them. Elios looked askance at the other two, both had huge smiles on their young faces. It was then that Elios realised they had walked all the way back with both hands in their pockets, the boys made their way to one of the beds and sat on the edge, with smiles they began to pull their hands from inside the trousers, it was then Elios almost broke into laughter.

From the pockets of the two boys tumbled hands-full of small round metal balls. They were about the size of the tip of their forefinger and bright and shiny, just the perfect size and weight for their slings, even better than the carefully selected round stones they normally used. Elios carefully counted them out so each of them had the same number, they were then hidden under the bed mat for when they would be needed, each of them had twenty metal balls, it would be enough.

Mita called a halt to the convoy when he thought they were less than half a day from the bunker. They still had about one hour until dark, this time, unlike the last five days, they would travel during the dark after they had stopped for a good meal. Some of the boys would be working tonight in readiness for the coming morning, Modou had gone on ahead to look over the bunker entrance and to get familiar with the lay of the land.

As the dark came on, the long convoy readied for the long night, Modou had returned and set out the lay of the land. After a short discussion, it was decided that Mita would take up the same position on top of the ridge on the opposite side of the long black strip, there he would keep watch with his large sniper rifle, two other sniper boys would take their lighter rifles with the extra thick tube attached that made them almost silent. During the night they would slowly make their way to the huge metal monster at the end of the dark strip, from there they could see the two posts outside the main door.

Modou would take a larger force with him on foot and work their way over to close by the outside guards posts. They would have the use of the NV glasses but also had the advantage of surprise, Modou would then decide if he could take out the four guards silently with his swords or the two boys in the metal monster would do it. They planned to wait and watch the door too see how often the guards were changed, if it worked out to their advantage, they would remove the guards early in the morning before the sun rose as most people are more tired and not very alert at that time.

When the guards were taken care of, Mita would bring all of the tanks around the cutting and line up in a half circle facing the door. To each side of the entrance would be a large group of armed boys, they would wait for the doors to be opened by the relieving guards and then the tanks would fire into the open door in the hope of stopping it from being quickly closed and to cause damage inside. If the resistance was fierce then the Humvee and APC's would come from behind the tanks and use their smaller arms to attack the defenders. It was obvious to all that Mita had no intentions of giving the defenders any chance of surrender, the smouldering hate still showed in his eyes even as he gave the order of battle.

Deeper in the bunker, Elios and the two boys began to get a funny feeling all was not right. They had no proof or indication from those around them that all was not well, it was more just a deep feeling that most boys raised in the wastes got when trouble could be close. With this feeling in mind, Elios told the boys to get fully dressed and gather their sling ammunition just in case. It had been more than a week since the men had locked their door although they did have a guard out in the passage at all times in case the boys tried to leave without escorts, it had been the Pastor that had suggested it as a way of getting the boys to trust him and what he was teaching them.

Elios was being gently shaken by the boy who had stayed awake and on guard close to the door. Before he had fully woken, Elios could feel a faint vibration coming through the floor and hence the bed frame, with quick movements, Elios signalled the other two to load their slings as they heard the louder clatter of running footsteps coming towards them, the hard slamming of the soldiers' boots were unmistakable on the stone floor. By the sound of it, Elios guessed there were only two of them.

Elios selected one boy to stand by the door with his hand on the handle ready to open it at Elios' signal. Elios and the other boy stood back from the door, their slings in their hand spinning it faster and faster by their side, as he heard the two running men stop outside the door, Elios gave the boy a nod. The two guards outside the door stopped suddenly in surprise as the door to the boys' room sprang open, they had expected the three boys would be asleep, as they paused to take in the picture before them it was all Elios and the other boy needed.

With the accuracy of long hours spent using the old slings, Elios and the other boy flung their steel ball at the heads of the two men. A deep thud on both men told them they had not lost any of the ability with the old style weapon as both soldiers sank to the floor, a deep red mark on their foreheads. The three boys now reloaded their slings and began to make their way carefully towards the surface, far above and ahead of them they could hear the distinctive fire of multiple weapons, the lighter ones of the bunker soldiers over shadowed by the heavy fast firing guns of the Humvees and APC's of their rescuers. Elios was positive it had to be Mita as there were no other gangs or people he could think of that would come against the older soldiers and the President man.

As they got to the first cross passage, Elios had a sudden thought, they had left the two guards lying on the floor with their arms. Elios quickly signalled the two boys to return with him, the last thing they wanted was to be attacked from the rear, quickly they ran back where the guards were still unconscious and removed their arms and ammunition. As Elios stood guard, the other two boys dragged the two bodies inside one at a time and then tied them securely to the beds, they then returned to Elios, one boy taking the rifle and the other taking one of the hand guns.

The three boys returned to the junction and Elios carefully looked around the corner, there was no one in sight. All the doors along the passage were wide open as the three boys ran past as quietly as the could. From above them still came the sound of firing but now it seemed closer. At the door to the elevator, Elios and the other boy took up a guard stance with the two rifles, the other boy went and pushed the button for the doors to open, above them they could hear the hum of the elevator coming down. It was a tense moment as the doors slid open, but the elevator was empty.

Mita had no idea what was going on in the bunker, the plan they had used worked to perfection. Modou was able to get close enough to the partly sleepy guards to dispatch two of them before they even knew he was there, from the machine on the ground far away, the two snipers had taken care of the other two. Mita had rolled the tanks forward so they were on the black strip facing the big doors, the Humvees and APC's were lined up behind them in readiness.

On each side of the doors and back far enough to not be in the line of fire from the tanks, Modou held two groups of fifty armed boys ready to go forward when they had the signal from Mita, all of them crouched low and covered their ears as they heard the deep rumble of the doors opening to let out the new guards, above the ridge were the first faint signs of morning.

Mita had instructed four of the tanks to aim at the sides of the door frame in the hope of disabling the mechanical system that lifted and lowered the door. The other two tanks were to fire directly into the doorway so the shells exploded inside the bunker. With the power of the shells, Mita knew they would do some serious damage and hurt a lot of people, it would also instil in the defenders a state of shock which he hoped would give his boys at the side time to enter and create a protective line for all the others to come up and help.

As the door was raised past half way and the four guards started to walk through the door, Mita gave the order to fire. In the early still morning air, the thunderous sound of the six tanks firing at the same time, sent echoes out into the still dark wastes. After the first sounds of the six shells receded and the dust and sand began to clear, Mita was able to see the results. Of the four guards there was no sign, the door was buckled and had ground to a halt, inside the bunker entrance there was smoke and the sounds of chaos as the thick smoke and dust caused by the two shells began to settle, the loud sound of groans and shouts could be heard from the inside.

As Modou gave the signal for his two groups to move through the open and jammed door, there suddenly came the sound of two quick fire guns, the first two boys near the door dropped with dark red spots on their chests as the others dived for cover outside the line of fire. Mita would have liked to send some more shells inside but the boys were too close, instead he called for the Humvees and APC's too move up and lay down a withering fire into the open doorway.

The eight vehicles poured a steady stream of fire into the opening, it almost seemed like it would go on all day but, Mita began to notice the slackening of return fire, calling for two of the Humvees to move in closer while the others kept up the barrage. Mita then saw the faint figures inside trying to escape deeper into the bunker, as they ran for more cover. Mita began his own vendetta as he picked off those to slow to retire from the approaching Humvees.

Mita waited until the two Humvees were parked almost in the doorway before asking Modou to advance with his boys and secure the garage so the rest could now come forward and help, with the Humvee keeping up their firing. Modou soon had his boys behind what ever cover they could find just inside the doorway. Mita jumped into the jeep he had kept back and told the driver to head for the bunker, behind him streamed the rest of the rescue group, all ready to fight for Mita's k'bine.

When he finally arrived at the door, Mita jumped out of the jeep and joined Modou inside. There were only two passages ahead of them, both were begin defended by the soldiers of the President man. Mita signalled the two Humvees to concentrate on the left hand passage. He knew from the other bunkers that this one led deeper into the bunker where his k'bine was most likely to be held, the other on the left led only to the offices and sleeping area, it did not usually have anything under it but was only on one level.

With the heavy fire from the two Humvees, the left hand passage soon became a death zone for the defenders and they began to retreat deeper into the bunker. Their numbers were now severely depleted, too the right, the defenders were fewer and came under the combined fire of all the boys now inside. So far, Mita and the boys had been lucky in that, apart from a number of wounds, they had only lost the original two boys at the door. Their smaller size had been their best advantage as they were able to take cover in almost impossible places, where as, the defenders were larger and could not find as many hiding places.

From the right hand passage the firing began to wither and die until, finally, Mita saw the white cloth being held above the barricade of steel tables, Mita called a halt to the firing into the right hand passage but kept up the volume into the left. The men there were very stubborn and would not stop, even with the heavier fire of the two Humvees.

Mita called out to the men in the right hand passage, "All of you; throw your weapons out and then stand up, when you've done that I want you too walk forward into the open and strip down so we can see you're not carrying anything in your clothes."

Mita, Modou and the boys who had been besieging the right hand passage watched carefully, their rifles aimed directly at the entrance where the men hid. Slowly, the hiding men rose up one after the other, too Mita's surprise there were only six of them, two of the men had wounds, all of them had clothes smudged dirt and dust. They all stepped out from the barricade and slowly stripped down to their underclothes then turned around so the boys could see they were totally unarmed.

Mita called again, "Come over here and keep your hands out so I can see them."

As the six men began to walk towards them, Mita noticed that the Humvees had stopped firing, he also saw that the defenders of the left passage had retreated back from the hail of bullets. Mita waved his boys forward with Modou in charge, they leapt from hiding place to hiding place as they advanced on the left passage, always keeping in cover as much as possible, from deeper in the passage came the odd firing as the defenders tried to move deeper. Mita watched the six advancing men carefully until they were within reach.

"Stop there, are there anymore of you down the passage?"

At this distance, Mita noticed the man that Elios had called 'Captain'; he was the one who answered.

"No, we're all that's here, are you the leader?"

"One of them, yes, where is my k'bine, what have you done too him?"

"I'm sorry; I don't know who you mean, what is a k'bine?"

"Elios, he is my life partner. He is my k'bine and you took him away from me, now where is he?"

The Captain looked shocked as he heard Mita's words.

"You attacked the Presidential bunker and killed all these soldiers because of one boy?"

"He's not one boy, he's my k'bine," Mita said as he looked around for the first time, taking in the destruction his tanks and heavy guns had caused. As the Captain watched he could see no indication that the young man standing before him had any remorse for the dead laying around the garage of the bunker. With the doors in the condition they were, it would now be unusable, if they got out of this alive they would have to search for another home. He was also aware of the continued firing from down the left passage.

"We are going to tie you up, we still have to find Elios and his two friends, we'll talk more after this is done with."

The Captain's face showed his resignation, he was vastly outnumbered and out gunned, slowly he turned around and placed his hands behind his back. The others followed his lead and they were quickly tied, Mita set eight boys too watch them as they moved towards the left passage, he still needed to find his k'bine. The sound of gun fire was still reasonably heavy and the passage could end up a death trap if they did not find a way to get in.

Mita called Modou over so they could talk, they had been very lucky so far and, apart from some nasty wounds, they had not lost any more boys, if he could help it, Mita planned for it to stay that way. As they talked it over, Mita kept looking around the garage, slowly an idea came into his mind but the height of the door would be the main factor. Mita told Modou what he was thinking, Modou's dark face split into a grin as he nodded his head in agreement.

Mita called on his com unit and it was only seconds before they all heard the deep rumble of one of the tanks as it approached the partly open doorway. As the tank crept carefully forward, Mita and Modou watched carefully as the top of the tank inched closer to the half open door, it took a few minutes for the steel monster to creep under the door, its aerial bending almost flat as it caught the door base, eventually it was inside the large garage, its tracks grinding harshly on the concrete floor as it turned towards the left passage.

There was the loud screeching of metal on metal as the tank scraped and pushed other vehicles out of its way, including the brightly polished black SUV of the President. Slowly it lined its large gun up with the passage, from the sudden slacking of fire from the defenders, it was obvious that the sight of the large gun barrel turning their way was the last thing they expected.

Mita, standing behind the behemoth, called out in his loudest voice for the defenders to lay down their weapons and come out of the passage. There was no reply and so, Mita tapped loudly on the side of the tank as all his boys crouched and covered their ears, the deafening report sent dust and smoke falling all around the garage as the tank rocked back on its steel tracks.

After the single shot, there was no more sounds from the passage, peering around the edge of his hiding place and, with his ears still ringing with the sound of the shell, Mita saw the devastation along the passage, where once men had built a barricade, there was now only rubble and smoke with the faint flickering of small flames. The bright red smear of blood on the walls gave evidence of the defenders stubborn will to resist. Mita called for a short burst of fire from the fast firing gun mounted in the tank, its immediate rattle and the sound of ricochets and the lack of other noise told Mita it was clear to enter.

Along with Modou and six boys with their weapons at the ready, Mita crept forward until the came to the wreck of the hasty barricade, the sight before him was not pretty as he took in the broken bodies of the defenders. There was little space for them to get past as the shell had brought down part of the walls and ceiling of the passage but, with determination, he began to wriggle and force his body through the tight gap and into the more open area behind.

As Mita dropped to the floor he could here the grunts of the others following him through the gap as he kept watch around a corner only a few metres from the blockage, there was no sign of life along the entire length of the new passage although he was sure he could hear the voices of orders begin shouted from deeper in the complex. To his right the passage was also clear and ended in a blank wall, there was only one door in the short passage and Mita signalled for two of the boys to check it out just in case someone was hiding down there. They soon reported back that is was all clear and so, Mita turned back to the left.

One level below Mita and his small troop, Elios and the two boys were making their careful way towards the sound of gunfire, as the reached a corner, they all heard the very distinctive report of a large gun and the firing they had heard suddenly stopped. Even one level down they felt the concussion of the shell as it sent shudders through the complex. Elios almost let a smile come to his lips as he thought about how angry Mita must be to use a tank inside a bunker.

From in front of him, Elios could hear the hasty orders of more men as they moved into position to defend their President. Even Elios knew that Mita could not get the tank down this far and so he began to set out his plan to help his man. With careful movements, Elios set the other two boys close to the corner and laying on the floor to give them a much lower profile as they could get. They had no real cover apart from the corner of the passage, it was not a good position to be in but the advantage of surprise might give Mita enough time to get to them.

Using quick and sparing glances around the corner, Elios watched the defenders at the far end of the passage erect hasty barricades at the foot of the wide steps leading upward as well as another at the wide doors of the elevator. Elios checked with the two boys on how much ammunition they had, all of them had cleaned out the two guards but they did not have much to spare. They would have to be very careful if they came under fire, it looked as though the defenders were now down to less than a dozen troops along with four men in non military clothes. These four men stood outside a room with a large steel door, Elios made a wild guess that this was where the President man was hiding.

Up above, where Mita now crouched, there was no sound. He set the boys under the orders of Modou to begin to move forward in the leap frog manoeuvre they had used against the Reneg Lion Claw. As they drew closer to the end of the passage, Mita saw a large elevator off to the left hand side of the passage. He quickly dismissed it as a trap if the defenders were waiting for them down below, it would have to be via the wide steps at the end of the passage, this was also going to be very dangerous as they would have no cover.

Mita called the small troop to stop and wait for others to come and join them. The steps, while wide, would still only allow three boys side by side to go down at the same time, this also felt like a trap. Mita had to think of another way to save the lives of his troops, Modou was all for charging down there and using their advantage in numbers but Mita would have none of it. Their own boys were more valuable than just throwing them against trained men with the same type of weapons as they had.

Slowly a though came to Mita's mind, he began a frantic search around his equipment until he realised he did not carry any of the small oval objects, he opened his com unit so all the boys and vehicles in and around the bunker could hear him as he asked if anyone had some of the small oval bombs. In all their time at the various bunkers and including their fights with the wild Renegs, they had never thought to make use of the small bombs, if anyone had thought to bring some, now was a good time to try them out.

Mita, along with all of the boys that had been trained for combat, had read about the small bombs called, Grenades and had even practice with ones that had not been primed. They all knew the principle of using them but had not actually used a 'live' one. Mita determined they would begin training with them as soon as he had his k'bine back with him.

The response to his request was disappointing, no one had even given the grenades a thought, they had never been an issue with any of their training. Mita now had a real problem, he could not bring himself to just send boys down the steps in the hope of winning against the defenders. He had to think of something else, it slowly dawned on him that they were at a stalemate, the defenders could not come up and he could not send boys to their certain death by going down. He had to think of something else, it was a small voice behind him that stirred his imagination, the voice had said something so simple it made Mita feel foolish for not thinking of it himself.

"If we had some wood we could smoke them out," the boy's voice had whispered to his friend beside him.

Mita turned to find the boy who had spoken, it was easy as the boy's face turned red with embarrassment as Mita's eyes settled on him. Mita signalled the boy over to him and then began to whisper to him.

"Can you and your friend go back through the rubble and look around the garage, see if you can find something that will burn with a lot of smoke and still be able to throw it?"

The boy smiled at Mita, he did not expect to be asked to help one of the leaders. He had only been with the bunkers a very short time and this was his first fight, he had been nervous about his small role in the attack and his comment had been made to his only friend out of curiosity but now he was being asked to put his casual thought into action. He almost glowed with the special privilege he was being given by the leader.

The boy and his friend scurried off in search for something to burn while all the others stayed crouched at the top of the steps and listened to the voices below them. It took quite a while for the two boys to work out and find what they wanted but, when the returned to the side of Mita they had with them an arm full of clothes and a can of truck fuel along with a small box filled with an assortment of tools. Mita looked at the boy with a raised eyebrow.

The boy began to explain, "it took me a while to work out what would burn but, if we soak the clothes in the truck fuel and light it, it should give lots of smoke, to throw them with some weight we wrap the cloth around the tools, then light the fuel and throw it down the steps, if we use a lot of them there should be lots of fire and smoke."

Mita smiled at the boy, he immediately saw the lateral thinking the boy had used and then he gave the order for as many boys as he could get close to him, to start to make the smoke tools ready, as a means to keep the defenders from moving up at them. Mita set three boys just out of sight of the lower men, to keep up a steady burst of fire down the stairs, the answering shots, like those of the boys, mostly spent themselves against the walls of the steps but it also kept the defenders in place and at the ready.

Half an hour later and Mita had quite a pile of the fuel laden, cloth covered, tools ready, he gave the order for the three boys in front to pull back as he lit the first torch, once the fuel caught light it began to spread to the rest of the cloth. Mita was quick to aim down the steps and throw it as far as he could downwards, at first he thought he had misjudged the angle but the loud shout from below soon told him he was on the mark, Mita then gave the order for two other boys to start lighting and throwing the strange torches. Within minutes there was a steady stream of foul smelling and smoking tools being tossed down the steps, the cries of alarm from the defenders told Mita that they were in an uproar as they tried to put out all the small smoking objects that were flying at them from above.

Mita was made aware of how successful his ploy had been when his own throat was caught by the thick, dark, oily pall of smoke that came back up the steps, as he coughed and hurried to cover his own mouth and nose with another cloth, he could hear from below the same reaction and then something else caught his ears, it was the sound of shots from below but they were not aimed at his position. It almost sounded to Mita as though they came from behind the defenders, taking as deep a breath as he could under the circumstances, Mita, along with Modou, rose to their feet and, with weapons ready, charged blindly down the steps.

Even with his driving glasses pulled down over his eyes, Mita found it difficult to see where he was going, it was only the act of missing the last step that saved his life as a bullet whistled past his head so close he felt the heat of it. Seeing only vague outlines in the heavy smoke, Mita opened fire just as Modou beside him did, the sudden charge and the fire from their rear, finally decided the fate of the defenders, they were caught in a cross fire and had no where to run, with loud shouts, they called to the attackers that the fight was over just as the smoke began to thin in the wide passage. It was obvious to the defenders that they had nothing left as the larger number of boys came streaming down the clearing steps, even the four men in strange clothes knew they were beaten and held their hands above their heads.

From further down the passage, Mita spied a small blonde head sticking out from around a corner. The smile that broke out on his face said it all, he had his k'bine back. Mita watched as Elios, along with his two guard boys, rose from the floor of the passage and began to run towards them, the joy for Elios was evident by the large grin on his young face. Mita felt a heavy weight lift from his young shoulders at the sight of his k'bine as he stepped forward to take the smaller boy in his arms. Their bodies pressed close together as the others picked up the dropped weapons of the defenders and hustled the men further down the passage to be guarded.

There was now only one thing left to do and Modou took charge of that as he walked over to the large steel door and began to bang on it with the butt of his rifle. As the deep resonating boom of the metal filled the passage, Mita could only hold Elios closer, never again would he let his k'bine leave his side when danger threatened.

It finally took the use of one of the four strangely dressed men to get the steel door open, as Mita and Elios, along with Modou, stepped inside they saw the man who claimed to be the ruler of their world, with him he had two females and a younger boy. The boy was really almost a man, to Elios eyes he looked to be about 18 years, he was also well fed to the point of being slightly fat as were the other three in the room, they had really been living well.

Elios bowed to his man and let Mita do all the talking as he watched the four very scared people as they looked over the group of young boys all armed to the teeth with weapons they had thought were only the domain of themselves and their staff. It was the sudden shock of realising they no longer held the power they thought was theirs, as the older of the boys began to speak, they also realised that their old life style was about to come to an end.

"You are responsible for the theft of my k'bine." Mita began. "For this act alone I would put you out on the sands to die but, you have others with you who had little to do with your decision and they don't deserve that fate. I don't know what a President is meant to be but if your example is what they are then you do not deserve to be let off."

Mita paused while he looked over the fearful four. He could tell they knew what might be coming as his face took on a look of dark clouds and his eyes grew wild and angry as he once again looked them over.

"You're not Renegs, if you were you would already be dead but that's still no excuse for what you did to Elios and his two friends. We've decided to let you go, those who want to go with you can, those who want to stay with us will be accepted but they will have some of our rules to follow. We are not stupid young boys, we know how the world works and there's still a lot we have to learn. You will be given one vehicle and some supplies so you and those who want to follow you can move away from here, this bunker is no longer safe from any Renegs and we are going to strip everything from it before we return to our own. You can talk to your people, those who are left, and get ready to move, you have only a short time so don't waste it."

Mita was followed out the door by the others, only two armed boys were left to make sure that there was no foul play while the small group of the President family got ready to leave. Returning to where the other defenders were being held, Mita began to ask them what they wanted to do after explaining the other option. To his surprise it was the Captain and only one other soldier that wanted to stay. Looking at the rest of the small group of survivors, Mita counted eleven, so they had to provide on of the trucks for them to leave in, the fancy flash SUV's were in no condition to move after the tank had hit them.

Elios was the first to step up to the Captain and smiled as he cut the plastic ties they had used to tie them up with as well as those of the single soldier who had wanted to stay, while Modou got some of the boys to stock a small amount of food in one of the trucks along with four side arms for the protection of the leaving group. Elios was curious why the Captain and the single soldier had wanted to stay and so began a discussion with him.

"Captain, you were the only one who opposed my capture and that's the only reason we want to give you a chance to join us but, why?"

"Well, Elios, some things to a soldier are inviolate and a white flag of truce is one of them. It's a very old and ancient agreement and would never be broken by honourable men. What the ex-President did was wrong, besides I can see now that none of them thought it through, they should have known that the three of you were not alone. The fact you were armed and wore the old uniforms should have been a clue for them but they have lived the soft life for too long and did not adjust to the new state of the world. They thought that their old ways were the only ones, it's what used to be called, being institutionalised, or set in their ways."

"I can understand that now, but why did you and your friend decide to stay with us?"

"It's very simple, Elios, the young are the only future we have, you've proven to be a force and you've all done it without any help from the likes of us. We can help you even more, I realise you have made a lot of discoveries all on your own but there's so much more that you can learn with a little help. I've spent my whole life in what is left of the old military, Corporal Wiggin, here, is a real genius on computers. I don't know if you've managed to break them in yet but he can show you things that will help you a lot. The old style of government is long dead and the old ways of life are also dead, to progress from here needs new and young blood that is prepared to not make the mistakes of the past, I see that in you and your friends."

Elios got a look of deep thought on his young face as he took in all the words of the Captain, in the back of his mind he was rather pleased the strong man had decided to stay with them. He had felt all the time he had been held, that the Captain was not a happy man with what had happened. Slowly the Presidential group gathered its belongings and took them to the waiting truck, it had be refuelled and a small quantity of food had been put aboard leaving only enough space for the remaining passengers. Mita had also put aboard four drums of extra fuel as well as the food and three tents, it was all he was going to allow them, from the moment they left they were on their own and what happened to them was up too them.

It was nearly an hour later that the boys watched as the truck began to grind its way out over the hot sands and away from the bunker they once called home. Mita took Elios by the arm and steered him towards the quad he had used, his k'bine was not going to be out of his sight for a very long time. They had called for more trucks from the other bunkers to come and clean out this one. Modou said he would stay behind with some of the boys to guard the bunker until it was cleared of everything that was useful. The Captain and his friend the Corporal, had decided to go with Elios small convoy and return to Modou's home bunker. There he would start to teach Elios more about the ancients and their ways.

Four pairs of dark eyes watched unwaveringly at the scene below them, the high ridge they were laying on and the distance from the activity far below, kept them from the sight of all the men and boys around the far off bunker entrance.

There had originally been six pairs of eyes but two of the older Renegs had wanted to go down in the dark of the night and look a little closer at all of the strange goings on, especially the use of the ancient's self moving metal boxes. The whisper of the moving sand was the last the four remaining young Renegs had seen of the older men. Somehow those below had been able to see in the dark and had killed the two older Renegs while they were still some distance from the large cave in the hill side, now the four stayed hidden and just watched.

They were spread along the top of the ridge so they would all get to see what was happening from different angles and then, when they came together as the sun died, they would compare what they had seen. One thing had stood out, those below appeared to know all the secrets of the ancients. The passed on stories of other Renegs were becoming more truthful the longer the four watched.

It was now the thirtieth sun set, below them the men and boys had been working furiously at what appeared to be the cleaning out of the cave. Now, as the four young Renegs got ready to leave their vantage point for the day, they saw the last of the square metal self moving boxes, form up into a long line.

At the front of the line was a large square box, into this they had watched ten young boys dressed in strange clothes enter and close the opening at the rear, behind this box was the large metal thing with the wide flat metal plate on the front. They had watched it all afternoon as it pushed mountains of sand into the large cave mouth until it was fully blocked and almost hidden from sight. Behind that was another long box, it had a large cloth over the back part and they had seen countless wood and metal boxes be put inside, next came a similar self drive box that had the biggest round cylinder on the back that the young men had ever seen, at the rear were two smaller box units with three boys in each one and, off to each side, were the funny small four wheel carriers that had a boy on each. This is how the young Renegs saw the strangers move away from the now filled in cave.

The procession moved slowly away due to the large one with the flat piece in the front not being able to travel all that fast. The four, once they had joined up for the night and began to discuss all they had seen, knew that their faster haws would soon catch up in the morning. They decided to stay where they were and have a good nights sleep for a change, it would be the first one in a long time.

The next morning the four opened bleary eyes to another day that was just the same as all the others in their short lives. The four had been Renegs for only a few cycles, they had all been captured as a group not long after leaving the breeding caves and had undergone the usual round of abuse and danger that all new boys did in any Reneg camp. They had still not seen their first battle and had only been in one or two skirmishes since being made Renegs.

They were not all from the same level of the breeding caves although they were from the same cave system and, as they had been put out into the sands on the same day and at the same time, they had decided to join up together and travel as a group. They had been out on the sand for only two days when they were caught, two of the boys at that time were very good looking and had been the object of much use over the next few days by the seven older Renegs and it was only with the help of the other two in there group that they were able to survive the many rapes and other abuses.

As the four sat and ate the last of their meagre rations, they contemplated what to do, they needed supplies and it was a long ten days to their camp. On the other hand, the slow moving line of the strangers was also a temptation but in that course of action was also danger of a deadly kind. They had seen how the older Renegs had died so easily at the hands of the men at the cave, the boys sat and talked as they chewed the tough dried haws' meat, they had water enough for four days but were finishing off the last of their food, they talked more as they readied the six haws for travel.

Bas, the self appointed leader of the four young Renegs, decided to follow the strangers. There might come an opportunity for them to steal some food if they were careful about how they did it and they also had the excuse, when they finally returned to their camp, that they wanted more information about this new way for men to travel and find out more about the ancient's secrets for their leader, Red Dragon. It also meant they did not have to return to the camp for a little longer where they were at the bottom of the ladder and were always given what was left over after the older Renegs had filled themselves first. They were also subject to being used at night unless they had got new captives during a raid.

It was three hours later that they caught up to the long line of boxes. They had stopped and waited as the big box with the flat piece was working on clearing a large rock fall from the flat road the boxes travelled on. It looked incongruous to the watchers as they saw the very small figure of a young boy sitting on top of the large powerful box and seemingly operate it with ease as it pushed huge boulders and rocks from the path that climbed up the mountainside.

Little did the four Renegs know that they had been spotted long ago by the four riders on their quads and were, even now, under constant observation from the four quads hidden behind some large rocks that the four Renegs were aiming to hide behind and watch the goings on further up the mountain.

The first the four Renegs knew that they were in trouble, was when four young boys dressed in the strange clothes that made them blend in with the surrounding sands and rocks, stepped out of their hiding place and pointed black metal sticks at them and called for them to stop moving. The four young Renegs were taken by complete surprise and, much to their own surprise, stopped and stared blankly at the suddenly appearing young boys.

One boy spoke up in a high pitched young boy voice, "Keep your hands away from your crossbows and don't make any sudden moves."

The four were still in shock at being so easily captured by four young boys, Bas spoke for the group, "We don't want any trouble, we're just hungry."

"Scrat," the young boy said, this was one of the worst words that boys used. It meant many things but in this situation it meant the boy did not believe him and had full intentions of killing him right then and there.

Bas thought quickly then answered, "No, it's not, I know we look like Renegs but we're only at the bottom, we were captured only a few cycles ago."

"So why are you following us now then?"

"I told you, we're hungry. We were watching you at the cave but now we don't know what to do so we decided to follow you and see what happened."

"That's a load of scrat and you know it. We've been watching you hiding up on that ridge ever since the two old Renegs died. What do you plan now? Let us feed you and then make a run for it back to your camp and report"

For the first time that day, Bas was not sure if he was in control. This young boy seemed to have all the answers. As he watched, the boy took a small black box from his belt and began to talk at it. Much to the surprise of Bas and the other three, almost instantly, another voice came out of the box. They had just seen the true wonders of the ancients, a small black box that could talk to people. Bas and the others were having serious doubts as to the survival of Reneg gangs if they were up against the power of the ancients and these strangely dressed boys had the knowledge and use of the ancient secrets.

The young boy talked at the box a little longer and listened to the voice coming out of it; finally he looked back at the four mounted Renegs.

"Get off your haws and put your hands behind your back, any sudden moves and you die right now."

Keeping their hands spread out to their sides, the four young Renegs slid off their horses and stood as they were told to. One of the other boys walked up behind them and looped strange metal rings over their wrists, they heard then felt the rings close and their hands were held tightly behind their backs. There was no way to free them. The four Renegs were now at the mercy of the young boys, while one boy held a small black stick he had taken from a pocket on his belt, in one hand and pointed it at the four young Renegs. The other three went into the rocks and shortly they heard the sound of the quads start up and the three returned mounted on the back of the machines.

Bas watched as the last boy went back to standing on top of the large rock and watched out over the sands behind them with a strange pair of thick black tubes up to his eyes. The four Renegs were herded in front of the three riders and told to walk towards the loud sound of the road clearing. They were told that any attempt of any kind to escape and they would be lying on the side of the road with a hole in them. Bas and the others had little intention of testing the resolve of the three young boys.

It was a long and tiring walk for the three bound Renegs. They had stumbled often at the unusual way they had to move with their hands behind them, with one of the quads in front and two behind they had little chance to escape, even if they wanted to. These young boys seemed to know what they were doing and they left nothing to chance.

After stumbling along for ten minutes they finally came into view of the rest of the group. They were mostly young boys and they stood around eating strange foods from metal cylinders they held in their hands. At the sight of the four captives, the group stopped eating and glared with hatred at the four as they got closer. Bas and his friends now felt the first real signs of fear, this group of young boys was not happy too see them.

The large group went silent as the four got closer, the food cylinders were all put down and hands went to small pockets on their belts as steely eyes roved over the four. Bas knew they were now in deadly danger, one wrong word and their lives were lost. They had survived the Renegs but they were not sure they would survive this tough looking group of boys. This was a new and unknown danger, something they had never been prepared for.

The silence was broken by a large young man in a long white cloth. What really startled the four young Renegs, was the man's colour, he was totally black from head to foot, his skin glowed with health and almost shone in the bright sun light but the heat seemed to have little effect on him; his voice, when he spoke, was rich and deep and he had two very small white skinned boys that looked identical, standing close by his side.

"I am Modou, who are you and what do you want? A warning, any lies and we leave you here dead."

The warning was blunt and obviously true. Bas and his three friends had been warned, with an unsteady voice, Bas tried to answer as best he could. "I am Bas, this is Bata, Gore and Kris, we joined up together not long after leaving the breeding caves. We then got captured by Renegs a few cycles ago and have been used by them ever since. We are at the bottom of the gang, we were sent to watch over you at the new cave then the older Renegs got killed by you. We didn't know what to do and, as our camp was further away than you were, we decided to follow you and see if we could steal enough food to get back and report."

Unknown to Bas, his declaration of all of the truth had just saved their lives, although they were still on a thin thread.

"Well now that we've got you, what do you plan?"

Bas head dropped, he had not thought out this far ahead. He had no idea what to do or say, finally he just shook his head in the negative and said, "I don't know; I didn't know we would be caught."

"Well at least you're still telling the truth, are you hungry?"

Modou smiled as he said this, just one look and he could see that under the dirty rags the boys were wearing, they were half starved.

"Yes Modou, we've only had dried haws meat for the last seven days."

"Ok, we are going to put your hands to the front, don't try anything stupid or you won't need food."

One at a time, the four Renegs boys had their hands released then brought in front of them and re-cuffed, next they were each handed one of the cylinders with food inside. They had just enough movement in their tied hands to scoop up some food with their fingers and place it in their mouths. A look of ecstasy came over their faces at the first taste of the food, they had never had anything like it, it was salty meat and had a red liquid with strange vegetables in it. The food lasted no more than minutes before the Reneg boys were finished. Much to their surprise, they were offered another cylinder as well as a container of very cold water, the water also was sweet and icy cold, it was the best water they had ever drunk. How the boys kept the water so cold was another mystery they would have to find out about, they had so much and so many strange things that the four Reneg boys were left numb by the experience.

Modou and the other boys watched their captives hungrily devour the cans of food, washing it all down with the cold water they set before them. It was very obvious that the four young Renegs had not had a good meal in a long time. When they had finally finished eating, Modou began to question them for more details about the local Reneg camp and leader. As the free boys pushed further eastward, they would need to be aware of any traps but for now they were on their way to home bunker and a long rest. This episode might turn out to be lucky for them.

The four young Renegs had not been under the rule of the Renegs for too long and they were quite evidently not happy at being at the bottom of the pecking order. The four of them were no more than fifteen cycles and may be able to be trained for the more heavy work of the bunkers once they had been well fed and trained like all new boys were, but first Modou had to work out if it was at all possible. The same four boys could also be very dangerous to the free boys if he was wrong about them.

The sound of the heavy Dozer, as they had found out it was called as well as having its name marked on the side as a Caterpillar, both were used to explain the large heavy machine, the boy that had been taught by Elam to drive it looked very small up in the seat and yet he was very good at operating the large machine. The road ahead was now clear and easily used by the convoy. They were going to leave it behind as it was very slow, but it had dawned on Modou that they could use it to clear the bad spots on the road back home. It was going to take a lot longer to get there but in the end they would have a clean and clear access to move eastward once the time came.

At each evening report to Elios they had been told that more and more free boys were joining the different bunkers and they would soon have to once again move and re-open a new one to take the over flow. Now they had the means and knowledge of where and how to use the bunkers, they could search out as many as they needed at any time. It was only the large gangs of Renegs that were spread all over the sands that was of concern for their safety.

Modou's immediate concern was what to do with the four new additions, that is if he decided to keep them and offer them a place. The way back to the bunker was slow and would take weeks to accomplish and he could not keep the four Renege boys in the camp. If they stayed he would have to send them on ahead so their camp was safe while they worked the road ahead, he left the decision until later, after he had talked more with their captives he would decide.

As he sat and watched the four boys he got a heavy whiff of them, as was the habit of Renegs, they very rarely bathed, these four were no exception. Modou called for two of the boys to set some water on one of the cookers to heat up, making sure it would be enough for all four boys. He then went to the supply truck and got soap and cloths to wash with, after a short time rummaging around in the supply truck he also produced four uniforms but without the boots. Modou went back to the boys and sat in front of them, placing the clothes beside him.

While he waited for the water to heat up, Modou began his questions.

"Ok, you four, as you can see we don't kill without reason. We've fed and watered you and now is the time for decisions and answers, first, what are we going to do with you? on this score we have a number of options, we keep you prisoner, we let you go, we kill you, or, if you tell me all the truth, there is a chance we would let you join us, but that would depend on a meeting of our leaders and also your answers."

Bas looked at his fellow friends, it was a silent agreement by them all to do as they were asked, after all they had little chance if they tried to rebel or escape, besides, anything, even captivity by these boys, was better than where they had spent the last couple of cycles. The food and water alone proved these free boys were way better off then the Reneg gang they had been with.

"Now, Bas, who was your Reneg leader and how many men and how far away are they?"

"He is called, Red Dragon, they have a camp about ten or ten plus one days ride from here. He has many men, tens of tens, they control all of the sands from these mountains to the far off flat lands. It would take us many days on haws to travel it all, he has small gangs out all the time looking for new boys and new camps to capture."

"How did you find us at the bunker?"

"Bunker?"

"The cave where we killed the old Renegs, it's called a bunker."

"Oh, ok, well Dragon heard the stories from the other side of the mountains about young boys with the power of the ancients and what they were doing to Reneg gangs. He thought it was all tall stories as they changed as they were retold, some said you were many hands tall and had monsters for pets, others said you could control fire and thunder. He wanted to find out so he sent many small gangs out to search for you, we were the lucky, or unlucky ones to find you."

"So for now he has no real report on us?"

"No, we haven't had the chance to report back to him. When you killed the two older ones we didn't know what to do. This is the first time we've been allowed to leave the camp and go on a search. I thought we would just stay and watch and, if you left we would have to go back and report. I know he was not going to be happy about losing two men and we would get the blame for not saving them or trying to kill you all and take your treasure."

"So instead you are our prisoners. Now what are we going to do with you, you can't stay here, we will be moving to slow to be able to keep you under guard all the time. I suppose we could just kill you and save us a lot of time and worry, or, we could send you back to the bunker under guard but, to do that, I need your word that you will do as your told and not try to escape."

"Yes, you have our word, we don't want to die out here, we'll do what ever you ask, please."

Modou thought about it for a while. He had not really intended to kill them, they had been no real danger to any of them and were still young enough to be taught new ways and join in with the free boys. It was mainly the older Renegs that could not be trusted, Modou called out for the two jeep drivers, when they arrived he gave them orders to get ready to take the prisoners back to the home bunker for Elios and the rest of the leaders to inspect.

"Here's what I have decided. You will be taken back to my home bunker in the jeeps, there will be two of you in each one as well as the driver and an armed guard. If you try to escape or attack my boys, they will kill you on the spot. You will remain cuffed and, as it is along trip, you will be fed and watered each day until you get there. If you behave and do as your told you have a good chance of being allowed to join us, the other option is we kill you now and save a lot of trouble. It's up to you, what do you want to do?"

Bas looked at the others, there was little choice and it was a good excuse to get away from the slavery they had been under. It took less than a second to decide, there was really only one choice.

"We agree, we will not cause trouble."

"Good, now the next thing. You all stink, we have hot water and soap, strip off those rags and clean up, then put on these new clothes to wear until you get to the bunker. I'm going to let your hands free to wash, but you'll be under watch the whole time so don't do anything silly at this point."

True to his word, Modou had the cuffs removed and four large dishes of hot water were brought out for the boys. The soap they had no idea about, it smelt good but they did not know if they should eat it or use it. It took one of the other boys to show them what to do and, some ten minutes later, they were clean and smelt good, the fresh clothes also felt good on their clean skin. Their hands were cuffed back in front of them again and they were shown to the two jeeps, one of them in the front with the driver and another in the back with the guard. When they were settled, Modou gave the order to head for his home bunker while he stayed and finished the long trip back with the dozer, clearing the road as they went.

The four Reneg boys were terrified by the speed of their transport. The hot wind swept past their heads at a terrible rate, their long hair blown about wildly, it took over an hour before they found the ride fun to be on and began to settle down to the new experience. The two drivers were very good and wasted little effort in controlling the speeding and bouncing machines, the guard in the back stayed alert and wary all the time, even when they stopped to put liquid in the machines and eat.

They travelled fast for three more days until late on the third day, Bas saw the large opening of another of the bunkers come into view. The activity around the large opening startled the four Reneg boys, long lines of machines were neatly parked and many boys were helping to unload all the things inside them. As the two jeeps pulled up to the doorway, a small group stood waiting for them, they had been told about the four captives by radio and had been keeping a steady watch for them to arrive.

Bas also noticed again the sudden silence around the large space as he and the other three were pulled from the jeep. There was little love lost for Renegs in this large group of free boys and their age made little difference, many of the boys had seen friends killed or captured by Reneg gangs. These four new boys were not going to be treated any different than older Renegs until the leaders committee decided what to do with them.

Elios stood alongside Elam and Mita as the four captives were brought before them. Modou had already passed on all the information he had gathered from the four boys so Elios and his friends were well ready for the new boys to join them. First however they would have to be thoroughly checked out and the rules of the bunkers set down for them. The night before, Elios, Elam, Elvan, Mita and Modou had had a discussion via radio and had decided to keep the boys and make them part of their bunker family if the Reneg boys agreed to join them without reservation.

The four Reneg boys were brought to stand before the small group waiting for them. The two drivers and two guards looked tired and weary as they stood behind the four. Elios gave a signal and four fresh boys armed with rifles took the place of the tired boys. Elios sent them off to rest until the next day when they would travel back to join Modou's group.

Elios let Mita do all the talking while he watched the four closely for any signs of lies. As they already had most of the story from Modou and the decision was already made, Mita's questions took only a short time to finish. At the end of the questions the three nodded to each other in agreement and then told the four new boys what they had to do and where they would be put in the bunker. They were also told that they would be under constant supervision until the had proved themselves to the group.

Mita's first act was to have the cuffs removed and the boys taken to the showers and then the kitchen for food, after that they would be allowed to rest and then taken to start their lessons and to find out what they would be good at. All four boys were strong from the time with the Renegs but they were also underfed and needed to have their hair cut for cleanliness. Each boy had two temporary guards assigned to them while they settled in. They would not be allowed to wander unguarded around the bunker and would also be in a dorm where they could be watched during the time they slept. The four boys agreed to all the rules and were taken off by their keepers to wash and eat. Even under guard as they were, Bas somehow found he was feeling freer than he ever had, the same feeling filled the other three as they were all led down to a large room and had the showers explained to them.

As Bas stood under the hot water, the first he had ever known for washing in, he got the feeling of eyes on his body, shaking the water from his eyes he looked at the guards by the door as he tried to find which one seemed more interested than the others. It didn't take him long to see the young guard with bright red hair almost salivating as he looked over Bas' body, the heat in the young boys eyes and the rosy red cheeks told Bas all he wanted to know and he was not adverse to the attention. The red haired boy was also very interesting to Bas, at this thought, Bas realised his boyhood was standing at attention and the boy of his thoughts was rubbing himself while his young face blushed and his upper lip trembled.

After the shower, it was no surprise to Bas that the red haired boy was one of his guards and seemed to stand very close to him as they made their way to the common room for food. The horrors of the Reneg camp seemed so far away at that moment, it was as though it had been just a fleeting moment in Bas life as he stared unashamedly at the red head. The silent communication between them seemed to settle any stray thoughts they might have had, Bas now felt as though he had come home for the first time in his life.

Two weeks had passed in no time at all for the four new additions. At first they had found their lessons very difficult but hey had become easier as they worked on them. The four boys now had a basic working knowledge of the strange writings of the ancients and were beginning to understand more around them. For Bas he had found peace, both in himself and in his bed. The little red headed guard, Kila, had hardly left his side for the whole time Bas and his friends had been in the bunker.

It was as bas and Kila were holding each other with their lips pressed tightly together, that the other guard coughed to break them apart.

"Elios would like to see you Bas, Kila will show you the way."

Even after all his experience with the Renegs and the friendliness of the other boys around, Bas could not help blushing as he pulled apart from the arms of his boyfriend. Straightening their clothes, Kila took the lead and showed Bas which way to go, Bas had not been into this area, it was called the Office Area, it was where all the leaders usually could be found carrying out all the duties involved in running the bunkers. The one thing that had impressed bas and the other three was, the lack of discord in the bunker, every boy seemed to have respect for another and their leaders. It would be another month before Bas would find out why Elios and his leaders were held in such high regard.

Bas was led into the large main office and saw that the young boy Elios, was sitting behind one of the computer tables. The four boys had found out about the computers and were in the process of learning to use them for their lessons. Bata had taken to them like a bird to water, he seemed to have an unnatural ability to understand them after only a very short time, each boy had done some strange tests to find out what they were good at.

Elios looked up at Bas and smiled widely.

"Hello Bas; please sit down, how are you finding things in the bunker?"

Bas sat in one of the hard chairs in front of the large table.

"Ahm, Hello Elios, I don't know what to say, everything is so new and strange. I think I like it here, well… more than think. I know the others are happy to be away from the Renegs."

"And what about you, are you happy to be free of them?"

"Oh yes, I never thought a life like this was possible."

"Good, now the reason I've ask you to come and see me is that we have finished looking at your tests and I wanted to tell you where we think you would all be best fitted. As you know we are looking for more bunkers to open and we need a lot of boys for that, we want to hopefully get all of the ones we know about, opened and being lived in."

Bas sat quietly and just nodded his head in understanding, he knew that if the Renegs had been able to open the bunkers, the world he was now learning about would be a different place and not for the better.

"I want you to tell the others where we think they should go to learn, you seem to be their leader so it's only right you tell them."

Bas nodded again, this young boy seemed to know how things worked.

"Ok, we would like Bata to take all the lessons he can handle on the computers, boys with his ability are very hard to find, Gore will go to be with my man Mita and be trained in the use of the heavy rifles and what we call snipers, Kris will go to be trained as a scout and will learn all about the quads we use and how to move around the sands without being seen. Now, for yourself, I would like you to go to what we call Home Bunker, it's the first one we discovered, I would like you to learn all you can from Elam, he is the boy who knows all about the engines and vehicles."

For a moment, Bas looked as though he had just been cut in half and Elios smiled to himself, he knew exactly why Bas looked so lost.

"So Bas, what do you think about the arrangements?"

Sadness ran over Bas's face but he knew better than to make an issue out of anything concerning the four boys. They had been saved from the Reneg and given a good home with a future. He felt that his own personal wants or desires had to be put on the side if for no other reason than gratitude.

"Thank you Elios and thank you too all the boys that have tried to help us here, I'll pass on to the others what they will be doing."

"Well that's good, oh, by the way, there's one more thing, as the Home Bunker will be new to you and you won't know anyone there, I thought I might send Kila with you. He comes from Home Bunker and can help you settle in, that's if you want him too."

The blush was nearly as bright as the smile on Bas' face at these words, without thinking he rose from the chair and hugged Kila close to his chest. It was Elios' voice that broke them apart before clothes came off.

"I guess it's ok then, well go tell the others. You leave for Home Bunker tomorrow morning, and Bas!"

"Yes, Elios?"

"You take good care of Kila; he's already lost one lover in the last battle with the Renegs."

Bas looked at his new boyfriend, Kila had never talked about being with another boy but now that Bas knew, he realised that Kila had always had a soft sadness about him even though, when the two boys were together at night, their actions were far from tentative. Elios watched the pair leave and turned back to the last message he had received from one of the scout parties.

'Contact #37, open and operating, need help. Simon.'

Elios was now happy that they were progressing towards opening more bunkers, the help Simon, the leader of the scout group, needed was the technical boys and more guards as well as kitchen hands and anyone else that could take over the bunker while Simon set out again in search of more. So far he was the only one to report in with a good result. Elios set about finding where number 37 bunker was placed on his map, once he found it he began to plan on who and what to send. It would be a trip of about eight days as far as he could tell but, if he was to send heavier trucks as he would have to for the extra staff, it would take closer to twelve days.

Elios checked the other four scout reports, one of them had had a running battle with a large group of Reneg but had managed to hold them at bay until they got to high ground and had built a strong defensive mound. They had asked for help and supplies and had lost one boy when he fell off the back of a quad and the driver had not heard him in all the noise until it was to late. They had had to watch and listen as the boy was gang raped by the Renegs and then killed in a horrible way.

They told Elios they had enough supplies for a long defence but not enough left for an attack on the gang and were worried that the gang would send out a message for more help. Elios set about working out where the boys must be and started to form a plan to supply them, he would need fast transport with a good amount of firepower, finally Elios decided on ten Humvees and one APC to carry the supplies. If they left tonight and ran for as long as they could, they would be with the boys in two days, from the message he knew they could hold out that long.

After setting everything in motion, Elios sighed and sat back in the chair. It looked as though they would have to launch a major attack on another Reneg camp before much longer, Elios left his computer on for the next boy to take over the com system to the other bunkers and scout groups, the last message from Modou had told him they were making good progress and would be at the bunker in another seven days. Elios' skin began to tingle with a familiar tickle, he needed to find Mita and spend some alone time with his man.

That evening, Elios discussed the upcoming rescue mission with Mita. At first Mita was dead against Elios going out again and chancing another capture but, as usual, Elios was not going to leave this important mission to someone else. After a long passionate session in bed, Mita agreed, there was little he could refuse Elios when in the throws of passion, as Elios well knew.

The next morning was the same as the last, the first morning rays of sunlight told of another hot windless day to come. The loud roar of the rescue vehicles disturbed the early morning silence as they pulled out of the bunker at speed. This would be a non stop drive to the new bunker where his scouts were under attack, there was no time for delays, all meals would be eaten on the drive from tinned food.

The trip to the newly discovered bunker was long and hot, the stress levels rose as the time passed and, only when they stopped to refuel was there time for a quick breath and then they were off again. As they neared the co-ordinates that Elios had been given, the land around them had changed into broken rocky ground, the vehicles had had to slow and, as they rose over a high ridge, Elios got a look at the long low valley before them, in the distance they could just make out a large mound with the distinctive dark square of a door.

Elios also saw the large gang that surrounded the bunker. It appeared as though the Renegs had gathered a large number of men and had surrounded the mound, at the closed door of the bunker sat one of the jeeps smouldering and on its side. The Renegs had somehow found or created a machine that could throw things. There were five of them that Elios could see through his binoculars, they were using large rocks to pound the door of the bunker. This was something new that Elios and the others had not seen before, the machine was not as efficient as their own weapons but was never the less a new direction for the Reneg.

Elios and Mita set about forming up their attack units, the APC would stay back and be used only in a support roll. Mita set three Humvees to the left and three to the right, the remaining four would be used in the centre below them were over one hundred Reneg set out in a half circle. Their five throwing machines were close together and all concentrating on the closed door. The Renegs, Elios noticed, had taken some casualties and the bodies were just left out on the sand in the hot sun, even from this distance, Elios could almost smell the decay of death.

At the right signal from Mita, the vehicles moved of in low gear so as not to alert the Renegs attackers far below. When they were all in the right positions, Mita would give the signal to attack all at the same time, it was hoped that an attack from three directions and the extra fire power at the same time would counter the larger numbers of the Renegs.

Slowly and as quietly as they could, all the vehicles moved into position. Elios was under strict orders not to leave the APC, Mita was not going to have him any where near the fighting this time. At last they were as ready as they were going to be, Mita sent out the signal.

The Reneg leadership had no idea where the heavy growling sound came from until one of his men called from the left, he turned and saw in the distance, three black dots approaching quickly, a large plume of dust flying high in the air. Quickly he gave the order to turn their new machines towards the oncoming dots, as the men began the laborious task of turning the heavy wooden frames around. There came another call from the right, the leader, Swift Stride, turned that way and saw three more dots coming from that direction, now he began to hesitate, which of these interlopers did he use his new machines on. Swift Stride decided to split his forces, three machines to the left and two to the right, at the same time he called out for his men to get ready to defend the new machines and take out the attackers as quickly as possible.

Renegs came from all directions as they set about protecting the machines, they well knew the power of the attackers and the boys that used them. There were going to be heavy losses but, with the new machines they had a good chance to stop the attacking forces, they had managed to stop one of the boys' machines before and it still smouldered on the sands in front of them to prove it could be done.

As the left and right attackers drove closer, Swift Stride saw that they were spread out in a V shape, one in front and the other two out to the side. Just as he was setting his machines to start the process of throwing the big rocks, he heard another sound from the high ridge behind them. Now he knew he was in trouble, from the top of the ridge came four more of the ancient's machines in a straight line abreast, from their roof tops came the bright red fire of their weapons. The sand around the Reneg defence began to kick up in a maelstrom of flying debris, the sound of men screaming as they died began to fill the sir around Swift Stride as the weapons of the approaching attackers from the left and right joined in.

All around him men were falling, blood was beginning to flow into the dry sand from the large holes that appeared as if by magic in the bodies of the Reneg men. Their new machines were of no use, they could not throw the big rocks far enough or be reloaded quick enough to make any difference in the approaching storm of metal. For the first time in his life, Swift Stride knew the feeling of defeat, he was quickly surrounded by the square box machines with the spitting fire weapons. They stopped just out of reach of his machines and began the grisly task of cutting his men to ribbons, try as they did, the Renegs could not get close to the new threat, they were cut down like so many rag dolls as the loud hammering weapons echoed down the valley.

Swift Stride felt the hot sting in his upper arm and then another in his leg, as he fell to the ground he saw that his men were now no more than a small bunch of ten or so cowering men. They had no defence against this new attack, they had at first thought they would win when they had caught the young boys unaware as they came out of the cave three days ago, but now, somehow, they had called for reinforcements. He knew he was beaten, there was nothing left for him to do but either try to escape or surrender, neither one was a decision he wanted but it was either that or death, and Swift Stride was not ready for that just yet. He was still only a young man of two ten plus five cycles and was known among the Renegs as a good and wise leader even though he was young.

Finally the ancient's machines stopped spitting out death. They then moved a little closer and young boys began to get out of them, they all held the black sticks at the ready as they approached the small group of Renegs that were left. The quick fight had been a slaughter and now there was only the clean up of the last of the hated enemy.

Mita called for Elios to come down and join them now that the worst of the action was over. Had Mita known Elios' feelings at that moment, he would have ducked for cover. Elios sat in the APC with a look of death on his face, he was flushed and a little angry at begin left out of the action, although he understood his lovers desire to keep him safe, he did not like it. He agreed in front of the others because that was his duty as a k'bine, but he did not have to like it one bit and he would seek repayment from Mita before much longer. Mita may have to make a friend of his hand for a while, Elios thought to himself.

Of the eleven Renegs left after the attack, only two were unwounded, they all now sat in a loose circle with armed boys standing over them. Elios joined Mita and gave him a look that told Mita there would be more said about Elios missing the battle. Mita gave a small smile and lifted an eyebrow as though to say, 'you think so'. Mita received a return look of grim annoyance from Elios.

Mita looked down at the captives, there was little lee way in how they would be treated, they were Renegs and had attacked some of their boys. Mita decided to ask a few questions in the hope of gathering information on local gangs.

"Who's the leader here?" Mita asked.

A tall thin young man rose from the small group, he was wounded in both his arm and one leg and stood unsteadily as he tried to avoid putting too much weight on the injured side.

"I am, my name is Swift Stride."

Mita looked at the other survivors then, he looked at the boys guarding them, with a quick nod of his head their fate was sealed and they were quickly told to stand and marched off from the now solitary Reneg. The sudden burst of firing from such close range made Swift Stride jump, while he didn't understand the ancient's weapons, he knew what that sound meant, he was now the only survivor of the attack and his chances had reduced by a large margin.

Swift Stride decided that if nothing else, he would die like a man and Reneg, using all his strength he pulled himself up as straight as he could with his wounds screaming out at him. Swift Stride then sent a glare of defiance at his captors only too see a smile appear on the lips of their leader.

"No, Swift Stride, that's not your fate, well not yet. What you decide to do next will decide what happens too you, now all we want to know is how big the Renegs gangs are around here and how far away they are from this bunker?"

At the suggestion that he would live a little longer, Swift Stride relaxed a little. In Reneg society there was little in the way of honour and silence, it was each gang for himself and each territory was held only by the strongest and most feared. The large centre of the Renegs on these sands was only held by force and fear by, the closest they had to an overall leader was Red Dragon who controlled the largest of the Reneg lands. Swift Stride and his large gang were on the very edges of Red Dragon's borders and did what they wanted except when they were called to meetings at the main caves of Red Dragon.

After he gave all the information he could to the large group of boys. Those from the cave had also now joined the others who broke the Reneg attack. Mita turned at talked with Elios until they came to an agreement, finally Mita turned to Swift Stride and gave a not to one of the guards. Much to his dismay, Swift Stride's hand were released and he was told to sit on the ground while one of the boys fixed up his bleeding leg and arm. He was then told he would be released to return to his boss and that he was to tell Red Dragon to leave the boys and their caves alone, if he attacked anyone or any cave there would be a full scale attack on his main centre.

After a short time more, Swift Stride had both wounds bandaged and was given the use to two horses to take him back to his leader. There was also a small quantity of food and water on the second horse, he was not allowed any weapons and was sent off in the direction of the main Reneg camp. Swift Stride was also told the if they met again the end result would not be the same, the last sight of the Reneg leader was a plume of dust rising in the air as he disappeared over the far off ridge. Elios and Mita went to find out about the boys that had been under attack and how it had happened that they got caught out by the Renegs.

Elios and Mita sat in the office area of the new bunker as Elios set up the rest of the computer systems for contact with the other bunkers. It had now been three years and they had managed to now open eight bunkers and staff them with boys from the caves. This new one would have to have more boys to staff it and defend it and the surrounding area, it would be another three or four days before the first of the new boys would arrive and they would decide on who was to be in charge so that the scout group could go out again and find other bunkers to open, their family of safety was growing fast.

This bunker was another of the arms and transport bunkers, there was ample supplies here for the new arrivals once they got here. Elios and Mita had set about organising it so the new members would have little to do and the contact with the other bunkers would be set up and secure, they both felt that they had little to fear from another Reneg attack for at least a number of days, it would then be the duty of the new bunker leader to set up defence and observation posts out side.

That night Mita found out how tough Elios could be as he found his k'bine to be intractable when it came to sharing his bed, even under the threat of taking the smaller boy by force, Mita had found himself looking down the barrel of Elios pistol with a steely pair of eyes glaring at him over the top of the barrel. Elios had not said a word but had holstered the pistol and left the room to sleep alone, Mita could easily have tried to force Elios but the smaller boy had a streak of stubbornness that Mita had seen in the past and was not about to try to win his favour just yet. Mita knew that Elios would calm down soon and all would be back to normal, his loins stirred at the thought of the determination of his k'bine.

Over the next year, the boys discovered, opened and staffed four more bunkers, now the only one left in reasonable range was marked on the map with a red star and the letters, W&SD below it. This bunker had intrigued Elios for some time but he had decided to leave it until they had sufficient bunkers to house all the new arrivals, that was now accomplished and it was time to set out in search of the strange W&SD bunker.

It was during the set up process for the scout group, that Elios and Mita first noticed the increase in Reneg interest. They had been getting reports of gangs of Renegs following every convoy and, although they were never attacked, it did appear as though the Reneg were getting a little braver.

The sudden interest made Elios begin to think about what any future attacks may be like and, to this end he set about trying to improve the chances of the convoys. As far as he could tell there was really only one weakness in the various forms of transport, the wheels and the rubber tyres, if a Reneg got close enough to use his crossbow, he may be able to puncture one or more of the tyres. It would then make it very difficult for the driver to keep driving without risking his cargo or personnel.

Elios sent a message off to Elam, asking if he could come up with something to protect the soft tyres. The end result was a fitted plate over most of the tyre surface attached to the metal of the vehicle, for ease of changing, it was fitted on a hinge at the top and two small screws on the bottom so it could be lifted out of the way when the tyre needed to be changed. There was however, still about six inches of rubber showing below the guards, there was little they could do about it but hope that the Reneg were not able to get that close.

The time finally arrived for Elios and Mita to leave the confines of the latest bunker and head out for the one marked with the star, as usual the convoy consisted of four Humvees, two jeeps, four quads, a single APC and one supply truck. Even as they departed the bunker, Elios spotted four small black dots on the far off ridge line, they were already under surveillance by the Reneg, as they turned to drive Northward, there seemed to be an instant increase in tension among the group.

Elios had worked out that the bunker in their sights was some six days away if they struck no problems along the way. Their tail of Renegs had increased to six on the first day and they had been shadowed every metre of the way by the horsemen. It was Mita that was the first one to get the feeling that this time things were different, there was something in the back of his mind that kept nagging at him without actually coming fully to the forefront. It was on the second day, as they stopped for a light meal and to refuel the vehicles, Elios looked at the far off ridges and noticed there was an increase to the numbers of Reneg following them. Had the ground been open and free of clutter, they would have been able to speed away and leave the watchers behind, however they were in broken ground and the supply truck had to go slow to avoid any problems. This enabled the Reneg watchers to keep track of them with little effort, Elios, like Mita and the others also noticed the increase in numbers.

At the end of the second day, the boys nerves were tingling, the numbers now following them were definitely increased to where they could become threatening. As a precaution, Mita had the vehicles pull into a cliff face and form a semi circle with the supply truck in the centre, those boys not driving were set to two hour watches to keep them alert as they could sleep during the day while on the move.

Each guard boy was fitted with the NV goggles and they set themselves in pairs to stay awake, the thought of the increasing numbers of Renegs kept them on edge the whole night. During the day the Reneg had stayed just out of range of their weapons, they had obviously learned not to get too close from other run ins with the boys, although the fire power of thirty boys was a lot of power, the fact that the Reneg numbers were increasing rapidly meant that it would not be long before their total numbers would or could overwhelm the boys.

The third day was similar to the other two, the Reneg numbers again increased and they were now shadowed by more than fifty horse mounted men. Early in the afternoon, the convoy came onto open ground and were able to speed up and leave the growing horde behind in their dust, but, even they knew that when they stopped for the evening, the Renegs would have a chance to catch up again or, it would only take more long stretches of broken ground to slow them down, Elios got out his map and looked for somewhere to camp for the night. The tension in the air was growing just as the number of the Reneg was growing.

It was on the fourth day that the first sign of an attack came, when they stopped for a midday break, one of the quads did not show up, nor did the two boys that had been on it. They had not had any call over the radio to tell them what had happened or where they were, everybody was on edge as they hurriedly gulped their meal and then set off, keeping a close eye out for the missing boys. The quads had been in the vanguard, scouting the way ahead, each had one driver and another armed boy on the back keeping an eye open for trouble, they should have been able to see any Reneg problems before they were caught out.

Mita had pulled the remaining three quads back into the convoy and set one of the jeeps out in front instead but, this time the jeep was within sight of the lead vehicle all the time. They could not afford to lose another vehicle.

It was the jeep that sighted the missing quad first. They had seen a bright reflection off to the side of the track they had been following, there had been no sign of the Reneg since stopping for the break, this alone made Elios and the others even more nervous. The jeep radioed Elios that they had found the missing quad but there was no sign of the two boys or any of their equipment. The quad was over on its side and the rear tyre had a crossbow bolt through it. Around the area were a number of used cartridge cases, the boys had not given up easily. It was evident that the boys had been somehow ambushed from close quarters, this also gave rise to a new nervousness in the convoy.

The convoy continued on its way after setting the quad on its wheels and putting two more riders on it, to make sure it could still be used by the convoy. It was another five minutes before they found the boys, the sight that met their eyes almost made them sick, even though they had seen many sights like this before but, this time the Reneg had gone all out to torture the boys in the most horrible way they could think of, the results were easy to see.

The two boys had been stripped naked and repeatedly raped; they had then been beaten and cut before being used as target practice for the Renegs new weapons that they had taken from the boys. Mita set out a guard ring and then began to look for all the empty shell casings, there had been quite a number at the site of the attack and now he had more to count, each boy on the quad had carried three magazines for their pistol and four magazines for their rifles. It looked as though the pistols and the rifles had both been used on the boys by the size of the empty shell casings.

After counting the empties and trying to remember how many were left at the attack site, Mita and Elios guessed the Reneg now only had about one magazine of each left, with a little more searching, they came across the remains of the magazines scattered over the ground, the results were satisfying. It looked as though the Reneg had got carried away with the new weapons, seven empty rifle magazines lay on the ground leaving only one for the two rifles, along with them were four empty pistol magazines, that left only one each for the two guns. The Renegs had wasted most of their ammunition on target practice but the boys would still have to be careful, there was still enough ammunition with the Reneg to hurt them if they got careless. The only advantage they had was that the Reneg were not familiar with the weapons.

As they began to drive off after the midday meal, the boys again saw the Reneg gathering on the far off sand dune. Ahead of them was a long stretch of flat open sand, to their right were the Reneg up on the dune, to their left were the high mountains, their sheer sides coming right down to the sand flats. To Elios' eyes, the mountain sides looked to be unbroken, he went to the rough map he had with him and looked for some sort of break in the sheer rock face.

Elios almost missed the fine mark on the map, at first he thought it is was only a crease from folding the rough paper. They had stopped to check the map and the far off Renegs who now numbered even more than at the midday stop. Elios turned to Mita in the driver's seat and showed him the thin black mark on the map.

"We have to get there, it�s about half an hour from here, it looks narrow enough to make it difficult for any Reneg to attack us and an easy place to defend."

Mita nodded his head in agreement and, with a toot on the horn to tell the others to follow, Mita set of at the best possible speed for the thin line of a break in the sheer high cliffs. The far off Renegs were not slow to take up the chase from their distant position on the top of the dune.

They were almost at the cutting when they saw a small band of Renegs leave the group ahead of them and turn to make for the same cutting. Elios pushed his way into the open turret of the machine gun on the roof of the Humvee and, amidst the jolting and bouncing of the vehicle, fired off two long bursts at the small group. Although he did not hit any of them it was enough to make them turn back towards the main group, the convoy was now only minutes away from safety.

The lead jeep was the first to make the turn into the cutting followed closely by the quads, next came the supply truck and then the Humvees with the heavily armoured APC last, as it entered the narrow cutting it turned sideways until it almost completely blocked the entrance, its top turret turning outward facing the large Reneg force now assembling out of gun range. The convoy was now in a very narrow cutting that appeared to go deep into the mountains; it was only wide enough for one vehicle at a time although the quads could go two abreast.

Mita stopped his Humvee and reached behind the seat for his long rifle. While the Renegs were out of normal rifle range, his could easily reach them as could the heavy machine gun on top of the APC. Elios followed Mita back to the entrance just as the first shots were fired by the Renegs. Elios set about carefully counting them, as the small puffs of sand kicked up by the bullets fell short. Mita set up his own sniper rifle with a smile on his face, none of them were in any danger while the Reneg were out of range although it looked as though the Reneg had little idea about distance for the captured rifles.

Elios had counted fifteen shots fired before he heard next to him the louder report of Mita�s rifle and lifted his eyes quickly enough to see one of the Renegs who had been firing at them, drop from his horse, his stolen rifle flying from his hands to be picked up by another of his gang. A second shot from Mita sent that Reneg to the ground as well as a couple of the horses bucked their riders off and fled down the dune behind the Renegs.

Mita turned and smiled at Elios.

"How many shots did they fire?"

"I counted fifteen," Elios replied.

"Same here, so that means they have only about half a magazine and the two pistols with ten rounds each."

"That�s what I make it as well, let's give them a burst from the machine gun, it may give them the idea to stay well back from us during the night as well."

Mita nodded and called up to the boy in the turret to fire a couple of long bursts at the far off Renegs, it took only seconds before the heavy .50 cal was sending a stream of death towards the top of the sand dune. Much to their surprise, four of the Reneg were thrown from the horses as the heavy bullets thudded into them, the rest took flight along the dune to get out of range of the hail of death.

Mita folded the short legs of his sniper rifle and turned back to the main body of the convoy leaving strict instructions for the APC boys to keep a sharp watch. They were not out of trouble yet, once they were back at the main group, Elios and Mita began to look around more closely, the cutting was deep and disappeared around a far off corner, it towered above them and appeared to bend inwards the further up it went, the Reneg would not be able to attack them from above.

Under foot there were faint dark patches as though the sandy base of the cutting saw very little hot sunlight and was able to retain some of the moisture from the cold nights. The two boys decided they had to look further into the cutting, there may be another way out, while they were perfectly safe in the cutting, they would not be safe leaving it with the numbers now gathered outside. It was a stalemate at the moment even though the firepower favoured the convoy, they were heavily outnumbered.

It was decided to send one of the quads with two boys to look deeper into the cutting to see if there was another way out of their predicament. Their radios were checked once again and two boys set off down the cutting after they had eaten a quick meal, they also took extra ammunition with them just in case. The rest of the convoy set about preparing for their defence, the drivers went about refuelling and checking their various vehicles for any needed repairs. Afterwards they were allowed to rest and the other boys took up guard duty as they had been rostered. There was to be one boy on the heavy machine gun at all times along with a boy standing on each side of the turret for a better view of the distant dune top where the Reneg had re-gathered to watch the cutting.

As the afternoon moved on towards dark, Mita set up the night guard, the Renegs had not made any further moves to attack the well settled convoy. It was almost dark when they heard the radio crackle to life from the two boys sent further into the cutting, the message was short and the boys voice sounded excited but he told Elios he would explain everything when he got back later in the night as they had gone quite a distance.

Elios reported the message to Mita and they set about waiting for the boys to return. The work in the camp went on as the other boys set about checking their equipment in case of a night attack by the Renegs. Everyone was on alert, the two extra boys on top of the APC now wore their NV goggles and were lying on the roof to make as small a target as possible, everyone felt that if the Renegs had a mind to attack it would be under cover of the darkness.

It was nearing midnight when they heard the far off crackle of the returning quad, everyone woke up and watched intently down the cutting as the first glimmer of headlights showed on the steep walls. Minutes later and they could clearly see the approaching beam of the quad, it was not hurrying as they had to still keep and eye out for any loose rocks in their path but, it was only minutes later that they pulled into the small camp. The two boys looked worn and tired as they got off the quad, it had been a long day for them both.

Elios sat the two boys down with a hot meal and a hot drink, others crowded around to hear what they had found. Everyone was in for the biggest shock yet as the two boys began to relate their experiences in the cutting and what they had found at the far end, the driver, a boy called Sten, told the massed boys what they had found.

"We had to go a long way inside. This cutting is about the same size for about an hour, it�s all fairly clear apart from some odd loose rocks on the floor but nothing too big to move or go around. After an hour or so it begins to widen out slowly until you could get two trucks side by side, it stays like that for another hour or so then widens again, after about half an hour it then just opens out into the biggest valley I�ve ever seen. We couldn�t believe what we saw, the whole valley is covered in green grass and there�s a wide stream running through the middle that comes from a small lake at the far end but it took us another half an hour to get that far, there�s lots of animals of all sorts and trees and flowers everywhere. You could put every boy in all the bunkers into that one valley and still have space, it�s huge."

Sten stopped to catch his breath and fill his mouth with the thick stew that Elios had given him, the other boy, Brad, then took over.

"There doesn�t seem to be another way out but the back of the valley is not as steep as this cutting, perhaps if we used that dozer from that President bunker, we might be able to make a road up to the top, the valley would be good to live in for a lot of the boys if they wanted to come here."

Brad also went back to stuffing as much stew into his mouth as it would hold. Elios and Mita did not blame them, they had been away most of the day and half the night without anything to eat and they were growing boys. Mita told them to finish eating and then get some well earned sleep while he and Elios talked over their find and what they would do about it.

Both Elios and Mita acknowledged that the find was very significant but it did not solve the present problem of the large Reneg gathering out front. As a precaution they decided to pull the APC back a little more so that only a few Reneg could come into the cutting at a time instead of attacking on a wide front, it would be easier to control the cutting from a little further back and so they sent the driver of the APC a message to come back closer to the main camp site but not to turn side on, this way it would allow a couple more of the boys to lay each side of the vehicle and add fire power to their defence.

It was in the early hours of the morning when the Reneg decided to try for their attack, hoping the boys would be tired and mostly asleep. It was the one of many mistakes that Renegs had made during the time the boys had held the bunkers, it was not until they got into the narrow confines of the cutting that the Renegs realised they could only ride two abreast on their horses. They became easy targets for the well trained boys, after the loss of some twenty men, the Renegs turned and ran for the darkness outside the narrow death trap along with a hail of heavy machine gun fire to hurry them on their way.

While the boys tactics proved to be sound, it still did not get them out of the cutting and on towards their eventual goal of the new bunker. Elios was sure that it was only one or two days away but they couldn�t risk leaving the cutting for now, it was their only defence against the larger numbers outside. It was just before sun rise when the next form of attack came and, had it not been for the Renegs' lack of practice with their stolen weapons, it could have turned out a lot worse than it did.

Four of the Renegs had managed to close the distance between them and the boys until they thought they were in range of the stolen rifles, while they did not have the NV goggles of the boys, they could still see the dark outline of the boys on guard on top of the APC. Had they known how to use the weapons properly, Elios would have two dead boys on his hands. As it turned out, the shots fired went wide of their mark but not the answering fire, the heavy machine gun made short work of the four attackers as the floor and sides of the narrow cutting became a death trap of flying bullets and large chips of sharp rock. It was the quick thinking and fast legs of one of Elios' boys that managed to recover the stolen weapons from the four dead Renegs, the situation had again turned a little in their favour.

As the sun rose higher in the morning sky, it was decided that most of the convoy would make its way deeper into the cutting while the APC and two Humvees would remain to stop any further attacks by the Renegs outside. Mita suggested that Elios take the rest of the convoy to look at the valley while he set up defences. They were still not out of trouble yet, the far off numbers of Reneg made it clear that they were not going to leave this place without a big fight, it also became clear that they could not contact any of the bunkers for help as the deep cutting seemed to stop their signals from getting out. They were on their own for this one.

It was fully three hours before Elios convoy drove out of the narrow cutting and into the wide valley, as the convoy pulled to a halt on the fresh green grass at the head of the valley, a stillness and silence descended on everyone. The sight before them had mouths gaping open, it was a sight very few of the boys had ever envisioned in their wildest dreams.

As the two scouts had reported, the valley seemed to stretch far into the distance, it was surrounded by high steep cliff in the distance, there were tree and scrub covered cliffs all along the cliff face as far as the eye could see, the ground below them was a thick green carpet dotted with yellow and white flowers of a type they had never seen, in the distance they could see the sunlight reflected on a large lake which had more tall trees around the banks.

From the nearer end of the lake and small stream ran down towards them and then seemed to disappear into the ground just under the nearby cliff, the loud singing of birds filled their ears and a strange buzzing sound filled the valley around them, it seemed to come from the very green grass under their feet. Further away in the distance, the boys also saw the movement of larger animals, it was only the horses that they knew of by name, the other animals were complete mysteries to them. They would have to go back to the boys in the library to find out what the others were but, for now they had this marvel to look at.

Elios decided that he would not allow the boys to just drive helter skelter into the green oasis, he had them all pull over to the side and park up. Elios then let half of the boys take a walk down as far as the river edge, of course it took no time at all before clothes and boots were disposed of and a flurry of naked boys were diving into the clear waters of the river while the others looked on in envy. After half and hour, Elios called them back and, when they finally arrived back wet and happy, he let the others go for their turn.

As the second group of boys played, Elios set about looking over as much of the valley as he could see but, even with the help of his binoculars, he could not see the far end of the valley as it bent to the right before backing onto the far off mountains around the bend. There was so much land here that he was sure it would support every boy he knew of in the bunkers, the narrow cutting of the entrance could easily be built to make it impossible for any Reneg to attack them and they would have the safety of the bunkers and their supplies to fall back on. Here for the first time in the boys' lives was a chance at a new way of life, all they had to do now was learn how to make it and keep it that way.

Elios heard the call on his radio from Mita. While their calls out to the bunkers were not being received, it appeared that the radios could work in the narrow confines of the cutting. Mita reported that the Renegs were again amassing outside the cliffs for another attack, as the cutting was so narrow, he had no doubt they could now hold them back with their fire power and for Elios to stay and give the big valley a close look over. As the call was finishing and Elios was turning to go further into the valley, he was sure he heard the far off deep clatter of the heavy machine gun as it echoed off the tall narrow walls of the cutting, the attack had started and they were to far away to make any difference now.

At the attack site, Mita had pulled his small force back as far as the first bend, from here they were almost invulnerable, they now had a long open narrow valley floor with no cover for their enemy to hide behind and a long stretch of open ground for them to cover with their firepower they were almost impossible targets for the Reneg to get too. Mita had his small force settle down for a sharp fight, he was sure that the Reneg would become impatient and try to dislodge the boys before they got to hungry or thirsty, patience was one thing the Reneg were not known for and with such a small group of boys it would be too tempting for them to resist. Mita did not have long to wait.

Mita had just finished talking on the radio to Elios when the first signs showed of the impending attack, it was no more than a stealthy movement far down the valley at the entrance of the cutting. It looked as though the Reneg were going to try to crawl unseen along the sides of the cutting and get in range to use their crossbows or the two remaining pistols that they still held. Mita whispered to the boys on the ground on either side of the APC, he then took aim with his own long rifle, the opening shots of the attack were those of the boys on the ground as they took out four of the crawling attackers, next was the long rattling burst of fire from the roof mounted machine gun as it sprayed the opening where the boy had seen a larger group of Renegs gathering on horse back to come charging down the cutting. After no more than a few minutes, there were nothing but bodies and screams from dying men as their horses bolted out of the narrow confines.

Unfortunately this was only the first of a number of suicide attacks by the larger forces of Renegs. For some reason Mita could not grasp, the leadership of the Renegs just kept sending men to their deaths in the narrow pass, it made no tactical sense to Mita, it was little more than a massacre as the wild Renegs kept coming only to be turned into fodder for the hungry machine guns and the boys rifles. Even with the continuous attacks, there was no fear of running low on ammunition, every bullet they could gather had been put into the APC for the boys.

By a little after midday, as the sun shone down on the scene on the floor of the narrow cutting, the Reneg finally admitted defeat. They had not managed to get more than a few hundred feet into the cutting and it had cost them dearly, the last attacks had been over the dead bodies of men and horses but again to no avail. The smell of blood and death hung heavy in the hot air of the narrow confines of the cutting. Mita and his boys were almost in a state of shock at the sheer waste of man power by the Reneg leaders, by their reckoning, they had disposed of more than eighty Renegs. The ground in front of them was littered with the dead, for them to leave the valley they would first have to remove all the bodies of men and some of the horse that had been hit. It was going to be a gristly task, Mita sent a call to Elios to send some boys back to help with the clean up.

Mita, along with to of the boys, went closer to the pile of dead, carefully they checked each body as they moved towards the entrance. They had to know if the Reneg had left any forces behind to watch the cutting. Mita also wanted to find somewhere to put all the bodies, they could not leave them where they were. Elios had told him of the valley behind them, if it was as good as he said then Mita thought there would be a lot of boys wanting to move to this place, that also brought up the problem of staffing and defending the cutting. It had already been proved how it could be done but they would need something more permanent and solid to stop any of the Reneg from ever thinking of trying it again.

As Mita waited for some boys to join them to help with the mass of dead bodies, he gave more thought to how the valley could be defended, he had not had the chance to see what Elios and the others had found and so was not aware of the valuable nature of the valley further behind him. It was nearing mid afternoon when all the others joined him and his defenders. To Elios and the boys who had gone deeper into the valley, the sight of the carnage even surprised them, the heavy smell of death permeated every nook and cranny of the narrow cutting.

After the scene of carnage had been taken in, the boys set about disposing of the bodies, they used the quads to pull the eighteen horses clear and take them out to the open sands in front of the cutting but only after they took a few cuts of the youngest horse for fresh meat. After piling them up with the aid of one of the jeeps, they then set about piling the dead Renegs on top, with the use of two cans of gas they set it all alight and returned to the cutting as it flared into a huge funeral pyre, the dense black smoke was soon making a tall plume into the air. The blood soaked sands of the cutting would never be cleaned and only time would erase the madness of the Reneg leaders.

As it was close to dark before they finished their grisly task, Mita and Elios decided to stay in the cutting, setting camp back by the bend to be out of the area of the massacre and the smell of death. It was during their evening meal that they came up with the idea of leaving the APC and a number of boys to defend the valley while the others went on to find the bunker, that way they would have it kept out of the hands of the Renegs should they decide to return. The valley was to valuable to be left unguarded now that they had found it.

The next morning, everything was made ready. the APC and eight boys would remain to protect their latest find while the others went on to discover why the bunker ahead was the only one marked with letters instead of the usual numbers, there had to be a reason for marking it this way and Elios wanted to find out what it was. He also now had the problem of the hidden valley to work on, it was an opportunity for the boys in all the bunkers to have a proper future outside the confines of the bunkers.

For any development of the new valley they could ask the men and boys of the smaller valley they had discovered more than a year ago. He was sure that this one could become a true haven from the threats that now were common in the world of today, it gave him much to think on as the convoy began its journey towards the last bunker they were interested in, there was much planning to do and many new considerations to be taken into account.

They had left just as the first rays of the sun were rising over the far off sand dunes and now, the sun was setting into dusk as they pulled up in the general area they thought the bunker was. Much to Elios' surprise, the bunker was relatively easy to find, it stood on top of a large rise with the remains of a road leading up to the door which was set into a large concrete dome, the rusted remains of a wire fence surrounded the large rise, on each corner were high concrete towers that looked as though they had held men at one time in the distant past. It was obvious they were guard towers, they looked forlorn in the emptiness of the surrounding landscape.

The convoy drove straight up to the doors and Elios hopped down to look for the small security pad, there was evidence all around the door of people having tried to enter the complex but too no avail, the solid concrete dome had withstood all attempts to open it. Elios tapped in the code and waited for the doors to lift clear, from under his feet he felt the familiar shaking and his ears picked up the rumble from inside the bunker, slowly the doors parted sideways until the inside was made clear to the them.

His nose was the first thing to pick up how long the bunker had been closed, the rush of stale air brought with it the musty scent of dust and old oil as well as other things as yet unnamed, behind him Elios heard Mita set the outer guards before moving up beside him to also inspect the now open doors. As with the other bunkers, this one's doors were wide and high. Elios, followed by Mita and two other guard boys, switched on their flashlights and began the journey through the entrance and towards the power room.

They had long worked out that most of the bunkers were all built on the same principles and design so it was little effort to find the power room and start the main generators, minutes later and there was the harsh light of the long fluorescent strips set high up in the ceiling. Elios and the others returned to the entrance and began to look around, it was not until Elios had found and entered the office that he truly began to understand just how big and for what purpose this bunker was for.

As Elios scanned the now operating computer in the office he finally found out what the letters W&SD meant, the whole bunker was nothing more than a very big supply and weapons depot. Everything the boys and all the other bunkers would ever need was here, as he scanned the computer files he saw how really big this particular bunker was, it went into the ground for fifteen levels and the floor space was twice that of any other bunker. In the main entrance room were the supply trucks all lined up one behind the other. After a quick count, Mita came back to tell Elios there were twenty five supply trucks and five fuel tankers.

Elios went through the rest of the levels, each was a store house for a particular item except for food and weapons. Level one was the transport floor, level two was the armoured vehicles, level three was clothing and bedding, level four, five and six were all food stuffs, level seven was a mixture of accommodation and office supplies, level eight was mainly building supplies and workshops, level nine was exclusively weapons and ammunition. Elios deduced that from this bunker alone they would have enough supplies to keep going for many years.

As Elios looked through the long lists of supplies, another thought came to him. The bunker was a lot closer to the new valley they had found than he had first thought, if they could secure the valley so that the Reneg could not attack it they would have the benefit of the supplies from the bunker to keep them going while they set up some type of life style in the valley. His thoughts of living outside in the fresh air instead of the long days spent underground in the bunkers sent a small shiver of anticipation through him. He was sure that there would be plenty of volunteers among the many boys to join them.

Elios gave up on the lists and began to work on a way to fortify the valley. The best asset was the narrow passage, they could, with the use of the ancient machinery, make it impregnable and secure from attack, the valley would easily support many more boys than there were in all the bunkers combined, they could begin a new way of life away from the barren sands of the wastes, Elios began to make plans.

They stayed at the bunker for two days and then, after restocking their few vehicles, they locked the bunker again and returned to the valley for the other boys. During the return trip they saw none of the Renegs that had caused the original problems for them, the way back was clear of any hint of the dangers that could be found out on the wastes. After a discussion with Mita, Elios had decided that they would leave a good guard on the valley while they returned to tell all the others about what they had found; they hoped that they could bring most of the boys back to the valley to live.

The other bunkers would remain with a minimum staff so that as new boys arrived from the breeding areas, they could be trained and educated in the new ways before they were told about the valley and asked if they wanted to go there to live. In Elios' mind he could envisage large settlement in the valley with the ability to be self sustaining as well as supplying the bunkers with fresh food, with boys from the first valley that knew about the land and animals, they could turn the valley into a haven, only the Renegs would be a problem, but, as Mita had pointed out, once the valley was set up, they would have enough boys at their disposal to search out and destroy the Renegs. He was sure that some how the word would spread through the wastes to other Renegs and they would then be left alone to live their lives in peace.

They reached the valley entrance just as the sun was getting low in the west, the APC was back from the opening by about fifty metres and the boys were alert and watchfully even though they could here the approaching vehicle and knew it was not Renegs they still stood as though ready to defend the valley, both Mita and Elios were impressed by the guards' dedication to their duty.

Elios stopped and talked to the guards, the boys had seen no activity outside the valley during the time they had been there. They seemed to think that the beating the Renegs had suffered under the hands and guns of the boys had made them stay well away from this place of death, at the same time the guards looked well fed and rested, that night they would discuss who would stay and guard the valley while the others made a fast run back to the home bunker with the news.

After a late meeting with most of the boys in the valley, it was decided that Mita would stay and watch the valley with most of the boys, although he was not entirely happy that Elios could be away for up to two months while everything was organised, they decided that Elios would take one Humvee and two jeeps so they could make a fast run back to home bunker and begin the process of selection for the new home. On their return it would take nearly all the transport trucks to carry the boys and all they would need until they could reopen the W&SD bunker and stock the valley ready for their new lives. The only problem Elios could see was setting up communications down in the valley, he would consult with Elvan on the best way to accomplish that small detail.

After his return to Modou�s bunker, Elios began the long hard hours organising the move. They had now been in the bunkers for over three years and this was the first big move. After only one week after his return to Modou�s bunker they sent out the first convoy of one hundred boys, they carried just enough supplies to get to the valley where Mita would send some of them on to the new bunker for more trucks.

In every bunker there was a sense of anticipation at the new home, the selection of the boys was set by they type of work they could do. There had to be a good mix of talents from guards to those boys who were good teachers. Elios also now had twenty boys from the first valley that were capable of setting up small holdings to grow fresh vegetables and tend animals for fresh meat.

Elvan had come up with the idea of using long poles to make aerials for the radios to relay messages over longer distances as well as a way to get signals out of the deep valley by setting one aerial high up on the cliff top. The only problem was how to move the big slow Dozer to the new valley, they would need its capabilities to make the defences for the valley and to try to improve the old roadways to and from the bunkers.

At last, after seven weeks, Elios led out the last long convoy of trucks, the dozer had been loaded onto one of the trucks after they had stripped the top off and opened up the bed of the truck to take the large dozer. It was precarious but the driver said he would get it there, it was also faster than the old way they had moved it.

Ten days later and the last long convoy was pulling up outside the entrance to the new valley. Mita was standing out front waiting for his long missed k'bine as the trucks pulled into neat lines and the boys began to jump from the back as they stretched cramped limbs from the long last day of travel but, it was with a groan that they found out that they still had another hour to go before they were inside the valley proper. Slowly they remounted the trucks as they watched Mita encompass the smaller Elios in his arms, both had missed each other, it was the first time they had been parted for such a long time, Elios knew that Mita would want to make up for lost time when the bedded down that night.

Many of the boys never had a chance to see the valley in all its splendour for the first time until the trucks had finally pulled to a halt near the central stream, the looks on the faces of the young ones was that of stunned awe at the size and content of the valley, their new home, so much was yet to be done and many new ways and discoveries had yet to be made before the valley was truly a home.

For the next five days, Elios, Mita, Elvan and Elam spent time with their heads together working on a plan for the valley, not only were there houses to be erected and how to do it but also the problem of sewerage disposal as well as protection for the crystal clear waters and the long plains of green grass. Their final solution was to make sure that all houses were only built on the outskirts of the valley, up close to the towering sides of the canyon leaving the centre untouched for more important things such as growing fresh vegetables and leaving the thick trees for hunting.

New ways had to be found for everything, how to tame the wild horses, how to move a large generator from the closest bunker for power, what was needed for planting and how to do it but, the most important thing was their security from outside attack, to this end the entrance to the valley did most of the work for them, with only the construction of a few stone barricades and the narrowness of the cutting, they were soon almost impregnable and, with the towering cliffs of the canyon that seemed to go as high as the blue sky, it was almost impossible to be attacked from above.

It took days of planning before everyone had worked out what they wanted to do and, it was only with total co-operation from each other that got most of it done, each boy depended on the other, most of the time it was slow going but slowly the valley was developed into a true home, some of the boys decided to return to the bunkers to continue with other projects, some had decided that the life of a scout was more adventuresome but, the majority had at last found a true home and felt that there was no need to look further for their individual dream.

Over time things in the valley settled into a pattern, there were still patrols sent out to watch for the ever dangerous Renegs but it seemed that the word had spread throughout the wastes that the valley was a no go area; any Reneg getting too close was very smartly sent to a hole in the ground. The old technology that the boys used was just too dangerous for the Reneg to tangle with and so the valley haven settled in peace.

Elios and Mita were now in their late twentieth year as they held each other with theirs arms tightly around each others waist, the view down the valley from the small stone house they had lived in since first coming home to the valley, gave them a view for most of the full length and width of the new homeland. In the far distance they could see the latest invention from Elvan�s mind, it was a huge wheel set in the river and then connected to one of the ancient generators, as the wheel turned it supplied the generator with the force it need to make the power used by the valley boys, not only did it save on the need to refill the fuel tanks every week or so but did away with the noise of the large engine, the water wheel was silent and the tone of the valley now seemed some how more gentle.

Elios looked up at his long time lover, Mita had streaks of grey hair through his once thick dark locks, the sun and wind had given both of them the fine wrinkles of age and the time had added the lines of experience, each week had seen a few more new boys arrive, some had stayed and others had continued the search for another home in other places but, both Elios and Mita had found their place, they were now content to step back and let the young ones take over the new world.

There were still dangers out on the wastes, the ever present Renegs were still a force not to be trifled with unless in a well armed convoy, small skirmishes and slightly larger battles still took place but that was now left to the young ones. Elios system of education was now a must for all new boys arriving at any of the bunkers for protection as well as the valley itself although not so many made it to the valley unless they had been through the system in the bunkers before hand.

Elios snuggled a little closer to Mita as the sun lowered in the sky, they knew that their life had meant something now that they could see the home that they had helped to found, when their time came, they knew that they would lay down for the last time with the knowledge that they had left their mark behind for others to follow, as far as they knew the world would always be a dangerous and difficult place to live in but the sight before them as twilight set in, was one of safety and peace, it was a good time.

The End