The Awakening (First Leg/Part 2)

Fan fiction based on Tom Clancy's computer game "The Division"

I have no affiliation with Ubisoft, Massive games or Tom Clancy. I am a fan of the game and chose to use it as the framework of a wholly fictional work based solely on my own imagination with no basis to anyone in reality.

By Gary Weinheimer (Corwin_McGee on PSN)

It was well past dark when Dan, Cynthia, Paul and Hank made it to Folsom where a safe house had been set up by local JTF for agents and others who had business in the mountains. Gabriel had placed a stash here for the team consisting of a Land Rover with extra supplies and ammo. The team had just dismounted when Dan motioned the team for silence, the safe house was in the valley below them where the team could hear gun fire. "Shit!" the Chief hissed under his breath reaching for the long rifle sheath strapped to his horse pulling it free and unzipping it in one deft motion. Dan reached his left hand into the case and pulled free his McMillan TAC-338 Sniper Rifle. Trudging up a small rise a few feet away then crawling into position looking into the valley before he uncapped the Leopold scope and brought it to his eye. It was dark but the Chief could make out muzzle flashes below and from this vantage the burst of automatic fire was obvious. Dan moved his eye away from the scope when Paul handed him a smallish case, Dan nodded and laid it next to him pulling open the tabs and removing the night vision adapter from the padded box slipping it onto the Picatinny rail just ahead of the Leopold then tightening it into place. When he flipped it on the valley below was bright enough to make out the patches on the uniforms. "LMB!" he almost spat the acronym out past his lips. The Last Man Battalion was one of the biggest and best organized groups of mercenaries in existence before the virus hit and had been a total pain in the ass to the teams in New York.

Colonel Charles Bliss, the CO/CEO of the LMB, had been brought down outside the UN building in a prolonged firefight by a team of Second Wave Division agents. It was a tough battle and there were lives lost. The thought at the time was that this would be the last of the LMB but just like so many cockroaches before they just kept coming. A man named Sabastion Potts was Bliss' XO and right after the CO's downfall he retreated to a hidden base in the Ozarks and began issuing orders to the various groups throughout the country from a communications relay they had set up there. If the LMB were here it meant trouble and it had to be delt with now. Dan rolled over on his back and began issuing orders. There were at least three squads down there and the only chance they had to suppress them was surprise. The team powered up their personal computer battle systems and toggled them for short range communication. Without ISAC online the system wasn't much more than a high tech walkie talkie but that was all they needed right now.

The team grabbed their gear from the horses and moved down the hill on foot in the tree line while Dan stayed on top looking for the person giving the orders in the fray below. It ony took a minute for the Chief to find his mark and a minute more for the comms to crackle to life. "Mouse to Chief, I'm in position." "Mac to Chief, ditto." Paul had the furthest to travel as he would be on the far flank but it wasn't long before his radio came to life "This is Doc, I'm in place." Everything was ready, this was the team's final exam and Dan hoped for the best and planned for the worst. "On my mark, three, two." The Chief may have actually said one but all anybody heard was the loud unsuppressed crack of the 338 making itself known from the hill side. The LMB leader's body went limp where he stood as Dan separated the spine from the body. The shot was almost 2000 yards and he was just happy that the bullet found its target but instinct prevailed and once again the Chief proved that there was no substitute for experience. As the lieutenant dropped the rest of the team sprang into action.

Hank open fired with his M249, the light support weapon ringing out from behind the enemy troops lighting up the night sky with a hail of automatic fire that they were definitely not expecting. As the LMB were turning to see where the new assailant was coming from Mouse and Doc open fired. Mouse's MP5-K chattered to life as she leaned out from behind a building at extremely close range taking two by complete surprise and from across the dark street the Doc's Scar-S crackled dropping another one as he was taking aim on Mouse. More targets presented themselves as the LMB found themselves suddenly trapped, it seemed that time moved in slow motion as the squad deftly diminished the numbers of their enemy.

The safe house was at the end of a residential street in a culd-de-sac and the team had boxed in their prey. A squad of the assailants attempted to make a break for it and a loud booming came from the hillside as the squad leader collapsed in front of his men, the large hole in his helmet convincing the rest of them that maybe it was time to surrender. Once it was obvious that the fight had been knocked out of the remaining troops they were rounded up and taken into different directions by the JTF that had, by now, come out of cover. Doc began attending to a couple of wounded that had been injured and Mack came in from down the block gathering up the gear that the assailants had dropped. It was a morbid job but he knew that things had a tendency of being in short supply out here.

About 10 minutes passed while introductions were being made when the Chief found his way into the cul-de-sac. He was leading the horses which he handed off to one of the support crew and found the post captain who was talking to Cynthia. "Dan" the Chief offered his hand and they shook. "Ted Benson" He was wearing what looked like a sheriff deputy's jacket with an AR-15 thrown over his shoulder. "You guys have the most impeccable timing. These goons came rolling down the street in those two Hum-Vees and open fired on us. I have no idea how they even knew this was a Division safe house, it's not like we advertise or anything." Dan was listening to the man intently like he always seemed to. "I think we can answer that question for you Ted." The chief spoke quietly. "It appears that the LMB have taken over the ISAC relay station in San Francisco and have been studying our local infrastructure. We're going to need to get to that station ASAP." Dan's tone was urgent. About that time Hank came out of the garage of the safe house. "Bad news Chief, the gas tank has been hit on the cruiser and I'll need to patch it up and get it refueled before we can go anywhere." "What about those?" Chief pointed to the now abandoned Hum-Vees. "Those morons won't be needing them anymore." Hank scurried over to check them out.

Dan turned back to Ted, the safe house Captain. "Do you still have a place we can get some sleep before we head back out, we should take off at first light." Ted nodded his head. and motioned toward house when Hank could be heard cussing under the hood of one of the cars. Hank looked up at Dan. "Well, the good news is that we can get one working car but the bad news is that all three of them are going to take at least a day of work." "We don't have a day Mac." The Chief replied. "I knew you were going to say that." Mac Smiled his child like grin. "Do you want me to get started on one of them?" Dan shook his head and turned to Ted "Can we get fresh horses in the morning?" Ted nodded, "Yeah, we can arrange that and I can relay ahead to let the next stop over know you'll be on horseback, maybe they can scare up some wheels for you, who knows." "Alright, Mac, get some sleep, we leave in the morning mounted calvary style. Lets see if we can't set up a travois or two before we go, I know you can do that double quick. For now we all need rest." with that they headed inside.

Inside Cynthia had one of the three remaining LMB tied to a chair with her thumb buried into his Mastoid process calmly asking for information while the six foot tough guy screamed like a baby. "Hey boss" She looked up at the Chief and Hank as they entered with the Safe House Captain. She eased up her interrogation as she spoke "This guy says they were given orders by a Commander Drexler to come up and investigate a Division safe house. He had the exact location on a topo map in his pocket." She pointed to the map laying on a table. "He says that they are setting up their main base at the Presidio and that they found our Isac Relay there completely by mistake. I think I believe him." Mouse took a breath then continued "I haven't gotten to the other two yet but I should be done with all of them by sun up, do you want me to keep going?" The chief shook his head. "We all need to rest" Dan turned back to Ted "Do you still have a working jail?" Ted nodded "Yeah and I think we can find accommodations for him and his friends" He motioned to the man panting in the chair who was just grateful that he didn't have to suffer this bitch's torment anymore but as Mouse turned to leave she clocked the solider in the temple. "That's just for the shit you haven't told me yet" she smirked leaving the man dazed.

It was still dark when Dan woke his team, he had managed to scrounge up some coffee and some fresh scrambled eggs for everyone with some toasted bread. He told them as they ate "Enjoy it, we may not get fresh food for awhile after this, we're headed into the city and we have no idea what shape it's in." Everyone knew that by horse back they were still a couple days out from their destination but the bands of refugees and those that preyed on them would be more numerous the closer they got.