Doomsday Pillars

There wasn"t much change in the main base other than more refugees coming in... Many people all over Bali have heard the news, when the EMP strike, some already start rus.h.i.+ng for shelter. Captain Donny is in charge of the base security, he and Bayu make sure all the people who came in will not create trouble.

While Devita quickly dives into work, keeping her mind occupied, it helps. She recruits dozen of people, mostly Alex previous staff to help administer the refugees. Each was welcomed with a simple interview, filing out forms, receive a simple ident.i.ty card and a.s.signed to their warehouse and bed number. Many of these people came in despair, Theo works together with Doctor Rachel"s team to give them some treatments; physically and/or mentally. That was everything that they could offer at this stage. More will be provided in due time.

There is a total of 250.000 people living in the North section. Almost everyone stays near the sh.o.r.e. There is only one main road that spans as long as 150 kilometers extending from the east, all the way from the North section to the West section. Bravo team led by lieutenant Rangga and Jerry leads the Foxtrot team, together they sweep all the villages and the surrounding residential areas in a counterclockwise movement. It"s a very straightforward mission, racing against time.

One of the main challenges is to treat each civilian as delicately as possible. As all the villages and small cities are still in mourning with the death of their family and friends. Coming in strong with burning torches will definitely only provoke more mess. The military APV and jeeps make the locals anxious, but it also makes it easier to speak with them. The strategy is to first meet with the local leader or elder, inform and offer help with disposing of the bodies. Afterward, inform them about the main base and also recruit more people to help with the sweeping. With a bigger number, they will be able to achieve the mission"s target faster. Even driving straight 150 kilometers would take 2 hours, the convoy only has 8 hours to cover dozens of villages, every second count!

As for Echo unit Lt Commander Karra and Charlie unit Lieutenant Russel, it might seem like they"ve drawn the lucky straw. Their mission was to secure the Bay city and the whole East section. Which seems easy as it is the section closest to the main base and most of the locals are already aware of their existence. But given the timeframe, it will not be that easy, With only eight hours window to secure the 2nd most densely populated section in Bali. The Bay City itself will be the transit hub for refugees before entering the main base. Therefore, failure is not an option.

The East section"s population is a little over 800.000 people. Only a quarter of that of the South. But it"s not to be taken lightly. The Bay city itself only has 10.000 people at most. Within the East section, there are 3 main cl.u.s.ters that need to be secured.

Antiga city: 50.000 people, North side of Bay City, Located between the Bay city and the main Base.

Semarapura city: 150.000 people, West side of Bay city on the main road to the South Bali.

Amarapura city: 350.000 people, the biggest city on the far east.

Charlie and Echo Units convoy arrived in the Bay city. They bring APV and lots of trucks. As this will be the transit hub, many of the truck will be placed here to travel back and forth, sending people to the main base. The city was in the dark, none of the vehicles working, the arrival of the convoy became the center attention. Lt commander Karra was welcomed by Benny, the mayor"s a.s.sistant.

The Bay city"s chief of Police, Roby, along with almost all of the active policemen have succ.u.mbed to the disease. Though Benny only has around a dozen policeman helping him, it seems that the situation in the Bay City is well under control. He managed to convince the locals to work together. In this area, only a little over 3000 locals survived. When the Units came, they have just finished a funeral service and about to burn all the bodies.

With the help of Benny, the units managed to recruit 500 volunteers. After careful consideration, it is apparent that Benny has a knack with people, Lt Commander Karra decides to involve him into the plan. She gave him one of the two-way radio. Benny and his volunteers will go to the smaller city of Antiga and all the little villages in the North while Lt Commander Karra will go directly to the second biggest city of Semarapura. Charlie special forces will stay in Bay city on stand by to support the group that might be in trouble.

At the same moment across the island, Alex is still waiting in the soccer field. There are 600 policemen and 50 special forces in front of him waiting for an order. The army is currently 30 minutes late, and their two-way radio is unresponsive. 650 people are simply too few to handle 3 million people in less than 8 hours. Yet he"s not ready to compromise the grand plan, he wants to save as many people as possible. He just can"t wait any longer. He needed to execute the plan this very minute...

.

Suddenly..

.

"..."

Hundreds of people running closer toward the field, with white headbands tied around their heads. Alex recognizes the leader at the front... it"s Rama, the pencak silat master. So these people are all members of the Pencak Silat society, almost 1000 of them.

"Rama, you came!"

"Yes Mr. Alex, I bring almost all of the surviving member of the pencak silat society, ready for your order. Were you not antic.i.p.ating our arrival?"

"Yes yes, of course, I did, I just didn"t expect so many of you to come."

"I a.s.sure you, Mr. Alex, my fellow disciples also take part in their share of grief earlier today, but we KNOW our presence here will crucial for the future of our city."

"Thank you, Master Rama, you came right when we needed you the most!"

Alex needs to do some adjustment with his plan, but with their help, things will be much smoother. Most Indonesians don"t fully trust the police force, although in crucial times like these they needed the law enforcement to help them feel secure, it"s not the same with this Pencak silat society. They are the local idols and most importantly they are also regular civilians like them. This pencak silat society disciples could do a much better job at persuading the locals to be involved.

The plan was to let them multiply. A total of 1500 men, police and martial artist combined, were then divided into 50 groups of 30 men. Each group was given a zone area all around Denpasar city. They are encouraged to recruit more people to help dispose of dead bodies. With a specific method of either burning or blow to the head. Alex was sure they will not be able to finish their task in eight hours, so he decided to equip them now with some edges weapons, and remind them when the dawn comes, they need to start moving and evacuate people to the North side of the city.

Alex clearly understands that even this is still far from enough. He then took the Alpha squad to the Army base, to check on what exactly happened to the Army since they lost contact. It"s half an hour drive to the hill in the North side of Denpasar. There were around 8000 Army soldiers, and even after the disease, there should still be one or two thousand soldiers who would survive the plague. To not receive any news from them just doesn"t make any sense! Unless...