Chapter 7 Oops accidentally ran over a bandit camp

Gitte and two others, Bernd and Sissy, accompanied him. By their own admission, they were both down on their luck and had already completed their basic training by the time they left. Bernd wanted to use his army service as an excuse to avoid having to work for his parents in a small bakery. Sissy, actually Vannesa Sheikh, had taken the army as an escape from her old social environment. In her opinion, the Berlin neighborhood she came from was a shithole, her family was broke and she had four older siblings, all boys. They were full of shit and almost had both feet in jail.

Alex went through the plan with them, checking out the places he had chosen with Uther. The traps varied, sometimes they laid supplies. Vehicles, equipment. From time to time, individual robbers were lured by Sissy or Bern. To Bernd's chagrin, he successfully lured robbers. 

They took away the bandits' equipment and Alex laid out the severed heads for the other bandits. The traps were constantly changing and on the 10th day, Alex noticed that the bandits were no longer behaving calmly but were becoming slightly paranoid. 

What worried Alex more was Uther, who drove into the zone every day with empty RMMV HX trucks, some days even with additional trailers. Mostly it was food, fuel, medicine, and once he had brought back the stuff for the Doc. 

When Alex asked him why? Uther had grinned and told him the Doc had been in his ear. Another time it was junk he'd picked up while "accidentally" fumigating bandit camps.

When he arrived with it, Alex was taking a break because he was coming back from his trap tour. The truck stopped at the unloading point they had set up. Alex looked questioningly at the truck, which was full of dents and scratches. He noticed the bullet holes in the windshield. Uther got out and looked at the dents. 

"Did you drive through infected people?" he asked him. 

Uther looked at him and grinned.

" No, they think versions." 

Alex had to think about it. 

" Bandits, then?" 

Uther nodded. 

"I accidentally found one of their hideouts and thought. They must have a few things." 

"By mistake ... " 

Uther walked around the truck and opened the tailboard.

"And how strong were they?" 

Uther had climbed up and was looking down at him.

"Huh? I don't know, I just shifted up a gear and stepped on the gas.

He wanted to say something, Uther raised his hand. 

"Don't worry, no one survived, packed up their junk and torched the hideout."

The junk, as Uther called it, contained ammunition, weapons, drugs, alcohol and entertainment.

Alex rubbed his temples; more than once, according to the guards, Uther had driven off in the morning without anything and then turned up later in a car or on a bus.The biggest robbery, in his opinion, was when Uther drove up in a truck and trailer from a supermarket chain. 

He walked up to him as Uther got out smoking.

"Where did you get that thing? "

" Recovered what else" came a grin.

" What about the bandits? They'll notice. "

Uther blew out a cloud.

" Nah, I gave them a surprise."

" I see, and what kind? " 

" I contaminated their food."

He couldn't believe his ears.

" What about survivors nearby? " 

Uther looked at him questioningly. 

"Oh, the ones hiding from the bandits, no, wait. We're for the bigger threat."

"Uther, we can hold the area..."

That smirk on him again, and bad since Gitte had puked all over his suit. He was wearing the BDU, which fit him like a glove. 

"Tell me, were you ever in the army? " 

Uther took a drag on his fag and looked at him as he heard him waving soldiers towards the truck.

"Yes, but that was a long time ago..." 

Alex had an idea, he grabbed Uther and pulled him over to Oleg who was sitting in the radio room, more of a small room with stuff in it.

"Oleg, turn on the laptop!" 

He looked at him questioningly.

"Uh why?"

He looked at Uther.

" Uther what army? "

" Eh alliance? "

" Well Oleg is looking for Uther ... " he looked at him. Uther sighed. 

"From Krakenstein ... " 

Oleg raised an eyebrow and typed it in.

Alex looked at Uther in astonishment, glanced at the laptop and a folder opened. Uther's picture appeared; judging by his age, he estimated him to be in his early twenties. 

"Oleg, what does it say?"

"Uh... Uther von Krakenstein, retired captain, former paratrooper, several deployments abroad, officer training, further training courses. Did his time and got out, according to the file he got US citizenship by marriage shortly after... " 

Alex grinned.

"Reactivate him."

"Uh, sir, I can't do that... "

"But you can, write as a justification that it's orders and there's a shortage of personnel here. "

Oleg looked at him in disbelief and dutifully typed everything into the system, the positive message came shortly afterwards, Alex looked at Uther.

"Welcome back to the army."

Uther took a drag on his cigarette. Schmidt came in and looked at him in confusion. 

"Tell me, Alex, should we let the fleet know that we have supplies? With all the stuff that's piled up."

"Not yet, Schmidt, do you still have the rank insignia of a captain? " 

Schmidt scratched his head.

"Yes, Kriesmann who died last month was one, why?" 

Alex grinned and pointed at Uther.

"Our new captain." 

" Him?" Schmidt went to the laptop and looked at the file.

"Oh well, classic filthy rich file."

"Huh?" came from Oleg.

Schmidt tapped around in a few places.

"Oleg, so you can learn something, it says dual officer training course, got all that tam tam just for the file. Already met a few."

Schmidt looked at Uther. He nodded in agreement. Alex couldn't disagree with him, since Uther was supposed to be filthy rich.

"I'll let the others know I've got a captain again." 

Schmidt walked away with a grin. Uther looked at Alex.

"And what's the point of that? "

" Hhmm, I don't have to explain later why you're here and how you got in."

Uther thought about it. 

"Okay, so, Colonel, your orders? "

" Hhmm maybe cheer up the people here a little ... better mood ... Discipline?" 

He really had no idea, the mood was in the basement anyway and there was no discipline. 

Uther grinned.

"I can manage that." 

He left and Alex had a bad feeling. Which proved to be true, when he went out the next morning to look for bandits, he saw what soldiers Uther had left, as he later learned. 

That he had thrown them into a hellhole, physical training, shooting training on infected people, according to Schmidt the soldiers were very well fed. According to reports, he combed the city, occasionally taking soldiers with him to return fully loaded or having wiped out nests of infected people. On top of that, Uther was on the road for the bandit plan Chaos.