Chapter 10 Wood in front of the hut

Two hours later, Alex now knew that there were almost 1,200 people in the convoy. Mike described checking in with Uther as a trip to the butcher. He had taken a table in the bistro with a tray, a pot of coffee and cigarettes. Since Mike was worried, he was there for the first conversations, where he knew that they spoke zero German. 

He only noticed that Uther didn't seem to care. He greeted everyone in English and everything around them. 

Mike especially because of the women children, older ones. But they were treated at their own level. What worried him more was that Uther told everyone who came to get something to eat in the bistro. There was a food counter there.

Alex wasn't surprised, as Uther had also bribed the soldiers with food. Uther's list was very detailed and accurate.

Half of them had been families. There were many technicians, mechanics, some gunsmiths, IT people, cooks, craftsmen, pilots and 340 soldiers from various branches of the armed forces. 

It turned out that Mike had even taken some Poles and Czechs with him. He had called Schmidt over to plan with him what was needed now. A provisional plan was quickly drawn up.

The soldiers were full of zest for action. Many had to watch helplessly as everything went down the drain. 

What Alex hadn't taken into account and Mike only briefly mentioned was that there were other convoys on the way, which he sent a message to before they arrived. As a result, more refugees arrived over the next few days. Like the others, they were sent to Uther.

Alex's list continued to grow from the first 1200 to a further 3500, all of them Americans. There were also 600 civilians from the surrounding area. 4 platoons of scattered German soldiers and 2 battalions that had deserted from the south. Here Alex realized that the ex-government was building up a zone in Bavaria and was more bungling than doing. 

The Germans were initially unsure when they heard that Alex was the commander, but this subsided after Alex spoke to them. From the records and reports, Alex knew that only a fraction of the country's entire army had shown up for duty. 

The majority of the troops came around in the first few weeks and that only 1/3 remained and from the information now he knew that when it came up the ex-government only had 1000 soldiers scattered all over Bavaria. 

In addition to the Germans, Polish, Czech and Lithuanian troops also arrived. By air and by sea. What annoyed him most was that Russian ships and airplanes landed. He had to talk to everyone and hold meetings with the officers to coordinate the next steps.

First, several supply depots are to be opened, from which food, rations, weapons and equipment will be taken. Then troops will swarm out with trucks to empty the logistics depots. The scouts took care of the infected and now that they no longer had to keep an eye on the convoy, they could relax. 

Later that day, Gitte came to him as he sat cursing inwardly at the first result of the depots. 

"Oh Alex, I can come later..." 

Alex leaned back and looked at Babsi.

" No. It's just something that's bugging me. What is it?"

" Well... " She looked at her fingernails.

"Babsi, what is it?" 

She looked at him.

" Well, I wanted to tell you earlier, but you were busy then. I saw something suspicious here."

" Suspicious? "

She nodded.

"Well," she was nervous.

" Well..after Gitte was your lucky cat, I saw him talking to an Asian guy, away from everyone. I mean...it just didn't fit.... " 

He looked at her, Uther, remembering back to the first time he had gotten material.

He gave her a spontaneous kiss and hurried out, getting into the wolf and racing to the dwelling Uther had taken, a former restaurant with a lighthouse, when asked then why only him, his answer was just "I like the sea view, Alex...". 

He stopped in front of it, hurried to the door, which shone brightly in the darkness, it opened and an Asian with noble features welcomed him.

"Ah, the master is expecting you."

This confused him, he entered, Uther had rearranged it to look more like an apartment, he sat in a seating area.

"Have a seat Alex, something to drink?" 

" Uh... sure..." he sat down.

The Asian left, looking at Uther.

" Remember I told you I wasn't here before this whole empire?" 

Alex nodded.

 The Asian came back with a glass of beer and handed it to him. He took it gratefully and stood behind Uther.

"Well, they were looking for me and found me. This is Erkiam, the first and best of my employees. So what brings you here, I thought, you're on the hunt for depo looters..."

Alex sighed.

"The rich maybe for a few weeks, then we need to expand our radius and take more risks. I..."

"Drink first." 

Alex blinked, glanced at the beer in his hand. Then he looked at Uther, who looked at Erkiam.

"I thought you wanted something to eat, too." Erkiam bowed and left. Alex sighed and sipped his beer. 

" I need your help..."

Uther leaned forward. 

" Alex, you'll have to tame your wildcats yourself." 

He couldn't stifle a laugh.

"No, ... I was hoping, because I remember ... "

Uther looked at him. 

" Oh, you need supplies, for that I need access to the underground Alex and I don't have it. "

" And if I can get you that, how fast can you get something?" came hesitantly. 

"Depends on what you need."

" I have a list..." He took out his list, Uther pulled it out of his fingers and examined it.

" So everything, that is, if I get access in two days."

" Thank you... you. "

Uther grinned.

" Alex don't think about it. I'm helping you because I want to. I'll push you to the front and have fun in the background." 

" But ... "

Uther clasped his hands together. 

"Alex, let's be real, people want something new. They want what you've thrown at them. Which doesn't even exist, not yet. Look at the Americans, as soon as they get here, they're hot for it."

He lit a fag.

"You're their beacon. When I get there. Nah."

" No. "

" You know why I didn't shoot the idiots who snuck in right away? Because I was thinking of your cause. I shot the asshole because he didn't follow the rules. Trust me, even if there's going to be a council, there still has to be rules that have to be followed, otherwise it's just full of stuff like this. "

" If Bernd and Sissy have their way, it's because he beat up Kalle."

" Tzz Kalle... Do you know why he was there? Because he likes one of the survivors. That's the only reason. He can't even win against Sissy, so... but yeah. Since he's my subordinate for his ego, I did it for him too. "

"Mike said you gave the kids candy."

Uther blew a cloud to the side.

"Yes, he did. But why me? And not him? "

"If Mike's still doing office work as fast as I remember, it'll never get done. "

" So you know him? "

" More friend from the old days, getting together, drinking, barbecuing, picking up chicks. "

Uther grinned. 

Alex sipped his beer.

" Why didn't you grab one? "

"Well ..." he waved it off.

"Why? I mean, I've heard of a few. "

Uther took a drag on the cig.

"So why?" 

He got a cloud and a grin back.

"They've got nothing on their minds Alex, simple as that. " He tapped his forehead.

That confused him.

" What do you mean, nothing on their minds? "

"Like mine, look, I'm married Alex. She's intelligent."

" Aren't you going to look for her?" 

He looked at him.

" Nay. Let's just say I snuck off while she was sleeping. She's possessive and that out there. That's a hindrance to her, but no reason to look for me. " 

Alex was even more confused.

" But I mean . "

" Look at you, with all those bitches, " he ashed into an ashtray beside him.

" Did you get the wildcat ? "

" Gitte..." 

" You had a thing with her once, wanted to get married, what about the other one?" 

" Uh..." 

Another grin.

"You see, but those two. How many did you have before the two where you really. Uh yeah...?" 

" One before I met those two, I mean ... "

Uther stubbed out the fag.

" Alex everyone has their way, especially when it comes to their needs, but if you're unlucky or lucky, depending on how you look at it. You'll always meet some. So since you already have two feral cats. The first one, is that a wildcat or a kitten?" 

He had to think. 

"More like a full grown cat. " 

Uther laughed. 

"Hey. That was years ago, I don't even know if she's still alive, but what about you? You make it look like ... " 

"Okay, let's play fair. Since it's not in the file. There were three women in my life, one is my wife, then her cousin, she's a real piece of work, and then there was another one from my youth, she was more of a wire woman. I messed up with all three of them and scored my own goals."

He looked at him questioningly.

"Knocked up Alex, but by the time I fled there was only my wife and my cousin left, the other two died early and I don't know where they are now. Now what finds me will be so. "

He looked at her face, seeing so much normality in it.

"What do you mean a lot of wood in front of the hut. "

His smile returned. Held his hands wide in front of his chest.

" More than your other wildcat."

" How do you know that?" 

"Schmidt was grumbling about you doing her, and then I saw the two cats together, and when I brought him some stuff again, I thought you dumped a load of big tits on him. "

He rubbed his forehead.

He spent the rest of the evening going over the ideas and plans he had for the north block with Uther, inwardly glad to be able to talk to someone about it without fear of being laughed at.

 Over the next two days, they cleared out a few camps and hunted down bandits, which happened rather by accident when they ambushed a scouting party and Alex told them about it in a meeting. Everyone stared at him. He went through their resources in his mind. Everything had become scarce. 

"Alex, your orders? " Mike asked him. 

He opened his mouth, the door opened, Uther came in carrying a box under his arm.

" Man man man, so this is your meeting " he approached. 

"You're not invited," came from a Lt. 

Uther grinned.

"As they say, you greet the rank, not the person." He placed the crate on the table, which was covered with a map of the area.

"So Alex, your order is here."

"The gasoline too?"

" Sure, spare parts too, the technicians were beside themselves, they thought the birds could soon be used as garden decorations. "

 "Mike, tell the helicopters to fly to the scouting party. At the same time, we'll send attack squads to the camps. " 

Mike winked and hurried off. Alex looked at Uther, who looked at the map and then tapped on a spot. 

"You should be more careful with those. There's less idiots in there. " 

" What do you mean?" 

" That's a prison, it's more dangerous there."

" Hhmm " Alex thought again.

" I'll take that one, then I can see if my people are rusty. " came from Uther.

" Are you sure? " 

Uther grinned.

Later, in an interrogation report, he had an employee of the largest gang in the area tell him that they had initially thought the scouts were another gang and had only laughed. At the latest when the robbers didn't come back as they had thought, they became nervous, Alex also blamed Uther as the main culprit, saying that their prison operation had been a slaughter. 

According to Uther, his associates were equipped with protective gear against infected and bandits. To Alex, it looked more like he'd given them protective gear used against protesters, only sprayed differently. Instead of batons, they had assault rifles and stun guns. Nevertheless, it was an impressive sight. To see 25 people with this equipment climbing on the back of Uther Dienst's truck. It was still the same one he'd used before, with every dent, scratch and bullet hole in the windshield. 

When the order came, Gitte had the idea in the minds of the troop leaders to scare the bandits before they killed them, and told them about the first time they dug out a bandit camp. They were very creative in their implementation. 

The civilians and soldiers enjoyed the disciplined treatment by Uther, who didn't seem to care where they came from. He let everyone compete against everyone else. Apart from the fact that everyone was given the same BDU and equipment, that everyone looked the same, everyone had to go through the same basic training. 

He didn't seem to care whether they were soldiers, pilots, technicians, computer people, normal people, they had to go through it. 

Mike pulled Alex aside, asked him what that was about and he said. So that everyone has a chance to survive. Mike challenged Uther and the two others who always traveled with him. Plans were made and so on and so forth. Alex didn't come along for a while, he only noticed that people were calling Uther a monster.

Uther told him that he would set up a special group for supplies, which he called Omega, so that he could take more care of the bandits, and he gave the green light. One by one, more and more soldiers with full visors, helmets and protective gear appeared, bearing an Omega sign as a distinguishing mark. As Uther had promised, they were only responsible for supplies and provisions. 

On the 9th day of the troops' arrival, the first helicopters of the fleet arrived to bring supplies, but also to bring volunteers to help with the expansion of Kiel. Alex learned from an engineer that Deuchbach, confident but a little nervous, had announced the northern block of the fleet, but that it had gone down like a bomb and people had hope again and that he had called Alex the chairman of the council etc. etc.. He'd laughed when the engineer said Alex was a Disney hero. 

He had a vague idea about how to make the city safer, a canal.

Infected people couldn't swim, they could walk through water up to their waist, but above that they sank like stones and drowned. The pathogen could not survive outside the body, it always needed a host. 

The infected people reacted in panic to rain and sought shelter under roofs. This was not visible at first, as the epidemic occurred in midsummer. They did not die as they fed on weaker members of their species or ate waste when they could not find humans. 

There were reports and observations that the animals mutated into hordes that produced uncontrolled mucus, but also grew excess flesh. Infected animals were no longer able to perform complex movements or draw conclusions. The pathogen had wiped out the brain down to the primal instincts.

But the engineers told him that such a thing was not feasible. 

To solve the money problem, they introduced a points system. They made a plan for how and when they wanted to repopulate the zone. 

He was often with Uther just to talk to someone about his problems, not someone who nodded because of his rank. But also to get better food.