Entry #3 - Recon

It goes to show I’m no building planner, I thought we had enough stuff to build a proper town. We don’t. We’ve used up pretty much everything within eyesight of the towns borders. We’re going to have to go further afield to find more materials. On the bright side, maybe we’ll find that bastard that tried to raid our town. Or maybe even some other people that made it to trade with, we’ve got some surplus supplies anyway.

I called in Phillip to help create a recon mission into the surrounding area. After some careful planning using some old maps the national guard guys had, he suggested that four teams of two guys each would go in four directions. There was still some fuel in the old gas station and we had enough 4x4 vehicles to outfit the teams. Each team would take a map and mark anything on it that could be interesting. They were not to go in yet, targets of interest would be further explored with larger teams. Each team also had an emergency radio, just in case they would encounter hostiles.

A few days later the first recon mission went on its way and it wasn’t long before the first outside contacts were made. Most were harmless, just other people on the brink of death, wandering through the wastes. Phillip ordered the men to send those people to the town and if they could spare it, give them some basic food and water supplies to get there.

After a while the northbound team found a large complex of structures. They surveyed the complex from a distance and it seemed to be a good side to get building materials. Then came the bad news, they spotted several armed men in long coats and a number of horses on a field. Suddenly we heard the crack of a rifle through the radio. The team reported they were getting shot, we ordered them to retreat. We may have found the base of the raiders, that is something to investigate further.

The other teams found smaller cashes of supplies in the form of old farmhouses, all long abandoned. Some picked up some more refugees, others found canned food. The team that headed east shot some wild boars, that’s going to look good on the menu. The northbound team was the only one who got into trouble and luckily they made it back safely.

After debriefing the teams Phillip and I had a long talk about the situation to the north. We concluded we had to go there, at first to talk. If talking failed we had to go in force. We opted to do both at the same time, a small group would go in first to try to talk with them. A larger force would stay out of sight and should only take action if they got a signal to do so.

A few days of planning later and we were ready to hit the road. The northbound team told us there were around a dozen armed guys on patrol around the complex so we took two dozen men from both the militia and the protection squad as our larger force. The group that would go in first was made up of me, Phillip and the two guys from the northbound team. Once the complex came into view on the horizon the larger team stopped and waited for our signal. The one truck with me and Phillip in it went on, we put a white flag on the truck in hope they wouldn’t shoot at us when we came close enough.

Two armed men on horses rode towards us while we closed in on the complex. Although we never saw the guy that fled from the town, the long coats were a dead giveaway that we found his base. The white flag did the trick and we were escorted to the complex, the horse riders didn’t say anything, they just gestured us to follow them. We’ve made it this far peacefully, I can only hope we’ll make it out of here with a new friend instead of an enemy.

Entry #2 - Safety first Entry #4 - First contact