Chapter 101 - Just like in 1917

Two weeks of almost daily attacks, that's how long I fought and led before, the so-called reinforcements arrived to ease our burden ever so slightly. Notwithstanding the additional ten guards sent here by Pike, the truth was that even with them this meat grinder was anything but easy.

In the past two weeks, we barely managed to advance fifteen meters in the tunnels before we were met with a rather hard challenge to pass: metal barriers made by the grounders to stop us from burning and shooting them, while at the same time giving them the necessary protection to push onto our line. At least two hundred grounders died charging at us and while our side had far fewer losses, we didn't have the same amount of disposable manpower to throw at the enemy as the grounders had. From the original total of guards and armed people, only thirty-four were left fighting while ten died and Jackson was treating a few others inside the bunker.

Almost every meter between our frontline and theirs was filled with bodies and traps, forcing both sides to wait or in our case, simply mow down any wave that the grounders usually send to their demise. However, like before these waves make us unable to fend off the attacks as fast as we would have loved.

The saddest thing that I found was that my friend was actually brought here by Pike, hoping that he would be able to keep this hidden from me. Until now I didn't have a good reason to beat the daylight out of him, well let's just say that neither his loyal army would be able to protect him after I get out of this siege.

However, these were simply my thoughts on what I found and have done in the past weeks. Right now, I was outside of the bunker, where the main entrance was together with Wells, observing the woods.

"I still say they're in there."

"Sure they're in there. Wouldn't you be in their place?"

"I don't know what I'd be, but everything that happened in the past weeks makes me remember a book that I've read back on the Ark about the first world war. "

"Well. It's not far from the truth … We are fighting from an entrenched and fortified position against waves of enemies ."

The woods were probably the biggest threat to anyone hoping to make it inside the bunker in the current situation, especially when it snipped off neatly at the edge of a small field. Everything else was only trees or the mountain itself and to be honest, there wasn't exactly a good way of attacking this place without any modern technology to either blow up the bunker's door or to bypass the defense, which no grounder had knowledge about it.

Meanwhile, Wells studied our surrounding calmly, wishing that we weren't at war. In the past two weeks, we kind of become good friends, especially since other than Monroe, Raven, and Jackson, I didn't really interact with anyone else. Since Monroe was injured and could barely stand up without passing out, we didn't spend a lot of time speaking. With Raven was kind of the same, however, we managed to spend a few days fixing our rather strange relationship. As for Jackson…he's a good guy, sadly for him, I don't swing that way, but that didn't stop us from becoming friends.

Wells and I had the same idea related to how should we defend the entrance in case they are attacking from the front. An unlikely alternative, but nothing was set in stone. The grounders had suffered a catastrophic defeat in the tunnels and since then we managed to push them a little, they didn't charge madly like in the first three days, but the occasional attack increased their casualties nevertheless. There were two buildings of gray stone with fine slate roofs. Our idea was quite simple to be fair, nothing too overbearing or impossible to construct in our current predicament. Alongside a few of the noncombatants that were still in the bunker, we construct two bunkers connected through a trench just outside of the bunker's main entrance.

There weren't many people here thanks to how brutal and manpower costly the tunnel fight was, only three guards were stationed outside, but that was only when the sun was up, as no one wanted to be killed in their sleep. As we walked inside, the guards nodded at us before they returned to watching the woods for any kind of movement. There was no sound, no movement, but they were certain the grounders were in there. Maybe not as many as down in the tunnels, but more than enough to pose a threat. Thankfully, Mount Weather had more than enough armament to fight for a long time so it wasn't a problem to put a machine gun, in each bunker.

"Anything to report, Mike?"

"Not really chief. The grounders are in the woods, no doubt about it, but they don't seem to want to attack us here."

"In their defense, even if they by some stock of luck manage to capture this place, they won't be able to bypass the door, so all in all, they just observe us, hoping that we send more people here."

"Well, Wells did make us some night vision goggles, but even then we barely made out their shapes in the woods and if at night with some proper vision we didn't see them, what can we do now?"

"Noth…"

My words remain stuck in my throat when I spotted a grounder putting his luck to the test, trying to approach us from the left side using some kind of camouflaged clothes. It would have worked if not for the fact that he was the only green mass in a brownfield. Not the smartest grounder, but the best thing we had for information right now.

"Don't tell me that you want to capture him."

"Why not? We both know that without that guy we will remain blind to how many grounders are left and what's their situation. While I'd reckon they are far worse than us, I'd rather know the truth than speculate about possible situations."

"You can do whatever you want, I'm not a fighter anyways. I'll go help Raven repair some of the damage we did when we capture the bunker while you take care of that guy."

"See you later."

A few minutes after Wells returned inside the bunker, I caught the scout that was sent by the grounders. The poor guy wasn't even a guy, he was only a boy no older than fourteen that apparently wasn't keen on becoming a warrior, especially against people that hadn't done anything wrong. Luckily, for us, the boy quickly told us what we wanted before we ever so gently locked him up. After all, we can't a grounder go back to warn his people that we are going to raid their camp, can't we?

However, that was easier said than done. Most if not all of the people that live in Mount Weather are from farm station and because of that, they are loyal to Pike, and only to him. Now, that wasn't a problem per se, but sadly for me, only five guys decided to tag along on a suicidal mission, while the rest bluntly refused to say that Pike didn't give the order to attack. I even had to stop both Raven and Monroe from even trying to come with us on this raid, but if I were to come back…I hope whatever god is up there would show me some mercy, because these two girls would definably tear me up.

"Come on, guys. It does or dies, and frankly speaking, I'd rather not fight another in the tunnels. Or have you guys got cold feet? Are you going to lie around on your asses and watch the grounders breach through our defense?"

One of the guards looked at me, uncertainness clearly shown on his face, but despite that, a tiny bit of hope was also present.

"I don't know Chief…we are tired of fighting, but if we don't fight we'll die. Same thing for our families. I'd rather be beside them if I were to die, not in some forgotten forest surrounded by those savages."

"I know you're exhausted and scared, but I want you guys to listen to me. The grounders think that were are getting our asses kicked and that soon they would kill us all. Now, the truth is that we are losing this fight, despite killing more enemies than them. However, if were are to pull this through then we can breathe for a while, at least until Arkadia send over more reinforcements. So what do you guys say?"

"Well, chief, it's about time somebody gave those grounders a good wake-up to reality."

"Right, guys, let's go get them."

Out of nowhere, a woman walked towards us. Did she seem angry at me? Whatever reason she may have must be quite important or bluntly stupid depending on who you ask if she almost charge at me when she saw me getting ready to leave the bunker alongside some guards.

"Wait a damn minute! What the hell is this? Do you idiots do everything this traitor tells you? Look, he's dreamed this up, he's going to get you killed for nothing at all. Rather than doing something stupid, shouldn't we wait for our leader to send reinforcements?"

Another one of Pike's loyalists…and while I understand their fate in him, it's getting annoying to deal with them for everything. Moreover, now that they deemed me a traitor for something that I haven't done.

"Yes. Maybe you'll get killed. Well, isn't that just too God damn bad! Maybe you'll fall in the toilet tomorrow and suffocate to death anyway. Nevertheless, you aren't even fighting, for God's sake. You are one of the few people I haven't seen in the tunnels even once in those bloody weeks, and yet here you are yelling at me and even calling me a traitor! I've killed more grounders than men you have fucked! So please shut the fuck up!"

"You're a traitor, you know that? A traitor, one that slept with a grounder whor…"

"You better close your lips if you know what's good for you!"

"Guys—guys, please. You too Karla, go back inside and find something to do. We have more important things to do than listen to your sad attempt of making Leon a traitor."

As soon as the women left shouting bloody murder, I turned towards the men that decided to put their lives in my hands.

"We are going to strike from multiple directions. Mike, I want you to take half of our men and attack from the right. If you draw fire, stay where you are and fire back at the grounders. If you hear me draw fire, try to make your way to us. All right?"

"Sure thing chief. Better safe than sorry."

"Meanwhile, I and the rest of the guys will go around to the left and attack from this small hill. I hope that we will be able to catch them by surprise before you guys managed to cover the whole forest. I'd rather have you guys as close as possible to unleash hell upon them while we hopefully draw their fire long enough for you to take them out."

"Suppose they spot you first, chief? What then?"

"I don't think they will. They aren't believed that someone would be mad enough to attack their camp."

"Hopefully you are right, sir."

"Let's finish this quickly. We all deserve a good rest."

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