LATER THAT DAY
"Yeah, this is them."
Matt whispered, watching the small camp through his rifle's scope.
The newly united group of survivors had loaded the supplies from the campground into a pair of vehicles a couple hours earlier and followed the occasionally scant trail left by the kidnappers. They'd found signs of their activity outside a little motel in the quaint hamlet of Mineral, a few miles from Mt Rainier and largely cleared of the walking dead it seemed. The kidnappers had turned the parking lot of the hotel into a prison yard, parking several tractor trailers there as a barrier against outside aggression as well as using the trailers as holding cells.
As Matt watched, it became apparent that the group had captured a total of about a dozen other survivors, themselves numbering only ten. They were equipped and dressed quite well, having stripped their victims of any equipment and most of their clothing. He watched them for a solid half hour, only briefing witnessing Jack as get forced into a trailer with several other captured survivors. As the day progressed, Matt watched as the captives were used for slave labor, tending gardens, building defenses and clearing rubble. At one point, a team of slaves and a guard went out into the surrounding parts of the town to scavenge for supplies. It was quite obvious the group weren't just raiders or kidnappers, they were slavers. A tragic but not surprising sight in the post apocalyptic remains of humanity.
At nightfall, Matt reported his findings back to the others of the group and began laying out a plan of attack. He scribbled a map into the dirt on the side of the road, gesturing to different spots to illustrate the plan.
"We'll wait until the scavenging team goes out tomorrow and ambush the guard, try to take him hostage and interrogate him, if not, we'll try to get some answers out of the slaves and see if we can get them to join the fight. We'll hide in the buildings around the hotel while one of us sits up where I was earlier with that hunting rifle we got from the campground and hits them with sniper fire. He'll have a partner to watch his back of course. He'll knock out the sentries around the camp, two on the walls and one on the rooftop. Once they're down, we'll sprint up and slide under the trucks then wait for the others to come investigate. If they're already outside, we'll cut them down before they can run, if not we'll just roll with the punches and try to keep them pinned down while we release and arm the other slaves. Once that's done and all the slavers outside are dead, we'll surround the hotel and offer anyone inside a chance to surrender. If they take it, fine, if not we'll burn 'em out with Molotov cocktails, assuming there's no kids or hostages or whatever inside the motel. If there is, we'll have to clear it room by room and we WILL lose some people."
Dropping the stick into the dust he rested his hands on the stock of his M16.
"Questions? Comments?"
He asked of the motley crew.