Post by MG Laura McArthur on Apr 23, 2016 17:13:08 GMT -5
Stony Lonesome Gate, West Point Garrison: to either side of the gate (out of picture view) for about a third-of-a-mile are stone & wood-backed walls built in the manner of Roman military walls
"Everything going alright, boys?" Brigadier General McArthur said to the trio of soldiers manning the Stony Lonesome Gate, one of five entry-and-exit points that West Point Garrison - formerly the United States Military Academy - possessed. Every day, General McArthur made it a point to visit each Gate, if not for any other reason than to simply get out and away from the Plain, a place she saw plenty of from their headquarters at Taylor Hall.
"Fine, ma'am," one of the soldiers said to her as she stepped inside and climbed the ladder to the upper deck; stepping onto the floor, she quickly scanned the area around the Gate and made a few mental notes for future plans. "We spotted a few walkers roaming around outside the gate and dispatched them with the Hush Puppy," referencing both the ever-present danger of walkers outside the garrison grounds and the sniper rifles they kept inside the Gate for use in dispatching the walkers; the reference was to the sound the rifles made when fired using the rifle's sound suppressor attachment. "Right there, about 100 meters left of the road, ma'am," the soldier added.
"I see them," McArthur said with a mix of sardonic humor, adding with a small dose of humrous sarcasm, "well, at least you guys passed your weapons quals with that shooting display there," standing up and taking another look around. Before she could say anything else, her train of thought was interrupted by her driver, who was waving to her frantically. Walking over to the side of the wall, McArthur yelled down, "What's wrong, Piersall?"
"Taylor Hall's on the line," the driver yelled back up, standing half-in, half-out of a pickup truck. "One of the com techs says they're picking up radio traffic from down south; they're trying to figure out where exactly its' from."
"And?" McArthur asked, looking off towards the south for a moment before looking back down at her driver.
"The strange part is that they think they have a tentative location on where all the signals traffic is coming from, ma'am," the driver replied.
"Is it coming from New York?" McArthur asked, figuring that if any place around was generating signals traffic, it had to be the Big Apple, their big-city neighbor to the south. What she heard, though, was something out of left field as the driver replied, "Negative, General," pausing to listen to the com tech's message, "they're saying the signals are coming....they say they're coming from D.C., ma'am!"
For several moments, McArthur stood frozen in her tracks, thinking to herself, D.C? D.C?!? Quickly coming back to her senses, she all-but-jumped down the ladder and ran to the truck, grabbing the radio handset from her driver and keying the mic. "Taylor Hall, this is Cadet 6," using her radio callsign, "I'm on my way back to the Plain; make sure to have a hard copy of those signals you picked up ready for me to look at when I get back there, understood?" Without waiting for a reply, she threw the handset back inside the truck and walked around to the passenger side; before climbing inside, she looked at the soldiers manning the Gate and said to them, "Good work, soldiers; resume your duties," acknowledging their salute with one of her own. Sitting inside the truck, she mused over the radio traffic info and thought, Could it be? Could there actually be someone in charge down there?