Chương 35: Chapter 33: The Lay of the Land

"To make this work," I started, leaning over the low living room table, "I need to explain the school's layout first. The entire campus is basically designed in one extensive circle. It starts with the administrative offices located on the southernmost edge of the property. Moving clockwise from there, you hit the largest building on campus, which takes up half of the western side. That houses the cafeteria and the main gymnasium." I traced an invisible map on the tabletop so Joe and Pete could follow along.

"Right next to that is the swimming pool, followed by the utility and maintenance rooms that are attached to the smaller gym. That smaller gym also contains the weight lifting and wrestling rooms. Past that are the P. E. locker rooms and showers. Moving east from there, you have a teacher's parking lot that also serves as the Ag yard, right next to the Ag sciences building."

"Rotating back east and around towards the front of the school, there are nine long buildings that hold five classrooms on each side. There's a grass field the length and width of two classroom buildings, followed by the science wing. Then, right at the very front of the school, you have the library, the fine arts building—which houses the choir and band rooms—and finally the large theater building right next to the main office." Joe nodded, visualizing the massive footprint.

"What's the fencing look like? Are we dealing with an open campus or a fortress?"

"There are no perimeter fences on the front and west sides of the school," I explained.

"Instead, the fencing just attaches from building to building, starting from the fine arts building all the way to the small gym. On the back side of the gymnasium, there's a bus lane that wraps back around to the entrance on the other side of the fine arts building. There is a perimeter fence separating that bus lane from the actual school buildings. Past the small gym is the football stadium and the baseball fields. On the east side of campus is the large practice baseball field.

The stadium and those two baseball fields have continuous perimeter fencing all around them." I leaned in, tapping the table for emphasis.

"The largest gates suitable for us to drive through would be the double gate between the main office and the large gym, or the one by the teacher's parking lot at the back of the property. Both gates can be opened by simply cutting the padlocks, assuming whoever holds the place hasn't already done so. Our primary objective, in addition to clearing out the people holding the campus, will be to get to that main office." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Why the office first?" Pete asked.

"Most people don't know this, but inside the principal's office, there's a secure lockbox that holds duplicate keys to every single door on campus. It also has a few master keys that open every door and padlock. Once we clear out any immediate threats we can see, we get those master keys. Then we can start the long, tedious process of securing each building room by room for any threats we can't see." I looked over at Denise, wanting to reassure her about the kids' safety before continuing.

"When I go pick up the drones and the boys tomorrow, I'm going to grab the van too. We will all fit inside it. Even Dog should fit with us if we pull the seats out. Everyone will have to sit on the floor for a bit, but it gets us there in one vehicle. Now, there's an almond orchard located northwest of the football stadium. An easement runs west along the housing development fencing for about five city blocks.

If we approach from that easement and park a couple of blocks down, no one at the school will ever see us coming."

"From there, we send out the drones and determine our actual approach. During the assault, Isadora will be in the driver's seat of the van. She'll be watching the monitors, feeding us real-time info based on what Jace and Travis are seeing from the drones. If something goes wrong at the van, Isadora can punch the gas and get the hell out of there quickly. We can all meet back here tomorrow before dark, eat, and buff up our stats just like we did tonight. That's about it. Any questions, comments, or concerns?"

Pete shrugged, looking comfortable with the breakdown.

"Seems pretty straightforward. I don't see any real problems with it so far. However, we won't be able to make any hard decisions on how we actually approach the buildings until we get more info on who is there and how many of them we're dealing with."

"Agreed," Joe replied, shifting in his seat.

"What are our contingencies if something goes sideways? Other than bugging out, what are our options?"

"Not much really," I admitted honestly.

"Like Pete said, we can't really plan the specifics of the assault until we see the opposition force. If there are too many people there, we don't hit it. We regroup and find another location to secure. If it's a number we are capable of handling, we hit them with overwhelming force. We send as much firepower downrange as it takes until the threat is dead or flees."

"It's a sound plan," Joe said, rubbing his chin.

"In the meantime, are you planning to patrol our neighborhood tonight? I wouldn't want our massive ammunition haul stolen just because we were all sound asleep."

"Sure can," I said.

"Besides, I intend to stay up as late as possible tonight so I can sleep during the day tomorrow. I received a 'well-rested' status bonus earlier for sleeping for just four hours. I'd like to see what kind of bonus I can expect for a full eight hours. Before I head out, I just want to go through my gear and exchange my old vest for the one I liberated from that ass-hat TJ. By the way, did we get any helmets with the tactical house gear?"

"Yeah," Pete said, a grin breaking across his face.

"Some nice, new MICH helmets too. Looks like the department got a fresh order right before the whole world-ending shitshow started."

"Nice," I said, stretching my arms.

"I'll definitely come over to your place and grab one of those before I start my watch."