VI

The rest of the flight was uneventful, and Landers was perfectly content with that. He sat near the back and watched the Appalachian scenery glide by benieth him. Glancing around the interior of the plane, Landers examined the rest of the passengers. There were several other men he did not know sitting on the bench across from, probably stragglers like himself and his men. Turning his gaze he looked at starks, reclined over several seats the man snored loudly.

"Smart one, eh? Best get some sleep while ya can," one of the men across from him said.

Nodding in agreement, Landers looked for Wilks and saw that he was once again in the cockpit conversing with the pilots. Having apparently finished his conversation, Wilks walked over and sat on the bench next to Landers.

"So, did some more digging on the pilots, and I got some information about our destination," he said in a hushed voice, "its a new base or something, the pilots have only ever been there once. Command has kept this really quite, I never heard anything from the officers, or from any of the others. The pilots said we should be there in five, or so minutes."

Looking down again on the ground below, Landers gave Wilks a nudge and pointed out the back of the plane. A single road was now visible, winding through the mountains. Along the road a few American trucks drove in the same dircetion as the plane they flew in.

"Probably the last of the Scratch's gaurd, like us." Wilks said, nodding at the trucks below.

"Probably," replied Landers and after a moments pause he turned to wilks, "So, do you think its a last ditch stand, or that command actually has an ace up their sleeve?"

"If I was a betting man, I'd put money on a last stand. This all looks too desperate for anything else."

"Yeah, your probably right," Landers muttered.