Search, Pt. 2 (I seem to be missing a few sentences from the top here. Not much though, as it blends plotwise decently well with the previous.) cried. This was not surprising, as they had been on the road for two days. "Well, go get something to eat!" the Wyrm Minion yelled, his patience with these fools wearing thin. "There's restaurants all over the place!" As he manevered the truck behind the abandoned building, the Sponge Minions started walking over to a nearby Baker's Square. The waitress was a bit surprised at the appearance of the strange people who walked through the door. "R..Right this way," she stuttered as she led them to their seats and handed them each a menu. "Take a look at the menus, and I'll be right back to take your orders." "But I wanna eat right now!" whined one of the Minions. "All right, then, I guess I'll take your order now," the waitress said nervously as she whipped out a pen and notepad. "What would you like?" "Ummm....What is there?" asked a Minion who was holding his menu upside-down. "Well, we have plenty of dinners, or if you just want to go straight to dessert, we have an excellent variety of pies..." "Pies?" asked a Sponge Minion. "Yes, we make some great pies here. You should try one!" "Pies aren't Hellthy[tm]" complained the Minion. "Well, yes," concurred the waitress. "I should really eat less of them myself, but they taste wonderful!" "You shouldn't serve Un-Hellthy Snacks[tm]!" shouted another Sponge Minion. "Well, if you're concerned about your health, you can have some of our sugar-free pies. We have sugar-free apple, chocolate..." "Chocolate's not Hellthy[tm]! Your pies are all Un- Hellthy[tm]!" the Sponge Minions shouted as they stood and advanced towards the frightened waitress. "This is relay Gamma to Andrews, come in." The soldier stood by the highway, waiting for a response. ".e......m.....ca....ak........at.....a....ay..." "Relay Gamma to Trooper Cecrops, please respond." "T...per...crops here. You've got s.....ad static." "Trooper Cecrops, I cannot communicate with Andrews. Something is interfereing with the signal." "Unders...d." "This is Trooper Cecrops to all units, there is something interfering with our comm signals in the Rohnert Park area. Our boys are deaf out there. This could be connected to the RBNMA." Cecrops hoped to Grimace that they weren't starting the thing up. "All units in the Novato area pull out except Nathans. Nathans, I want you to go down to the base while you're in the county, see if Fadaus has come back yet. If his people are back, commandeer everyone and get them up here on the double." "This is relay Beta, Nathans has acknowledged your orders." The red truck pulled into the parking lot of the Bakers Square, and two Dobermensch stepped out, dressed in civvies. "This sure doesn't look like a popular place," said one of them, surveying the empty parking lot. The other soldier reassured him. "Hey, I know this place, they got some great food. Come on, lets eat." They walked into the restaurant, and were greeted by a smiling waiter who seemed overly enthusiastic to greet them. "Well, hi the-" "Hey, you can cut the chatter, I know what we want. Get us some seats and two large slices of French Silk pie." "We don't have French Silk pie." "What?" the soldier nearly shouted. He calmed himself, and then asked in a more civil tone, "Are you out?" The waiter shook his head in a frenetic nod. "Okay, get us some apple pie then." "We don't have apple pie either," smiled the waiter. "No apple pie? How can a restaurant that serves pies not have such a standard as apple pie? Where's the manager?" "The manager is tied up at the moment," the waiter said, unwittingly making a bad pun. "Okay, well, what kind of pies do you have?" asked the soldier. The waiter kept smiling. "We have Carrot Stick pie." "CARROT STICK PIE?!??" shouted both Dobermensch in unision. "No way in HELL I'm eating Carrot Stick pie!" continued the first. The other tugged on his partner's arm. "I think we had better get out of here." The waiter kept smiling. "You can't leave until you try some of our Carrot Stick pie!" He held up a pistol for emphasis. The two soldiers stood shocked as the waiter, who they now knew was a Sponge Minion, pointed a gun at them. The soldier who was unfamiliar with the restaurant stammered, "Umm, yeah, uh, we'd be happy to try your Carrot Stick pie." "WHAT?" shouted the other soldier. "Uh, yeah, just let us go to the bathrooms and wash our hands first." The other soldier now realised what his buddy was getting at. "Okie dokie!" said the Sponge Minion. The two soldiers hightailed it into the bathroom, where one pulled out his CB radio and began talking. "This is patrol Gamma Three to anybody, priority message, come in. Definate Spongin activity." "Relay Gamma to Cecrops, I'm getting a priority message from patrol Gamma Three." "Acknowledged, did the static clear up?" "It just seemed to lift suddenly a couple minutes ago." "Gamma, that's Rohnert Park. Trooper Cecrops to all relays, call all units in to Rohnert Park. Relay Gamma, what's the message?" "..." "Relay Gamma, come in!" "......" "Damn!" Cecrops swore. Whatever had caused the interference before was back again. "Adams, take a right here." "Aren't we going to Rohnert Park?" Adams asked. "Yeah, but the freeway will take too much time. We're taking the old Redwood highway." "This is relay Alpha to Trooper Cecrops, Rooker has acknowledged your message and is headed to Rohnert Park by way of Santa Rosa." "Cecrops to relay Alpha, tell Rooker not to take Highway 101, tell him to take Stony Point Road down to the Expressway. That's an order." "Acknowledged, relaying message. Relay Alpha to Alpha- One..." The jeep sped off towards Rohnert Park. "Hey you people, are you done washing your hands yet? Don't you want some of our super-de-duper Carrot Stick pie?" "Uh, yeah, it'll be just a little while longer, I had to go too." "Yeah, just a while longer, uh, I also had to go." "Well, okie-dokey, your stuuupendous Carrot Stick pie will be waiting for you!" After a short period of silence, one soldier quietly asked the other, "How much longer do you think it will take?" The other soldier loaded his pistol. "Not much longer, I hope." The Wyrm Minion noticed that the empty building was largely devoid of the Spongin contingent that was supposed to be helping him guard the Array element, and of the few left a large group were walking out the door. "Where are you going?" "Oh, we're going to have some of that super-de-duper Carrot Stick Pie over at that restaurant place!" The Wyrm Minion grumbled. "Just get back here soon." The Spongin began walking across the parking lot and had crossed to the middle when several cars drove in from both entrances. The cars screeched to a halt, and Dobermensch poured out with guns blazing. "Jihaaaaad!!!!!" Inside the abandoned building, the Wyrm Minion heard the sounds of the battle happening a matter of yards away. He jumped up and called to the Spongin still inside the building with him. "You two, guard the door, make sure they don't come in here. You, come help me move this thing. The rest of you, get your weapons ready and cover me." "How do I work this?" The Minion was looking down the barrel of his machinegun. "Give me that!" The Wyrm Minion took the gun and gave it to a more responsible Sponge. "Here's a knife, it works a lot easier. Poke people with it." A burst of gunfire shattered the building's glass doorway, and the two Sponge Minions guarding the entrance immediately swung themselves around in front of the doors and right into the line of fire. As they fell, two men could be seen behind them in the darkened building working with a piece of equipment. "Is that what I think it is?" "I think it is! Let's-" "I'm hit!" "They're in the Baker's Square!" "Get them!" "This is Trooper Cecrops, come in, anybody." "..." "Damned interference... This is Trooper Cecrops. If anybody can hear me, please respond..." "...s....r.va....mi...We are at t...RB......" "Adams, Dawson, could you make that out?" "I didn't hear anything." Adams said. "I think he said 'We're at the..' Couldn't hear the rest." Dawson said. "I think I heard an 'RB' somewher in there," Cecrops said. "They could be having a battle at the Arby's," Adams reasoned. "Well..." Cecrops thought, "There is an Arby's a bit farther north. It's close to a Walmart, and from what I've read in the Jihad archives, the Sponge Minions like to hang around Walmarts." "You know the way?" "Sure, keep straight on this road, it turns under the freeway and we'll be there." "Dawson, try the comm again." "This is Private Dawson, is anyone out there?" "..." "Nothing, sir." "Sheeit." There had been nothing out of the ordinary at the Arby's or at the Walmart, and from the early snippets Cecrops had heard he had a feeling that he was missing out on a battle somewhere. In the meantime, they were waiting for something to come over the CB. "That was fast," Cecrops noticed as a worker called out their order number. While they were waiting, it didn't hurt to get something to eat. Cecrops sipped his Jamocha[tm-Arby's] shake, then picked up the CB. Adams swallowed a mouthful of sandwich, and said, "I don't think there's going to be any change in the interference this fast." "Well, it doesn't hurt to try. This is Trooper Cecrops, anybody, come in." "This is Private Smith, we're at the RBNMA, it's over by the Baker's Square. Heavy exchange of gunfire, but we're winning." "On our way." Cecrops, Adams, and Dawson were already scooping up their meals, and they headed out to the Jeep. Cecrops drew his pistol as the jeep turned into the parking lot, and aimed at a Sponge Minion running out of the front door of the Baker's Square, but the Minion was brought down by gunfire from inside the building. Two Doberman soldiers stepped out and waved to the group in the parking lot. "That's the last of them!" "Where's the Array?" Cecrops asked as he walked to the group. "It's in that building!" shouted one of the men. Cecrops looked up. "The Kmart?" Not a Kmart anymore, it had been long since abandoned. "Let's go." "We have a group in there already." As if to emphasize this point, the group stepped out of the came-apart Kmart. "They're gone!" one of them yelled. "Get ready to move out again, they couldn't have gone far," Cecrops ordered. "Is everyone all right?" "We have one wounded, everyone else is fine." "One wounded..." Cecrops walked over. "Fredrickson! You all right?" "Yeah, I got hit in the leg. I'll be all right, it just hurts like a motherfucker," Fredrickson winced. "All right, what happened here?" Cecrops asked. "Well, these two found the Minions at the Baker's Square, and called us in. We caught the Spongies completely by surpsise," reported one soldier. "The ones in the old Kmart must have left in a hurry, it looks like they left all their weapons in there," reported another. "You get a look at the Array?" asked Cecrops. "Yeah," said one of the soldiers. "Its like a triangle thing, about three feet high. Looks heavy too." "Well, they can't lug that thing very far, can they? Get search parties ready to go on the double. And-" The screeching of tires interrupted Cecrops as two white trucks drove out from behind the ex-Kmart. "Scatter!" Cecrops yelled as the trucks drove at the group of Dobermen. The men wasted no time in scattering as the trucks missed them and drove out of the parking lot, as a red pickup drove in. Cecrops ran up to the pickup which braked to a halt. "Rooker! The big gun!" "Yessir!" Rooker reached behind his seat and drew forth the rocket launcher, which he loaded, aimed, and fired. The rear Spongin truck exploded in a fireball as the forward truck veered onto Highway 101 southbound. "Shall we pursue them?" "Rooker, see if you can't follow them. The rest of us, let's clear out of here before the police arrive. Follow me!" Cecrops ordered as he climbed into the jeep. "You drivin?" Adams asked. Cecrops had climbed into the driver's seat. "Actually, I'd better not." Cecrops said as he climbed into the back seat. "You're a much better driver than me. Take that exit out of the parking lot, and take a left." The Jeep left the parking lot and turned west onto the Expressway, followed by a dozen other cars. "Where are we going?" Dawson asked. "We're taking Stony Point to Petaluma. If the freeway traffic's bad, we'll get there before they do." "Weird, there's no one on these backroads, and the freeway's an endless traffic jam," Adams noted. "Ah, it's only really bad between Petaluma and Novato, and between Todd Road and Bicentennial," Cecrops explained, as if this would clear things up. "The backroad's not completely empty.." Dawson said as a large vehicle approached. "Is that what I think it is..." Cecrops asked. "I.. think it is!" Adams answered. Cecrops got on the CB. "Andrews!" "Yes, sir?" "Target practice coming up!" "Yes, sir!" Several seconds after the unmarked white truck passed the Jeep, an explosion past the rear of the group marked the demise of several lost Sponge Minions. "Nice shot!" "Thanks, sir." "Let's go..." To be continued...