Chapter 29-2 Beyond Our Walls Part 2

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Originally Posted by Nitara

Could it be Skittles? After all, he was in CJ's tower, so it's possible that he knows about the orchard. If not, then it might be one of the mallers, or someone else we haven't seen yet.

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I suspect that Skittles is still around and that he'll be important to the story again. But wouldn't that make for a sad, funny story. Skittles wakes up one morning feeling lucid and sane. He remembers the garden, so he jots down the location on a scrap of paper. Then he heads off to join his friends at the Tower only to realize, too late, that he's no longer invisible to the zombies!

An alternate theory. The zombie with the address could have been from Fort Irwin. Col Kimmet did say that there were "special ops" going on, and there was reference to a "squad going down". Maybe the zombie with the note was part of a recon of LA. Maybe there are survivors still there.

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Originally Posted by Nitara

Could it be Skittles? After all, he was in CJ's tower, so it's possible that he knows about the orchard. If not, then it might be one of the mallers, or someone else we haven't seen yet.

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I don't think it was Skittles simply for the fact that the address to the Orchard was obtained off a dead body. I'm thinking it was either a Maller who discovered the orchard, or possibly one of CJ's people who defected from her group.

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Originally Posted by HaveCrowBarWillTravel

I like how KC totally dicked over the Air Force this episode. LOL.. all the branches got some action but us, then he shows a C-130 transport plane. hahahahah. That tickled me

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Of COURSE that wasn't an intentional slight at the Air Force. Just saying...

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Originally Posted by Adventureless_Hero

I don't think it was Skittles simply for the fact that the address to the Orchard was obtained off a dead body. I'm thinking it was either a Maller who discovered the orchard, or possibly one of CJ's people who defected from her group.

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I had completely forgotten about that. I'll need to listen to those episodes again. I just remembered CJ asking Victor and Saul if they were the people who had been stealing her fruit. I'm currently listening to the first two seasons, plus the episodes that are being released now. I guess I'm on WA overload. :)

On relistening to the departure scene in which the crew leaves Michael, I noticed that Datu gave Michael his journal. Now it seemed like it could be nothing, but do you suppose Datu may have an entry in his journal that could be of interest? Perhaps he had a conversation with Hope in which she said something that sounded mundane, but ended up being quite revealing? She could have had more info regarding the Colony, Shaun, and/or maybe even something interesting regarding Zombies.

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Originally Posted by Adventureless_Hero

On relistening to the departure scene in which the crew leaves Michael, I noticed that Datu gave Michael his journal. Now it seemed like it could be nothing, but do you suppose Datu may have an entry in his journal that could be of interest? Perhaps he had a conversation with Hope in which she said something that sounded mundane, but ended up being quite revealing? She could have had more info regarding the Colony, Shaun, and/or maybe even something interesting regarding Zombies.

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i think that explains any datu perspectives to this point. the story is told through journals, which means that bit with scratch at the tail of the season two finale was relayed into the story because one of the characters writing journals (meaning angel or burt) were still alive, and concious enough to hear and understand it. they already did a journal dump earlier, which tanya was transcribing to computer, so up to a point we already have everyones perspective pooled. now anything we learn beyond what michael experiences directly will come from journals given to michael at some point in the future (which means that the CVS crew will, at some point, rejoin michael. even if we operate under the assumption that everyone is dead and some survivor somewhere is learning about their experiences, in order for them to be read together by the same person they would have to be together before the writers died)

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Originally Posted by Kc

Not to discourage anything, but "The Box" is just local lingo in Irwin for the Area to the north of the base that is used for training purposes. It's huge. Michael's reaction was my reaction. "Oh? I never heard it called that before", but all the locals do.

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Want to see "The Box" for yourself? Fort Irwin conducts free tours, two days a month. Here's a link where you can find details: http://www.irwin.army.mil/Visitors/P...CBoxTours.aspx

BTW, there was an entire lexicon of local names for places and things at Fort Irwin that those of us in the permanent party used but did not share with the troops rotating in for training. We did this for security and safety reasons. All the training that happens at Fort Irwin is carefully coreographed and tightly controlled in order to maintain safety. But it is also designed to come as close to actual combat as you can get without actual killing, which means that the choreography has to be carefully hidden from the training units.

There are four different groups at Fort Irwin that control the battlefield, and they must maintain constant radio communication to "guide" the battle. The observer/controllers, or "OCs" are experienced personnel who accompany the training units everywhere, monitor their communications, read their orders and track their movements. The opposing forces, or "OPFOR", are Army units that play the enemy on the battlefield using foreign tactics and vehicles modified to look "different". The "Star Wars Building" is a high tech command center that can track every vehicle and soldier in The Box using GPS trackers and feed from hundreds of video cameras located throughout The Box, as well as recording all communications. The Operations Group, or "Ops Group", pulls everything together, controlling both the training unit (for whom it always plays the next higher military headquarters), the OCs, the OPFOR and the Star Wars Building.

If the mission plan calls for a unit to do something these four elements have to work together to make sure the training unit does exactly what was planned, without things seeming forced or pre-ordained. Sometimes that means sending down orders from "higher headquarters" to change the direction of movement, sometimes it means delaying an OPFOR attack because the training unit isn't in position yet, sometimes it means an OC has to redirect a training unit that is straying outside of their sector.

The problem with all of this is that everyone, training units, OCs, OPFOR, Star Wars Building and OPs Group, are using the same radios, and for safety reasons none of the communications can be encryptyed. It's impossible to prevent the training units from overhearing what the permanent party are saying around them. Hence the local code names for things. An OC can get on the radio and tell the OPFOR to hold at "the dry wash by the cutoff to the Rockpile" and expect that a training unit soldier who overhears the radio transmission will not understand the reference.

The term "Down Squad" has been bothering me. I think squads are rotated one squad is on duty, one squad is training, and one squad is down meaning they have time off. I think that Col. Kimmet was just P.O'ed that the down squad probably got into some shenanigans with their down time. I don't think it means a squad that was on duty has been wiped out.

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Originally Posted by Cabbage Patch

What type of comms do the personnel at these remote sites have? Is there any way they could make their presence known to a base like Fort Irwin? In my mind I'm picturing a survivor sitting at an Autovon phone, dialing number after number from a government phone directory hoping someone will pick up.

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I believe it was Autovon at the time I was in, but they have since switched to a different system. I was at Grand Forks AFB in 1993-94, so they still had all the old Cold War shit back then. I was surprised to find out that they turned one of my old sites, Oscar Zero, into a museum!

Anyway, guarding nukes was a sucky job in a sucky part of the US (sorry, any of you from North Dakota, but your state sucks). Cold and flat, and nothin' to do. The only good part was our schedule was 3 days on, 6 days off. I found a 10 minute travel channel video on YouTube that gives a pretty good overview of the old LCFs and even takes you into the silos themselves. The video was filmed at F.E. Warren, but that is pretty much the way things were at Grand Forks as well. I was only there for a year, but I have lots of funny stories about guys chasing rabbits off the LFs at 3 in the morning...

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Originally Posted by Kc

Of COURSE that wasn't an intentional slight at the Air Force. Just saying...

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Translation of Kc's Real Meaning: "You Chair Force guys are all a bunch of pussies!" :D:D:D

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Originally Posted by yarri

Oh crap I'm sorry I thought you were talkin to me. Losing it is pretty normal here and not a bad thing for this fan base is Powerfully Passionate about every topic, therory,character and crazy tin foil hat idea you could imagine. If you have passion for zombies this is your place. I'm sorry about your husband I can empathize. I know Reaper pretty well I don't speak for him but I do know he's a nice guy that would never intentionally harm a soul.

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Originally Posted by reaper239

well then i apologize, let me clarify: i thought you were posting a tinfoil hat theory, and i replied in jest. i meant no offense by it, so let me reply seriously:

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Hey Reaper and Yarri... you guys are both great to apologize like that. I've done forums like this for awhile and know it is WAY TOO EASY to misinterpret the subtle meaning and tone of what someone writes, so people getting pissed at each other is rather common. Doesn't happen that much here though, I think, because we're mainly focused on talking about the story and not each other. So anyway...

...oh yeah. Uh, about the new episode. Hey, what happened to Lady?! Did they take the dog with them to Boulder???

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Originally Posted by Litmaster

...oh yeah. Uh, about the new episode. Hey, what happened to Lady?! Did they take the dog with them to Boulder???

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Yup. It was a job entrusted to Hope, Dog-holder and seat-warmer.