The Reckoning - 02 (54 page)

“How did you know which way to go?” I asked.

“The driveway headed that direction,” she said. “I assumed it would take me to a road. When I made it to the road, I saw a sign that said Springfield and had an arrow. I stayed off the road and followed the trees. When I could see the city, I kept outside of town to avoid the worst of the dead. I still had to avoid quite a few, but it wasn’t too difficult. It took me three days to walk back to the Underground.”

“How did you avoid the
Freemen
?” I asked.

“It wasn’t that hard,” she said. “Those idiots couldn’t track a train. I just kept away from bare earth and stayed in the trees. Any time I heard a vehicle, I just went to ground. They must have
driven right past me a dozen times.”

“You’re amazing,” I said. “It took a lot of courage to do that.”

“I had to get help,” she said. “I couldn’t leave you like that.”

“And I appreciate that,” I replied, grinning.

“When I got back, I tried to organize everyone to go hit that camp,” she said. “First Sergeant Gregory talked me into going back with a small team. He was right, of course. I knew we didn’t have enough fighters on hand to beat them. Sneaking in to rescue you and then disappearing into the night was better. Now, they’ve got to be worried. They won’t have any clue how we pulled that off.”

“Did you see any signs of captives?” I asked, thinking of the old man.

“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “I never saw any captives.”

“What about an old man?” I asked, concerned. “He had long grey hair and a grey beard.
He was really thin, too. Emaciated almost to the point of starvation.”

“No,” she said, thinking hard. “I don’t remember seeing anyone like that. Why? Who is he?”
              “He saved my life,” I replied.

I went on to tell her about the old man coming to me each night. Bringing me water and food, and then soothing my wounds with mud. She listened to my story with sad eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek when I finished.

“I never saw anyone like that,” she said. “I wouldn’t have left him behind, if I had.”

“I know,” I said. “If we get the chance to go back out there, I want to find him. I owe him that and more. I’d be dead if it weren’t for him.”

“We’ll find him,” she said. “If he’s still alive.”

She was right. If they thought he’d helped me, they’d kill him in some horrible fashion. Maybe even torture him to death. The thought of that made me furious.

“Let’s round up the others,” I said, and headed out the door.

When I walked out of the infirmary, I saw Southard sitting on the hood of a Humvee.

“I heard you were awake,” he said, hopping down. “I didn’t expect to find you up and in full battle-rattle.”

“Despera
te times, Chuck,” I said. “Thanks for the rescue.”

“Any time,” he said. “Just wait until you get my bill.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said, smiling.

“Where are you heading?” he asked.

“I want to get some folks together and discuss our next move,” I replied. “Where is everyone?”

“Who do you need?” he asked.

“Gunny, the Rangers, you, Wilder, Webber, Winston, Bowman, Jade, Ramirez, Kidman and anyone else you can think of,” I replied.

“Give me fifteen minutes and we’ll meet you in the chow hall,” he said, heading off at a trot.

“Thanks, Chuck,” I called after him.

“I’ll add it to the bill,” he yelled, chuck
ling.

             
Spec-4 and I walked along the passageway to the area we’d designated as a chow hall. It was the middle of the afternoon, so it was almost completely empty. My wife saw me and I thought she was going to faint. She ran over with a wild-eyed expression on her face. If it hadn’t been so serious, it would have been funny.

             
“What are you doing out of bed?” she said, her voice almost frantic.

             
“No time to rest now, babe,” I replied. “I’ve got work to do.”

             
“But you’re hurt!” she said, a note of fear in her voice.

             
“I’m alright, babe,” I assured her. “Would Maddie have let me out of the infirmary, if I wasn’t?”

             
Spec-4 gave me a scowl at that comment. I hadn’t given Maddie a choice. I’m sure I was going to hear about that one, later.

             
“It’s alright, babe,” I repeated. “I promise that I’ll rest as soon as this is over.”

             
“It had better be important,” she said, a touch of her legendary temper creeping into her voice.

             
“It is, babe,” I said, letting my tone convey how grave the situation was.

             
“Wylie,” she said, almost pleading, “how much more punishment can you take?”

             
“She’s right,” said Spec-4. “You’re already hurt.”

             
For just a moment, the two of them stood together on something, their concern for me. It was touching, but it was also more than a bit scary.

             
“This is important,” I assured both of them. “We haven’t heard the last of the
Freemen
. We have got to be ready when they come back.”

             
Karen didn’t say anything, but Spec-4 knew I was right. They weren’t going to be happy we both got away. They were going to want to finish what they started. We already knew they had their sights on the Underground. They wanted our resources, our food and to use our people for their sick amusement. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

             
“OK, Wylie,” muttered Karen. “See this through, and then promise me you’ll take the time to let yourself heal.”

             
“I promise, babe,” I replied.

             
“Alright,” she agreed, reluctantly. “I’ll hold you to that.”

             
“Don’t you always?” I asked, smiling.

             
“You bet your butt,” she replied, chuckling. “Who all is coming to your little meeting?”

             
“Pretty much everyone,” I said, smiling.

             
“I’ll go put on some coffee, then,” she said, heading off towards the kitchen area.

             
A few minutes later, they began to arrive. Karen brought out a huge urn of coffee and everyone started helping themselves to a cup as soon as they arrived. Karen was bringing out a few boxes of cookies for us as the last of the stragglers came wandering in and found a seat. Once everyone was seated and had their coffee, I stood up and headed towards the middle of the group.

             
“Can everyone hear me?” I asked.

             
There was a mumble of assent through the group and they fell silent, once again.

             
“Alright, listen up, everybody,” I started. “The reason I wanted you all here is my gut tells me that the
Freemen
are going to make a move. I believe that they are going to make it, soon.”

             
This caused the others to exchange worried looks and low murmuring.

             
“We’ve got to be ready,” I continued. “We have to end this, once and for all. If they keep coming after us, eventually they’re going to find a way to get the job done. Even if they do it through attrition. They outnumber us by quite a bit. Plus, all of them are fighters. Admittedly, most of them aren’t very well trained. The advantage of numbers should not be underestimated.”

             
That drew some murmuring and a grave nod from the First Sergeant.

             
“We’ve got to force them to do this on our terms,” I said. “We need to control the situation. Bowman, do you still have that mini-gun mounted on that Hemmitt?”

             
“Sure do,” he replied. “We had two of those guns, so I mounted both of them.”

             
“That reminds me,” I said. “What does H.B.D.C. stand for? I saw that you’d stenciled it on the side of the first one.”

             
“It’s on both of them, now,” he replied, grinning. “It’s what I call them. Those monsters don’t care who you are or how bad you think you are. They’ll cut you to ribbons.”

             
“OK,” I agreed, waiting for him to finish.

             
“It stands for Honey Badger Don’t Care,” he said.

             
I just rolled my eyes and several of the group chuckled. Southard thought it was hilarious.

             
“Well, that solves that mystery,” I said. “Can you put one of your Honey Badgers on each entrance?”

             
“No problem,” he said. “I’ll get them in place.”

             
“Josh,” I said, “we need those cameras watching our perimeter.”

             
“I’ll see to it, personally,” he said. “I’ll let you know the second we see something.”

             
“Good,” I replied. “We’ll need all the advance warning we can get. I also want to organize two fire teams. Gunny, you take one and First Sergeant Gregory will take the other.”

             
“What about you?” asked Gunny.

             
“I’ll be in operational command,” I replied. “I want to be able to go where the action is. I’ll leave the line of defense up to you guys. You have more experience at it than I do, anyway.”

             
“That’s true,” grumbled Gunny. “It’s about time you learned that you can count on us, son.”

             
“I never doubted that, Guns,” I said.

             
“Good call, Sheriff,” said the First Sergeant. “My Rangers won’t let you down.”

             
“Hoo-ah,” said the other two Rangers, in unison.

             
“Hoo-ah,” I replied, nodding.

             
“I’ll work with both of them to draw up the fire teams,” said Spec-4, holding up a clipboard. “We’ll keep the teams as even as possible.”

             
“Good,” I said. “Everyone get their gear and make sure you’re fully loaded. This could kick off at any time.”

             
Everyone started heading off. As the Rangers stood up, I caught the First Sergeant’s attention.

             
“Top,” I said, “can I talk to you a second?”

             
He nodded, and motioned for his men to carry on. Then he came over to me and waited for the others to move off before we spoke.

             
“Is something wrong, Sheriff?” he asked, warily.

             
“I just wanted to discuss something with you and not let everyone know about it,” I said. “At least, not at the moment.”

             
“Op-Sec,” he said. “I completely understand.”

             
“Can you contact your chain of command?”

             
“I thought you wanted us to stay?” he said, a little defensively.

             
“I do, Top,” I reassured him. “I just wanted to know if that airstrike possibility was still on the table.”

             
“I’m sure it is,” he replied. “I’ll just have to confirm my identity with them. It might take a little while. Why?”

             
“When we engage them, this time,” I said. “I want to make certain it’s the
last
time we have to engage them.”

             
“I’ll get right on it,” he said. “Anything else?”

             
“Let’s keep this under our hats, for now,” I said.

             
“Can do,” he said.

             
I could see he resisted the urge to salute me before he turned to head off.

             
“Oh, and Top,” I called after him.

             
“Yes, Sheriff,” he said, looking back.

             
“Thanks,” I said.

             
“You’d have done the same for us,” he replied.

             
“Hoo-ah,” I replied.

             
“Hoo-ah,” he answered.

             
Then he turned around and saluted me. I returned it with a solemn motion. We finally had an understanding. He dropped his salute and executed a precise about-face, then walked away. I held the salute for a second longer, then released it and watched him go.

             
“You two seem to have reached an understanding,” said Karen, as she slipped up next to me.