“If we don’t have it yet, we’ll leave it behind,” Bob continued. “It’s not worth the risk to our people to try to keep it. Though we’re going to have to hope that they come through town, grab what they want, and then get the hell out so we can come back. We’re going to need that shelter, Marlon. We won’t survive a night in the forest, I don’t think.”
Marlon gave him one short nod, his eyes already roving across the room, his mind working at warp speed as he went through the plan he and Bob had laid out that morning. If the people were ready, then it was time to follow through on that plan.
Time to get the hell out of here before Randall could do the damage he was so intent on doing.
The moment he walked through the doors, Marlon could see how busy the townspeople had been in his absence. This room had once held a small city of tents, butane stoves, lamps, and people, neatly divided up by open avenues between the rows, but now…
Every tent had been tidied away, every stove was dismantled. Some lamps still peppered the room, casting their glow into the gloom of the dimmed lights. But those were few and far between. The rest of the room had been reduced to packs and bags—and people milling about, looking like they were on high alert. Ready to go.
Ready to run.
“Oh, well done,” Marlon murmured to Bob, his eyes scanning quickly over the room. “And the supplies?”
“The oldest boys are in that room, packing as fast as they can,” Bob answered, gesturing toward one wall of the room, where the supply room broke off. “We figured it was a good use of boys who thought they were old enough to help defend—but weren’t.”
“But they can shoot,” Marlon guessed. “So if they’re the last ones out of here—”
“They’ll be able to cover their own tracks,” Bob finished for him. “Exactly.”
Marlon stopped at the front of the room, where everyone would be able to see him, and clapped his hands.
“People of Ellis Woods!” he shouted into the cavernous space. “Some of you know me, some of you don’t. I was hoping to have John here with me to take over this part, but it looks like he’s still out on an… errand, so you’ll have to make do with me, I’m afraid.” He gave them a rueful grin and waited for the murmuring to die down again.
They all knew John. None of them was happy to hear that he was missing in action. Marlon thought that most of them probably knew John well enough to know exactly what that meant.
He very studiously avoided looking for Angie, knowing that he would like the look on her face even less, and continued with his speech.
“As Bob has told you, Randall Smith and a band of outlaws are outside of town, trying to get in.” He didn’t know that they were outlaws for sure, but it seemed like the best label for them. “Randall left some things here and thinks that he has the right to come in and take them again. Your mayor and I have discussed this, and have decided that it’s better to get the hell out of Dodge rather than staying to fight it out. As such…”
His voice turned serious, and commanding—for all he knew, Randall and his men were already in town and on their way here.
He didn’t have time for speechifying.
“—We’re going to be escaping through the back doors of Town Hall. Please make your way there now, as quickly as possible. Women and children first, with the people we’ve chosen as guides. Men, you know your duties. End of the group, and keep your wits about you. You’re going to be providing cover for the rest of them. If you’ve been picked as a defender, make your way to the front of the building at this time. Move, people!”
There was a sudden shuffling, and within seconds, people were moving in two different directions: women and children toward the back of the building, going in a chaotic mass, and the men who had been chosen as defenders moving toward the front of the building, falling into a natural line as they moved.
The plan was simple. Get the women and children out, put a group of men right after them as a buffer, to watch their flanks, and move the strongest of the men to the front of the building. Those were the defenders, but they were also the decoys—the ones who were going to keep Randall and his men from noticing that the women and children were escaping through the back.
He hoped.
He started for the weapons room, Bob, Sean, and Joe right behind him. These three were defenders, along with Marlon himself. They needed to arm themselves before they made their way to the front of the building.
“You’ve got someone you trust to lead them into the forest?” Marlon asked.
Bob gave him a jerky nod. “One of the best woodsmen in town,” he confirmed. “He’s got orders to get them to the old barn about a mile from here and wait for us there.”
“And your best men are staying here with us,” Marlon continued.
“They are. The older men are going out with the larger group, armed, to protect them. The younger ones—the stronger ones—are staying here.”
Marlon nodded, his mind still moving through the plan. Randall would know that they’d gathered everyone in Town Hall, he knew. Randall and his cousins had been a part of the town for long enough to know what the emergency directives were and to know that Town Hall had the emergency generators that would keep the townspeople alive if the worst happened.
So he knew that Randall would be coming here. They wouldn’t have to send anyone out to lead him to the building.
They also couldn’t let on that most of the supplies—and weapons—had already left the building, via the large group now making its way into the forest. Town Hall was conveniently built on the edge of town, which meant that its back doors led right into the forest. He didn’t know whether that had been intentional or not, and he didn’t care.
Right now, it flowed right in with his plan. And that was all that mattered.
At that moment, they reached the weapons room, and Marlon strode in quickly, his eyes on the walls around him. Those walls had been only partially emptied, and though it took him a moment, he nodded in approval when he realized why.
“We figured Randall needed to find at least some of his weapons here,” Sean said, seeing Marlon’s nod. “If he discovered that we’d taken them all, he would be more likely to follow us into the forest to try to take them back.”
“Smart,” Marlon replied.
He took two steps forward, grabbed an RPK machine gun off the wall, and handed his sniper rifle to Sean.
“I’m not as good with that thing,” he told him bluntly. “Give me something that takes less finesse, any day.”
Bob cocked his head in momentary thought. “I would never have thought it,” he said wonderingly.
Then the moment was over and they were moving back out of the armory and toward the front of the building. Marlon cast a glance to the rear of the building to see that the group there was coalescing into something that resembled order as they made for the doors, and that several men were shouting orders to the families. Most of them had bags full of supplies and tents, and he hoped they were all dressed in their warmest clothes.
Night wasn’t far away. Which meant those people were going into the woods at a time when any rational person was looking for shelter. He hoped they were ready.
And he hoped that he and the other men could keep Randall and his goons off their backs.
“How many men do we have?” he asked once they reached the group at the front of the room.
“Thirty,” someone answered. “All armed. All good shots. All young and strong.”
“All willing to do whatever it takes to protect the families going into the woods?” he asked.
He heard a shout of affirmation coming from what he assumed to be thirty throats, and that was good enough for him.