Because the moment I brought her into the picture, I would have to start protecting her. And I might not have the time or ability to do that once the bullets started flying.
“This is the safest place for you,” I said gently. “But please promise that you won’t go looking for trouble. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t do anything brave. Don’t try to be a hero.”
She leaned into my hand, smiling tenderly. “I would tell you the same thing. But I know you can’t keep from doing it. Just come back to me after you’re done with all your heroics, and we’ll call it even, eh?”
I nodded, then kissed her gently on the forehead. I turned and kissed Sarah, telling her to take care of her mother, and then turned and joined the rest of the men.
And I walked away without looking back. Because I knew that looking back would be way harder than anything I had to do in that town.
28
The march back through the forest was quicker this time, with fewer people to watch out for and all of those people being not only adults, but also in fairly good shape. We kept to a tight pack, our eyes on the forest around us, our hands on our guns, and Marlon and I traded places at the front and back of the pack to keep everyone in line.
But we didn’t see anyone. No spies from Randall’s camp, no lookouts, no one trying to attack us. We didn’t even see any animals this time, and for that I was grateful. The last thing I wanted was to get into another hand-to-hand fight with wild animals that had gone crazy with the weather phenomenon.
Actually, the last thing I wanted was to see any sign of Randall before we were ready.
In the end, I got that wish. Mostly. Because we didn’t see any sign of him until we got back to our original campsite.
The barn was still in the same place, looking just as dilapidated and run-down in the light of day as it had in the middle of the night. More so, now that we could see exactly how bad it was. The roof had almost completely fallen in, and the walls were more empty space than wood. Given the lack of shelter and the weather we’d been having, I thought as we walked up to it, we were damn lucky no one had frozen to death the one night we’d stayed in there. And we’d definitely been right to think that we couldn’t stay any longer than that. This old structure would never have been enough protection—and from what I was seeing, we would have been running a high risk of it actually falling on us at any moment.
Still, this was the place we’d chosen to regroup before we started with our plan to retake the town, so this was where we were going to be stuck for the time being. The sun was still up and the day was relatively warm, which meant that the lack of shelter would be less damaging, at least.
Then we got into the barn itself and realized that this place wasn’t actually safe. It wasn’t safe at all.
We hadn’t left much here the morning we marched out, since the people had been up early enough to pack everything, and we’d known for a fact that we would need every supply we could get our hands on during our journey. So it wasn’t like there was a bunch of trash strewn across the ground or anything like that.
But what we had left had been completely ripped apart.
Like I said, it wasn’t much. But a couple of people had left some clothes behind, and there had been trash from snacks, as well as the remains of about fifty small fires and three enormous ones. And all of it was decimated. The trash was picked apart, the clothing had been absolutely shredded, and the fire pits…
“What did they think we’d done, hidden our escape plans underneath the fire pits?” I asked, mystified.
They looked like they’d taken bulldozers to each of the sites, digging into the snow and soil underneath and turning it over like they’d been looking for buried treasure. The entire place was a mess of mud and slush now, most of it freezing over again as the temperatures had dropped.
“Randall,” Marlon said, his voice tight.
I looked at him in silent agreement. It was the only answer, not only because we were in the middle of nowhere but because they’d obviously been searching for something.
“Maybe they were just trying to make sure we couldn’t use them again if we came back,” Bob observed quietly. “Trying to ruin the campsite so we’d have to start over again?”
“Possibly,” I answered. It did make sense.
Or it would have for anyone more rational than Randall. Anyone who thought ahead in that sort of manner.
When it came to Randall and his cousins, though, I expected pettiness over forethought, and outright mean behavior over anything rational. I was betting they’d done it just because they were pissed they hadn’t gotten here in time and needed to take it out on someone—or something.
“I’m just glad we got the people out of here before they arrived,” I finally said. “And since they’ve already been here, I don’t think they’ll be back. Even someone as stupid as Randall had to see that we’d passed through here but weren’t planning to return. If he’s still searching for us, he’ll be searching somewhere else.”
It was good news as far as us still using this barn as a base. I just hoped that if Randall and his men had moved on to searching some other location, that it wasn’t anywhere close to Marlon’s house.
Still, I turned to the rest of the group, trying to keep our momentum. We were here and we were mostly ready. I didn’t have time to start worrying about the people we’d left behind now. We needed to do what we’d come here to do.
“The good news is that we got here early,” I told the group. “It’s going to mean a long afternoon of waiting, but it gives us some time to spec out the situation. Everyone is going to hunker down here for the afternoon. Have a snack, have some water, take a nap. But make sure you always have at least four lookouts out there, at varying distances from each other. One lookout can be shot, maybe even two, but if you have four—or even five—then at least one of them is going to make it back to you in time to warn you of an invasion. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see Randall or any of his men, don’t shoot them. Capture them and keep them here so I can talk to them when I get back.”
I looked through the group, searching, and finally found Henry, who had volunteered to come back with us to sack the town.
“Henry, you’re in charge of that particular aspect. You know Randall and his friends best. If you see any of them in the forest, I’m counting on you to point them out.”
“You got it, Cap,” he said, all business. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”
I nodded back at him, glad to have him on our team, and then turned to Marlon.
“In the meantime, you and I are going to go out there and see what we can see. I want to know exactly what Randall’s been doing while we’ve been gone, and start figuring out how to get into town without them seeing us. And I want to know exactly where we need to go to find this magical communication device of yours.”
We stared down at the town from the trees, mimicking the last time we’d been on lookout together. This time, of course, it was still bright and sunny out—which made it both easier to see the town, and more dangerous to be watching it from trees bare of leaves.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have much choice. We needed to know exactly what was going on in there… and what we were going to do about it.
I got as close to the trunk as I could, counting on the camo I was wearing to help me merge with the brown of the trunk, and brought the binoculars up to my eyes.
The town I knew and loved came right into focus, and I stared at the town square, the hardware store at the corner, the cafe on the other corner, and the breakfast spot where Angie and I ate breakfast every Sunday morning. A part of me cringed at the thought that those places were all shut down now—and that Randall and his men might be taking advantage of the stores where I’d spent so much of the last year—but then I brought myself back to the task at hand and turned my view to look for men or weapons or guards or vehicles.