Randall didn’t even have any guards in the town square. Hell, it looked like they’d all just… gone to sleep.
Or they were in Town Hall having a celebration party, as Henry had said.
Either way, there would be no one out on the street to see us coming—or to warn Randall that we had arrived.
32
We got all the way to the square without seeing a soul, just as I’d hoped we would. And it wasn’t because we were moving slowly or being extremely subtle about it.
Hell, we were a group of eighty people rushing down the sidewalk and trying to stay close to the building but not really doing that terrific of a job at it. Because we were eighty people all coming at once, and we were all cold and stressed and wanting to get this damn thing over with.
I hadn’t told them to be incredibly careful. I’d given them the information that I had—that I hadn’t seen anyone on the street, and that we suspected Randall and his men to be inside Town Hall rather than out in the cold—and told them that our job was to get to the hardware store as quickly as possible and then regroup.
It took us about ten minutes.
I stared around the corner of the hardware store, my people ranged out behind us, and then turned back to where Marlon and Bob were standing behind me.
“Bob, you and Sean take half of the group to the other side of the street,” I said quickly. “I want us to be able to rush Town Hall in a more even-handed way, and that’s not going to happen if we’re all coming from the same place.”
Bob nodded in his usual businesslike way. “Are we just going to rush in there and start shooting?”
“Maybe not shooting, since they might be more inclined to shoot back, but we have to catch them off guard and then order them to drop their weapons. Like a police raid. I think it’s our only option,” I finally said. “I’ve had my brain working on this since we got here, and I just don’t see any way around it. We’re going to have the element of surprise, and if they’re not expecting us, then it means they’re definitely not in there already set up with weapons and ready to battle. With luck, they’ll be more likely to just sort of… give up. But we need to scare them badly enough to get them to do that. We need to look and sound like we’ve got more people than we actually do. If we do it right, maybe we can get out of this without any bloodshed.”
I looked up and caught Marlon’s eyes on me, and read his expression perfectly. Because he was thinking the same thing I was: I hoped that there wouldn’t be any bloodshed. But I didn’t think it was likely. Randall was too reckless—and I had to assume that his men would be the same way. I still didn’t have a good handle on what exactly Randall thought he was doing—or why he thought he needed all the weapons he’d stored here, and the town itself had confiscated—but I was almost entirely positive that now that he’d won it back, and had his hands on those weapons, he was going to do whatever it took to keep it.
Still. None of that meant I had a better plan than just rushing in and getting them to surrender as quickly as we could. It wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t going to be pretty. But it was our best shot at getting this thing done.
For a split second, I wondered again if it was even worth it. We were going to be risking our lives—and people might even die—just to take back the town, when the reality was that I wasn’t sure we needed it. No, we couldn’t stay at Marlon’s indefinitely. But we could stay there for a little while. And when everyone was ready to move, we could find a different town to take us in. This wasn’t the only civilization in the area. There were other towns within a fifty-mile radius. Surely we could just move the people there.
But then I remembered all the arguments against that. Those towns would be suffering, just like ours had. They’d be running low on food and supplies, and they’d be scared out of their minds. If they saw a force of two hundred people marching toward them, they’d be likely to think someone was trying to invade them. Hell, even if they knew we were just from the next town over, and were looking for shelter, they might turn us down. They might not be able to help us. And we couldn’t afford to leave our people out in the cold for another night. We couldn’t afford to be so far away from our own homes without any shelter.
We had to have our town back if the people were going to survive. It was as simple as that.
And that didn’t even take Marlon’s magical communication device—or its connection to the government—into account. It didn’t account for the fact that Marlon could use that device to get in touch with the authorities, find help for our town. Maybe figure out what we were supposed to be doing, and how long it would be until things got back on line.
I didn’t know how much I cared about Marlon getting his orders for whatever mission he needed to run next. But I definitely cared about being able to contact the authorities for information and help.
So I came right back to the decision we’d already made once. We had to take the town back. There was no other choice.
And to do that, we had to go charging into Town Hall, guns out and at the ready, and scare Randall’s men badly enough that they surrendered.
“Marlon and I are going to take our group around the back and go in through the back door,” I told Bob, continuing in my orders. “You and Sean are going to take people in through the front door. I have no idea where Randall and his men are, but your job is to go in and try to get as far as you can without alerting them. That means sneak until you can’t sneak any longer. Shoot only if they start shooting at you. If they don’t—if you can get in without them noticing you—then we work to try to take them prisoner rather than starting a gun battle. If those guys are anything like Randall, they’re not going to hesitate to shoot, and I’d rather avoid bloodshed if we can. If it comes to shooting… well, we won’t really be able to do anything about that. Don’t try to hit anyone unless they’re aiming at you. Knock anyone out that you can. If they’re unconscious, they can’t shoot you. Look for Randall, but don’t engage with him. Just figure out where he is. I want him alive. I want to know what the hell he’s doing, and why he’s doing it.”
I reached out and grabbed Bob’s shoulder, squeezing it firmly once.
“Marlon and our group will be coming at you from the back of the building. We’re going to be running in their blind, and I won’t be able to check in with you. But I’m counting on meeting you again in the large hall. You got this?”
Bob reached up and squeezed my shoulder in return. “I’ve got it. How long before we invade?”
“Ten minutes,” I answered. “It gives us time to get around the back of the building and get the door open. I’ll see you in there.”
I watched Bob quickly divide the group of people following us and head to the other side of the street, going back three blocks to cross, to eliminate the chance of anyone seeing them from Town Hall. Once they were directly across the street from us, Bob gave me a nod.
I turned, called my own group of people to order, and headed down the alley that I knew would take us to the edge of town, my mental clock already starting the countdown.
It was a quick, straight shot to where town ended and the clearing between the buildings and the trees began, and we came upon the open snow of the field behind the last buildings within three minutes. I moved to the back of the building next to me and waited for everyone to join me there, their backs against the wall, their eyes on me. And then I ran my eyes down the line. They weren’t the ideal soldiers, and they weren’t trained. They were people that I was far too emotionally attached to. People that I was terrified to lose.