“And Davis and Faraday will have done more,” Jane agreed. “Not bad, considering we ripped our carefully crafted plan to shreds and took a flamethrower to the—”
“Whoa whoa whoa!” Trev abruptly shouted, and they both stumbled to their feet in surprise. “Deb, put the gun down!”
Trev breathed an inward sigh of relief as he managed to get himself between the muzzle of Rick’s 1911 and Fred Vernon.
Of course, that meant he was staring up the iron sights into the eyes of an obviously unstable person.
For a moment Deb’s expression went slack, as if she hadn’t quite grasped what had just happened. Then her eyes grew even wilder. “You’re with him?” she demanded. “You, of all people?” Her arms holding the gun began shaking slightly, not a good sign.
“We’re all on the same side,” he answered, doing his best to keep his voice calm. He slowly raised his hand towards the pistol as he continued. “Whatever he did in the past, it’s the blockheads who’re our enemies. Put it down.”
Deb wavered, starting to look calmer. And Vernon chose that moment to open his mouth. “Trevor’s right, woman. I’m not your enemy, I just saved you.”
“Saved me?” Deb said, voice cracking. Her arms began shaking even more, and Trev saw her finger twitch on the trigger as she tried to sidestep around him. At this range he wasn’t sure how much his body armor would do to stop a .45 ACP round. “Because of you I was their prisoner in the first place! Because of you they starved me and beat me and worked me to the bone for over a month! Because of you they—” she cut off, shuddering.
Trev’s hand had frozen when she came close to pulling the trigger, but now he continued to lift it until just his index finger rested on the top and side of the barrel. “I don’t think you really want to kill him. Do you? And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to kill me.” He ever so carefully began lowering it to point towards the ground.
She was wavering, her eyes calming down. “You know what he did to us, Trev,” she whispered, voice pleading. “You know what he left us to. You could’ve been in the same situation. Your family.”
The gun was pointing at the ground now. Trev breathed another inward sigh of relief as he moved his hand up to the back of the barrel and put the safety on. “He stole from us,” he agreed. “He abandoned us. But there are people guilty of far worse. Let’s focus on justice for them.”
Deb’s shaking had grown so bad he was afraid she’d drop the 1911 on her own. Trev gently closed his hand over hers and started to take the gun from her. “I borrowed this from my friend,” he continued. “May I return it to him, please?”
After one final moment of tension Deb nodded and let go of the weapon. As Trev turned to hand it to Rick she dropped to the ground and began to sob. Alice came over and knelt to put her arms comfortingly around the older woman’s shoulders, and Deb leaned into her and sobbed even harder.
Trev turned to look at Vernon, noticing that many of the man’s fighters held their weapons ready. “You handled that well,” the former sheriff said grudgingly, “but I think I’m tempting fate staying here. Too many old grudges. We’ll go ahead and get going.”
“That’s not the worst idea.” Trev glanced at Rick, who hadn’t put away his pistol, before looking back at Vernon. “Thank you again.”
The former sheriff motioned, and his people fell in and started up the slope towards the path that led over the ridge to the main camp. But Vernon hesitated after only a few steps and looked back at Deb. “I am sorry, Ms. Rutledge. Whatever I did, I never meant for it to cause anyone this sort of pain.”
He continued on, and Trev finally let out his pent up sigh of relief. He turned back to where the medics were working, ready to get back to seeing what he could do to help.
When he saw Davis standing there with everyone else he jumped slightly in surprise. “How long have you been there?”
The sergeant snorted. “Long enough to see I didn’t need to step in. Nice save, Smith. I think this is your first run-in with Vernon’s people in a while that hasn’t ended with you punching someone.”
Trev found himself grinning instead of getting annoyed. He stepped forward to offer Davis his hand. “Nice save yourself. It was turning ugly with those trucks.” The sergeant returned his strong grip. “How did it go to the south?”
“It went. We got their trucks, at least, and one or two emplacements. The blockheads scattered like roaches at that point, and Sergeant Harmon and the others pursued them in a cautious but exuberant manner. In the meantime Abrams and I brought the remaining missiles and launchers, for which there was little use against the currently dispersed enemy targets, to haul your collective bacons off the fire. I figured I’d lost enough good people today.” Davis’s eyes tightened. “The dogs killed Peterson and Anders before running.”
They’d all known it was coming, but a heavy feeling still settled over Trev. “I’m sorry, Sarge.”
The Marine sighed, shoulders sagging. “I don’t know, maybe a quick death was a mercy.” Abruptly straightening, he turned and looked over the ragged prisoners gathered in an uncertain mob around the medics, just inside the treeline.
For once Davis tried to inject a bit of warmth into his voice. “You escaped,” he said loudly but with feeling. “And I’m glad for that. Now that you’re in the mountains you’ll have the protection of the United States Armed Forces, and as long as we can hold off the enemy no harm will come to you.”
There were a few grateful murmurs, but the majority of the newly freed men and women just listened silently. For his part Trev tensed slightly. Was this a recruitment speech? These poor people had already suffered so much.
He was half right. The sergeant continued. “As you might be aware, the people who rescued you tonight are volunteers. Civilians, like yourselves, who picked up a gun to fight the blockheads. While escaping tonight, many of you also picked up a gun and fought. If you want to continue to do so, to fight to make sure you’ll never suffer the Gold Bloc’s tender mercies again, you’re more than welcome. If not I’ll send a few people along with you to the nearest civilian camp, deeper in the mountains where you’ll be safe.”
Davis looked around, then clasped his hands behind his back. “It’s not a decision to make lightly. You’ve been through a lot and could use a good meal and a night’s sleep. Tomorrow morning I’ll arrange the trip to the civilian camp for those who want to go. You’ll have to walk, I’m afraid, and I can’t offer much in the way of supplies, although of course you’re entitled to everything you took from the enemy. If you set a good pace you can be there before nightfall.”
An uncertain silence settled as people processed that. In that silence the sergeant turned to look at everyone. “All right, people! The danger’s passed but we’re not quite home yet. Let’s get you all to our camp and get you dinner and a bed. Tomorrow we’ll observe a proper mourning period for all your fellow prisoners who didn’t make it, but for tonight we can be grateful for those who did.” He waved towards the Aspen Hill volunteers. “Smith, Halsson, our priority is the wounded first. Come on, move it!”
The Aspen Hill volunteers quickly got to work helping the medics finish stabilizing the most injured, then moving them onto the stretchers they’d brought. At that point they left most of the medics behind to tend the other wounded, while the last two medics helped them carry the stretchers along the most level, easy route Trev knew of.
Most of the freed prisoners were long gone by then, following Davis back to camp. But Deb had remained with Alice, and as Trev and Gutierrez worked together to carry a stretcher she came to walk beside him.