Which turned out to be not many blockheads. The spreading landslide rolled over hundreds of enemy soldiers, breaking and tossing them down the slope along with the rocks, dirt, ash, and uprooted blackened stumps as it also snuffed out the remaining fires. Not even the blockheads nearest the bottom of the slope had time to outrun the landslide, and as it churned its way down around the hills to the level ground below it even caught some enemies there. Including a few trucks whose drivers were too slow to drive to safety.
It was a horrible sight, but even so Lewis couldn’t help but feel a surge of satisfaction as he watched the catastrophe unfold for the enemy. That was a lot of blockheads who wouldn’t be shooting at his friends. Who wouldn’t be capturing any more civilians and doing horrible things to them.
And he doubted even the most insane commander would order troops back up that slope. Not after what had just happened.
When Lewis had learned about the town’s new backhoe loader, he’d immediately begun making plans. First off he’d searched the top of the ridge and selected the best spot to start a landslide from, where the slope was steepest and already rocky and treacherous. Then he’d contacted Chauncey, who’d agreed that the town had gotten enough use out of the tractor for now and could spare it. Anything to give the volunteers a better chance to survive and come home to their loved ones.
The retired teacher had driven the thing all the way down from the valley refuge, then spent the last several days putting his newfound skills to use. Showing great care and precision, he’d managed to pile up rocks in preparation for a controlled slide, in such a way that they’d stay right where they were until he was good and ready for them to come down. Just as tricky was finding a way to bring the whole mountainside down in a relatively short period of time, across a stretch of half a mile with a tractor that couldn’t move all that quickly. Luckily Chauncey had set things up so when he began it would start a chain reaction, which would only grow as he pushed more and more of the line of piled rocks over the edge.
After that the older man had enjoyed a nice reunion with the volunteers, especially his son. Rick had been spending a lot of time helping his dad prepare the rock piles when he was off duty, and he’d confessed that after seeing his dad in a slump for so long after losing his leg, he was happy to see him in good spirits and filled with purpose.
And Chauncey had every right to be proud. The volunteers could never have spared the manpower to set up something like this, and with his tractor the retired teacher had single-handedly won the biggest victory the town had ever achieved. And probably kept Lewis and all his volunteers from dying in some last stand on this ridge.
His radio popped. “I take it that ringing in my ears means your landslide idea worked?” Davis asked.
Lewis thumbed his mic. “Better than I could’ve hoped. We wiped out the entire attacking force.”
On the north and south ends of the ridge his friends had broken into cheers, hugging each other and raising their weapons in victory, or dropping to their knees in relief and thanks. There were a few cheers from over the radio as well, at least until Davis cut in.
“Well done. But in case I have to remind you, the battle’s not over yet. If you’re done on the southern slope there’s plenty of need for you in other places. Leave as many people as you think are needed to hold the slope, and send everyone else my way.”
Lewis shrugged out a crick in his shoulders, then dropped off the outcropping and started for his squad. “I hear you. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to do something first.”
“You would, would you?”
“Yeah.” He walked over to the edge of the ridge, moving cautiously on ground that might not be stable, and looked down the devastated mountainside. First fire, then landslide; it could be a while before anything besides thistle and stinging nettle grew here again. “We’re running low on bullets and there’s a lot of weapons and ammo down there. I’d like to risk going after whatever we can get.”
Chapter Eighteen
Retreat
For Matt waiting through the fighting was its own kind of awful.
He itched to go join his friends along 31, although he knew that he’d spend most of the day hiking down there, and during that time anything could happen. The fighting could very likely end, either in victory in defeat. The former meaning he’d wasted his time, the latter meaning he wasn’t with his family and town helping them when they needed him most.
He even considered gathering up the remaining defenders and leading them to join Faraday. But when he managed to get in touch with the lieutenant to broach the offer the man told him, in no uncertain terms, that Aspen Hill’s defenders could do more good where they were in the valley refuge. Keeping the peace, reassuring frightened townspeople, and if necessary preparing for the worst.
So all through the day he waited by the radio, with Sam at his side and the rest of his family around him. They were joined by close to half the town, hundreds of people sitting in tense silence listening to reports as they came in. With Chauncey down with the volunteers Scott had taken over manning the shortwave, sending requests for more information and changing frequencies when needed.
The Mayor was rarely there with her husband, though. Catherine seemed determined to keep everyone working to distract them from their fears, but her efforts weren’t very effective. Not many people were willing to keep on toiling, just to improve a place they might have to abandon within the hour.
Matt wanted to help her, but in spite of his efforts to be hopeful he fell into that camp as well. Instead he spent any time away from the radio planning for yet another evacuation, deciding where they would go and what they would do if the blockheads broke through Faraday’s line.
It didn’t help that as the hours passed a few trucks roared by on the canyon road hundreds of yards away, carrying troops away from Faraday’s camp. Matt tried to reassure the worried townspeople that it probably meant the lieutenant was doing just fine, and had people to spare for places that weren’t doing so great.
But however you looked at it, it meant less soldiers between the valley refuge and the enemy that wanted to take them out.
At least it was a relief to get some good news from his friends to the south. Apparently they’d won a huge victory in the early afternoon, wiping out over a thousand blockheads just in the highway canyon and along the southern slope, all within the space of a few hours and with comparatively few losses of their own. They’d completely broken the enemy advance down there, driving the blockheads back and winning themselves a reprieve.
Matt wasn’t sure how long that reprieve would last, not with fighting happening everywhere and enemies breaking through from all directions. But it was good to hear it wasn’t all bad news out there, especially where it mattered most for him and his friends.
According to General Erikson’s number crunchers, passed on over the radio to anyone listening, the blockheads had lost over fifty thousand men by late afternoon, while on their side they’d lost barely a tenth that. But the fighting was starting to swing in the enemy’s favor as their sheer numbers overwhelmed one defensive position after another.