Lewis watched as another dozen trucks left Huntington, headed north. The rest of the convoy was nearly ready to go, and the soldiers manning the fortifications had begun a swift but orderly retreat to meet up with the vehicles. Behind them houses began to burn, first a few dozen and then more and more, until nearly the entire town was ablaze.
A parting gift from the blockheads, and a clear signal they had no intention of returning. With a surge of anger he wondered if the enemy was doing the same up in Aspen Hill.
As the tense minutes passed while they waited for news, the sentries abandoned their posts and began waking up everyone in camp, inviting them to watch the blockheads leave and Huntington burn. Lewis hadn’t ordered it, but he didn’t stop them either. He was feeling more and more confident that this wasn’t the enemy repositioning. Something about how they left, the burning town being an obvious clue, just had an air of finality.
Finally Davis spoke up over the radio. “All right, people, it’s confirmed. The blockheads are withdrawing along every front they still hold. They’re packing up and heading north, for now, with fully half their army on foot.”
The sergeant paused, his tone becoming less professional and more solemn. “For those of you who live in the area, I regret to inform you that they’re setting fire to every town and city they occupied. I’m sorry. But take that bad news with the much better news that they’re finally leaving. We fought them back.”
Lewis felt a pang at hearing his fears confirmed about the fate of Aspen Hill. But even that couldn’t stop the swell of elation at the news, and he threw back his head and whooped in victory.
Around him friends and family also raised their voices in deafening cheers, slapping backs and hugging each other. Lewis thought he spied Alice and Rick sharing a kiss, right before Jane pulled him into a kiss of their own.
He got to enjoy it for only a few seconds before Trev nearly tackled him to the ground, hooking an arm around his neck and shouting gleefully in his ear. Lewis freed himself with some effort, turning towards the camp they’d hastily set up along the ridge. In the distance he could hear shouts from the north and south as well, people in the main camp and from the squads south of them joining the celebration.
“Hey!” he shouted. “If anyone’s still sleeping over there, you just missed the end of the war! We won!”
He threw his arms around Trev’s and Jane’s shoulders, then leaned in to kiss his wife again before repeating himself. “We won!”
“The war’s not over by a long shot,” Davis said grimly. “This may be a victory but it’s not the victory. We bled the blockheads heavily here, more than I ever expected they’d put up with without giving up and walking away, but they’ve still got the numbers to cause us problems. We have to take advantage of this victory and push them every step of their retreat, keep them on the back foot and make sure they never get any ideas about sticking around or giving this war another try.”
Lewis nodded. The sergeant had called all the volunteer leaders in for a briefing after delivering the good news. And since the Aspen Hill volunteers were some of the closest Lewis was one of the first to be invited into the command tent. “Until they go back to Canada, right?” he verified.
Davis sighed. “If we can manage that. Although the Canadians helped us win this war with their revolution, and it might not be the worst idea to help them win theirs. It would keep the blockheads from creating a country to the north, which would almost definitely cause us problems in the future. But yes, for the moment we’re just trying to retake our country and defend it. If they want to fight us on our turf that’s on their heads, but we’re not in any position to go looking for a fight. Even if we might want to.”
An uncomfortable silence settled as the Marine fell into grim thoughts. “So the military will be going after them immediately?” Lewis asked.
The sergeant snorted. “It’s what we planned from the start if we were able to drive the enemy back. We won’t just chase them, though; as important as that is, we also need to go liberate our occupied territories. That’ll require collaborating with any remaining groups of Americans left out there, hitting the blockheads that try to dig in instead of running like we want. We need to keep up the momentum until they skitter over our borders with their tails between their legs.”
That sounded nice, but Lewis could see an obvious problem. “Will you be able to do all that before nuclear winter hits?”
“Doubt it,” Davis said with a grimace. “We’ll just have to hope we fight better in the cold than they do. With how big their army is supplies are definitely going to be a bigger issue for them, especially once we can start hitting at their supply lines.”
Lewis took a deep breath. Now for the million dollar question. “And what about us?”
The sergeant’s frowned deepened. “Are you saying you want to bail?”
“Not exactly. We volunteered and made a commitment to fight, and I don’t want to go back on that.” After a brief hesitation Lewis continued. “At the same time we have no idea how long this nuclear winter is going to last, and what it’s going to do to the world. The people of Aspen Hill are going to need our help to survive. I’ve got to think of my family, my wife and parents and siblings and everyone else I have responsibility for.”
“I get it,” Davis said in a slightly milder tone. “I’ll be honest, we can use you. But at the same time we’re going to be relying on guerrilla warfare to keep up the fight. Disrupting supply, ambushes, attacking camps in the night, stealing whatever we can from our enemies to use against them, things like that. Numbers will help there, too, but not as much as training and commitment.”
Lewis waited, feeling equal parts guilty and hopeful, until Davis swore. “Yeah, I’ll cut your guys loose, Halsson. If nothing else it’ll be nice to know we have people holding these mountains in case the blockheads are interested in making another try. And anyway we’ll be leaving plenty of troops behind to look over the civilians we’ve gathered.”
The sergeant offered his hand, and Lewis returned his crushing grip. Then Davis led the way outside, looking around to see if any more leaders had shown up. “I’ve got to say,” he began, looking around the canyon, “I’m actually going to miss this place. Fire damage and all those trees dead from beetles aside, you’ve got some amazing views around here. I actually wouldn’t mind coming back and just—”
He abruptly cut off as a thumping noise reached their ears, at the same time as Lewis’s headset crackled with a panicked voice. “Helicopter coming in from the south!”
Davis cursed and looked around. “One last word from our enemies? I can’t believe Command never sent us those anti-air missiles like I requested!” He swore again. “I guess we’ll just have to bring it down with small arms fire or die trying.”
“Hold on.” Lewis grabbed the man’s shoulder, pointing. The helicopter had just come into view from the south, moving fast towards the northeast. It was far out of range and getting farther by the second. “Looks like it’s leaving like the rest of the blockheads.”
He felt the sergeant relax. “Looks like it.” Davis shook his hand off and sighed. “Too bad, in a way. I wouldn’t have minded being the one to bring that sucker down.”
Together they watched the chopper shrink to a black speck and disappear. Then Davis turned to him and offered his hand. “Well, I imagine your people want to celebrate. Or maybe just immediately pack up to head home, like we’ll be packing up to go after the enemy. Either way it’s been a pleasure, Halsson.”