She kept her gun up, though. She didn’t immediately recognize the others. For all she knew, James was still in trouble. Just because he was back at camp didn’t mean he was safe.
She pointed her rifle at them until she realized they were just John and Cynthia.
“Are you OK? What happened?”
Neither of the three of them looked injured, but it was hard to tell.
“They’re following us,” said James, completely out of breath, struggling to get the words out.
There wasn’t any time to ask “who?”
“How many?” said Georgia, instinctively gripping her rifle tighter.
“We don’t know,” said John.
“Could be a lot,” said James. “I shot two of them, I think. Can’t remember. It happened so fast. And John. He got one.”
“What were they armed with?”
“Semi-automatics.”
“Do you think they can follow you back here?” said Georgia.
“Definitely,” said Cynthia.
James and John nodded their agreement.
“Someone had the brilliant idea of making marks in the trees,” said Cynthia. “Creating a trail that leads right back to our camp.”
Georgia shot a glance at Cynthia. It seemed there was no end to her sarcastic witticisms, no matter how serious the situation.
At that moment, Sadie appeared through the snow, trailed by Jake and Rose.
“Oh no, are you all OK?” said Rose, shivering in the cold.
The wind was battering them all. They stood in at least a foot of snow. They couldn’t even see the van or the tent. The camp was completely invisible to them, even though they were standing in the middle of it.
Jake and Rose weren’t even carrying guns, even though there were plenty available for everyone now. The pot farmers had had plenty of guns. And there were enough bullets too. For the moment. They’d have to worry about their ammunition in the future. For now, it was survival. Immediate survival.
Max still wasn’t back. Neither was Mandy. But she couldn’t worry about them right now. They were on their own. There was nothing Georgia could do for them, or anything they could do for her. And no way to communicate.
Too bad those radios weren’t really portable. It would have been invaluable to have an easily portable means of communication.
Georgia’s mind was racing a mile a minute.
But this wasn’t the time for musings.
Quick decisions needed to be made. Life or death decisions.
For all she knew, a horde of heavily armed men were about to burst into the camp.
“We need to get out of here,” said James. “They’re going to follow us right back here.”
“But Max and Mandy won’t know where we went,” objected John.
“We can’t worry about Max and Mandy right now,” said Georgia. “But this is a good spot to defend from. There are trees all around us. We’ve got advantages if we stay here.”
In the back of her mind, though, Georgia knew that the real reason she wanted to stay was so that Max and Mandy could find them again. After all they’d been through together, Georgia couldn’t abandon them. Not like this.
Georgia’s back was killing her, and she felt physically weak. She’d need to take that into account. She wasn’t going to be able to rely on herself to step in when things got ugly. She’d have to count on herself possibility failing. If she didn’t do that, everyone might die. Her kids might die.
“OK,” said Georgia. “Jake and Rose, get a handgun each.”
“But I don’t even know how…”
“Get them!”
“We don’t even know the first thing about…”
“Find the safety, switch it off. Point the gun, and pull the trigger.” She spoke in a commanding way, daring them to challenge her. “Go!”
They rushed off into the snow, towards the van where the extra rifles were. There wasn’t even time to be frustrated or furious with them.
“The rifles won’t be of much use now,” said Georgia. “since we can’t see very far.”
John, Cynthia, and James were still staring off into the direction they’d come from. But there was nothing. Nothing coming.
For now.
“We’ll use the van,” said Georgia. “We’ll use it as a shield if we have too. Come on.”
Georgia couldn’t move that quickly through the snow with her injury. James held out his arm so she could use it as support, but she shook her head. “Keep your eyes peeled,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”
Georgia was wracking her brain for what kind of defense they could set up. Most of the ideas, though, would take a long time to set up. And the others, well, they weren’t applicable in such heavy snow.
In the past, Georgia had relied on her rifles. She was a good shot at a distance. But that didn’t matter now.
This was going to be close range fighting because of the visibility. But it was also out in the open. Completely different than an urban environment.
The trick, thought Georgia, was going to be create the kind of environment that they needed, the kind of environment in which they would have the advantage.
Georgia still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
11
“They killed three of your men,” said Marshal.
They were standing apart from the remaining men in a snowdrift, the snow practically up to their knees.
Anton was determined not to show weakness in front of Marshal or his men. He was determined to show nothing but victory. He was going to plow on ahead no matter what.
He’d destroy Max and the rest of them.
The idea of capturing the radios had become completely secondary to him.
“They didn’t fight well,” said Anton. “If they’d been better, they wouldn’t have died.”
“I don’t know, man,” said Marshal. “They did what they could.”
“I thought you were tougher,” said Anton.
“There’s more to being tough than big words and a tough-guy attitude,” said Marshal.
“What are you getting at?”
“I think this mission is a complete failure. We need to turn around. Unless you want to lose the rest of your men.”
“You’re just worried about your own skin. You don’t want to die out here in the snow.”
“Look, man, I’ve been through worse. Much worse. I’m like a cockroach. Nothing can kill me.”
Marshal’s eyes stared right into Anton’s. They seemed to penetrate him. They were dark and moody, intense and also horrible. Marshal saw something there that he hadn’t seen before. After all, he wasn’t in the habit of studying men’s eyes. Or what they contained.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Anton. “You’re just scared.”
“You can’t trick me,” said Marshal. “I’m not someone you can use petty little psychological tricks on to get what you want. I’ve been through the Army. Before prison. You didn’t know that, did you? I’ve seen more combat than you’ll ever see. I know how to survive, trust me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“You don’t know shit,” said Anton. “Anyone can say anything. There’s no way to confirm that.”
“Nope,” said Marshal. “The EMP changed everything. We’re just who we are now. No records. No nothing. You can think whatever you want of me. I don’t give a shit. What I’m telling you is that if you continue, you’re going to lose all your men, and probably your own life.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” But the more Anton protested, the more he really did think that Marshal knew what he was talking about.
“It’s your call, Anton,” said Marshal. “It’s your decision. If you want to attack, I’ll be right there with you.”
“But you’ll ditch us at the last moment to save your own skin, right? Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me?”