“I was thinking about moving the Jeep up behind you since we have the dune buggy now,” Donovan said, leaning in the window of the truck. “It’s not all that great for protection at the back end of the convoy, but I feel our biggest threat is coming from in front of us. I’ll let--”
A yell from behind them cut Donovan off. “Someone’s coming.”
Everyone in the convoy looked down the long straightaway coming from the east. A dark SUV rode down the road toward the convoy. Following behind was one of the two ATVs the away team had taken on the mission. It was too far away to tell who the rider was, plus the SUV obscured the view of them. What was the showstopper and what caught most of the people’s attention was the big military troop transport coming in at the back of the little caravan headed their way. It lumbered toward them, looking ominous.
Jo looked over to Jones, but he didn’t say anything. Not with Donovan there.
“We’ve got to get our people in gear,” Donovan said. He started to rise, but Jo caught his arm.
“Hold up,” she said.
Murmurs circulated from the people behind them. Someone shouted to Donovan about whether they should be doing something, but he put a hand in the air that signaled they should wait.
Of course, Donovan paid particular attention to the troop truck. “What is that?” he asked.
“It looks like an SUV followed by an ATV and a military vehicle of some sort,” Jo said.
“I know that, dammit,” Donovan said. “What is that troop truck doing coming at us, and why are neither you nor Jones worried?”
“We should have told you,” Jo said, not meeting his eyes. “Clayton, Del, and Mason found the road bandits. They had a troop transport trapped on a side road. Our guys took out the bandits and…” She searched for the next words but found them difficult to get out there. She didn’t like hiding things from Donovan. “They are bringing the soldiers back here.”
“These are the same soldiers that attacked my compound and took my people hostage?” Donovan said, his face getting redder with each word.
“It was the only way to get the truck,” Jo said.
“Why didn’t you talk to me about this?” Donovan said as a vein pulsed on his forehead as he leaned on the driver’s door looking in at Jo and Jones.
Clara Benton spoke up from the back seat, “Mr. Donovan, these two made a tough call. I think--”
Donovan cut her off, measuring his words because he wanted show this woman the respect he felt she deserved. “Miss Benton, I would ask that you stay out of this. This is between me, Jo, and Sergeant Jones.”
“It was a tough call,” Clara said as she sat back in her seat behind Jo.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on and why you didn’t tell me anything about it?” Donovan said, barely under control.
“I’m not throwing Mason under the bus, but he said you would have pulled the team back if we had let you know,” Jo said, finally looking Donovan in the eyes. “Things were very fluid there and they...we decided the best course of action was to get the truck. It probably has enough room for our people and the troops to move forward. Getting rid of the tractor would really add to our speed.”
“Do you even think my people want to be around the same troops that attacked our compound, drove us out of it, and took people we love and care about hostage? Frankly, I have no idea how my people are going to react.” He put a hand on his forehead as if to check his temperature but dropped it a second later. “These are the same soldiers that left them in a pitch dark basement full of zombies.” All the fury was back in Donovan’s voice, and it was easy to tell it was taking everything he had to stay composed.
“I know you’re not going to want to hear it and may not even believe it, but not all those guys are bad guys,” Jones said.
“It’s not hard to see that you’d side with them,” Donovan said, looking straight at Jones.
“It wasn’t an easy one, but Mason made the call, too,” Jo said.
Donovan looked to the ground as if to divine some wisdom or self-control from it. When he looked up, he seemed a little calmer but said, “I should have been included in the decision. I’m responsible for the people in this caravan.”
“It’s made,” Jones said, his tone sounding a lot sharper than before. “They’re on their way.”
Donovan stood up next to the driver’s window and looked down the road and said, “We’ll see how this goes when they get here, Sergeant Jones.”
Jo didn’t like the sound of that. Neither did Jones. Right or wrong, he knew he had sided with the people of the Manor when things went south there, but it had cost him and his soldiers dearly. He had lost enough soldiers, some at his own hand. He would not lose any more if he had anything to do with it.
Chapter 34
When the Troops Arrive
Del was in the driver’s seat of the SUV that they had discovered on a dirt path that ran perpendicular to the road the soldier’s troop truck was on. It seemed that these road bandits knew their way around these backroads, using whatever road or path they could find to take down unsuspecting travelers. Too bad for them that, this time, they bit off more than they could handle.
It had taken some wrangling to get enough gas from the SUV and the ATV into the truck. As it turned out, the bandits had a full siphon kit in the back of their SUV, and that tank was more than half full. They must have been using it to scrounge gasoline wherever they could get it. It was a meager supply, little better than fumes, but they estimated it would be enough to get them back to the convoy. Still, it effectively killed the ATV, since it was out of gas, so it was left behind.
Once they got there, they’d figure how to get more fuel into the transport truck’s tank. It would lessen the supply in the convoy, but it would certainly be better than having Donovan’s people out in the open air of the trailer.
The big question was whether Donovan’s people would ride on the same truck with the soldiers. Or whether they would just shoot the soldiers.
The fact that Del and Mason had not told the soldiers that they were taking them back to the same people they had taken hostage by force was a telling one. Equally, Donovan’s people didn’t know who was on their way back to them.
Del looked to Mason, who was riding shotgun, and asked, “You think Donovan’s going to be pissed about bringing the soldier’s back?”
“I have little doubt that he’ll be furious, and so will the ones they took hostage,” Mason said. “This won’t be pretty. It would have been better to have left them back there. Maybe for them. I think Donovan will keep his emotions locked down, but I don’t know how the people who were locked in the basement will react. It might not be pretty.”
Del checked the side mirror and saw Clayton riding the ATV just behind him. He knew that Clayton had to be bracing for what the reaction would be when they arrived with the soldiers.
“If your people try to do anything to the soldiers, Clayton will not be down for that,” Del said.
Mason looked over to Del, and Del knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Don’t go there,” Del said. “Clayton is one of the good ones. He deserted as soon as things went to shit at the Manor.”
“Why didn’t he stand up to this Kilgore like Sergeant Jones did?”
That was a good question and not one Del could easily answer. “Some of the soldiers voted with their feet, I guess. Believe it or not, even though they didn’t stand up to the Colonel, when they left, they it made it a lot easier for us to rebel. I was in the Army. It’s hard to turn off that following orders mentality.”
“That fact does not warm my heart,” Mason replied looking ahead. “If you see something’s wrong, you stand up against it.”
Del let that hang in the air for a moment before he said, “But you’re the one that let the soldiers come with us.”
“I didn’t have a lot of choice,” Mason said. “Had it been totally up to me, the soldiers would be on foot right now.”
“Berry seems like a good one,” Del said, trying to change the subject.
“We’ll see what happens soon enough,” Mason said. They were closing on the convoy quickly. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Del pushed the accelerator down a little harder, getting separation from the ATV, which acted as a natural buffer for the truck because the ATV’s top safe speed was forty miles per hour. Sure, Clayton could have pushed it, but Del knew that Clayton was in no hurry to see what was going to happen. In fact, Del guessed that he welcomed Del and Mason arriving early, hopefully to run some interference.
A minute later, Del brought the SUV to a stop and jumped out along with Mason. Both men wanted to use the little time they had to set up the new arrangement. That is if an all-out shootout didn’t happen.
As Donovan moved with great purpose to intercept Del and Mason, Jo stepped out of the truck, and Jones eased out on his side, resting his weight on the door because of his bad leg. Del could see past the truck all the curious and anxious faces of Donovan’s people watching the approaching truck with the ATV leading it along. It felt like there was a corkscrew turning in his gut as he walked toward Donovan.
Donovan opened his mouth to speak, but Mason beat him to the punch. “I know you’re really pissed right now, but this was the best move.”
“You should have talked to me about this,” Donovan said, his voice rising to a near shout. He realized this and looked back to all the other people down the road watching the interaction. Any cues he put off could influence them, so he dialed it back. “This is a dangerous move, for us and for those soldiers.”
“I know that,” Mason said. “You weren’t there. There was no time for a blue ribbon fact finding committee. The situation moved faster than I would have liked, and it tied my hands, but I did what I thought was best.” He paused for a moment then said, “The soldiers had Gary with them.”
It was as if someone had lit a fuse inside Donovan as he took a step toward the approaching truck. Mason shot out a hand and grabbed his arm.
“Donovan, I have to tell you that it’s not what you’re thinking,” Mason said. “They picked him up off the road. He was in bad shape. He had tried to get back to find Emory.”
“Who’s Emory?” Del asked.
“That’s Gary’s brother,” Mason said. “He thought he had been taken in the attack on our compound, but I think he got lost in the chaos. No one knows where he is because he’s not in the group we got out of the basement, and he didn’t go east or he would have been with Gary.”
“Where is Gary now?” Donovan asked.
“In the back of the SUV,” Mason said. “He was dehydrated and exhausted. The soldiers picked him up and didn’t know what to do with him. What I do know is they didn’t mistreat him. They gave him some water and even an MRE.”
“Yeah, they are regular good Samaritans,” Donovan said.
Jo elbowed her way into the midst of the three men and said, “Whatever we say or do, we need to know that everyone behind us is watching us.”
Donovan shot her a flinty stare and said, “I know that.” He turned his attention back to Mason. “I haven’t said anything to anyone yet about what is about to happen. This could be a volatile situation.”
“You need to calm your people down, then,” Jo said.
“You think that’s going to be all that easy?” Donovan said, and it was evident that his blood was starting to heat up again. “The people back there were left to die by these same soldiers. That will not go over well with them.”
Sergeant Jones finally made his way to the small gathering, moving as fast as his crutches would allow. “I hear what you’re saying,” he said as soon as he arrived. “We need to get out in front of this and fast. Jo, can you work with Clayton to make sure the soldiers stay in the truck until we...well, until Donovan has a chance to break the news to his people?”
Donovan shot a steely glance Jones’ way and said, “Don’t try to manage this. You and Jo’s decision is what put us in this situation. To be honest, it makes me doubt both your judgment.”
“It was the only call,” Jones said, keeping his tone even and calm. “Just ask your man, Mason. He wouldn’t have done it had there been a better choice.”
Donovan locked eyes with Jones. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. My people are going to be very pissed off. I will do what I can, but you need to be prepared for your men to be left here with nothing.”
Jones leaned forward on his crutches and said, “That’s not going to happen. Not if I have anything to do about it.”
“You two need to lower the testosterone level,” Jo said as she stepped between Jones and Donovan. “Jones is right. Not all the soldiers are bad guys. Donovan is right. This is a shitty situation, but we have to make the best of it. That truck will give us a lot better ride than that damn trailer, and that’s that. There’s no more time for this pissing match. Donovan and Mason, you get to your people now and start calming them down. I’m going to the soldiers, and I’ll keep them in the truck.”
Both Donovan and Jones started to open their mouths, but Jo shot up a very rigid and harsh looking index finger into the air between them and said, “There’s no time for this shit. We have business to take care of.”
With that, she spun on her heels and headed for the truck and ATV, which had just eased to a stop about twenty feet away.
Del said as he put his hands on his hip, “Damn. Remind me not to piss off that woman.”
Clayton saw Jo steaming his way, and while he didn’t know her well, there was no denying from the set of her expression that she was coming to lay down the law. He looked back to the troop truck and saw that they had, indeed, followed his suggestion and stayed put.
Jo came to an abrupt stop right in front of Clayton and said, “We need to keep the soldiers inside for now. Donovan’s people don’t know who they are.”
“Already done,” Clayton said. “I anticipated that this would be a tense meet-up.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said as she blew a steam of air out of her mouth to push back a strand of her auburn hair that had landed on her forehead. She looked to the troop truck and said, “Do they know who’s up ahead?”
“They didn’t, but I would guess the guys in the cab know,” Clayton said. “They have eyes on Donovan’s people now.”
Jo scanned the men inside the cab of the truck and saw one of them was wide-eyed in surprise, and the other one was wearing a look of grave concern. “Who are the two in the cab?”
“That’s Berry and Zelanski,” Clayton said. “Berry’s the black guy behind the wheel, and he is pretty much the leader of this little group. Zelanski was a comm officer and isn’t one of our best soldiers.”
“What about the rest?” Jo asked.
“I told Del and Mason that this is pretty much a B-team.” He paused and reconsidered. “More like the Bad News Bears of soldiers. There’s a wild card in there. A guy named Stanz. He seems pretty high strung.”
“Where are the rest of the soldiers?” she asked. “They’ve got to be nervous about not knowing where these troops are.”
“These guys ran out of gas, and one of the numbnuts dropped and broke the radio, so they were up shit creek without a paddle.”
She locked on him and said, “You know these guys. I need you to take the lead and let them know what is up. They need to know what is about to go down. There’s no doubt that Donovan’s people will not be happy campers about this.”
“I saw that coming,” he said. “Berry knows but none of the guys. I’m not sure they would have come had they known. I mean, who wants to come to be shot?”
“It won’t come to that,” Jo said, but Clayton could tell there was a lot more hope in that statement than a real foundation.
Clayton knew that the soldiers outgunned Donovan’s men and hoped that didn’t go to their heads. But he also knew that Donovan’s group was a lot larger. In a scenario like this, he’d rather have more guns
, but he knew, if something went down, a lot of people were going to get hurt or killed.
At that very point, he put the chance of a blow-up at around fifty percent, but he kept that to himself. He just knew he’d be jumping back on the ATV and getting the hell out of Dodge if the bullets started flying.
“Let’s go,” Jo said.
Clayton wondered how he had gotten into this. Life at the farmhouse with the old sisters and Ryan had been so peaceful. He hunted deer and rabbits for dinner. They had a little vegetable patch out back with some tomatoes and green beans. Hell, they even had coffee.
Then the zombies showed up and totally fucked that scene up. Fucking zombies just ruined everything, he thought.
He sighed loudly and considered firing up the ATV and just heading as far as it would take him, but then he considered that it was about out of gas, and he knew there was no getting away from it. He was deep in it now, so he’d better do what he could to keep things copacetic.
That was one of the big words he had learned from Lieutenant Braden -- wherever the hell he was.
“Okay,” he said as he dismounted the ATV and turned toward the troop truck. A deep sense of weariness seeped into his body and bones as he trudged in that direction.
Chapter 35
Tense Negotiations
“What?!” Troy shouted, nearly throwing spittle into Donovan’s face. “What the hell?!”
Donovan knew it was a hard sell, but there was no other choice but to push forward with this plan. He didn’t like it any more than they did, and he hated it even more that it was forced on him with no prior warning.
The bottom line was that they needed the truck. Taking it by force would cost lives, so the only way to proceed was through negotiation.
“Those are the same people that locked us in a basement full of fucking zombies,” Troy said.
While Troy was usually the one to go over the top, it seemed that more than a few people were close to blowing their cool. Donovan felt like he had been tossed in a wood chipper.
The Deadland Chronicles (Book 2): The Undead Horde Page 20