Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4)

by Nathan Jones

  Oregon, huh? Back when he'd met the Lincoln family neither side had offered information on where they were headed. But he supposed it was a moot point now with the state almost completely occupied. “Sorry to hear that,” he offered with genuine sympathy. “Did you have family there?”

  “No, it was just a place we'd heard might offer a new start for anyone willing to work hard. Things east of the Mississippi were too crowded for us, too many violent confrontations and close calls.” Trent turned to look northward with a gloomy expression. “Now my family's up in Erikson's civilian camp, which is growing by the day and already has tens of thousands of displaced refugees. They're doing their best to scrape together what they can to survive, but it's hard going. I should be with them, but with blockheads hitting the area from both sides I figured starvation was the less pressing threat.”

  “Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat.” Trev motioned towards Trent's table, which seemed to be a collection of strangers who happened to be sitting together rather than a group. “I've got to get my people fed, but you're welcome to join us if you want. We can catch up, swap stories.”

  The other man looked tempted, but shook his head. “Sorry. I've already been assigned to an irregular group stationed a bit farther north. I was supposed to leave with them this morning, but they let me eat with the promise I'd catch up afterwards. I don't want to make them wait too long, but I really did need a good meal.”

  Trev felt a sinking sensation in his gut. He only knew of one irregular group that had gone anywhere that morning. “Fred Vernon?”

  Trent brightened. “Yeah. Hey that's right, you must've gone through Newtown and met him too. His people had a really good reputation there, and they're getting a good reputation here in camp, too. Real professionals. I was lucky to get assigned to them.”

  For a moment Trev debated whether to warn the man about what he was getting into. Trent seemed like a good guy, and he'd definitely done a good job of protecting his family and catching Trev by surprise when they'd first met. He deserved better than to be lumped in with criminals who abandoned their own people at the earliest convenience.

  At the same time it probably wouldn't do any good to poison the well against Vernon with Trent, especially not when the man had been assigned to his group and would be fighting alongside them. That was the sort of thing Davis had basically ordered him not to do, and would probably royally piss him off if he heard about it.

  Besides, if they were all going to be working in the same area it would be nice to have at least one friendly face in Vernon's group. Trev offered his hand again. “Makes sense. If you catch a moment before you leave come say hello and I'll introduce you to my squad. But either way best of luck with your new assignment, and best wishes for your family.”

  “Thanks, same to you.” Trent shook his hand firmly, then made his way back over to his table and the plate he'd abandoned.

  * * * * *

  Considering they had a massive enemy army camped only a few miles away and every fighter counted, Matt figured there was no time like the present to get started testing the new volunteers. There was grumbling from some of them, as well as among his own squad, at the thought of a delayed breakfast, but it looked as if the mess tent was slammed and could use a bit of a break anyway.

  “Think of it as an incentive to get this done quickly so you can eat,” he called with a slight smile. “In the meantime it can't hurt to get used to going hungry, since we can't be sure what our supplies are going to look like day to day.”

  “We've already had plenty of practice going hungry,” one of the volunteers muttered, and by his gaunt features it seemed plain he had.

  Ah, right. So that hadn't been the most motivational thing to say. Good thing Vernon's truck had brought plenty of wheat with them to pad out the camp's stores. Wheat stolen from Trev's family, sure, but at least now it was being put to good use.

  As he gathered up everyone to lead farther up the canyon to the camp's impromptu shooting range, he pulled Pete aside and had him run to the mess tent to let them know that they had a bit more time to prepare food for his squad and the volunteers, but he'd like it ready when they got back.

  His friend seemed more eager than usual to run the errand, making Matt wonder if he was planning to sneak some food while he was there. Then he noticed the young man veering over towards where Alice waited in line out front with the others, and realized he'd used it as an excuse to visit with her some more.

  Matt glanced over at Rick, walking not far behind him, and saw that his friend was glaring that way. Okay, so he hadn't realized that that was going on between the three. He hoped it didn't become an issue.

  It turned out to be too much to hope for. After giving the speech about basic gun safety and starting off with a few basic but important pointers, Matt divided the volunteers among his squad mates and had them begin taking shots downrange with their M16s.

  Davis had enough extra rifles and ammo for those who'd shown up, barely, but if they got more recruits they were going to have to either set up an armory and begin issuing weapons to those on duty or scrounge around for more weapons. No wonder the sergeant had been so annoyed about the blockheads using the ceasefire as an opportunity to drag the dead with their equipment away yesterday.

  Pete had returned by that point, and he and Rick had their own line of volunteers to assess. But less than five minutes after they'd started Matt's attention was drawn from his own volunteer, an older man very slowly and deliberately focusing through the scope to make the most of each of his three shots, by the noise of shouting off to the side.

  He turned in time to see Pete punch Rick squarely in the face, sending the taller young man stumbling. Rick recovered fast and started forward, his own fists up and looking ticked off, but Pete didn't give him a chance and tackled him to the ground before he could land a punch.

  A few of the volunteers stepped forward hesitantly, unsure whether to step in, but Matt had already crossed the distance to his friends. He grabbed Pete by the shoulders and hauled him away, sending him staggering a few steps as he pushed him back.

  Pete immediately bounced back, half looking like he was going to punch Matt next before trying to slip around him to get back at Rick. For his part Rick was up again, blood streaming from his nose, and he took a step forward like he was perfectly happy to keep the fight going too.

  “Hey!” Matt snapped, stepping directly between the two. “Both of you stop, now!” For a long second he was afraid they'd ignore him, but then Rick stopped where he was and Pete reluctantly backed away. Matt looked between his two friends, aware of the crowd of onlookers. “What's going on?”

  Sullen, Pete pointedly ignored Rick and didn't answer, while Rick gave Matt a slightly embarrassed look. “Nothing.”

  “That didn't look like nothing,” Matt shot back.

  Pete glared at him in annoyance, like starting fights in the middle of training was none of his business. “Rick's right, it's nothing.”

  “Well we're going to have a talk about it once we're done here. Until then I don't want to see either of you doing “nothing” again.” Matt pointed. “Rick, take your volunteers over to the other side of the range.”

  “Why me? He's the one that-” his friend trailed off at Matt's glare, then nodded and got to work ushering his people away.

  Matt waited until Rick had relocated and got his people sorted out, then turned to face the crowd. “Let's continue.” He suited his words by returning to the older man, who was still patiently standing and holding the rifle in a carrying position.

  They took a break about midmorning, and Matt had Scott use that time to instruct the volunteers on field stripping the M16 and clearing misfires. While that was going on he planned to take his friends aside to talk to them, but before he could Rick sought him out and pulled him aside.

  “Hey Matt, we need to talk,” the younger man said, expression serious.

  That was for sure. “Okay. Talk to me.”

&nbs
p; His friend couldn't quite meet his eye. “I've decided I'm going to join Trev's squad.”

  Matt bit back a sigh. “If this is about your argument with Pete, there's other ways we can work this out.”

  Rick shuffled his feet. “No offense, but I'm not sure we can. Nothing against the guy, but he's obviously losing it.” His friend finally looked at him. “It's not really that, though. The argument just made my mind up about something I've been thinking about ever since we decided to volunteer. Gave me a good excuse to actually do it.”

  “You want to be with Alice?” Matt guessed.

  “Yeah.” Rick flushed slightly with embarrassment. “I don't know if you know this, but we had a pretty big argument after I heard she'd joined up. A lot of shouting, and she's been a bit frosty with me ever since. But I still care about her, and anyway I feel like I should be looking after her since my family took her in.”

  “Right. And your fight with Pete?”

  “Wasn't exactly about that,” Rick admitted. “But I guess you could say it kind of was.”

  Matt waited, but his friend didn't supply any further details. “Let me think about it.”

  Rick nodded, and they moved to rejoin the group. At which point it was Pete's turn to single him out, although he was a lot more blunt and didn't even bother pulling him aside. “I want to swap with someone in Trev's squad.”

  Matt bit back a groan, motioning for Rick to keep going. His friend was slow to comply, and he obviously had a problem with what Pete had just said. Once he was out of earshot Matt turned back to the young man. “Care to explain why?”

  Pete glared Rick's way. “Maybe I like the company better.”

  “Thanks, that's great to hear,” Matt said wryly.

  His friend gave a start and looked at him. “I don't mean you. Or anyone, really. I just think I could use a change of scenery.”

  Matt gave him a knowing look. “I know exactly why you want to transfer. No need to beat around the bush.”

  The young man flushed with embarrassment. “Right, I guess Rick told you all about our fight. It's not my fault he thinks he has a shot with her just because his family took her in, but he can't grow a pair and just tell her how he feels. Then he gets mad every time I spend time with her and tries to keep us apart.”

  Pete's flush started to look more angry than embarrassed. “It's actually really not cool. Alice has been one of my closest friends for years, and we even went on a date before the Gulf burned. He had that punch coming, and I'll hit him again if he keeps thinking he can decide who she gets to talk to.” He took a deep breath and met Matt's eye determinedly. “So can I join Trev's squad?”

  “Maybe. Go help any of the volunteers who're having trouble with Scott's lesson and I'll get back to you, okay?”

  Pete nodded and trotted off, and Matt rubbed between his eyes as he watched him go. What was he supposed to do now? His friends were putting him in the middle of their nonsense, but unfortunately at this point it threatened to affect the rest of the squad if he didn't do something about it.

  If he sent them both over to Trev they'd almost certainly keep fighting, and probably even worse with Alice around. If he kept them both in his squad they'd resent it and keep up the fighting there too. If he split them up then whoever he didn't send would resent him, and probably feel like he was acting matchmaker and playing favorites.

  He also had reservations about Pete and wanted to keep him close, especially after watching him lose it earlier. Rick he wanted to keep around for a different reason, since the younger man was one of his best people and he relied heavily on him.

  Gah, what a mess. As far as Matt was concerned none of them should be worrying about this when they had more important issues to deal with. He almost wished Trev hadn't convinced him to let Alice volunteer, although then that wouldn't have been fair to her. And speaking of fair to her, what if she had a problem with any of this and it was a further source of contention?

  Matt mulled it over during the rest of the break and as they finished testing the remaining volunteers. Ultimately he decided that only a dozen or so of the sixty men and women were ready to get tossed right into the fray, while the others either needed to join Trev's group or start an intermediate group that required a bit less training but still desperately needed some. For the moment it looked as if the Aspen Hill volunteers would have training duty, which was fine with him. He only hoped he could get these people in shape for what they were about to face.

  It was closer to lunch than breakfast by the time they headed back to camp, and Matt felt a bit bad about making everyone miss a meal. A lot of the new people looked like they'd already missed too many as it was. He gave Ben permission to get a bit of extra food, which they would give out during a break from training as a midafternoon snack between lunch and dinner.

  To his irritation he found Pete and Rick waiting for him after he'd lined everyone up at the mess tent. Judging by the tension in the air it was obvious they'd been arguing about each's decision to transfer. “Well?” Pete burst out as Matt led them aside.

  There were no good solutions here, but there was what Matt felt was the necessary one. Keeping the two together after this was just asking for trouble, and Pete was too hotheaded and could do with some watching. If nothing else he could trust Rick to keep his head on straight and not do anything irresponsible. “I've thought it through. Rick, you'll swap places with Ted Benson in Trev's squad.”

  Rick burst into a grin, while Pete's expression darkened. “What about me?” he demanded.

  Matt was tempted to give some excuse, like not destabilizing the squads too much, but his friend deserved better than that. “You're staying with me,” he said simply.

  The young man looked like he was going to explode, but somehow managed to contain it. “I should've realized you'd take his side,” he snapped, then turned to glare at Rick. “You're stupid if you think spending more time with her is going to improve your chances.” Without waiting for a response he stormed towards their camp.

  Fantastic. No matter what he'd decided there'd be trouble for at least one person, and most decisions would've caused trouble for the squads too. If he'd sent Pete instead he'd be dumping a potential problem on Trev's head, and he wasn't about to do that.

  Rick was shuffling uncomfortably. “I didn't mean for this to be an issue,” he apologized.

  “I don't want it to be, after this.” Matt offered his hand. “Good luck in Trev's squad. He could use another experienced person. You'll join him training the new guys after lunch.”

  “It's almost lunch now, I'll go find him.” Rick immediately broke away from the line and headed for where Trev had spent the morning running his volunteers through dry fire drills.

  Matt hesitated, looking longingly at the breakfast line, then moved to follow so he could give Trev a heads up about how he was upsetting his squad. He supposed it was almost lunch, so he might as well eat then.

  * * * * *

  Trev had to admit he would've planned things differently if he'd known he was going to be spending the day training people. He supposed that was one of the reasons soldiers took regular shifts, so they wouldn't push themselves too hard and be complete wrecks when they were really needed. It wouldn't have strained his squad mates too much more to take some of his shifts so he could sleep, and he would've been much better off for it.

  He needed to be smarter about things, or at this rate he was going to hit Lewis levels of sleep problems.

  It wasn't fair to let the people who depended on him suffer for his mistake, so Trev did his best to give it his all even though he was almost nauseous from exhaustion. But by midafternoon his vision was starting to swim in the bright sunlight and he had that lightheaded, sweaty feeling that came from insufficient sleep, and at that point willpower just wasn't enough.

  Thankfully Matt had given him Rick, although the details of exactly why were unclear. During lunch he'd heard a few of his squad mates talking about a fight that morning, but he'd been
too focused on staying awake to pay attention.

  Either way, he didn't feel too guilty about leaving the younger man to take over the training while he went and crashed. Hopefully if he got some good sleep today he'd be able to push through and get his sleeping schedule back in line by tomorrow.

  It was probably his current state that made him extremely annoyed when Davis saw him passing the command tent and called him inside. He did his best to fight that as he followed the sergeant in.

  “Looks like you jumped right in helping Larson train the new recruits,” Davis said, nodding his approval. “If you have no arguments I think we'll keep you doing that for the foreseeable future. In fact, once we put Larson's squad back in action you'll probably take over his training duties too.”

  Trev nodded. “I can handle that. Starting tomorrow, once I've had a chance to crash.”

  The sergeant gave him a closer look, frowning. “Yeah, do that. I shouldn't have to state the obvious, Smith, but sleep is a soldier's most important friend. You should be taking every opportunity to get as much as you need, so you're alert when you have to be awake in a crisis.”

  Yes, that was obvious. Unfortunately sometimes obvious things were the easiest to miss. “Speaking of crises, is there any news?”

  Davis sighed and moved around behind his table, leaning on it to stare down at his cobbled together map. “Nothing but news,” he said. “Lassiter and Erikson have been fighting nonstop since the blockheads arrived yesterday. The death toll is already in the thousands. We're punishing them hard for their aggression, but they've got enough bodies to throw at us that they can keep this up indefinitely until they wear us down and stomp right over us.”

  His expression sharpened. “Which gets us back to getting sleep whenever possible. More blockheads are arriving in the valley by the hour, and at this rate we're going to have our own little Thermopylae in every canyon from I-70 to I-80. You need to teach our new irregulars which end of a gun to point at the enemy as quickly as possible.”