“Squad leaders! Front and center,” Mark called. They looked at their disassembled weapons. The challenge. Do they leave their weapons behind or finish and then report?
Jim picked his rifle up, slung it and marched smartly to where Mark was waiting. The other two put their weapons together, cycled the bolts, and then joined Mark.
Never go anywhere without your weapon.
“I need you to take your squads to the greenhouses. See what help they need to prepare to move and make it happen. Others won’t be as hard. It’s not like we’re going to dismantle the power plant and take it with us, although they may want to take some tools and such. I’ll see them after I talk with the mayor. Form them up and run them. We have to be faster and in better shape than anyone else. Make it so,” he ordered. They saluted.
They were used to saluting the colonel and the major, so they started doing it among themselves. Mark liked it, but it wasn’t a power trip. It was good order and discipline. It showed respect for the position.
Mark couldn’t let his people down, because the Force couldn’t let the civilians down. That meant he needed to be harder on them now, so they wouldn’t break later.
“What are you waiting for? Get your people and go!” he screamed. There was much scrambling as the slowest finished putting their rifles back together. The squad leaders conducted a quick inspection to make sure the rifles functioned and then marched them away, double-timing once they had space.
Mark watched them go. The bear cub yowled from the enclosure. He knew that the beast had been fed. Maybe it was time to take the situation into his own hands.
He walked to the enclosure and opened the gate. Mark backed away until he was around the corner of the house, then he ran, hoping that when they returned, the grizzly would be long gone.
***
The horses hung their heads. They’d been going all night and were exhausted. The mountains that they saw at dusk seemed close, but distances in the west were distorted and the going was slow. It was like walking in soft sand. They still hadn’t caught up to the wolf pack, but Char assured Terry that the wolves were still running.
“Dismount!” Terry ordered, climbing down first, stepping ankle deep into the dust. “Single file, behind me.”
He walked ahead, following the track left by the wolf pack. They’d run single file too, and Terry suspected that Ted was the one breaking the trail. They fell in line behind Terry Henry to continue plodding forward. They would all share the burden.
“Not too far now,” Char called out. “The pack has stopped.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” Terry said into the heat of the night air.
Terry walked more quickly as the rise before him came into sharper focus. A hill, a different color than the rest of the land. Ankle deep dust, then half that, then just a sprinkling on the ground. He climbed and the air changed appreciably. It tasted clean.
“Up here,” a tired voice called out. Ted was lying on the ground, panting, but there was a small pool, fed by an unseen spring. The water was muddy from the wolves getting into it.
“Come on, you pack of ass-dirty hairballs. Get out of the water!” Terry called out. Ted said something and the wolves retreated. Terry used his hands to scoop the dirty water toward the trickle of a stream that cascaded away. He cupped his hands and took a drink. It tasted like mud.
“Give it a few minutes,” he told Char as they stopped, but the horses weren’t going to wait. They waded in and one by one, drank greedily. The last in line tried to push their way to the front. Gerry intervened, moving the horses around so they could all drink.
“Drink from your flasks. We’ll be able to refill them here in a little while,” Terry told them. James, Lacy, and Gerry drank heartily. Terry, Char, and Timmons waited. They could go without for a while longer, just in case Terry was wrong about the spring refilling with clean water.
“How’s the pack?” Terry asked Ted, handing the man his clothes.
“They’ve been better, but we didn’t lose anyone. We’ll need to rest, maybe a full day, and they’ll need food, too.” Ted looked lovingly at the wolves, sprawled here and there, eyelids heavy as they watched the horses to make sure they didn’t get stepped on.
“I hope the dawn sheds a little light on our situation,” Char said, looking east. Terry wrapped an arm around her waist and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“Me, too.” He kissed her head. “I love you, Char.”
“Me, too,” she replied, mimicking his usual reply. “This is a real pile of shit right here.”
“A veritable shit storm,” Terry added. “And the shit was flying! It was a shitfest.”
“It’s not just any shithole, it’s our shithole,” Lacy called from the darkness.
Ted chuckled. “We’re in the shit, alright.”
“Don’t bring that weak shit in here, meat!” Terry called.
“Suck shit through a straw,” Timmons, sitting on a rock nearby, said in a low voice.
“Eat a bag of dicks,” Ted said.
“Hey,” Terry cried out. “There are women present, so watch your fucking mouth.”
More chuckling from the darkness.
“Are we safe to sleep?” he asked Char.
“Yes, we will be alert enough. Keep your weapons close, just in case,” Ted replied.
“What he said,” Char answered. The horses were huddled together, already sound asleep. They stood too close to the pool for Terry’s comfort, but they’d move them when it was light enough. Until then, sleep called. Terry and Char curled up together, as did James and Lacy. Ted sprawled among the wolves while Gerry leaned against one of the horses that had laid down. Timmons sought the edge of the wolf pack and settled into the thick gray fur.
***
Terry was first to wake up. His first thought when he saw dark clouds overhead was that another dust storm was coming.
The first raindrops hit moments later. “Rain,” he said as he examined the terrain for the first time in what daylight fought its way through the mass above.
A hill that continued to almost become a mountain loomed. They were at the beginning of the first foothill. Higher elevation saw a forest and even a cliff. Maybe there was a cave, but it wouldn’t be big enough for all of them. The wolves woke up, shook wet dirt and mud everywhere, then slowly and quietly disappeared into the trees up the hill.
Ted stretched, while Timmons rolled over, huddling more tightly with himself. Then the real rain started. It turned into a near white-out. Wet wolves, wet horses, and wet humans. Everything they owned was getting wet.
“Rifles inverted people, barrels down,” Terry ordered James, Lacy, and Gerry. They spun their rifles around. They knew what to do, but had just woken up. Still, taking care of the rifle was their first order of business.
Always.
“The rain’s warm. I suggest everyone find a place where you can wash yourself and your clothes. Keep your dignity, people.” Terry and Char headed to the side. James and Lacy went the other way. Ted, Timmons, and Gerry remained with the horses.
Soon, everyone was naked and scrubbing the road filth from their bodies. Terry started taking liberties but Char shooed him away. Their clothes were the hardest to get clean, scrub, rinse, scrub some more. They needed a rock to beat them on and there weren’t any where they had gone. Terry took his and Char’s clothes back to the spring, where he found the other men doing exactly the same thing.
The five of them jaw-jacked while they were there, doing what needed to be done.
Lacy’s scream pierced the air and the men froze. Terry threw the clothes down and ran toward her cry. The others followed.
Slipping in the mud, Terry cursed his slow recovery. Lacy screamed again and he tried to run faster, only slipping and falling into a pile of rocks. Ted jogged past, followed by the other three. Terry worked his way out of the rocks, noting the rain washing blood away from an ugly gash in his thigh. He ignored it and ran.
A wolf snarled nea
rby. Terry tried to reach out with his senses as the Werewolves could do, but he couldn’t feel anything.
More snarls, growls, and a fight!
When Terry reached the trees, he found a black bear backed against a tree. Lacy hung from a branch above the creature’s head. A claw mark trailed across her naked back. It wasn’t deep, but it dripped blood. Hanging upside down wouldn’t help it heal, either.
The wolf pack had arrived and were circling. Ted and Timmons changed into Werewolves before his eyes. Timmons limped on his three legs. His front left paw was gone, the leg ending in a stump that looked exactly like his human stump.
The bear’s eyes were wide and it searched for an escape.
There would be none. In this world, right then and there, there existed only predators and prey.
A shot rang out, the bullet whizzing uncomfortably close to Terry’s head. It took the bear in the eye. It stood and bellowed. The wolves attacked, dragging it down, where they were on it. Ted and Timmons changed back into human form.
Soon the bear ceased to move, and Ted called off the wolves. Char stood at Terry’s side, her 9mm pistol in one hand. James helped Lacy from the tree. The wolves whined as they wanted to feast.
“You’ll wait, just like the rest of us,” Ted informed them.
Everyone stood there, naked and studiously avoiding looking at each other.
“All righty then. Ted, are you good with taking charge of cleaning the bear?” Terry asked. Ted nodded.
Terry Henry took Char’s hand and they walked back toward their camp.
“Keep your dignity, isn’t that what you said? Is this what you had in mind?” Char prodded. Terry looked back. Naked people were everywhere going about their business.
Terry didn’t try to answer. The rain had lightened up, but it was still a downpour.
Char was staring at his leg. “What’d you do?”
“Fall down, go boom,” he answered. The wound was sewing itself together as they watched. In a few more minutes, no one would know that he’d ever been injured.
“Corporal James! Make sure you clean Lacy’s wound,” Terry yelled over his shoulder. It wouldn’t do at all for one of his people to get an infected wound.
“To the laundry, bitch!” Char told him. “I want my clothes cleaned, dried, and properly pressed.”
He looked at her and then to the spring. When he had thrown the clothes down, he missed the rock. They were in the mud, half-buried.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Engineer, we can’t take all of that,” Mark said, looking at the mountain of tools and equipment the engineer had set aside.
“But Billy said I could take what I needed, and this is it!” the engineer countered.
“I’m not carrying it. Food takes priority, you should know that. We only have five carts and three hundred and fifty people. This stuff would take up three of the carts and strain the horses pulling them. I’d love to tell you yes, but don’t see how it is physically possible. If you had only one backpack, what would you take?” Mark asked, using a minimalist visioning technique that Terry often demonstrated.
For the Force, they always had a knife. Every single one of them carried a knife. With that, they could get food, skin animals, make clothing, and cut branches to make a shelter. If you could carry one more thing, what would it be? A water flask, to increase mobility and improve chances of survival. And so on.
The engineer wasn’t in the FDG and wasn’t at all receptive to the exercise. “You’re limiting me to one backpack? Bullshit. I’m going to talk with Billy, right now!” The engineer stormed off.
Mark wasn’t going to waste any time explaining. Shonna stood nearby and gave him the thumbs up. Merrit was somewhere deeper inside the plant, responding to the most recent life or death crisis.
The engineer was upset because his plant was dying. Everything they’d done to service it was all for naught. He was angry and nothing was going to change that.
Mark approached Shonna. “We can’t take all that,” he pressed, hoping to find someone who would agree with him.
“I see taking a variety of crescent wrenches and a pry bar. I sure as hell am not going to carry that heavy crap.” She laughed and returned to what she was working on, some leaking valve. She was tightening a homemade patch around it.
“We’ll see what Billy agrees to. I hope he doesn’t fold. That stuff would drag us down. Maybe the colonel will return with word that there’s an identical power plant, but it’s missing that one valve. Without that? I’m not packing any of that crap!” Mark wasn’t happy. If anyone could make trouble with the mayor it was the engineer.
But the colonel would screw himself into the ceiling if Mark hadn’t tried to put his foot down.
“Should I wait?” Mark asked Shonna, who had returned to what she was doing.
“Why?” she answered his question with a question. “Do we need to pack and leave today? No? Then go on your merry way. It’ll all get sorted out. Don’t worry.”
She was completely unconcerned and couldn’t wait for the day when she wasn’t elbow deep in steam, rust, and grease.
The worst part was the grease was mostly animal fat and it stunk to high heaven.
Mark was fine with leaving. As he passed the massive pile of metal in the middle of the main floor, he kicked one of the valves. Not his smartest move since it didn’t budge. The only give was in his toes…
***
The group stood around in their wet clothes. No one wanted to sit because they were already uncomfortable enough. Ted had enlisted James’s and Lacy’s aid in cleaning the small bear. Lacy moved stiffly, but James was confident he’d cleaned her wound out well.
They worked without complaint, saving the bear skin to use as needed later, even if only to soften the seat of a saddle. They delivered the guts, the limbs, and the head to the wolf pack. They gnawed, snapped bones, and made short work of their lunch. They stayed close where they could pile up beneath a tree to get some relief from the rain. Terry looked at the ground. He wanted to cook the bear but there wasn’t a dry limb anywhere.
“A quandary, to say the least,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear. “How do we cook a bear when we have no kindling?”
“Me, me, I know!” Char called thrusting her arm in the air. People would have found that funny if they weren’t wet and miserable. “Lava!”
“And we don’t have any lava at present. Any other ideas?” Terry probed, making a face at Char. She rolled her eyes.
“We need fire, which means we need a dry spot,” James said.
“Exactly.” Terry pointed up the hill, where a cliff face rose out of the forest.
“You want us to haul the bear up there?” James asked, but not belligerently. If he was ordered to carry it up there by himself, he would do exactly that.
“Unless we want to eat it raw, we have to take it someplace dry,” Terry said, embracing the reality.
They cut the bear up into man-portable chunks and the humans headed up the hill. Char waved goodbye as she volunteered to remain below with the horses, Timmons, Ted, and the wolf pack. They also left plenty of raw meat for the Werewolves. They preferred eating it that way. They left enough so the wolf pack could get a few extra pounds of meat each, which cut down their load significantly.
They set out, climbing steadily at first, but then it became steeper and steeper. It wasn’t long before Terry fell out of love with his plan. “Halt!” he called. The others were breathing heavily and more than happy to lean against a tree.
“Other options?” Terry asked the group.
“See if we can start a fire right here? The thicker trees look dry underneath,” Lacy suggested.
“The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m not climbing all the God damn way up there.” Terry pointed to the cliff. “You all thought I had something in mind, didn’t you? Never assume. None of us is as smart as all of us. Let’s try what Private Lacy suggested…”
***
“Would you
settle down?” Billy insisted. The engineer had been pounding the table and stomping his feet since he arrived fifteen minutes prior. Billy still wasn’t sure what he was so angry about.
Besides the fact that the mechanic had died and left Roman by himself. The Werewolves had filled in and were doing what needed done. Billy didn’t see anything to complain about.
“They won’t take my tools! I need all of them if I’m to start up another power plant. Heaven knows, the next one could be in worse shape!” The engineer flopped down in the chair, spent.
“We have to travel light, my friend. You did an amaze-balls job here, but it’s time to move on. Let’s leave the past behind us as we forge ahead, find a new world out there waiting for us to shape it in our image,” Billy waxed poetic.
“Fuck off!” Roman sputtered.
Felicity left within the first minute of Roman’s tirade, so she wasn’t there to hear his latest outburst.
“Engineer, listen closely because I’m not about to repeat myself. We need to move three hundred fifty people, cattle, chickens, food, and water over two thousand miles, assuming that Terry Henry finds what our mystery man said was there. To do that, we carry only essentials. There’s not a single God damned tool you have to take with you. We’ll find it there or fabricate it there, because we have to. We cannot carry excess crap. Do you understand me?” Billy asked, glaring at the engineer.
Sue sat to the side, taking it all in. She figured to have a good conversation with her house-mates later.
Roman looked crushed and as if he’d aged ten years overnight. Billy knew what was wearing on the old man. He stood up and walked around the table, pulling a chair up next to his old friend.
“Listen, you’ve done an incredible job and we would not be where we are without you, without the power you’ve provided. We’ve weathered the worst of the God awful summer because we had freezers. We’ve enjoyed real lives, because we have lights and electricity. But we can’t survive one more summer here. It’s just too hot. We pack the carts with seeds, food, and water. There won’t be room for anything else. In the interim, you gotta keep the lights on. We need to make it to the point where we can choose to leave. I don’t want to see another person die, not here, not on the long road to a new home.”
Nomad Unleashed: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Book 3) Page 19