Marching As to War: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (6 page)

Jane and I walked to her cabin. She went in and closed the
door. Riley was outside, sitting in the sun, cleaning his rifle. I sat next to
him. He didn’t ask, and I didn’t want to tell him what I’d seen. But I reckoned
he needed to know. When I was done, all he said was, “Well . . . damn.”

Jane stayed inside until we joined her for the evening meal.
Riley tried to cheer her up with some of his funny stories. He was in the
middle of the one about his Uncle Dewey, a whiskey still, and a skunk when
there was a knock on the door.

It was Campbell.

We dished him up a plate of food, and we ate in silence. Campbell
was the last to finish. When he pushed back his plate, he said, “I’m here
because we have to work together.”

We said nothing.

He said to Jane, “First, I don’t know if you’re talking with
God. And I don’t care. What I do know is you want to save our people. That’s
all I care about.”

Jane gave a slow nod.

“Second, I want to show you something. Let’s clear the
table.” Afterward, Campbell took a
folded map from his coat and opened it on the table. “This is the United
States of America before the Plague.
Three thousand miles across.
Three hundred
million people.”

Riley let out one of his low whistles.

“After the Plague,” Campbell
said, “it broke into pieces like a pot dropped on the floor.
A
thousand pieces.
A thousand bands like ours.
Some
larger and some smaller.
We’ve fought and traded with the bands around
us for years: the groups around Asheville,
the Tennesseans, the Cherokees, all the little bands up the Shenandoah
Valley. Now our problem isn’t the other bands. It’s the so-called
Restored Government. It wants to reclaim all of the old United
States.”

“All of it?” Riley said.
“All three
thousand miles?”

“Yes, all of it.
They already have
almost everything to the north and east of us. The key is the big roads, the
Interstate Highways, which the old government built.” He pointed out the
network of thicker lines on the map, each marked with a number inside a little
shield.

“If the Government wants all of this back, it needs these
roads to move soldiers, weapons, and supplies.”

He pointed to a road that went through the middle of our
land. “We’ve always just called this the big road. We’ve used it for years to
trade with Tennessee and Asheville.
But before the Plague it was called Interstate Highway 40, or I-40. It was the
southernmost highway through these eastern mountains, our mountains.”

“I been in the rocks way above the road,” Riley said. “A man
with a good rifle could shoot up anything down there. Put enough men up there
and we’ll stop their army.”

“Yes, and they know that,” Campbell
said. “That’s why the Government wants to control the high ground around the
road.”

“But there are a lot of roads through the mountains,” I
said. “We use them all the time.”

“There are many little winding roads, but the Government’s
trucks need broad, straight roads. Besides, the little roads are falling apart.
After every storm, some piece of them washes out or collapses. It’s no matter
to us. We’re afoot or on horseback and go around. But their trucks can’t.”

“Couldn’t we do that to the big road, damage it so the
Government can’t use it anymore?” Jane said.

Campbell said,
“We can cause landslides blocking the road, but those can be cleared. The
Government has machines for that.”

“So what do we do?” Jane said.

“Jackson and others on the Council want to negotiate with
the Government. Not many people know this, but the Government has offered us a
deal. We rejoin the United States,
pay taxes, and the Government won’t interfere in our local affairs. But we have
to disband the militia and give up our guns.”

Riley snorted. “Once we can’t fight back, why should they
keep their side of the bargain?”

“That’s right. And Jackson
knows that. He doesn’t trust the Government. He just doesn’t believe we can
fight them and win. That’s why he wants to negotiate.”

“Can we win?” I said.

“Yes,” Jane said. “We must.”

Campbell nodded.
“Yes, but the Government has tens of thousands of soldiers. Its weapons are
getting better all the time. All we have are old rifles.”

“But we’ve got the mountains,” Riley said. “We know the
ground. They don’t.”

“True,” Campbell
said. “But we can’t hold ground, not against their weapons, not against their
numbers.”

“If we can’t hold ground, what do we do?” I said.

“Attack,” Campbell
said. “But we have to attack the right way. Instead of going at their strength,
we hit and run. We use squads of six or eight men, usually at night. Fast
surprise attacks against weak points. Then run and hide. If they come after us,
we ambush them. We know how to do that. We’ve been ambushing raiders for
years.”

“So where are they weak?” I said.

“A big army needs lots of food, ammunition, medicine, and
other supplies. We hit their supplies. We hit the places where they sleep and
eat. We’ll steal some of their weapons and hit them even harder.”

“So won’t they just guard those places?” Riley said.

“Sure, but every soldier on guard is one less soldier
invading our land. So they need more soldiers, and more supplies, to do the
job. If they are always watching their back, they’ll be cautious. Moving
slow
. So we can be that much quicker.”

He pointed at the map again. “See these other roads: 81, 77,
26, 85,
75
. See how they connect. They give the
Government a way around us. From what we hear, they’re fighting all over this
map. So we have to raise the cost of taking our land, until it’s just not worth
it. I hope they’ll just go around us, leave us alone.
At
least for a while.”

“OK. We can cause trouble and slow them down,” I said. “But
can we stop them?”

“Yes, if we make their soldiers afraid,” Campbell
said.

I was puzzled. Riley’s eyebrows went up, but Jane just sat
listening.

“We fight for our families, our land, and for our lives,” Campbell
said.

“And for God,” Jane said.

“Right,” Campbell
said. “But most government soldiers are forced to fight. If they refuse,
they’re punished, even killed. So we kill these unwilling men with raids and
ambushes. Their fear of us, their fear of dying, dying for nothing, will grow.
We have to make them fear us more than they fear the Government. I believe we
can beat an army, even a big army, of fearful men.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Riley said.

Campbell pointed
to Riley and me and said, “Keep her alive.
No matter what.”

We nodded.

He turned to Jane. “You have to make our people and our men
believe we can win.”

Riley let out one of his low whistles. “Now, don’t make it
too easy on her Colonel.”

Campbell said,
“Jane, I can’t tell you how to do that. We could try this, but I don’t think we
can win without you.”

Jane looked at him. “If it’s God’s will, He’ll make a way. I
just have to be ready.”

“My job is to convince Winslow to do this rather than
negotiate,” Campbell said. “And
I’ll tell you straight, I don’t know how I’m going to do that.”

“There’s one thing I have to know,” Jane said. “If Winslow says
no, will you do it anyway?”

“No. I’ll not divide our people. That would be fatal.”

“Then I’m with you,” Jane said, “even though you don’t
believe God is in this.” Then she added, “Colonel, I’ll pray for you. I’ll pray
you find a way to convince Winslow.”

Campbell looked
a little surprised, as if he didn’t know what to say. Then he said, “Thank
you.”

He stood up, folded his map, and put it back in his coat.
Wishing us a good night, he went out. The three of us sat around the table.
Silent.
Thinking about war.

The next morning, Jane came out of her cabin and screamed at
Riley and me, “Come!
Hurry!”
Then she was running
toward the main building.

We grabbed our rifles and scrambled after her. As we ran to
catch up, I looked around expecting to see the camp under attack. But it was a
quiet morning, the smoke of little cooking fires reaching up toward the sky, a
few men moving about.

Up ahead, Jane was running as hard as she could, kicking up
dust from the path. Riley and I were still ten yards behind when a startled
guard shouted, “Stop right there!” and pointed his rifle at Jane.

She stopped, dropped her rifle, and raised her hands. “Get
Winslow out of that building! Get everyone out of there!
Hurry!”

The guard froze, not knowing what to do. Then he saw Riley
and me running up, rifles in hand. He backed up a step and shouted, “Stop!” His
finger moved to the trigger.

Riley and I stopped a few steps behind Jane. “Take it easy,”
I said as calmly as I could. We put our rifles down and raised our hands. The
guard’s eyes bounced back and forth between us.

“Take it easy,” I said again.

I glanced toward the building. Every guard had a gun on us.
A Lieutenant, his pistol drawn, was walking toward us. “What’s going on here?”
he said.

Jane shouted again. “Get Winslow out! He’s in danger! Get
everyone out!
Now!”

The Lieutenant didn’t know what to make of this girl shouting
at him. He glanced down the hill. The camp was quiet. No movement. No alarms.
Nothing.
“Danger?
What kind of
danger?” he said.

Before Jane could say anything, I said, “Call Campbell.”

The Lieutenant looked at me, and then at Jane. Turning back
to the porch, he called out. “Get Colonel Campbell.”

We all just stood and waited. Jane looked to the east, then
at the entrance to the building, then east again. I looked east too. All I saw
was the camp below us, and the sun coming up behind the mountains. It looked to
be a nice day.

I was about to ask Jane what this was about when Campbell
came out.

“Lieutenant,” he called out, “let her come up. The other two
are OK. Stand down.” Jane ran to Campbell.
Riley picked up Jane’s rifle and his own. I got mine.

I couldn’t hear what Jane said to Campbell,
but she pointed to the east. He listened, said something to her, and looked
east. Then he went back inside the building, leaving Jane on the porch. She
stood looking east. I turned and looked that way again.
Nothing.

The guard who had stopped us said, “What’s going on?”

“Don’t know,” Riley said. “But listen. You ever point a
weapon at her again, we’ll kill you.”

The guard looked at Riley.
Then at me.
I nodded.

A minute later, Campbell
came out on the porch with Jackson and Winslow. Again, I couldn’t hear them.
Jane spoke with the same gestures and pointed east. The three men looked and
saw nothing, nothing but the rising sun and mountains.

They all turned back to her. Campbell’s
face was blank. As usual, Jackson
was angry. Winslow looked concerned, as though Jane was a child frightened by a
nightmare. He was reaching out to touch her shoulder when I heard it, when we
all heard it.

It was that distant humming sound.
An
airplane.
But it was different from before.
Deeper in
tone and pulsing.
We looked in the sky trying to locate it. Three spots
in front of the sun.
Three airplanes.
They were
different from the one we saw in the meadow.
Larger.
Louder.
Faster.

For a second, no one moved.
Then shouts of
“Cover!”
Someone started ringing a bell to alarm the camp.

I saw Jane and the others rushing off the porch. I could
hear the humming of the airplanes get louder. The guards were firing at them
with their rifles.

I was turning to run toward Jane, when someone ran into me,
knocking me down. I rolled down the hill a few yards and then scrambled to my
feet. Confused, I didn’t know which way to run. The guards were shooting up
into the sky. Then there was a flash, and I felt something hit me all over, all
at once.

Next, I was laying flat on my belly, my face in the dirt. I
felt the earth heave,
then
heave again, and again. I
curled up in a ball, my hands over my ears. I don’t remember thinking or
feeling anything except fear. Perhaps I was screaming. I just tightened myself
into a fist.

The heaving stopped. My ears were ringing, but I could still
hear someone close by shrieking.
The sound of pain.

I could see nothing, nothing but a cloud of choking dust and
smoke. Then I put my head down and let everything disappear.

When I came to, I rolled over and got to my feet. I wasn’t
hurt, but I felt slow in the head.
Stunned.
But the
smoke and dust had cleared enough for me to see. The front of the building had
been turned into rubble.
Some of it burning.
A group
of men placed another man, bloody, twisting, and screaming, on a plank. They
carried him down the hill.

Pieces of paper were scattered all around me. I picked one
up. One side of the paper had two drawings. The top drawing showed a woman with
a baby walking toward the door of a house. She was walking away from what I
guessed was government soldier. He wore a black uniform with the old American
flag on the sleeve. Below this, the words: CITIZENS - STAY IN YOUR HOMES.

The bottom drawing showed another soldier pointing his rifle
at a man whose hands were raised over his head. Under this, MILITIA – DO NOT
RESIST.

On the other side of paper was a picture of the old flag with
the words, RESTORING THE GREATNESS OF OUR NATION.

Jane ran up to me. She said, “You hurt?”

“No, just got knocked around some.
You?”

“Not a scratch.”

“What about the others? Riley?”

“Safe.”

Jane picked up one of the papers. She looked at the drawings
for a moment and flipped it over. “The airplanes dropped these. What’s it say?”
I read it to her. She said nothing.

I looked around the camp and saw many little groups, all
gathered around someone who could read. The last few papers fluttered out of
the trees. We stood there for a while, quiet. I said to Jane, “This’ll be worse
than anything since the Plague.”

“May God forgive them,” Jane said. “I’ll never.”

“Jane, you sure you want to do this? You sure you want to go
to war?”

“You don’t understand,” she said. “I was born for this.”