Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4) (25 page)

The silence stretched on uncomfortably as Matt absorbed this news. “Just Trev,” he said flatly.

Lewis nodded, slightly defensive. “We also have our family and everyone else at the shelter to worry about. Defending and providing for them.”

“Are you kidding?” Rick demanded. “Do you realize how many people would feel better about volunteering knowing you'd be along?”

“No, how many?”

Rick hesitated. “Well, me for one! You and Jane are the ones who get impossible things done.”

Lewis's smile had a bit of an edge to it. “I'm sure Trev would love to hear how enthusiastic you all are about him coming along.”

“Oh come on, don't give us that,” Matt snapped. He grabbed his friend's arm and pulled him aside a bit. “You know we need you and Jane,” he said in a low voice.

“So does our family,” Lewis replied. “And we'll be here to help the town in case anything comes up.”

That was starting to sound like a flimsy excuse to Matt. “The town will be fine. They survived the winter, they survived Razor's gang, and they survived the raiders. We can survive this too, but we'll need to face it head on. That means getting as many people as possible out there defending our homes.”

Lewis shook his head. “Yeah, only instead of 50 raiders we're facing a million professional soldiers, coming at us from either direction, and instead of machine guns and missiles we'll be facing tanks and aircraft. It's not completely unreasonable to keep people back to defend the town if that doesn't go so great.”

Matt did his best to keep his temper. “Yeah, but instead of Aspen Hill the enemy will be facing the
entire
United States military and all its citizens. It's not as lopsided as you might think.”

His friend hesitated, then shook his head slowly. “I'm not sure that's going to be enough.” He hastily continued before Matt could erupt. “I know what Williams said about how we're all doomed if the military fails, and he's probably not wrong. But if we do lose this war and worse comes to worst I want to be here with my family trying to find a way to survive the aftermath.”

“Well aren't you a ball of sunshine,” Matt said sarcastically.

Lewis looked away. “I'm sorry, Matt. Our family's sending Trev, that'll have to be enough.”

Matt pushed down his anger with a sigh. It wasn't fair to give Tam a pass and then tear into his friend, even though he really wanted to. He held out his hand to shake. “I'm going to be a jerk and pretend you're still thinking about it. If you happen to change your mind before we leave you know we'll all be overjoyed about it.”

His friend grimaced. “Fair enough. But I'm not going to. I will give you my word, though, that I'll make sure Sam and the rest of your family are looked after while you're gone. You won't need to worry for them, at least.”

That was something he hadn't considered about Lewis staying behind, and it almost made up for his friend not volunteering. “Thanks. That means more than I can say.”

They shook, then Lewis headed back to his garden while Matt went around to the other gardeners to try his luck with them.

Not a single one volunteered.

* * * * *

Over the next several hours they went to the other places people would be working and then from house to house, trying to get in touch with as many townspeople as they could. After they finished they tracked down Ben to see what kind of success he'd had among the former refugees.

Truth be told, the results weren't all that surprising, although they were incredibly disappointing. A large portion of the townspeople already volunteered as defenders, or had in the past, but of them less than a fifth wanted to abandon everything and go fight in a hopeless war. Among the townspeople at large only a handful more volunteered.

He wasn't sure he could blame them. Williams wasn't wrong to warn them about just how bad the situation was, and how much everyone needed to help if they were going to have any hope of survival. But at the same time it wasn't exactly the sort of thing that would encourage everyone to go off waving their guns and stampeding for the front lines.

He'd gathered twenty-three people. Sure, even if everyone in town volunteered that wouldn't do much to swing the odds in their favor against the enemy, but under two dozen felt like a drop in the ocean.

He supposed that even as big as the threat was, it was still remote enough that people could try to ignore it. Once it got more immediate, once things started looking really bad, more people might be jolted into action and join the fight then. Hopefully before it was too late.

Maybe they should've let in the younger men who volunteered, like Wes. Near the end Matt
had
made one exception there, for Pete Childress. The young man had practically threatened to hike up into the mountains looking for the military so he could join up if he wasn't let in. Pete had handled himself well against the raiders so Matt agreed to take him, although he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

When Matt got back to the shelter he found that Sam had packed up everything he'd need and arranged it on their bed. He would've been grateful for the gesture, and he was, but when he arrived his wife was sitting there next to the backpack with his coat in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks.

When she saw him she immediately buried her face in the rough cloth, scrubbing her eyes with it. Then she raised her head and did her best to smile and pretend she was fine. “Oh hey. How did it go?”

Matt slumped down onto the cot next to her and pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on her head. “It could've gone better.” She didn't respond, which was usually an invitation for him to go on, so he briefly told her about visiting everyone in town and the results they'd managed.

When he finished they sat in silence for a while. Matt was just about to get up and start checking through the things Sam had packed to make sure she hadn't overlooked anything when she abruptly spoke up. “Maybe Tam and Lewis and Jane and the others have the right idea.”

He stiffened and pulled away slightly, looking down at her. “What?”

She stared back, eyes flashing. “Haven't you done enough, Matt?” she demanded. “After everything you've done for the town, can't you just say no for once?”

Matt gave his wife a wounded look. “You too?”

“Don't act like I'm being unreasonable!” At some point she'd started crying again, although she didn't seem to notice. “You nearly got blown up fighting the raiders. Chauncey lost his leg. Almost a hundred people died and about that many were wounded.”

Sam hesitated, her anger fading to anguish. “And that was a fight we couldn't avoid, against a bunch of scruffy criminals attacking the town. Now you want to go pick a fight with professional soldiers? Seriously, Matt, haven't you done enough?”

Talking to Tam he'd felt disappointed, and with Lewis he'd been angry. With Sam he felt guilty. Sharp, deep down to his bones guilt. But that didn't change anything. “I'll have done enough when the town is safe,” he said as gently as he could. “Somebody has to fight the Gold Bloc forces. If we all just worry about ourselves they'll steamroll the military and take the entire country unopposed. We'll all end up dead, or on the run and hiding for who knows how long.”

His wife looked away miserably. “Why can't it be someone else? We've done what we had to for the town. But, well, it just doesn't seem like the town has done much for us in return. I work at the clinic with April and Terry day in and day out and at best we get the same bowl of watery soup as everyone else. You spend your time protecting the town when you could be out finding food or tending our garden and they don't feed you any better.”

Matt wrapped his arms tighter around his wife, staring at the curtain in front of him. Her complaints weren't exactly fair, but they weren't exactly unfair either. They
were
giving a lot to the town for very little in return, that was true. But only because the town
had
nothing to give, which was why it so desperately needed help from anyone who was willing to give it.

He preferred to be proud of giving that help rather than resent it, and frankly he was surprised to hear Sam talk like that given her generous nature. This had all been harder on her than he'd thought, harder than he had any right to ask of her, especially when they had a baby on the way to worry about.

And now he wanted to leave her when she needed him most.

“You won't be alone when I leave,” he said quietly, kissing the top of her head. “My family is here for you, and so is everyone else in the shelter. Lewis and Jane are going to be staying too, and they'll look out for you and the baby while I'm gone.”

She shook her head, but her resolve seemed to be wavering. “It's not the same and you know it.”

“I know. But I've already promised to go.” Matt hesitated. “Although if things start looking really bad I'll come back.” He lifted her chin up to meet her eyes, shining with tears, and felt a stab of anguish at the anguish and fear in them. “Please, tell me this is okay.”

Sam met his gaze for a long time, as if searching for something, and then abruptly pulled away and began fussing over his things. “You'll probably want to take all your ammo,” she said. “Is the town going to give you a truck to carry things? If so we won't have to worry about weight and you can take more.”

It wasn't quite what he'd hoped for, but he supposed it would have to be enough. With a sigh Matt stood and joined her. “We'll have one of the raider trucks, and Williams gave us a bit of extra fuel.”

That wasn't all the town was giving them. Each person who went would have the best of the gear they'd captured from the raiders, weapons and body armor. They'd also be taking one of the missile launchers, half the remaining missiles, half the grenades and remaining molotovs, and one of the heavy machine guns with half of the .50 BMG ammunition.

That would leave the volunteers incredibly well equipped, while the town would still have the means to defend itself. And maybe it would be some consolation for Sam, to know that the town had done everything it could to make sure that he returned home to her.

* * * * *

With one person shy of two dozen volunteers they decided to split into two squads. Trev was a bit surprised when Matt approached him to lead the smaller squad of 11.

“What made you choose me?” he asked.

His friend looked a bit sheepish. “Honestly? Until we know better what the military needs from us I'm setting up the first squad so all the seasoned defenders are in it, assuming it'll be the one seeing the most action. Your squad has all of our older volunteers, less experienced defenders, and the regular townspeople. I plan to keep you on the bench wherever possible.”

“Well it's an honor to be picked for that,” Trev said wryly.

His friend chuckled. “That didn't sound all that complimentary, did it? I picked you because you did a pretty good job of getting the roadblocks into shape back when you first came down from the mountains, and everyone likes you.” He hesitated. “Also you and Lewis both have a bit of a reputation. Nobody has any complaints about taking orders from the guy who outran a machine gun.”

That again. Trev wondered if the full story was getting out. It wasn't exactly his proudest moment, the one he wanted to get a reputation about. With a sigh he looked down at the list Matt held out for him. Tom Harding would be along with him, which was a relief. Matt had probably shoved him into Trev's squad due to age, not lack of ability.

He also recognized some names from the roadblock, Rob Jonas and Hans Miller. Good men, but they hadn't struck him as very soldierly. Fred and Susan Donnell looked like a couple, or maybe brother and sister. Either way he didn't recognize them, which meant they were probably Ben's people.

He looked up again. “When are we leaving?”

“A week. Williams didn't seem to think there was any need to rush, although he did say the sooner we sent people the more help we could be with preparing defenses. We'd also have more opportunities to receive some quality training from skilled soldiers.”

“A week, huh?” Trev said. He looked back down at his list. “Well, no time like the present to get started. If you need me I'll be at our shooting range, hopefully with as many of the people on this list as I can round up.”

Matt clapped him on the shoulder, looking relieved. “Good luck, and thanks.”

As many people as he could round up turned out to be everyone. It took a while for Trev to go around finding them all, especially since he didn't know where half of them lived. But when he did find his new squad mates most seemed relieved to hear he wanted to start training immediately, and quickly agreed to meet him at the shooting range in a few hours.

Trev directed everyone to find Scott at the town storehouse and get the weapons they'd be using, and even went with one of the townspeople volunteers to help him pick up his rifle and sidearm and familiarize him with basic handling and safety until he could be more properly trained. The man seemed hesitant with even the basics, but determined to learn. That was a good sign, Trev hoped.

He could understand that for the less experienced people the idea of going off to fight a war was terrifying, and his offer to train them promised some hope that they wouldn't just be tossed into anything they weren't prepared for. As he pedaled home to get things ready he only hoped he was up to the challenge of preparing them.

The shooting range was a hundred or so yards west of the shelter, facing northwest towards the targets in a little hollow with a bit of a rise to either side and a low hill in front. It had been carefully picked out as a place where the risk of stray shots escaping to hit anyone was extremely low. Lewis had set it up while the shelter was still under construction, and had used it frequently. At his cousin's invitation Trev had used it a few times too, but not nearly as often.

While he waited for his new squad to show up he patched up the targets, then got out the bundle of colored flags that would warn people away, to put up along the hill and two rises. The thin wire stakes were easy to drive into the ground, if slightly flimsy, but it made it easier to put them up and take them down for each shooting session. Lewis didn't want them up all the time drawing attention to the area near the shelter, and Trev fully agreed.