Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4) (38 page)

And Pete. In spite of Matt's shout the young man kept firing, and when he finally stopped almost ten seconds later the near complete silence in the canyon suggested he'd been the last to obey Davis's order.

Speaking of which . . . Matt was just about to ask what was going on, but before he could Davis kept going. “That's right. We've agreed to a ceasefire with the enemy. Everyone disengage and head for the fallback positions until we can get this sorted out.”

Matt wasn't sure when or how that arrangement had happened, but after almost getting blown up he wasn't complaining. He finally toggled off his radio, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and climbed out of his foxhole, crawling towards the small trail they'd cleared through the woods that headed farther up the canyon. As he did he called to his squad. “You heard the Sergeant! Let's get out of here while the getting's good.”

His people followed, and Matt did a quick count to confirm they were all still alive. By the lack of complaints it looked as if they'd all avoided getting hit, or at least not seriously. Which was a huge relief; things had gotten pretty hairy back there, and they were all lucky to have made it through.

He paused when his count came up one short, although he could immediately see it was because Pete was still in his foxhole, aiming down at the enemy soldiers below. “Pete!” he snapped.

The young man glanced over his shoulder, then reluctantly began shimmying backwards until he was on the trail. Matt gave him a shove to get him going after the others, then followed at a trot at the back of the line while they made for their fallback position.

It didn't take long, since the second emplacement was only a few hundred feet away at another good vantage for shooting down at the road below. Once everyone was safely hidden behind cover Matt made his way around to personally make sure no one had been badly hurt.

Then he stomped over to Pete and caught the young man's shoulder. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

His friend gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“The ceasefire! You heard Davis, the blockheads gave us a chance to end the fighting. And good thing they did, because they had that helicopter ready to rain down fire on us.”

Pete snorted. “Yeah, to keep us from killing any more of their troops after we nearly blew up that helicopter and forced it to run.” The young man glared at him. “Why are you getting on my case about any of that?”

Matt hesitated. Pete's shot hadn't come that long after Davis's order to cease fire. It had been the last one fired, sure, but not by too much. It was possible his friend just hadn't reacted as quickly as everyone else, or he'd been caught up in the moment.

Still, that shot could've fouled up the ceasefire and kept the violence going. He felt like he needed to say something about it, but he wasn't sure what he could say without accusing the young man.

Before he could decide whether or not to push the issue Davis's voice crackled over his radio. “All right, people, the blockheads are gathering their dead and pulling back. That gives us a bit of a breather, so now's the time to get our feet back under us. Williams, anyone unhurt in your squad will stay behind just in case they're not true to their word. Everyone else head back to camp, and I want a debriefing from the other squad leaders as soon as you arrive.”

Matt stared at Pete, his friend staring back defiantly, then sighed and toggled his radio. “Larson here. Understood; pulling my squad back to camp.” As he lowered his radio he gave the young man a warning glare. “Next time you're given an order, obey it immediately.” He turned and started calling for his squad to pack up.

“I did!” Pete shouted behind him, sounding outraged. Matt ignored him, content to let the matter drop for now. Although it bothered him as he led his volunteers on down the trail towards camp.

Davis had thought ahead towards the location of his main camp. He'd put it close enough to the ambush site that they could reach it quickly, but far enough away that it wouldn't get dragged into the fighting unless things went seriously wrong. Most importantly of all, he'd situated it around a bend in the road so it was well out of line of sight of the canyon below.

When they passed 1
^st
Squad's emplacement at that bend, where Davis and his men and been fighting, they saw for themselves how important that precaution had been. The helicopter's missile had been a direct hit, obliterating the sandbag fortifications. Judging by the three bodies neatly arranged well clear of the blast site, not everyone in the sergeant's squad had managed to get clear in time.

Matt and his squad paused to observe a moment of silence for the fallen Marines, all aware that could have been any one of them if the circumstances were just slightly different. Then they continued on to camp, where the mood was subdued. Matt sent his people to help with the camp chores, however they could on short notice, and continued on to find Davis.

The sergeant was with the seven men who'd been wounded in the attack: two from his squad, three from Williams's, one from a volunteer squad covering their flank to the north, and one from the new volunteers who'd just arrived, Vernon's people. When Davis saw him coming and turned towards him Matt saw that the number was actually eight, since the sergeant's sleeve had been torn away so his upper arm could be bandaged.

The officer led him a short distance away from the wounded to talk. “I'm sorry about your men,” Matt said first thing.

Davis blew out a weary breath. “Could've been worse, considering. Could've been better too. Shame about your town's Ma Deuce. We could've got a lot more use out of it.”

Under the circumstances losing the M2 seemed like a small consideration. “What about the gunner?”

“Jenkins?” The sergeant fell silent for a moment in respect. “He tried to shoot down the chopper instead of obeying the order to scatter. Full points for courage, although it's possible he just made it easier for the bird to find 2
^nd
Squad's emplacement and land a missile on target.” He rubbed at his forehead. “Hindsight. I'll stick with the bravery angle when we remember him, and quietly add avoiding return fire to the tactics training.”

Matt wasn't sure what to say, so he just nodded.

After a moment Davis straightened with a soft grunt. “Anyway, back to business. Your people did a good job.”

“Thanks.” Matt glanced north. “Speaking of my people, has Trev reported in?”

“Yeah. A dozen or so blockhead trucks drove right past his canyon without even trying to peek their heads in, and that's all the excitement he's seen. It seems like the enemy wants 31 so they're parking the bulk of the convoy in Huntington. My guess is they'll try to secure this entire area on foot so they can move in and start clearing the road.”

Matt could've done without hearing that thousands of enemy soldiers with tanks and possibly even a helicopter were going to be a recurring problem for them. “What are we going to do?”

Davis spat off to one side. “Get more people, for one thing. I've called in for more reinforcements, along with the ones that were already coming. Then we just fight them off like we planned, hope eventually it gets too costly for them and they go away.”

The sergeant glanced down the canyon. “I wouldn't expect to get much sleep for the next little while, Larson. Are your people good to get back to your emplacement? Even with the ceasefire I feel a bit antsy leaving just one partial squad watching the blockheads.”

“We're in good shape,” Matt said. “We got lucky with the missile they sent our way.” He hesitated. “If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did that ceasefire happen?”

“Greed.” Davis sighed. “Once your guy chased off the bird they probably realized the fight wasn't going to get any easier. They offered the ceasefire so they could get their people and vehicles out with all the equipment intact so it didn't fall into our hands. The alternative was that they'd commit to a full attack, including bringing the tanks up to start shelling us. I figured buying some extra time would help us more than them, so I agreed.”

“How long?”

“They didn't say. And I'm not sure I'd trust them if they had. I barely trust this ceasefire to begin with, even if they're sticking to their end of it so far.” Davis clapped him on the shoulder and turned him toward the command tent. “Send your people back to the emplacement. You can join them after we've talked through the attack and settled on how you can do better in the future.”

Matt went along, although he still had one last question. “Have you heard from Aspen Hill?”

The sergeant hesitated, then sighed. “Yeah. Sorry to say it, but it looks like they're in the same boat as the rest of us.”

* * * * *

Lewis stood beside his dad, uncle, and sister on an overlook at the top of Aspen Hill Canyon, watching grimly as dozens of Gold Bloc trucks rolled into Aspen Hill in the valley below. Even through binoculars the vehicles were small and the houses only a bit bigger, but he could practically feel the ground rumbling beneath his feet as their home was invaded.

Smoke rose from the south end of town, although that had nothing to do with the blockheads. Or at least not directly: two hours ago he and Uncle George had torched the gardens to prevent them from providing food for the enemy, then hightailed it back up the canyon on bikes.

It had been just the tiniest bit soul crushing to watch the plants they'd worked so hard to nurture go up in flames, especially when he was the one lighting the match. At the very least the town had harvested every scrap of edible plant matter from the gardens during the final stages of the evacuation, so while they'd lost a lot they hadn't lost everything.

A flash of reflected sunlight in motion turned his eyes from that smoke plume, and he caught sight of the lead trucks in the convoy turning down Center Street in their direction.

He wasn't the only one who'd noticed. “We knew they'd eventually check out the canyon,” George said heavily, swinging his rifle around to inspect the road below through the scope. The road the enemy would likely soon try to take, just one of many options they were pursuing to get behind the stubborn force of US soldiers and citizens determined to defend their country.

Chauncey had been passing on any reports of the day's events he could glean, and from the sounds of things the fighting was getting brutal in multiple places. Including along Highway 31, where the blockheads had tried a full on assault and been repelled.

Lewis hoped his cousin and friends were okay.

To his right Mary was humming a depressingly fatalistic song, and he half didn't blame her. He felt like the world was ending too as he watched some trucks in the convoy below briefly stop, so soldiers could pour out to scour the town and confirm for themselves that it was abandoned.

That left the bulk of the convoy inching on towards the canyon. A part of him wondered why they didn't set the town on fire behind them or something of the sort, but then he figured they might want to use it for a staging area or something.

Besides, from what the others had told him about Michigan the invading forces didn't destroy anything, just emptied places out for their own use. If news from Canada was correct there were hundreds of thousands or even millions of Gold Bloc colonists, now refugees, who needed someplace to settle. The blockheads would have an incentive to keep the existing infrastructure intact.

His dad finished radioing in another report to Chauncey back at the temporary refuge the Aspen Hill townspeople had made, who would pass it on to Colonel Grimes up along Highway 6. The retired teacher also promised to send more defenders down, just in case the surprise Williams and his demolitions team had set up in the canyon wasn't enough.

As for Grimes, from the sounds of it he had his own problems, in the form of a fierce fight that had already claimed hundreds of lives and was only getting started. That fight was over thirty miles away, but that didn't feel all that far with trucks pulling into the town below.

Lewis had to hope they wouldn't need help that might be late, if it came at all. According to Chauncey's last report the Gold Bloc was now stopped all along the Utah Rockies, the Chinese to the north and west, the Russians to the east, and this new army to the south all halted by one of the last knots of US resistance remaining in the country.

Since the enemy had just barely found themselves being turned back along the major roads it was no surprise they'd started checking the smaller roads for anything that would let their trucks through, but it was way too early for them to be trying any forays on foot once a potential route was blocked or destroyed. Especially when they had no idea just what sort of resistance they were facing.

Which meant that once they saw that the canyon was useless for their vehicles they'd give up for the moment. Hopefully.

“Godspeed,” Chauncey said before signing off. “Davis and Grimes entrusted the defense of this canyon to our town. Let's not fail them.”

They watched in silence as the trucks below approached the canyon. But instead of entering its mouth and continuing up the road towards them the enemy vehicles began splitting off, taking the nearby roads to scout the area around the town. Two trucks
did
stop a cautious distance away, however, to let out a few dozen soldiers with dogs and metal detectors.

“They're not going to take their vehicles anywhere close to the canyon?” Lewis said in disappointment, watching the small group of scouts cautiously approaching the canyon mouth. He'd hoped to catch a few trucks beneath the cliffs when they blew them and took out the road.

His dad nodded grimly. “They've probably been burned too often on other approaches and don't want to risk walking into another trap. By this point they must've realized that there aren't any unguarded roads into the mountains.”

“So what now?” his uncle asked, lowering his rifle. “Do we just blow the road so they know the canyon's not an option and go somewhere else, or do we let them scout it and hope they don't find our explosives and give it the green light? If we can lull them into bringing some vehicles up we'll be able to do the most damage with our explosives.”