“You’ll do as you’re told, soldier!” Rogers snarled. He motioned to two other men. “Disarm him and bind his hands. Toss him in the back of a truck.”
Those soldiers also slung their rifles, but rather than obeying they moved to stand with their comrade in arms. That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, because within seconds Rogers’s entire force had stood down.
An imperceptible movement rippled through the defenders, as if sheer relief carried a weight. Matt nodded to Trev, and at his gesture the defenders put their weapons away as well.
Rogers looked so pissed off Trev wouldn’t have been surprised if the man grabbed his own pistol and started firing. Instead he turned to his soldiers. “We’ll return to camp,” he snapped. “We can deal with this mutiny there.”
The soldiers silently hopped back in their trucks and drove off. The tension broke at that point, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The crowd quickly devolved into hugs and backslaps in a subdued but heartfelt celebration.
Trev broke away from Deb and his defenders to shake hands all around with the veterans who’d interceded on the town’s behalf, personally thanking each. Carrie looked a bit embarrassed at his praise, flushing beneath her livid scars, but her shoulders were squared proudly. Soon Matt, Lewis, and most of the town’s leaders had joined him, then the rest of the town, until the veterans were surrounded by a grateful crowd.
In spite of the mood of his relief Trev couldn’t really get into the celebration, though. This was the sort of hollow victory that could easily lead to far bigger problems in the future. He sought out his uncle, Lewis, Matt, Catherine, and Chauncey and pulled them aside a bit.
“I don’t think what happened here is going to solve many of our problems,” he said quietly. “Unless the mutiny spreads and Rogers is removed from his position, he’ll either transfer or punish the soldiers who came with him today to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. And the fact that they obeyed his order to leave, and showed strict military discipline doing so, suggests that the mutiny ended once the crisis did.”
Lucas nodded. “All we accomplished here was to give him even more reason to come after us, and if he’s smart we’ve also handed him the public perception artillery to make us look like the bad guys. An armed group of defenders chasing him out of town isn’t hard to smear as a violent mob.”
Matt grimaced. “Let’s get ahead of this situation. Chauncey, I want you to be on the radio 24/7 explaining the situation to anyone who’ll listen.”
The retired teacher rubbed at his stump around the prosthetic Rick had carved for him. “You know I have been doing that, and it hasn’t exactly made this problem go away. At best I might not be able to do more than muddy the waters enough that nobody cheers when the military comes for us.”
“We can’t fight off the entire military,” Catherine warned. “It would be suicide to even try. Even if it was just Rogers and the men he has in his camp coming our way it would be tough to handle, especially if he’s got heavy weapons or serious crowd control.”
“I wasn’t finished,” Matt replied. “We need to try to go over Rogers’s head, contact the highest ranking military officers still in the area and explain the situation to them. The challenge will be to make a more convincing argument than one of their own officers.”
“Again,” Chauncey insisted, “I’m not having any luck with that. The higher-ups in the military have too much on their plate to pay attention to a minor dispute, and their subordinates have no interest in going out of their way to pass a message along. I can see if any officers that the town or the volunteers worked with while fighting the blockheads are still around to speak in our favor, and of course I’ll fight any misinformation Rogers tried to spread. But I can only do so much over a radio.”
“I agree.” Matt looked around at Trev and the leaders. “Which is why with your approval I want to send my dad, Lucas, Ben Thompson, and Scott Tillman to head over the mountains to Manti. They can try to get a meeting in person with whoever’s in charge there and plead our case.”
Trev agreed that it was probably a good idea to send their people for a face to face, although he didn’t like the thought of sending a group that distance without bringing any of his defenders along. Not that he didn’t think the four men could handle themselves, as they’d more than proven they could in the past. And the choice of destinations was a good one, too; the camp just outside of Manti was where the remaining military leadership and the largest bulk of the refugees were resettling now that the blockheads were gone. Which meant it was their best hope of finding someone who could intervene on Aspen Hill’s behalf.
“Include me and Lewis in the group,” he insisted. “A bit of added protection.”
“And me,” Deb cut in. At some point Jane had appeared at Lewis’s side, managing to convey without words that she intended to come along as well.
Matt shook his head. “I picked four people because I was thinking they’d take the last of our diesel and the mule. I’d say this counts as an emergency and time is of the essence.”
Ah, that made a lot more sense. The side-by-side couldn’t go fast, about 25 mph at most, but it was reasonably fuel efficient. “There’s room for five, at least,” Trev said. “I’d say as leader of the defenders I qualify.”
It was Lucas who protested now. “If Rogers does try something you need to be here, ready for it. We’re going to Sanpete Valley to talk, not fight, so it doesn’t make sense to take anyone who could be more useful here.”
“So take me.”
That was a new voice, and they turned to see Derek Withers leaning on the shoulders of Carrie and another of the veterans. The one-legged man was pale from the strain of still standing, but his expression was determined as he continued. “It can only help your case having one of us along, and I know a few people in that camp who might help us get up the chain to Colonel Grimes.”
Grimes, eh? That was a name Trev recognized, as the man who’d been in charge of guarding Highway 6 and all the territory just north of Aspen Hill during the fight against the Gold Bloc. With any luck that meant the colonel would recognize the name of their town, too.
As for Derek… but Matt was already on top of that. “I’m sorry,” his friend said. “I’m not sure the diesel we have will even get the mule all the way across the mountains, let alone back home. It’ll probably come to walking.”
He didn’t need to say more. Derek nodded, looking resigned.
“Then I’ll go,” Carrie offered. With a slightly bitter twist of her lips, or maybe that was her attempt at a smile with half her face scarred, she indicated her eyepatch. “I can at least score some sympathy points for you, and my legs work just fine.”
The town leaders exchanged unspoken looks of agreement. It would be good to have a veteran along speaking on their behalf. They’d certainly defused the situation during the face-off with Rogers.
“Five it is,” Lucas said, giving the young woman a respectful nod. “Let’s get going.”
Chapter Nine
Dependent
Ed Larson knew failure.
Failure was watching in a crisis as the food disappeared, always too slow to get any before it was gone. Failure was needing to have your children warn you to store water, in preparation for when that went too. Failure was watching in helpless rage as some weaselly little bureaucrat took what little your family had left at gunpoint, smiling in smug satisfaction as he guaranteed your loved ones would starve and nothing you could do would prevent it.
Failure was relying on the generosity of a friend you never had the courage to stand up in defense of, just to survive a winter that would’ve been the end of you and everyone you cared about. Failure was always being one step away from volunteering to fight when armed men threatened your town, but never quite taking that step. Failure was letting yourself be talked out of taking any risks because of age, or because your son was shouldering that burden for you, or for any of a dozen other feeble excuses.