“I can’t really think of anything else right now, but I’d be happy to tell you anything else you want to know about what our group was up to before we came here,” Gutierrez assured them. He hesitated. “Although I did have one question. Is, um, Mandy…”
Trev felt his expression sour at the mention of the blond woman. He’d heard a bit about her hooking up with a FETF soldier from the gossip circles, but he hadn’t connected the dots between that and Gutierrez. Maybe it was petty of him, but it was another reason not to like the man.
Beside him Matt shook his head. “She was exiled for trying to steal food not long after you left.”
“Not too surprising.” The former soldier sighed. “Probably a good thing. Definitely a good thing. Nothing good came from being with her. A lot of bad, actually.”
… Or maybe it was a reason to like the man.
After looking at him thoughtfully for a minute or so Matt motioned to a couple of people manning the roadblock. “Get him to Chauncey and have him learn what he can about Ferris’s group, then make sure he’s comfortable and well guarded in a secure place.”
As Gutierrez was led away, hands still bound behind his back, Matt caught his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “I owe you for saving me and Sam from Razor last fall,” he said quietly. “And from what I remember you seemed like a good guy back then. But a lot has changed over the winter.”
Gutierrez nodded. “I get it.”
Once the man was gone Trev sidled up to his friend. “I didn’t know he saved you and Sam. Actually I didn’t know much about him at all until just now.”
Lewis gave him an impatient look. “Now’s not the time to get on Matt’s case for failing to fill us in properly.” He turned to their friend. “I take it you trust him, at least a little?”
“Yeah. A very little.” Matt lifted his radio. “Tom, how do you feel about abandoning your sniper’s post to try to get an eye on the convoy?”
There was a reluctant pause before the older man answered. “Like I’d really rather not.”
“Will you anyway?” Trev gave a start as his friend turned to him and his cousin, still pressing the radio’s transmit button so Tom could hear. “Trev, Lewis, will you go with him?”
Trev glanced at his cousin, who sighed. “I should’ve just changed positions and kept observing them,” he muttered. “Maybe I panicked.”
Matt shook his head. “I don’t think you did. They’ll be more careful about securing their perimeter from now on. Stay far back, far enough that you can barely see the vehicles and they can’t see you, and just let us know if they move and in which direction.”
Lewis nodded thoughtfully. “Fine with me.” With that his cousin turned and started for the lefthand building, pulling out his night vision goggles to hang around his neck until it got dark enough to use them.
Trev hurried to follow as they made their way around the roadblock and started circling towards where the convoy was parked.
Terry had got the wounded stabilized and found volunteers to help carry them on stretchers back to the clinic before Tom and the cousins reported in that the convoy had pulled their trucks into a tight defensive formation and now appeared to be arguing.
About a half hour later Trev radioed in that the raiders were driving away, back towards Highway 6. At that news the people behind the roadblock cheered, and more cheers came through the radio.
Matt wasn’t about to start celebrating, though. “Can you guys follow them and make sure they’re gone?” he asked over the hubbub.
“Sure, although we might just find empty road when we get there,” Trev answered.
The mood around Matt was much lighter with the wounded gone to receive whatever help Terry could give and the news that the raiders were gone. Matt had a bad feeling that things were too easy, even with Lewis’s skill at sniping.
He almost wasn’t surprised when Trev and Lewis reported back after a half hour or so to say that three of the six trucks had taken a defensible position across the highway at the turnoff and were settling in, while the cousins running ahead of Tom to reach the highway had arrived just in time to see the taillights of the other three trucks heading south.
The mood at the roadblock immediately sank into gloom again, although a few optimists pointed out that at least the trucks were farther from town now.
Not long after that even the optimists shut up when Pete Childress and Rick Watson, two of the snipers watching the garden plots and the south border of town, reported sighting trucks driving without headlights following the small roads outside of town, never getting too close. Only minutes later Jane reported a truck passing by the mouth of Aspen Hill Canyon headed north, scouting the area.
With each new enemy sighting Matt felt his nerves fraying, even though nobody reported any confrontations and he’d ordered his people to only attack if fired on. The hours passed like days and he wished he dared risk a light, just so he could see something. But with the enemy out there, almost definitely with night vision considering the trucks without headlights, they couldn’t take any risk.
Finally Matt called the cousins back to town while Tom kept an eye on the convoy, although he didn’t give the order because he needed their help. An hour later when they finally approached the roadblock in the dark, radioing ahead so they wouldn’t get shot at, he pulled them aside from everyone to talk.
“You should probably put the defenders on shifts so they can start getting rest,” Lewis advised, his own yawn nearly interrupting the suggestion. “This looks like it might drag out and we want as many sharp eyes and minds as possible.”
Matt nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.” He changed the subject, coming right out with it. “You should go.”
“Okay,” Trev said, also yawning. “We’ll be able to take over the morning shift that way.”
“No, I don’t mean to bed,” Matt corrected, a bit impatiently. “If these raiders decide on a siege they’ll surround the town and you’ll be trapped in here. You guys need to get to Trev’s family before the Gold Bloc invades, right?” He shook his head in disbelief. “I can still hardly believe that. We’re looking at a foreign invasion and Ferris is going around attacking Americans.”
“Was,” Trev corrected. He looked a bit insulted. “You think I’m leaving the town right now the way things are going? We already had this discussion.”
“I have to agree,” Lewis said reluctantly. “I didn’t think going was a good idea in the first place, and anyway I feel like I need to stay here. I’m the one who took out the raiders’ leaders, and whether the consequences for that are good or bad I need to see it through.”
Trev shook his head. “Well I hope we’re still going once we get things sorted out here, even if we’re delayed a bit.”
Matt sighed. He was glad the cousins would be staying to help the town, but at the same time he felt a built guilty about the clear worry on Trev’s face. And after his friend had helped Matt get April’s family he felt like he owed him something, some help, even if he couldn’t go with him.
But if their minds were made up the town needed everyone they could get. “All right, then. Go get some rest you two. I’ll want you fresh in the morning.”
Before too long the cousins had disappeared in the direction of the shelter, and Matt settled in at the roadblock and began calling for reports on the radio to make sure nobody in vital positions was falling asleep. He wouldn’t have minded falling asleep himself, but he forced himself to stay active. He also began organizing shifts and relieving most of the people who weren’t out watching the approaches to the town to get some sleep.