“By the way, you look good,” Nate said.
Gaby sighed. “This isn’t the time.”
“I’m just saying. You still look good, and I don’t say that to a lot of women with more scars on their face than me—”
Her radio vibrated against her hand, cutting off Nate. Danny’s voice came through the speakers at half-volume, just loud enough for them to hear. “Heads up. Here comes the cavalry.”
The sound of car engines grew in the distance, getting louder as the vehicles got closer.
“More of your friends,” Gaby said.
“Not my friends,” Nate said, sounding almost…annoyed?
Two trucks, with men clinging to the back, sped down the highway toward the Titan. She watched them through her binoculars and easily identified the camo uniforms they had on. They were identical to the one worn by the man crouched next to her right now. The vehicles stopped ten yards from the Nissan, and the men hopped out and swarmed it. They were moving in something that she could almost believe was an actual tactical formation.
“Nate,” Danny said through the radio.
She looked to her left at a patch of overgrown grass about forty meters from her position and halfway to the highway. Danny. He was close enough that he could probably hear everything the soldiers were saying. He had camouflaged himself so well that she couldn’t find a single trace of his existence. And if she couldn’t spot him — and she knew exactly where to look — there was no chance the men on the interstate were going to.
Gaby handed Nate the radio, and he said into it, “Yeah.”
Although they weren’t quite whispering, they had adopted a low decibel. She and Nate were firmly established inside their hiding spot more than seventy meters from the highway, far enough that they couldn’t be spotted through the yard or so of trees in front of them. Of course, it would be a different story if the soldiers started walking toward them or looked closely with binoculars, but hopefully the missing Silverado would convince them they had taken it. After all, what reason could they possibly have to stick around thirty minutes later?
So what does that make us? Smart or stupid?
I guess we’ll find out.
“Who’s in charge of this little circus of yours?” Danny was asking Nate through the radio.
“In charge?” Nate said. He thought about it for a moment. “I guess Mason. This short guy. He was running things when they sent us over to replace the ones they lost back in Dunbar. Why?”
Danny ignored his question and asked instead, “How many of you are running around out here?”
Nate winced a bit at the “how many of you” part, as if he didn’t like being reminded of the uniform he was wearing. Which was hard, since he was still wearing the damn thing. It even had his name on it, for God’s sake.
“They sent ten of us over just in case you made it off Route 13,” Nate said. “They left the three of us behind and the rest went on to Salvani, like I said before.”
“The not-so-magnificent seven. What were their orders?”
“I have no idea. They don’t actually tell me everything. Most of us don’t know what’s happening until guys like Mason show up and start giving orders. You gotta understand, these aren’t actually soldiers. They’re playing dress up. I don’t think half of these guys could have survived a real Boot Camp.”
“What about these mutts we’re looking at now? What’s their story?”
He was talking about the six men spreading out along the interstate in front of them, probably looking for hints of where she and the others had taken the Silverado. Gaby wondered if any of them actually knew what they were doing.
“Weekend warriors,” Will had once called them.
“My guess is that Mason sent them forward to connect with us,” Nate said into the radio. “We’re using two-ways, but they have limited range. There’s probably another group further down the highway, waiting to relay the message back to Route 13.”
On cue, one of the men took out a radio and spoke into it. She had no chance of hearing him over the distance, which was good because that meant he couldn’t overhear them, either.
“It’s a slapdash operation,” Nate continued. “I get the feeling they’re just making it up as they go.” He had looked over at her when he added, “Imagine what they could do if they had someone with actual leadership ability at the helm, instead of some eighteen-year-old kid.”
He’s talking about Josh.
“That’s nineteen-year-old kid to you,” Josh would say.
She didn’t bother correcting Nate or responding to his querying glance. If he was going to keep secrets from her until later, then she’d return it in kind. Maybe it was a little childish, but what the hell, he was supposed to be dead.
“You gonna tell me what we’re still doing here?” Nate said into the radio. “We could be halfway to Salvani by now.”
“There’s no hurry, kid,” Danny said. “You ever heard the story about the hare and the tortoise?”
“Slow and steady wins the race?”
“Sure, there’s that, but I was referring to the part where the tortoise hid in the woods and ate a bag of jerky.”
They heard what sounded like chewing on the other end of the radio.
Nate gave her a confused look. “Is he eating?”
Gaby shook her head. “It’s Danny.”
“And that explains it?”
“Yes.”
“Hunh.”
They sat in the same spot and watched in silence until the newly arrived trucks fired up again and the men climbed into the back. The vehicles took off up the highway, picking up speed as they went. Soon, the only sounds were the slight echoes of their engines reverberating across the calm midday sky. Gaby and Nate didn’t move or say a word until they couldn’t hear the vehicles anymore. Even then, both of them were hesitant to break the silence—
“There goes the hare,” a voice said behind them.
She spun around at the same time as Nate, both of them reaching for their weapons.
Except it was just Danny, standing behind them chewing on a piece of jerky he had taken out of a bag of Oberto.
“Jesus,” Gaby said.
“Nah, it’s just me,” Danny said. “Let’s get back to the Chevy before the girls run off in search of better pastures.”
He turned around and began moving through the woods.
She got up, and with Nate at her side, followed him. Nate gave her a How’d he get behind us? look.
She shook her head.
“What now?” Nate asked Danny.
“They’re going west, toward your other friends,” Danny said.
Nate flinched again, this time at the word “friends.”
Danny was picking his way back to where they had parked the collaborator truck they had taken off the highway, and she couldn’t help but find his slow and steady pace to be slightly irritating. Shouldn’t they be moving faster? With purpose?
“Looks like they’ve gathering the buggers into one place,” Danny said. “Despite my legendary skills, that’s way too many to take on, especially with the women and kids to take care of. And, oh, you too, Natester.”
“So we go around them,” Gaby said. “We don’t actually have to go through Salvani, do we?”
“No. But it’s likely they’ll have the rest of the interstate covered, too. Leave behind spotters just in case we decide to take a detour or find a shortcut. Right, Nathaniel Hawthorne?”
“I don’t know,” Nate said. “Maybe. Like I said, they didn’t really tell me the whole plan. Go here, stay there, back up these guys. That’s pretty much it.” Then he added, “And it’s just Nate.”