“It’s strong,” she said. “This will do nicely.”
“For what?” I asked.
“We can make fire bombs. And with some rags, I can set my bolts on fire. These will scatter the Muties, induce panic, especially if we strike while they’re asleep.”
The remainder of that day we marched according to the scouts’ directions. At Morrow’s orders, they were constantly running back and forth, carrying messages about this portion of the horde. It wasn’t the whole army I’d seen camped in the fields outside Salvation, but they didn’t need all of their forces to take smaller towns. It made sense for them to protect the territory they’d already claimed—and at the moment, I didn’t have sufficient numbers to take back Appleton, but I could keep them from overrunning Lorraine. Come nightfall, we were three miles from our intended target.
“Tonight, it’s critical that you follow orders. Kill on the perimeter and fall back. Make them chase you. Anything that increases confusion and decreases visibility, do it. And run if you need to.” I raked away the grass until I had a patch of dry dirt to serve as a map, then I etched some directions. “This is where we’ll regroup. They may follow, trying to force a fair fight. We won’t give it to them. This is where our forest starts, and if necessary, we’ll fight in retreat. Ideally, though, we’re going to hit them, kill as many as we can, then vanish. That’s the plan.”
“Any questions?” Thornton asked.
There were a number and he fielded them as I strode away. I hoped I sounded confident and prepared when my heart was pounding like a drum. So much depended on my instincts being right; I had no doubts that this needed to be done, but maybe I had no business attempting it. Who am I to lead these men?
“I’m with you,” Fade said softly.
I wanted so badly to turn into his arms, but I was afraid he’d recoil—and it wouldn’t be a good way to behave in front of the men, either. No doubt Tully and Spence were deeply in love, despite the fact that she was a good ten years older, but they never touched, never kissed where anybody could see. I just saw it in the way he gazed at her, like he’d fall over and stop breathing if she ever quit looking back.
“It’s normal to be scared,” he went on, “and I’m glad you are. It makes me feel better about the butterflies in my stomach. This will be the biggest battle we’ve ever fought.”
“Thanks.”
Though his arms remained at his sides, Fade whispered, “This is me holding you. And this is me, kissing you for luck.”
That put a smile on my face. Maybe a battlefield was no place for such attachments, but I couldn’t put away those feelings. He was part of me like my shadow.
“This is me, kissing you back.”
“Deuce!” Morrow shouted. “I need you.”
My eyes met Fade’s and clung, and that look said so many things, and then I strode away to handle last-minute inquiries about troop deployments. The camp the Freaks had chosen offered us higher ground on a ridge above, so that was where I meant to plant our riflemen. Tully planned to start the fires, and six soldiers would carry the firebombs, which could be lobbed as far as somebody could throw them.
Just after moonrise, Company D moved out. A silver sliver in the sky, the moon cast barely enough light to keep the rest of the men from stumbling over their feet. For me, it was fine, and I could’ve navigated with my eyes closed. Which meant I was on point with the scouts to make sure the ambush went off smoothly.
I crept up over the rise, my stomach in knots. I hadn’t seen so many Freaks gathered in one place since I ran from the horde, saving Fade. Fear boiled up in the form of bile, acid in my throat, but I swallowed it down. You’ve taken enough, I told the monsters silently. This is all you get. This is where the end begins.
After spotting the best vantage points, I set the riflemen in place. Once the fires started burning down below, it should help with targeting. After all, it didn’t matter where they shot the Freaks; bullets never felt good going in. Once Tully was in position with the gunmen, I crept down to join the others.
“Thornton,” I whispered. “You have command of the infantry. Don’t let the inexperienced ones get swept too far into the mob.”
“Will do my best,” he said with Longshot’s familiar salute.
Thornton wasn’t the only man I’d seen use that gesture; it was common in the territories, a way of showing respect without acknowledging any superior rank. Yet it was inexpressibly poignant to see that just before the fight of a lifetime, a sign that Longshot was here watching over me. Maybe that was nonsense, but I’d take the hope of it because then I could imagine being united someday with the people I’d lost. If nothing else, it bolstered my courage, so I was able to give orders in a tone firm enough to make them believe we would triumph.
“The enemy’s sleeping, men. Bring the pain.”
Escort
From the first fiery bolt, the battle went according to plan.
We got a bonus when the field caught, creating an inferno of snarling panic. The Freaks fled from the blaze and ran straight into our blades. Between the dark night and the bright fire, they hardly saw us as they died. The firebombs exploded in the center of the camp, immolating a number of the monsters. On the ridge, riflemen picked them off as they scattered. In the chaos, we killed them with impunity, until they realized how few we were and then they charged. I couldn’t let them surround us. My men didn’t have the experience to win at such steep odds.
“Sound the retreat,” I shouted.
Morrow piped out the notes warning the squad to fall back to the agreed location on the forest’s edge. The men responded, aware our tactics didn’t allow for a stand-up fight; we meant to kill as many as possible before luring them to more advantageous terrain, where we’d fare better against superior numbers. Fade was nearby, so we fought together as we gave ground. I stabbed and slashed, careful not to turn my back on monsters that might impale me from behind. Thornton shot one over my shoulder and I turned. Fade ran with me, full out, until we put the war zone behind us. I counted as the soldiers stumbled in. In the end, we lost ten men. Well enough, I hadn’t expected to defeat them in one ambush.
“How many did you get?” I asked the men, after they reached our rendezvous point.
The tally was close to a hundred—and I smothered their urge to cheer. It was a solid achievement, one third of the enemy’s number. We fell back into the forest thereafter and these Freaks apparently weren’t bound by the deal we’d made with the others, which confirmed they were part of the horde. They hunted us through the trees, but in such terrain, they couldn’t fight as a mob, so we picked them off. Company D fought in constant motion, never letting them rest. On the sixth night, the Freaks fell back to set up camp in the grasslands beyond. There were only a hundred of them left by then, but I had no plans to offer them a fair fight.
Two weeks into the conflict, other problems plagued us. Between the Freaks in the area and our own men, it was difficult to find game. Fishing helped a little, but time spent on provender, as Thornton called it, left less time for evading their attacks and for planning our own. The situation had to be addressed before it got worse.
Before I could resolve that crisis, Morrow brought grim news. “There’s a trade caravan heading from Gaspard to Soldier’s Pond. My scouts think the Muties we’ve been harassing intend to hit it for supplies before circling back to Lorraine.”
“We can’t let that happen,” I said. “Let’s move.”
That began a hard march east with little food and less sleep. Company D was thin and exhausted when we met the traders on the road. I expected them to greet us with rifles, but word of our exploits had spread, and they actually recognized the banner Momma Oaks had made. Most days, Gavin carried it proudly, the pennant flying in the wind.
“Oi, Company D!” the lead driver called.
“You intend to hang us too?” I joked.
Laughing, the man shook his head. “The guards are still talking about that, you know. I wouldn’t expect a warm welcome in town anytime soon, but stories are different on the road. Vince Howe and John Kelley have only the best things to say.”
“We’ll get you to Soldier’s Pond,” I offered, “but you’ll have to help feed us.”
I hoped they could spare us something in Soldier’s Pond since a good number of our men came from there. If not, we could surely share the traders’ rations while we protected them.
The trader nodded without hesitation. “I can make the meal stretch to porridge if you can augment with fresh meat.” There was some grumbling from his men because they’d expected skillet cakes, not gruel, but he leveled a stern look on them. “Do you want to live? This area’s crawling with Muties.”
He was right; only the skill of our scouts had let us reach the caravan before the enemy, and to get to Soldier’s Pond, we had to circle the forest because of the wagons. There would be ample opportunity for them to hit us before then. A knot formed in my stomach because the last time we’d guarded supplies like this, Stalker died. I couldn’t handle losing anybody else. But I put my fears aside and informed the men that we had a new goal—and at the end, there would be some rest in Soldier’s Pond. That roused a weary cheer from warriors who had been subsisting on plants and berries. I didn’t know about them, but I was starving and so weary of wild-leek-and-mushroom soup. It had been days since I’d eaten more than a scrap of meat, choosing to give my share to the soldiers instead.
“You’re too thin,” Fade had said, when he caught me doing so. “You can’t keep up your strength if you don’t eat.”
“I am,” I’d muttered.
There just wasn’t much to be had. Between constant fighting and laying ambushes, then moving fast enough to stay out of reach, we didn’t have time to hunt properly or bring down big game, assuming the Freaks had left any. There should be moose and deer, but it had been a week since the scouts saw any tracks. There was only smaller game like rabbits and squirrels, less worth the trouble of catching because it took so many to feed the soldiers. Sometimes we skinned them and put the meat in the pot for flavor along with the leeks, potatoes, and mushrooms, but it wasn’t enough nutrition to keep us strong.
“I can’t wait to see my family,” a man said.
“Me either.”
I left them to the talk of happy reunions, as long as they fell into formation when Thornton barked the order. And they did. My soldiers were young and old, male and female, but they all had courage to spare. We marched alongside the wagons with the Company D banner flying high; and it was dusk when the monsters came.
This was their first chance to strike at us in the open, a risk I’d known we were taking when I decided to protect the caravan. But if they got hold of these supplies, people in Soldier’s Pond and Gaspard might starve, plus it’d strengthen the enemy. I couldn’t let that happen. I recalled what Dr. Wilson said about how hunger made them digest their own brains. If we kept them from finding new food sources, they’d get dumber and easier to kill. They came at us in the loping run now so familiar to me, but there was no smell at all, except the sweat of unwashed soldiers and the general reek of the mules.
