Joshua (Book 2): Traveler (12 page)

“You have any idea how many enemy numbers we’re talking about?”

“No, not an exact count, I do know they outnumber us.”

“You’re sure?”

“Definitely, you could hear it from that first attack. They were firing off multiple guns from three distinct directions. If they don’t have at least twelve to fifteen men, I would be very surprised.”

Rob was as close to panic as anyone had ever seen him, “So, what are we going to do?”

“Well, first we’re going to have to make a very basic decision, do we defend this place or run?”

“Run? You have to be joking. We couldn’t possibly get away with more than a month’s worth of food, and then what? Even if we got away clean, we’re going to be out in the cold and starving, right as winter really gets started. Run? Think again.”

“Okay, so we’ll be defending this place. We already know the most likely locations and time for the attack. We’ll have to hold the line, though, and not fall for their tricks. I say we keep every man inside the fences except for leaving two out in the north and south observation posts. No matter what happens we stay inside where it’s safest.”

“You think it will work?”

“Maybe, there’s too many variables to prepare for every possible attack, but we’ll do what we can. I think it is safe to assume they won’t be coming midday. We should let most the guys get some sleep, if they can.”

They waited throughout the day for the attack that never came, the men trying to get some sleep if they could. When the sun went down, the guards were doubled, but still the attack did not come.

As the sun was rising again in the east, a disheartened mood settled over the house and Robert’s men. They knew the attack would be coming soon.

Just as the morning frost was gone, there came a strange sound from the south, one none of them had heard in such a long time.

Rob went to the window with Alton right behind him. “What is that? Alton, you hear it?”

“Yes ... it’s a motor.”

“You’re right! They’ve got some kind of vehicle, that’s a diesel engine.”

Alton scanned at a distance with the binoculars, “This changes everything.”

Rob got on the radio and yelled out the front door too, “Everybody get ready, they’ll be coming soon! Hold your positions, whatever happens, hold!”

Just then the sound of the engine began racing and through the brush an old flatbed truck leaped forward. At that exact same time, the house started taking fire from several positions from the south and east.

Bullets started tearing through the house and everyone got closer to the floor, some started shooting back at the enemy still to too far to be seen.

Alton was almost in charge now, “Save your ammo, guys. Wait until you can see them. It’s not time ... yet.”

The truck was quickly approaching from the south, lightly bouncing as it made its way through the field.

D’Cruz was in the south observation post. He jumped from his hole and sprinted back towards the fence line. Martinelli crawled from his position with the key for the gate. He opened it just in time to let D’Cruz in and locked it again. Both got back into their firing positions. The truck was now nearly on top of them.

Rob yelled out, “FIRE!”

Everyone on the south side of the house poured gunfire into the truck without effect, it continued rushing forward at a breakneck pace. The truck never even slowed as it crashed right into the fence and soared over the posts. It was stopped midair, the motor still roaring, sitting on top of the flattened fence and telephone poles. The driver was dead but it didn’t matter, the truck’s purpose was now quite clear.

Across the bed and cab of the truck lay three sturdy metal ladders attached to the top. The entire south side of the fence was crushed and the truck made a perfect bridge over it and right into the perimeter of the camp.

Rising over the noise of the engine they could hear another sound that quickly drowned it out. Along the east and south sides they could now see them, a large group of attackers rapidly approaching through the fields, the air filled with their feral screams and shouts.

Rob turned to see a large army charging the house, the drone of the mob now completely obliterating the engine’s roar. For the first time ever, panic could be heard in Rob’s voice, “There’s got to be sixty or seventy of them! Everybody keep firing! Kill them all!”

The horde rapidly advanced on the south fence line, running, shooting, and screaming like savages.

The men did as ordered, concentrating on the group now scaling the ladders. They continued to pour rifle fire into the mob, but for every enemy soldier they cut down, another two kept coming.

Martinelli and D’Cruz retreated from their positions, heading back for the house. As they did, the first few attackers cleared the collapsed fence and dropped to the ground on the inside.

Both men were in the house and by now nearly a dozen of the enemy were inside the perimeter, firing and advancing without hesitation.

Rob was at a loss for new words, or ideas, “Everybody keep firing! KILL THEM ALL!”

So Alton decisively took command, “Everybody out the north gate! Grab your bug out bags and go! You know your lines of retreat, get out of here! Check your maps! We’ll rendezvous at point Echo at twelve hundred hours tomorrow! GO!”

Alton grabbed Nicky by his arm and lifted up the terrified boy, who was screaming, prone on the floor. “Nicky, grab your stuff! GO ON!” Then he turned to James lying there looking up at him in a stupor, “You heard what I said, grab your stuff and follow me!”

Both boys had their bags and were following right behind Alton as he paused and turned back to Rob, Martinelli, and D’Cruz still firing from the front window. “We’ve got to go!”

Rob turned, a little more in control than he was a minute before. “I heard you, we’ll hold them here, give you and the boys a little head start. We’ll meet you at point Echo at twelve hundred tomorrow. Good luck.”

The three rushed out the north door, the rest of the men were waiting for them there. All four were watching for trouble as that awful sound from the other side of the house continued to grow.

There was no time for a discussion so Alton went right to the plan, “Cornwell, you’re with me. McCain, you take Peavey and Rudd, use the second escape route on your map, we’re taking the first one. We will rendezvous at point Echo on your map at twelve hundred hours tomorrow.”

McCain took aim with his rifle as the horrible noise only grew louder, “All right, you guys go first, we’ll cover you.”

“Thanks, remember, point Echo, tomorrow at twelve hundred, good luck.” Alton, Cornwell, and the boys made a mad dash out the gate. As they did, they could hear the sound of their own men firing on the approaching mob.

Then in the distance they could hear more shots being fired. Another group of enemy soldiers was rapidly advancing on them from the field to the north.

They ran west across the grassy meadow towards a thick patch of forest, the sound of bullets coming closer by the moment.

When they made their way to the cover of the woods, Alton stopped them again behind a stout old walnut tree. “James, I want you to take Nicky and keep going, me and Cornwell are staying here. We’ll take out any that follow us.”

The older boy protested, “I don’t want to go without you guys ...”

But Alton still had no time for talking as the sounds of gunfire and the fanatic mob were only growing by the second, “Shut up! Stop your crying! James, you have to get going. You’ll have to look after yourself and Nicky too. I’m counting on you. Here,” he took his map and thrust it into James’s hand, “follow this line, see it,” as he traced with his finger. “There’s a drainage ditch just past these trees. Follow it west until you can see an old silo. It’s easy to find, wait for us there. But if we don’t show up in an hour, both of you continue moving,” he put his compass on top of the crumpled map in the boy’s now shaking hand, “Follow the compass at two hundred ninety-five degrees from that silo. Can you remember that? Two hundred ninety-five degrees and approximately four miles of walking, will bring you to our rendezvous point. It’s an old country grocery store all by itself next to the road. You wait for us there. We’ll all meet up there tomorrow at twelve hundred hours.”

The boy still objected as that horrible noise continued to grow louder, “But ... what if ...”

“There’s no time left for talking. James, I know you’re afraid, but you have to ignore it. The two of you have to go now! GO!”

James seized Nicky by his hand and they both took off running. As they hurriedly made their way through the trees, wet leaves, and thick underbrush, they ran for a clearing they could see on the far side.

From behind them came the sound of Alton’s and Cornwell’s rifles. They were on full auto and the boys could hear the bark of their short, controlled bursts ring through the trees as they engaged the enemy at point-blank range.

The boy thought of the friends he was leaving behind, maybe forever, and knew that John Alton was right. There was nothing he could do for them, his first duty was to get Nicky out of there and save himself too.

As the two boys walked out past the last tree and into the bright sunshine, they stopped to catch their breath. In the distance the muted sound of automatic fire continued to echo in the forest behind them.

Moving once more, James spotted the ditch Alton told him about. They began following it and with a few minutes of running it was all quiet again, the world they just left behind feeling like a bad dream, not the nightmare that was all too real.

With nearly a mile of walking, the two found the silo and took a well-deserved rest under a tall buckeye.

They waited in silence and James started thinking of what he would do if Alton or Cornwell never came. He tried to recall the instructions he was given, was it 295 degrees or 290, he just couldn’t remember after all the excitement of the day. He sat there unsure of anything, except that if his and Nicky’s survival was in his hands, they were both in real trouble.

After over an hour of sitting in the quiet shade of that tree, Nicky finally had something to say. He turned to his friend, “James, what if ... what if John and Cornwell are dead? What if they’re all dead? What are we going to do then?”

James remained silent as he didn’t have any answer for the boy. Fortunately, he was saved from admitting it when he saw Cornwell and Alton fast approaching from across a bit of pasture land off on the horizon.

The four had their short reunion with Nicky excitedly hugging both men. James thought the boy was never going to let John Alton go. The boys got the PG version of what happened from Alton as he took his compass and map back, folding the map into its original crisp square shape again. After another brief rest to catch their breath and have some water, they were all on their way carrying everything they owned on their backs, along with huge smiles on both the boys’ faces.

With about a mile of marching and thinking, James once more had the weight of the world on his back, and finally it broke. “I should have never joined you guys. I should have stayed on my own.”

Alton was understanding, as much as he could be considering all the facts he didn’t know. “James, I know what happened scared you, and you have a right to be scared, but this is how the world is now. You have to accept that. You have to accept the good and the bad. At least you’ve got us, you’ve got your friends ...”

“Some friends I’ve got.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Rob told me what you guys wanted. He told me what you would do to me, too, if I ran away.”

“What are you talking about? What would we do to you if you ran away?”

“He told me you would track me down and kill me. He told me about the new job you had for me too.”

Alton stopped and turned to Cornwell with a bewildered look on his face, “Have you heard any of this? Have you heard anyone say they were going to hurt James if he tried to leave?”

Cornwell seemed just as confused, “Nope, this is the first I’m hearing of it.”

James went on in his mournful tone. “Rob told me what you would do. He said you guys would come looking to kill me, if I ran away, but only after you hurt me real bad.”

Alton shook his head, completely disbelieving, “He said we would all come looking to kill you?”

“Not all of you, he said ‘some of the guys’ and I never knew exactly which of you guys he meant.”

“You must’ve misunderstood Rob. We’re not holding you against your will, James. You’re free to go any time. We wouldn’t want you here if you didn’t want to be here. You understand if you do go you can’t take the equipment with you. That belongs to the group. But otherwise you can go anytime you want to. No one’s going to stop you.”

“What about our oath?”

“That oath was Rob’s idea. It meant much more to him than the rest of us. Right, Cornwell?”

Cornwell nodded.

“Besides, where in the oath did it say you couldn’t leave the group if you wanted to?”

James paused and considered the question.

Alton turned and started marching again, Cornwell and the boys were following right behind. “I just don’t understand this ... how you could get this idea?”

James caught up with Alton and went on with his sad story, the boy now looking like he wanted to cry, “He told me about the job you had for me too. I thought you were my friends ... I thought you liked me.”

“We do like you. What is this job you keep talking about?”

“Since I didn’t want to learn about guns, Rob said I couldn’t be a soldier. He said I could keep the camp running though ... wash the clothes, stuff like that.”

“Yes, that was discussed. What’s wrong with that? James, you’ve made it quite clear since you’ve been here you didn’t want to have anything to do with guns. We were just trying to find some job you could do.”

The boy laughed and wiped a tear from his eye, “Yeah, like my other duties?”

“What other duties?”

“You know.”

“No, I don’t know. What duties?”

James stopped and looked at Nicky, who was staring at him, utterly confused. “Rob said ... he said I would have to ‘service’ you guys, anytime you wanted me to. You know what I mean ... when I say service?” He eyes shifted back to Nicky who still didn’t have a clue to what the two were talking about.