and charts from an age long gone decorated the walls. Electric lamps and fans lay piled in the corner, seen by the light of a couple of camping lanterns.
As soon as the door closed behind us, Ken and I collapsed into chairs in front of the desk. He was evidently every bit as exhausted as I was.
Jim took the seat opposite us, and I noticed that his left eye was a bit swollen from the punch I had given him in City Hall. “So what happened? I heard there was trouble.”
Ken nodded and began explaining in general what all had happened. At times, Jim or Ken would ask me to fill in some detail, but I tried to keep my mouth shut and let Ken do most of the talking. When he reached the point at which Sarah hopped the fence, I expected Jim to explode, but the mayor just sat there twiddling a pencil with his feet propped on the desk. It reminded me of the time he had questioned me after the Kindley affair. At least this time we were on the same side. The question and answer session went on for nearly an hour, with Jim asking dozens of questions to be sure he had the entire picture. Finally, he seemed satisfied.
“We figure she’ll make her move tomorrow night or the next,” Ken finished.
Jim sighed. “Well, I guess it’s really gonna hit the fan now, ain’t it?”
Ken and I were silent. No response seemed necessary.
Jim suddenly became animated. He dropped his feet off of the desk, stood up, and began pacing. “So what do we need to do to get our people out of there with as little risk as possible?”
“Let us send in some more volunteers tomorrow,” I jumped in. “Small groups like we did tonight. We can send them in a few at a time and have them set up to help her when she makes her move.”
“Ken?” Jim was the mayor, but he deferred to Ken just like the rest of us when it came to battlefield strategy.
Ken didn’t look happy with the situation, but had finally accepted the responsibility. “That’s about the only thing I can think of, too. But you have to understand something here.” He paused. “We’re going to lose some people, Jim. There’s no way around it.”
“How many?”
Ken shrugged wearily. “How many are going to panic under fire? How many are going to shoot when they should duck for cover, or duck for cover when they should shoot? We’re not talking about seasoned troops here. We’re talking about a bunch of auto mechanics and schoolteachers armed with deer rifles.
“They’re going up against guys with military grade hardware who have made killing into a way of life. On top of that, they have a tank sitting where our people will have to go right past it, and at least five others somewhere in town. Our only advantage is Sarah’s inside and knows where the supplies are, so we’ll have people shooting from inside
I couldn’t help feeling that Ken was being overly pessimistic, though. Maybe it was because I had finally begun to feel like I fit in over the last year. Rejas was home, its people my friends and neighbors. They were people I had taught, worked with, and had now fought beside. We had been through a lot together, and I felt obligated to defend them against Ken’s pessimism. “Wait a sec. Let’s not forget that this last year has been pretty rough on everyone. Plenty of these folks have had to face armed outlaws on their own, and hundreds have trained with you, me, and Eric. They may not be soldiers, but they’re not your average businessman or housewife anymore, either.”
“Okay,” he conceded. “Maybe they aren’t. But they’re hardly up to military training levels.”
“Neither are Larry’s men!”
That stopped him-for all of two seconds. “What about ammunition?”
Caught off guard, I responded in stellar fashion. “Huh?”
“Ammunition… bullets. Have you forgotten? We were running low before Larry ever got here! We’ve probably used more ammunition in the last twenty-four hours than we have in the last six months.” Actually, I had forgotten, which was pretty stupid of me, since my favorite tasks at the forge were coming into prominence because of that shortage.
Ken must have seen it in my face. “Don’t worry about it just now. It’s not like we’re going to run out tomorrow. But if we end up in a prolonged fight with these guys, say a couple of weeks or so,
He turned his attention back to the mayor, who had kept quiet during the exchange. “Look, Jim, all I can tell you is that as long as we prepare in advance, we’ll get more people out than we’ll lose. Don’t ask me for any predictions beyond that.”
Jim sighed. “Shit.”
We were all silent for a moment, each of us trying to think of something to tip the scales in our favor.
Abruptly Jim snapped his fingers. “There is a little good news, anyway. Wayne Kelley told me to tell ya’ll that he found enough ingredients in the rail depot out back to make plenty of explosives. He’s settin’ things up now.”
“Good,” Ken said. “Maybe he’ll come up with something that will make a difference.”
The mayor nodded. “Let’s hope so. Meanwhile, you boys go get some rest. If you’re plannin’ to go back into town tomorrow, you’ll need all the rest you can get.”
Ken and I rose, nearly dead on our feet. “What about you?” I asked.
“I doubt I’ll get any sleep tonight,” Jim said. “Gotta get some people organized. You go on and don’t worry about it. I’ll sleep after you’re gone.”
Too tired to argue, we left without further comment.
Ken told me he needed to walk a little to clear his head before trying to rest. I was too exhausted to do anything but nod and wish him goodnight. Then I wandered through the complex searching for my family. It was harder than I had anticipated, as we had more than two thousand people trying to find someplace to sleep in a building never intended to hold more than a few hundred. And it was definitely not designed for sleeping. Refugees were scattered all over the place, sleeping on the floor, on storage racks; I even saw one man curled up on top of the protective cage on an old forklift. There was barely room to walk.
After asking around, I finally found where Debra and the kids were bedded down and joined them as quietly as possible. I carefully lay down, trying not to wake Debra, but I should have known better.
“I heard it was pretty bad,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” An image of Jenna’s lifeless form came to mind, the way her head lolled as we loaded her corpse into the truck on the way back, the smell of blood and death, the knowledge that it was no longer a person, just a sack of meat. “It was bad.” I shuddered and quickly suppressed the image, but my wife knew me well.
She snuggled up behind me as I lay on my side and slipped an arm over my shoulder to gently stroke my chest. She pressed her head up against my back and briefly kissed the back of my neck. “Would it help to talk about it?”
I shook my head. “Not now. Maybe later, but I can’t right now.” Fearing she might feel I was shutting her out, I added, “I’m sorry, babe, but I have to figure out how to deal with it on my own. It was a mess, and there’s probably going to be worse tomorrow.”
Her hand stopped. “What do you mean?”
I sighed. I hadn’t meant to get into it, but it wouldn’t be fair to keep her wondering now that I had mentioned it. “We found where they’ve got everyone, and Sarah got inside.”
“And?” Her tone told me she knew at least part of the rest.
“And we think she’s going to try to bust them out.”
“When?”
“Best guess is either tomorrow night or the next.”
She was silent for a few seconds. “You have to go back?”
“Yeah. They’ll never make it without help.”
“And it has to be you?” She started to sound upset. “It can’t be someone else, some other group? Haven’t you done enough?”
“Not this time. I know where she went in and what the situation is like there.”
“So write it down. I heard about some of what happened tonight. I don’t like the idea of you going out there again!”
