“Daddy, we missed you,” said Jax, “but we were playing games, so it’s okay.”
“Did you have fun with your friends?” he asked.
“Oh, something like that, son,” I replied.
I was exhausted, as I assumed everyone else was, having been through more than one adrenaline dump in the past few hours. My mind wandered as I wondered if it was similar for soldiers at war, and I had a new appreciation for what they may go through. Except I would likely get to turn it off, at least for the immediate future.
Still, we separated into two-person groups and canvassed the entire perimeter for the next three hours, including the use of Mel’s two drones, before declaring the property safe from intruders and fire.
I was looking forward to dinner and an early bedtime tonight. Joy wanted to try our friends on the radio tonight, but I pushed it off a day.
“Ronna’s group will be going by tomorrow or the next day, and I’m pretty sure he’s already heard about what happened today. Plus, I think the Colonel will tell him we are hands-off. We’ll try them tomorrow morning,” I told her.
We had three-person security shifts, with Joy and many of the other ladies demanding a spot. Lonnie set the teams and times, pairing me with Joy and Tom for the first shift from 8-10 p.m. Each shift ran two hours, until 6 a.m.
Nancy was nice enough to volunteer to watch our boys while Joy and I were on our patrol, and even brought Danny along for a play date of sorts.
I made a mental note to talk with her and Jake about what to do if anything bad should happen to both Joy and me. The tradition of having godparents seemed to have slowly faded in the old world, but I imagined it would make a major insurgence out of pure necessity over the coming months and years.
The shift was a breeze by today’s standards, with both Joy and me on four-wheelers and Tom asking questions about Mike that I wasn’t going to answer.
Clocking out at ten sharp, I was asleep by 10:15 and slept like I was in a coma until sunrise.
* * * *
My leg ached but felt better in general, and I realized I had gone an entire day without thinking much about it. I hoped I was on the mend.
As I stepped out of our tent into another amazing day, the temperature was neither cold nor hot, and the smoke from yesterday had cleared the mountaintops. The birds sang songs of spring and I hoped it would be a good day.
Joy contacted our friends, with Jim’s help, and we gave a watered-down version of what happened yesterday. Enough to give them pause for the upcoming trip but not enough to turn them back.
“We headed out early,” said Shane, “but we’re holding back a few hundred yards behind the second large group.”
“You guys can’t be that close!” I said, raising my voice. “You have to pull back before...”
“Hold on,” said Adan. “I think we’ve been spotted. This is not good… No, this is not good at all.”
“Turn around!” shouted Kat. “Turn around before they surround us,” finished Kris, trailing off…
“I’m sorry, Joy,” she said in a quiet, cautious voice. “I don’t think we’re going to make it to you.”
“What do you see?” I asked, wishing I had a visual.
“Men, women and children are surrounding the truck and trailer. I don’t know where they came from, but we can’t just run them over,” said Kris.
“Are they speaking or giving orders?” I asked.
“No, they’re just staring at us, like zombies or something. I think we are going to die right here today,” she said quietly.
“Listen closely,” I told her. “Let me talk to Shane and Adan.”
“Guys, you need to ask to speak to the man in charge. He goes by the name of Ronna. Tell him I know the Colonel, and I want to speak to him directly.”
“Okay,” replied Shane. “We’ll try it.”
I could hear the muffled sound of Shane shouting to speak with the leader.
“Come on, Ronna. I know you’re close,” I whispered. Seconds passed, turning to minutes, as a medley of sounds were heard—from muffled speech to yelling. I looked over to see Joy, nervous and pacing the room. “There are no shots or screams,” I told her, “so that’s good so far.”
“He’s coming in here, I think,” said Adan, “in just a minute.”
“Who am I speaking with?” asked a strong voice from the other end.
“It’s Lance, sir. And this is Ronna, am I right?”
“It is.”
“Sir, we met not long ago, with my group passing through the grasslands. We fairly traded a few weapons for safe passage, if you remember.”
“I seem to remember it being only two weapons and not a few.”
“Yes,” I agreed, “that’s right. You told us about your past work as a barista.”
“Yes, I remember now. What do you want?”
“We want safe passage for our friends,” I replied.
“Why would we agree to that? We could use a trailer like this, as you can imagine.”
“Yes, sir, I understand that, but I was hoping you spoke with the Colonel about us already.”
“Ah, now I see. It was you, your group of wanderers, who fought off Baker’s hoard yesterday— with some help from the skies, of course.”
“Yes, and we heard he had done the same for you not long before that, with air support and even tanks.”
There was a long pause, and I hoped I hadn’t taken it too far.
“How exactly did you become privileged to know that information?”
“We heard it over the radio is all. All I’m saying is that we have a mutual friend that has helped us both out recently. I’m just asking for you
