“Pretty much,” John answered. The wreckage is over the—”
Josh interrupted him. “We know where the crash site is, man. What we don’t know is why you never came home.”
John shrugged and blew out through his mouth. “Walk? I had no food, limited water and no comm gear. What the hell was I supposed to do, die trying to get back to base?”
Josh didn’t answer.
“These people took me in, and we’ve just been trying to survive.”
“Were you one of the guys in the VW pulling the trailer a few days back?” Josh asked, gesturing in the direction of the car.
“I was. We got some power for lights at night going, got the refrigerator working with those panels,” John answered, offering more information than he would have liked. He hoped Josh would just leave or offer to help them, but knew he was a government boy through and through. The chances of Josh offering supplies needed in his mind to get the country’s government back on its feet were slim to none, and John knew it.
“Everyone armed here?” Josh pressed.
“Mostly,” John answered, beginning to feel like Josh wasn’t only there to take him home.
“How are you all on food?” Josh asked, his voice filled with concern John knew was fabricated.
“Not so good,” John lied. “We’ve been having a heck of a time finding game to shoot, and, well, the garden won’t be growing for quite a while. Winter is coming on, so we can only plant stuff that grows in the cold.”
“You got seeds?” Josh asked, the faux concern beginning to fade as he neared completion of what he felt was the intelligence-gathering portion of this mission.
“Just a few, none for winter. Mostly some corn and carrots, stuff like that,” John stated flatly, his mind racing, trying to gauge what it was Josh was after.
Josh ran his hand across his mouth and gestured at the ranch house. “They pointing guns at me right now?”
John snorted and shook his head. “No one is pointing guns at anyone,” John stated tiredly.
“The guy on the porch looks like he don’t want us here,” Josh said, staring past John straight at Jared, who never broke eye contact with the man.
“Jesus, Josh, do you have any idea what these people have been through? They don’t trust anyone, including you. Why should they? The government hasn’t done a Goddamn thing for anyone, except grab the smartest ones and whisk them away, so yeah, unless you’re bringing them food or medicine, they probably don’t have much use for you.”
“You always were soft, John. I bet the next thing you’re gonna tell me is you don’t want to come back with us,” Josh said, his voice completely void of any attempt to hide his contempt for what John was telling him.
“I live here now, Josh,” John implored.
Josh laughed out loud in John’s face, then pointed at him with a gloved finger. “You don’t have a say in the matter. Carnegie wants your ass back. You’re still in the Army, bro. That rifle is property of the US government—hell, everything you have on belongs to Uncle Sam.” Josh was incensed by even the notion John would consider staying with these people at this little pissant outpost of sorts.
John lowered his head. “Let me grab my things,” he said quietly.
“Don’t try any bullshit, partner. You going inside the house?”
“Yeah, grab my gear.”
Josh shook his head. “If you aren’t out in five minutes, we come in. I frag the shit out of the place first, and then we come in.” Josh leaned in, giving John a look that told him Josh meant every word.
As John was about to return to the ranch house, Josh held out a hand. “Your weapon, bro, and don’t come out of that house armed,” he warned.
John stood perfectly still for a moment, toying with the thought of just killing Josh right then and there, but figured the men on the hill would kill him. John also knew for a fact that if the men gunned him down, Jared would engage, and John couldn’t be the cause of that.
John unslung his rifle and handed it to Josh, who slung it over his own shoulder. Next John drew his pistol and handed it over. Josh stuffed the handgun in his waistband and waited as John pulled his knife out of the scabbard and handed it over handle first. After he was effectively neutered, John pivoted and walked slowly back to the porch, where Jared waited anxiously.
As John approached, he wagged his head a quarter inch from side to side twice, telling the younger man to wait until they were inside the house. Jared reached back, opening the door for John, who passed through and disappeared inside. Jared followed and closed the door. Outside, Josh made his way back to his team and waited.
Inside the house, everyone wanted to hear what John had to say, his face telling them whatever had happened was not good. John ran over scenario after scenario in his mind’s eye, trying to figure a way out of his current predicament, but always came back to the same conclusion. If he resisted, there would be a gunfight. In a gunfight with trained soldiers, people in his group were going to die.
“I have to go with them. If I don’t, they will force the issue, and if you guys try to interfere, there will be a fight,” John said matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean?” Jared blurted out. “They can’t just come in and take you.”
John stopped and turned on the group, his face creased in fear, which no one to date had observed before this instant. “Listen to me and listen good,” John hissed through clinched teeth, his pupils dilated from the adrenaline in his bloodstream. “I am going so none of you get killed today. These people are not to be messed with. They are not the government you’re used to dealing with in the past, they’re just a bunch
