huge smile on them. 'Now all I need is two volunteers for a decoy mission.' His eyes raked the crowd, paused for only a fraction of a second on Foxworth, then on Toomey. For some reason neither understood, both raised their hands to volunteer. 'Excellent. Meet me in my tent, men.'
He nodded at Cruz, who straightened up, marched to the front of the men, and bellowed, 'Dismissed.' The men scattered. Cruz escorted Foxworth and Toomey to the only tent in camp, Fallows'.
They stood at parade rest in front of him, a little nervous at being in confined quarters with their commander. There was something about his energy, his intensity. Something none of them discussed, even among themselves, but all of them felt. It's what made them want to run, made them stay.
'You're going to like this mission, men,' Fallows grinned.
'Yes, sir,' Foxworth replied, a little too loudly. He avoided Fallows' eyes because they were so pale he sometimes thought he could see clear through them right into the brain itself. The idea made his skin clammy.
'Here it is then. I want you both to stay behind, set up an ambush for Ravensmith, and kill him. Any questions?'
They both looked stunned.
'Uh,' Toomey started, thinking he should have a question, but not being able to complete one.
'Yes, Toomey?'
'Nothing, sir. Mission understood.'
'Excellent. When you've successfully completed your assignment, we'll meet you north, in the Santa Barbara area. Whatever part of it isn't under water.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Weapons, sir?' Foxworth asked, getting excited now that he thought about it. Ambushing. Killing. Neat!
'Take a couple of the crossbows. That should give you the accuracy and the stealth.'
Foxworth hesitated. 'No guns, sir?'
'Against one man? What for? Of course, if you want to back out, Foxworth.'
'No, sir!' He snapped to attention.
'Fine. Check out your weapons and start backtracking to set up your ambush. We'll meet you up north in a few days. Dismissed.'
'Yes, sir,' they both said, pivoted, and marched out.
Cruz sauntered over to Fallows' cot and sat down, something he'd never dared do before. 'What was that all about?'
'Diversion,' Fallows said, not seeming to notice Cruz's liberty. 'We give them a couple hours to backtrack, then we head over to the water you found, fill the canteens, and shoot toward Savvytown as planned. South.'
Cruz nodded his huge head with appreciation. 'You're one smart son of a bitch, Fallows.'
Fallows smiled, tapped his bayonet against his thigh.
23.
'I can't remember all that.'
'You'd better try. If you want to eat.'
'Okay, okay, I'll take a stab at it.' Season sighed, I looked up into the sky in concentration, began reciting like a bored schoolchild. 'First, dig for the roots of trees and shrubs. Peel off the root bark for soft, edible inner tissue. How's that?'
'Fine,' Rydell said. 'Molly?'
'Next, try aboveground parts, such as the flowers or shoots. Young tender leaves are better than old ones. The thicker and fleshier the better. And no obscene comments, thank you very much.'
Rydell laughed. They were sitting around waiting for Eric to return from scouting. Since they only had another day's food left from what they'd brought from University Camp, they'd soon have to start eating whatever they could find. Eric didn't know how good the hunting would be, and didn't want to spend too much time finding out, so he'd spent the whole night lecturing them while they hiked on what to look for in local plants.
Now, following Eric's instructions before he'd left, Rydell was quizzing them on what they'd learned.
'You know,' Tag said, 'each time he goes out scouting, I realize just how vulnerable we are without him. He knows so damn much about this survival stuff.'
No one replied, but their looks showed strong agreement.
Tag continued. 'I used to see him around the library, history books tucked under his arm, students always tugging on his sleeve. He looked like such a typical professor, the elbow patches on the tweed jacket.' He shook his head with admiration. 'But until the Fallows trial a few months back, I had no idea of all he'd been through before. When I read the papers I was shocked.'
'Yeah,' Season nodded. 'I didn't know him at school, history and I never got along. But I remember reading some of the stuff about that Vietnam massacre. I can still remember some of the nasty things my friends and I said about him, sitting around sipping beers and making fun of the dumb grunt. We were so goddamned, you know, smug.'
'And now you thank God he's here, right?' Tracy said.
'Well, I'm not much on God, but I've got a lot of faith in Eric.'
'C'mon,' Rydell said, 'let's finish up the drill before he gets back.'
'Teacher's pet,' Molly grinned.
Rydell tossed a pebble at her, which she easily ducked. 'Okay, Tracy, how do you test plants to see if they're edible?'
'Well, first, make sure it doesn't have milky juice, or-'
A rustle of brush and Eric was standing in front of them. 'Lesson is over. Let's move out.'
Obediently, everyone jumped to their feet and swung their packs onto their backs
'What'd you find?' Tracy asked.
'I followed their tracks a mile or so. They've got some horses with them, three I'd say by the different imprints. But even without them, they're moving at a pretty brisk pace. Those men are in damn good shape. They can probably run all day and night. We're going to have to pick it up a bit just to keep up.'
'Why do I suddenly feel guilty because I'm not a horse?' Molly said.
''This way,' Eric waved.
'That's not the way the tracks lead,' Rydell said.
'No, this is the way to something we haven't seen in a while.'
'What?' Tracy asked.
'People.'
'I hate to ask the obvious,' Molly said, 'but as Rocky the flying squirrel always asked Bullwinkle, 'Are they friendly spirits?' '
Eric shrugged. 'Let's hope so. I saw them taking water from a well, and that could save us a lot of time and trouble.'
'What if they don't want to give us water?' Rydell asked.
Eric turned and started walking. 'Let's go.'
'All right. Who's got something white.'
Everyone thought a moment.
'I do,' Molly said, remembering. She rooted through her backpack, pulled out a rolled-up T-shirt, When she tossed it to Eric, it unfurled, revealing a drawing of a very young Ricky Nelson with the logo 'The Irrepressible Ricky' printed under it. Molly smiled. 'I was wearing it the day of the quake. Until then it had been my good luck shirt.'
Eric handed it to Rydell, 'They're right through there, beyond the mesquite trees. You can't miss them, half a dozen handmade cabins. Chickens running around.'
'Chickens?' Season said, licking her lips.
'A wash line hanging out. They've got two guards that I could see, one of them with a double-barreled
