Nathan Jones - Determination

“It matters to me. But I guess you never cared about that.” The young man turned and stomped back down the slope towards the main camp.

With a sigh Trev headed the same way, but not to follow his friend. He wanted to check on Rick and Mason, then report in to Davis as ordered.

His two squad mates were sleeping soundly in one of the medical tents when he arrived, and a whispered word with the medic on duty assured him that both were recovering well and out of danger. He shook the man’s hand in thanks, opting not to wake his friends, and continued on to the smaller, more patched tent that served as Davis’s new command tent.

He found Trent Lincoln waiting outside it, and his friend immediately waved and started his way. Trev waved too, although a bit more cautiously. “If you’re here with a message from Vernon…”

Trent shook his head. “What could he say, after last night?” The man looked in the direction of the tents for the wounded, then higher up the slope at where the Aspen Hill volunteers had set up their impromptu camp. “I’m not sure what to say myself. I’m sorry, Trev.”

Trev bit back a sharp reply. His friend hadn’t made the decision to leave them to the wolves. “I appreciate that.” He started to say more, then thought better of that too and just fell silent.

After an awkward silence Trent jumped slightly as if remembering. “Oh! If you’re just up you probably haven’t heard, but we recovered the bodies of all your squad mates.” He gestured down towards the road. “They’re waiting for you to pay your respects whenever you feel ready.”

Trev wasn’t sure he’d ever feel ready to face the people he’d let down, but he nodded and started down the slope. Davis could wait.

To his surprise Trent tagged along. After walking for half a minute his friend cleared his throat. “It looks like you were right about Fred. I mean, I thought I’d gotten to know him pretty well, but this? I-I can’t believe he would… that he…” he shook his head. “It’s messed up, man.”

“Yeah.” Trev didn’t really want to talk about it.

Trent caught his arm. “I came with Vernon this morning so I could ask Davis to reassign me. I can’t fight beside people I don’t trust to have my back.” He hesitated. “Can I join your squad?”

Well that was a surprise. Trev hadn’t expected anyone to want to serve under him after the mess he’d made of things yesterday. “If it’s fine with Davis I’d be happy to have you.”

The man smiled in relief. “Good. I’ll, uh, leave you to…” he trailed off awkwardly. “You know.”

“Yeah. You know where to find us.” Trev offered Trent his hand, then kept going down the slope as his friend headed back up to the command tent.

Abrams or whoever had recovered his friends had arranged them in a neat line beside the road, wrapped in shrouds of plastic and tape with just their faces uncovered. Trev stopped beside each one, bowing his head and whispering a quiet apology. He stayed by Tom longest of all, thinking of Alvin and everyone in the shelter group who was grieving for him this morning.

After a while he went and sat on one of the wooden beams holding up a guard railing, which wrapped around a curve in the highway not far away. From there he kept a silent vigil over his squad mates, and to be honest he was glad to have some time to himself.

The sun had risen its own height above the tip of the northern slope, which blocked his view of the valley to the east, when he heard the rumble of trucks. From the other direction he heard the crunch of feet on gravel, and turned to see Davis and a few of his soldiers walking up the side of the road to greet the approaching vehicles. Along with Vernon.

Trev stiffened when he saw the former sheriff, but if he’d planned to avoid him it was too late. “I was expecting you to come see me,” Davis called as the group approached, “but this’ll work too.” He motioned for his soldiers to keep going while he stopped beside Trev. Along with Vernon.

“Were we expecting those trucks?” Trev asked, avoiding looking at the sergeant’s companion.

Davis nodded. “More reinforcements. Sixty volunteers from the civilian camp up north that General Erikson’s men have been training, as well as another squad of Marines and some specialists. I told the General I needed more people to be effective in this area.”

Six squads would certainly help lighten the load when it came to defending this stretch. They’d be able to double up on more areas, giving the sentries and patrols there a chance for twelve hours on and twelve off. Definitely preferable to just having two lookouts at night, with the rest expected to wake up and fight at a moment’s notice. They might even be able to field more flex squads, to be ready to go where they were needed in case of an attack.

“We can definitely use them.” Trev held the sergeant’s eye. “What did you need me for?”

Davis’s expression turned stern. “First off, I hear you hit Mr. Vernon. I think you owe him an apology.”

“He did nothing while five of my people died,” Trev said, doing his best to keep his tone level. “I think he owes me an apology. Or maybe one directly to the families of the people I lost.”

“Well look at that,” Vernon said, taking off his hat and slapping it across his arm. He wouldn’t meet Trev’s eye. “The guy who doesn’t like me is blaming me for what went wrong last night. Go figure.”

Trev had to fight to control his temper. It seemed like that’s all he’d been doing when it came to the former sheriff. “I’m not blaming you for what happened. I’m just saying you could’ve helped and you didn’t.”

“My job is to guard the canyon, Smith, not go running off to save your bacon every time you screw up. I warned you it was a bad idea. Convincing you to call off your ambush is all the help you should’ve needed from me.”

Before Trev could respond Davis slammed his hands down on the railing, making them both jump and turn his way. The sergeant’s eyes were on road, as if he couldn’t stand to look at either of them. “That’s enough finger pointing from both of you. The attack didn’t go as well as it could’ve, it happens. Figure out what went wrong and do better next time and leave it at that.”

The older man immediately straightened. “Of course. I’ll get back to the pavilion for the meeting you called.”

Davis gestured curtly in dismissal. “Fine. Contact your people and let them know I’ve got a man on the radio, ready to relay my words to everyone out at their posts, too.” The former sheriff nodded and started off, at least until the Marine continued. “Vernon.” Vernon paused. “Don’t think you’re fooling anyone. You had a good excuse not to go, but you still didn’t go.”

The former sheriff turned to look back at them, face twisted in a bitter smile. “Well then I guess I can’t do anything right even when I do it right. Another thing to feel guilty about, eh?” He started up the slope.

Davis sighed and turned to Trev. “I don’t want to hear a word from you, Smith. Vernon may not be as good as I’d hoped, but he’s not as bad as you think, either. And he’s right that you shouldn’t have gone into that fight expecting help he hadn’t agreed to give you.”

“Is that why you wanted to talk to me? Chew me out for the mistakes I made last night?”

“I never was a fan of kicking a man when he’s down.” The sergeant leaned back against the railing. “Although if you want to talk about how you could’ve done it better, that’s a conversation I’d be happy to have.”

“Maybe you should have it with my replacement,” Trev said quietly, surprising himself. He hadn’t been planning to say those thoughts out loud. Davis gave him a sharp look and he continued a bit defensively. “I probably should be replaced, right? I got five people killed.”