Nathan Jones - Determination

Trev glanced over at Alice. The blond young woman’s face had gone pale, her lips tightly pressed together. Pete had argued with her before they’d left for Matt’s camp, which depending on how it ended might’ve severed one of the last ties that kept him here.

“I’ve asked Harmon to tell everyone to keep an eye out for him,” the sergeant continued apologetically. “He might’ve disappeared for some other reason. Or he might’ve just decided to go home, up to your people. But wherever he is, I hope he’s okay.”

“Thanks,” Trev said, offering his hand. “I hear you’re stirring up some real trouble for the enemy out there.”

Davis shook it and smiled, obviously relieved to change the subject. “I won’t lie, it’s going well. We’ve managed to avoid the enemy and complete our objectives so far, at least.” He glanced back at his men. “Speaking of which, we should probably get back to it. Take care out there, irregulars.”

As 1 stSquad walked away Trev reached down and retied his bundle, then picked up his end of the sapling again. They took their deer the rest of the way to the food preparation area, and once there got to work finishing the job of hanging, skinning, and butchering the animals.

The cooks accepted the various cuts right as they came off the carcasses, then immediately began preparing them. They’d reached the point where there just wasn’t enough food in camp to store anything, which worried Trev more than he cared to admit. Everyone else was eating meal to meal too, if they were lucky.

While they were working they heard a commotion from inside the mess hall, where a few squads of volunteers were having dinner. That commotion quickly spread to the rest of the camp, people moving more urgently and seeking out friends to whisper in a huddle.

“Any idea what’s going on?” Trev asked the cooks. The handful of men and women just shrugged. Trev glanced at his squad, then left the last few cuts undone and started for the command tent. He noticed more than a few people drifting in that direction, including the rest of his squad as they also abandoned their work and followed him.

Halfway there the flap was tossed aside and Sergeant Harmon stepped out. Trev had gone in for a brief interview with the tall, dark-haired man. Mostly a symbolic meeting, to reinforce that he’d taken over the reins from Davis, but Trev had to admit he admired the man’s head for organization.

Harmon looked as if he’d just heard his grandmother died, although he did his best to blank his features when he realized he had an audience. As a few people called out questions he held up his hands for quiet. The quiet came quickly, and he took a breath as if preparing for a storm.

“For those of you who weren’t aware, the Gold Bloc forces in the north began a major offensive against General Erikson’s positions in the Wasatch Mountains early this morning. The Chinese to the northwest and the Russians to the northeast attacked in tandem, and the fighting has been some of the fiercest we’ve seen so far.”

The sergeant closed his eyes, like a doctor preparing to give news of a terminal illness, then continued. “As of an hour ago, General Erikson officially announced that his positions along the Wasatch Front to the west have crumbled. The Chinese have broken through all along the line, from Salt Lake City to Spanish Fork. They’ve begun a final push to take Spanish Fork Canyon before full dark.”

Trev felt the news like a blow to the gut. That was almost half of the territory the military was trying to hold. More importantly, if the blockheads were in a position to take Spanish Fork Canyon that put them in place to wipe out Grimes along Highway 6. If that happened they’d have even easier access to Sanpete and Carbon counties. They’d be right on Aspen Hill’s doorstep, with no more military buffer between them and his friends and family at the refuge.

Harmon was still going. “With the Wasatch Front gone, the eastern front has been forced to withdraw as well. General Erikson has desperately held the enemy back for as long as he could, to buy time for his troops and the civilian refugees under his protection to flee to safety. If there even is such a thing.”

The small crowd had been dead quiet throughout the sergeant’s announcement, and when he paused the air felt heavy with the silence. “Any questions?” Harmon finally asked.

After a short pause to look around Trev raised his hand. “I thought the Chinese up there were all dying of radiation poisoning.”

Harmon’s eyes tightened. “As it turns out, people who know they’re dying can be convinced to throw their lives away. The blockheads were climbing over hills of their own dead to get at General Erikson’s forces. He ran out of bullets in several areas. The loss of life on the enemy’s side is horrendous, but even so now that they’ve broken through they’re managing to tip the scales. To the point where we’re still taking more casualties than we can afford in the exchange.”

The grim silence settled again. “What does that mean for us?” a civilian finally called.

The sergeant sucked in a sharp breath. “It means that the General will have to abandon the Wasatch Range. As early as tomorrow afternoon, assuming he’s managed to hold it, Colonel Grimes’s position along Highway 6 will be our northernmost foothold. As for us, we’ve been advised to be prepared for an influx of people within the next day, and have orders to make every effort to prepare to accommodate them.”

His voice dropped to the point that Trev could barely hear it. “It means we’ve been pushed into a corner, and what we have here is all we have.”

“Well, at least with all of Erikson’s troops joining us it’ll be easier to defend what we have,” Uncle George offered.

Lewis nodded vaguely. “Only because we have less to defend.”

His uncle gave him a curious look. “What exactly did we get out of that extra territory? A bit more land to hunt and gather from, maybe. More square miles to spread ourselves thin defending. We’re a tougher nut to crack now, and the blockheads don’t have the kind of heavy weaponry needed to punish us for clumping up.”

Lewis supposed he could appreciate his uncle looking on the bright side. But at the same time Erikson’s retreat meant upwards of two hundred thousand people, some soldiers but mostly civilians, were headed their way. The southern area Lassiter held was modestly large, a good deal larger than what Erikson had lost, but they were already taking care of a large group of civilians of their own down here.

Once Erikson’s people arrived they’d have over half a million US citizens to accommodate. That was going to be some seriously dense clumping.

Which was why Lewis had everyone he could spare out scouting the area around the refuge that morning. Grimes had radioed in to inform him that refugees would be coming his way in large numbers, and they needed to find places to put them. The military scouts had already located a few good possibilities, but with the need so great the colonel didn’t want to leave any stone unturned.

More importantly for the Aspen Hill townspeople, Grimes had informed them that they needed to prepare to assist the military in providing for the soldiers moving into the area, as well as any refugees relocated there. The slope they’d vacated after the helicopter attack was slated to become a major military camp, and Grimes was “asking” for Aspen Hill’s supplies and housing.

If even a heel of bread, a scrap of blanket, or enough space in a tent for a horizontal body could be spared, it was needed. Lewis and Jane were understandably upset about that, as was everyone else.