Nathan Jones - Determination

As the three squads continued past him to safety, Lewis clambered up the rock formation that formed the absolute peak of the ridge. It was barely high enough for him to see over the piles of rocks to the abandoned emplacements below, which the enemy had nearly reached by this point. Lewis estimated there were still over three hundred blockheads down there at a quick count, even after everyone they’d lost.

He had to give it to the blockheads, they weren’t lacking in courage. Safety in numbers had carried them through a killing field, but if they thought it would help them now they were sorely mistaken. “Chauncey, you ready?”

The retired schoolteacher’s voice came back sounding eager. “Are you kidding? I’ve been waiting for this day since my youthful years playing in a sandbox.”

Well, at least someone here wasn’t sunk into the gloom of their impending demise. Lewis watched the blockheads swarm over the abandoned emplacements. A few braver or more foolish souls leapt atop the sandbag fortifications, whooping and waving their weapons over their heads to spur the soldiers still climbing the slope onwards.

Lewis targeted one and shot him in the head, then singled out and shot a few more. That stopped the cheering from below, and progress up the slope temporarily froze as the exhausted blockheads sought cover to prepare for another suicidal charge.

He couldn’t have asked for a better setup. “All right, Mr. Watson. Give our friends below a lesson on the Law of Gravity.”

There was no response, other than the sputtering sound of a diesel engine starting below and to his right. With a grinding of gears the backhoe loader at the end of the line of piled rocks started forward, its bucket shoving them over the edge just enough to start them moving in a suspicious rumble, a catalyst for more and more rocks and sections of the hillside to follow them in a spreading cascade.

As the tractor continued down the line the landslide started behind it, tons and tons of rocks and dislodged earth sliding down the slope towards the blockheads below.

Who began to scream, especially when they realized that the fires had loosened the ground and destroyed anything that might’ve stopped the cataclysm heading their way. Those with heads on their shoulders began bolting northwards or southwards to try to escape the landslide, but Lewis had planned ahead for that. Once they’d reached the ridge Jane and Trev had immediately moved their squads, taking them north and south to circle around the piles of rocks. They were there now, ready to shoot anyone who managed to get away.

Which turned out to be not many blockheads. The spreading landslide rolled over hundreds of enemy soldiers, breaking and tossing them down the slope along with the rocks, dirt, ash, and uprooted blackened stumps as it also snuffed out the remaining fires. Not even the blockheads nearest the bottom of the slope had time to outrun the landslide, and as it churned its way down around the hills to the level ground below it even caught some enemies there. Including a few trucks whose drivers were too slow to drive to safety.

It was a horrible sight, but even so Lewis couldn’t help but feel a surge of satisfaction as he watched the catastrophe unfold for the enemy. That was a lot of blockheads who wouldn’t be shooting at his friends. Who wouldn’t be capturing any more civilians and doing horrible things to them.

And he doubted even the most insane commander would order troops back up that slope. Not after what had just happened.

When Lewis had learned about the town’s new backhoe loader, he’d immediately begun making plans. First off he’d searched the top of the ridge and selected the best spot to start a landslide from, where the slope was steepest and already rocky and treacherous. Then he’d contacted Chauncey, who’d agreed that the town had gotten enough use out of the tractor for now and could spare it. Anything to give the volunteers a better chance to survive and come home to their loved ones.

The retired teacher had driven the thing all the way down from the valley refuge, then spent the last several days putting his newfound skills to use. Showing great care and precision, he’d managed to pile up rocks in preparation for a controlled slide, in such a way that they’d stay right where they were until he was good and ready for them to come down. Just as tricky was finding a way to bring the whole mountainside down in a relatively short period of time, across a stretch of half a mile with a tractor that couldn’t move all that quickly. Luckily Chauncey had set things up so when he began it would start a chain reaction, which would only grow as he pushed more and more of the line of piled rocks over the edge.

After that the older man had enjoyed a nice reunion with the volunteers, especially his son. Rick had been spending a lot of time helping his dad prepare the rock piles when he was off duty, and he’d confessed that after seeing his dad in a slump for so long after losing his leg, he was happy to see him in good spirits and filled with purpose.

And Chauncey had every right to be proud. The volunteers could never have spared the manpower to set up something like this, and with his tractor the retired teacher had single-handedly won the biggest victory the town had ever achieved. And probably kept Lewis and all his volunteers from dying in some last stand on this ridge.

His radio popped. “I take it that ringing in my ears means your landslide idea worked?” Davis asked.

Lewis thumbed his mic. “Better than I could’ve hoped. We wiped out the entire attacking force.”

On the north and south ends of the ridge his friends had broken into cheers, hugging each other and raising their weapons in victory, or dropping to their knees in relief and thanks. There were a few cheers from over the radio as well, at least until Davis cut in.

“Well done. But in case I have to remind you, the battle’s not over yet. If you’re done on the southern slope there’s plenty of need for you in other places. Leave as many people as you think are needed to hold the slope, and send everyone else my way.”

Lewis shrugged out a crick in his shoulders, then dropped off the outcropping and started for his squad. “I hear you. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to do something first.”

“You would, would you?”

“Yeah.” He walked over to the edge of the ridge, moving cautiously on ground that might not be stable, and looked down the devastated mountainside. First fire, then landslide; it could be a while before anything besides thistle and stinging nettle grew here again. “We’re running low on bullets and there’s a lot of weapons and ammo down there. I’d like to risk going after whatever we can get.”

For Matt waiting through the fighting was its own kind of awful.

He itched to go join his friends along 31, although he knew that he’d spend most of the day hiking down there, and during that time anything could happen. The fighting could very likely end, either in victory in defeat. The former meaning he’d wasted his time, the latter meaning he wasn’t with his family and town helping them when they needed him most.

He even considered gathering up the remaining defenders and leading them to join Faraday. But when he managed to get in touch with the lieutenant to broach the offer the man told him, in no uncertain terms, that Aspen Hill’s defenders could do more good where they were in the valley refuge. Keeping the peace, reassuring frightened townspeople, and if necessary preparing for the worst.

So all through the day he waited by the radio, with Sam at his side and the rest of his family around him. They were joined by close to half the town, hundreds of people sitting in tense silence listening to reports as they came in. With Chauncey down with the volunteers Scott had taken over manning the shortwave, sending requests for more information and changing frequencies when needed.