by S T Branton
“Nice save,” I answered. “That said, each operative carries the burden of responsibility to make choices that will keep themselves and their squad mates safe. You’re the leader, but once you’re in the thick of it, there’s only so much you can do to protect your crew.”
“Don’t I know that,” he muttered.
I continued. “What I’m saying is, I probably should have prepared individually for the possibility of a trap, even if we didn’t discuss it. And I should have been more cognizant of where I was and what could have happened. If there’d been more than one baddie in those crates, I would’ve been more screwed than I already was.” I gestured to my “bullet wound.” “Assuming that’s possible.”
Luis nodded again. His face was completely rapt, and he hung on to my every word. I would’ve been the last person to appoint myself as a teacher, but he could’ve learned from anyone. He was a sponge for this stuff. “Gotcha, chief,” he said. “Thanks.”
“Hey, you’re not off the hook yet.” I clapped my hands to get everyone else’s attention. “Let’s break for a post-training debriefing in ten.”
They all stopped and snapped a salute. “Sir, yes, sir!”
I gave Dan and Deacon both a look. “Which one of you is running Bootcamp behind my back?”
Chapter Two
The whole company from the training exercise gathered in front of me and filled the middle of Fort Victory’s second common room. We had defaulted to using the living areas for everything, including strategy meetings because no one had yet displayed any desire to enter the building that still stood unoccupied behind the garden. Aside from removing the bodies, not a single soul had set foot in that place since the general’s death. There seemed to be a tacit agreement to try to maintain the fort’s warm, safe atmosphere as long as we could.
To that end, the men and women before me held steaming cups of coffee and hot cocoa in their hands. We were bundled in hoodies, sweaters, and blankets against the cold, and the peaceful drone of quiet conversations permeated the room. I stood with Deacon, Dan, and Luis and surveyed the sea of faces. With a rare sense of peace, I drank in the way things were in that moment. No chaos and no intrusions of sickness or violence. Nothing more than a self-built, self-trained citizens’ militia, working through its training on a normal day.
It felt awesome. We all savored it because we all knew deep down that it couldn’t last for much longer. The gods were still out there. I still had a job to do.
As usual, Dan started the debriefing with a general recap. “Numbers in the casualty reports are down on both sides, which is great news,” he announced. “The fewer people who give up the ghost when it’s all fake, the better. It means you’ll know what to do if it ever gets real. And don’t forget, even if you’re a baddie in training, we want you to live ʼcause when the shit hits the fan, you’ll be on our side.” The recruits murmured. “Now, let’s give our young commanding officer Luis a hand. This was his first mission in the lead, and I think he did a commendable job.”
Applause rose from those assembled, punctuated by a few cheers. Luis smiled somewhat awkwardly in acknowledgment. “Thanks, guys. I’m doing my best out there.”
Dan clapped him on the shoulder. “I see real improvement, my friend. Keep up the good work.”
Luis glanced at me, and I echoed Dan’s support with an encouraging grin. Over the last week especially, the kid had come out of his shell and had proven his worth. Hell, he was the one who’d uncovered the massive stash of paintball equipment in the first place and so made training operations possible. The least we could do was make sure he benefited.
“How are we doing supply-wise?” Deacon asked. “I think these simulations are valuable enough that they’re worth scrounging for stuff if we need to. It wouldn’t be impossible to find a store that carries ammo.”
Dan scrutinized the inventory list he had put together after the cache was found. “If everyone has reported their usage accurately, we’re still good to go for a while,” he said. “I’m thinkin’ by the time we start to run real low, training will be over and we’ll be in the shit again.”
“That works for me,” Deacon replied. “How do you think we’ll look by then?”
Dan winked. “Like a million bucks.”
“Oh, yeah!” a recruit shouted. “We’ll fuck ʼem up!”
Dan snorted. “Settle down, Macho Man.” He scanned his list one more time. “Yeah, it’ll be fine. I don’t think they used much of this stuff before the general showed up, and we all know he didn’t give two shits about training.”
Luis raised his hand and asked, “So who won today?” He had an expression on his face like he knew the answer, but he still asked. I was sure he’d kept a record over the last week or so.
Dan thought about it. “Well…” His gaze bounced between Deacon and me. “All right. Now, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way. It’s important to know that the perceived outcome of battle situations often doesn’t reflect directly on individual contribution.”
Luis laughed wryly. “That means our side lost.”
“In the sense that we lost a key member of our battalion, yes.” Dan waggled his eyebrows at me. “Here’s looking at you, Vic.”
I held up my hands in mock surrender. “Sorry, Luis. Deacon got the drop on me.”
“No one expects the jack in the box trick,” Deacon said.
“More like the jackass in the box,” I muttered.
Deacon grinned. “You’re merely sore that you died. It was pretty solid work if I do say so myself.”
“It’s cool,” said Luis. “I’ll take the L for now, but you best believe I’m gonna come back stronger. Next time, we burn everything we see.”
“That could work,” I admitted.
Deacon frowned. “Well, hold on a minute—”
“Not during training,” I interrupted. “But in the field, it’s not a bad idea. Last I checked, the gods are still flammable.”
Shortly thereafter, the meeting was adjourned. I hung around in the front of the room while the recruits dispersed to make the most of their downtime. Dan and his men headed off to change the patrols. Deacon moved in the general direction of the mess hall. Only Luis and I were left. The kid planted himself in a chair by the window. He looked a little bummed out, so I approached carefully.
“Hey,” I said. “You wanna talk?”
He raised an eyebrow. “About what?”
I shrugged. “The training? You did a great job bringing us in the back like that, you know? Dan wasn’t being harsh.” I pulled up another chair and sat before he could wave me off.
“Yeah, I know.” Luis kept his gaze trained on the tree line. “I guess I’m…competitive, you know? I want to win, and it makes me kinda salty if I don’t.” He chuckled and shook his head. “That’s a stupid way to think nowadays, but I can’t help it. Back home, winning was how you survived. You didn’t have any allies. You didn’t trust nobody. If you worked together with someone, everyone else would come and kick the shit out of both of you.” He tapped the side of his head. “I know I gotta adjust my thinking. It’s a real frickin’ process.”
“It is,” I agreed. “I had to do some of that, too. It’s hard, and sometimes it’s scary, and I’m proud of you for being all in on this. We’re in a situation where we don’t have a choice but to depend on each other, so we all have to learn to take care of ourselves as a group. Hell, there might come a day when we’re the strongest ones around and someone else needs our help.”
“I think about that a lot,” Luis said. “How it feels like a free-for-all, but it’s really not anymore. If I kill the group, I kill myself.”
“And everyone else,” I prompted gently.
“And that.” He turned his gaze to me. “I guess I care. Which is hard when you come from the place I did.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “You’re not there anymore, Luis. You’re here, and so are the rest of us. We’re here for you and for each other. I doubt that will change an
ytime soon.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Vic. Don’t let me keep you.”
I smirked. “You’re eighteen, my man. You can tell me to get the hell out of here and leave you alone.” That finally made him smile again, and that was how I left him. It had to be tough at his age and in the thick of this mess. He was too young to have already lost so much.
But he was alive, at least. That definitely counted for something.
The mood throughout the fort was drastically different than Luis’s sour mood. I felt my spirits lift as I headed to the front exit. The new name over the door was only about two months old, but Fort Victory had so far held true to its title.
At first, the continued attacks had been harrowing, if not quite as dangerous. Once we’d started training extra forces, the clashes turned more and more decisively in our favor. None of the Forgotten who had shown up on our doorstep were anything like the ones I’d seen before in terms of power. Marcus identified them as mostly minor gods and their associated Apprenti, basically wandering riffraff looking for a quick conquest that would boost their notoriety.
Each force soon found out that the people of Fort Victory wouldn’t go down without a fight, and with each successful battle, our collective confidence grew. Dan led small exploratory parties on raids against surrounding outposts he’d found during his efforts to map the area for training. Our territory had gradually expanded, and our supplies with it.
Eight weeks in, it was still too early to tell conclusively, but I certainly felt we flourished. Tucked into our sturdy fortress, we slowly built an oasis, one brick at a time.
That was only inside our walls, though. Outside, the gods and their minions prowled in droves. I could see them from the watchtowers at night as their eyes reflected in the searchlight beams. There was no way to tell how many lurked in the shadows, but I suspected they were like all other vermin—if you saw one, there had to be many more.
They are all in search of their own kingdoms with which to gain prestige among their ranks, Marcus said disdainfully. Soon, this world will be overrun by Forgotten who vie to be seen.
I frowned. “Not if I have anything to say about it.” The cold air smacked my face like an open hand as I stepped across the threshold. There was no snow on the long, wildly overgrown grass, but the threat of it lingered in the atmosphere. I tried not to even consider the possibility. That was a bridge to be crossed when we came to it—if ever.
Most of the Fort Victory watchtowers were now manned around the clock by small teams handpicked from Dan’s best snipers. I shielded my eyes against the sun and noticed the men on shift in the nearest tower. One of them had a pair of binoculars slung around his neck. The lenses flashed as he panned them down toward me.
I waved. He waved back and gave a distant thumbs-up. I returned the gesture and proceeded on my customary rounds outside the gates. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Dan’s men, but I trusted my own instincts first and foremost. And I wanted to be the first to know if anything strange appeared.
This time, there was nothing of concern. The woods were silent except for a constant whistling wind that shook the naked trees. I moved slowly so the background sounds wouldn’t be drowned out by my footsteps. My nectar-enhanced senses caught nothing. I was glad for that, but as I completed my circuit and returned to the fort, I made sure to keep my guard up. A lull in activity meant nothing as far as long-term threats were concerned.
And we still didn’t know shit about the situation in other regions of the country, let alone the rest of the world. I’d learned to be patient about many things, but the communication issue still drove me nuts. Especially because we had a solution already—or we would have if we knew how to make it work.
I shook the heavy winter coat off my shoulders and headed for my room. The halls to and from the residential blocks were crowded, and I didn’t recognize many of the faces. Fort Victory was in the middle of a population boom of lucky survivors who’d been rescued during Dan’s outside missions. It seemed like the closer we looked, the more people we found hunkered down in nooks and crannies the gods had passed over. Someone had commented that we were a colony of people who had squeaked by under the radar. An apt description, but it didn’t sit right with me, and over the past few days, I realized why.
It made us sound like the vermin instead of them, which irked me because it was so untrue. We worked on creating an immovable stronghold, a bulwark against the gods’ dark tide. They were the unwelcome ones. We simply fought to reclaim our rightful place.
I thought about these things a hell of a lot whenever I walked the halls and looked into the happy, earnest faces of everyone we had saved. Long ago, I resolved not to consider the past, but I had the future almost constantly on my mind. How long could we stay there? Where would we go next? Who was out in the wild wasteland right now and possibly moving toward us?
It was impossible to know, and that was why we really needed a functioning communications network. At that point, I would’ve settled for tin cans on a string—anything to make it feel that we weren’t the last human holdout. I pursed my lips, shook my head, and willed the frustration down. Some things were still beyond my control, as much as I hated to admit it.
Odd, Marcus said suddenly. I thought I was hearing things until he added, I have never seen Abraxzael willingly associate with a human other than you. There is a first time for everything, I suppose.
“What are you talking about?” I frowned. “That dude hates humans. He still only tolerates me, and I think that’s mostly because I have a sword that can cut him in half.”
It would appear that his list of exceptions has expanded to include one more. Marcus directed my attention to an open doorway on my right. The room within had been repurposed into a classroom for the fort’s many children. It was currently dark but not dark enough to prevent me from seeing who was in there.
“Wait, is that Jules?” I was too far away to call to her over the background din of so many other residents. As I struggled to approach, I noticed her join the foot traffic moving away from me. “Damn.”
But my timing was perfect to align me with Brax at the door. He barely noted my presence.
“I thought you didn’t trust any humans,” I teased lightly. “Does that mean you know something about Jules that I don’t?”
I’d only meant it as a joke, but his face hardened even more than usual. “None of your business,” he retorted. “I have other shit to do.” He pushed away and strode down the corridor at a fast clip. Others scrambled to get out of his way.
“What the fuck?” I raised an eyebrow. “Why does he have to be such a prick about it? I was kidding.”
We have talked about the beef before, Marcus said. It appears that Abraxzael may be a purveyor of bovine meats after all.
“Yeah, of course, he is.” I turned and continued toward my room. “But not with me.” A feeling of general unease settled in the pit of my stomach, and I suddenly wondered how much I truly trusted Brax. One thing was absolutely for sure. If he was messing with Jules, we would have some really big problems.
“Vic!” The voice reached my ears after I rounded the last corner leading to my room. That stretch of the hallway was significantly quieter, and I turned with some unease, reluctant to get stuck in the crowd again. A few seconds later, Veronica appeared and came toward me with a huge, eager grin on her face. “Hey, I thought that was you I saw! I have some amazing news.”
I smirked. “Oh, really? Tell me you found someone who can build another wing on this place.”
She laughed. “Well, no, but don’t worry. We still have tons of empty beds and supplies.” Her smile brightened. “And believe it or not, people are super happy, Vic. They love living here. We’ve done a good job.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” Positive status reports did a lot to ease my mind.
“But even that’s not the great news,” Veronica continued. “You know we’ve processed many people these past few days for intake, yeah? There’s so
meone I want you to meet.”
I folded my arms. “This is new. Should I be worried?”
“No, you should be pumped,” Veronica said. She practically bounced up and down with excitement. “This lady’s name is Marge, and she’s an engineer.”
I frowned. “Like she drives a train? I’m not really sure how that will help us—”
“No, moron,” Veronica interrupted. “I think she can help us fix the radio.”
Chapter Three
My mouth fell open. “Oh, shit. Seriously?” A grin spread across my face. “Man, screw getting changed and taking a shower. I need to see this lady now. Choo choo! Full steam ahead.”
Veronica laughed. “Dammit, she’s not a train engineer. She’s like an electrical engineer or something.”
I frowned. “You mean she runs on electricity? Like a robot?”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “You know what? Forget I mentioned it.”
I grabbed her arm before she could turn away. “No way, Big Red. We could use a robot on our team. We’ve got a werewolf, a vampire, and an FBI agent, but no robot.”
Veronica shot me a quizzical look. “I can’t tell if you’re serious or if you’re fucking with me right now.”
I laughed. “I’m fucking with you. That’s what friends do. Whatever. I’m simply excited.”
She grinned in response. “It is pretty exciting. Being able to find out what’s going on out there? That’s a game-changer.” Veronica led me back through the hall. “I rushed her through as soon as I learned about her skill set. She’s waiting in the front room.”
I wanted to break into a run, but I forced the urge aside and kept pace with Veronica. We’d sat on the radio ever since Steph had happened upon it in the days following the fall of the general. It was sequestered in a room at the back of the fort, and of course, it was smashed to shit. I figured the general probably broke it intentionally after broadcasting his original message. That way, whoever wandered into his lair would have no way of alerting anyone else to where they were.
