by David Lucin
As they rounded the corridor, a group of men and women came into view ahead, crowded around a line of fold-up plastic tables illuminated by electric lanterns and candles. Jenn recognized a few of the faces. They belonged to troops of the Fifth Platoon, which mostly comprised former National Guardsmen. Boxes of ammunition, piles of PVC piping, and buckets of what might have been nails covered the table. They were working furiously.
“What are they doing?” Sam asked.
“Making bombs,” Allison said casually without slowing down.
Jenn coughed into her mask, surprised. “Did you say bombs?”
“Yeah, I asked them about it earlier. They’re emptying the gunpowder from bullets or cartridges or whatever they’re called and mixing it with nails in the piping. Apparently, the fuses are just made of yarn soaked in sugar and some stuff you spray on stumps to make them decompose. Crazy.”
“Wow.” Jenn had received basic training in the use of grenades, but the Guard only had a few in inventory. These pipe bombs both excited and terrified her. Although they had serious tactical potential, she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if one exploded prematurely. Definitely nothing good.
A few of the Fifth Platoon troopers gave her nods while she passed. Bravo Company kept a barracks down the street from HQ, in the old campus bookstore, so most of them remained strangers. Nevertheless, she felt a kinship with these people, a deep bond. They were her brothers and sisters in arms.
Allison led them through the rest of the concourse and up a flight of stairs. At the top, she knocked once on a plain white door before pushing it open. Flickering orange candlelight illuminated an open space maybe twenty feet across. Large windows offered a view of the field below, while another window on the left looked into the neighboring press box. Blankets, pillows, and bags covered so much of the floor that Allison had to step over them as she made her way into the room.
Jenn heard a familiar humming sound and tracked the source to the far window, where Maria sat with her back to the wall, bundled up in her coat and scarf.
“Look who I found!” Allison said proudly.
Barbara had been lying on her side. Upon hearing Allison, she rolled over and noticed Sam and Jenn. “Sam?”
“Hey, Mom.”
She rubbed her eyes as if she’d just woken up or couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Or both. “Jenn? Is that you?”
Before Jenn could answer, the woman was out of her makeshift bed and flying toward her, arms out. Her hug was so fierce that Jenn swore one of her ribs popped, and for the second time in fifteen minutes, she had the air forced from her lungs. “Hey, Barbara,” she croaked out, politely patting her future mother-in-law on the back. She didn’t have the heart to say they shouldn’t be hugging. With the White Horde bearing down on Flagstaff, the threat of New River flu felt mild in comparison. They had to stay vigilant, for Maria’s sake, but Jenn was masked, so one little hug couldn’t hurt. “Nice to see you, too.”
Barbara continued to hold her tight and made noises like she was crying. Jenn managed to crane her neck so she could see Sam. Rather than looking distraught about his mother greeting her first, he only smiled and shook his head.
Finally, Barbara released Jenn from her clutches, then hugged her son. Allison leaned in close and said, “Wow, you guys are super tight now, hey? It’s cute.”
“Ew, it’s not cute.” Jenn suppressed a shiver of disgust. She was learning to love Barbara, yes, but that didn’t mean they had to be friends. “She’s just excited for the wedding. That’s all.”
Once Barbara had finished hugging Sam, she launched into a tirade of questions. They came out so quickly that neither Sam nor Jenn had the opportunity to answer. By the window, Maria had risen to her feet and now leaned casually on the handle of her oxygen compressor’s cart. In the dim candlelight, Jenn couldn’t see her expression, but she most definitely heard a giggle.
“Mom,” Sam pleaded, holding up a hand. “I’ll tell you all about it. Just be patient.” He rubbed his temple and sighed. “Where’s Kevin?”
“Outside,” Barbara spat. “Doing who knows what instead of being here with me. He’s—”
Allison cleared her throat while making eye contact with Jenn. “You know, guys, I was going to check in on Nicole, if you want to come.” She exaggerated her wink so much her head bobbed.
“That sounds like an excellent idea.” Barbara frowned aggressively at Sam and jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “At least one of my children doesn’t go running off without telling me what he’s doing or when he’s coming home!” Her frown flipped when she turned to Jenn. “Are you coming? Nicole would love to see you.”
“No, Mom.” Sam had obviously picked up on Allison’s plan and began guiding his mother toward the door. “Someone’s got to stay behind with Maria.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “We won’t be long.”
“It’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen Nicole,” Jenn said, “but I want to say hi to Maria first. Maybe I’ll catch up with you later.”
Barbara seemed to buy the lie, because she fetched a pink mask from her pocket and allowed Sam to lead her out of the room.
Allison lingered in the doorway. “How is that not totally cute?”
Maria chimed in with, “I agree. It’s very cute.”
“Ugh, you guys are brutal.” Jenn pretended to take a swipe at Allison as she danced out of the press box. After shutting the door, she said to Maria, “Fancy setup you got here. I’m glad you’re not down with everyone else on the field.”
“Yes, being married to the leader of Flagstaff does have its benefits.” Maria shifted awkwardly, like she wanted to hug, but she settled for touching Jenn’s arm. “It’s good to see you, sweetie. I was so worried.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenn said. “I wish I could’ve—”
“Don’t be sorry for anything.”
Maria pulled two plastic chairs out from beneath the shelf by the window overlooking the field. With a groan, she sat, so Jenn unslung her rifle, dropped her backpack, and sat as well. A muscle in her back pinched on the way down, and as soon as her butt hit the seat, a wave of exhaustion struck her like she’d popped a mild sedative.
“How’re you holding up?” Jenn let out a long yawn and spotted Maria’s emergency oxygen tanks. Beneath them rested a clear plastic bin with her compressor’s batteries. “You’re all set up, I see.”
“Your friends from the Beaumont farm helped bring it all up. They were here when I came in the other night. That Bryce, he’s such a gentleman.”
“Yeah, he’s the real deal.” Jenn made a note to rush outside and thank him for his help. Yet another thing she had to do before finding her platoon. “Where’re Kate and Daniel? Aren’t they staying here?”
“No, they were more than welcome to, but there’s a room set up for families with young children somewhere downstairs in an office.”
“Oh, okay. That makes sense. Glad they have a safe spot to hide out.”
The flame of the candle danced, casting long shadows across the floor and the walls. Movement in the adjoining press box caught Jenn’s eye, but the glass must have been soundproof, because she heard nothing, not even the people on the field. As she listened to the familiar, almost comforting hum of the oxygen compressor, her vision darkened around the edges. She could feel herself beginning to lose balance, too, so with a jolt, she planted both feet to keep herself from tumbling out of her chair.
“What’s wrong?” Maria asked and grasped her arm with both hands. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tired. I haven’t slept a ton in the last few days and could really go for a thirty-six-hour nap.” Jenn’s stomach growled loudly. “And a plate of spaghetti and meatballs with real meat and like a whole loaf of garlic bread. Is that so much to ask?”
Maria leaned over and rummaged through a bag until she found a Tupperware container. She popped off the lid, and inside lay several cornmeal cookies. “It’s no spaghetti and mea
tballs, but I made these fresh the day you left for Window Rock. Have as many as you like.”
Jenn had grown to hate cornbread, but her mouth watered, nonetheless. She reached for a piece but paused, pointing at her mask. “I can’t.”
“It’s okay. I appreciate how careful you and Sam have been around me, but if you don’t have a fever, I’m not too worried. Besides, I feel like I haven’t seen your face for weeks.”
She unhooked her mask from one ear but stopped short of taking it off. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.” Maria shook the Tupperware for emphasis. “Please, eat.”
“Okay, thanks.” Jenn laid her mask on her thigh and plucked out the smallest cookie in the container.
Maria broke off a chunk of another before sealing the Tupperware and returning it to her bag. As they ate, a five- or six-year-old boy from the neighboring press box jumped up and down to see through the window. Maria waved at him, and he waved back as his father took him by the hand and pulled him away.
After a few bites, Jenn’s stomach ceased rumbling, and a jolt of energy got her blood pumping. Who knew a few calories could work such wonders?
“I assume Gary’s told you everything,” she said and used her fingernail to pick out a crumb from between her teeth.
“Yes. Like I said, he doesn’t hide anything from me.”
“That’s good.” Selfishly, Jenn was glad Gary had kept Maria up to speed; she didn’t have the energy to explain what she was doing in Holbrook. “How is he, anyway? Where is he?”
“Where, I have no idea. In a meeting, I’m sure. As for how, he’s tired. Stressed. Same as you. But he’ll pull through. He always does.” The candlelight reflected off a tear forming in Maria’s eye. “He’s proud of you, you know. We both are. You’re very brave.”
“Thank you,” was all Jenn could say. She had never cared for praise, had never been motivated by it, but hearing Maria’s words made her choke up, though she didn’t understand why. Maria had called her brave before, so what had changed today?
“Are you okay, sweetie?” Maria laid her cornbread on her knee. “You can tell me, you know.”
“Yeah, no, I’m—”
She began to say “fine” but didn’t want to lie. In the past three days, she’d discovered the aftermath of a massacre, learned of a genocidal army hellbent on Flagstaff’s destruction, met its lunatic leader, driven into New Mexico, and helped kill anywhere between ten and thirty people. If she was fine after all that, she should be sharing a padded cell with the Great Khan himself.
“I’m scared,” she admitted. “This feels so much different than anything else we’ve had to go through. After the bombs, if we just hunkered down at home, everything would’ve mostly passed us by. We wouldn’t have found Sam’s family, obviously, but me, you, and Gary? Nothing would’ve happened to us. Same with Phoenix. I put myself in that situation. Then I did it again when I was working at the farm. Grierson wasn’t coming after people like you or Gary. He might’ve eventually come after students like me, but we don’t know that for sure. Sunset Point, same thing. If I hadn’t joined the Militia, I wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Maria said, misinterpreting Jenn’s ramblings. “You did what you thought was right.”
“That’s not what I mean. I don’t regret any of that. What I’m saying is, this time, no matter what happens, the horde is coming for us. There’s no hiding from it. If they break into Flag, they’ll literally hunt us down and kill us all. That scares the living crap out of me.”
The air chilled by a few degrees, and Jenn regretted spilling her feelings until Maria gave her wrist a firm squeeze and said, “You have every right to be scared. I’m scared, too. But I also know we’ll get through this. You know why?”
Jenn couldn’t help but groan. “Please don’t say it’s because the Militia has me in its ranks or something corny like that.”
Maria let out a loud, genuine laugh. “Okay, I won’t say that, but they’re certainly better off with you than without you.” She adjusted the cannula in her nose, and her tone became serious. “I know we’ll get through it because we’ve come together.” As she motioned vaguely in the direction of the field below, “Look at what we’ve pulled off in just a few days. When the time comes, those people down there will stand up to the Khan. He can’t break us all.”
That chill in the air had vanished, along with the hunger gnawing at Jenn’s belly and the sleepiness tugging at her eyes. She almost wanted the White Horde to hurry up and get here so Flagstaff could bury it for good. “You’re right. I never thought of it like that before.”
“Of course I’m right.” Maria lifted her chin in mock arrogance.
“You make it sound like a joke, but whenever I’m having a meltdown, you know exactly what to say.”
“Not always.” She turned her head, hiding behind her silvery hair. “When Camila left, I made her promise me that she’d come home. I wish I hadn’t done that. Sometimes I wonder if she felt like she was breaking that promise.”
“You can’t blame yourself for that,” Jenn said. “You were just worried about her.”
“I know, but I regret saying those things.” Her glasses slid down her nose, and she didn’t bother pushing them back up. “I won’t ask you to make me the same promise, but I do want you to promise me something else.”
Jenn sat up straighter. “What is it?”
She grasped Jenn’s wrist once more, and determination flared in her eyes. “When the White Horde comes, promise me you’ll fight like hell.”
16
“Latest drone recon report shows the horde sitting pretty in Holbrook,” Liam said.
He and Gary sat in what was once the office of the Lumberjacks’ head coach. An LED lantern illuminated a bare room, the floors NAU blue, the walls a plain white. The furniture comprised a fold-up plastic table acting as a desk and two fold-up plastic chairs, all of which had come from storage; it must have been kept here for use in graduation ceremonies. Liam’s Free Knee prosthesis lay beside a pistol on a built-in shelf behind him. He was likely saving its battery for when he needed it most.
“And you’re confident they’ll be staying there for the entire day?” Gary checked his watch. A few minutes after 9:00 a.m. How was it that early already? The night had passed in a blink, even though he only slept for an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
“Fairly, but we’ll keep sending out recon flights to be sure. It’s about a hundred miles to Holbrook, as the crow flies, so one return flight uses about three-quarters of a charge. In the time it takes for one drone to leave, fly there, and come back, we can have a second one charged up. We’re burning through electricity faster than our solar panels can generate it in this smoke, and our reserves are running low, but I think they should last until tomorrow morning. I’m sorry to say your plan to put solar on the roof of the Skydome won’t be coming to fruition.”
Gary was disappointed, but he acknowledged he was being selfish. While solar in the Skydome could help in a myriad of ways, he mostly worried about charging the batteries for Maria’s compressor. “That’s no problem. It was kind of a pipe dream, anyway.”
Liam rubbed the corner of his eye. Both were bloodshot, and the wrinkles on his forehead were deeper than usual. Surely he hadn’t slept last night, either. “My guess is the Khan will finish resting up and charging his vehicles for today in Holbrook, then head this way first thing tomorrow morning. This guy seems methodical. He’s not rushing to attack us as quickly as I imagined.”
“I still think you’re right about him, though. About his situation. If he didn’t need the supplies, he would hunker down for the winter somewhere. He’s desperate, so he can’t afford to drag out this war.” Gary reached a finger under his N95 to scratch around his mouth; several days’ worth of stubble was beginning to itch. “On that note, I don’t mean to prod, but how are your battle plans coming? Have you found us a Thermopylae?”
“It’s not quite a Thermop
ylae, but you know that spot on I-40 behind the Go Market, where the roadway’s been blasted out of the rock and there’s banks on both sides and in the median?”
“I do. You plan to set up an ambush there?”
“That’s the idea.”
Gary hummed in thought. “If memory serves me correctly, there’s an exit east of that.”
“Two, actually. One at Walnut Canyon Road and the other at Country Club Road. Both hook up with Route 66, which obviously goes straight into town.”
“Do you expect the Khan to take his whole convoy down the interstate?”
Liam blew his lips and rapped his knuckles on the table. “I really hope he does, but I’m not counting on it. The plan’s to split our forces: Alpha Company on the highway, Bravo Company on Route 66. Morrison’s been asking what the police can do, but I want them here as a reserve. I still have a few details to work out with my captains, but assuming the White Horde doesn’t surprise us all and head out today, I’ll be briefing the platoon leaders and NCOs this afternoon. You’re more than welcome to join and listen in, if you’re curious.”
“That’s all right,” Gary said with a wave of his hand. “I asked you to command the Militia because I trust your judgment when it comes to defense.”
A knock came from the door. Gary turned in his seat to see Terrence Nielsen poking his head into the office. Wearing a mask and a beanie, he held out a radio and gave it a quick shake. “Sorry, Commander, I tried calling you, but the signal’s really weak down here.”
Liam confirmed his radio was on and tuned to the right channel. “Huh, good to know. Anyway, Nielsen, what’s up?”
Terrence stepped fully inside but kept one hand on the doorknob. The poor kid looked exhausted. Gary wondered if he might be holding the door to keep from falling over and passing out. “The roadblock on I-17 has called in. Sheriff Jordan Wilson’s asking to speak with Mayor Ruiz.”
