Published: 09 Jan 2017

The moment Hunter was cleared by the dentist he started to make his way over to see Master Sergeant Keating, but was stopped by Sergeant Jimenez before he could make it across the parking lot to the firehouse where the military guys were basing themselves out of. As soon as he saw the man, he knew finding out what the big man knew was going to have to wait. The look in the sergeant’s eyes only confirmed his suspicions.

Before the man could even speak, Hunter’s shoulders dropped, “Go get my guns, right?”

The man nodded with a bit of gleam in his eyes, “Yuppers, ya got it. But from here on out I expects ya to call ’em rifles, side arms or firearms. Guns is what them bleeding heart city fools call ’em, and yer better than them by a country mile. Ya needs to be ready fer combat too, boy, so gear up.”

Hunter started to turn back toward the community center but stopped, “Um, how many bullets do I need?”

The man’s grin was that of a rough and tumble type of man who was looking on a respected student, “Hunter, we ain’t about to have ya go wastin’ yer rounds. I gots me plenty and a reloader to boot, so don’t go worrin’ none, what ya shoot, we’ll give ’em right back at ya. Just bring what’s ya normally carry when yer on foot, but make sure you got yer cleaning kit, and yer shootin’ eye. We’ll be working with both.” As Hunter turned, Sgt. Jimenez called out, “Oh, and make sure yer head is screwed on straight. I’m expecting good things out’a you with all the talk I’ve been hearin’ over the last day ‘er two.”

Hunter turned and gave a polite nod before hustling back to get all his firearms. As he gathered them up, Luke looked over from his MP3 Player, “He’ll talk like he is real dumb at first, but he isn’t. Also put on everything as if you were out carrying it. He was real ticked at me for not having everything properly secured.”

Hunter paused, put everything down on his cot and took a couple of minutes to properly secure everything. His sidearm went into a shoulder holster, his shotgun over his back pointing up over his left shoulder and finally his M4 went over his right shoulder. Finally, he stuck the combat knife Mr. Korbal demanded they all carry, on his left hip and tied the tip of the sheath around his leg like he had been shown. Finally, he double-checked his ammo pouches and made sure everything was secure.

Getting a thumbs up from Luke, Hunter moved toward the door nervously, “Hey, thanks.”

“No prob!” Luke grinned, “Just be warned from what the others said, no two tests were alike and there were surprises for all of us. He also said I needed to learn to carry one of those knives like you all have, but is going to give me some classes on it tonight so I know how to use it, carry it, and sharpen it.”

“Sounds like the same thing Mr. K. put us through.” He stopped and shot Luke a grin, “Oh, and thanks again for the head’s up.”

“Hey, it’s the least I can do.” Luke managed a nervous smile, “You all came and got me: I owe you guys everything.”

The tone alone told Hunter his friend meant every word, but it felt wrong to say he agreed, even though he did. Yet lying was not right either. Instead he glanced back, “I’m just glad we got to you before those Colorado jerks did.”

“Me two, three, and four!” Luke only half joked as he watched Hunter exit the building. He then turned back to the MP3 player. The fact it still worked and Hill City had wind power meant he could charge it. Music was a major thing for him and he wondered what he would do if his player ever broke or he couldn’t charge it. The thought left him frowning, even as he decided on playing some Nickelback.

Hunter didn’t have to go far to find Sgt. Jimenez, the man was waiting for him right outside the side door.

The guy studied Hunter for a moment, then moved up and checked the boy pretty much from head to toe. He checked everything, including making sure the ammo pouches were all properly secured and closed. He pulled on the body armor, and even yanked lightly on Hunter’s belt to make sure his pants were not too loose. The knife got some extra attention as the man inspected how it was worn, how the strap around the leg was tied and made sure it didn’t restrict Hunter’s movement in anyway. Once he was comfortable with the set up, he moved onto checking the weapons. He ejected the clips of the pistol and rifle, and unloaded the shotgun. He then handed Hunter ammunition to use for the test. Without saying a word he watched as Hunter inspected the rounds and loaded the magazines, one of which Hunter decided to give a quick oiling to since it seemed a bit drier than Mr. Korbal liked to see them. After an intensely uncomfortable eight or nine minutes the man finally nodded. “Not bad, but them hikin’ boots need ta be nice and tight. Get ’em, tighter and make sure them laces are where none of ’em can get under yer boot.”

Hunter took off his assault rifle so he could more easily kneel, Even as he did so, he could tell this was all part of some kind of deeper test. To this end he gave his rifle a quick inspection, making sure the safety was on and the magazine properly seated. He then put it down so it pointed away from structures, double-checking to make sure no one was in line of the barrel. He took a few seconds to retie his boots and double-checked to make sure the laces were tied in a way to not get under his boots, something he had never thought of before.

He then got back up, gave all his gear a once over and inspected the ground around him. He frowned as he saw a single bullet right where he had been kneeling. With a frown he reached down, picked it up and looked it over. It was a nine millimeter round, so he quickly checked his two spare magazines and then double-checked the sidearm as well. Once he was sure it was not his, he shrugged and dropped it into his pocket.

It wasn’t until Hunter saw the grin on the man’s face did he realize the guy had somehow dropped the single round without being detected. This got a snicker out of Hunter as he smiled at the man, “Sneaky, mean, but real sneaky!”

“Someone taught all you boys real good.” Sgt. Jimenez admitted with a chuckle, “Most new soldiers miss it completely or grab it without double-checking their own gear. Only Devin and Luke messed up this test.”

“Devin shouldn’t have. Mr. K. was big on checking whenever we stopped or put something down, then made certain if there was a problem to make sure it wasn’t something we would need. Seeing a bullet didn’t make sense, but Mr. K. would have been beyond mad if we hadn’t done the full check after finding one. Luke didn’t get to have Mr. K. teach him, so him messing it up I kind of get.”

“Only kind of?”

“Yes, sir. I mean he didn’t get the multiple times a day tests Mr. K. gave us, but if you find a bullet where you are sitting, it only makes sense to check everything you have that shoots the same kind of bullet.”

“Couldn’t agree with ya more, there young’an. Now let’s see what ya got. I have a range set up just behind the Pizza Hut.”

“Pizza…” Hunter sighed even as his mouth watered some. “Man, what I wouldn’t give for a good pizza. I can almost taste…”

Before Hunter could say more, a target with the outline of a man with a gun pointing at him appeared from behind the corner of the restaurant. This caught Hunter totally off guard, but once again the training of Mr. Korbal kicked in. As if on autopilot, Hunter dove and went prone. At the same time, his pistol came out into his hand and he flipped off the safety, “Drop it or I shoot!” Hunter called out loudly. A second later, he put two rounds into the wooden cutout, one hit the chest, the other the right leg. He stayed down, and scanned for more problems. He was not disappointed. Three figures appeared in the broken windows of the Pizza Hut. He put bullets into two of them rapidly, but the third caused him to balk. The cutout was of a man holding a woman by the throat, with his pistol pointed in Hunter’s general direction.

Not wanting to shoot, Hunter rolled to his left to get behind the only car in the lot and called out again, “Let her go or you get shot like your buddies!”

A few seconds passed before the target vanished from the window. Hunter looked around only to see Sgt. Jimenez leaning against a light pole watching him. The man said nothing and his facial expression was totally neutral. There was no way to tell how the man took what he had seen and there was no indication if this part of the test was still going on or not. Hunter stayed low and considered his options. There were no good ones. Normally he would have others try to circle, but the way this was set up, anyone trying to get behind the building would have to go way, way out since there was nothing but open space around the restaurant. Besides, he was all alone.

This was not the kind of test he had expected at all. Other than in movies, he had never even thought about someone holding a hostage as a human shield. Having a pistol in his hand and being the one shooting back brought it all home, though. In the movies the police would come and rescue the woman, but this time he was it, alone and if this was real it was up to him to do the right thing. The only problem was, he didn’t know what the right thing was.

Part of him wanted to rush in, another part wanted to consider the world in which he now lived. The smart thing would be to back away, and leave it alone. However, doing so was not the right thing or the Christian thing. God would not want him to leave a woman to such a person, no matter what. The other thing he thought about was what if it was his mom. He would want someone to help his mom. Yet to go after her was flatly stupid and he knew it. He also realized he could not see the back and it was possible Sgt. Jimenez would say the guy took the woman out the back while he stayed down behind the car and did nothing.

After a few more seconds of debate he put his pistol back in his holster and pulled out his assault rifle. He moved to where he could fire through the passenger side window and out the driver’s side before he called out, “Hey, let her go or I will kill you!”

At this point the same cutout appeared in a different window. Hunter lined up the shot and focused on everything he had learned about shooting. He carefully sighted in on the man’s head, controlled his breathing and gently squeezed the trigger. A split second later a hole appeared in the mouth of the bad guy cutout. With sweat coming off his brow, Hunter slid down behind the car tire and clutched his rifle for a few seconds before getting enough control of himself to call out, “Is there anyone else in there, ma’am?”

Less than thirty seconds later Sgt. Jimenez moved up to Hunter and looked down, “Test over and damn, boy, you did great! I’m thinking Gage must of rubbed off on you something fierce! Now let’s see how you do with the shotgun on some skeet and getting those weapons clear and cleaned!”

Hunter looked up, “So I did the right thing?”

Sgt. Jimenez reached down and helped Hunter up, “Hunter, there is no right in a situation like this. There is, however, wrong, and you passed with flying colors. The only thing you did which really bothered me a little, was telling the first guy to put down his sidearm. He had the drop on you and could have fired first. Going prone, though, gave you the advantage since you could steady and brace your weapon and he couldn’t. He had a much harder target and was at a pretty long range for a sidearm, so you had odds in your favor. A couple of other things you could have done was to get behind the car faster, but you did great cutting down the two easy targets. The rest, well it was judgment and you kicked butt. You saved the woman, no question. Only you and Gage killed the target holding a hostage without killing the hostage.”

“Someone killed the hostage?”

Corporal Glass came out of the Pizza Hut and moved to pat Hunter on the shoulder, “Actually, two did. Again, not a failure, but we are going to work with them a bit. Two others backed off and did nothing to try to get the hostage out. This is another totally understandable outcome and they did well on the other targets so we passed them without hesitation.”

Hunter let out a long breath, “I actually thought about leaving for a second…”

“And there is the key, Hunter.” Sgt. Jimenez praised the still shook up youngster, “You thought it out. You took the time to consider options, you switched to your rifle for range and accuracy and had enough trust in yourself to make the kill shot.”

“It’s not even fifty yards…” Hunter started to argue, only to get another pat on his back by Cpl. Glass.

The young corporal smiled warmly, “Just the way you are talking about it tells us you considered the range and knew what you could and couldn’t do. This is above and beyond what we were looking for and the others in your group were right about you and Gage. They said you would both smoke our test, so we made it a bit harder for the both of you. The others all had more cover and one less hostile.”

“And Gage did better, right?”

Sgt. Jimenez snickered, “He was faster and didn’t even bother to tell the cutout to let the hostage go. He just shot the guy right between the eyes. He also went to cover, even as he unslung his rifle and killed the first target. He used more ammo than you, though. He switched to burst and put three rounds into each of the first targets. Like you, he didn’t miss with a single shot, so you and him can carry what you want, even your assault rifles if you really want, but the town would much prefer you not…”

“I’ll take one of the rifles we got. We went deer hunting with .243’s last winter and we have an extra one with a scope in the van…”

“Go get it.” Cpl. Glass commanded. “We’ll make sure it is in good working order and sighted in properly. We don’t have any rounds for it, though.”

“We have a couple of hundred rounds for it and I know Luke had a few boxes of it in his dad’s gun safe and there was some at the roadblock which is where we got the extra rifle from, but I’m not sure how much ammo we found with it.”

“Grab the rifle, a box of ammo, and let’s get to work then.” Sgt. Jimenez demanded. “We’ll set the skeet up to fly over the field behind the Pizza Hut.”

Hunter eyed the building, “Any chance there is enough stuff in there to make one?”

This got a hardy laugh out of Cpl. Glass, “You do as good at shooting and care of your weapons as we think you will, and I’ll find a way to make you one.”

The next hour Hunter focused on doing everything just the way Mr. Korbal had taught him. As he finished up he could almost taste a slice of pizza.

Cpl. Glass finalized the inspection of the hunting rifle after he cleaned it and nodded, “You know, one of the first things we did when we got here was to set up a generator so we could keep food from spoiling. As part of doing so, one of the places we emptied out was the pizza place since it had some storm and earthquake damage, so what type of pizza do you want?”

“Ham and sausage?” Hunter asked with a great deal of hope.

Sgt. Jimenez patted Hunter on the back, “We’ll get Private Mosley on it while you go clean up, but before you do, find me all the .243 brass you have. I bet I can size a bullet for the casing and give you some reloads. They won’t be as good as factory made, and I’ll be making them out of lead, so they’ll be softer, but they’ll be better than nothing.”

“Can you teach me how to do it?”

The sergeant’s eyebrows shot up, “Absolutely! Be happy to!”

Devin road in the train next to Zeki watching as the train moved closer to the town of WaKeeney. As they got closer several people came out of structures to look. This caused Devin to glance over at Staff Sergeant Carla Fox even as he gripped his .22 rifle a bit tighter.

The female sergeant gave Devin a slight nudge, “Take a few breaths there, son. We are in a running train and this isn’t something anyone really expected to see or hear. Besides, we have a Stryker running point. It would take a total fool to shoot at us.”

“Us have see many fools in last weeks,” Zeki commented just loudly enough to be heard, even as he double-checked his rifle was easy to unsling and spare ammo was within reach.

SSgt. Fox reached over and patted both boys on their shoulders before radioing over to the APC to make sure they were ready should something go wrong. She then pulled up her M4 assault rifle and kept it slightly more ready than she had been.

Things looked like they were going to be fine, but a quarter of a mile before they got to the area they planned to slow and finally stop the train so they could easily get more supplies up to Hill City, the side road forced the convoy of vehicles to go around a group of buildings close to the tracks. It was the only place where the heavily armed APC would be out of sight of the train and someone realized this. A large dump truck pulled out from behind a long abandoned brick building, which was now partially collapsed and parked on the tracks. On top of the truck a man and a woman held up rifles and pointed it at the train. At the same time the driver’s side door opened and a third man wearing a dirty, but still distinctive, police uniform jumped out and took position behind the front bumper with what appeared to be a shotgun.

Before SSgt. Fox could reach for her radio to give instructions to the APC and the other vehicles it was escorting, Zeki spoke up, “Too close, no can stop in time!”

Devin swallowed hard, “You have got to be kidding me!”

Zeki shook his head, “Train no like car, no can stop fast, even at 45 kilometer per hour!”

“And if we hit it?” SSgt. Fox demanded to know.

“Oh, we hit if it no move!” Zeki shouted with a great deal of fear. “Harder we hit better chance me knock it out of way, bigger chance we no stay on track too. If not knock out of way we push down track till train stop and do lot of hurt to engine!”

SSgt. Fox made a snap decision, “Then punch it.” Seeing a bewildered boy look up at her she growled, “Punch it!”

Next to Zeki, a wet spot appeared in the front of Devin’s pants, “Zeek, she is telling you to go as fast as you can! Hopefully if they see you speed up they will move!”

Zeki’s hands moved up and ran down his entire face even as he let out a long breath. He closed his eyes and pushed the control of the engine so it would speed up. He glanced over at Devin, then up at SSgt. Fox, “Me think this going to hurt. Hold on tight!”

SSgt. Fox nodded in understanding even as she radioed over to the APC, “We’re going to ram it if they don’t move. If they do move, cripple it so it can’t follow!”

Neither Devin nor Zeki heard the response, since the two on top of the dump truck opened up fire on the train. The window on the right side of the engine spider webbed as one high-powered round struck it.

SSgt. Fox didn’t hesitate, even as she screamed out, “SHIT!” She roughly grabbed both boys by the back of their shirts and yanked them down to the floor of the engine.

At least a dozen more rounds slammed into the train as it picked up speed and headed for the truck. Zeki closed his eyes and spoke just loud enough for the others two to hear, “Me no want to tell Uncle Kadir about this. Him would not like to hear me wreck train on purpose!”

A few seconds later there was a massive crashing sound of metal on metal and the engine lurched hard, but didn’t stop. It did, however, throw all three in the engine around some. The sounds of debris raining down on the train could clearly be heard moments later, followed by another massive crashing sound on the left side of the engine. This was followed up by even more debris striking the engine and some large chunks could even be heard hitting the car right behind the engine. Off to the right side of the engine, flames roared as the fuel tank of the dump truck broke open and was ignited by sparks of metal on metal.

Even though he had slammed hard into the wall of inside of the engine compartment and had hurt his shoulder, Devin looked up in absolute horror, “We are on fire!”

Zeki shook his head as if to clear it and held his hand over a gash on his chin from where he had slammed into something hard or sharp, he looked up. “Me think fuel from truck! Fire way in front of fuel on engine! We keep go fast till it burn out. No think it will do hurt to engine and we no have burn in here! Fuel burn off and no burn train if train keep going!”

SSgt. Fox’s eyes went wide, “We can’t keep going down this track! Hays is less than forty miles away and it was hit by a nuke!”

Zeki chewed on his lower lip even as blood dripped from between his fingers from the cut on his chin. “Me stop; we burn. Movie Uncle Kadir show new train drivers talk about this!”

SSgt. Fox closed he eyes and spoke with trepidation in her voice. “And if we slow down?”

“Uncle Kadir tell new train drivers, more fast me take train, more fast flame burn and less hot inside here.” Zeki answered even as he watched the flames licking at the outside of the engine.

“Then we keep going, but no faster than this! We are heading right for a nuke site!” SSgt. Fox barked before she let out a long stream of curses. With a shake of her head, she grabbed her hand held radio, “Sergeant Collins we are all basically in one piece, but we don’t have much choice. We are going to move forward in hopes the flames go out! Cut up to Hill City and don’t let anyone get in your way! Shoot to kill if you have to. Once the supplies are safe, get back here, follow the tracks out of town, and get us if you safely can!”

Sgt. Collins’ voice came back over the radio, “Will do, and be advised, two of those three idiots didn’t make it and we picked up the third who says he really is or was a deputy sheriff out of Park, Kansas. They had an ambush set for us too, but those trying it scattered like sawdust in the wind when the truck blew up! We only had to take out a few and didn’t have to fire anything but small arms. We’re going to take the deputy and a couple of others who surrendered up to Hill City and get some extra info on what happened here. Also, you need to find a way to stop before too long! You are heading in the direction of Hays, and it was nuked!”

“Yeah, we know, so don’t remind us. Now, get our trucks, those pick-ups, and the semi up to Hill City. There is a good month or two worth of food in them they badly need. Once it is safe and secure then, and only then, worry about us!”

The M93 FOX came up out of the water and moved up to higher ground next to the APC Lieutenant Grader was driving with a second load of kids and one seriously ill adult from the doomed scout camp. Those who were able helped others up into the back of the M35A3, commonly referred to as a deuce and a half since it was designed to carry two and a half tons of cargo, did so. Most could not, and a few couldn’t even walk. It was those Angus and Private First Class Hulbert carried over to the truck, while Specialist Grimm and Vernon then assisted in moving up into the back.

While Angus hefted a stretcher holding one of the adults up, so those in the back of the truck could grab the one end, two of the older boys combined to lift the last of the rescued kids, a much younger boy, into the canvas covered back before exchanging looks. Exhaustion showed as the two teens leaned against the muddy wheels at the back of the truck and exchanged fist bumps.

Gage, on the other hand, stayed on top of the Stryker he had rode in and scanned the trees for other possible survivors and problems. From his vantage point he could see two bodies still in trees, but as soon as he pointed them out, Ramsey confirmed they had been checked on and were, unfortunately, as dead as they looked. Other than a few birds flying, nothing else moved in the area of the camp Gage could see. After a final scan through his scope, Gage looked over to the top of the other Stryker, “Looks like you got everyone we can see from here. How many did you all find?”

“Twenty-three total from here, but you were brought up because we’ve been told it is not safe to check out the areas close to the buildings with the canoes.” Ramsey responded with a long sigh. “Of those we have found so far, three are adult leaders, all of them in real bad shape. Sounds like they gave most of their food over to the kids they were with and one of them gave up most of his clothing to help keep the five he was with warmer once the camp totally flooded a few days ago, so he is in super bad shape.”

“Only twenty-three?” Gage asked as he scanned the area again. “There had to be way more out here! I can see what’s left of five big camp grounds from here!”

One of the teens who helped the younger boy into the back glanced up and nodded, “There are nine camp areas out here, most designed for more than one troop. I bet there were a couple of hundred of us here, but many left as soon as we saw the mushroom clouds. Others took off with some of the adults on foot over the following days when no one came to check on us. Ross and I decided to stay when most of those from our troop took off with Mr. Richmond, our Scout Master, after day five or six. By then there were parts of three troops and three adults in our camp. Mr. Richmond and Mr. Mack wanted all of us to walk out, but Mr. Cannon argued it was a bad idea since no one knew anything and they could walk straight to their deaths. He even noted we had a good chance of having no radiation here since no clouds were close. After a near fistfight between the adults, they finally decided to let each of us decide on our own. By then, Ross and I trusted Mr. Cannon more than our own Scout Master, since he really seemed to know his stuff, so we stayed with him.”

Ross nodded and he nudged his friend, “Yeah, Darren here, decided to step between Mr. Mack and Mr. Cannon to stop them from going at it, but by then about half had already left, probably more. I bet there were less than seventy here when the water hit.”

Darren let out a long breath, “Not one of my smarter moves, but after Mr. Mack accidently hit me, they backed off, so it worked. But Ross is right. Almost half left almost as soon as we stopped seeing mushroom clouds. Well, at least those who were with leaders who still had running cars did. Almost as soon as we realized what had happened, people started leaving. Even our Assistant Scout Master, Mr. Dean, took off in his Jeep with his kid without even caring about the rest of us. Many of the other adults crammed everyone they could into cars and pick-ups and said they were going to go home, too. Mr. Cannon,” the teen pointed to the stretcher even as it disappeared from sight, “thought it was a real bad idea, but their Scout Master disagreed and took as many of those from their troop out in his mini-van as he could and said he was going to try to get home to Emporia. The guy said he would come back for the rest of them. He never did, though.”

“Probably couldn’t,” Ross jumped in, quickly defending the man. “The rain hit real hard shortly after they left and no telling what was hit and what wasn’t. At least he left us all their stuff so we had more than some of the others.” He paused, “Me, I think Mr. Cannon was right. Until the water came in hard from upstream and flooded us out, we were doing pretty well.”

Darren responded as he gratefully accepted a cold can of chicken noodle soup from Lt. Grader. “The last six and a half days really sucked though.”

Ross nodded in full agreement, took a second can of soup from the lieutenant, pulled the top off, and started drinking the contents with anxiousness.

From up in the back of the truck, Spec. Grimm spoke up, “Boys, slow down. Take small swallows and chew what needs to be chewed. Let it settle and we’ll get you some more, but you eat too much too fast and you’ll get sick and waste it!”

The words seemed to get through to the kids who both took deep breaths and slowed their eating. Seeing he had a couple of kids who seemed to have a good grasp on what was going on and weren’t seriously ill, too weak to talk, or totally freaked out and sobbing, Lt. Grader spoke up, “So, boys…” He waited until he had the attention of both of them before continuing. He gave them both a reassuring smile first, “Relax, you are safe, will not be harmed, and we have food. On the other hand, we could really use some information on what is going on. Why don’t we get you in a vehicle, get you into some dry clothing and we can chat.”

The boys looked a bit nervous as they exchanged glances, but Angus moved over and spoke up, “Come on, you are soaked and need to sit and unwind. I’ll be in there with you, so will Vern.”

Vernon spoke, up, “No, let Ram. He’s been up top and needs a break. I’ll take over for him. Besides, we got a line of clouds coming from the north and we don’t want Ram getting wet unless he has to.”

Angus quickly nodded in agreement and motioned for Ramsey to come down and join him in the back of the Stryker with the two older boys.

Lt. Grader waited until the four boys entered the back of the APC before he jumped in. He pointed to a small pile of dry towels and a trio plastic garbage bags filled with random boy’s clothing the town had hastily pulled out of a secondhand store in Hill City when the mayor heard about where they were going. “Not sure what all is in there, but I bet you can find something to wear.”

The slightly taller boy, Ross, downed the rest of the can of soup and started peeling off wet clothing. Darren gave it a few seconds, but once he saw his friend toweling off, he quickly decided to follow suit. Neither showed any shyness about stripping all the way down and getting totally dry for the first time in quite some time. Both had some rashes on their skin where wet clothing had been kept on too long.

Lt. Grader noticed this almost instantly, “I have a female medic with us who should probably take a look at those…”

Ross spoke up as he saw what the man was looking at, “Mr. Cannon warned us about trying to dry off, but it got hard once we started taking off the roof of the tower you found us on so we could build a raft. All of us have had rashes on and off and they clear up once we clean up, dry off and stay dry for a while.”

Angus guessed neither one really wanted to be seen without any clothes on in front of a female unless they had to, so he spoke up. “If it doesn’t get better fast, let someone in Hill City know. They have a really nice doctor who looked over all of us.”

Lt. Grader wasn’t sure if it was because a kid was talking to them or something else, but both boys gave Angus a nod and noticeably relaxed some, so he decided to keep quiet and let Ramsey and Angus loosen the older boys’ tongues. To this end he simply sat down as far away from the kids as the back of the APC would allow and nodded for Angus to continue.

Angus missed the non-verbal cue, but Ramsey caught it. He took in a deep breath then jumped into break the momentary uncomfortable silence before it caused problems, “So you guys were building a raft?”

The offhanded question worked well. Darren viciously rubbed the towel over his long blond hair as he answered, “Yeah, we kind of hoped the water would go back down after the big wall of water that came downstream slammed into the camp six nights ago, but it didn’t. Mr. Cannon was starting to get sick and we had to get someplace safe, so he told us to use what we had with us to pull out the nails and build a raft. We have been at it for about a day and a half now. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, we were going to try it before the sun went down, cause Mr. Cannon and Jordan really needed to get someplace warm and we all needed to try to find some food.”

Ramsey shook his head, “So you were all in the tower for the last six days?”

Ross found a pair of sweatpants in something close to his size, so he slid them on while he answered, “Pretty much. The water finished us. Up till just before the big flood hitting us, we all worked together pretty well and we kept in camps. At first we stayed in the camps assigned to us, but as more and more left, and the numbers went down, we started to combine. Six nights ago, almost seven now because it hit at dusk, the water came. We heard it coming but didn’t know what it was until it was too late.”

Darren noticeably shivered as he finished toweling off and pulled on some baggy cargo pants and a sweatshirt while talking. “Some of us saw the water as it hit the windbreak and we shouted for everyone to get to the tower. Only four of us made it though, then Mr. Cannon managed to grab Jordan as he went by. He wasn’t even staying in our camp, so he is super lucky to have been washed so close to the tower as he was, and even luckier Mr. Cannon is so strong. The others we had staying in our camp, were washed down by the water as it hit the tents and junk. I did notice Lake as he got pulled into the back of the truck, so at least one other from our camp is still alive.”

Angus cringed, “How many are missing from your camp?”

“Seven, um six since you got Lake.” Ross responded with a sigh, “But we heard Lake’s brothers, Lonnie and Luis, the next morning shouting from the west. They said they had made it to high ground. We made one attempt to get to them, but the water was way over our heads and moving pretty fast, so Mr. Cannon didn’t let us try once we found out how deep and fast it was. It’s a good thing he didn’t, because another wave hit less than an hour later. If we had been swimming it would have taken us down river for sure!”

Darren noticeably gulped, “Yeah, and I really wanted to try… We didn’t hear any more from Luis or Lonnie, though. I hope they made it somewhere safe.”

Lt. Grader decided to jump into the conversation since it was not going in the direction he needed it to. “So boys, what’s with the two buildings with the canoes?”

Ross noticeably cringed and turned to look at Darren as he spoke, “Um, well, we aren’t real sure at this point.”

Seeing Lt. Grader frown, Darren took over, “One is the dining hall, the other is the camp store and medical building. Before the flood hit, the camp director and a couple of staff took them over and were giving out food and stuff on a daily basis. But right before the flood hit, the only full troop left here took over the building next to the pool where all the .22s were kept. With the guns, they took over the dining hall and with it most of the food. A couple of the other partial troops and some of the adults tried to take it back with bows from the archery range. They took them by surprise and managed to get in, but were driven back. They got a couple of guns, though, and then took over the camp store.

“After the flood, a canoe from the group in the store came by and dropped off some candy bars and some Raman. The next day a canoe from the dining hall came by with two kids and an adult with one of the .22s. The man offered us food in exchange for some of our camping supplies or for Jordan. Mr. Cannon said no way, so the guy with the gun pointed it at us and took some of our stuff and left us six cans of green beans. The next day we heard some gunshots from where the buildings are and one of the canoes floated by with someone in the bottom of it. Neither side has come back here, but we did see the guy from the dining hall in the distance offering food for equipment to some of the others, so I guess they won.”

“I don’t think so,” Ross countered. “Cause the canoe never went close to the camp store.”

At this, Darren reluctantly agreed, “He’s right, but one way or the other, the supplies stopped and those jerks took about a third of the extra gear Mr. Richmond left us with.”

Lt. Grader could see both Ramsey and Angus were pretty angry at hearing this, so he looked over to the two boys, “What do you two think we should do?”

Angus spoke up without any hesitation, “I think we ought to get their stuff back and make sure they don’t have any scout stuff left, cause they ain’t being scouts if they are stealing!”

Ramsey agreed without hesitation. “They could have gotten everyone to safety with the canoes, but didn’t. Those aren’t scouts!”

Lt Grader rubbed his chin with his good hand, “I’m just as concerned about them wanting one of the kids. Any idea why?”

Darren shrugged, “Not sure, but we do have binoculars, so we could see some of the younger kids digging dirt and filling sandbags, while a couple of the kids from Topeka watched them with guns, so maybe they are making them work for food or something. I know they had a wall of sandbags up but the latest water surge took the water higher than the bags and then you showed up. They haven’t come out since we saw you.”

“We have to go get them!” Angus demanded.

“I’m not really about assaulting a building full of kids, though.”

Ramsey looked over with grim determination, “I am.”

Angus growled, “Me too!”

From up top, Gage’s voice could be heard clearly, “I sure wouldn’t want to be held by people like that again!”

Lt. Grader looked up and spoke softly, “Did he just say, ‘again’?”

Ramsey took a deep breath, “I don’t think he meant to say it and I am sure he doesn’t want to talk about it, sir.”

At this, Angus eyed Ramsey.

Ramsey looked over and spoke softly enough to where he was certain Gage would not hear, “I’ve heard him talk in his sleep. It was way bad at first, not so much anymore. Trust me, he really doesn’t want to talk about it. But I think he’s right. We can’t let them keep people as some kind of work prisoner, can we?”

Even though Lt. Grader was still looking up, he clenched his fist and gave a single nod, “No, no we can’t.”

While Kyle likes feedback, he really likes it in the form of criticism. If you don’t like something, find errors, or just want to bitch about something, email him at: KyleArrons at CastleRoland dot net. If you are only reading this and you are enjoying the story, you may still let him know at the above email addy.

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