Chapter 27
We’ve been planning and practicing the withdrawal as much as we have the assault, and having Robin and his crew with us makes the job even more efficient.
With Robin’s vehicles and a few dozen extra people to carry cargo in their packs, we’re able to take even more of the stored weapons and ammunition than we’d planned.
Everything we can’t take with us, we move into the factory to be blown with the machinery.
The body count isn’t as great I feared it would be. Four of us have been killed—including Tony, which is more than a personal loss since he’s always been our medic—and several more are injured. But it could have been so much worse. We did get lucky, but also all our planning and practice paid off.
Throughout the night, I say goodbye to my people as motors and transports are filled with as much as they can carry and driven away by small groups headed in different directions. It’s bittersweet since so many of these people have been with me for so long.
But we’ll regroup in six months and make another move. For now, we need to get clear as quickly as possible before the shift change at dawn, when the Capitol will discover what’s happened and immediately launch a military response.
I’m watching as Robin’s crew loads crate after crate of brand-new automatic weapons into the back of his pre-Fall cargo truck.
When it’s full, Robin pulls down the door and latches it.
“That’s all we can carry. We’ll head out.
I’ve got connections with villages up north, so that’s where we’ll go.
We’ll pass out as much of this stuff up that way as we can.
” He pushes his hair out of his face. “I’d like my crew to be part of your regrouping in six months if you’ll have us. ”
“We would be honored. Our missions align more than I thought they did, so we can do a lot more together.” I extend my hand.
He takes it, squeezing mine with his strong grip. “Agreed. Thank you. I thought a victory like this was out of reach. Only a dream. Everyone did.”
So did I. For so long.
I nod as our eyes meet. We understand each other. He’s a friend now as well as an ally.
Then he lets go of my hand and gestures toward his gathered people. “Saddle up! We’re headed north.”
He shoots me one more dry grin over his shoulder as he climbs into the driver’s seat of the cargo truck.
I wave and smile, standing beside Ben as we drive off.
When I glance up at Ben, he’s glowering.
“What?” I ask. “You still don’t trust him?”
“I trust him. I just don’t like him. Never did like the smooth, charming type who’re always talkin’ out their ass.”
That makes me laugh. I squeeze Ben’s arm. It feels like years and miles from yesterday’s heartbreak.
He turns, looking like he’s going to kiss me. Then he stops himself. “Let’s finish up here and get out.”
“Agreed.”
It’s not long until dawn now, and there are only a dozen of us left, including Vella, Roderick, Chelle, and Ryan. Vella will take one small group and Roderick the other. Then Ben and I will cross the border and drive into the wilderness.
Things might not be completely settled between me and Ben, but six months in the wilderness with his family sounds like paradise right now. Peace and rest and safety—without spending every moment fighting for our lives.
I need it.
Maybe then I’ll get clarity on our relationship.
“It might be easier when we’re out of this,” Ben murmurs, evidently reading my mind as he often does. “To figure out what you want, whether you can trust me again. I’m not pushin’.”
“I know you’re not.” I move the hand that was on his sleeve to the front of his shirt. I squeeze the fabric just over his heart. “Thank you.”
His face is soft in the gruff way that’s purely Ben. He’s about to say something when Ryan calls down from the roof of the building behind us, “Trouble!” He’s been up there with a set of binoculars, keeping watch in the dark.
I climb up the rope ladder to the roof with Ben on my heels. “What is it?”
“Troops coming this way. From the north.”
“Shit.” I take the binoculars he offers and adjust them until I can see the lights on vehicles. He’s right. They’re headed toward us. “How did they get moving so quickly?”
“Don’t think they’re from the Capitol. Must’ve been somewhere closer and heard reports of activity here.”
Ben has been peering through the binoculars I passed him after I looked. “Yep,” he says. “No way they coulda got here from the Capitol so quick. Looks like six or seven units. Almost forty guards. No way we can fight that many. We gotta get outta here.”
Ryan is already collecting his stuff and heading for the rope ladder. I’m about to follow him when I think of something. “Wait! Oh fuck. Robin. Oh no.” I grab the binoculars back to sweep through the dark landscape between here and the approaching troops.
Sure enough, Robin’s group is traveling on a road that will run right into the troops.
My stomach drops. Churns.
Robin is smart. He’s got a well-trained and competent crew. He won’t let them be sitting ducks. But his people will soon reach one of the highest hills in the areas. He won’t be able to see over the incline to what’s coming in the distance.
The guards will see him before he sees them.
“Ryan, wait. See if you can radio and warn them.”
Ryan drops his stuff and starts tuning the knob on his handheld radio. “They use a different channel than us.”
“I know. But maybe they’ll be listening in.” I’m still watching the scene in the distance play out like a dark, doomed storyline, already spiraling down to the end. “They have about five minutes to turn off the road without being seen.”
“If they don’t,” Ben murmurs, peering into the dark as if he might see without aid, “it’s gonna be a disaster.”
Thirty minutes later, the sun is starting to rise, and disaster has come.
Ryan couldn’t reach any of Robin’s people, and—as we feared—they came over the crest of the hill just as the troops were ascending. His crew reacted quickly, but they were greatly outnumbered and encumbered by the overloaded cargo truck.
I couldn’t see all the details in the dark at this distance, but there was gunfire and collisions and a lot of chaos.
The skirmish did halt the advance of the troops. Otherwise, they’d be on us right now. But there’s nothing good about what’s happening down there. Half of Robin’s people are probably dead, and the rest will be soon.
“We need to get out of here, ma’am,” Roderick says. He and the others climbed up to the roof with me, Ben, and Ryan a few minutes ago. “They already got a prize down there, but you’re the gold. They’ll be coming here any minute, and we can’t let them find you.”
“He’s right,” Vella agrees. “I hate it as much as you do, but there are only twelve of us. We can’t take on all those troops.”
“We have to do something. We can’t leave Robin and his people to be killed or captured.” With sun inches up at the horizon, there’s dim light to see more details. I find the place on the road where vehicles collided or veered into the ditches. There are bodies littering the ground.
“It’s too late,” Roderick says. “What can we do?”
I feel sick. Weak and cold and nauseated. I wish I could fall apart, collapse in a heap and cry, but I don’t have that leisure. There’s got to be a way out of this, and I’m the one responsible for figuring it out.
My hands are shaking, so I lower the binoculars from my eyes.
“Let me look for a minute,” Ben murmurs softly, gently removing them from my hands.
I wait, watching him peer through the lenses, hoping desperately that he’ll see a way out of this that I couldn’t.
“Wh-what?” Ben bites out. “What the hell are they doin’?”
“What do you mean?” I take the binoculars back so I can check.
That’s when I see it.
A single guard walking on the road in our direction, carrying a gray flag.
A solid gray flag.
The universal sign in the Central Cities for parley.
“They want to talk?” I’m stunned. Bewildered. I pass the binoculars to Vella.
“No, they don’t wanna talk,” Ben mutters. “They want you.”
“Yeah,” Vella agrees. “The Central Cities doesn’t negotiate.
They take what they want and wipe out anyone in their way.
” She passes the binoculars to a waiting Roderick and then meets my eye.
“They might pretend they want to talk, but they want to kill you. They’re trying to get you to show yourself so they can kill you. ”
“She’s right,” Ben mutters.
“Robin’s down,” Roderick says. He hands me the binoculars when I extend my hand. “In front of that first truck.”
I shift the view so I can scan for Robin’s body, and I see it where Roderick indicated. He’s sprawled out on the pavement, bloodied and awkwardly positioned. His hair glints gold in the rising sun.
I gulp. “He’s still alive. Wounded but still alive.”
“Not for long,” Vella says gloomily.
“None of them will be alive for long,” Roderick says. “And neither will we if we go out to meet them. We need to run, and we need to do it now.”
“No.” My voice is sharp but not from anger.
The dream of a victory, of a long rest in the wilderness, of being with Ben for real, forever, is all fading into blurred darkness where it belongs.
The narrow beam of reality’s stark light is all that’s left.
“I won’t run when our friends are in danger.
Those are our people now, and they were taken down fighting our fight.
I will not run.” When Roderick starts to argue, I speak over him.
“Don’t you dare say that sacrifices have to be made to achieve our ends.
What we believe in cannot be sacrificed.
I won’t do it. We have five minutes to make a plan. ”
“It’s probably too late to call our folks back, but I’ll try.” That’s Ryan, moving a few feet away and raising his radio to get to work.
“We are twelve. They are more than forty. What the hell can we do?” Vella is loud, audibly upset.
“And don’t say you’re going down to negotiate with those bastards because it will be suicide.
They don’t have any honor. They don’t play by the rules.
They won’t honor the gray flag of parley.
As soon as you’re in range, they’ll shoot you down. ”
“Maybe,” I admit, my voice weirdly small and chilled. I see it now in that blinding beam of light—the end I’ve been moving toward my entire life. “But at least it would provide the diversion we need, and it might be our only option.”
“No!” Vella turns to Ben. “Tell her she’s being stupid. Stop her!”
Ben has been frozen since he saw that parley flag. His expression is tight and blank as he looks from Vella to me and then back. It’s not even been two days since he pushed my head down and held it there against my will out of desperation to protect me.
He’ll never agree to this. To make it happen, I’ll have to fight him first. He’ll never let me walk down there to my death even if it’s the only way to save us.
I sense rather than see a deep, aching shuddering inside him as he finally rasps, “She’s the boss. She makes the decisions. So if she decides to go down, I’ll say yes, ma’am. And so should you.”
It’s too much. Too shattering. I can’t see through the pressure in my eyes as I hug my arms to my chest.
A couple of tears stream down Vella’s face. “They’ll kill you, Annabelle. I get we can’t let Robin and his folks die, but if you go down there to a parley, they’ll kill you.”
“Maybe,” I manage to say. “They might. But if they do, I’m not going to let it be wasted. So once again, I’m telling you that we need a plan and we need it fast.”