He returned my smile and let out a deep breath. “Good. I was hoping we hadn’t stirred up any herds on our way over. I’ll go tell the others.” He jogged to the galley and toward the engine room where Wes and two of Sorenson’s people were finishing repairs. The Lady Amore had stopped by yesterday, and Sorenson had left three of his people, including his daughter, to help us get up and running. Their help and expertise were invaluable. His daughter, Nikki, had been born with sea legs, and she had a salty demeanor that came from spending most of her life on the river. She had been the one to get the engines running. Over the last twenty-four hours, we’d completed far more than we could’ve done with everyone from Camp Fox combined.
Not that Sorenson had done all that out of the goodness of his heart. The new world was built on bartering, and he was one of the best at it. For three of his people to stay two days, Tyler gave him two pallets of MREs, which cut our MRE supply in half. Sorenson had delivered two more pontoons in exchange for the .30 cal on the back of Tyler’s Humvee. I told Tyler he was being too generous, but he believed it was more important to get the towboat and barges set up to sustain Camp Fox.
If we had to stay the full winter on the Aurora or took on any more survivors, we didn’t have a single ration to spare. Tyler counted on any remaining zeds in the area to clear out and migrate with the herds, leaving the Midwest free for us to get what we needed from the bigger stores in towns. I didn’t have as much confidence. I knew for a fact that some buildings had quite a few zeds penned inside. I wasn’t looking forward to finding out which buildings those were.
“Shit. Is the entire group soldiers?” Nikki Sorenson asked at my side.
I started, not realizing she’d come up behind me. I looked at the now-stopped convoy on the east bank, where people were getting out and stretching, including Manny. Until Manny and his people had arrived, Camp Fox only had about ten civilians, the rest being soldiers—mostly Guardsmen. It hadn’t always been that way. After the outbreak, there had been well over a hundred non-military residents at Camp Fox. Doyle’s attack on Camp Fox had changed all that. The head of the militia had attacked when nearly all the soldiers were fixing the camp’s perimeter. No one had ever expected the attack to come from inside the base. The camp’s population had been decimated, and I’d almost lost Clutch.
Only forty-two survivors had made it to the Fox National Park to rebuild Camp Fox. Even with stragglers coming in every week, soldiers outnumbered civvies three to one. I think that was part of the reason why Tyler and Griz were overly protective of Jase and me. They still saw us as civvies rather than soldiers.
“Most are, I guess,” I said finally.
From this distance, even most civvies could pass as soldiers. Many of the Fox survivors, including myself, wore desert tan or olive drab from Camp Fox’s supply rooms as it was our most abundant source of durable clothing.
“Must be nice to have that kind of protection,” she said, her tone caustic.
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so, but it’s not like we’re not pulling our own weight. We all look after each other in some way.”
Jase emerged from the galley and headed our way. “Wes says they’re nearly done down there. We’ll have power tonight, but there’s not much diesel fuel left for the engines. We’re going to have to go on a fuel run soon.”
“Ha. Good luck with that,” Nikki said. “There’s no diesel fuel along this river for fifty miles in either direction. You’ll have to go onto dry land to find any.”
“We’ll find some,” I said.
“As long as you’re not taking what the Lady Amore needs,” she quickly added.
My brows rose. “We’re not competing. We’re all in this together.”
With her droll look, I could tell Nikki wasn’t convinced. “The Lady Amore needs fuel or else we’re dead in the water. The Aurora isn’t going anywhere, so it’s not like you need it.”
I chuckled. “We don’t need it for the boat. We need it for the generators. We’re just shooting for a couple luxuries to keep morale up: lights in the barges, some hot water, some portable heaters, and a couple working toilets.”
“Hmph.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t even understand why you couldn’t just hop in a jet and fly all your people to safety.”
My hands slid to my hips. I’d heard this all before, and it pissed me off every time. “Just because I have a pilot’s license doesn’t mean I can fly anything out there. You have a driver’s license. Does that mean you can drive a big semi-truck or bulldozer?”
Jase cut between us. “It’s all going to work out,” he said. “Don’t be so sensitive. Sheesh.”
After a moment, I sighed. “We’re all trying to just get by.”
“Say that to the river towns,” a man from the Lady Amore chimed in as he approached. I tried to remember his name.
“Hey, Bill,” Jase said as he fidgeted with his binoculars.
Ah, Bill.
Bill nodded to Jase before continuing. “Those towns that aren’t completely infested by zeds are having walls built around them. It’s getting harder and harder to find an open dock that’s big enough for the Lady.”
“The towns are closing off their docks?” I asked.
“No, they charge docking fees. Not to mention the outrageous fees for fuel and food,” he replied.
“It’s a cutthroat world,” I said, not knowing what else to say. Yeah, times were tough, but I’d seen the Lady Amore in action. They were managing just fine.
“Looks like they’re getting ready to load the pontoons,” Jase said at my side, looking through a pair of binoculars.
I lifted my rifle and looked through the scope. Everyone in the convoy, with scouts on the outliers standing guard, was busy unloading supplies around Tyler by the three pontoons. Two dead zeds floated facedown nearby.
“I wish we had a better place to secure all the vehicles,” Jase said. “It sucks leaving them out in the open like that.”
The vehicles, still laden with anything worth taking from the park, had been backed into a semi-circle around the dock to both protect the small boat ramp as well as enable efficient unloading. Soon, everything on the vehicles would be moved onto the Aurora, though I suspected loading the livestock on the pontoons would make for an entertaining afternoon show.
I pointed to the tree line near the dock. “Tyler thought we’d park them just off the road by the woods.”
“We could try to camouflage them,” Jase said. “Even so, I don’t see how we can possibly hide an entire convoy. Is Tyler planning on keeping at least one scout on land to keep an eye on them?”
“I think so.” I thought of long, cold nights outside ahead of us and shivered.
“Until the herds come,” Nikki added. “Then you’d better hope there’s no one still there.”
Being reminded of the reason for this journey quickly sobered me. “Yeah. Until the herds come.”
“Let me see, Jase,” Nikki said.
I glanced away from my scope to see Nikki holding out her hand. Jase handed her his binoculars. After several long moments, her mouth slowly dropped open. “My God, it looks like the Army is moving in. How much stuff are you guys moving?”
“Stuff?” I shrugged. “Just the usual. Anything we can eat or use, we’re bringing onto the barge to keep it safe.”
Nikki watched me for a moment before looking through the binoculars again. “You should be careful. The more you have, the more you have to lose.”
Chapter XIV
Nikki Sorenson’s words pierced any hope I had at sleeping. It wasn’t so much what she’d said. It was how she’d said it, like she was taunting us at how much we had to lose, like she knew something we didn’t. Or it could’ve been just another one of her catty remarks. Unlikely the former, probably the latter.