I took my rifle and pistol and began walking toward the gate, anxious to be away. Morgan shouted from behind me, “Hey Hicks.”

I stopped and looked over my shoulder.

“Can I talk you into hanging out for a few minutes?”

“For what?”

“Might have a job for you if you’re interested.”

I wasn’t, but I figured it would be a bad idea to refuse outright. So I shrugged and did my best to appear as if I was considering it. “All right. I’ll hear you out.”

“Find a spot in the shade. I have some things to take care of, then we’ll talk.”

I walked over to an RV that looked empty and had one of those retractable awnings. After lowering it, I went inside and searched until I found a folding chair, then took a seat and waited.

The soldiers worked quickly, their first order of business helping anyone who needed medical attention. A few people had minor injuries, but the community was mostly healthy. Next, they assessed the vehicles at the settlement’s disposal and inventoried their fuel, trying to decide how far they could go on what they had. I overheard Mabel explain that the National Guard troops who had left these people here had mostly drained the reserves in the gas station’s underground tanks. What remained would not get them very far.

The few children in the encampment came out and surrounded some of the more friendly soldiers, touching their equipment and peppering them with questions. The men in uniform were unfailingly kind and patient, letting the kids look at their unloaded rifles and try on their helmets. It reminded me of YouTube videos I had seen of soldiers hanging out with children in Iraq, giving them candy bars and toys, trying to win hearts and minds. It was eerie to see the same thing happen on U.S. soil.

Once finished with their initial assessment, Morgan asked Travis to gather his people in the center of the enclosure. When they had come together in a loose, anxious knot, Morgan stood on an empty milk crate and raised his voice.

“I have good news, and I have bad news,” he said. “So I’ll give you the bad news first. There is a swarm of infected about eight miles behind us. I’d like to tell you how many of them there are, but I’m afraid it’s too many to count. Tens of thousands would be my best guess.”

A chorus of worried noise went up from the gathered survivors at this. Eyes went wide, couples pulled each other into shaky arms, parents clutched their children. The voices turned toward Travis, a dozen questions at once, all with the same message: What do we do?

“All right, all right,” Travis said, holding up his hands. “Don’t start panicking. Let the captain finish.”

The crowd quieted. Morgan nodded his thanks and continued. “If the horde follows the same patterns we’ve seen others follow, eventually they’ll disperse. But I can’t guarantee that will happen before they reach this settlement. And even if they do, the numbers of infected in the area will increase dramatically. Your defenses here will not be enough to stop them.”

He paused to let the facts sink in. The crowd went quiet, absorbing the news. When he sensed it had been long enough, Morgan said, “Now for the good news. There are about twenty thousand troops in Colorado Springs as we speak. By the end of the month, that number should be up to about thirty-five thousand. Just this morning, I received word that FEMA is setting up disaster relief stations in the area, and is offering aid to anyone who can make it there. Now here’s the deal, folks. I can’t promise you anything. I thought we had a pretty good chance of saving San Antonio, but there were too many infected. We were overrun. But I’ve been to Colorado, and I can tell you the terrain there in the Rockies will give us a hell of an advantage. We’ll have a lot better chance at fighting the infected there than we do here. So that’s where we’re headed. You’re all welcome to come with us. We should have enough room to fit you on the trucks, or you can travel in your own vehicles if you want. I can’t guarantee I’ll get you all to Colorado safely, but I can promise you I will damn well try. If you don’t want to come along, I can’t force you. But be aware, if you stay here, you’re probably not going to make it.”

He stepped down from the crate and looked at Travis at eye level. “We move out in an hour. You have until then to decide.”

With that, he walked away, motioning his troops to return to the convoy.

As the people in the settlement talked among themselves deciding what to do, Morgan looked my way and beckoned me over. I got up and followed him out of the gate and over to his Humvee. Once there, he passed a quick message over the radio and then stared at me for a few seconds, measuring me up.

“You look like you’re in pretty good shape,” he said finally. “That Travis guy was no joke, but you put him down with no problem. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you probably know how to handle yourself. You any good with that carbine?”

“I’m not terrible with it.”

“Had to kill any infected yet?”

“A few.”

“So you know about the headshot rule?”

“Damn near learned the hard way.”

He let out a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah, me too. Listen, we’re short-handed here. We have a big job ahead of us, and not enough people to get it done. I need all the help I can get. You follow?”

“I’m not interested in joining the Army.”

“I’m not asking you to. I need people who can fight, and who can keep their head in a bad situation. What you just dealt with in there, most people wouldn’t have had the nerve to do what you did. I could use a guy like you, assuming you can follow instructions.”

“And what are you offering in return?”

“Safe passage to Colorado. As safe as I can make it, anyway. Think about it, man. What are you gonna do out here? You think you can survive in this place long term? Hell, most of it’s burned to the ground. Things are better up north. And you’re not going to find a faster, better way to get there than this convoy.”

I thought about it a moment and realized he had a point. But I had more than just myself to think about. “I have to admit, you make a good sales pitch,” I said. “But there are other people in my group.”

“More than just your buddy up there in the hills?”

I nodded. “My family.”

“Can any of them fight?”

“Some.”

He looked at me more closely, but I kept my face blank. When he realized I was not giving anything else away, he said, “Like I told you. I need all the help I can get. You can bring them along.”

“I’ll have to talk to them about it. Might take a while.”

“We leave in an hour. Sorry, but orders are orders.”

“Do what you have to do. If they decide to come along, we’ll catch up. What route are you taking?”

He took out a map and showed me. I committed it to memory, and then offered him my hand. “No promises, Captain, but you very well might be seeing me again. If you do, I’ll have company.”

He shook my hand. “Either way, it was nice to meet you, kid.”

“Likewise.”

*****

“I didn’t recognize any of them,” Mike said.

We had gathered in a circle back at the vehicles, all except for Lauren. She elected to stay in Dad’s truck with the engine running and the AC cranked as high as it would go. Tyrel had regained consciousness and stood across from me, one side supported by a makeshift crutch, the other by Lola. His eyes were still somewhat glassy from the pain meds, but at least he was on his feet. Lance, meanwhile, leaned against the fender of my father’s truck, arms crossed over his chest, keeping his distance from the conversation.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Blake said. “46 is a long highway. There were thousands of troops when we left.”

“But from what that captain was saying, not many survived,” Tyrel said. “How many were in that convoy, do you think?”

I shook my head. “Maybe a hundred or so.”