Deadland's Harves(43)

Tyler, Griz, Jase, and Nate climbed out of the Humvee in front of us while Tack stayed on the back of their Humvee to man the .30 cal machine gun. He scanned the area while Tyler and Griz talked between themselves by the river.

When Wes reached for the door, I stopped him. “We’re not supposed to leave the truck unless Tyler gives us the all-clear.”

Tyler’s Humvee was the lead vehicle, while ours was jam-packed with tools, food, and weapons. It was our job to secure the boat, and we wanted to make sure we had all the gear we needed to get the job done.

Tyler had to lead this mission since he needed to be here to meet with Sorenson’s people. Clutch had wanted to lead this mission, but his legs weren’t strong enough to handle the stairs on the boat. He could stand now—thanks to the swelling finally going down enough and with the help of crutches. I loved seeing signs of the old Clutch return in his face. The glint had come back to his eyes, and his expressions were more alert now. It was like he’d been half-asleep and was coming back to wakefulness. Walking was still beyond his reach, but it wouldn’t be much longer with how hard he was working at it. He had a renewed energy in everything now.

I think even Tyler wished we had Clutch’s experience on this trip. Clutch had been in plenty of situations in the Army before the outbreak, while Tyler, Griz, Nate, and Tack were much younger. Aside from Griz, who had also been in the Army, none of the other soldiers at Camp Fox had seen action before the outbreak.

Even from a wheelchair, Clutch was Camp Fox’s strongest leader. Tyler was trusted and loved, but Clutch was obeyed. No one argued with him, which made it all the more important he stayed behind to lead the convoy. If anyone could relocate sixty people and all our livestock across a zed-infested state smoothly, it was Clutch.

He wasn’t thrilled that Tyler had asked Jase and me to come on the mission. Tyler had said he needed Jase’s limber speed for scouting the barges, and my small size for squeezing through tight spaces, but I knew it was really Tyler’s way of showing Clutch who was in charge…and to piss him off even more.

That Clutch had freaked out when we’d arrived home a day late with my face cut up was an understatement. He was downright livid at Tyler, even though it wasn’t Tyler’s fault. He’d blamed Tyler since he was in charge when my clumsy accident happened. Clutch had jumped from his wheelchair faster than anyone expected and tackled Tyler. Jase, Griz, and Tack had to tear them apart to prevent a fight.

Yeah, this mission had come at the right time. The pair needed space, and a couple hundred miles was just about perfect. Except that Clutch wanted Jase and me with him and not with Tyler right now. But even he knew that the safety of Camp Fox came first, and if Tyler said he needed us, then we had to trust his judgment. If something happened to either of us on this trip, I would dread being in Tyler’s shoes.

This morning, even though he was still pissed about having to be separated again so soon, Clutch had acknowledged that he trusted Tack and Griz second only to himself when it came to looking out for Jase and me. It was the first time he openly admitted that someone besides the three of us had earned his faith.

Wes nudged me. “Tyler’s heading this way.”

I turned to see Tyler, Griz, Nate, and Jase walking toward our Humvee. I rolled down my window. The breeze hurt my stitches, and I tried not to wince. As Tyler approached, Tack came jogging over.

“I see only one pontoon tied to the ramp right now,” Tyler said. “It’s enough for us, but we’ll need to round up more transports to handle all the back-and-forths to the Aurora when the convoy arrives. I wish the towboat and barges were better camouflaged, but the towboat was clearly shipwrecked. No one should suspect anyone’s there if we’re careful, and since no zeds can walk there, it should be a great spot to hide out.”

“We’ll make it work,” Jase said.

I looked out over the Mississippi at the small cropping of trees and a white towboat and eight long rectangular steel barges over twice the tiny island’s size still attached to the boat, with two more barges that looked like they would break off at any moment. Four of the barges were plowed up on its bank, nearly out of the water. A couple more barges floated at an odd angle in the river, as though they were about to break away from the rest. “That’s a lot of boat.”

Griz frowned. “Yeah, we could really use more troops to clean it out. You think we should still go for it, Maz?” Griz watched Tyler for a moment, then Tack and Nate. He didn’t look at Jase, Wes, or me. Something about the military guys. They always looked to each other for decisions, never to civvies. It didn’t matter that I’d seen every bit as much action as most of those guys had. On the flip side, I could see where they were coming from. None of them meant any harm; they truly thought they were doing the right thing by protecting us.