On the one hand, that was a good thing. They’d see anyone coming a long way off, and the terrain off the roads was rocky and dangerous. It would slow anyone coming over land if they were trying to avoid being spotted on the road.

  But on the other, it meant that no one was coming to their aid. It was Springfield versus Apex, and if there were other enclaves like this one out there, they were too far away to bring reinforcements even if they were inclined, which Caleb doubted.

  He brought that up at the council meeting that afternoon, after he spent the rest of the morning with Thurmond getting the radio tower functional. Thurmond was still there, absent from the council meeting to continue the rest of the work on his own as Caleb met with Amelie, Samuels, President Daniels, and Doctor Herndon. A rough map of the region was laid out on the table between them all.

  “We don’t have nearly the tech capability that Apex does,” Caleb explained as he and Samuels stood near one another on one side of the map. “But we do have at least some advantages. The terrain is one of them. Everything in two directions is rough and rocky. We can be pretty sure they won’t come from these directions—but if they do, that’s an area where we can hide lots of explosives and other traps to slow them down. Our main concerns are the roads. I don’t think there’s any good defense we can mount there, but there is some cover along all three routes into town.”

  Samuels growled irritation, shaking his head as he traced one of the roads marked on the map. “Be best if we can narrow that to two,” he muttered. “Three’s gonna split the security forces pretty thin, even with the new recruits from last night. Those folks, I wanna disperse with more experienced teams led by some of the veterans, and I’d rather the bulk of them be here in town.”

  Caleb nodded, considering the three roads in. Diego’s intel from the laptop didn’t give specific locations for very many of the Apex units, so it was difficult to know which direction most of them would come from. If they were smart—and, he suspected they were, or at least that the AI running their operations was—they’d come from multiple directions and surround the town. That was the only way to be certain to put pressure on Springfield.

  But a lot of Apex forces were located northeast. He tapped the road leading east. “It would be tricky,” he admitted, “because we don’t have a lot to spare, but if we were to set some explosives across a chunk of the road here and blow out a trench, we could make this direction a lot less attractive. Make a trench here… and here, and it’ll force anyone coming that direction to head south across this area. I don’t think we’ve got the kind of time it would take to build mines, but there’s got to be other possibilities.”

  “How about some of these?”

  Caleb glanced back at the door to the makeshift council chamber, where Lana and Diego stood in the half-opened door, hefting rucksacks bulging with something angular.

  Lana grinned as she sauntered in, Diego behind her. She leveled a smug look at Samuels in particular, though Caleb didn’t think the man had any real reaction to it. Like always, he just looked dower and old. She set the rucksack down and reached in to retrieve a device wrapped in a strip of electrical tape.

  “Courtesy of Diego Marquez,” she said, glancing at Diego as he set down the other sack. “Handheld EMP devices. Short range, and it takes a few seconds, but they do work. We burnt out a couple of toasters.”

  There were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked a little worn. Diego did as well, and Caleb thought they’d been up all night assembling the devices. “How many have we got?”

  Diego waved at both sacks. “About fifty. They come in two parts, but it’s simple enough that anyone can make them work. Just put tab-A into slot-B and pull the trigger. There’s a couple that will go off as soon as they’re put together, too. Didn’t have enough stuff to put triggers on all of them, so I figured something automatic would have to do. Couldn’t test them all, we didn’t have enough batteries to waste much juice. But they should all work.”

  Caleb nodded, looking Lana over again but resisting the urge to tell her to go get some rest. He picked up the device on the table and turned it over in his hands. “It’ll have to do.” He held it up for the council to see. “Far as we can tell, Apex relies heavily on their technology to coordinate. Even to the point that they get their tactical direction from AI. Set these off near units, and it’ll brick everything they’ve got.”

  “What’s the range?” Amelie asked.

  Lana cleared her throat. “That’s… a bit of a rub. They’ve got a range of about twenty feet.”

  “Some of them may be more,” Diego added. “It’s not easy to calculate the output using some of the parts we have on hand. Twenty feet is the guaranteed range on the weakest one we tested. I’ve got more parts to sort through, though. I can probably make a dozen or so that’ll be much closer range—ten, maybe twelve feet.”

  That was a hitch. It didn’t leave much room for error and meant that anyone setting a device off would have to be within easy target range. “Any chance of setting them on a timer?” Caleb asked, examining the device in hand. It was barely recognizable as anything but a couple of bits of junk. It was compact, though, and light. Too light to throw any distance. “Or a remote trigger?”

  Diego plucked the EMP device out of his hand, looking it over. “Mmm… not on all of them,” he admitted. “But… sure, I could probably rig maybe half of them?”

  So, roughly a couple dozen. A twenty-foot radius would certainly encompass an entire SUV, and pretty much any other vehicle. If they could hit Apex while they were still on the road…

  “Do it.” He tapped the map on the area where the incoming forces might be driven. “If we can rig these things with a remote switch, or a proximity trigger, or anything that’ll keep us out of harm’s way, we can turn this area into a kill box for anyone coming from the east. Blow out the trenches here, force them south, set off the EMPs around here—it’ll stall out the vehicles and cut off comms.

  “If we’re lucky and fast, we could take out whatever units come down before any other forces know what’s happened, then book it back and distribute those teams to the other possible incursion points.”

  Samuels’ head bobbed slowly as he looked over the map himself. “Could do,” he agreed. “We’ll stash vehicles back here, then. There’s a big outcropping that’ll keep them out of sight. Good cover right around this region, but there’s no guarantee anyone coming south will come that direction.”

  Lana shrugged and leaned past Samuels to sweep a finger along an area leading down from the road. “We’ve got plenty of junk we can’t use for anything soon. Why don’t we just put some obstacles here? Make it look like a trash heap. There’s a ridge off this direction, down into a gully. They’ll at least know what the landscape looks like, so between that and any kind of obstacle, the only reasonable place to go will be here.”

  The security captain gave a low grunt. “Lot of work, and not a lot of time.”

  Caleb started to speak up in Lana’s defense, but she beat him to it. “There are a lot of able bodied women in town with nothing else to do since they aren’t running drills with security. I’m sure we can haul some junk out into the countryside. It won’t be high-stakes work, so I’m sure we can collectively keep it together.”

  Doctor Herndon gave a snort as she swallowed a laugh, putting one hand to her mouth before she managed to get control of herself.

  Samuels eyed her, then Lana, as grim and unreadable as he ever was. “Mm-hmm. Well. If you can round up the labor for it.”

  “I will.” Lana flashed Caleb a look of utter exhaustion and irritation. “It would be ideal if they could be armed while we make the runs, though.”

  “I can send a few security officers with you,” Samuels muttered.

  Caleb interjected. “Are we running low on firepower?”

  With a sigh, Samuels straightened from the table and folded his arms over his chest. “We’re at slight surplus,” he confessed, “but I’ve still got some of the young men coming to my office to sign up.”

  “You can spare a dozen firearms?” Caleb pressed.

  Amelie cleared her throat. “We could take a vote,” she suggested. “On arming Miss Machert’s team?”

  Before Samuels could speak up against it, the other three council members present raised their hands and said ‘aye’ almost in unison.

  Grumpy as he was, and as hard-nosed about how security was handled, Samuels’ stony silence only lasted a few seconds before he dropped his arms and waved a hand. “We can spare ten weapons.”

  Lana reached back and patted her own rifle. “Mine makes eleven. Enough for a small squad. I already have a handful of people in mind, I’ll go round them up now and get started. If the council agrees?”

  “We do,” Daniels said softly. “Best not waste time, Lieutenant Machert.”

  At that, Lana’s shoulders squared slightly. She grinned, and then gave a sharp salute. “I won’t let you down, sir. Er… Mister Pres—”

  “Don’t,” Daniels said, good humored but short. “Sir is just fine. Any complaints, Samuels, or should we have another vote?”

  Samuels held his tongue this time, though his expression grew, somehow, even more sour.

  Caleb let out a breath he’d held without realizing it. Lieutenant. Even if it was just a temporary wartime honorific and rank, it still made the pit of his stomach quiver with nervousness. Now wasn’t the time to press his daughter about taking command of a unit—which, if she was arming her people, is exactly what was happening even if no one was officially saying that here and now.

  It was like he’d told Derek before. Tell Lana Machert she can’t do something, and she started looking for ways to say ‘screw you’ before you finished talking.

  And in any case, she was gone before he could take her aside. He’d have to hunt her down later and make sure she slept. In the meantime, he drove the thought of her out in the field out of his thoughts and put his attention firmly on ways to make sure she was as safe as was possible.

  “I have other thoughts,” he began. “Especially as Thurmond and I get the radio tower up and running. We’re going to need a plan for incursion, and I was thinking we can create some attractive targets to try and lure anyone who gets past the outer perimeter to these two locations.”

  The meeting turned quickly back to the strategic discussion they’d been having before Lana and Diego arrived with the EMP devices. And for the most part, Caleb was able to stay focused on it.

  But, like Derek, knowing that Lana was in harm’s way nagged at him. The only thing he could do was trust that she could take care of herself, and her team.

  And be ready to give her support. No matter what he did, it seemed, there was just no way to keep her from taking on more scars.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ELIZABETH

  Springfield, CO

  Tuesday July 31st, 2:00 pm MST

  Elizabeth walked beside Mateo with thirty children and a pair of adults trailing behind them. Her nerves were wound tight and she twisted her hands as they stopped beside the corn crop. Sweat slicked her palms and she resisted the urge to wipe them on her new-to her jeans.

  The last time she’d led a group of children anywhere, she’d been herding them out of a school to rows of buses and cars under threat of the impending meteor. Before that, she’d taken her students to a music class.

  Strange, now, that she couldn’t really remember that moment as clearly. As much as she tried to put on a strong face and the light, cheerful attitude that had always been easy around students, all she managed was something stiff and brittle, like it could crack at any moment.

  Mateo glanced at her. “If you don’t want to do this,” he whispered, “I’m sure Amelie will understand.”

  Elizabeth glanced over her shoulder at the children. Brittle and transparent. She hoped Mateo was the only one that could see her distress. Children had a tendency to follow the emotions and attitudes of the adults around them, and as much as they needed to take this seriously, she didn’t want them to be afraid. Nothing was more heartbreaking than terrified kids.

  “There’s no one else as qualified. I’ll be okay. Just… I wish I was back in a classroom under very different circumstances.”

  He winced at that and touched her arm. “You will be one day, when all this is over.”

  “That would be nice,” she agreed, and with a sigh stepped up to the edge of the corn, steeling herself for the lesson ahead. She turned, propping her lips in the most genuine smile she could manage, and surveyed the group. “Everyone remember the way here?”

  “Yes, Mrs. Machert,” the children responded in a loose chorus. They ranged from as small as four to as old as twelve and were arranged into loose groups by age. Each older child reported to an adult and looked over a group of four-to-six smaller children. Each of the smaller children had a buddy assigned and were instructed to stick with them to make up a chain of kids leading to each of about a dozen adults.

  They were arranged now in a rough block formation, each of the older children surrounded by their charges. The first step in this process had been going from home-to-home collecting the ones on a roster Amelie had provided and walking the route to the corn crop and surrounding buildings, to make sure that everyone knew what route to take from where they were. She had three more of these ‘classes’ to teach today.

  “So,” she said, spreading her hands, “when we hear the bell, we…?”

  “Leave home and run to the west farm,” a few children spoke up. Mostly older ones who would be responsible for gathering their little squad on the way. “Don’t stop for anything, count our teammates.”

  “Exactly,” Elizabeth said. Her voice nearly broke.

  She took a moment to calm her emotions and push down the ache in her throat. “Now, the next part is to take cover. If your team name starts with ‘alpha’, you’ll follow me. If it starts with ‘beta’, you go with Mister Montoya”—she gestured at Mateo—“and if it starts with ‘delta’, you go with Mrs. Harris. We’re going to show you where to go, alright?”

  A swell of small voices rose up in agreement, and with a final glance at Mateo she told the children to go to their respective adults.

  “See you back here in twenty,” Mateo said, giving her a nod before he raised his arms and flagged down his groups.

  The three ‘squads’ designated Alpha-one through Alpha-three assembled around Elizabeth. Too many for her to have learned their names already, though she had at least committed the squad leaders’ names to memory. “Sara, Brian, Topher, how many team members?”

  Each of them reported promptly. Five, five, and six. They were a bit older, these three, lanky in their early teenage years, and old enough to be somber about the exercise. They had the kind of nervous, slightly haunted look of kids who had seen too much. The little ones were a little more energetic, but there was still worry on their faces.

  “Your teams are going to hide in the field,” she told them. “Follow me and walk just like I do. You’re going to get down low, so that you make as small a… so that you’re as small as you can be while you move, okay?”

  Her gut twisted at the thought of telling them to make a small ‘target’, to the point that she just couldn’t do it. They needed to feel confident about this. To understand how serious it was, yes, but not feel hunted. “When you come in, you might hear a lot of noise. You all know… uh, you all know what gunfire sounds like.”

  Every child, at every age, gave nods or murmurs of agreement.

  For a moment, Elizabeth could only stare at them as her chest ached. She had to swallow, and then reached for her water bottle to have a sip. “Good. That’s good. So… when you hear that, it means you must be very, very small. Follow me and try to be as small as you can. Small like a little bunny or a kitten.”

  At least a few of the smallest children took her literally at that, loping or hopping along on all fours as she led them into the corn stalks. Here and there, bright orange bits of string were tied around the base of stalks. She pointed them out as she moved. “Your teams are going to follow these,” she told the older kids. “There’s a spot near the west side of the corn where the stalks grew very dense, and that’s where we’re going. Can you remember that?”

  The older children agreed, along with some of the smaller ones, and Elizabeth took them along the route until they reached a spot where it looked as though some of the corn had spread out from where it was initially planted. It would be a while yet before the crop yielded any more corn, but for the moment the leaves were healthy enough, long enough, to create a canopy above them if they stayed low.

  From a distance, as long as the children were inside this spot, it would be all but impossible to spot them from the ground or the air. Another group would go to a cellar, and another would be in one of the opaque greenhouses, hidden within a stack of pallets and plastic sheets that offered two exits.

  Each spot they’d planned for had both an entrance and an exit. Elizabeth dug a bit into the soil under a stalk with two strings on it and pulled out a small baggie with a radio.

  “When you get here,” she paused, steadying her voice until it came out flat, almost emotionless, “you need to take this out and put it to your ear. There will be a lot of surrounding noise, but you must make sure you can hear the radio. When a voice comes over the radio and says ‘clear out’… you’ll follow the blue strings through the field, the same way you came in—as small as you can be—and head to the wall.”

  The teenagers nodded, their faces paling slightly. The smaller children didn’t know what they knew. It was better that way. But the older kids had to know why it was so important.

  They were burdened with the knowledge that by the time they came here, if everything went according to plan, the field and all the food production areas would be armed with explosives.