Chapter 33

Robert and his small crew left two weeks later. We’d talked about his plans the afternoon before.

“Matt, I want to get there fairly late. I’ll approach whoever’s working in the kitchen, see what I can talk them out of, steel pots and utensils, anything they’ll give us. If there are any maintenance workers around, I’ll talk to them too. I know most of them from when I supervised a crew, they may have tools they can let me have. It’s only been a couple of months since I left the mine, so I’m sure they’ll remember me. The supervisors stay in the main building, so I doubt they’ll see me. If they wanted us they sent a messenger and we went to their office. I’ll try to avoid the messengers too, just in case, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Late afternoon is just before shift change, there’ll be people moving around, so we won’t stand out.

“I’ll be on the trail before daybreak. The moon on the snow is bright enough that we can travel at night, and since I’m taking five men with me, there will be enough of us to handle problems if they crop up. The food and bedding will be on two small sleds and we’ll take turns pulling them. It’ll be cold food, jerky, and bread, but also with some of that trail mix your people use. As soon as I’ve gotten everything I can from the mine, we’ll start back before they can change their minds. If the guards do send a patrol after us, they won’t be prepared for snow blindness and I’ll be taking snow masks with me.

“After we arrive, I’ll take one man into the camp with me. The sleds will stay in the woods with the other four. If the foremen say they can’t give me anything, then the two of us will leave. We’ll join the others, catch a short nap until it gets dark, and as soon as the moon’s up we’ll go in and steal anything we can find. With luck, we’ll have a head start before they realize what we’ve done.

“The guards mostly watch for predators, and since there aren’t any around right now I’m hoping there will be no guards posted. Plus the guards are lazy, it’s why they’re guards. They also won’t be awake, I hope. If they’re not asleep ... well, I didn’t like them before, and I don’t like them any better now.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it figured, Robert. Even if the guards are awake, I doubt they’ll follow you at night.”

“You’re right about that,” he agreed. “We’ll travel for a few hours, find a place to set up an ambush, maybe four of us waiting while the others take the sleds on. I know what I expect, but maybe one of the guards is smart enough to do something different. If it happens, we’ll make them sorry, but there’s no reason why they should show initiative. The only thing they do is guard the mine, so unless there’s a supervisor awake to send the guards after us all we have to do is get away.”

The foraging party, not a raid unless it was forced on Robert, had left before I woke up next morning. I was nervous, but I’d felt that way before. It’s part of being in charge.

I grabbed a light breakfast and got to work. The tribe had made tremendous progress during the past two weeks, but there was still more to be done.

Lilia had spent the last two days working with the women. I wanted to get her opinion, so we ate lunch together. I picked a spot a little apart from the tribe.

“Are they ready?”

“Matt, they couldn’t have done it before, but they can, now. They know how to fight, they’re armed, they can build a hasty shelter or a fort, they have the means to start a fire and know how to build one. They know a lot of other stuff too.”

“That confirms my impression, but I wanted to hear it from you. I’ve spent most of my time with the men, but the women are going to be just as important. What about our own women?”

“We’re ready. I want to move our group here today; all we’re doing at the cabin is eating food that should be saved for the trek.”

“That soon, Lilia?”

“Sooner the better. I think we should be ready and leave as soon as Robert’s back, cross the grasslands while they’re still under the snow, then just keep going southwest. We won’t get a better chance.

“Working outside and traveling in cold weather, we’ve been doing it for several months. Unless there’s a late blizzard, we shouldn’t have any problems we can’t cope with. Even if that happens, we’ll just build snow houses and wait until the storm blows out. We’ve got food for at least six more weeks, but there’s nothing left around here. Everything’s under four feet of snow.

“If we wait another two weeks, we’ll only have a month’s supply of food left. We’d have to go on short rations before we got away from the snow.”

I was surprised; I’d thought there was more food, but Lilia would know. She’d been working closely with a woman named Monika, the chief cook for Robert’s tribe, and the two had a good handle on what perishable supplies we had left and how fast we were using them.

It had been three full days, and I was increasingly concerned.

I had expected Robert back by the end of the second day. Many things could have happened; the trip took most of a day each way, and Robert might have been forced to wait before he could slip into the camp. But there was no sign of them, and we found ourselves looking often to see if they were in sight.

I decided I would take a small patrol out if they hadn’t returned by the fifth day. I let Lilia know what I had in mind and she just nodded; she was worried too.

I had converted a small shelter into a shop, and Lilia found me working there late on the fourth day after Robert had gone. “Matt, you need to see this.”

“Is it Robert? Is anyone hurt?”

“It’s Robert,” she confirmed, “but come look.”

I put down the bow I’d been working on--I was wrapping leather for a handgrip--and took time for a drink of water. After that, I had no excuse to stall any longer, so dreading what I might see, I went outside. It was Robert, sure enough. But where he’d led out a party of seven, I counted thirteen returning! They pulled loaded sleds, and most of them carried packs as well.

I looked on, bemused. Who were these people? One man looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember from where. Had he been one of the kitchen workers? If so, he looked a lot different now. “Robert, I didn’t expect you to be gone long enough to have babies!”

He chuckled. “Matt, I didn’t plan on this. But I had to decide, and this was the only solution I could come up with.”

“OK, why don’t you get your people fed and find someplace for them to sleep. Get some food yourself and after that you can let me know the highlights, if you’re not too tired.”