Chapter 8

It was still dark when Matt woke up, Val had moved in her sleep, and was snuggled up to him, her head on his shoulder and her body half on top of his. Somebody else's feet, probably Bobby's, were jammed into his other side. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up with her wrapped around him, but there was something different. Had they broken in? He held his breath, listening. No, there were no sounds other than the steady breathing of the others. Wait ... there was something else, a deep growl, very faint, like ... almost like a truck. Then it was gone, and there was only the sound of the wind blowing the snow around outside.

Had he imagined it? He probably had, he wanted so badly for someone to come, but Valerie was right, they had to take care of themselves. He listened for a long time, enjoying the warmth of the bed and the way that Val held him in her sleep. He was almost asleep himself when the wind shifted and he heard the sound again. This time it was accompanied by a faint bang. It might have been a gunshot, or it might have been the wind blowing something over. Whatever it was, it wouldn't hurt to check it out.

He fumbled in the dark until he found a lighter, lit a few candles, then eased out of bed. Valerie complained in her sleep, but she didn't wake up, she just moved over until she ran into Bobby's feet then started to snore softly. Matt didn't hear anything but the wind while he kindled a fire in the stove. He double checked to make sure it was secure, that the fire wouldn't get out, then pulled on his boots, dug the last two glow sticks from his pack, slung his rifle, and slipped out of the tent.

It was still dark outside, but there was a faint glow to the east. A cold wind blew down from the mountains, swirling up a little bit of fresh snow. He looked out over the dark, snow covered landscape. Who was he kidding? There was no way they could make it all the way to Cheyenne, It was like Valerie had said, but she was also right that they had to try. The wind blew a little harder, then changed direction. From the northeast, he heard the sound again, louder this time, and accompanied by sharp flat cracks. Matt ran to the north side of the building, from there he could just see the freeway. At first he couldn't believe what he saw. Not just one truck, or even a couple of cars, but a long line of headlights headed south. he couldn't tell exactly what kind of vehicles they were, but the first few in front had flashing yellow lights on top.

He wished he had one of those flare guns or even a big flashlight, something that would really attract their attention. Matt grabbed one of the glowsticks, twisted it until the glass tube inside broke, then shook it so it would glow brighter. The glowstick already had a loop of string attached to it, and he held onto that while he swung the green light in a circle above his head. It wasn't until Valerie came up behind him that he realized he was jumping and yelling.

The convoy drove out of sight behind some buildings, When it reemerged, it looked like there were fewer vehicles than before. By then, both of them were waving lights and yelling, but the sun was coming up fast, and no one seemed to notice them. The two vehicles in front were snowplows, about half the rest were army trucks and armored vehicles with wheels, while the others were a mix of different kinds of civilian trucks. There were two tanker trucks, some semis with box trailers, and a flatbed with a bulldozer and a backhoe. The lead snowplow left a rooster tail of snow in its wake, blending in with another from the second. They weren't moving very fast, and they were close enough that Matt could see people in some of the vehicles.