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Sergeant said.  “Eighty-one who can’t be moved.”
    Ben closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose.  “I hate to have to ask,” Ben began.
    “You don’t have to, Sir,” the Sergeant said.  “Six medics have already volunteered to stay behind with the wounded.”
    Ben nodded.
    “Let’s start consolidating the forces for a final push to the west,” Ben said.  “We’ll wait for a lull in the fighting, which should happen any time now.  It’s been about three hours since their last push and they’ll back off before they make another attempt.  When they do, we fall back and put everything we have into getting out the back.  Use our Bradleys to clear the way through our own defenses.”
    …
    Fighting retreat turned out to be an understatement.  While the attacking force to the west was certainly smaller than the other two, either they didn’t get the memo to let him go or it had been a feint all along.
    The initial push had gone well enough and all of his forces were able to clear the final fence without too much resistance.  Part of that, he was sure, was due to the fact that his counterattack had been so unexpected.
    That, of course, was when his plan, minimal as it was, met reality and it turned into an every-man-for-himself run for the border–in this case, the Tennessee border.
    After what felt like a week, but was in fact only about an hour, the attackers broke off their pursuit.  Without air support it was just too dangerous, and the further they got from the base greater the risk of an ambush grew.
    With a final shot over Ben’s bow from the Abrams, which had been oddly silent during the entire chase, the pursuit was called off and the attackers headed back to the newly ‘liberated’ Fort Campbell.

Chapter Four
    May 27, 2013 - Promised Land Army Base, Natchez Trace State Park, Tennessee
    Dan knocked on the door frame of the office Joel used when his duties as Mayor forced him to spend the day in Redemption. “I see we got some new blood,” Dan said.
    “Yup,” Joel said as he looked up from the pile of papers he was working on, “and a pretty good-sized group, too.  It looks like the neighborhood or community, or whatever they were relying on, finally collapsed about three weeks ago.”
    “How’d they know to head here?”  Dan asked.
    Joel leaned back in his chair and tried to stretch some of the kinks out of his back.  “Well, we’ve been here for almost a year, Dan,” Joel said.  “Word is bound to have spread that there’s something going on in Natchez Trace.”
    Dan made a face.  “Yeah, I guess.  I mean, we found you and all we had to go on was a hunch based on how a bunch of postcards were arranged on a bulletin board,” Dan said.
    “True,” Joel said and shook his head.  “You know, I didn’t even know about that until you told me?  I had to ask Rachael about it later that night.  She admitted to it but claimed that she was sure that nobody we wouldn’t want finding us would be able to figure it out.  I’m glad she was right.”
    “Me too,” Dan said.  “I’m really glad she left that clue or we’d have been toast.  But back to this new group, where are they setting up?”
    “For now,” Joel said, “they’re in the tents in camp.  Now that we’ve filled the lodge, cabins, and the rest of the houses here in town, that’s all we have left.”
    “At least they’ve all got wooden sides now,” Dan said.
    Joel nodded.  “After three weeks on the move, they were just happy to have a warm, dry, safe place to sleep.”
    “How’re Rachael and Aurora?” Dan asked, changing topics.
    Joel smiled.  “They’re doing fine.  Aurora is doing a great job of keeping us from getting a full night’s sleep, like a newborn should, and we’re doing our best to keep the world from seeing us at our worst.”
    “Spoken like a new dad,” Dan said with a return smile.  “Speaking of which, how are you doing?  Not burning too much of the