No, Gideon hadn't said anything, but that feeling still clung to me. The ease of the promotion, the way he'd looked at me, and Mr. Saunder's questions - plus the comment about my son? None of it made sense unless they were planning to get rid of me as easily as they'd made their decision about burning the women to save their souls.
So by the time I reached the door where my team was supposed to meet, I was already exhausted. Mentally, mostly, but it made me want to snarl at these men - and I did. I was their team lead now. I was the man in charge. Their lives were in my hands, and that meant they'd expect me to be brutish and angry. I simply leaned into the feeling.
"All right, who are my three squad leads?" I asked, because the leader of the fourth team was still me.
Three men stepped forward: Matheos, Jonnas, and Harald. Of the group, I only knew Harald, but he was a solid leader at least. Hopefully, that meant half my team would at least obey when I told them to retreat.
"So," I said to them, "unlike Gideon or Damisen, I have no interest in managing your squads for you. I don't care if they're silent when it doesn't matter, so long as they can do their jobs when it does. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Mr. Warren," Jonnas said.
He was young, likely recently promoted. The other squad leads simply nodded, so I sent them to organize their groups, then tried to find Mr. Peterson, who was supposed to have information for me. He wasn't in the hall, so I rapped at the door that hid the opening mechanism.
"Come!" someone yelled on the other side.
"I'm looking for..." I poked my head in and smiled. "You, Mr. Peterson."
"Come in," he said. "Close that."
I did, daring to glance around. The room was filled with mechanical and electrical devices. There were tubes along the walls and devices I didn't understand, but I'd seen something like them before. They looked like the equipment down by the water pumps and electrical controls. And there, in the middle of the far wall was the keypad that would activate the door.
"Do you have that compass?" he asked.
"Yes, sir." I pulled it from my pocket.
He took it, checked a page in the open book by the wall, then made a mark on the edge. When he handed it back, he pointed to the small graphite line.
"This is your heading. Line the compass so that red hand points at the N, then walk in the direction of the line. That will take you to the area we need cleared."
"Yes, sir," I said. "And then?"
"Then what?"
I paused, confused. "Are we expected to collect women, Mr. Peterson?"
"No, Tobias, that won't be necessary."
"Meat?" I tried next.
"No, that's unlikely to happen."
So I nodded slowly. "Then what's the point of this mission, sir?"
He pulled in a breath, then let it all rush out. "This is for the good of the compound. Gideon's team has already gone out. They left a few hours after your team returned the other night."
"So what are we hunting?" I asked, because this did not feel right at all.
Mr. Peterson dragged his hand across his mouth, then glanced over to the dials on the wall. "Tobias, they're winning. We need to change that, and it means a full assault. Your team has been chosen to make a difference. This will be hard..." Once more, he sighed. "But we're trusting you and your men to destroy the demons. You must push back the evil so the Righteous can survive. Some will make the ultimate sacrifice, but the Devil has left us no other choice."
"So we're supposed to simply kill them," I realized.
"Yes. Kill them, even the odds, and hopefully make a gap so our hunters can finally reach the meat our people need. The stores we have will not last all winter. The cold is getting more intense, and we're running out of time. We are desperate for a means to hunt, and those heathens are relentless. They're determined to starve us to death!"
"Then we will make a path through," I promised, turning to the door. I needed to brief my men and head out.
But Mr. Peterson said one more thing as I left. "I always liked you, Tobias. You should've gotten to enjoy your promotion a little longer."
His words weren't to me so much as for me, so I didn't stop. I headed back into the hall and called the men around me. First, I had them check for their basic supplies and ammunition, making sure they had the bare necessities. Then I explained we would be heading to the camps again, but this time we were expected to engage. They could relax while we walked, but only if they made good time.
