Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Second Try

The sun was nearly set when the remnants of the groups of surveying militia members finally returned. The news that they had brought back greatly worried the ERM leaders. Of the hundred personnel that went out that day, only forty-three remained.

The three that managed to escape the initial attacks from the Black Rats reported that they had been out gunned and outnumbered. They were unsure how they had been located so easily and surrounded so quickly. They, at the time, had been surveying an area that was out of the anticipated direction that the gang would have been expected to come from.

This situation also puzzled Nathan. “Why had the gang attacked these outlying surveyors and not shown up in mass with Garret? Surely if they all showed up together Garret wouldn’t have agreed to have the duel with Gillian.”