Chapter 171: Her Men Couldn’t Hold Up the Road

Edrik stopped their pickup on the firm stretch before the bend, leaving enough room to turn back toward the hotel. Dove stayed in her seat until he and Thorne had checked the ground beside the truck. The freight crew were already out of their cab and moving uphill.

Nobody was trapped. That mattered more than the load, whatever the purchasing officer was saying about equipment the base urgently needed.

Dove climbed down onto the safe side and asked the driver whether anyone was hurt. He shook his head, then explained that the ditch had washed beneath the road overnight. The surface looked mostly intact until the front wheel put weight on it.

The truck leaned toward the eroded edge. Mud slid from beneath it into brown water below. Dove could see a line opening in the pavement behind the tire, small enough to ignore if she badly wanted the problem to be simple.

She did not want to be that stupid.

"We can get some things from the back if the crew says it’s safe," she said. "Nobody goes down beside that wheel."

The officer looked at her husbands. "Surely their abilities could help."

"They work on metal," Dove cut in. "That isn’t what the road is made of."

Thorne checked a bent fitting at the rear from the firm shoulder. Edrik stood where he could reach the metal bed rail without stepping onto the failing edge. His reinforcement could help a loaded section while he touched it. It could not persuade dirt to stay beneath a truck.

Dove asked the driver which carriers they could reach without climbing through the load. Two were accessible from the rear, and the others could wait for proper recovery equipment. She sent a worker back along the safe road with their cart while she cleared a place to set the first boxes.

Could her space take one of the carriers? Dove asked Sprout while watching the driver test his footing.

"Storage does not remove the need to reach the item safely," it replied.

Yes, thank you, she had noticed the giant hole. She could reach the two at the back without going near it. The others could stay exactly where they were. She wasn’t losing a husband over somebody else’s kitchen equipment.

Thorne laid his palm on the damaged fitting and used his power to straighten it until the rear section opened. Edrik reinforced the rail while the workers shifted one carrier within reach. Once it came down safely, they repeated the movement for the second.

The officer complained that stopping halfway made the work pointless. Dove handed him a loose bag of straps from the safe side.

"Then carry those back and experience contributing."

He stared at the bag. Edrik looked over his shoulder without smiling, and the officer took it.

The second carrier reached the cart beside the first. Dove helped secure both with the driver, then looked up when a gritty sound came from the front. The line behind the wheel had widened. A pebble rolled into it and vanished.

"Stop," she said, loud enough that everyone heard. "The road’s opening behind the tire. Leave the rest."

Thorne stepped back immediately. Edrik released the rail only after the worker’s hands were clear, then moved toward her. The truck settled another inch as the crew reached firm ground.

Dove’s heart hammered so hard that she felt it in her teeth. She kept watching the widening crack until both men were beside her. Then she could look at their faces and be sure she had called them back in time.

Edrik came close without blocking her view. "You saw the crack change before the rest of us did."

"It was right there."

"And you were looking. That’s the useful part."

She nodded, then held his wrist for a moment while the shaking in her fingers eased. He did not turn her fear into a lesson she had failed. Thorne stood on her other side and asked whether she wanted water or a seat.

"Water," she said. "And for that man to stop saying important supplies like it’s a spell."

Thorne’s quiet laugh helped more than a speech would have. He passed her the bottle and stayed near while she drank.

The driver radioed the base for proper recovery equipment and a road crew. They sent their exact location and the condition of the bank rather than merely reporting a stuck vehicle. Dove listened while the driver repeated the hotel name and the bend beside the drainage ditch.

Clear directions were less exciting than a rescue, but she had developed a strong preference for people arriving at the correct disaster. The remaining load belonged in that plan, not in a contest over how strong Dove’s husbands were.

They took the recovered carriers back to the hotel’s service area with Nolan’s agreement. The freight crew would wait there while the recovery team assessed the road. Dove’s own purchases remained secured in her pickup, which had never left firm pavement.

Back in their hotel room, she sat on the bed and finally let her shoulders drop. They had paid for another night through ordinary trade goods. Nobody had been hurt. Their purchase was still a successful purchase, even if getting it home required a different road.

Thorne brought hot food from the kitchen, enough meat and rice for everyone. Edrik washed his hands before joining her, then sat close when she reached for him. She checked his palm for new scrapes and found none.

"You’re allowed to want attention without getting damaged," she told him.

"I was going to ask what an undamaged husband qualified for."

She kissed his cheek, then caught Thorne’s hand before he could settle out of reach. The lifting, carrying, and walking had completed her active exercise for the day. She asked Sprout to settle the finished tasks, then closed it before joining her men. They ate together while the afternoon rain softened against the screen, and Dove allowed the relief to last longer than the fear.

Nolan knocked after dinner with a map of the campground behind the hotel. A narrow service road connected it to the western checkpoint route. It would take their pickup, he said, though not the larger freight truck and not without checking the wet sections as they went.

Dove followed the route past the laundry shed and the old campground office. Her eyes caught on the buildings before she could pretend otherwise.

They needed a way home. It appeared they might also have found a better way to go shopping.