Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

Haliday walked over to Blake. He gave him a handshake and a quick shoulder hug. “Damn good job kid, I’m proud of you.” Roger looked around. “No offense anyone, but we’ll have plenty of time for stories in the morning. I’m going to bed. Blake, there’s a bunk up there for you too.” Blake opted to stay downstairs for a while. Haliday went upstairs and passed out. He slept for 12 hours straight.

When he woke up, he felt the ground and looked around half expecting to be in the woods. He swung his feet off the bed and went to stand up and hit his head on the ceiling. He would have to get used to this. The bunk area of the house was basically a big loft that skirted the perimeter of the house. He looked down and saw Max and Romeo looking at him. “What’s going on furballs?”

He walked down the spiral steps into the common area of the house. “I need coffee.” Dawn brought him a cup, which was unusual. She hated the stuff; even the smell was disgusting to her. He took a long sip. “Oh man, nice hot coffee and nice warm house.”

She looked at him. “You stink.”

He raised an armpit and whiffed, “Just a little sweet aroma to this hunk of man candy,” That’s all he said.

“Oh boy. Ok,” she said, “coffee then shower.”

He sat at the large table and looked around. He never really expected to use this place for what they built it for. It was really just a cabin they built and used occasionally in the summers to get out of the city and away from the crap that enveloped it. This was close enough to take a long drive into the cities for shopping and entertainment, but far enough away to avoid crowds of people.

The cabin was built according to his plans which he had had a small firm draw up. Had to submit plans to the county for approval or he wouldn’t have bothered. Of course they had no idea of the modifications he would make during the entire construction process. Lack of inspectors and the distances they travelled made it easy. They would come out and inspect prior to any particular phase, and then after it was done. They never showed up unannounced.

The land was roughly 60 acres, just less than half backed up to a large creek and woods. Plenty of water and enough wooded land for hunting. The rest was all flat land for crops. He leased the farming rights to a farmer who planted crops and harvested them. This helped to pay the taxes and to build the new cabin. During the year they built the cabin, they didn’t let anyone plant on it.

There was nothing wrong with the old house except it was just not suitable. They tore this down and left a pole barn and another smaller outbuilding. They built the cabin to the specs they outlined and did a lot of the work themselves. They used a wide variety of different contractors for other parts. The locals just figured he was cheap and looking to save a buck. Security was the reason. No single one contractor knew too much about the place. The locals would know very little about the place.

Four large shipping containers of building materials had been brought in. They sat there during the construction process and disappeared during the process. First up was a new foundation. The foundation would accommodate the cabin which was only 30X40. A complete extra deep basement was put under the cabin. Each window was ported to be used as a firing position if needed. Armored with quarter inch around the small windows.

On two sides of the foundation he had put down one of the containers. The cinderblock walls had been constructed so that he could use a concrete saw and cut access into them after the final inspection was made. He had steel framework hidden in the walls for door jambs. The containers had been reinforced with I-beam steel inside and only buried a foot under the ground. They had been completely rubberized outside for waterproofing. He then built the doors to mate up properly.

The cabin itself was extremely open as far as the floor plan went. Toward the back was a large bathroom and toiletry closet on one side, and a large laundry room and linen storage on the other. In front of that was a large kitchen area and massive dining table with bench seats on one side and chairs around the other sides. In between was a spiral staircase with a good old fashioned firemen pole next to it.

For the bathroom, outside of the cabin he had a rain catch for a large 250 gallon water tank that was elevated, and it supplied water strictly for the toilet. The tank was black to attract sunlight and he used small solar powered bubblers to prevent freezing in the winter time.

The front of the cabin was completely open as well. They had chairs, couches and coffee tables spread around for seating and there was a fireplace. There hadn’t been any sense in wasting the space on bedrooms. If they had to, they could use the basement to create space for privacy.

When you looked up at the second floor, it was almost completely open. With the cabin being 30 by 40 and an “A” frame style roof, the sides had high pitches. You could walk around the entire upstairs close to the opening, which was railed off for safety. The opening was almost 10 by 30. This loft space had bunks galore spread out with under-bed storage and small dressers. There were thin panel walls between bunk areas and curtains toward the fronts. It looked like a large hunting lodge.

The storage containers provided space for storage of all of the food and supplies. The basement was left open as a recreation area. Pool table, dart board, card table, bubble hockey, couch and chairs, small library and games. They even had a space for a TV and entertainment system if it worked. He wouldn’t know yet. It was buried underground in a Faraday cage along with a few other items, with a grounding rod pounded deep into the ground.

Everything they would need was here. They would be able to farm the land, hunt if the game population wasn’t decimated and not far from the lake’s shores to put a small boat in and do some fishing. They had plenty of firewood stored already and access to as much as they needed. It had been a labor of love and now a labor of sustaining their lives.

They had compiled enough food stores to sustain 20 people for two and a half years on normal diets. They could ration and extend this if they needed to. This didn’t include any farming, hunting or fishing or what they brought with them. That would all be extra. They had the other two containers buried as well. One served as a hidden cache and the other as a storage unit for gas, kerosene, diesel and whatever else they put in there.

The cabin was built using eight inch logs and they up-armored the bottom 30 inches inside with 3/16 thinch steel plate. It would stop all 5.56 rounds and most 7.62. The areas around the windows were even more heavily armored to provide more protection as a gun port. This was all covered with wood paneling. The doors were all steel. There were only two of them. He hadn’t had the money to put ballistic glass in.

The doors to the pole barn and outbuilding had all been re-enforced to keep them as secure as possible. Tools, the trucks and trailers and an old tractor were all kept out there with the two horse stalls. They would move the trailers out shortly to make more space. Around the property he had a few more upgrades to help keep them safe.

The shower felt good. The water wasn’t hot, but was warm enough. He had plumbed a coil around the wood burner that ran the course of the hot water pipes normally supplied by the hot water heater, which no longer worked. The coil worked just fine and made it easier to boil water. The cabin was on a well pump and septic system which operated ok, too.

Kayla had worked up a watch schedule which was posted on a big dry erase board near the kitchen. Same with chores, wood retrieval, cleaning, laundry, cooking and whatever else needed to be done. Haliday walked out after getting dressed. “Can I have more coffee please?” Bev put the percolator on.