William Weber - Surviving America's Collapse

“Face?”

“Their leader. One side was horribly burnt.” She ran quivering fingers down her cheek. “The other had the tattoo of a skull.”

“Are you sure it’s him?” Diane asked, wringing her hands.

They were all in the cabin as John briefed everyone on the situation. The tension in the tiny space was palpable. Both families had had their own run-ins with Cain. Now it looked like he was back.

John stood before them. “I don’t know of many people with skull tattoos on their faces. Plus, he was surely burned falling through the floor when the Hectors’ house was on fire.”

“What do you think he’s doing this far from Knoxville?” Tim asked.

“I think he’s come to even the score. We defeated him at Willow Creek, decimated his army and fried half his face off. Wouldn’t you want revenge?”

The others didn’t seem convinced. They wanted to believe Cain’s appearance was nothing more than a coincidence rather than another horrifying attack.

“I don’t see how he could have found us,” Tim started to say before he stopped himself.

The sudden look of guilt on Emma’s face was unmistakable. However Cain had found out, it had begun when she first spilled the beans.

“Look,” John said. “We don’t know whether that’s even Cain or why he’s here. If he’s somehow found out about the cabin, our only choice is to finish this once and for all. Blood is going to be spilled. Each of you needs to take a moment and make sure you’ll be capable of performing your duty. If not, let me know now.” No one said anything. He then reached out to Emma. “Stop beating yourself up, honey. What’s done is done. At this point, I need all of you sharp. Guilt at this stage will only cloud your judgment and dampen your reaction times. We were lucky today. Our security procedures were tested, which gives us time to make improvements.” John turned to Gregory. “Great job alerting us to a possible threat, but staying in the area unarmed isn’t good. Coming to get you at the fallen tree exposed us all to danger. Next time, sound the alarm and retreat at once back to the cabin. This is our castle keep.” Then John turned to Tim. “It was brave of you to head toward the threat, but you went in armed with nothing more than a pistol. If that had been Cain and his men, he would have cut you down for sure.”

Tim shook his head. “Got it.”

“We also need to hand-drill more gun ports so we have three-hundred-and-sixty-degree coverage in case the cabin is surrounded.”

Gregory stood up and buried his fist into the palm of his hand. “If we had a tank we could blow them all away.”

The room exploded with laughter, offering them a much-needed release of tension.

“A tank would be nice,” Brandon added.

Diane sipped at a cup of lukewarm coffee. “If we’re making wishes, why not call in some Apache gunships?”

When they got the nervous laughter out of their system, John spoke. “We can’t let these terrorists or the threat they pose keep us hiding in the cabin out of fear. Each of us has a job to do, but we need to be vigilant and sound the alarm at the first sign of danger.”

For the next two hours, John and Tim used the hand drill to make additional gun ports in the northern, eastern and western walls of the cabin. They’d already made the holes in the southern wall overlooking the path yesterday and stacked sandbags around the opening.

Armed with a pistol and an AR, Gregory, Brandon, Emma and Natalie went down to the road to rebuild the camouflage protecting the turnoff that had been destroyed when the large crowd showed up. They added bushes and spread more forest debris to help hide the entrance to the cabin.

Meanwhile, Diane and Kay continued working in the garden and greenhouse, planting the vegetables and perennials.

When the last of the holes were drilled, Tim turned to John.

“I want to thank you for letting us stay here,” he said. “I know we didn’t know each other all that well as neighbors on Willow Creek, so you would have been justified in turfing us out. But you didn’t and I wanted to let you know I appreciate that.”

John gave him a half nod. He wasn’t sure why exactly being thanked made him so uncomfortable. Maybe it had something to do with one of those unspoken rules he always lived by. You did what needed to be done, no thanks required. Tim wasn’t cut from the same cloth, although John appreciated he was trying his best to make the present situation work as smoothly as possible.

“Space is tight, I won’t lie,” John said. “But having your family around has been a blessing in disguise, you might say. More hands to help around the property, and to defend it.”

Tim placed the hand drill on the table. “You don’t think Cain’s here by chance, do you?”

John didn’t mince words. “Not for a second.”

Just then the kids came charging into the cabin, frantic and out of breath. They were all squawking at once.

“One at a time,” John said, alarmed.

Gregory worked to calm his breathing. “We were making our way back from the road when we saw five pickup trucks drive by. There were armed men in the back.”

“How many?”

“Hard to say,” Emma cut in. “At least twenty.”

“Did they see you?”

Brandon and Gregory both shook their heads. “No, they just drove by, but it seemed like they were looking for something.”

“They’re searching for the turnoff,” John said. He touched Gregory’s shoulder. “Get Kay and your mother and tell them to come in right away.”

Gregory ran off.

“The rest of you kids keep filling up those sandbags and pack them as tight as you can. Tim, take one of the ARs and keep an eye on that road. Blow your whistle if you see anyone approaching.”

Kay and Diane entered just then and John filled them in on what was happening. “I’ll need help from both of you with setting up these last firing positions.”

Over the next few tense minutes, John pulled the kitchen table into the middle of the main room and stacked as much ammo as he could fit. From there, he placed four magazines filled with 5.56 green-tip rounds by the southern loophole for the AR. He then placed boxes of .30-06 ammo for deer rifles by the eastern and western loopholes and three other AR mags at the northern one. The shotgun loaded with double-ought buck and slugs would be kept in reserve in case anyone tried to breach the cabin door.

When they were done, everyone was on sandbag duty, except for Tim and Brandon who kept lookout.

They only managed to fill and move half the sandbags before everyone heard two short blasts from Tim’s whistle.

In a matter of seconds, they had all retreated to the cabin. This would be their Alamo. John just hoped the end result would turn out differently for them than it had for Davy Crockett.

The sound of the shotgun tripwire going off was the first sign that someone coming up the trail had tried to move off into the forest. Then came another blast and the screams of men in pain. More than one and John grabbed a notepad and etched two lines to mark down how many enemies were out of action.

John and Gregory took the southern loophole overlooking the gravel path. Kay and Diane took the eastern in case the attackers tried flanking the cabin. At the western loophole were Brandon and Emma while Tim and Natalie covered the south. They’d only managed to fill enough sandbags for three of the four positions. That meant the southern loophole was relatively unprotected, except for the cabin’s sixteen-inch log walls.

A voice shouted out at them from just beyond view. “I know you’re in there, John.”