“The armory.”
Richard went over to the toilet and retrieved a hide-a-key box from under the tank. Removing a key from the box, he opened the armory door to reveal a walk-in-closet. The walls were lined with metal shelves full of ammo, while the back wall held guns hanging from metal hooks screwed into a big sheet of plywood that spanned from the floor to the ceiling. I saw automatic rifles, shotguns, scoped rifles, handguns of all different sizes, and a few dozen metal canisters that looked suspiciously like grenades. Suddenly I felt uneasy about staying here with my family.
I jabbed a finger at the metal cylinders. “What are those?”
“IEDs.”
“IE...” Kate trailed off.
“Improvised Explosive Devices,” I supplied. “What if one of those goes off by accident?”
Richard shook his head. “Relax. You’ve got to light the fuse to set them off.”
“How did you even make them?”
“Fireworks,” Richard explained. “I cracked them open and poured out the gunpowder, packing it with nails and screws. They’ll kill anything within a two meter radius and injure well beyond that.”
“What is all of this for?” Kate asked. She stood barring the entrance of the armory to keep our kids out. Alex had his head tucked under one of her arms, staring wide-eyed at all of the weapons. Despite his many protests, Kate had never let me take him with me to the shooting range.
“You’ve got enough weapons here to start a war,” I said.
Richard snorted. “Hardly. I wish I’d stockpiled more to be honest.”
“More?” Kate echoed. “Why do you even need them?”
Richard looked at her as if the answer should have been obvious. “When everyone out there is freezing and starving to death, and they find out that we have enough supplies down here to last for the next two or three years, you better believe they’re going to come knocking on our door. And when they do, they’ll be armed to the teeth. This is Texas, after all.”
Richard waved a hand at the bare concrete walls of the armory and the panic room. “I built this place like a fortress for a good reason. The windows are all barred with quarter-inch steel tubes, and the doors are custom-made with a full inch of layered steel plates. I’ve got a full surveillance system around the perimeter, and a twenty-foot guard tower overhead with firing angles on the entire compound. Don’t think for a second that I designed all of that for nothing. This is our Alamo, and we’re going to defend it with our dying breaths if we have to.”
“You’re going to scare the kids!” Kate left, ushering them out of the panic room before Richard could say anything else.
I winced at the comparison and fixed Richard with a scornful look. “Is that why you built this place outside of San Antonio?”
He shook his head, a grim smile lurking beneath his beard. “Just a coincidence. I didn’t think about it until I’d already bought the lot. Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”
I lingered in the armory as Richard led the way out. The Alamo. Coincidence or fate? I followed Richard, hoping we weren’t about to repeat history.
Chapter 14
—ONE WEEK LATER—
June 8th
I was in the kitchen cleaning fresh-caught fish with Richard. He and I had been out on the lake all morning in his boat. The skin on my face and neck already felt tight and hot with the beginnings of a sunburn. I grimaced. My skin was going to peel for sure. Fans stood around the living area, blasting us from all sides with the combined volume of a propeller plane. Even so, it was still too hot, and the sweat was running in rivers down my front and back. I’d taken my shirt off as soon as we got back, and now it was tied around my waist, catching the sweat before it could trickle down my pants.
“There’s nothing to do around here!” Alex whined as he flopped down on the living room couch. “And it’s too hot! Can’t you turn down the thermostat?”
We didn’t have much in the way of air conditioning back home, but Texan summers were a lot hotter than Jersey ones. At least we were in a basement. It had to be cooler down here than it would be in an above-ground structure.
Kate looked up from where she and Rachel were coloring with crayons at the dining table. Richard didn’t have any coloring books, but Rachel had packed a few of hers and her crayons from home, along with her favorite stuffed animal and doll. I marveled that Kate had managed to fit all of that into Rachel’s luggage along with a full wardrobe and winter clothes. Alexander on the other hand, had much more refined interests. He’d been forced to leave his Playstation at home, and his laptop and phone were ‘useless pieces of junk’ without Internet.
“Why don’t you go for a swim?” Kate suggested.
“Boring,” Alex huffed.
“You could help us clean these fish,” Richard said, holding up hands coated with fish guts.
“Gross,” Alex said. His eyes flicked to me. “When are we going home?”
“Alex...” I trailed off. He knew we weren’t going home. He was just looking for an argument.
“News flash—the world hasn’t ended!” Alex blurted.
“Nothing has happened yet because that star is still too far away,” Richard explained.
“You’re just paranoid, Richard,” Alex replied.
“Uncle Richard,” Kate corrected.
Alex went on without skipping a beat, “You’ve got cameras and fences, guns, and bullet proof doors, and for what? No one is trying to break in here! Why would they? Anywhere is better than here!”
“It might seem like that now,” Richard said, “but just you wait.”
“This is all your fault,” Alex replied, glaring at his uncle. “It’s your star that’s coming to Earth, your paranoia that brought us here, and your hell hole that we’re staying in!”
“Alexander Sebastian Willis!” Kate snapped.
“Screw it, I’m out of here!” He jumped up, storming toward the hallway and the curving stairwell beyond.
“Alex, you get back here, right now!” I thundered.
Richard caught my eye and gave his head a slight shake. “Let him be. He can’t get into much trouble out there.”
I thought about that. The media frenzy had died down over the past week. Life went on. The president had fed the people with enough comfortable lies to keep them satisfied—for now—and the national guard was out everywhere flexing their muscles, just in case. Order had been restored in the cities, and out here in rural Texas, the chaos had never really had a chance to set in. Richard was right. Alexander couldn’t get into any trouble out there—besides a sun burn and some mosquito bites.
“Shouldn’t you at least go lock the door behind him?” Kate asked.
Richard seemed to consider that. “Yeah, I guess I’d better.” He wiped his hands on a towel and took off after Alex.
I watched them go. We were getting complacent. During the day it was easy to forget that we were sitting on enough weapons to arm a whole platoon of Marines. We pushed the truth to the back of our minds, and it festered there. Visions of a bonfire made of human bodies piled to the top of our guard tower danced behind my eyelids at night.
God help us if it came to that.
* * *
“Wait up, Al!” Richard called, breathing hard as he ran to catch up.
Alex bounded up the metal staircase, his feet setting off echoing peals of thunder inside the tower.
Richard reached the metal door on the ground floor just as Alex was sliding the locking bolts aside. Richard leaned on the railing, gasping for air. His hairy belly shivered with each breath, dark hairs matted and glistening with sweat.
“You’ve got to check the cameras first,” Richard said as he stumbled over to the door. He swiped the touchscreen of a tablet mounted there to wake it up. The tablet showed a live feed from the camera above the door. Brown grass waved in the breeze. Cicadas buzzed like tiny chainsaws through the tinny speakers. “Looks okay...” Richard swiped again, checking another camera, and then once mor
e. “All right. We’re good. You know where to find the key to get out of the compound?”
“In the fake rock beside the log...” Alex replied.
“Good. Don’t lose it, and make sure you lock the gate again on your way out.”
“Sure,” Alex said.
Richard turned the mechanical lever inside the door and locking bolts slid away from all sides. “Don’t be too long,” he said, pushing the door open. “Your mother will worry.”
“Whatever.” Alex darted out, and a hot breeze blew in. Dust kicked up by the wind made Richard’s mouth taste like chalk, and the pungent aroma of cow manure made him wonder if it was just dust.
Richard watched Alexander hunt for the key beside the log, wondering if the boy’s attitude was a sign of things to come.
No, he decided. Alex was a good kid. He was just blowing off steam, and there was plenty of that to go around. The solar panels weren’t strong enough to run any air conditioners, and Texan summers were hot—at least for now, Richard thought, shutting the front door with an echoing boom.
* * *
Crack. Bill Summers lay low in the bushes, silently cursing his stupidity. He’d just snapped a twig. Maybe the kid wouldn’t notice.
But he did. He froze and stared hard into the bushes. “Hello?”
Bill held his breath.
“Here boy!” The kid whistled a few times; then waited for a response. Bill smiled. The boy thought he was a dog! Bill’s lungs burned for air, but still he held his breath, waiting.
His hand tightened around the butt of his nine millimeter Beretta. The weapon was silenced, so no one would hear if he had to use it, but now wasn’t the right time to spring his trap. He wasn’t finished with his recon.
The kid snorted and shook his head. Long grass rustled against his legs as he stalked away.
Letting out his breath in a sigh, Bill shook his head. That was too close. He knew better than to make noise on a recon mission. The Army had taught him all about moving stealthily, before he was discharged for bad conduct. That’s what he got for having sex with his sergeant and assuming that it was a casual fling. All that stuff people said about a woman scorned was true and then some. After she threatened to get him court-martialed on some exaggerated assault and harassment charges, he’d sent naked pictures of her to their entire platoon.
Next stop after that was the Big Chicken Dinner (Bad Conduct Discharge). With those charges hanging over his head, it had been hard to find work after the Army, but he’d ultimately found his niche by becoming an enforcer with Private Security Solutions. That was more than ten years ago.
Bill’s thoughts went to the task at hand. Something sharp was stabbing him in the ribs. He carefully eased onto his side, revealing the jagged ends of the branch he’d snapped earlier. Scowling, he pulled it out and tossed it aside. He was going to have to be more careful if he expected to get the drop on five people all by himself.
In a way, being outnumbered made things easier, though. He just had to pick off one of the kids—or maybe their sweet ass mother—and then use that hostage to manipulate the others. Bill grinned at the thought. If he played it right, they could have some real fun together before anyone even realized she was missing.
Chapter 15
Richard, Kate, and I all answered the door together when Alex came back. We stood barring the way with arms crossed and angry looks.
Alex was smiling as we opened the door, but his smile faltered when he saw us. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
“Where have you been?” Kate demanded. “It’s been three hours! I’ve been worried sick!”
“You missed lunch,” I added.
“I was in the neighborhood next door... the Hartfords gave me lunch.”
“You left the property?” Richard demanded. “And you spoke to people?”
“I met a girl named Celine, and—”
Richard grabbed Alex by his collar and yanked him inside.
“Hey!” he protested.
Richard grabbed fistfuls of Alex’s shirt and pinned him against the wall. “What did you tell them?” he shouted in my son’s face.
“Nothing!” Alex insisted.
“Hey, lay off!” I said, and grabbed Richard by his shoulder to pull him away. He shrugged me off, and I grabbed him in a headlock. “That’s enough!
“Stop it!” Kate screamed.
Richard let Alex go, and I withdrew.
“You want to explain that outburst?” I demanded as Richard shut the door, muttering under his breath.
He rounded on me. “If the people in that neighborhood realize that we have a fully-stocked shelter right here next to them, where do you think they’ll go when the shit hits the fan?”
I glanced at Alex. “You didn’t tell them anything about this place, did you?”
He shook his head quickly.
“What were you doing eating lunch with strangers?” Kate asked in a more even tone.
Alex turned to reveal a bloody gash in his shirt. Kate gasped and rushed over for a better look.
“I scratched my shoulder on my way through Richard’s barbed wire fence,” Alex explained.
Kate lifted his shirt to reveal that the wound was already bandaged.
“Who fixed you up?” Richard asked, his voice still laced with a hard edge.
“Mrs. Hartford, Celine’s mother.”
“The barbed wire was rusty, wasn’t it?” Kate asked. “We’re going to have to get you a tetanus shot.”
“Are there any clinics nearby?” I asked Richard.
He shook his head. “No need for that, I have Tetanus boosters here.”
I did a double-take. “You do?”
“Of course. Antibiotics and antivenins, too.”
“Mommy?” Rachel’s voice called up to us from the bottom of the stairs, followed by the soft ringing of her footsteps on the stairs. She stopped at the top of the stairs, clutching her favorite teddy bear to her chest. “Why is everybody shouting?” she asked.
Kate went over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Because we were worried about your big brother, that’s why.”
“Well, come on, kid, we’d better go inject you,” Richard prompted.
“Wait. There’s something else—” Alex began.
Everyone looked to him.
“While I was over there, the TV was on, and I saw the news. They said something about fleets sailing through the Caribbean to Venezuela. They also said that Russia and Europe are sending soldiers to Africa and the Middle East, and that China is sending troops to Vietnam, I think.”
“It’s started already,” Richard said.
All eyes turned to him next.
“What’s started?” Kate asked.
“World War III.”
* * *
That night I lay in bed with Kate, staring up at the ceiling. Ever since we’d arrived at Richard’s shelter we’d begun sleeping in the same bed again—out of necessity more than choice, although I suppose I could have bunked in the panic room.
“Are you okay?” Kate asked in a quiet voice.
I rocked my head back and forth and rubbed my eyes. “I can’t sleep. I’ve got too much on my mind.”
“Oh?” Kate’s lips curved wryly. “Maybe I can do something to relieve your stress?” She began running a hand lightly over my chest, then ducked it under the covers and grabbed me below my waist. My body reacted instantly, but my mind tugged the other way. The gray matter won, and I removed her hand. You can’t fix adultery with make up sex.
“I keep thinking about what Alex saw on the news today,” I said. “All the nations with the biggest militaries are getting ready to invade their smaller, weaker neighbors.”
“Will that affect us?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know. Richard’s place is built completely off the grid, and we’re far enough from major cities that I don’t think we’ll become collateral damage. I suspect we’ll be fine as long as our supplies last, but after that...”
Kate
nodded slowly, and I rolled over to look her in the eyes. “I guess some small part of me was still clinging to the hope that Richard is wrong about what’s coming, but if our government is willing to invade Venezuela, then this isn’t just about colder winters and shorter summers. It’s about our survival and where we’re going to put three hundred million people when they’re all forced out of their homes.”
Kate bit her bottom lip, looking both vulnerable and sexy at the same time. On impulse I reached a hand behind her ear and stroked the back of her neck. Her eyes widened and her lips parted, but she said nothing. I locked my hurt and anger away for the moment, and leaned in for a kiss. It was one of those melt-my-insides kind of kisses that came once in a while to remind me how much I loved my wife.
Kate pulled away sharply, her eyes suddenly wide.
“What’s wrong?”
“I thought I heard something.”
I glanced at the door. “It’s probably just Richard getting up for a midnight snack. Or one of the kids going to the bathroom.”
Kate sat up and shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “It was metallic, like footsteps on the stairs.”
“Well, maybe it was Richard going up to the lookout tower?”
“In the middle of the night? Why would he do that?”
My mind raced. I thought about the panic room; then I thought about the fact that Rachel’s and Alex’s rooms were close to the stairs. If someone had broken in, they’d reach our kids first.
More rational thoughts chased those fears away. How could someone break in? The door was too strong and it was locked from the inside.
“I’m going to go take a look.”
“Logan... be careful.”
I opened the drawer in the nightstand beside our mattress and withdrew a nine millimeter pistol that Richard had given me. “Stay here.”
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