The Fall of the Dragon: An Apocalyptic Survival Series

by Steven Kagey

  “Gary?” Brian called. “Nancy?”

  There was no answer. Out of the corner of his eye, Brian saw movement in the barn window and realized there was a rifle pointed at him. Brian slowly lifted his hands out to the sides. “Gary, it’s Brian Stewart from next door. I came to check on you all.”

  The window opened wider. “Brian?” Gary said. “One second, we’re coming down.”

  They were relieved to see Brian. Nancy greeted him with a hug and Gary gave him a big handshake.

  “How are Evelyn and Avery?” Nancy asked.

  “Good, good,” Brian replied. “How are you two doing?”

  “We were visited by the deputies before they came down to your house,” Gary said. “They wiped us out of food and found all the weapons in the house except this rifle.” Gary hefted it. “They took all the food except what was in the greenhouse, and that’s what we’re living on now.”

  “Why are you up in the barn?” Brian asked.

  “It’s safer because we can stay in the upstairs area and pull the ladder up and no one can get to us,” Nancy replied.

  “We moved everything useful out of the house after the deputies left,” Gary added, “and when the other group came by earlier we just let them scavenge through the house instead of confronting them.”

  Gary and Nancy had a nice living area set up with a kerosene space heater up there to keep the chill off and were doing okay.

  “What are your plans?” Brian asked.

  “We’re going to wait as long as can in the hopes our sons find us,” Gary said. “We spoke with the two neighbors on the other side of us, further away from your place,” Gary told him. “Their properties were raided and they’re in the same boat as we are. They moved into the woods to get away from their houses and any more violence.”

  Brian told them about the impending return visit from deputies and National Guard and their intentions to fight them. Gary and Nancy displayed emotions from both ends of the spectrum. Horror that their neighbor and his family would be put in danger and possibly killed, combined with relief that someone was taking a stand and fighting back those that had wronged the residents of the community.

  Brian left the Palmers’ place with a promise to bring them some eggs after they took care of the deputies. He was glad his neighbors were physically unharmed and wished he could do more for them. He had been hoping they would have some spare weapons he could borrow to augment his group’s, but since they only had one rifle, Brian wouldn’t have even considered taking it even if they offered. The upcoming fight was now for more than the family and friends on his own property; it was for those all across the county as well.

  ***

  The group continued working throughout the day. Brian had finished the spider hole. He had dug a seven-foot-long trench that sloped from three feet up to two feet as it got closer to the driveway. He used some boards and built a frame around the inside lip that would keep dirt from eroding from the edge and also allowed him to attach another frame covered in a sheet of plywood for the top. He painted all the exposed wood with a waterproofing primer and black paint and then attached dead grass bundles to the top. Brian began practicing with the shotgun opening the door from the inside and getting out to engage any would-be attackers.

  As Brian was practicing, a baseball landed about fifteen feet in front of him. He looked at the rest of his group working to see who had time to play around and needed some more work to do. His eye caught motion as another baseball soared over the workshop and landed in roughly the same spot. Brandon came running around the building to see where the baseballs had landed. He realized Brandon was getting his aim and trajectory down with the water balloon launcher to launch the fireworks.

  “Perfect spot, Brandon,” Brian called out. “If they pull their vehicles in the same spots as last time, those will be landing directly behind them.”

  Brandon smiled. “Good, I got a board laid down at the correct angle and a line to show me how far to pull back so I can shoot the same shot over and over.”

  “Where did you learn to do that?”

  Brandon snorted as if it was obvious. “Angry Birds, where else?”

  Brian grunted. He wondered what other electronic games were training for the end of the world. If Candy Crush proved to be useful somehow, he was going to walk into the woods and live as a hermit.

  ***

  Around six o’clock everyone was finished with what needed to be done. They had to stop two more times when smaller groups had come walking down the road. Neither one was significantly armed, nor paid any attention to the Stewart homestead as they passed the gate.

  Craig was finished with the gas mister. The trip cable and spikes were in place, the Tannerite bucket was installed, and improvised mortars were ready. Brian had taken the claymore clacker out to the LP/OP right after the first group had left. The windows had been covered in security film, and the sandbag emplacements were done. David was still out in the LP/OP keeping watch. All of their remaining food, medical, and survival supplies were relocated out to the survival shelter in the woods. Doc had pre-staged a medical triage kit and surgery kit 200 yards away from the house in case medical assistance was needed after the encounter.

  Carol finished cooking dinner, and they all gathered around to eat.

  Brenda had been monitoring the HAM frequencies, and she told everyone she had heard reports from all across the country that things were really bad. She was hearing non-stop reports of martial law, and DHS along with the National Guard were rounding civilians up at so-called FEMA camps and not allowing anyone to leave once they were there. There were reports of weapons confiscation across the country, raids on people’s homes like had happened to them, and multiple reports of gangs murdering whole families and neighborhoods. DHS seemed to have turned a blind eye.

  “Thank you for your hard work, everyone,” Brian said. “Tomorrow or the next day we have a battle coming. Unfortunately, I feel this is just the beginning of a war. We need to decide how far we are willing to fight. Tomorrow’s battle is for retribution for wrongs that were done to us. If we don’t take a stand right now to protect our county, state, and even the entire country, we may face the same kind of injustice over and over.

  “Before we can worry about any future battles we’ll need to win the first one. Once we win, it should give us enough weapons to carry on the fight into the future. We have a plan in place, but everyone needs to keep in mind no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. We would be naive to expect ours to, especially since we’re taking on a superiorly armed force with minimal manning and weapons. We do have the element of surprise, because they won’t be expecting us to fight back, and we have home field advantage. We will all need to be able to improvise, adapt, and overcome anything unexpected that may happen. We cannot let ourselves get tunnel vision. Everyone needs to maintain a big picture understanding of what is happening and how things are changing. Any questions?”

  The group had a somber look, and they all nodded in acknowledgment of what he was saying.

  “If at any point this looks like it may go sideways we will need to make a decision whether to put down our weapons and surrender or fight to the death. If we surrender, we may live to fight another day. It has to be a group decision. If we move forward, no one can quit. This is–”

  “Let’s go ahead and knock that shit off the table right now,” Sean interrupted. “We’ve already made our decision to fight.”

  Brian looked around at the group. The concern on everyone’s face was unmistakable. “I know we have, and I expect victory. The point I am trying to make is that one or more people at this table may not be with us by this time tomorrow or the next day.” He gave a little time for that thought to sink in while he gathered his next words. “I consider myself a patriot. I have made peace with the fact that I will give my life for the freedoms of my family and for my country. I cannot fathom the thought of not being here to see Avery grow up or not being here for Evel
yn. I also cannot fathom the thought of what kind of life their future will hold if we don’t make things right. This is the last chance for anyone to change their minds. We will not think any less of you.”

  Avery ran around the table and hugged Brian with tears in her eyes.

  Everyone said they were in, life or death. Brian didn’t mention quitting anymore, he simply prayed that they would all be safe. Everyone had a two-way radio and got into positions. Brian went through scenarios that were different from what they initially planned for. They covered situations where more enemy showed up than were expected, situations if all the vehicles came straight to the house and none remained at the gate, and numerous other scenarios. In the course of discussing the different things that could happen they made a decision to take some logs that were on the back of the property as well as some old railroad ties and block in the driveway in front of the garage to confine any vehicles that were brought up to the house strictly to the driveway and prevent them from driving in between the house and workshop.

  Chapter 18

  Tuesday, September 24th

  That night, everyone slept downstairs in their clothes. The shotgun, pistol, and other gear were staged by the door in case they had to run out in a hurry. Radios were plugged up and charging. Craig and Brandon took night watch at the LP/OP since Sean and David were going to be out there for two days potentially, or until the deputies showed up.

  When the rooster crowed at 5:30 a.m. outside on the porch, it was so loud half the room jumped up thinking they were under attack. No one could go back to sleep after that, so day one of waiting began. Janice and Carol fixed a big breakfast for everyone, after which Doc and all the women except for Brenda packed up and headed to the campsite. The families spent a good amount of time saying goodbye and telling each other how much they loved each other.

  Avery pleaded with her dad to be safe, but she was mature enough to understand what he was about to do and why.

  “Take care of your mom and the rest of the folks at the campsite,” Brian told her. “Remember to let out your breath and hold it before you release if you have to shoot the bow. If a deer happens to walk close to the campsite take the shot as long as you know the area is secure. And make sure Beast is tied up good or he will come back to the house and likely get hurt.”

  Christina and Carol were a wreck. Almost their entire family was staying in the combat zone. Lillian was crying as the rest were. She had been spending the entire time telling Craig that she didn’t want David to stay at the house, especially not at the LP/OP. She kept telling Craig and David that they didn’t owe anyone here anything.

  “Lillian,” Craig insisted, “we’re doing it for you and Patricia. You’ll never be safe if we don’t fight for our freedoms.”

  Briefly, there was no one at the LP/OP while everyone was together saying their goodbyes. As the group headed off to the campsite, Brian took one last moment with everybody there to go over their roles and give a pep talk. All the kids were instructed that if they started to lose, they were to leave the adults and run as fast as they could into the woods but not directly towards the campsite. Once they were out of sight they could change direction and go to the campsite.

  Brian passed out military field manuals for everyone to look over while they were sitting around and waiting for the enemy to show up. He handed out topics covering first aid, guerrilla and unconventional warfare tactics, psychological operations, and intelligence gathering.

  “It’s to keep you mentally active and prevent you from tiring out from being on high alert for extended periods of time. If we’re going to engage in a war with DHS and any military troops, the only way we’re going to win is with guerrilla warfare.”

  “Like Red Dawn?” David asked.

  “Yes, like Red Dawn I suppose. After this battle, we may need to watch that as a training video,” he said with a grin. Everyone laughed. “Alright people, let’s get to our places and keep the radio clear unless you hear or see something.”

  Craig and David returned to the LP/OP. They grabbed the AR-15 and ammo, some field manuals, four MREs, and warm clothes for when it got chilly at night. Brian had given them a pair of binoculars and Craig had insisted on bringing his spotlight. Brian had told him not to, saying that at no time should he be spotlighting anyone. If he did, he’d become the instant target.

  When they got there they carefully hooked up the claymore clacker to be ready and set off the mortars. Brian had instructed them to pump the handle three times if they were going to fire them.

  Brenda was at the kitchen table with a handful of radios. She was monitoring their two-ways and had three of the HAM radios monitoring and scanning different frequencies. Sean was in the house with her. He was keeping an eye on the back of the property, and he kept walking around making sure the gas mister, spikes, and trip line were still working. The third time he checked them Brian told him that he was doing good, but he needed to calm down and only check them every couple of hours.

  Brian brought a six by six post up and wedged it between the inside stairs and the front door to keep the door from opening. In case the deputies were able to get a few hits on it before the gas when off, they had opened all the upstairs windows so that anyone approaching had to watch them in case someone started shooting from them, even though no one would be.

  Daniel was upstairs in the workshop, pacing between the two windows and scanning with his rifle scope. Each time before he would move he would aim at the Tannerite laden post and mentally go over himself squeezing the trigger. Brian had given him a small notebook laptop which was in the steel trash cans with the solar panel spare parts. It had PDF files of all the field manuals on it for Daniel to look over when he needed a break.

  Brian and Brandon were sitting outside at different ends of the property listening for the approach of the pending attack. The noise of the vehicles would travel very far in this quiet new world they lived in, and anyone approaching through the woods would be heard before they were within sight of the house. Everyone was extremely quiet in their movements, and every little noise put the group on edge.

  Throughout the day there were numerous groups of travelers coming down the road. It appeared everyone was fleeing town. Half kept on moving past the homestead. The other half stopped at the gate and asked if they could have any food or water. Brian telling them no sent most on their way. Only two needed a warning shot from Daniel for them to keep on moving.

  Twice they heard vehicles coming down the road, and everyone got in their positions. Brandon moved back around the workshop to the firework slingshot. Sean moved downstairs to the gas mister controls. Brenda grabbed the radios and crouched at the top of the basement stairs. They had tied a length of fishing lining to the curtains in the front of the house. Her instructions were to tug on it when they got to the front of the house so they would think someone was looking out at them and focus their attention on the house. Brian jumped in the spider hole and closed the hatch, ready to jump out. Both groups of vehicles sped past the gate without stopping. No one recognized the vehicles and none had sheriffs’ emblems on them.

  They heard gunshots pretty regularly. A few times they could hear automatic gunfire and a couple of miles away it sounded like someone had an intense battle of their own. The sun started to set, and everyone relaxed a little, sleeping in their positions for the night.

  Chapter 19

  Wednesday, September 25th

  When the rooster crowed, Brian, who had slept in the spider hole in a sleeping bag, raised the shotgun and aimed it at him.

  Billy, you are so close to kicking the bucket right now, I hope you realize that.

  Everyone else woke up, and the complaining began. Brian went to the house and started boiling water for some of the dehydrated camping meals and started a big pot of coffee. They didn’t have much coffee left since the deputies took it all, only the small pack Brian had hidden in a tote. He started filling thermoses with coffee and took one out to Daniel in the work
shop along with a meal pouch.

  “I’m too old for this,” Daniel complained.

  “Imagine our folks out at the campsite,” Brian said. “Some of them are sleeping on the ground.”

  “I was sleeping on a hard wood floor! I would trade that for the ground in a heartbeat.”

  Brian sent Brandon out to the LP/OP with a thermos of coffee for Craig and one with hot water for David to use with the cocoa pouches that came in the MREs. Brian and Sean were standing in the garage drinking coffee when David appeared.

  “Hey, Uncle Brian,” he said, “do you have any more hot cocoa here?”

  Brian looked up with some confusion. “I sent Brandon out to bring you water for cocoa, what are you doing here?”

  “I know. I left it there for him. I have to use the bathroom, and I needed out of that hole for a bit.” When Brian didn’t look too happy, David continued, “We went over each other’s roles and responsibility. I helped him set up the firework launcher so I know what to do with it, and he is watching and listening out there. I’ll be back out there before anyone shows up.”

  “Okay,” Brian said, relaxing a bit. “Don’t take too long though.”

  The morning was quiet at the homestead, the air crisp and cool. The only sounds were the bugs in the woods and the chickens clucking away contently. Everyone returned to their post and the morning continued without any activity on the road. Brian was sitting on the edge of the spider hole going over their plans in his mind when he thought he heard a faint grumble.

  Daniel came over the radio. “Did anyone else hear that?”

  Brian was standing up now. “Yeah, I thought I heard something, Craig are you seeing anything out there?”

  “Nothing yet, but we heard it too.”

  Everyone stood silently listening. Their hearts were beating so hard and fast it was making it difficult to listen and concentrate on the noise. The rumble in the distance grew louder, and it was unmistakably the sound of multiple vehicles, likely military vehicles. Craig relayed he could see them far off into the distance.