Small Town EMP (Book 3): Survive The Conflict

by Hamilton, Grace

  Wendell hid a smirk. He was absolutely going to focus on himself, and that meant staying alive long enough to get away from these people. There was always something better. He only needed to bide his time until that something better came along.

  3

  Austin stepped out of the bedroom he shared with his brother with a bit more optimism than he’d felt in days past—one thing about this new world: he was tired enough to sleep well most nights, if not every night, and that did something for his morning outlook. Plus, talking with his brother the night before had put his mind more at rest. Austin felt grateful to have his brother by his side as they navigated this new world. Ennis made him crazy, sure, but Austin knew the man was very capable, especially in this new survival situation they’d found themselves in. Weirdly, things had been good between them since the house had burned down. Good as things could be, anyway, when they were on the run from a madman intent on killing them slowly and painfully.

  But, as brothers, they were doing good. They’d had their fight and it was in the past. It had been a way of relieving the pressure and stress that had been building for years, all intensified by the situation of the world in chaos. Now, it was just a matter of surviving.

  Ennis already stood in the living room, preparing for the hunting trip.

  The sun was barely rising in the sky, providing little light into the lodge through the tall windows that faced west. The building was one of those fancy ones that rich guys would have paid thousands of dollars to stay in for a single night. No doubt, the place would have served delicious meals and top-shelf liquor as guests relaxed by the fire each night, regaling each other with stories about the big one that got away. The lodge had been quite luxurious at one point.

  Working with his brother, he checked over the few hunting rifles they’d managed to retrieve from secret caches around Ennis’s house back in Colorado. The whole of the arsenal they’d built up had been lost in the fire, but they still had a few guns and minimal ammunition to get by—most of what they’d had prior to what they’d gotten from the NWO soldiers, really. They’d certainly never be able to win a war with what they had, and they all knew it. They were constantly searching for more weapons and ammunition as a result.

  Austin hoped his brother managed to get a deer today. He could really go for some venison steaks. Meanwhile, Austin, Amanda, and Drew were going to make another attempt to scavenge in an area they hadn’t previously tried. They’d gone down the mountain and into town, but they hadn’t tried to go south because the terrain looked rougher. Austin believed there had to be housing, though—and possibly more campgrounds or another town they could reach. He wasn’t ready to give up on finding candles, clothing, and more supplies in general.

  Tonya, Savannah, and Sarah would stay at the house with Gretchen and Mike. They’d be safe enough. Austin was confident in Gretchen’s ability to shoot to kill if need be. He’d seen it once before. Savannah was capable, as well, if she really needed to be.

  “You’ll be back by late afternoon?” he asked Ennis.

  “That’s the plan. Probably earlier, unless we actually manage to get something. I’ll field dress it out there. I don’t want to bring in the cougars and coyotes I know are around.”

  “Cougars?” Austin echoed. He hadn’t even thought about dealing with those.

  Ennis nodded, closing up a backpack with supplies as he did. “I saw some tracks the other day when I was out scouting. We’ll be fine as long as we keep our heads up.”

  Austin grimaced. “Great. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  The entire household was awake now, and Austin walked over to Savannah where she stood in the kitchen, staring out the window.

  “It’s pretty out there,” she commented.

  “It is. You going to help Tonya around here today?”

  She didn’t look at him, only continuing to pull her hair up in a ponytail. “We’re supposed to go look for huckleberries. Gretchen says they’re in season. We just have to find them.”

  “Huckleberries sound delicious. Remember when we stopped at that little roadside stand last year? That lady’s huckleberry jam was amazing,” he reminisced, practically tasting the stuff.

  His daughter shrugged. “It was okay.”

  But there was a small smile on her face, he noticed. “I bet Tonya’s got a recipe to rival it,” he said. When she didn’t seem inclined to say more, he gave her a quick hug and then caught her eyes before letting her go. “Keep that thirty-eight on you, and use it if you have to.” He hated that he even had to tell her that at all.

  “I know. I will,” she muttered, already pulling away.

  “I’ll see you tonight. Good luck.”

  Ennis and his hunting party were walking out the door when he returned to the living room. After a quick conversation with Gretchen and Mike about firing two shots into the air if they needed help, he headed out with Amanda and Drew.

  “How’s Savannah?” Amanda asked.

  “She’s still in a funk,” he answered. “They’re going to look for berries today. Maybe Gretchen will get her to open up. She certainly isn’t talking to me.”

  “Don’t take it personally, Austin. She’s got a lot to deal with. She’s taking Nash’s death harder than any of us,” Amanda said.

  “I know, and I understand why, but I can’t let her shut down. Have you seen how much weight she’s lost?” he asked.

  “I can try talking to her,” Drew suggested. “I worked as a youth pastor back in my twenties. Sometimes it helps to talk to someone you don’t know very well. Couldn’t hurt, anyway.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” Austin said after a moment. “She has to work through this or it’s going to eat her alive.”

  Drew smiled. “I’ll try and pull her aside tonight.”

  With that, they seemed to come to a silent agreement to focus on moving forward, and Amanda took the lead in heading south. But they’d only been gone around twenty minutes and walked less than a mile when Austin heard a single gunshot.

  “Ennis?” Amanda asked, all of them going stalk still as they exchanged glances.

  Austin held up a finger, his head cocked to the side as he listened for a second shot. It was a few seconds later when it rang out, echoing around them. It sounded like the shot had come from a different caliber of gun, but he couldn’t be sure.

  That might have been the second shot to signal trouble, connected to the first.

  “Something’s wrong,” Austin said, his sweat going cold.

  “Was that two shots or is that the guys hunting?” Drew asked.

  Austin was already moving back the way they’d come, and he answered over his shoulder. “I don’t want to take any chances. We head back.”

  They’d only gone a quarter mile back toward the lodge when more shots sounded. Austin began running through the trees, his heart pounding as he thought about Savannah being hurt. He knew it was risky to run over the rough terrain, and that he was taking a chance on spraining an ankle or worse, but he couldn’t stop. Adrenaline and fear pushed him to keep going.

  “Wait!” Amanda shouted. “We have to see what’s going on. Don’t run into a gun battle without surveying the situation!”

  After seconds more of running, her reason got through to him and he slowed, his breathing ragged with stress and exertion. She caught up quickly, Drew right behind her. This was Amanda’s area of expertise. She was battle-trained, and he had to follow her lead. He forced himself to breathe slower and fall into step alongside her as she continued moving towards the lodge, but at a much slower pace.

  “It’s not the lodge,” he said when more shots rang out, realizing the noise was coming from lower down the mountain.

  “No, it isn’t, but those shots are way too close for comfort,” Amanda said.

  Austin moved faster, hoping Savannah and the others hadn’t left the house yet. The idea that the gunshots could have been directed at his little girl made him sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to think of them bei
ng somewhere in the middle of the shooting just because they’d gone looking for berries.

  A sharp whistle pierced the air. He looked to the right and immediately saw Mike gesturing to them. Austin pivoted to head his way, up a small, rocky outcropping.

  “Where’s Savannah?” he asked when he reached the other man.

  “I’m here,” Savannah said, standing up from where she’d been crouched low behind some green bushes. Gretchen stood beside her, waving a distracted greeting as Tonya stepped into view from behind another tree. They’d only been hiding.

  Austin breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Where’s the shooting coming from?” Amanda asked.

  Mike shook his head. “We’d been out maybe five minutes when we heard the first shot. It came from down the hillside a bit. I couldn’t tell you exactly how far, but the other shots, those are moving in this direction.”

  “Sarah’s still in the lodge,” Savannah said quietly.

  Austin’s relief disappeared. They couldn’t risk losing Sarah. She held the key to everything—at least, he hoped she did.

  “We need to find Ennis and the others,” Amanda said.

  “Who’s shooting, though?” Drew asked.

  “I think it’s those other groups fighting each other,” Austin answered. “Has to be. Let’s move. Mike, take them higher. We’ll go after Ennis and the others.”

  Mike nodded, leading the way up the steep hill, away from the action happening further down the mountain. Austin followed Amanda’s lead, taking a wide berth around the lodge and staying high above whatever was happening below.

  “Austin,” he heard, immediately recognizing his brother’s voice.

  “Ennis?”

  “Here,” Ennis replied, emerging from the trees about twenty feet away.

  “Is everyone okay?” Austin asked, watching as the others came out of the trees.

  “We’re good. We didn’t get far.”

  “Neither did we,” Amanda muttered.

  The sound of gunfire seemed to be getting closer.

  “We need to see what’s happening. It could be a hunting party,” Austin suggested, though the words didn’t ring true to any of them.

  Ennis just looked at him. “You know what it is.”

  “No, I don’t. Not until I see it with my own two eyes. But we need to get Sarah out of there if she’s still inside the lodge, too,” Austin said, not willing to back down. “And the laptop,” he added as an afterthought.

  “Let’s split up. We’ll fan out, moving towards the lodge and trying to see what’s happening. We can’t up and leave if there’s no real danger,” Amanda said, looking from one brother to the other.

  “Then we make it fast. I don’t want to risk getting caught or getting hit by bullets meant for someone else,” Austin replied.

  “Let’s go,” Amanda said, taking the middle position.

  The rest of the group fanned out, forming a flat V as they moved downhill towards the lodge. As they moved closer, the gunshots grew louder. Austin could see the lodge through the trees. It was Malachi who raised his hand, giving a short whistle and drawing the attention of the others. He pointed to the small parking lot in front of the lodge. There was a man lying on the gravel.

  “They’re coming,” Dr. Bastani’s deadpan voice commented from behind them.

  Austin spun around and saw her standing next to a tree, the laptop and its charger cradled in her arms. “What?” he asked.

  “One of them came into the lodge. He didn’t know I was there. I heard someone rustling around in the kitchen and went to investigate. He didn’t seem like a bad person,” she said flatly, her eyes wild.

  Shock, he realized.

  “What happened, Sarah?” Amanda asked, her voice offering a calm that Austin didn’t remotely feel.

  “He said it was theirs. He said he was taking the lodge,” Sarah replied, devoid of emotion.

  “Who said that?” Austin asked.

  Sarah pointed through the trees to the man lying in the gravel. “Him, the man I shot. He said we had to move, that his wife wanted a real house and not a camper. He followed someone here. He wasn’t a bad man,” she repeated, shaking her head.

  “Then what happened?” Amanda asked.

  Sarah looked at the man and then back at Amanda. “I killed him,” she said. “I stabbed him in the jugular vein. I told him he would die in a matter of minutes. He tried to run, and that’s where he landed,” she added, looking to the man’s body once again.

  Wendell cursed nearby, as shocked as the rest of them. For once, Austin didn’t blame the man for his reaction. No one said anything for a few moments more. Austin was stunned. The woman barely spoke, barely showed any kind of emotion besides irritation, and now she’d just explained how she had stabbed a man.

  “Are you hurt?” Amanda asked.

  Sarah shook her head. “No. But they’re coming. We have to go.”

  “Who’s coming?” Austin asked, wanting to shake the woman out of her stupor.

  “His family. He said they were moving into the lodge. They’re going to be very upset when they find him dead,” she added casually.

  Austin looked to his brother, then Amanda, the two people he relied on the most. “Who’s doing the shooting?”

  “I’d guess that guy was planning on moving his family to the lodge and someone in the other camp got wind of it. Either way, they know about the lodge,” Ennis said with a sigh. “Now… I’d bet you ten to one they’re fighting over it.”

  “We can defend it,” Wendell argued.

  “At what cost?” Amanda replied.

  “She’s right,” Ennis said, though disappointment sounded in his voice. “We need to leave for now. We can’t get into a gunfight. We risk someone being hurt or killed. We hide out and maybe they’ll kill each other off.”

  Austin agreed. A gun battle was too risky. “Okay.”

  “Leave the lodge?” Wendell asked, his voice high.

  “We move now,” Amanda said, taking charge. “Grab everything you can. Roll silverware, food, supplies, everything into the blankets. We’ll all carry a bundle. Take two blankets if you can,” she finished, already moving back towards the lodge.

  They burst into the lodge as one, half of them rushing upstairs to strip the blankets from the beds while the others raced into the kitchen, grabbing the knives and rope they’d found along with the box of foil and sandwich bags. The rushed packing was hectic, but the gunfire was getting closer—they could all hear it. They only had minutes to get what they could and run before they’d be sucked into the war happening in the woods.

  “The horses!” Amanda called out suddenly, whirling to see Austin coming down the stairs.

  “Right. Get out now—head up the mountain to Mike and the others,” Austin ordered the rest of their group as he and Amanda headed outside.

  The bar wasn’t far, and he heard the others already moving uphill as they reached it.

  “We can’t ride them out of here. The terrain is too rough,” Amanda said, bridling Raven hurriedly.

  Austin took charge of Charlie, all but throwing on the saddle and reins before following Amanda out of the small structure. He breathed once they got into the trees. The others, with their bundles in their hands and the backpacks they’d been traveling with on their backs, were already on the move.

  “You! Stop! We’ll shoot!” someone shouted from behind them, but a quick look backwards told him that the order hadn’t been directed at them. At least for now, they hadn’t been seen.

  “Hurry!” Austin pressed Amanda. Thankfully, the horses were sensing their urgency—they were all but pulling him and Amanda along now.

  Several shots rang out behind them, and Austin guessed they came from the lodge’s front porch. “This is ours!” someone shouted.

  “Left! Go left!” Amanda called out. They’d caught up to the rest of their group, who were moving uphill just ahead of them now, packs in hand.

  With Amanda directing them, they
moved fast and quiet. The sounds of gunfire faded behind them and eventually stopped. The groups had either killed each other or one had taken possession of the lodge. Either way, Austin knew they weren’t going back.

  It wasn’t long before they met up with Mike and the others, and Austin didn’t hide his relief when he finally got to hug his daughter close again, the latest brush with guns behind them.

  “What do we do now?” Dr. Bastani asked, holding the laptop against her chest.

  Austin looked to Amanda before glancing over to Ennis. He was open to suggestions.

  “We have to move,” Ennis grumbled. “Just when we were settling in, we have to move.”

  “At least it isn’t the NWO we’re running from right now,” Ezra commented.

  “This area is too populated,” Amanda said quietly, sounding as if she was being forced to admit it to herself as much as anyone.

  “Too populated? There’s nothing but trees for neighbors,” Wendell scoffed.

  Austin glared at him, wondering why the guy bothered talking when he could never seem to be helpful. He added no value to the group.

  “We need to move,” Amanda reiterated.

  “Where?” Austin asked.

  The group fell silent, none of them having an answer.

  “We could follow the mountain range north,” Ennis suggested. “Maybe Canada is in better shape?” he offered.

  “Back to the Oregon Trail,” Tonya offered half-heartedly.

  There were a lot of groans, no one interested in the idea of another grueling trek over rough terrain, and with no protection from the elements or any place to rest their weary bodies. The miles on their feet were taking their toll.

  “We need shelter. We need access to food and water,” Amanda said, eyeing her horses.

  Austin nodded, knowing her well enough to know she was going to suggest something. “What? What are you proposing?” he asked.

  “We split up,” she said simply, and then she kept going before he could argue. “Two groups. Half of us will go north and the other half south. We’ll meet at that huge Douglas Fir with the clearing on one side,” she said. “Where we made camp the night before we found the lodge. Most of us have gone back to forage often enough that we know where it is in our sleep and won’t have trouble meeting up there.”