“You can take some peppers, grind them down, mix in some boiling water and let it cool. Add oil along with a touch of gas and use it in balloons, squirt guns, water extinguishers or whatever will spray and spread it. Improvised pepper spray. The stores around here might have some they usually sold for key chains.”
“Bug spray and flammables can make some nice little flame throwers. Light it with a match or lighter and spray away. If you feel giddy enough you can tape a candle to the can and light it. Just move slowly so the flame doesn’t go out. You guys have to think outside of the box here on everything. I’ll try to make contact and give you more ideas.”
Rob walked over to him. He extended his hand. “I don’t who the hell you are, but thank you very much. I hope I speak for everyone here.” Everyone was thanking them. “Any parting words of wisdom?”
“Bury your dead, and honor them with the freedom the constitution gives us.”
They peered outside. They walked over to their bikes and climbed on. A quick wave good-bye and they were on their way. The streets were all empty. No one was out. They barely noticed any candles burning anywhere as they rode along. About 45 minutes later they called on the radio. “Open the doors. Stand by. We’re home.”
They put the bikes in the pole barn and walked by the horses’ stalls. He paused to say hello, they knew him well. They locked up the pole barn with the help of Kevin and went to the house. They walked in and were greeted with hugs from everyone. Even Blake who had found a new family. Lots of tears of joy streamed down the faces.
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.
Chapter 25
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 3/16th inch 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.
Haliday walked over to the desk with the radio. He checked in with Mike and Linda. “How you guys doing?”
“We’re doing fine, Rambo.”
That struck a bad chord with Haliday. “Not in the mood, Mike. Just doing what I hope any other American would do, that which was necessary to keep order in a place that didn’t have any. You guys going to be set for a while?” he asked Mike.
“Ya, we’ll be fine, sorry. I got a deer and we plan to use that up first.”
“Ok, talk to you later,” Roger said.
Haliday changed the frequency and called Rob. There wasn’t any answer. He would call back later. He looked down at a note. “Oh ya, Alan.” He called on the frequency that Kayla had written down. There came an answer. It was typical of a ham operator. Call sign and everything. Haliday apologized for not knowing the proper protocol and such.
The man said, “No problem, I understand.”
“If you have a chance, and Alan Haliday asks, can you get him on for me?”
“Sure, I’ll leave a note up for him. I put a message board up for folks.”
“Hey, my name is Roger by the way; can I ask a few questions?”
“Yes sir, how can I help you?”
“You hear anything about the military or feds doing anything?”
“I only hear what you’ve heard. They are locked down on the bases, they have had a lot of deserters and they don’t plan on doing anything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just like I said, they don’t plan on doing anything any time soon. That’s the rumor.”
While it didn’t surprise him he still thought it was odd. “What’s going on around you?”
“Detroit.”
Roger asked, “What do you mean, Detroit?”
The guy said, “The city itself is pretty much a wasteland and the suburbs have become like Detroit itself. Looters, robberies, people shooting each other, it’s really bad. You can’t leave your house and you have to be careful. Hearing that some gangs are on the move. People aren’t putting up with a lot though.”
“I appreciate the info. Mind if I add you to my friends list or whatever it’s called.”
The man laughed, “Ya, go ahead. I’m Adam by the way.”
“Thank you again Adam, it’s been a pleasure. I’ll be talking to you again soon.” He sat back and tried Rob again. Still no answer at all. He flipped to the militia freq. This was interesting indeed.
It sounded like they were just attacked by Al Qaida themselves. “This is the Bad Axe Minute Men. Last night we were provoked by a group of terrorists. These terrorists have turned members of our community against us. They attacked us when we were openly attempting a cease-fire.”
“Bullshit,” Haliday mumbled under his breath, along with some more choice words. Our community? Oh, that was good. These guys are playing the psychological warfare game quite well. He couldn’t wait to hear what else they were saying. These guys are playing the victim role really well.
He heard a familiar voice. “These are all lies people. We united to save our community. The militia stole food, fuel and supplies from us. They want to sell it back to us while they keep what they want for themselves. The murdered Jim Simmons last night in cold blood, he was unarmed.” Haliday smiled; a propaganda war. The sad thing was this could lead to a civil war here within this little part of the state.
“We had a kid who belonged to them. When we contacted them to turn him over, they set up an ambush and killed the two guys who were taking him back to their compound.” Haliday was taken aback at this. He wished he would have told them how to handle the turnover. How the hell did that happen, he wondered.
The bantering would go on back and forth every so often. Haliday flipped over to Rob’s frequency. “Rob, you there?”
“Ya, I’m here. They shot two more guys.”
“I heard. Sorry to hear that. You didn’t offer to trade the kid for supplies did you?”
“No, we told them it was a straight up return. We just wanted him out of our hair. The guys were walking him down the street toward their compound and they came out from the bushes and shot them.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Listen, you guys need to get busy with what we talked about. You get everyone you can on board. You’ll get those who will be on your side, those who will join you if they think you are winning, and those who will care less. You’ll also have some against you. I know it’s only been a little more than half a day, but time is important.
“Rob, listen up. Someone needs to move into that feed store or co-op, whatever you call it. You need to make sure that remains in your control. Fortify the hell out of it. Don’t let those guys get it. See if the guy with the tooling shop can build some boxes to cover the pintles on those trailers so they can’t be towed away. I’ll check in on you late this evening, but you call if anything major goes down. I suspect they’re still licking their wounds.”
In another couple of hours, it would be getting dark again. He needed to get out and check a few things. He went into the pole barn and got into the ranger. He and Kevin took a quick ride around the property boundary. It was simple fencing in most places. He drove toward the west property line and checked the woods. He scribbled some notes on some paper.
He followed the property line around and kept making notes. When he got up to the front of the lot he looked across the street at the neighbors. He had noticed the curtains pulled aside in one of the windows. He looked around some more not to make it obvious, but he made a mental note. Someone was watching them.
They drove back up to the pole barn. Haliday checked the vehicles real quickly. He walked over and looked at his old Jeep. He jumped in and started it up, just like Kayla said, ran like a champ. He looked up and saw Dawn and Diana bringing the horses in for the night. They put some hay in the stalls for them. Each fall they had a round bale delivered just as a prep. They rotated it out each year.
Haliday checked the small aluminum boat hanging over the Jeep. That should be fine, oars were EMP proof. He walked over to an old outboard motor from the 70’s. It was a simple engine, it too should work ok and if not, no big deal. Last but not least, the tractor. If it didn’t work, the horses would. They secured everything and went back to the house.
He could smell the cooking. “What are we having for dinner?”
Sarah said, “Burritos.” Karen and Bev were sitting there making tortillas and Sarah was making the beans and the beef.
“Sounds good to me.” He raised his voice slightly. “Everyone else please gather around, we have some things we need to do in the next couple of days, and we may have a problem.”
Everyone gathered around sitting at the table or standing nearby. “We need to get the concertina wire put in place. We also need to put out the foot spikes.” These were much like the stop sticks he had described, only they were just a couple inches wide and had sliv
ers from the edge cut and bent upwards, then sharpened. These had barbs cut into them to tear flesh as they were pulled out. These were easier to hide in tall grass and bury under loose dirt. You’d spot them in the daylight, but not at night.
“We also need to make sure we clean out the holes and have them ready to go.” Near the front of the house by the corners he had built some decorative plantings. Small curved landscape walls, but when you took the grass off and removed the cover there was a concrete culvert pipe sunk into the ground.
These were just like the ones he had remembered using multiple times in basic training at the rifle range. Pea gravel on the bottom and sand bags in each to adjust the height of the shooter. These would let two gunners provide much needed coverage to the front of the house and the sides as well. He had installed planters around the whole area made of double rows of landscape bricks stacked 2 and 3 high in places. A few spots of fieldstone built up and holding garden sculptures.
The holes near the back of the house need to be cleaned out and ready as well. These appeared to be old tractor tires used as sand boxes. Those four holes would provide coverage for all four sides of the house. He continued on with a few other tasks to up the security and make it a more formidable structure to defend.
At the top of the house was a large decorative square with a weather vane on top. This was actually a 6X6 fortified hide. One man with a rifle was protected by two rows of wooden beams with 3/16 inch sheet metal sandwiched between them. The roof was sloped, but under the shingles was some ¼ inch. Might not be perfect, but it would work. He called it the crow’s nest.
He looked at everyone. “The militia might have a spotter across the road. You guys didn’t notice?”
“No, not really. Just thought it was a nosy neighbor.”
“That’s what I thought, too.” Nobody gave it much thought but he had. He told them what he thought.
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