This time, they rode past the berm, past the boulders, and up the gravel road. To the next driveway.
The one that led into the compound.
Tom just happened to be on security detail at the time, and saw the men approaching on the security cameras. He recognized Colson immediately, and called for someone to relieve him at the monitors.
Sara immediately came running.
“Just watch the monitors, little darlin’, and put everybody else on alert. I’m going out to see what they want.”
Tom assumed that it was a courtesy call. That they’d just returned to get his answer about the sheriff’s job offer.
He’d soon find out that wasn’t the only thing they wanted.
The men couldn’t ride past the end of the driveway. Their way was blocked by several large mesquite trees, uprooted two years before and lined up to form a barrier against intruders. The trees’ inch long razor sharp thorns made them impossible to crawl through.
But they didn’t block Tom’s voice as he shouted to the men on the other side of the barrier.
“Hold on out there, Jim. Let me drag one of these trees out of the way.”
Tom jumped on the Bobcat and drove it over to the trunk of one of the fallen trees.
He climbed off to attach a chain from the front of the machine to the tree, so he could drag it back and clear the drive.
“Stay up there, Tom. I’ll hook it up.”
It was Jordan, coming out of the house to help.
Tom let the young man hook the chain, and then instructed him, “Thanks. Now do me a favor and go back in the house. Take a rifle and take a position in the front window. Have your mom take the other window.”
It took Jordan a moment to see the logic.
Then he realized that Tom was just being cautious. He’d known Jim Colson for many years. They used to fish together as boys after skipping school. He expected no betrayal from Colson.
But the other men he wasn’t as familiar with. Hopefully his friend was careful about who he rode with and who he chose as his own friends.
But there was always the chance that the others were using Colson as a way of gaining access to the compound.
And to thin the numbers of the people inside the compound.
Just in case this was an ambush in the making, Tom wanted to make sure he’d be its only victim. And that the others were ready for another assault.
Jordan did as instructed, and called Tom on the radio a minute later.
“Okay, Tom. We’re in position. Be careful.”
Tom backed up the Bobcat, pulling the heavy tree out of line from the others and clearing the driveway.
From their upstairs windows, Jordan and Linda could see Colson and four other men, still on horseback, at the end of the drive.
Colson and the men, meanwhile, got their first look at the front of the house in the compound. Only the front was visible. The rest of the house was actually inside the compound, hidden by a high black fence that started and ended at the front corners of the house.
It was obvious to Colson and his friends that a fierce battle had taken place here. Every single window on the front side of the house had been shot out, and the brick was scarred and broken. They could see the thick plywood barriers that had been installed in each of the windows. They too, were pockmarked with dozens of bullet holes.
They could also see that the upstairs windows had firing ports. And from each of the firing ports the barrel of a rifle protruded.
While the rifles weren’t pointed directly at the visitors, the warning was still very clear. If Colson and his men were looking for a fight, they’d surely have one.
Colson told his men to stand firm.
“We’ve no right to ride into these people’s home without an invitation. It looks like they’ve been through enough hell already.”
Tom dismounted and walked to the end of the drive. He held out his hands to his side to show he was unarmed. It was the old cowboy’s equivalent of sending out an olive branch and to show he was no threat.
“Good morning, Tom.”
“Good morning, Jim. I suppose you’re looking for my answer.”
“No, sir. I won’t rush you on that. You’ll give your answer when you’re ready. We’ve come on another matter.”
“And what’s that?”
“You know Amanda Nowak?”
“Of course. Bill’s daughter. You and Bill and I used to run together back in the old days. I taught Amanda how to swim in the lower Llanos River. Why? Is she okay?”
“We don’t know for sure. If she’s still alive, she’s being brutalized something fierce. A band of outlaws shot and killed Bill this morning. Killed Amanda’s young son too. They put Amanda on a horse, tied her hands to the saddle horn and took her into the hill country.”
Tom lowered his head and said a brief prayer for his friend Bill and his daughter and grandson.
“What can I do to help, Jim?”
“We’ve formed a posse. Want to see if you want to join it. If you’re still thinking about being our new sheriff, you might as well see the evil you’ll be up against.”
“Give me five minutes to get Bonnie saddled.”
Tom ran into the house and went into the bedroom where Linda stood guard. He closed the door behind him.
No one else in the house knew the words that transpired between them. But when he emerged they heard her calling behind him, “You’d better be careful and come back to me, cowboy. I need you.”
A few minutes later, Tom was on horseback, heading down the driveway to join the others. He got on the radio and called in.
“Jordan, hold your position. When I get to the berm, if it’s all clear, I’ll call and let you know. Then you can go put the tree back in position.”
“Got it.”
Hannah went to check on Linda, who was fighting hard to hold back her tears.
“He’ll be all right, honey. He hasn’t lived all these years by being careless.”
-31-
Back in San Antonio, Scott was driving Rhett around and introducing him to some of the block leaders.
By mutual agreement, they’d decided to take a day off from body recovery, and let their bodies and their lungs get free of the stench of the rotting corpses.
“This is Jason and Lisa’s block,” he said as they turned onto Mill Street. “They’ve got three kids, and his brother and her sister both moved their families over here to be with them. They’re one of the few families I know of who have come through this ordeal unscathed. They haven’t lost anybody to the plague or to suicide or the marauders.
“I hope it stays that way.”
They parked the squad car and got out, greeted by a smiling man in his early thirties.
“Hello, Scott. It’s nice to see you again.”
“Hi, Jason. This is my new partner, Rhett Butler.”
The two shook hands. Jason raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask about the name. It was a reaction Rhett had seen a thousand times before.
Scott went on.
“I expect to be going back to my family in a couple of months when the plague is finally done. Rhett will take over for me when I’m gone. So I’m taking him around to meet all the block leaders.”
“Well hello, coppers! You’ll never take me alive!”
Scott and Rhett turned to see Lisa approaching them. She was covered in dirt.
Scott couldn’t resist commenting.
“My goodness. Even dirty from head to toe you’re still gorgeous.”
“Thank you, Scott. That’s sweet. Don’t mind my appearance. I’ve been getting the yards tilled up and ready to plant. Who’s your friend?”
“This is my new partner, Rhett Butler.”
Lisa smiled.
“Seriously?”
She shook Rhett’s hand and asked Scott, “That doesn’t make you his Scarlett, does it?”
“No, but he has a real life Scarlett at home.”
Her mouth dropped.
“Really?”
Rhett nodded.
“Anyway,” Scott went on. “Rhett needs some enlightenment on what all you guys do around here. What the block leader program is all about. How you guys help out the other blocks and so on and so forth. Chief Martinez wanted to see if he could spend the day with you guys.”
“Can we put him to work?”
“Sure. Why not? He’s a rookie, and rookies are made to be abused.”
Jason looked at Rhett.
“Don’t worry. She’s kidding.”
“No, I’m not.”
Scott said, “Rhett, keep your radio on. If something major happens, I’ll come back for you immediately. Otherwise I’ll be back at fourteen hundred.”
“Okay. Now, what’s fourteen hundred again?”
Scott shook his head.
“Two p.m., rookie.”
But he said it with a smile.
Scott turned and headed back to his patrol car, but only made it halfway before crying out in pain.
The others turned, and went running over to him.
Lisa asked, “What happened?”
Scott didn’t answer, but she saw the problem as he slowly pulled away a small board that was stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
The board had a nail protruding from it. When Scott stepped on the board, the nail went through the bottom of his shoe and into his foot.
He pulled off his shoe and the bloody sock beneath it.
Jason had been a paramedic before the blackout. He said, “Sit down there on your bumper and let me take a look at that.”
Scott did as he was told.
“Well, it’s not too bad. Looks like it missed the larger of the veins. It’ll stop bleeding in a minute and you’ll be fine. Be sure you go by the hospital, though, and get a tetanus shot.”
Lisa added, “I’m sorry, Scott. I guess that was left over from the winter, when we were tearing down the house behind you for firewood.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad I didn’t drive over it. I’d rather bleed a little bit than have to change a flat tire any day of the week.”
The bleeding stopped and he put his sock and shoe back on. Then he waved goodbye, got back in the car, and drove off to visit with some of the other block leaders in his district.
Lisa and Jason looked at Rhett and said, “Come on. We’ll show you around.”
-32-
It wasn’t the first time Lisa and Jason had played tour guide. They had a reputation of having one of the most efficient operations in the city. Their block was a shining example of what could be accomplished in a typical neighborhood to ensure the future survival of the residents.
These were the same people who’d given a tour to city leaders and FEMA representatives who flew around in what was one of the few working helicopters still in existence.
“In the beginning,” Lisa started as they walked down the middle of the street, “we were as lost as everybody else. Some of us had done a little gardening, but that was the extent of it. Do you have your own block operation set up yet?”
“No, ma’am. Some friends have joined Scarlett and I and moved onto a street that was practically deserted. The only residents there before us were an older couple and their grandchildren. They’ve existed to this point by scavenging for their food, and from the food in a little garden the woman maintains.
“Who steered you to that block in particular?”
“John Castro.”
Lisa smiled.
“I suspected as much. John Castro is a fine man. One of the finest I’ve ever met. But he can be a sneaky little rascal, so you’ve got to watch him closely.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning I strongly suspect that he sent you to that particular block not only to help out you and your friends, but also so you and your friends could help out the old couple who had trouble taking care of themselves.”
Rhett smiled too and said, “You know, Scarlett and I have been wondering about that very thing.”
“I’ll bet you also that John had something to do with you coming here. He wants you to establish a block operation over there similar to what we’re doing here. We’re up to twenty one people now, and we’re growing enough food for everybody and then some. We’ve got a very effective security program that keeps us safe, and we’re sharing our excess seeds with other blocks that are just getting established. Ask Scott when he comes back after you and see if I’m right. I’ll bet John had something to do with him dropping you off here.”
“Well, to be honest, my friends and I have been kicking around ideas for making Baker Street productive enough to feed everybody who lives there. I’m hoping you can give me some pointers.”
“Pointers we have plenty of around here. We’ve learned a lot over the last year through trial and error. So you can learn what worked and what didn’t. Basically, you can learn from our mistakes.
“You’ll notice that all the trees and shrubs have been removed from all the yards except one. The one with the biggest oak tree in the front yard was left alone. That’s officially our park. The kids have a safe place to play, and that’s where we hold a block meeting every Sunday afternoon. Followed by a prayer meeting for those who are inclined to stay.”
“What happened to the house?”
“We took it out. Dismantled it, right down to the slab. We took the sheetrock and used it to line some of the houses that are occupied. Slapping an extra sheet of sheetrock along an interior wall reinforces its insulating ability by half again as much.
“We’re lucky in that every occupied house on the block has a fireplace. The extra sheetrock made it a little easier to heat the houses this past winter.
“The lumber from the house was burned in the fireplaces as fuel. So now the slab is all that’s left, for the kids to play hopscotch and ride their skateboards.”
“So, you grow crops in the other yards?”
“Yes. We cleared out all the trees and bushes and tilled up the ground. Once the ground was tilled, we raked all the grass out of the soil and piled it up in the street to dry out. Then we returned it to the soil as fertilizer and tilled it a second time.”
“Where’d you get a tiller? I thought none of the machines worked anymore.”
“Some do. Not many, but some. Most tillers have electric ignitions. They start with a key. Those were toast after the blackout, because the ignitions and batteries all shorted out.
“But the old fashioned tillers… the ones you start by pulling a cord, they all survived.
“The police brought us one from a Home Depot Store, and said there weren’t enough to go around and asked if we’d share it with our neighbors.
“So after I’m done with it for the day, I’ll roll it over to the next street so they can use it.”
“Where did the seed come from?”
“The first batches were brought in by farmers, on horseback. They went from block to block, trying to find somebody who was in charge to give the seeds to. It was a dangerous business. I heard a couple of the farmers got killed, and several others were shot at. Apparently by people who thought they were there to harm them instead of help them.
“But the farmers, God bless ‘em, kept coming. They handed bags of wheat and corn seeds out, and assorted other vegetables and berries. They encouraged us to take notes and answered all of our questions. They told us when to plant, how to plant, and when to harvest.
“And most importantly, they told us to take a portion of the seeds we produced from our plants and share them with others, so that eventually everybody would have the same capability to survive.”
“I notice that all of the houses have gutters and rain barrels up against them. Is that water to drink or for the crops?”
“Both, actually. That was one of the first things we did. We gathered up all of the garbage cans and cleaned them out the best we could, and put them at the houses that already had gutter systems. We blocked the downspouts so water couldn’t go into them, a
nd made holes in the gutter itself above each of the cans, so the cans catch a fairly equal amount of water.
“For the houses that didn’t already have gutters, we made them by hammering two by fours onto the roofs at regular intervals. The water would pour between the two by fours, and that’s where we placed the barrels.”
“But now that the city’s water supply is running again, you no longer use the rain water, right?”
“Wrong. The city water system is only running at twenty percent capacity. That’s why it trickles out of the faucets. We use that water for drinking, and use the rainwater for irrigation. If everybody used tap water for irrigation, the city wouldn’t be able to keep up.”
Lisa spent an hour with Rhett, then Jason took over. Between the two of them, they supplied him with many of the tools he’d be able to use to turn Baker Street into an operation similar to the one Jason and Lisa managed.
By the time fourteen hundred hours rolled around and Scott returned, Rhett was gung-ho and ready to go, so he could finish work and go home. He had a lot to do over the coming weeks, both on the job and off.
-33-
Tom hadn’t tracked a deer in many years. When he was a young man he did it because it was a challenge. Sneaking up on a deer by following its tracks wasn’t an easy thing to do. A little bit of noise, a cough, a change in the wind direction, could all send up an alarm and send the deer running.
But he enjoyed the game. He did it specifically because it was tough. When he was successful, it meant more to him.
When he got older, though, and was no longer able to trek through dense forests for several miles and a couple or three days, he changed his tactics. That was when he found a good place to sit in a tree stand, perfectly still for sometimes hours at a time, waiting for a good sized buck to wander by.
So, it had been many years since he’d tracked a big buck. And he’d never tracked horses.
He was glad he hadn’t been asked to do so.
Colson led the posse of six men, although he told Tom up front he could take over if he wanted to.
Tom had the sense his friend wanted him to prove his mettle. To gain the respect of the men in the group who didn’t know him. When they stopped to let their horses catch their breath and drink from a creek, Colson confided that a couple of the men had expressed an interest in becoming deputies once the new sheriff’s department was established.
An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4) Page 12