by Cal, Sarah
"It would be our honor to help you out and have a purpose in protecting the town, since that is what we're here for. As this involves you and your family, I can't keep you out of it. But despite not being allowed a range weapon, as part of your punishment, we'll grant you use of a knife for the purpose of the fight."
Emma just nodded along, knowing it was the best she could get. At least she still had the permission to join the fight, knowing she wouldn’t have reacted well if they'd told her to stay out of it entirely. They were still minimizing her involvement, but she thought it would be enough just to be there, and see those women get what they deserved for the deeds they'd done.
She would have to take steps to ensure she didn’t get an even worse punishment. Though that they were allowing her in the fight at all was testament to how much things had changed. The police were no longer the sole reigning authority. With their resources limited, their numbers were just too few.
"We promise to send a few people over in the late afternoon. Your address was marked down when you volunteered so don’t worry, they'll know the way."
"Thank you so much," Emma said sincerely. "I can't tell you how much this means to all of us."
The officer made a sharp nod as she stood up and offered a hand to them, both. "No problem. We are here to help the town."
With the deal done, they left the station.
She felt so relieved to have the police backing them, though her anxiety didn’t entirely disappear. But with this, Emma thought they would have enough when the time came. She almost grinned, wondering how their attackers would react when they drove themselves right into an ambush. If they did come back, then they deserved what they had coming to them.
Emma and Kellen went to round up the rest of the street for the confrontation. With the police in on it, they were sure some of the more reluctant ones would come out and lend a hand.
Chapter Four
They had a lot to prepare for, and they got to it once they got home. Emma went home first thing to relay the information to her family. She had them sit down in the living room—well, Chase and Merry, who she wasn’t sure was even listening.
Chase didn't look happy, but there was nothing Emma could do about that.
"Something is going to happen soon," she started, getting right to the point. "We were attacked last night. I don’t know when, but we'll probably be attacked again soon."
"Because they saw the food, right?" Merry spat. "They'll be coming back for more of it."
She folded her arms in defiance, looking away from the both of them. But Emma could tell she was afraid, too. She had been the one to wake up screaming and say they had to leave, because they were all in danger. Emma still didn’t know what she'd dreamed about, she didn’t think it would be a good idea to ask and give Merry any more fuel for her anger.
"We can't fight them on our own," she said with a look to Chase. "You were right about that one thing."
"So you're going to give up the whole idea?" he asked hopefully, though his face was cautious.
She shook her head and he sighed, leaning his head back against the seat. He crossed his arms, and she sighed to at how much they mirrored each other in that moment in their stubbornness born of fear and anger. Chase really did fit into her family well.
"It's all right this time. We're not doing it alone. We've talked to the neighbors and the police, I'm just from the station. They promised to send some officers over to give us some help."
Chase looked up at that. "You went to the police?"
She nodded. He pursed his lips, looking indecisive for a moment before dropping his arms and losing the tension in his shoulders.
"Well, if the police are involved, I guess it can be okay. They have more firepower than we do, and the experience..."
Emma smiled, knowing she'd gotten Chase on board. She was just glad that he agreed with her, now that the risk to themselves had been reduced significantly. He looked more ready to cooperate with her, and she preferred that to having him angry at that. Merry still looked wholly uninterested, but that was okay, too. Emma didn’t plan on making her sister a part of this after the scare she got last night.
"So, what's the plan?"
"Well, we don’t have a clear one yet. We are hoping the police will having something to say, some advice that they can give us on how we should deal with this. But at least this time when they come, we'll have some way to defend ourselves, and we'll have enough numbers so we might have chances of winning. Merry, I'll need you to stay with grandma and look after her, okay? You'll have to tell her all of this, too."
She felt a little guilty that she wasn’t going to do it herself. She still hadn't seen her grandmother yet after she'd convinced her to go back to bed after the women left. She could imagine the state Janice was in, and she probably needed some reassurance, but Emma would have to leave that to Merry for now. She still had work to do before the officers came, more people to go out and talk to.
Merry didn’t give any verbal reply. But she did turn to face Emma, even if it was to send her a glare. Then she was rising up and striding out of the room, going up the stairs. Emma took that as her consent and let Merry go, leaving her and Chase alone together.
He still looked trouble, even knowing they had more help now. Emma sighed, wondering what it would take to convince him that this was the right thing to do.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked to get his attention.
He frowned at her. "What else, Emma? What happened last night and what's going to happen sometime soon because of it."
"We can't exactly avoid it Chase."
"Oh, yes, we could," he countered, standing up and pacing. "No matter how many people we have helping us, there is still a risk one of us could get hurt, or even killed."
"You already got hurt," she pointed out. "Because for once, you were the one to open your mouth when you should have kept it shut."
It was what got her hit on the cheek both times, talking back to people I a higher position of power than she had. The first time, because they had guns, the second time because she was behind bars at the police station. It had surprised her when Chase spoke up to those women, knowing her experience with doing the same thing.
She appreciated it, of course. Unlike her, Chase hadn't been complaining about some injustice. Chase had tried to tell the women they didn’t have anything for them to take in the house, and even though it didn’t amount to anything, at least he tried. He must have felt as afraid as she did, yet even she had kept quiet in that situation.
Chase actually smile at her, even though she hadn't been giving him a compliment. But then he winced and her eyes travelled to where his cheek had swollen before forcing herself to look away.
"It's all right," he said softly, probably noticing her light flinch when she saw the injury on his face. "You know, I actually did it kind of hoping you wouldn’t, that time. I didn't want them paying too much attention to you in case they hurt you."
Emma sighed. She should have known it was something like that. Chase was entirely too protective of her sometimes, but even though she was exasperated by it, a part of her was flattered that he thought so much of her. She stood form her seat and stepped up to him, touching her fingers to his chin and turning his face so she had a proper look.
As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t keep running away from it. Chase had looked into her eyes after she'd gotten injured, so he deserved the same consideration, not her shying away from him.
"I'm really sorry they hurt you."
He scoffed and pulled her hand from his face. "It's not like it's your fault, so please don’t. Look, I'm going to support you in this thing. But please keep in mind that it's dangerous, all right? I won't forgive you if anything happens to you."
She grinned at him, then threw her arms around him in a big hug, then pulled back. "It's fine. I need to go now and go do my share. Kellen is actually helping me with this."
His stunned expression only made her g
rin wider. "Seriously? Kellen? I thought she was still mad at you."
"We've... settled the issue," she said, feeling uncertain.
Honestly, she couldn’t tell without asking, and she was afraid of an unfavorable answer so she wasn’t even asking at all. It was enough for her that they could work together of something this important without a fight breaking out. Actually, they were in agreement about a lot of things pertaining to the plans.
"Well, in any case, I need to get going. Please look after my family for me. I'll tell you if I hear anything more from the police."
She left the house and rejoined Kellen who had just left her house after giving Brian the news. They put together the houses they'd already gone to, and divided the ones left between the two of them then went their separate ways to continue the preparations.
Evening fell before they realized it.
Emma, Chase, Brian and Kellen waited anxiously for the arrival of the women, hidden out of sight in their front yards.
Her heart couldn’t keep still, beating with the speed of a freight train as she waited with her body tensed for something to happen. There was no guarantee the women would even come back tonight. It was too early, but there was the chance they had realized it would be better to attack them before they could rally. Or they went back, and decided to be greedy so they would come quicker for the food.
It had been the police's opinion, anyway. It had never even occurred to Emma to think they would be back in a day, had she been on her own she would have been thinking there was still time to prepare. She was so grateful to have the help, even more grateful to have Kellen be her voice of reason. Emma was clearly still too naïve, because she had thought they would eat the food they got before coming back for more.
Emma had hoped they at least had more time to prepare, but the anger in her blood wanted this to go down faster. Besides, they already had everyone present and ready for this, too. If it dragged on too long, when they were already in place and waiting, how many more could they do nights like this before they got exhausted? If they could be done with this today, Emma would have one less thing to worry about. It helped a lot that this would be a way for getting revenge at those women's taunts.
"Will Janice and Merry be okay on their own in the house?"
Emma turned to Chase at the question. She couldn’t exactly involve them in all of this. The only words she'd spoken to them were to explain what was going to happen and to stay indoors no matter what. They were both worried, but they'd promised to keep hidden. Emma just hoped they would sleep through the whole thing, but it was too much to ask for if something did end up happening.
"They'll probably get scared, I'm sure they are now, but they should be fine." She hadn't been any more lax in her duties, making sure before she came back outside to joining everyone else. "I gave them instructions in case anything happened. I made sure they hid upstairs out of sight. They promised not to come out, and they're together so hopefully that will help."
It was the best she could hope for, really, that they could find some comfort in each other. She would have loved to be there for them, but she could protect them better being out here and making sure the problem went away, so they would have no reason to keep fearing that it would happen again.
Emma clutched a knife, wondering if she had it in her to fight. She would have preferred a gun, but she didn’t want to anger the police when she was already undergoing punishment. There were enough people properly armed for her not to be too anxious, but she was getting some second thoughts last minute. This had been her idea to begin with, but even though her heart beat with excitement, part of it was fear, a great big part.
She remembered last night, and how useless she had been. She didn’t want to just freeze again while others stepped up and did what she couldn’t. Chase had talked back and gotten himself hurt, but at least he'd had the courage to do something. But because this time, the attack had been in her home, Emma hadn't been able to get herself to do anything, and she was still ashamed. She had Chase by her side, even though he was still injured, and she knew that if he hadn't been there she wouldn’t have a fraction of the little confidence she had just then, with doubts suddenly clouding her thoughts.
Emma reflected on how many people on the street decided to help out. She had been right in her assessment, once they mentioned that the police would be in on it, a lot more people had been willing to come out of their houses, including Karen from down the road, though she'd said yes even before the police were mentioned. She had children to take care of on her own, after all.
A few other people even had weapons that could be used for the fight. Both men and women had come out to help, some more enthusiastic than others. Added with the police, she had some unbiased confidence that they might win this battle.
Emma realized that the community cared about each other, at least the people of this neighborhood. She didn’t get around much herself, but her grandmother did, and so did Kellen. There were those with doubts, but had been willing to help when Emma and Kellen explained that it was for the good of all of them; for all of their sakes. They were willing to protect each other, even in spite of the risks. The thought filled her with warmth, and hope for the future.
It made her relax a little, about staying in the area. Aside for a few bad apples, it really was the best place to stick around. As long as they monitored people and continued with their volunteer efforts, they town should make it, if only for a bit longer than some of the towns she had seen before. She'd met a few towns, much larger than theirs where the residents had already fallen beyond reason, and she was grateful that her neighborhood wasn’t quite so bad, yet. May never be that bad, if they were lucky.
When they all heard a car engine, they stiffened, getting into place. Emma almost couldn’t believe they had actually showed up. She wondered if it was arrogance or overconfidence that had them coming back to quickly. If they had waited some time, left them second guessing themselves, the outcome might have been different from them.
Everyone to be involved in the fight, including the officers that had come with extra guns and ammo, were hiding out of plain sight all down the street. The plan was to ambush them before they even realized what was happening and take them all down. it was brutal, but the police weren’t any interested in showing mercy than she was, knowing if they left them alive, they would risk getting killed themselves and letting any of them escape meant they could come back with reinforcements. There wasn’t anything they could do if they chose to flee, because they had a vehicle on their side, but they were all to open fire on the enemy until they were all down or they were too far away, if they did run.
There had been a few people that offered the possibility of talking it out, but Emma didn’t think that was an option. Besides, who would take the first step, knowing these women were crazy and had weapons, and wouldn’t hesitate to use them. Not even the police were willing at that because of the high risk involved.
But when the car showed up, there were more people than the previous day. The car was stopped just a bit away from Emma's house, and her hand tightened around the knife she held. It wasn’t all that clear, but it was still only late evening and it was a van with large windows so they could see, and the voices coming from the car when the loud engine shut down were a lot.
Everyone began to panic.
Emma watched as some of them abandoned ship and headed back into their houses. She wanted to curse, even though her own heart beat in anxiety, as they exploded out of their hiding spaces, effectively killing their advantage of surprise. They basically alerted those women that some plot was going on, and Emma could have strangled them. She couldn’t see how many of them had run off without coming out of where she was hiding herself, so she stayed put, Chase a coil of tension beside her.
A woman got out of the car with a hand gun, leaving the door open, though no one followed her out.
"Hey! If there are any of you still out there, I suggest you come out of hidi
ng! Anyone who retaliates will be punished severely!"
With that, more people came out of their hiding places, and Emma did curse this time, her voice practically a breath. She couldn’t blame them for turning coward to save their own skins, but it burned at her blood that they would run like that. Her body was too stiff, almost to the point of pain as her rationality was trying to talk her into doing as the woman said, just going back inside the house and hiding where her family was. It was the sane thing to do for most people when faced with danger.
She didn’t plan on doing the sane thing, though. She couldn't even claim to be all that sane, because she was doing all of this to protect her family and to get revenge. If she did nothing, what happened last night would keep on bothering her. She just couldn’t let it go. So she watched as other people turned tail and ran, but Emma gritted her teeth and stayed.
After the risk she'd taken already, there was no way she could just turn away from this now. Fear or no, she had too much to lose from this.
When all the people present saw those women taking things out of her house, in spite of how ready they had all been to rally together to help out, she was sure this was what would turn her family into the pariahs of the neighborhood, no matter what the outcome of the night was. She wasn’t just protecting their supplies. The objective was to keep it all a secret. Brian had, thankfully, not said anything about it, he hadn't even asked. But letting more people into the secret would be a bad idea.
It was probably not a good reason to be doing all of this. Just thinking it in her head made her feel like she was some villain in a soap opera. They shouldn’t matter what other people thought, but the truth was, it would affect them. Especially with how things were now. This was a good indicator that they needed to depend on each other. If her family fell out of the community for this, they could count on getting no more help from them, and that was too important to give up.