Home Invasion

by A. American

  As he pulled away, Thad said, “This should be interesting”. Looking at the printed images in my hand, I said, “Very.”

  We followed him down Orange Ave, which is also highway 44. We went a fairly long way down 44 before he turned left onto a dirt road and immediately into a driveway. I recognized the house because Mel and I had looked at it when it was on the market a couple of years ago. It was without a doubt the perfect place to live today. Most of the place was underground. There was a large section above ground that gave a very good view of the surrounding area. But most of it was either underground or covered with an earth berm. There was also a very large Quonset hut behind the house that made for a great shop.

  We pulled in behind Mitch and stopped. As he was getting out of the UTV, he pulled a handheld radio from his hip and made a call. Looking at us, he smiled and said, “Just letting Michelle know I’m back and you’re with me so she doesn’t shoot you.”

  With a little laugh, I said, “I appreciate that.”

  He smiled and nodded, saying, “Come inside and I’ll show you the setup.”

  We followed him into the garage of the house, which was already cooler that the outside temp. Going through a door into the house proper, the temp was even cooler.

  “Wow, this feels great in here,” Thad said.

  Mitch smiled. “It’s one of the reasons we bought it. It’s not in the best location, but the house is perfect.” As he was talking, a woman came down the stairs. Mitch looked at her and smiled. “This is my wife, Michelle.”

  I held out my hand and introduced myself and Thad did likewise. She smiled warmly and welcomed us into her home. “Would you like something to drink? Tea, maybe lemonade?”

  Thad smiled broadly. “I’d love a lemonade, ma’am.”

  “Sweet tea would be great,” I replied. She excused herself and disappeared into the kitchen just off the room we were standing in.

  “Come back here to my war room and I’ll show you the setup,” Mitch said.

  We followed him to a small room and stepped in. It looked like a vault with a very heavy door. The room was lined with shelves and racks. Several long guns sat in the racks and numerous ammo cans lined the wall all the way around the room. A work bench that occupied most of one wall was covered with various electronic equipment.

  “You have Ham radio?” I asked.

  Mitch nodded. “Oh yeah. I monitor it all day. Been listening to the broadcasts from the Radio Free Redoubt.”

  Surprised, I said, “Me too. He’s got some interesting news.”

  “To say the least,” Mitch replied. He patted a laptop sitting on the bench. “This is the machine that receives the signals from the NOAA satellites. Every time it passes over, I get a new image. I’ve been watching it very closely since the storm formed.”

  “Where’s the antenna?” I asked.

  He pointed at the ceiling. “All the antennas are mounted on the roof.”

  Michelle came into the room with two glasses full of ice and drinks. I thanked her and looked at the glass. “Ice?”

  Mitch smiled and nodded. “Yeah. We have an ice maker. There’s a well inside the house. It was drilled during construction, so we can get water with the electric pump or the hand pump. It’s good water too,” he added with a nod.

  I sampled the tea and it was refreshing. “Indeed it is,” I replied.

  Thad tried the lemonade. It must have been very good because in no time he was looking at an empty glass. He smiled and said, “That was very good, thank you.”

  Michelle smiled and took his glass, “I’ll get you another.”

  “Thank you, ma’am, but don’t go to no trouble for me. It was very good though. Ain’t had lemonade in a long time.”

  She waved him off. “It’s nothing. We have plenty. I’ll get you some more.”

  Thad smiled and nodded, “Yes ma’am. Thank you.”

  Sipping on the tea, I said, “You’ve got quite the setup here, Mitch.”

  “We’ve been prepping for a long time. I knew it would happen someday. So we put a lot into it. We have power, radios, food, everything really.”

  “I did too. Wish I had this house though,” I replied.

  He smiled. “It really is perfect.”

  “You have any trouble with the neighbors?” Thad asked.

  Mitch shrugged. “There’s been a couple of little things. But nothing major. We’re out of sight and keep it that way. Plus, I have this.” He tapped a couple of keys on the computer and camera images of the outside of the property came up. “I can watch everything from in here.”

  Michelle returned with another glass of lemonade and handed it to Thad. He smiled and thanked her, saying, “I’ll try to make this one last.”

  She smiled. “It really is good. We have two lemon trees and I dehydrate them when there’s a surplus. The dry ones aren’t quite as good as the fresh, but it’s not bad.”

  We spent some time talking and Mitch and Michelle showed us around the house. I was actually surprised that they opened everything up the way they did, and I asked him about it. He shrugged and said, “You’re the Sheriff. If you can’t be trusted, no one can. Besides, we try to help people all the time.”

  “We’ve helped a lot of people around here. We do it quietly though so no one thinks we have a lot,” Michelle added.

  I looked at the laptop and said, “Well, I appreciate the heads-up on the weather. I’ll let the armory in town know so they can start spreading the word.”

  “We’ll help in any way we can,” Mitch said.

  Something about the way he said that struck me. “Really? You want to help the community?”

  “Of course I do. We all need to do our part.”

  I looked down at my vest and lifted the gold star. “You know this wasn’t my idea.” I looked back up at him. “It’s actually a real pain in the ass. It’s a burden. But someone needed to do it and it fell on me.”

  Mitch nodded. “Service to your community shouldn’t be a burden. That’s what George Washington said.”

  I smiled and pointed at him. “It’s funny you should say that.” I looked at Thad and smiled, as he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “What?” Mitch asked.

  I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Your community needs you, Mitch. I realize I don’t know much about you, nor you me, but I’ve got a feeling you’re just the guy we’re looking for.”

  “I think so too,” Thad said.

  “What for? I’ll help any way I can,” Mitch replied.

  “Careful now. You don’t even know what we’re talking about,” I cautioned.

  Mitch shook his head. “I mean it. As a nation, we were so divided before this happened. It’s bringing us closer together now. You know your neighbors now. You offer a hand when you can and take one when you need it.” He swung his arm out in front of him. “All of the people around here, we work together.”

  “We knew most of our neighbors before,” Michelle said. “But we know them all now. We’ve helped them, they’ve helped us. We work together, and only by doing so can we all succeed.”

  “I knew I was right,” I said with a smile.

  “So. What do you need?” Mitch asked.

  I leaned back against the workbench. “We need a judge.”

  “A what?” Mitch asked, surprised.

  “A judge,” Thad repeated. “We need an impartial person to deal out justice. Up to now, Morgan here has been doing it. But that isn’t right. He’s the law, but there needs to be someone else to sit in judgment.”

  Mitch was obviously surprised, and he stood there silently for a moment before looking at Michelle. She stepped closer to him and said, “You said you would help. And I think something like this would bring us even closer to restoring a sense of community.”

  Mitch nodded. He was thinking. “It adds legitimacy.” He looked at me. “I don’t know anything about being a judge, but if that’s what you need, I’ll do my best.”

  Finally, I thou
ght. Giving him a nod, I said, “You’ll do fine. You’ll have plenty of help. Why don’t you meet us at the police department tomorrow at noon. I’ll introduce you to some people you’ll be working with.”

  He offered his hand, saying, “We’ll be there.”

  I took his hand and replied, “Great. See you there.”

  Thad and I said our goodbyes to Michelle, thanking her again for the drinks. She surprised Thad with a half-gallon Mason jar of lemonade. He smiled. “Thank you very much, Miss Michelle.” “I don’t think it will make it home though.”

  I laughed and added, “I know it won’t.”

  As we made our way to the war wagon, Thad was already spinning the top off the jar. I laughed and said, “You’re going to ruin your dinner.”

  He took a big drink and looked at me smiling with a lemonade mustache. “No I won’t.” And handed me the jar.

  I took a drink and looked at the jar as I swallowed it. “Damn! That is good.” I said as I took another gulp before handing it back to Thad.

  “I’ll keep this. You shouldn’t drink and drive,” he said with a smile.

  We stopped at the jail to let Shane and Sean know there was now a judge in town. I felt as though I’d just taken a long nap in a hammock on some beautiful beach somewhere. Relaxed, relieved, these words just didn’t do the feeling justice. Such a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was happy.

  At the jail, the guys were sitting in rocking chairs out front. Like something out of an old western. There was even a shotgun leaned against the wall behind them. We both took a seat in chairs as well. I inspected the chair, it looked new.

  “Where’d these come from?” I asked.

  “I kind of restored them,” Sean said.

  Thad rocked his back and forth and replied, “You did a good job. These are real nice.”

  “Too damn hot to sit inside that damn building in the afternoon,” Shane added. “We like to sit out here instead.”

  “Modern construction is totally dependent on air conditioning.” Sean interjected. “Take it away and the buildings are just hot and miserable. There’s no air flow. We’re starting to have issues with mold in a couple of places. But I think we got a handle on it.”

  “That mold ain’t no good.” Thad said. Then he smiled and got up, saying, “I got something for you guys.” He went back to the wagon and grabbed the jar of lemonade and brought it back. Spinning the top off, he took a drink and offered it to Sean.

  Sean took it and didn’t hesitate to turn it up and take a swig. Wiping his mouth, he said, “Damn that’s good!” As he handed the jar to Shane, “It’s almost cold too!”

  Shane took a pull on the jar and his eyes rolled back in his head. He swished the sweet and sour mixture in his mouth for a moment before swallowing it. Looking at the jar, he said, “Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted anything like that. Lemons aren’t too hard to come by, but sugar is nearly nonexistent.”

  He offered me the jar and I waved him off. “You guys drink it. We had some already.”

  Shane smiled and replied, “I ain’t going to argue with you.” And he turned the jar up again before handing it to Sean.

  As Sean drained the last from the jar, he asked, “Where did you get this?”

  Thad smiled and said, “From the Missus of the new judge. She’s a real nice lady.”

  “Awwwww,” Shane moaned. “Wonder if we can get her to make us some?”

  I laughed. “I’m sure she will.”

  We chatted a little longer before Thad said he wanted to get home. We said our goodbyes and they walked us back to the buggy.

  We left the jail, telling the guys we’d be back tomorrow to meet with the new judge. As we got into the war wagon and headed home, Thad asked if I wanted to stop by the armory. “Hell no!” I replied. He smiled and continued past it towards Altoona.

  As we passed the farm, I looked over. There were a few people in the field working. That was good. “Let’s stop by the farm in the morning on the way in,” I said.

  Thad nodded. “That’d be good.”

  We made it back to the ranch and stopped at the bunker. Danny and Perez were there. Perez was stretched out on the top of the bunker asleep. I had to shake my head. The guy was Army all the way for sure. He’d rigged a poncho from the tarp to shade him.

  “How’d the test go?” Danny asked.

  “It ran,” I replied.

  He looked surprised. “No shit? Now what?”

  Sighing, I replied, “Now the real work starts.”

  “How’s Jess and Lee Ann?” Perez asked from under his hat. “Fred told us what happened.”

  “They’re good. Staying the night at the clinic.” Thad replied.

  “That was a hell of thing.” Danny said. “Fred said Lee Ann just dumped a mag into the guy. You see her? Is she alright?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. It’s a little unsettling how comfortable she is with it all.”

  “Don’t worry about her,” Thad said. “She talks to me. She’s going to be fine.”

  “I hope so. Any word from the old man?” I asked.

  “Yeah, he called earlier and said they were headed for Thunder Mountain. They’re on their way home,” Danny replied.

  “That’s good,” Thad said with a bug smile. “I knew they’d do it.”

  “I’ll feel better when they are back here,” I said. “I’m tired and I’m going home.”

  “You want a ride?” Thad asked.

  I shook my head. “No. The walk will do me good. Thanks, ole friend.”

  He smiled and waved as he pulled away. I told Danny and Perez I’d see them later and headed down the road to the house. Drake met me on the road before I got to the house. He nosed my hand until I patted his head and scratched his ears. I remember reading somewhere that people with pets lived longer. Maybe this is why. He must have known I was in a weird place and stayed with me all the way to the house.

  We passed Meat Head lying in the driveway as we came up to the house, but all he did was lift his head before dropping it back into the pine needles. He wasn’t the kind of dog to extend anyone’s life. As a matter of fact, he was the kind that shorten it through aggravation. But I still liked having his annoying ass around, but had no idea why.

  The house was empty when I walked in. Going straight to the fridge, I poured myself a glass of tea as I soaked up the cool air falling out of the open door. After downing the first one, I poured another and headed for the couch. Stripping off my gear, I dropped it all onto the cushions and fell back onto it. I was exhausted. Laying my head back, I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

  Sarge had Kevin take a different route on the way home. Driving the same route was an invitation to ambush. And they’d certainly drawn some attention to the fact someone was in the area. They were heading down highway 200 in Dunnellon when Mike came over the radio.

  “Holy shit! Do you see that?”

  “See what?” Sarge asked as he looked around.

  “That sign. Stumpknocker’s on the River. You got your own bar and grill out here!”

  “Stay off the radio, shit for brains.” The old man replied. As he looked over at the sign. Sure as shit, Stumpknocker’s on the River. He smiled.

  While this part of the route was altered, there were only so many places to cross I-75, and they would have to go under the same overpass taken on the ride over here. Sarge reached back and tugged on Dalton’s pants. “Pay attention up there, Gulliver. That overpass is coming up. If those shitbags are still there, encourage them to move on.”

  “Right-O!” Dalton shouted back. He was already looking forward to seeing them again. He’d told them not to be there when he came back. Sarge’s order was moot, he was ready.

  But it was unnecessary. As they approached the overpass, it was quickly obvious it was abandoned. As Kevin drove under it, Dalton scanned the abutments. But there was no one there. Dalton was let down. He wanted to waste these assholes worse than he did the Russians. He had r
espect for the Russians.

  They made the rest of the trip to the ranch without incident. In this new world, not much happened after dark. And that which did was never good. The only reliable source of light most people had was fire, as batteries, candles, lamp oil and other sources of temporary light were long exhausted.

  It was the rare individual or small group that planned properly and stored away batteries and the like in sufficient numbers that could push back the veil of the night. But they had to use these precious resources carefully, as there was no way to replace them.

  Danny nudged Perez, who was still asleep, when the Hummer turned onto the road. For a moment, his pulse quickened as he remembered other such encounters. But when the headlights flashed a couple of times, he relaxed. As the trucks approached, he knew for certain who it was when Dalton began to shout.

  “Hale to the victorious! We have returned triumphantly!” Dalton called out.

  Perez leaned against the bunker and lit a smoke. Taking a drag, he said, “That dude is crazy as a caged rat.”

  Danny laughed. “You ain’t shittin’.”

  The truck rolled to a stop, but Dalton was just getting started. With his hands raised into the night sky, in a deep baritone, he belted out:

  “Widely is flung, the warning of slaughter,

  the weaver’s-beam-web tis wet with blood;

  is spread now, grey, the spear-things before,

  the woof-of-the-warriors, which Valkyries fill…”

  Sarge cut him off. Turning in his seat, he punched him in the thigh, hard. “Knock that caterwauling off, Gulliver! Next one’s in the nards! Can’t hear myself think!”

  Dalton looked down through the turret and shouted, “Bollocks! You uncivilized heathens!”

  Sarge balled a fist and reached back. Dalton cocked his hips to the side and stuck one of his giant boots out to block the punch. Every time Sarge tried to maneuver around his foot, Dalton would parry, he wasn’t going to take a shot to the nards.

  Sarge ripped the door open and stepped out. Looking up, he said, “You’re almost as fucking annoying as the waterhead in that truck!” He pointed at Mike, who knowing something was being said about him, held his hands up as he shrugged in a what motion.