“We’re all here, and we’re all ready for battle,” Callum said.
34
That night Ted sent scouts out beyond all four corners of the property to make sure that T-Dawg’s men weren’t circling around or making plans for a multi-pronged attack. He knew better than to underestimate his opponent; as monstrous and brutish as T-Dawg was, Ted knew the man had to possess a decent amount of intelligence to have risen to his position as leader.
“Why do you think he’s given us until sunset tomorrow to make a decision?” Callum asked.
“Firstly, it’s a matter of practicality, I think,” Ted answered. “For us to gather and pack as much food as he’s demanding, it’d take the better part of a whole day. So he’s giving us a chance to give in to his demands. However, another part of it is that he wants to attack at night. He’s going to assume that we’ll be defending the place from well-lit positions, meaning that our eyes will be relatively blind to what’s going on in the darkness. He and his men have lived in pure darkness at night for many weeks now, so they’re very much used to it. As for us, we’ve been burning candles and lamps at night, so we’re used to operating with light, putting us at a disadvantage. Second, remember when we were in town, and the thugs caught wind of our presence? Fireworks shot up into the sky all over town; T-Dawg uses ‘em as signals. He wants to attack at night so that he can use these signals to direct his troops. He’s no fool; he’s definitely got some sort of strategy. However, he doesn’t know the lay of the land here, and we have to use that to our advantage. Especially as it’s about the only real advantage, we have.”
“There’s one other advantage we’ve got, one that he definitely won’t consider,” Mary said as an idea suddenly popped into her head.
“And what’s that, baby girl?” Ted asked.
“The river,” she answered. “Every time I’ve crossed via the stepping-stones, I’ve noticed how strong the current is. Now, I don’t know how he’s planning to get his men across, but I’m sure he likely doesn’t know about the stones.”
“He’ll probably have them swim or wade across, maybe with a human chain,” Callum said. “He might drag some canoes or kayaks up from town too. But you can be sure that he and his men will provide heavy cover fire for those crossing the river. If you think we can sit and pick ‘em off while they’re vulnerable in the water, I don’t think that’ll be possible without taking some hits ourselves.”
“Sniping isn’t my plan at all,” she said. “But what I will need is some strong hands, a couple big logs, some lengths of heavy chain, and the Hummer. I’ll need to do some work on it to prep it for what I want to do, and that’ll be difficult without any electric tools, but I think it’s doable. It’ll take all day if my team and I start at dawn, but I think it could hit the invaders really hard before the battle even begins.”
She explained her idea to Ted and Callum, and as she did, smiles began to spread across their faces.
“It’s a bit of a crazy plan, baby girl,” Ted said, “but you’re right, if we can pull it off, it’ll be totally unexpected and could take a lot of them out at once.”
“I think we ought to fell a few more trees, too,” Callum said, “because I’ve got a plan for ‘em.”
Callum explained his plan with logs to Ted, who nodded as the younger man spoke.
“Yep, yep,” Ted said, “that’ll work, especially if we draw ‘em into a pursuit by hitting ‘em just after they get across the river … depending on how many make it across, that is when my baby girl puts her plan into action.”
The three of them put together a plan of multiple stages of defense, which would involve falling back in controlled waves under the attackers’ advance. When it came to the defense of the core of the homestead, though, Ted realized that he had to have a contingency plan, in case all other measures failed and a large number of attackers did make it all the way to the center of the homestead. He gathered the homesteaders together, keeping in mind the identities of those who had sided most strongly with Dr. Krueger; these were the people least likely to stick around and fight to the death. This didn’t matter to Ted, and he didn’t judge them or begrudge them for this; he just wanted to give everyone an appropriate duty to their level of commitment.
“Dr. Krueger,” he said, “I know that you’ve changed your mind and that you’re willing to fight, but I need to keep you out of the fiercest fighting. There are going to be injuries, and you’re going to need to treat as many of them as possible. You’ll need a few assistants to help you, of course.”
Dr. Krueger had no objection to this, and neither did the people Ted assigned to assist him as medics and runners, for they had all been the staunchest objectors to fighting.
“What can I do, Uncle Ted?” James asked, eager to help, especially after the few days in which he hadn’t had any glasses and had felt quite blind.
“I wanna help, too,” Ann said. “This is my home, grandpa, and I want to defend it.”
“I know you’re both veterans of combat,” Ted said, and this was technically true, even if they were just teenagers who had never been trained or in the military. “And that’s really important, and something I respect tremendously. I also don’t want to put your lives in unnecessary danger, though, by having you out on the front lines, because your lives are very precious to Mary and me. I’m old now, and it doesn’t really matter if I take a bullet, but that’s not the case for you two; you’ve still got your whole lives ahead of you. I want you two to protect the women and children; they’re going to be in the cabin, which I need you two to fortify with as many sandbags as you can stack around the walls tonight. You two will provide the last line of defense if these scumbags make it all the way here … and if the worst happens, and they overwhelm us, it’s up to you two to lead the retreat and get the women and children safely out of here before the bastards can get their paws on ‘em. Got it?”
“Got it, grandpa,” Ann said.
“I’ll keep everyone safe, I promise, Uncle Ted,” James said proudly. “None of those guys will get past me.”
“I know they won’t, son,” Ted said, smiling proudly. “All right, everyone’s got their duties! None of us are gonna get much sleep tonight, so fill up the coffee pot and keep the fire under it burning. Let’s get busy, people—we’ve got a battle to fight tomorrow!”
35
T-Dawg and his men came ready for war; he had been quite sure from the look on the old man’s face that he would reject his offer. Most of the gangsters assembled on the riverbank at dusk were wearing bulletproof vests, and more than a few had military-issue combat helmets and battle armor, looted from the bodies of dead soldiers in the city. Every one of them had a firearm; most had more than one, and plenty of ammo.
T-Dawg was no fool; he was sure that the homesteaders would have snipers with rifles waiting in the slopes across the water, who would start picking his men off as soon as they started to cross the river. He had sent men up and down the river, looking for alternative points to cross, but none had been as suitable as this place—which was where the homesteaders would be waiting.
“We gon’ go in there now and kill those fuckin’ farmers?” one of T-Dawg’s lieutenants asked.
T-Dawg shook his head. “No, we gon’ wait until it’s fully dark, man. They won’t be able to get good shots at us wid’ out coming much closer to the river, and then we can shoot right back at the motherfuckers.”
From the top of the ridge, Ted, Callum, and the other snipers watched the enemy silently from their positions of cover. They could tell that a great number of them were there, but for the moment, it seemed that T-Dawg was keeping his men back in the cover of the tightly packed trees on the other side of the river.
Dusk fell, and both sides waited in tense silence.
“Dammit,” Callum whispered to Ted. “What are they doing? Why don’t they make a move? This waiting is driving me mad.”
“Steady there, friend, steady there,” Ted whispered back. “They’ll
come, believe me.”
An hour passed, and T-Dawg still made no move. There was no moon on this night, and the darkness grew thicker and thicker by the minute. Soon the snipers could hardly see the river at all, let alone pick out targets in it.
“This is what he’s been waiting for,” Ted whispered. “Come on, we have to get closer to see what’s going on. I suspected he’d wait until it was fully dark before making a move, and that’s exactly what the sly bastard is doing.”
“We’ll be exposed to enemy fire down there,” Callum said, sounding worried.
“I know, but for Mary to use her weapon, we have to be able to get a look at their movements. Come on, let’s move. Keep it stealthy.”
Ted whispered some instructions to the other snipers to stay on the ridge, then he and Callum cautiously picked their way down the slope as quietly as possible, staying behind cover as they moved.
By the time they got close enough to actually see the water, T-Dawg was sending his first wave of warriors into the river. Many of the men were poor swimmers, having grown up in the inner city without any access to swimming facilities, and therefore the stronger swimmers went in first and made a human chain to help the non-swimmers.
“Looks like we got here just in time,” Ted whispered.
“Should I give Mary the signal?” Callum whispered back.
“Not yet. Wait for more of ‘em to get into the water. This is our only chance to strike a seriously potent blow and take dozens of ‘em out at once. We want to use it to its full effect.”
T-Dawg was waiting in the cover of the trees, watching as his men entered the water, one by one. He wasn’t about to get in himself, not until he’d seen a few of his men get safely to the other side, for he suspected that there would be some trickery or traps set by the homesteaders.
“Yo, this river is a lot shallower than yesterday, man,” one of the leading swimmers called out to the other gangsters. “Don’t worry, y’all, y’all can walk across most a’ the way, it’s way shallower! Shit, it’s only up to my waist most a’ the way, come on, get yo’ chicken-shit asses in!”
Emboldened by their comrade’s observations, more of the men entered the water.
“Come on, Ted,” Callum whispered, his tone urgent, “give her the signal! There are plenty of ‘em in the water now!”
“Hold on, hold on,” Ted whispered back, his eyes locked on the scene before him. Over a third of the invaders had entered the river now, and the first few were almost across on their bank.
“I’m giving her the signal,” Callum muttered. “Some of ‘em are almost across!”
“We can shoot down the ones who make it out onto our side,” Ted said firmly. “Just wait.”
“Dammit, Ted, we should give her the signal now!”
“Wait … wait … now!” Ted whispered.
Relieved to finally be able to give the signal, Callum cupped his hands around his mouth and performed an owl hoot. Another homesteader a few hundred yards up the river heard it, and repeated the call, passing it quickly on to yet another one higher upriver. The chain continued until the owl hoots reached Mary, who was waiting on the banks of the river in the Humvee, over a mile upstream. There, at the point where the river was narrowest, the homesteaders had spent the last twenty-four hours building a makeshift dam with felled trees. The supports holding the mass of water in place were linked to heavy chains, which were attached to the Humvee. Mary had spent the day working on the vehicle, adjusting its gearing to give it even more low-down pulling power. And now that the signal reached her, she started up the motor, but the vehicle in gear and started pulling.
Her calculations had been perfect. The Humvee took mere seconds to rip the supports out of the makeshift dam, and the whole thing collapsed almost instantly, sending a massive flash flood of vengeful water surging downstream.
At the crossing point, over half of T-Dawg’s men were now in the water, and a handful was getting out on the side of the homestead.
“They’re on our side of the river!” Callum whispered. “We need to start shooting, now, before it’s too late!”
“Not yet … it’s coming, just watch,” Ted whispered back.
The men in the river could sense that something was happening, but they didn’t know what. The current was picking up, and there was a dull, distant roar that was growing louder with alarming rapidity. In the thick darkness, they couldn’t see the rushing wall of water approaching, but they could hear it and feel it. Shouts of alarm started ringing out across the river, and men started struggling and abandoning their comrades in their haste to get across.
They were too late, almost all of those who were already in the water. T-Dawg watched with both rage and dismay as a wall of raging water came hurtling around the nearby bend in the river. The men in the water screamed in terror as it rushed toward them, scrambling to get to whatever bank was closest to them, but for the vast majority of them, their efforts were in vain. The torrent swept them away, carrying them downstream in a vicious flood of tumbling water. Those who weren’t drowned in minutes were swept over the edge of a huge waterfall a few hundred yards downstream and smashed on the rocks below.
In one potent attack, the homesteaders had cut the number of invaders almost in half, and on his bank, T-Dawg threw his fists in the air and screamed with murderous fury. Now, however, he was even more determined to kill every last one of them. “Light up the fucking place!” he screamed.
36
Two of his men had brought up heavy machine guns looted from dead army troops, and a few others had RPGs. They all started firing indiscriminately at the opposite bank, tearing it up as they sprayed it with thousands of bullets and blasted rockets across the river.
“Let’s get the hell out of here before we get cut down!” Ted yelled as bullets hissed through the air around him and thudded into tree trunks and the ground.
He and Ted raced back up the bank, and at the top of the ridge they were dismayed to find that one of the homesteaders was dead, hit by a stray machine gun bullet; both sides had now suffered casualties, although the toll taken on the invaders was far more severe.
Down below, the flashflood had already started to subside, and the current was slowing, and the water level lowering to its usual level. With their confidence boosted by a furious desire to exact vengeance on the homesteaders, the surviving invaders were once again cautiously entering the water. There was nothing the homesteaders could do to stop them now, and since the entire bank was being torn up by machine-gun fire and RPGs, they had no choice but to retreat and get into their second positions.
Mary, meanwhile, detached the heavy chains and drove the Humvee back to the homestead; her job was done, and her next task was to help with the defense of the land when, or if, the invaders made it there.
She and the other defenders listened with bated breath to the sound of exchanges of gunfire. She and another homesteader were manning a makeshift defense point, consisting of a number of piled-up sandbags, which covered the main path into the homestead. A large fire burned in the firepit in the center of the property, to provide light for the defenders, and more fires had been lit all over for the same purpose; the invaders wouldn’t be able to use darkness to their advantage here.
In the distance, from the direction of the river, she saw fireworks shoot up into the sky and explode in a bloom of dazzling colors. This beautiful display only brought dread to the homesteaders, though, for they knew that it was a signal used by their enemies. And if the invaders were using signals, it meant that they hadn’t been stopped, and were gaining ground.
The sounds of gunfire grew closer, as did the sound of dirt bikes racing through the woods and orchards. Mary watched as more fireworks were shot into the sky, and the latest batch came from a lot closer. Soon enough, the sounds of gunfire died down, and she saw the dirt bikes’ headlights stabbing through the darkness around the perimeter of the residential area; the defenders in the woods had been forced to make a full retreat. Even
having swept half of T-Dawg’s forces away in the river, his numbers had still been too overwhelming to effectively counter.
Ted came racing into the homestead first, and he was followed closely by Callum and four other defenders. Ten had been in the woods at the outset of the battle, and dread coursed through Mary’s veins when she saw that three had not returned.
There was no time to worry about this, though. “Incoming!” Ted yelled as he dropped his dirt bike and ran over to a pile of sandbags. “Everyone brace yourselves, there are dozens of ‘em coming this way, all heavily armed!”
They waited and waited, but the attack Ted had expected to come from the main road into the homestead didn’t materialize. The defenders waited with their hearts pounding and their fingers on the triggers of their guns, but nobody came.
“Where the hell are they?” the homesteader next to Mary, a father of two in his late thirties, whispered to her.
The silence in the woods around the homestead was both eerie and ominous. Ted wondered what T-Dawg was doing and what his plan was. The man had been filled with blinding rage an hour earlier and had come charging up the ridge, firing a machine gun from the hip, but now he and his warriors seemed to have melted like phantoms into the darkness, all their fury fizzled out.
“I don’t know,” Mary whispered back to her neighbor. “But keep your finger on the trigger, because—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the homesteader’s head snapped back in a spray of blood, and his lifeless form slumped to the ground. A firework shot up into the sky, and before Mary could even scream, the invaders launched their synchronized attack. They had silently encircled the entire homestead and were now launching a full-scale assault from all directions.
EMP Survival In A Powerless World | Book 21 | The Darkest Day Page 21