Neighborhood Watch: After the EMP

by EE Isherwood

  I wasn’t going to tell him it was dumb to be the odd man out when on patrol. The only ammo he could use was whatever he carried with him. None of the others could mix and match ammunition with him.

  “I always wanted to get one,” I stated matter-of-factly, “but never had the spare cash.”

  “I feel ya, brother,” he replied. “Guns cost a lot more than you’d think.”

  “All I’ve got is this Benelli M4.” I drew his eyes to the black shotgun lying on the hood, noting how easy it was to lie about what guns I owned.

  He briefly looked at it.

  “It’s kind of insane that we’re all carrying guns around with us already,” I said in a gee-whiz tone, to make them think I was surprised but not frightened by the prospect. Coming across as scared of firearms would rightfully be seen as a weakness. “Really makes you think how good we have it most of the time.”

  “Uh-huh. Looks like you’re still making the best of it.” Zen pointed behind us toward the action on the block. Ben, Luke, and Carmen had already pushed the Cuban woman’s convertible out of her driveway. “Are you preparing for an invasion?”

  The man’s demeanor was relaxed and friendly, as if he didn’t find us threatening. It made sense, since his people outnumbered Penny and I 3-to-1.

  I only turned halfway around, trying to keep my eyes on the men as well as check out our street.

  “The EMP has made it impossible to depend on the authorities, so we’re just taking a few precautions. We set up a couple of snipers, armed up all the neighbors, and, as an afterthought, I figured it would be good to put up this wall of cars, so we can talk to people before they get too close.” I’d lied about the snipers, though I planned to create a position for one. As long as Zen thought someone might have his people in their crosshairs, it would probably dissuade him from doing anything stupid.

  Zen took a look around, then turned to his friends. “Maybe we should do the same thing when we get back, huh, guys?”

  His buddies nodded. My initial impression was they weren’t happy to be there. They hung a bit behind Zen, looking nervous. I couldn’t tell if it was discomfort at the confrontation or if they simply wanted to be somewhere else. However, as it was our first encounter with someone approaching our neighborhood watch zone, I made sure to not let my guard down even a little.

  Everyone was a threat until proven otherwise.

  “Whatever we’re doing,” I said in a reasonable voice, “I kind of hate it. We’re only twenty-four hours into this disaster, and we’re already carrying all these weapons and building forts. That’s not the America I want.”

  “No shit,” Zen allowed. “One of my neighbors lived in New Orleans when Katrina went through. He’s the one who said we couldn’t leave the street without being armed. That’s why we’ve got these.” He leaned sideways to display the weapon over his shoulder.

  “Makes complete sense,” I replied before jumping into the important question I’d been building up to. “So, what brings you all to our humble little street?” I kept my voice even, rather than accusatory or provocative.

  “We’re not here to cause trouble,” Zen replied, “but we’re looking for a guy named Trevor. We know he lives on this street, probably in the house with the Ferrari.” He jabbed a finger toward Trevor’s place.

  One of his pals swiped his own nose, giving me another clue about their states of mind. If Zen was on drugs, could I expect the same irrational behavior as my neighbor? Was I now dealing with six more Trevors?

  “Why do you want him?” I asked, still keeping my voice open and friendly.

  “He took something valuable that belongs to me,” Zen replied. “I’d really like it back, so I brought a few of my friends to help convince him. Obviously, we want nothing to do with you or anyone else living here. I promise, once we have our stuff, we’ll be out of your hair.”

  “That problem seems to be going around,” I replied. “A couple of houses on our street were robbed last night. We found out later it was Trevor and his friend Pike.”

  “Pike was there?” Zen asked. “No surprise. That big oaf does whatever he’s told. If you’ll just let us through, we’ll have a nice conversation with them about taking what doesn’t belong to them.”

  Penny and I didn’t present much of a deterrent, but I stood my ground.

  “I’m sorry, but we have a lot of kids in the houses surrounding Trevor’s place, so we don’t want any violence around them, you know? If you all will wait here for a little bit, I’ll go collect Trevor and bring him to you. Then you can talk to him all you want.”

  Zen shrugged. After looking from side to side to see what his friends thought, he returned his gaze to me. “I guess it couldn’t hurt. We just want our shit back.”

  As we struck our agreement, the red Mercedes convertible slowly rolled up to the roadblock. I instructed the pusher trio to park it on the driveway as the fourth car on our wall, but I didn’t give them time to line it up perfectly.

  “Hey, guys,” I said to my friends, “why don’t you all head down to my garage, okay? You, too, Penny. We’ll talk about which cars we’re going to get next just as soon as I finish helping out these visitors.”

  “Roger that,” Ben said, barely giving the new guys a glance.

  “You sure, Frank?” Luke asked, hovering around.

  “Yeah, I’d like you all to head down there together so you don’t get ambushed by Trevor. I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  It wasn’t just Trevor. I wanted my friends to leave immediately, so I could watch them go and warn them of any funny business from Zen’s people. There was no reason to think he’d turn on us, but I wasn’t going to risk my neighbors’ lives. I also didn’t want anyone standing around at the roadblock while the strangers were there. If they were somehow in cahoots with Trevor, anyone at the roadblock could find themselves between two enemy forces.

  Luke was reluctant, but he soon walked away.

  Carmen patted the holstered gun on her hip as she left. New gun owners tended to check their firearm over and over, and she played the part to perfection.

  While my friends walked away, I faced Zen, the most immediate threat.

  “You really think Trevor will hurt your people?” Zen asked.

  “Yes, without question,” I replied. “Yesterday, he pulled a gun on everyone in the neighborhood. Last night he robbed us. Today, I had to confiscate two of his guns. He’s bad news.”

  “Was one of them a tan Smith & Wesson Shield pistol?” Zen asked.

  “No, why?”

  “It’s not why we’re here, precisely, but it is one of the things he stole from us.”

  “Shit,” I replied under my breath.

  “Yeah, he’s dangerous. That’s why you should let us deal with him.” Zen took a few steps closer. “We could make sure he knows not to fuck around with people. We’ll even take him away if he doesn’t cooperate.”

  I found it hard to get a read on the guy. His party’s armed presence suggested there was a lot of danger in front of me, but his relaxed posture and easy smile made it easy to believe he was peaceful. I had to remind myself that anyone who had dealings with Trevor probably wasn’t in the gifted program, so I felt justified in continuing my white lie about only being worried for the children.

  “Believe me, if we didn’t have kids around, I’d take you up on the offer. I don’t really feel like dealing with him again. However, I think the safest move is to get him myself, then quietly bring him to you.”

  “I can respect that,” Zen replied.

  “What exactly did he steal?” I asked.

  For a split second, Zen appeared uncomfortable. “I won’t know for certain until I talk to him, you know?”

  There was more to it than he let on, but our goal was the same: get Trevor to the roadblock with the least amount of disturbance to the neighborhood.

  “Okay, give me ten or fifteen minutes to work this out. You all can sit in these cars to get out of the sun, if you’d like. They ar
en’t good for much else.”

  “Thanks.”

  I grabbed my shotgun and walked away from the roadblock. While I’d waited behind to make sure no one took a shot at my friends from behind, I was fully aware of the risk I’d put myself in. If they wanted an easy shot, I was it.

  After going about fifty yards, I risked a glance behind me. Zen and his friends had set down their bikes and gotten into the cars. Most were in Ben’s Subaru, since it was the only four-seater, but Zen had hopped into the driver’s seat of my ‘Vette. It gave him no sun protection, since the sunroof was down, but it did give him the best visibility to my side of the roadblock. That was probably his intention.

  I met everyone in my garage.

  “We’re going to need more people if we ever hope to maintain a roadblock,” I said as I approached.

  “I could have stayed up there,” Luke offered.

  “No, there’s no point right now. If those guys had meant to shoot us, they wouldn’t have ridden bikes right up to the gate. If they still intend to do us harm, I want you guys here, in the houses, where you can protect yourselves and each other. If you were standing out there by the cars, you’d make easy targets. Besides, we all have to focus on the other problem…” I gestured to Trevor’s place, three houses down the road.

  “He got into even more trouble?” Penny asked.

  “Yes,” I replied. “He went out of our neighborhood and took some things from those men.”

  “What’d he take?” Ben asked.

  “I’m not sure. They said one of the items was a pistol, but they made it pretty clear it wasn’t the main thing.”

  “Drugs,” Tyler snarked.

  I looked his way. “Yeah, maybe. I’d rather it be that than a bunch more weapons.”

  “What are we doing?” Ben continued. “You want us to back you up when you go inside, like before?”

  “No, I can’t imagine he’s still got his doors unlocked. We’re going to have to try to get him to come out.”

  “You think that will work?” Penny asked. “He pointed a gun at you last time.”

  I took a moment, there among my new friends, to appreciate how complicated life can get when you entangle your affairs with other people. I could have retired to a log cabin on the side of a mountain in deepest Idaho, then it would have only been me against the elements, which was the theme of many of my books. However, as I looked at Penny and her daughter, I took some comfort that they were together because of me. If I’d been on that mountain, there’s no telling what would have happened to the cute little girl. I’m sure she would have made it back from daycare, but after that…

  The thoughts were interrupted by the necessity of coming up with what to do. My friends were good at honing the details of my plans, but it seemed to fall to me to create them.

  “Well, we can either shoot our way in, or talk him out. I vote we try the second one, unless anyone has a better idea?”

  No one raised their hands.

  “Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?” Tyler asked. “Gandalf always has tricks up his sleeve.”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.” I held up a ‘wait’ finger and ran inside my house. When I came back out a few minutes later, I showed the boy what I’d retrieved.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said.

  It was my pride and joy Bravo Company RECCE-16 Carbine AR-15. I’d spent considerable time dialing it in over the years, so I could punch nails all afternoon at a hundred yards. However, since there weren’t many opportunities to fire at hundred-yard ranges in the outskirts of Chicago, I’d placed a red-dot scope on it instead. That made it more suitable for close encounters.

  “How many guns do you need?” Evelyn said in a dour tone.

  “As many as it takes,” Melanie chimed in.

  I turned with surprise toward the young mother, as I’d had her pegged as hating firearms.

  “As many as it takes to ensure my kids aren’t harmed by that jerk,” Melanie continued with an attitude.

  “That’s right,” I said as I stuffed an extra 30-round mag in my pocket. “I don’t want it to come to violence, but this time I’m not going to tolerate him pointing a gun in my face, loaded or not. The men at the roadblock said Trevor stole a pistol from them, so I know he has at least one firearm again.”

  “He broke his probation already?” Ben asked.

  “The guy barely tried,” I replied.

  “It could get dangerous,” the old guy said with concern.

  “That’s why I’m taking three guns of my own. I’ve got the rifle if things get hot while I’m on his front lawn, the shotgun is for breaching his house, and my everyday carry pistol is a last resort gun, if all the others are out of ammo.”

  “Luke, I’d like you to carry the loaner shotgun. Ben, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m going to have you hang back here and watch the kids with Melanie and your wife. We need to make sure someone proficient with a gun is taking care of them.”

  “I’m coming with you, Frank,” Carmen spoke up.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” I answered. She’d talked earlier about contributing to the group, so I was pleased to see her making good on it. “We need a few of us out there, so he knows we’re serious.”

  Penny decided to stay with Daisy, though she also kept the pistol on her hip.

  Once we were done switching people around, I walked out onto the street with Luke on one side and Carmen on the other. We cut across the island and came out not far from the Ferrari.

  “Let’s work from here,” I whispered. “I can’t make any promises, but I don’t think he’d shoot at us if we are close to his high-dollar ride.”

  I set my shotgun up against the side of Trevor’s car, out of sight of the house. “Keep your guns hidden until we know we’re going to need them. I want to try to do this the peaceful way, but I’m already assuming he won’t be reasonable.”

  Luke put his shotgun next to mine, then I slung off my AR-15 and set it next to the pair of scatterguns.

  “Should I take mine off?” Carmen asked.

  “No, just stand behind the window of the car, so he can’t see your waist.”

  Once we were ready, I called out.

  “Hey, Trevor, you in there?”

  It took a few moments, but he came up next to one of the open second-floor windows. “Now what do you want? I haven’t borrowed more of your shit, so don’t even try to pin it on me.”

  Borrowed? That was funny.

  “I need you to come out and talk,” I said.

  “Hard pass, dude,” Trevor said with a chuckle. “I’m doing what you said and lying low. We’ve got all we need in here, including women, booze, and, yeah, endless blow, so nothing you can say is going to interest us. We’ll ride this out with no problem.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, since there are six men standing down the street who are very interested in talking to you about something you took from them. I was trying to save your bacon by talking to you directly, instead of letting them come down here.”

  Trevor leaned out his window to get the angle on the roadblock. Based on his surprised reaction, he saw them, but when he turned to look at us again, his demeanor was more reserved. “I’ve got no idea who they are.”

  I huddled with Carmen and Luke.

  “Guys, I asked those guys to stay up at the roadblock so they wouldn’t endanger our kids with all their guns. Plus, I’ve read a bunch of stories about bad things that can happen when you invite strangers into your home. Maybe they’ll see something they like here and want to come back days or even months later. We have to plan ahead and protect ourselves from unnecessary risks.”

  “We want to deal with Trevor ourselves,” Luke summed up.

  “You got it, friend. Now, how are we going to do it?”

  “We can’t starve them out,” Carmen chuckled.

  “No, we don’t have that kind of time. However…” I looked over to Trevor’s yard to confirm he had an external water supply shut off. Like mine,
it was under a small metal lid about ten feet from his driveway. “We could make him think he’s being starved out.”

  “You have a cute twinkle in your eyes, Frank,” Carmen remarked.

  Luke laughed. “Yeah, it’s super cute.”

  Carmen reached in front of me and slapped Luke’s arm. “Don’t tease him!”

  They were both having too much fun.

  “Okay, you two, here goes nothing.”

  I faced Trevor’s house.

  “Hey, Trevor, if you aren’t going to be helpful and just step outside to talk to these men, we’re going to make it miserable for you to be in there. The first thing we’re going to do is turn off your water. I bet you don’t even have a clue how to turn it on and off, do you?”

  “I’ll... figure it out,” he said, but it didn’t fool me.

  “Maybe. But once we turn off your supply, you aren’t going to have any for showers, drinking, or toilets. Do you know what it’s going to smell like in there after a couple of days of crapping in your living room?”

  “I said we’ll figure it out!” Trevor yelled. “And who made you the president of this whole damned street?”

  It was a good question. I wasn’t technically in charge of anything. My neighbors seemed to rally behind me, which was nice, but there was no organization to it. I kind of figured it only meant no one else wanted to take the responsibility.

  “For the tenth time, I’m giving you a chance to rejoin our neighborhood. No one can survive on their own, not even you, which is why we’re all working as a team out here. I don’t know what you did to these men, but I know you aren’t a lost cause. Once you make things right with them, maybe you can make things right with us.”

  That was my first big lie. After all the trouble he’d caused, there was no way in hell we were going to let him stick around, but I was willing to bend the truth if it ensured no one took a bullet, including him.

  “Screw you!” he cried out.

  Wrong answer, asshole.

  I went back into discussion on the safe side of the Ferrari.

  “Well, I’m happy to turn off his water, but the threat of it didn’t bring him to the table like I hoped it would. He might be dumb enough to think he could survive in his house for a long time while the rest of us were actively hostile toward him.” I appreciated one of the core lessons of my books, which I’d thought about a lot over the past day. Be on good terms with your neighbors when Armageddon comes calling.