Last Stand: Surviving America's Collapse (11 page)

“
W
hat do we do?” Al asked, visibly flustered.

The council had assembled in Patty Long’s dining room for their third and perhaps most important meeting
yet.

“
Thirty percent of our food each month,” Arnold said. “That’s unreasonable. We’ll starve to death.”

“What did you tell him
?” Patty asked, sweeping back her wavy blonde hair.

John rubbed at the tension building at his temples
. “I told him we didn’t need any protection. Then he suggested we think about it and made reference to the dozens if not hundreds of bodies lying on Pine Grove.”

“It’s a shakedown,” Curtis said. His nose was shaped like a bird’s beak and with his wide frantic eyes he was starting to act like one too. “I’ve read about
this kinda stuff. It’s a racket.”

“There’s a very good chance we’re dealing with a gang of
drug dealers or gangbangers,” John said, still picturing the skull tattoo on Cain’s face. “Can’t say yet how many of them there are, but they seem to be taking a page out of the mafia’s handbook. Back in the day, if you opened a restaurant in New York City a guy in a pinstriped suit would pay you a visit and offer you protection insurance. Thousand bucks a month, maybe more. If you said no, the next day your shop was firebombed.”

“They killed all those innocent people,” Susan said
in disgust. “I think we should just give them what they want.”

Hearing
that made John’s temperature spike. She was one of the council members who had voted to send those refugees to their deaths in the first place. Now she was advocating opening a Pandora’s box with men who would think nothing of killing them all. “Today they’re asking for thirty percent,” John said, directing his comments at Susan in particular. “A steep amount of resources by any measure. And what will we do when thirty percent becomes forty percent and then fifty percent? Haven’t any of you read your history? The Romans bribed barbarian hordes not to attack the empire and each time the barbarians returned demanding more money.”

“What do you propose?
” Patty asked.

“If we pay them,” John said
, “they’ll think we’re weak and keep taking until we starve to death. If we refuse, we run the risk of an all-out war. A war we may not win.”

Al was shaking his head. “So basically you’re asking if we prefer starving to death or being shot.”

“Not exactly,” John replied. “I’m saying that if we pay them, we’ll starve to death for sure. If we don’t, then there’s a chance we could prevail. It’ll mean at least doubling the number of deputies.”

“I thought you said we were low on guns as it was,”
Arnold barked.

John nodded. “We are
low. Although there’s enough now to arm thirty deputies, but many of them won’t have much more than pistols. Unfortunately, a few of those will be .22 caliber. But if we present ourselves as a hard enough target, it may encourage these guys to pick on someone else.”

“But with so many
deputies,” Arnold countered, “it’ll rob manpower from food production and water purification.”

“We can take them from
information and liaison,” John suggested. “With bandits ravaging Sequoyah Hills, I doubt very much we’ll find groups nearby to trade with anyhow.”

Al and Curtis didn’t seem please
d by the suggestion.

“Don’t worry
, gentlemen, you’ll still have a place within the committee and once the current crisis passes then we can repopulate your teams.”

“My big concern is water,” Susan said, before John was even completely finished. “We’ve extracted the water from the pipes of nearly every house on the block. It won’t be another day or two before we need to send groups south to the
Tennessee River, our only source of water. How on earth will that be possible if armed criminals are threatening us?”

She
raised a valid concern. Just like medieval fortresses, maintaining a safe and continuous flow of water was a constant security challenge. “When that time comes,” John said, “we can organize armed escorts. Say five or more deputies armed with semi-autos.” The thought of offering the use of Betsy occurred to him, but the risk was too great. If he ever lost the Blazer, it would punch a major hole in his ability to bug out once the situation became untenable. “I think it’s important to remember we’re deciding between a bad option and one that’s even worse,” John told the committee. “These are bad men. If we stick together and everyone does their jobs, then we might just make it through this.”

There was one more thing John needed to tell them. It was the information Cain had given him about the EMP. Sure
, there was no way to know whether Cain was telling the truth, but everything he’d said was in line with the research John had done years before.
“So we were attacked,” Arnold said.

John tapped his fingers in a somber rhythm. “Seems that way.”

“What does it mean for us then?” Al asked.

“Means
the cavalry probably isn’t coming any time soon,” John told them. “If we’re going to get out of this mess, it’ll have to be by our own hand.”

Al and Curtis were eyeing Patty’s
dining-room table, lost in the enormity of the situation.

Susan took a deep breath. “All in favor of
rejecting Cain’s offer of protection raise your hand.”

The vote was nearly unanimous. Five hands went up. O
nly Curtis voted to accept. There would be no white sheet along the barricade as Cain had asked. Either way, the die was cast and the fate of Willow Creek about to be decided.

T
here wasn’t going to be enough time before Cain’s deadline to train all of John’s new deputies. There were thirty in all now, not including John and Peter, and as he had told the committee, most of them had little more than a pistol. Their newly swelled ranks amounted to roughly thirty percent of Willow Creek’s population. No doubt the increase in defense would put a serious strain on their ability to gather the other necessities for sustaining life.

All through the night the community had been on edge. John had slept little more an hour and even then he’d only tossed and turned on the living
-room couch.

Cain had told them yesterday to hang a white bedsheet over the barricade if they intended to accept his offer.
No sheet was hung. That part wasn’t a surprise. The unknown part was what would happen after. Would Cain and his men storm the barricades and slaughter them all as they had done to the refugees, or would he sit back and wait for the residents of Willow Creek to become complacent and make a mistake?

John spent that morning moving between each of the barricades. He’d also sent spotters onto the roofs of a handful of houses on both sides of the street. The idea was to ensure that intruders
—Cain’s men or otherwise—didn’t cut through a neighbor’s fence and breach the perimeter. Tactically, using the roofs had presented its own set of problems, since the men and women up there were prone on the side facing Willow Creek Drive. That meant they were less visible to anyone approaching through the backyards, but were vulnerable to sniper fire from Pine Grove. For that reason, John selected houses with chimneys on the west side of the structure—the side facing Pine Grove—in order to provide them with a degree of cover and protection.

This wasn’t your typical urban environment where a soldier was encouraged to blast holes in walls and roofs
or knock them down entirely so he could create loopholes to shoot from. Damaging these homes would mean letting rainwater in which led to mold and rot.

Arnold
’s food management team, although diminished numerically, was out tearing up more grass to make way for crops. Once that part was done, they would gather as much topsoil as they could from the flower gardens of every house on the block. In that department, Al’s love of gardening had proven particularly useful since he had a number of unused bags of soil sitting in his garage. Given that his services as liaison officer weren’t in high demand at the moment, he was happy to make himself useful.

John had just finished instructing some of the new recruits on gun safety when Diane came up to him. Like everyone else she seemed nervous and spoke in a low voice
, as though Cain or one of his men might be eavesdropping.

“How you holding up?” he asked.

“Not nearly as well as I thought I’d be. Any sign of Cain?”

John shook his head. “No, and I don’t expect there to be. He’s likely set up a spotter in a house within sight of the barricade. He knows perfectly well that if we’ve refused his offer, we’r
e liable to shoot him if he shows his face.”

Diane was wringing her hands and John could see red marks on her palms and fingers from where she’d been kneading out her
frayed nerves. “I can’t tell you how much I hate this, John. You remember our conversation in the kitchen—if things got out of hand we’d head to our bug-out location. I think maybe it’s time we do that now.”

“Honey, you were the one who
suggested we stay. The pod in the basement was only really intended for short-term emergencies. Ice storms, tornadoes, blackouts. That sorta thing. It was never intended to get us through an EMP attack.”

“But at the start,” Diane said
, “we still weren’t certain what we were up against. It made sense to give it a few days. John, you’re so close to it all that you may not be able to see clearly, but things are starting to escalate. The situation was dangerous enough staying in a city without power, now we have a gang of thugs who’ve demonstrated a willingness to kill indiscriminately.”

“So what are you saying
, Diane? That we just up and leave the people around us at the very moment when they need us the most?”

Her eyes
lowered. “I’m frightened, John, and so are the kids.”

He took her in his arms, her body quiver
ing as he squeezed her tight. When John looked up, Patty Long came toward him. She was in charge of Willow Creek’s health needs and the look on her face wasn’t a good omen.

Diane saw Patty and wiped the tears from her eyes. Diane was on her team and she was surely feeling self-conscious breaking down in pub
lic.

“I’m guessing
the news you have isn’t very good,” John said.

“
Dorothy Klein died last night.”

Diane covered her mouth. “Oh, no
.”

“She was
eighty-two years old,” Patty said. “But it wasn’t her age which did it. She’d run out of Danaparoid for her heart and we didn’t have anymore to give her.”

“We sent a team out a few days ago,” John said. “And they came back empty
-handed. Whatever the pharmacies once had, it was long gone by the time we arrived.”

“Rose Myers’ daughter Summer is diabetic and dangerously low on insulin. We’ve also got
a dozen others with heart and other medical problems, a pregnant woman and lots of cases of what seems to be PTSD, not to mention a child with a fever we haven’t been able to break. We need to get some medicine, one way or another.”

“Okay,” John said. “I’ll talk to Peter and see what we can do.”

A fresh bout of anxiety washed over Diane’s face. She’d been married to John long enough to know he was about to do something dangerous.

J
ohn found Peter near the western barricade, drilling the rest of the new recruits. Before Cain showed up, they would have done so in the park, but now leaving the perimeter defenses was too risky.

To fill the ranks, the security team had
had to choose from a pool of slightly older residents. They’d made a special point of not taking anyone younger than seventeen. The last thing they wanted was to employ the same tactics as the rebels in Sierra Leone who filled their ranks with children as young as ten.

“How’s it going?” John asked. Peter was teaching them how to leapfrog. The eight recruits were divided into teams of four and given a signal, in this case ‘tango’. Team
one would provide suppressing fire on the designated target while team two would reposition. When the signal was given, they would switch roles, enabling the troops to advance under relative cover. But it was clear the concept wasn’t working very well. When team two repositioned they gave the signal without providing any covering fire.

Peter slapped his forehead. “Stop
and get back to your starting positions.” He turned to John. “I feel like if it hits the fan, one of these people is gonna shoot me in the back by mistake.”

John smiled. “Or they may just save your life.”

Peter ordered the recruits to take a knee. John then told him about his conversation with Patty and the need for insulin, heart meds which included Danaparoid, Benazepril and Betaxolol, as well as valium and a long list of others.

“Didn’t you tell her we already sent people to a handful of pharmacies and they were cleaned out?”

“I did, but we’re gonna start losing people fast, including Rose Myers’ ten-year-old daughter, if we don’t do something soon.”

“You have a place in mind?”

John nodded. “There’s a small, family-run pharmacy over on Lakeview. Real itty-bitty thing. My guess is that most of the large chain stores have been hit, but the smaller ones may still be intact.”

“You’ll have to go on foot,” Peter said, concerned. “Otherwise you risk drawing too much attention from
those raiders who are trying to extort us.”

“I know. My plan is to take four others, including Frank
, and be back within an hour or two.”

Peter didn’t look thrilled with the idea. “You’d be leaving us kinda thin. I mean, we have all these new recruits
, but with five of you gone, that leaves us with what, less than ten competent deputies to maintain the perimeter?”

“I know, but I don’t see any other way. If the trip was going to take more than a couple hours then I’d agree we could wait. But Cain or his men won’t harass us until they’re sure we’ve turned down their offer.”

“Maybe,” Peter replied. “Either way, I’ll keep marching these guys around in a show of force and hope it’s enough to keep Cain and his gang of looters at bay.”

•••

Twenty minutes later, John, Frank and three deputies slipped out of Willow Creek via the park by the eastern barricade. They needed to be quick and carry back supplies, so travelling light was key. John and Frank were the only ones carrying any serious firepower. Each wore a tactical vest loaded with four thirty-round magazines, their Colt AR-15s attached to a two-point shoulder sling. John’s drop holster carried his favorite pistol, while Frank opted for a Glock 21. Even though it was daytime, they were also dressed in camo-pattern pants and shirt, their faces painted black and green. Despite the suburban setting, there was still plenty of shrubs and greenery for them to use as cover.

The deputies were similarly dressed, except one of them carried a
Remington deer rifle and the other two SIG P228s.

Sequoya
h Hills formed a sort of peninsula that jutted out into the Tennessee River. Lakeview Drive hugged the edge of the river as it wound up toward the interstate and John decided this was the best avenue of approach. They wouldn’t walk along the river itself to avoid getting ambushed and pinned against the water’s edge. Instead they would make their way north, hugging house to house as they went. The idea was to skirt around whatever forces Cain had in the area and be back before anyone knew they were gone.

After
moving from house to house for nearly thirty minutes, they reached the corner of Lakeview and Woodland. That was when John spotted the black pickup rolling slowly through the intersection. He held up his arm, hand in a fist, and the group stopped, dropping for cover. Both he and Frank peered out from behind a burning bush shrub, watching through the scopes of their rifles.

The truck was moving very slowly, as though they were looking for someone.

“A patrol?” Frank whispered.

“I hope so,” John replied. “I can’t imagine they’d be looking for us specifically.”

Eventually the pickup moved out of sight and they continued on. The front doors on many of the houses they encountered were ajar, the wood frames splintered from being kicked in. Likely it was Cain’s men, scavenging for food and other valuables. None of the houses seemed to be occupied and John was left to wonder where the people had all gone.

Bef
ore long they reached Tipton’s Pharmacy. It was a small family-run place that had been there for years. Many of the locals continued to buy their prescription drugs from Tipton’s for that very reason. In Knoxville a warm smile went a long way.

T
he front door and window were shattered. It was beginning to look as though they’d come all this way for nothing. As the group approached, a body lying face first over the shattered front window came into view. Blood pooled below a man in jeans and a white sweater. Only the sweater wasn’t white anymore, it was splattered with blood and dirt. The lack of a wound on the man’s back told John he had likely been killed as he entered the store.

The glare from the sun overhead made it difficult to see inside the darkened store.
Glass crunched under their feet as they drew near.

“That’s far enough,” a voice
shouted from inside. It was a man and he sounded old.

“Jeb,” John called out. “That you in there?”

“One more step and I’ll give you what I gave that looter.”

John wasn’t more than a few feet from the body now and he could see the dead man was wearing a
Memphis Grizzlies sweater. He didn’t look a day over thirty. Certainly didn’t fit the stereotype of a hardened criminal. More likely he was a family man from the neighborhood, coming to fill a prescription for someone in dire need, much like them.

“We don’t want any trouble
, Jeb,” John told him. “We got some sick people over on Willow Creek Drive and we need some medicine for them. Is Marlene in there with you?”

“My wife is fine, John. I’ve known you for a number of years now, but I’m telling you that no one’s gonna take my stuff by force. Not if I have a say in it.”

The truth of the matter was, John hadn’t expected the pharmacy to be occupied. The idea of Jeb standing guard with his wife hadn’t factored into things.

“We don’t intend to take anything, J
eb. Especially by force. Why don’t we give you a list of what we need and we’ll see if we can make a trade.”

Jeb was quiet for a minute. “Go ahead and toss that list in here, John
, and I’ll have a look.”

John did as Jeb asked and backed away. The dead body lying on the shattered window was starting to stink and John was happy to move away from it.

“I think I can get you most of this,” Jeb said. “Packed the insulin fridge with some ice when the power went down and it’s been keeping real nice.”

“That’s good, Jeb.”

“So what’s your offer then?”

John hadn’t brought anything to barter with
. He had to think fast.

“When’s the last time you or Marlene had something to eat, Jeb?”

Jeb was slow to answer. “It’s been a while. Neither of us has set foot outside since the lights went out. I ain’t gonna let those vultures swoop down and steal all my hard work.”

“
I don’t blame you. Are you hungry?”

“Sure,” he said. “But mostly I’m thirsty.
Bit ashamed to admit the wife and I’ve been drinking from the toilet these last few days.”

“Give me a minute, Jeb
, and I’ll see what I can do about that.” John moved a few feet away to huddle with Frank and the three deputies. “Give me your canteens,” he told the deputies. Reluctantly, they removed them from their belts and handed them over. “What about food? Any of you bring anything to eat?”

Frank opened a pouch on his vest and produced a bag of trail mix. “It isn’t much, but it’s all I
got.”

Joh
n had water in his CamelBak, but not a stitch of food. This would have to do. They moved back near the broken window. “Jeb, you still there?”

“Course I am. Told you I ain’t going nowhere.”

“We can offer you three canteens of water—”

“Not good enough,” Jeb shot back.

John sighed. “Our street is struggling to get by as it is. What if we made room for you and your wife in our community? We’ve got barricaded walls and some food, but most of all, protection from roaming gangs. It’s only a question of time before they find you.”

“How many times do I have to tell you we ain’t leaving
?”

John
felt the hope slipping between his fingers. Cantankerous as he was, Jeb’s inventory would have made a nice addition to Patty’s store of medical supplies. Just then John remembered something. In a utility pouch were crackers from an MRE he’d opened weeks ago. They were still sealed and hadn’t gone bad.

“All right
, Jeb. Here’s our final offer. Three canteens of purified water, one bag of trail mix and sealed crackers from an MRE.”

There was silence for a while after that. Then Jeb spoke. “Still a weak offer, John. But I’ll tell you what. You ha
nd all that over and I’ll give you your insulin and half of the heart meds you asked for. I ain’t giving you any valium or any Danaparoid or Benazepril. You come back with something besides water and crackers and you can have the rest.”

John sighed. If he’d known Jeb would be here he might have brought some gold and other tradable items. For now he would take what he could get. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Jeb.”

“Good, now go ahead and toss those things in and I’ll get your meds.”

“Here they are, Jeb,” John said
, dangling them in the open slot where the window once stood. “Bring my meds and we’ll make a clean swap.”

Jeb grumbled. “Fine.” There was movement from inside as Jeb shuffled around. At one point it sounded as though he was arguing with someone. The deputies continued to scan the perimeter as Jeb finally returned. This time he came right to the window and handed them a brown paper bag. In turn, John gave him the canteens and the other food. Jeb smiled, looking pale and thinner than usual.

“Wife’s in there bitching to high hell. Figured if I showed myself and y’all shot me, you’d be doing me a favor.”

John smiled. “The offer still stands to join us.”

Jeb shook his head.

“
Sad to hear it, Jeb. We’ll be back then to get the rest. Keep yourself safe.”

“Godspeed,”
Jeb replied and disappeared back into the inky darkness of the pharmacy.