Sabotage (Powerless Nation Book 3) (10 page)

At one end was a large metal box, taller than Mason, and about twenty feet long by eight feet wide. It was painted a dark forest green and had several round porthole windows on the side facing them, but no visible door.

“What is that?” Dee whispered, staring at the box in the middle of nowhere.

“It looks like a shipping container. Do you see a chimney or anything?”

“A chimney?” Dee turned to look at Mason questioningly. “You don’t really think someone lives in there, do you?”

“There’s one way to find out. You stay here, I’ll go see.”

“No way,” said Dee. “You’re the one with the hurt foot. I’ll go.”

“Fine,” said Mason. She was surprised he agreed so easily, until he took the gun out of his pocket. She hadn’t realized he still had it. “I’ll cover you.”

“Hello?” she called to the shack. No one answered, but she thought she spotted movement at one of the windows. “I’m going closer.”
 

Dee was about halfway across the clearing when a section of the box slid open and a tiny, ancient woman stepped out. Dee froze.

The woman was dressed in men’s jeans a few sizes too big for her and held up by a rope knotted at her waist. She had a thick wool sweater tucked into them, and wore a knit cap on her head.

“What do you want?” she asked, a rifle held low at her hip.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“W
E
’
RE
LOST
. C
AN
YOU
help us?” Dee shivered in the thin sunlight. If this woman turned them away, she didn’t know what they’d do.

“You and who else?” asked the woman, sharp eyes scanning the edges of the clearing.

Mason limped out, his gun nowhere to be seen. “Just the two of us,” he said.

“You hurt, boy?” she said, narrowing her eyes at Mason.

“Twisted my ankle, but it’s not bad. If you let us stay we’ll be out of your hair first thing tomorrow.”

“Why should I trust you?” the woman asked in a gruff voice.
 

“We’re hard workers,” said Mason. “I can split wood for you, and Dee here is a great cook.”

Dee looked to see if he was joking, but he delivered the lie with a perfectly straight face.

“He might be exaggerating a little about my cooking, but I can help with washing or cleaning or hauling water. We don’t need any food, just a place to dry our clothes and hopefully shelter for the night.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Maddie, Dee for short. I’m Milton Kerns’ granddaughter, from Lookout Falls. This is Mason. He’s staying with us.”

The woman’s face softened at the mention of Dee’s grandpa, and she lowered the rifle. “I’m Hester. You kids can come on in for a few minutes and get warm. Then we’ll see.”

*

The house was tiny, but snug. Dee was amazed that a shipping container could be turned into a home. It was simple, but functional. A kitchen at one end of the rectangular layout had a small counter with a four-burner gas cooktop, a shallow sink, and a half-size refrigerator. The other end of the house was a combination living room/bedroom, with a table and two chairs, full-size bed, and a rocking chair draped with a crocheted blanket next to the tiniest woodstove Dee had ever seen.

There were two doors at the kitchen end of the house. Hester indicated one, which led to a small bathroom where Dee and Mason took turns stripping out of their wet things and wrapping up in blankets.
 

“I’ll take those,” said Hester, stretching out a hand for the wet clothes. Dee studied her face. Her skin was wrinkled and lined, and when her hand brushed Dee’s, it was soft. She placed their wet clothes on hangers and hung them from hooks over the stove. “I don’t have much call for a dryer, but this gets the job done.”

Mason and Dee sat on the chairs at the kitchen table, and she sat in the old fashioned rocking chair.
 

“This is a great place,” said Mason. He appeared fascinated by the house and Dee was sure he was taking mental notes. “I knew it was possible to make a house out of a shipping container, but didn’t imagine it would be so nice.”

“That’s my husband’s doing,” said Hester. “Burt was what you would call a prepper, and he rigged this place up for me.”

“It’s amazing,” said Mason. “I don’t think I’ve been this warm since last summer.”

“Where’s your husband now?” asked Dee.

The woman bristled. “What business is it of yours?”

“It’s not. Not at all. I’m sorry,” Dee said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
 

The woman stood abruptly and went to the stove where she stirred a pot with her back to them.

Dee looked around the room, her gaze settling on a black and white photo of a younger version of the woman. She and a man were wearing quaint, old fashioned swimsuits on a beach. “That’s a beautiful picture,” said Dee. “Are those the big rocks at Cannon Beach? I’ve seen those before. ”

“That was our twentieth wedding anniversary,” Hester said. “We took a trip out to Portland for a few nights.”

She came over carrying two bowls of soup and handed them to Mason and Dee. “It’s just vegetable soup. I wasn’t expecting guests, so I didn’t put any meat in it.”

“It smells amazing,” Dee said, breathing in the comforting aroma. “It’s been a while since I had a hot meal.” It actually had been several days since she’d eaten anything but bread and trail snacks. Dee took a sip of the soup. It had a wonderfully rich flavor that flowed across her tongue and down through her insides, warming her all the way through. “It’s wonderful!”
 

Mason was too busy wolfing down the soup to say anything. A faint smile came over Hester’s face as she watched him eat. When he finished, she took his bowl and refilled it. Mason grinned. “I could eat ten more bowls. You should give Dee here the recipe.”

Dee swatted playfully at Mason.

“Watch it, woman!” he teased. “You’ll make me spill, and I’m not wasting a single bite.”

After they finished eating, Hester cleared their bowls. “I think you kids had better tell me what you’re doing in the woods.”

Mason glanced at Dee. She decided to start at the very beginning. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but how long have you been out here?”

Hester stoppered the drain and poured steaming water from a tea kettle into the sink. “Oh, I’d say off and on for about fifteen years. We moved in for good a couple of years ago. Burt was worried about the government. He said we were on the verge of collapse and he wanted to go off grid.”

“Smart man,” said Mason.

“Smarter than I gave him credit for,” said Hester. “He set this place up after he retired. Said we could live out the rest of our lives here.” Her voice softened. “That’s what he did, too. He died last spring.” She swiped at her eyes with a dishcloth.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” said Dee. “It probably doesn’t help to know this, but your husband was right. Do you know about the EMP last summer?”

“Last summer? That’s about the same time my radio stopped picking up any stations. I don’t know about an ee-em-pee though,” said Hester, drying the last bowl and setting it in the cupboard before walking over to the living room area.

“The EMP was like an invisible shockwave that burned out all of the electricity and phones,” said Mason. “Society collapsed a few weeks later.”

Dee nodded. He’d greatly oversimplified the situation, but covered the basic facts.

“Collapsed? Well, I’ll be,” said Hester, sitting down heavily in her rocker. “You know, I used to tease Burt about being a prepper.”

“This cabin isn’t so bad,” said Dee. “It’s pretty low-key for a prepper.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it. This cabin is literally the tip of the iceberg. There were times I thought he’d lost his mind. Like the first time he brought me out here. You should have seen it.”

“What was it like?”

“Piles of dirt. A huge pit. I called it the money pit. “Let’s just say that when I found out what Burt had done with our money we had the worst fight of our whole marriage. I’d always imagined we would travel after he retired. Drive around the country in an RV. Cruise to places like Alaska or Mexico. I wanted to see the world. Instead, he poured our savings into this place.”

“Take it from someone who knows,” said Dee. “You’re lucky you weren’t on a cruise ship when the EMP hit.” Dee thought about her parents and Sena, and hoped they were safe in town.

“I can’t say I’m sorry he isn’t here to see the collapse,” Hester said. “He would be lording it up over me after all my years of fussing at him.” Her thin lips parted in an affectionate smile and she sighed wistfully, fingers curled around the worn armrests of the old wooden chair.
 

Dee glanced around and wondered how much money it had taken to build this place. Hester said it had taken their entire savings, but it looked pretty modest.

It was quiet for a moment until Hester’s attention snapped back to Dee and Mason. “You still haven’t told me what you’re doing out here.”

“There’s a military group trying to take control of the area,” said Mason. “They’re taking kids by force and holding them captive at the lumber mill.”

“Sounds a bit like the draft. Burt had to serve in Vietnam because of it.”

“I don’t think draft dodgers had their families burned alive or shot,” Mason said wryly.

“Certainly not! Why, that’s criminal,” Hester said. “The president should do something about it. Where are the Army and the National Guard?”

“I wish we knew,” said Mason. “We haven’t heard anything from the government since the grid went down.”

“Do you think there’s a war going on? Burt said there would be wars.”

“Only rumors, nothing official. I think it’s likely though.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here though, or how you hurt your foot. Are you kids in trouble?”

“We were trying to break our friends out of the lumber mill, and it didn’t go so well,” said Dee. “A couple of thugs ended up chasing us off.”

“There’s a chance they could come after us here,” added Mason.

Hester picked up a basket and removed a bundle of yarn and knitting needles. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Even if they track you here, they’d have a heap of trouble getting inside. This place is more secure than a bank vault.”

Dee looked around the room at the plaster walls and porthole windows. It wasn’t exactly a fortress.

“Don’t forget we’re in a solid steel box,” Mason reminded her when he saw her glancing around dubiously. “It doesn’t look like it from in here because the walls are covered with plaster, but do you see how thick the windows are?” Dee nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re bulletproof.”

Hester’s knitting needles clicked a comforting rhythm in the warm room and after Dee put her now dry clothes back on her eyelids grew heavy. She was safe, warm, fed, and she’d been awake for almost twenty-four hours. Hester invited her and Mason to spend the night. Dee tried to offer to sleep on the floor, but her words came out garbled by sleep, and somehow she ended up sharing the bed with Hester while Mason curled up in a blanket on the rug nearby.
 

*

The next morning the swelling on Mason’s ankle was much better and he could almost walk without limping. Hester had a surprise for them. “When was the last time either of you had a hot shower?”

Dee thought she’d died and gone to heaven. She scrubbed until her arms ached and dirty water swirled around her feet. She was like an onion with layer after layer of dirt.
 

Hester apologized for not having any make-up. “That’s what comes of letting a man stock the fallout shelter,” she joked. “I’ve got razors, but no lipstick.”

Later, over a breakfast of oatmeal and raisins, she asked whether they knew any of her old friends. She said she hadn’t been to Lookout Falls since her husband had died the previous year.

Dee didn’t want to give her the bad news, that a lot of elderly people hadn’t survived the collapse. Shortages of medicine and medical care, and a lack of food and clean water had been devastating to even the healthiest segment of the population. There weren’t many people left in Hester’s age group. Dee knew of at least one though.

“Maybe you know my grandpa. Milton Kerns?”

“Sure, I know Milt. In fact, he took me to a dance a long time ago. I wonder if he remembers that. I had a little bit of a crush on him back then.” A thoughtful smile played on her face as she relived old memories. “You should have seen him. He was quite the looker, you know. I bet he’s real proud of you.”

Dee smiled. “Did you have any kids?”
 

Hester stood up abruptly and started clearing the breakfast dishes.
 

“I can do that,” Dee offered.

“No, it’s fine,” Hester said brusquely. “You two probably have plans to make. You’re aiming to break your friends out of the mill, right? I’ll let you get to it.”

Hester wouldn’t accept any help, so Dee and Mason discussed their next move. The conversation went in circles and Dee tried not to get discouraged. It was just the two of them against a semi-secure military facility. After their first failed attempt at a rescue, she didn’t think they had much of a chance.

“I don’t just want to get Searles out, and Sena if she’s there. I’m going to get all the kids back,” said Mason.

Dee was shocked. He hadn’t mentioned this until now. “How are we supposed to do that? I mean, it sounds good, but it’s never going to work.”

“I can’t leave them there,” he told her. “I’m sure Downey plans to turn them into a child army and make them do whatever dirty fighting he has in mind. He’s going to break them down, break their spirits. I won’t stand by and let that happen. I’m getting them all out.”

“So, just you, me, and a handgun against a small army?” Dee shook her head. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe I can help,” said Hester, wiping her hands on her apron.

“I don’t want you to get mixed up in this,” said Mason. “You’ve already done more than enough.”

Hester continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “My Burt was a real thinker. He read a lot of books and had a lot of opinions about how the world would end. He said he wouldn’t let it catch him unprepared. It’s just me out here now though and I’ve got more than I’ll ever need. Let me give you some supplies and tools.”