Defiance (The Defending Home Series Book 1) (12 page)

“That’s why I wanted to talk with you. You have military experience, even if it was sixty years in the past. You got an eye for terrain and tactics that I don’t, and I’d be foolish to let that go to waste.”

“What do you need?”

Dale motioned toward the house. “I need you to help turn our home into a fortress. I need to make sure that no one can simply crack a window and crawl inside the way those men did last night. I want anyone setting foot on this property who doesn’t belong to know that only death awaits them here. You think we can do that?”

“What about the fence?”

“That’s on the list of things to do, but it won’t stop anyone from getting close.”

Walter cracked his knuckles, making a hollow popping sound. “For starters, we’ll need to set up some booby-traps. Keep anyone approaching the house off balance. Make them easy prey for snipers. We’ll also need some reinforced shooting positions with clear fields of fire. Some of the bushes and pinion trees around here make it tough to spot enemies hiding in the brush. Those’ll need to be pared down.”

Walter was absolutely right. How easy would it be for a half-dozen men to set up around the house picking them off one by one as they came out?

Walter glanced back at the house and grimaced. “There’s something else that I think we should do. It may hurt the resale value of your home, but I think it’ll go a long way toward keeping us safe.”

Dale grinned. “I’m all ears.”

“Give me a little bit a time to put something together,” Walter said. “I’ve got to see what you have on the property first to know if it’s even possible.”

Dale held out his hand and the two men shook. “It’s a deal. Just keep in mind we don’t have a lot of time.”

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A
bout an hour later, an alert from Duke signaled the approach of a figure with a cart at the end of the driveway. Dale was helping Shane and Colton with the fence, while Duke had been panting under the shade of a nearby tree. The dog bolted forward, placing himself between Dale and the unknown threat.

At first glance, the stranger didn’t appear intent on harming them, but given the recent course of events, it was hard to say with any certainty. Unslinging the shotgun from around his shoulder, Dale cautiously approached with the other two men.

Duke continued to bark and Dale ordered him back. Walter, Brooke and Nicole watched from the pumphouse. Dale held out a hand, warning them to stay put until the situation was clear.

“I don’t mean any harm,” the man said. He was wearing faded jeans with dirty knees.

“What do you want?” Dale asked, worried that he already knew.

“It’s Billy Forest,” he said. “For gosh’s sakes, Dale, don’t you recognize me?” His voice sounded hoarse and the flesh around his face looked like wax paper. The red rings around his eyes indicated he’d survived a bout with the flu, although the man’s thin frame spoke of being severely malnourished.

Billy and his family lived half a mile away on a ten-acre patch of land. Before the scourge, they’d kept mostly to themselves, growing vegetables and milking their dairy cows. Every once in a while the two men would bump into each other in town, at the bank or running an errand. Dale hadn’t heard anything from him since the virus. Fact, Dale had even driven by Billy’s house earlier today and assumed he and the wife were gone.

“How’s Christine?” Dale asked, his shotgun still in a low ready position. Billy was a neighbor and on some level one might even say a friend, but if the sheriff had put him up to no good, Dale wouldn’t hesitate to drop him.

Silent tears formed in Billy’s eyes and it was all the answer Dale needed.

“I’m sorry,” Dale said. “We’ve all lost someone. What can I do for you, Billy?”

His neighbor pointed to his throat. “I was hoping you’d have something to drink.”

Dale felt a surge of disappointment. “What about the well on your own property, Billy?”

Billy shook his head. “The new sheriff came by with a handful of Mexican fellas and took it from me. Wasn’t a big well, you know that, but it was all I had left to grow my vegetables with. They brought in a truck and pretty much drained it. I still got my rain collector.” Billy stopped, his gaze tracing up toward the sky as he held a hand up. “But you know as well as I we ain’t had a drop for weeks.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Billy. You’re not the first to come asking for water and it wouldn’t be fair to those I already turned away.”

“I ain’t here begging,” Billy said, a touch of indignation in his voice. “I came to trade.”

Dale hadn’t expected that. “Trade? What do you have?”

Billy waved a hand in front of him. “Can I come forward without that dog of yours tearing me to shreds?”

Behind him, Colton let out a sharp burst of laughter.

“Duke’ll leave you be,” Dale said. “So long as you behave.”

“We’ve known each other for years,” Billy protested, still not getting that things were different now. When the loose threads of civilization began to unravel, friends and sometimes even family could turn on you in a flash.

Undaunted, Billy came forward, pulling the cart behind him. Dale handed his shotgun to Shane and patted Billy down for any weapons and found none.

“Don’t take this personally, Billy. But I have no intention of letting the sheriff and his men do to me what they did to you.”

“If I’d known those crooks would take every last drop, I woulda shot them myself.”

“They’d have overwhelmed you. There’s strength in numbers.”

Billy looked like he was thinking about Christine again. “Don’t remind me.” His eyes flicked back to his wares. “See anything here you need?”

Dale studied the items on the cart. A few boxes of rounds, mostly .22s, .308s and 9mms. Next to those were a few nubby-looking carrots and beetroots. He also had single wrapped rolls of toilet paper, the kind you saw in hotels, and a handful of sample-sized shampoo bottles. The others soon approached and picked over Billy’s items.

“So I guess pillaging hotel rooms whenever you and the wife went down to Cancún wasn’t such a bad idea after all,” Dale said, grinning.

Billy’s thin lips rose into a smile. “Best investment I ever made.”

Brooke grabbed three rolls of toilet paper while Nicole went right for the sample shampoos and mouthwash.

“How much is this stuff?” Brooke asked, her arms full.

Billy looked unsure. “Whatever you’re willing to pay for it. Except I don’t take cash.”

Surveying the items on the cart, Dale decided extra rounds were always good to have, along with just about everything else Billy had brought them.

“All right,” Dale said. “We’ll take it all.”

Billy’s eyes lit up. “Great.”

Now it was time to barter, something of a lost art in the Western world. But Dale wasn’t out to gouge his neighbor for everything he was worth. Sitting at the end of his cart were six empty two-gallon milk jugs. “How about I fill those up at the well for you?”

Billy pretended to think about it. “That sounds fair.”

They were heading for the pumphouse when Billy said, “You’d be surprised how fast word’s spread among the survivors.”

“Word of what?”

“Of how you stood up to Mayor Reid and his men. Don’t forget, he saved your property for last. The jewel in his crown. Seems each of us got knocked down one after another like a line of dominos. But ever since the sickness burned itself out, folks are starting to show their faces again, starting to talk to one another, and most of what they’re saying is about what you’ve done.”

“I guess it’s true what they say about word travelling fast.”

“A few of ’em speak about you like you’re some kind of folk hero. Frankly, I think they’re longing for something to believe in again.”

“I’m no hero,” Dale assured him. And Dale wasn’t being modest. In the early days, he’d turned away plenty of people begging for food and water, most of them staring down the barrel of his shotgun. Given that, he didn’t understand how they were still applauding him.

“No one likes being bullied,” Billy said, as though he could see what Dale had been thinking. “For every Goliath, people can’t help but look for a David to knock him down to size.”

Billy left soon after that, dragging his six water jugs away with a look of pride that Dale hadn’t expected.

“I don’t understand you,” Brooke said, as they stood and watched him turn left once he reached the road.

He studied her face and saw a touch of anger. “What do you mean?”

“I remember the last time someone came looking for water you nearly chewed my head off for offering it to them. He didn’t get more than a sip before you ran him off. People are thirsty and it hurts to know we could be sharing what we have.”

He tried to pull her into a hug, but she wouldn’t have any of it. “You have a tender heart,” he told his daughter. “So did your mother. She was fun, kind and thoughtful, qualities that I admired, qualities I hoped might rub off on me someday.” He wrung his calloused hands. “I won’t pretend I got any of it, but that wasn’t why your mom and I got along so well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We were very different people and someday you’ll see that opposites attract for a reason. While I appreciated her nurturing side, she learned to value the time I devoted to keeping us safe. This isn’t about being popular or well liked, it’s about keeping us alive, keeping all of us alive. I never want to be in Billy’s situation. Waiting for the rain in order to remember the taste of water or grow what little food there is. The sheriff sure weakened him by draining his well, but it’ll be something else which finishes him off. I’d sooner we were all dead than suffer through that.”

She looked up at him. “I’m just glad you did the right thing by giving Billy the water he needed.”

“I didn’t give Billy anything,” Dale corrected her. He closed the door to the pumphouse and locked it. “The folks I turned away in the past all had one thing in common.”

Her face scrunched up. “They weren’t our neighbors?”

“No, they came looking for a handout. Billy came looking for a trade. May not seem like much of a difference, but I can assure you it is. A man shows up holding out an empty hand, asking for it to be filled, he’ll only return when he’s gone through what you’ve given him. Costs him nothing more than the energy it takes to raise his arm in the air. On the other hand, a man comes to trade, you know he won’t be back until he’s got something we need. Don’t underestimate how quickly people can confuse a right with a privilege. If we’d spent those early days filling every bottle we could, there’s no way we could have stopped.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because once folks get used to receiving something for nothing, it goes quickly from being a privilege to becoming a right. They show up after weeks of getting what they want and you suddenly cut them off, most won’t be grateful for the kindness you showed up till then. They’ll lash out, demanding to know why you’re being so unfair, their frustration slowly boiling into rage. Isn’t long before those nice people you were helping are now marching against you, determined to take what they feel is rightfully theirs.”

Brooke’s throat make a clicking sound as she swallowed. She followed her father into the garage, clearly still thinking about what he’d said. “That’s pretty messed up.”

Dale smiled and pulled her close. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

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D
ale assembled everyone in the living room for a meeting.

“The people behind these attacks won’t stop until they get what they want,” Dale said. “That much is clear. So we have a choice: either we can pack up and leave or we can stay and fight.” He scanned each of their faces and saw the same steely resolve he knew was in his own heart. “If any of you prefer to go, I won’t hold it against you.”

“Go where?” Walter asked. “No one has the right to push a man off land that rightfully belongs to him.”

“I agree with you, Walter,” Dale said. “But this isn’t a conversation we’ve gotten out in the open yet. If anyone has any objections to staying, I’d prefer to hear them now than be accused later if things don’t go our way.”

Nicole shuffled uncomfortably before speaking. “I can’t say I feel completely at ease expressing my thoughts.”

Dale unfolded his arms. “Some of us may not agree, but I think it’s important we hear any objections up front.”

She took a deep breath. “Well, I guess I don’t see why we can’t negotiate with the mayor.”

“She may have a point,” Shane said, tucking his arm around his wife. “Why risk everyone’s lives standing up against an entire town? Sounds like suicide to me.”

Dale nodded, not entirely surprised by Shane’s position. “So what are you proposing?” He wanted to hear them out fully before offering a response.

Shane shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“I say we offer them one truck full of water,” Nicole said. “Like what they showed up with the other day. Can we spare that much?”

“There’s enough to spare,” Dale acknowledged. “Although I’m curious what you think will happen after that.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, pulling her bangs out of her face.

“If I understood, you’re suggesting a compromise,” Dale said.

She nodded. “I guess so.”

Walter was silently shaking his head.

“So we give them a truck full of well water,” Dale went on. “We’re happy since they’ve promised to stop attacking us and they’re happy because they got what they wanted.”

“Sounds about right,” Shane replied.

Dale scratched the scruff on his chin. “So what’s your plan for when they return?”

Shane and Nicole looked surprised by the question. The others sat looking uncomfortable.

“Who says they’ll be back?” Shane countered. “We’d have made an agreement.”

“Why wouldn’t they? They apparently don’t have access to clean water of their own or they wouldn’t be bothering us. Now we’ve whetted their appetite and they have no other option but to come back for more. So my question is, what will you do when that happens?”

Nicole was cupping her elbows and pulled them tight to her body. “I guess we’ll give them another truck load.”