The rest of the marauders got caught trying to steal the supplies from the Byron family. They were apprehended. Randy and Justin helped out in tying the men up with rope. At this point, the father stood up to help out.
He was beyond relief. The Taylor family had come to his family’s rescue yet again.
“What was that all about?” Aaron asked while he was busy tying up the marauders with rope.
“They broke into the farm house. They destroyed the front door to make their way in, said they wanted to get some supplies,” he explained.
“We heard banging noises and commotion. Justin prompted us that there were people here. He saw it from the window in his room,” said Grandpa Taylor. “We came over as quickly as we could.”
“Thank you,” was all that he could mutter. He was still in shock.
“What are we supposed to do with them?” he proceeded to ask.
“We will keep them tied up until we can find a use for them, I guess,” said Aaron.
“By the way,” the Byron patriarch said, causing them to temporarily pause what they were doing. “I overheard the man talking on the radio,” he said while pointing to the man that Justin just beat up with a baseball bat.
“And?”
“From what I’ve heard, a few more people are headed this way,” he told them.
Aaron’s jaw almost dropped. Their biggest fears are coming to life. Grandpa Taylor could only shake his head.
“What do we do?” Aaron looked to his father for answers.
“It seems like we finally found a use for these people. We can use them as hostage to fend off the marauders. Then, we hide our supplies so that they won’t find it even if they searched the house.”
Aaron looked completely overwhelmed. He shook his head, as if trying to clear his mind. “We better get back to the house and talk about this more thoroughly. We probably don’t have much time left,” he warned them.
They hastily went to the other farm house to prepare. Grandpa Taylor sent out instructions to the rest of the family. They were all briefed to defend whatever attack that might be staged on their farm.
The Taylor family had come prepared for the onslaught of attacks from the marauders. Moving out of the house was not even an option. Besides, they have nowhere else to go. They did not want to risk the house being invaded by the marauders – it was all they had left.
The new group of marauders had made their way near the farm house. They spotted the empty farm house, the one that the Byron family had previously stayed in. The door was broken down. The men quickly figured out that this was the house their companions had invaded. So they set out to the next available farm house – the Taylor’s.
The group of marauders consisted of about seven to eight men. They attempted to break into the farm house gate. But it was heavily locked. Some of the men made it over the fence by climbing up. Eventually, all of them made it through the fence.
Meanwhile, inside the house, the women hid in the basement. The men – Aaron, Grandpa Taylor, and the Byron patriarch – stood guard. Both Justin and Randy volunteered to help out. Grandpa Taylor agreed but insisted they are not to carry firearms. They were stationed at one of the bedrooms in the ground floor. It was the perfect spot for them to monitor the activity outside without being detected.
“Hello?!” yelled out one of the men. His voice echoed in the stillness of the night.
They could hear conversations. However, the voices were too low for them to make out what the conversation was about.
Justin held his baseball bat. He tightened his grip. But his heart was pounding. Huge beads of sweat had formed along his hairline and on his nape.
“I think there’s no one here,” said one of the men.
“There’s a vehicle in the garage. Surely, someone must be here,” insisted another.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s get in anyway. Try to take as much as you can.”
They initially headed to the garage. From inside the house, they could hear lots of banging, loud noises. There was a mix of laughter and yelling. It was complete chaos. Aaron and Grandpa Taylor listened on patiently.
After a few minutes, they had finished sweeping through the garage. From where they were hiding, Aaron could see that they were carrying a gallon of liter, a long loop of rope, car battery, and Grandpa’s tool kit.
“Damn it!” exclaimed Aaron.
As the men were setting their finds on the vast lawn, they made a move to enter the farm house. But they were startled by the noise of an oncoming vehicle. The vehicles came to a screeching halt in front of the farm house’s gate. There were three vehicles and one of them was a military power wagon.
“What’s that?” asked Aaron.
“I’m not sure, might be the military,” Grandpa said, still trying to figure out the situation.
Justin stood up to check on the noises from outside the house. He saw his father step out from one of the vehicles. “That’s dad!” he yelled.
Aaron immediately covered Justin’s mouth with his hands. “Don’t make any noise!”
“But it’s dad!” said Justin.
“I know. But we don’t know for sure what’s the army’s business in here,” he said.
Aaron went back to his spot to check on the activities outside. He can see Benjamin talking to one of the military men. They shook hands.
At this point, they could hear commotion inside the house. Cabinets were opened and shut loudly. Tables were being turned over. The marauders continued their search for supplies inside the house.
Justin thought of this as the perfect opportunity to seek rescue. “Help! Help!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Benjamin’s conversation with the military man was interrupted by Justin’s cry for help. “Justin?” he said, startled to hear his son’s voice. He quickly dashed towards them. Realizing that the gate was locked, he jumped over the fence.
Capt. Ellis followed his tracks and signaled to his men to follow his lead. Walter also trailed behind them. But he signaled to the rest of the group to stay inside the vehicle.
About this time, the marauders got out of the house frustrated as they were unable to find anything. They were startled to find a battalion of military men. Most were frozen in their tracks. While the others attempted to run away. A few were able to run off the open field at the back of the farm house. The others weren’t so lucky and got apprehended.
Aaron, Grandpa Taylor and the rest went out of hiding. They joined the gathering in the lawn. One of the army men examined the pile of items that the marauders left behind.
“Those were items they had scavenged from the garage,” said Grandpa Taylor as he stepped out of the house.
He added, “These men tried to hurt our family. Good thing we were able to hide before they could attack us.”
Capt. Ellis turned to one of his men. He commanded, “Bring all of them to the vehicle. We’ll take them in.”
“We’ve also managed to apprehend three other men. They attacked the farm house next door,” said Aaron. “We secured them before they could hurt one of us,” he explained.
“You could bring them in with the rest, too,” said Capt. Ellis.
Aaron and the Byron patriarch both went to get the men. They were surrendered to the care of the military.
“Captain, thank you once again,” said Benjamin. “Please extend our thanks to the colonel.”
“No problem,” he responded. “We can’t stay any longer. We are still awaiting commands from the General.”
“Sure,” acknowledged Benjamin.
“Thank you,” Walter chimed in.
“Please, stay inside. Don’t invite trouble from these marauders,” the captain reminded one last time.
Benjamin nodded.
Jessica and Darla volunteered to come with the army. At first, Capt. Ellis look stunned. Anthony also wanted to protest their decision. He had discussed a few plans with Jessica on surviving together, specifically in dealing with the new folks at
the farm. But he felt betrayed by her impulsive decision to rejoin the military.
“You all have families here. You have a reason to stay. I don’t. And I think that I’d be much safer at the military base. It’s too much for me,” Jessica explained. She stopped herself before she started crying.
Anthony felt betrayed. He would not look at her as they were walking off. Darla also joined Jessica with the army.
The entire Taylor family looked on as the military power wagon drove off. As soon as the vehicle was out of sight, Grandpa Taylor turned to Aaron. “Go get them out of the basement.”
Meanwhile, Benjamin turned to his son. They exchanged a long and tight hug. Justin was in tears. Benjamin, on the other hand, tried to control his emotion. But his tears betrayed him.
It has been one full week since they have seen each other. They had been away from each other before for a much longer time. However, they always had some form of communication. This was the only time when they never had the chance to talk at all.
“How are you, dad?” Justin was first to ask.
Benjamin did not want to let go of his hug. “It’s okay. I’m right here,” he said with a smile.
As he hugged Justin again, he saw Mary walking out of the door. He looked her in the eye. He recounted the moment when he first laid his eyes on her. That feeling came rushing to him again. There was not a single moment since they parted ways that he did not think of Mary and their kids. It felt like time stood still.
When Mary saw her husband, she ran as fast as she could. She joined in the hug. No words were spoken. Mary, however, was overwhelmed with emotions. Tears started to flood her cheeks. She was relieved to see her husband. They exchanged glances but no words came out of their mouths. They were just happy to be reunited. Everyone looked on with a smile at the touching reunion.
Benjamin got up and introduced his companions to his in-laws, wiping tears off of his eyes. “These were the people who helped me survive,” he said.
Walter shook their hands. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about your family,” he said while shaking Aaron’s and Grandpa’s hands.
“Welcome!” said Grandma Taylor. “I bet you are all tired from the long drive. Come on inside.”
***
Chapter 19 – On Their Own
Later that evening, the folks from Southcrest were resting in the living room. Victoria was brought to the bedroom so she can get some sleep. Walter was by her side. He held her hand as he watched her sleep.
In the kitchen, Benjamin was discussing their plans to the Taylor family members.
“I wanted to apologize for bringing these people here,” Benjamin started off. “I see you had already taken in another family,” he added referring to the Byrons.
Aaron, Michelle, Mary, Grandma, and Grandpa listened in. They had spent the past half hour listening to Benjamin’s stories about the fire in the hospital up until their trip to the farm.
“I did only what I thought was the right thing. We were in a tough situation back there. We survived with the help of each other,” he continued. “I could not imagine leaving these people behind.”
“It’s alright Ben,” said Grandma. “We can’t worry about that at the moment.”
“Yeah,” Grandpa Taylor chimed in. “We have to think about the next step. We saw some of them had run away. We have to make sure they do not return for revenge. That is very likely,” he warned.
Aaron and Benjamin nodded. The women looked at each other with fear and worry.
“The upside to having plenty of people,” Aaron said, “there are many of us to help out with the chores and to guard the farm. But the downside is that we have more mouths to feed.”
“I understand,” said Benjamin. “We brought some supplies from the house.”
“Don’t think that will be enough, Ben,” said Aaron.
“I know,” he said as he turned away. “I’ve already briefed them that if we are to escape to the farm, they need to help out so we can co-exist and survive.”
“Indeed. If they are going to stay here, I would expect them to contribute. I do not want extra load right now,” Grandpa Taylor declared.
Benjamin agreed.
“Security is our biggest concern right now. I suggest that we have two or three people take rounds guarding the farm during night time,” Aaron said.
“I second that. They could launch attack at night because that is when we are most vulnerable,” Benjamin noted.
They knew that they got lucky to have the military fend off the marauders earlier that day. But they cannot rely on the military to protect them all the time. The main focus of militarization is on the larger cities. They are aware it is up to them to protect themselves.
“The first shift would be tonight. I volunteer to be one of those on the first guard,” Aaron volunteered.
“I’ll join you,” Benjamin volunteered, too.
“Are you sure? You look tired. You need to get some rest,” Mary argued.
“She’s right, Ben. Take this night off and catch up on sleep,” Grandma added.
Benjamin could not argue with them. The group dispersed and agreed to call it a night. Aaron was joined by the Byron patriarch to guard the farm at night. Benjamin and Walter had volunteered to take the shift the following day.
***
Chapter 20 – Refugees
The morning after, the dust had finally settled. Mary woke up with renewed energy knowing that her husband is safe with them. Justin, too, was thrilled to be reunited with his father. He spent many sleepless nights worrying about his father. Now that they are together under one roof again, his confidence level went back up. He was more determined than ever to get through this struggle.
It was a quiet night at the farm. Aaron stayed up all night to watch over the farm, together with the father of the Byron family. This is to ensure that someone would be able to alert the rest in case the marauders returned and attempted to break in again. But there was no sign of them.
The Southcrest folks were up early the next morning. Mary and Michelle showed them around the farm, specifically where and how to gather food supplies. Victoria was still recovering from her wounds, but she is doing better with each passing day. Walter only had a few hours of sleep as he watched over her at night. He has never left her side since she got badly wounded at the hospital siege.
Grandma, on the other hand, was in the kitchen busy preparing food for everybody. Meanwhile, Aaron looked on as Grandpa Taylor was drinking his usual morning coffee.
“How long will this go on?” Aaron asked his father out of the blue.
Grandpa Taylor did not respond. He kept on sipping his coffee.
“This isn’t charity house, dad. We are a family here -a family fighting for survival. These aren’t family,” he said in reference to the new refugees.
A brief pause followed. Aaron was heavily breathing. He was fighting emotions inside of him.
“It’s survival of the fittest. We have to think of our family first instead of sticking our necks out for strangers,” he went on to add.
“I understand where you’re coming from,” Grandpa Taylor finally spoke up.
“So what’s the point of keeping them around? The Byrons were an exemption. But I did not expect nor intend to bring in more people,” he said, fuming.
Grandpa Taylor nodded.
“You know what kind of trouble we got into last time we went to town, right? We have rationed our food supply but with too many people here, it’s getting more and more difficult. Our supplies are consumed twice as fast as we had planned. I dread the idea of going to town again. But it seems like we have no other choice,” he added.
“We’ll give it a few more days and then we’ll decide from there,” Grandpa Taylor said.
Aaron looked dumbfounded. “A few more days?!” he exclaimed.
“I’m just trying to put myself in their shoe, Aaron. Remember what Ben told us last night. If it weren’t for these people, he wouldn
’t have survived,” he said.
Aaron had nothing left to say. He knew his father. There was no point arguing with him if his mind was made up. He simply shrugged.
“Get ready for tomorrow. We’ll be going back to town,” he said. Then, he walked off to the farm to check on his animals.
After dinner time, the refugees from Southcrest helped out in securing the gate. Anthony helped Walter fix the lock. As soon as they were done, Walter told Anthony to get some rest. He volunteered to stay up and guard the farm house that night. Meanwhile, Jessica and Darla helped out with cleaning the dishes.
The Second Amendment: A Novel On Surviving The Coming Collapse Page 11
