The Final Homestead: EMP Survival In A Powerless World

by Hunt, James

  Jake then slowly moved down the hall toward the front of the store, stopping to check Mel’s office only to find it empty, the froze when a door opened. Jake backpedaled, but then slipped in the grime on the floor, hitting the ground hard.

  The noise caused the people in the front of the store to hurry into the back, restraining Jake before he had a chance to fight back.

  The first man led with the flashlight, illuminating Jake as he reached for his rifle, and before he could reach over for it, another man snatched him away, spinning him around in a hold and placing a gun to his head.

  Jake tried to scream, but his cries were muffled by the man’s palm, which was rough and sweaty against his mouth. He could taste the grain and dirt that had accumulated.

  The man with the flashlight kept the beam pointed at Jake’s face, blinding him and forcing Jake to turn his head away.

  “It’s a boy,” the man with the flashlight said. He stepped closer, keeping that bright light on Jake’s face as Jake continued to fight against the man’s hold, even though he knew that he couldn’t break free.

  The light was lowered slightly. Jake turned back toward the man who had shined it in his face, but his vision still hadn’t adjusted from the blinding light, and there was nothing but darkness. But through the darkness, he heard a voice, a voice that made his skin crawl and an icy sensation run up the back of his spine.

  And when Jake’s vision finally adjusted to the light, he was able to see the man who held the flashlight wearing a pair of black gloves.

  33

  While the others headed toward the gas station, Luis and Zi kept to the tall grass as they snaked their way to the back of the bank building. Both kept hunched low on their trek through the surrounding fields, keeping an eye out for any more guards on patrol.

  Luis had expected heavier security and was surprised to find it so light.

  Once they were lined up with the back of the bank, Luis forced both himself and Zi to wait. He wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t get any surprises on their approach. The moment their cover was blown, their job would become infinitely harder.

  While they lingered in the tall grass, Luis looked to the woman that James had brought back from San Antonio. She was good looking, though a little younger than Luis normally got himself involved with. Most girls he knew that age were too busy posting on their social media platforms than actually living a life or having a real relationship.

  Luis had felt like he’d always been between generations. He wasn’t old enough to have completely missed the technological revolution, but not young enough to have been fully immersed in it all. And a part of him was glad about that. Not that it mattered anymore.

  “How long do you want to wait out here like sitting ducks?” Zi asked.

  Luis rolled his eyes, keeping his attention on the backside of the bank. “We’re not sitting ducks. Not so long as we stay hidden.”

  “So we’re hidden ducks,” Zi said.

  Luis repressed the smirk, refusing to give the woman any satisfaction. “I want to make sure we’re not walking into a trap. We need the element of surprise on our side, and if there are patrols coming around on the backside of the buildings, then I want to know when they come and how many there are.”

  Zi sighed, shifting uncomfortably in the grass, but she didn’t move despite her disagreement.

  Luis kept his attention on the building and finally saw what he was waiting for as a pair of guards emerged from a nearby alley.

  The guards were armed and more vigilant than the last time Luis and James had come into town. One of them walked to the edge of the field where they were hidden, glancing out into the darkness.

  “I know I heard something,” the man at the edge of the grassy field said. “I heard voices.”

  “It was probably just a weird echo from the inside of the bank,” the second soldier said. “They’ve all been whispering since the convoy came back and Dillon starting shooting them one at a time.”

  Luis frowned, remaining frozen in the grass, but noticed that Zi’s breathing was growing more labored and noisier, drawing unwanted attention. He slowly reached his hand over and placed it over her forearm, and she jerked toward him, but the breathing stopped just as the wind died down.

  “Go back and get a light,” the man at the edge said, taking another bold step into the tall grass where Luis and Zi were hidden. “I want to clear the area before we head back inside.”

  There was a reluctant groan, but Luis watched the man’s partner disappear back to the front of the building while the second sentry remained vigilant in the darkness.

  It was the worst-case scenario for Luis and Zi, and he knew that once the cover of darkness was broken, so was their chance of using the element of surprise against the enemy. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they moved, they’d be seen. If they waited for the second man to return with the light, then they’d be seen. In both instances, they would die.

  Luis slowly returned his hand from Zi’s arm to the barrel of his rifle. He was crouched on his knees, ducked forward with his elbows in the dirt. He also had a straight shot at the man on the edge of the field, the one so certain that there were spies hidden amongst the grass.

  The second sentry returned, flashlight already in hand, and Luis knew that his opening was closing. He steadied his hand, prepared to take his shot, when the flashlight was exchanged.

  “Took you long enough,” the first sentry said, taking the flashlight. “I could have been—”

  Luis emerged from the tall grass, drawing the attention of both men, but with their guard down, he had enough time to squeeze the trigger and take down the sentry with the light, which bathed the field in the harsh glow of the flashlight. He then pivoted his aim toward the second sentry, squeezing the trigger and sending one through his skull, which dropped him to the ground with his friend.

  Both shots were fired within half a second of one another, and after it was done Luis remained frozen, standing in the tall grass, his weapon now aimed at the exit of the alley by the bank, waiting for the storm of other soldiers that were sure to follow.

  But no one came.

  Zi emerged from the tall grass and shook Luis free from his paralysis. “Good shot.”

  Luis didn’t lower his weapon, but he relaxed, forcing his muscles to give him room to breathe. “We’ll head down the alley where they came from. Stay close behind me, and only step where I step.”

  The pair kept their guards up as they emerged from the grass, passing the pair of bodies on the dirt, both of whom had landed on their backs, forcing both Luis and Zi to stare at them on their way past.

  Luis clicked off the flashlight, making sure that he didn’t leave anything behind to draw unneeded attention to what he’d done.

  He kept close to the bank’s wall down the alleyway, and unlike their trip here before, he saw no lanterns burning in the streets, which he thought would work in their favor, but he was willing to bet that a new security protocol had been put into place and that the monsters preferred to hunt in the darkness.

  On their trek toward the main street and the front of the bank building, which they would have to enter since the other doors had been closed off, the wind blew a hot, foul stench down the alley.

  Both Luis and Zi covered their noses; the stench of death wasn’t something that you forgot. With his nose buried in the crook of his elbow, Luis slowly stepped from the alley, being mindful to keep everything that he could hidden in the shadows of the alley. He paused, searching for any threats, but found none.

  Barely poking his head around the corner, Luis checked the street, which was still littered with broken-down cars.

  Directly in front of the bank were the remains of the townspeople that had been gunned down during their first attempt to rescue Nolan. Each one of those bodies had spent the past day rotting in the sun, exposed out in the open like that as if they were roadkill.

  He was unable to keep his eyes focused on the man
gled bodies, the blood still shiny and fresh from the heat of the day, most of the corpses picked at by the birds and vultures that they’d seen circling the town on their ride in, some of which were still snacking on the remains.

  But aside from the dead and the birds, Luis found no signs of any other guards in the area, which felt wrong, and some unexplainable force continued to pull Luis back to the vehicles that had been left in the street. There was something ominous about the way that those cars were laid out, as if they had been moved again. And then, as Luis continued his thorough scan, he saw the remains of a pyre in the middle of town.

  Most of it had burned down, but the pole still remained, holding up what was left of the person that they had burned.

  With his stomach lurching, Luis retreated back into the alleyway, his heart suddenly pounding, and then he shut his eyes, trying to get a grip before he lost his mind.

  A nudge from Zi prompted him to finally open his eyes, and when he did, he saw her staring at him with a questioning glance.

  Knowing he wouldn’t have time to explain, Luis simply shook his head and then leaned close to whisper. “I don’t see anyone. Stay behind me and keep your eyes peeled.”

  With eyes wide as saucers, Zi nodded quickly and then Luis faced forward again, performing one final scan of the area before he stepped into the open.

  Luis planted his foot onto the wooden walkway in front of the bank, keeping his shoulder close to the wall, and the moment that both Luis and Zi were exposed, the first gunshot was fired.

  Zi was knocked to the ground, rotating clockwise as she fell, the force of the shot so violent and so fast that she was already on her back by the time that Luis had dropped to a knee and opened fire, shooting blindly into the street.

  Heart pounding, flooded with adrenaline, Luis didn’t feel Zi pounding on his shoulder until she started screaming in his ear.

  “Get inside!” Zi pushed him toward the door, the pair of them providing cover fire for themselves as they stumbled awkwardly over the dead and into the depths of the bank, the gunfire growing worse once they were inside and then shutting off completely.

  Luis turned to Zi, unable to make out her features in the darkness. “Are you all right?”

  “Fine.” Zi coughed, clearing her throat. “I think it just grazed me. Got lucky. You?”

  “I’m fine.” Luis returned his attention to the front door, which was open. The entrance, combined with the broken windows, provided more than enough opportunities for the enemy to come and end their lives. “We need to move.” He glanced behind him in the darkness, unable to see anyone. “Hello?”

  Zi kept close, but while Luis scoured the depths of the bank, she kept her attention focused on the front of the bank, making sure that they had time to get anyone that was still alive in the bank out.

  With their cover already blown, Luis knew that they had to move quickly, and if they couldn’t get out of the bank, then the very least he could do would be to pull the gunfire toward him and Zi to allow the others to finish their mission.

  More gunfire erupted from the streets, and Luis and Zi climbed over the teller stations, the protective structures having been removed, and jumping behind them for cover.

  Luis landed on something, and he heard a yelp as he scrambled to sit himself upright. With his eyes still adjusting to the new level of pitch-black darkness as opposed to the outside, Luis could only hear the person scramble away from him.

  “Hello?” Luis asked.

  Zi’s gunfire deafened Luis to any response, but she paused to reload. “Luis, they’re at the door!”

  Luis moved deeper toward the back where he saw shadows moving. “It’s all right!” He stretched out his hands, groping the darkness until he felt cloth on his fingertips. He gripped the cloth hard and yanked it close enough for him to see the whites of the eyes of the woman whom he grabbed hold. Blood covered her face and body, the stench of death on her like the others even though she was alive.

  When there was a break in gunfire and he was finally able to hear what she kept repeating to herself over and over again, he wished that she would have just stayed quiet.

  “They’re going to kill us all.”

  34

  James was at the east end of the town by the blockade, setting the charges to blow the cars to smithereens for when the semi-truck needed to make their way through the town. He’d already set the charges by the Humvees and dumped gasoline on the first two buildings.

  The town’s buildings were clustered close together, and he knew that once the first two caught fire, the rest would follow shortly. It had been a particularly dry summer.

  Engulfed in the quiet for so long, the sound of gunfire made him jump and he ducked back behind the cover of the front building, thinking that it was directed at him.

  When he’d finally had a moment to recover, James realized that the gunfight was farther down the street. Near the bank. Near Luis and Zi.

  Once the gunfight began, the forces that had remained hidden burst from the buildings and the vehicles and rushed toward where the action was located.

  James counted nine fighters, all of them heading toward Luis and Zi. He finished setting the charges and then quickly moved toward the gunfight.

  He glanced back to the gas station, where he hoped that the guys were still loading the supplies despite the sudden change in plans, and then kept to the street, darting between the cars and staying low as he approached the fighting by the bank. He stopped twenty yards from the bank, the random pops of the gunfire dying down.

  James poked his head up from behind the back of the sedan, the muzzle flashes giving away the enemy’s position in the darkness. He saw that three of the seven fighters were clustered together near a van by the bank’s entrance. He plucked one of the three grenades he’d brought with him.

  James pulled the pin, squeezing the lever of the grenade tightly, and then arched it high, watching it land at the heels of the enemy, who turned in time to release one scream before the grenade erupted.

  The explosion triggered the fighters pressing on the bank’s front steps to turn, and by the time they realized what had happened, James was already on top of them, forcing them back behind the cover of vehicles while he took up position near the three dead soldiers the grenade had taken out.

  The harsh scent of smoke, dirt, blood, and charred flesh caught in his nostrils, and James frowned as he looked at the charred remains of a pyre. They had burned someone at the stake, and the position in front of the bank made James think that they had made their hostages watch.

  “James!”

  James looked to the bank, and he saw tufts of hair through the window. It was Luis. He quickly emerged from behind the van and fired at the enemy he’d driven from the front steps of the bank, giving the people inside a chance to escape.

  Luis and Zi worked in tandem with James to provide cover fire for the fleeing hostages. It was slow going, and they only managed to get two or three out at a time until Luis gave a thumbs up to James that they’d all gotten out.

  Once Luis and Zi had escaped, James plucked another one of his grenades and crouched low as he moved to the other end of the van. He peered around the side and spotted the three more terrorists clustered together. He pulled the pin and chucked the grenade, but his aim was too short as it hit the front side of the car.

  But the explosion provided the needed distraction to give James time to escape, and he sprinted toward the east side of town, knowing that he’d have to blow the charges and then torch the buildings.

  Bullets chased James down the road as he weaved between the vehicles. Between his fatigue, the bullets, the gunfire, and the darkness, James was forced to dart into Mel’s Hardware.

  Once inside the darkened store, James did a very quick scan of the interior before setting his gaze back into the street and locating the goon squad currently chasing him. He fired a few shots out into the street to ensure that they knew he was still a threat, but he also understood that he�
�d have to work fast if he was going to make it out of this alive. They’d be swarming the back entrance soon, and once he was surrounded, it would make his attempted escape that much more difficult.

  Keeping an eye on the front of the store, James worked his way to the back, but stopped when he neared Mel’s office.

  “Hey, let me go!”

  James pivoted his rifle toward the open door of the office, but when Jake was placed in the narrow hallway with a gun to his head, every ounce of color in his face vanished and was replaced with a sickly white.

  The tip of the rifle dipped and James’s legs turned to jelly. Sweat stung James’s eyes as he tried to blink away the nightmare that was currently plaguing his vision. It was impossible for his boy to be standing there with that gun aimed at his head. Jake was back at the ranch. He was tucked away in the bunker, safe and sound with his mother. He couldn’t be here.

  Jake was sweaty, and he scrunched up his face in defeat and shame as his eyes watered. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  With the nightmare refusing to end, James forced himself back to his feet, swallowed his fear, and then cleared the anxiousness from his throat. “Let him go.”

  “I don’t think I will,” the man said. “I think you’re going to toss all your weapons down the hallway, and then you’re going to slowly walk with your son to the front doors, where you’ll instruct the rest of your men to stand down.”

  James kept his eyes on Jake. The gunmen had tied a rope around Jake’s waist and was hiding in the office, only the gun exposed. No flesh.

  With the rifle still held limply in his hands, James reaffirmed his grip on the weapon.

  “I’m not going to be patient, James,” the voice said. “Comply, or I will kill your son.”

  James looked to his boy and saw the rope and chain tied around the waist, and then slowly and quietly raised his rifle.

  “Do it now, James!” The voice thundered and Jake trembled, standing alone in the hallway as the gun was flush against Jake’s temple.