The Systemic Series - Box Set

by K. W. Callahan

  With the attackers now in front of the door, I knew there would be no firing upon this position from outside, so I knelt down, positioned my automatic rifle out in front of me, rapidly slid the slat over, jammed the barrel of my automatic rifle through the hole, and squeezed the trigger, swiveling the rifle’s barrel from side to side as I unloading a full magazine of rounds on our attackers in just seconds.

  I heard shouts of surprise followed almost instantaneously by screams of pain. The pounding on the door immediately stopped, and I quickly pulled my rifle back inside, slid the slat closed, and moved back to the safety of the bullet-proof barricade where Claire lay prone on the floor.

  I could hear gunfire erupt from the second floor. I guessed that Joanna and Sharron were firing at the remnants of the retreating assault team that had been trying to penetrate the front entrance. As I peeked from my vantage point, it looked like one of our upstairs shooters hit a member of the assault team as they dashed back across the lawn. The man lurched forward, knocked off balance by what appeared to be a bullet striking him in the shoulder, but then he recovered and made it back with two other men to the safety of the tree line.

  Things calmed down again after this and eventually the firing from our attackers ceased. I figured that Richard was deciding what their next move should be, which meant that I should be doing the same. As I sat reloading my rifle and the magazine I’d emptied on the men out front – several of whom were now dead on our front steps – I tried to think of what I would do if I were Richard. More than likely, I would wait for the cover of darkness. The castle was just too formidable and too well defended for daylight assaults, and he had just discovered that. I figured that Richard might have more people at his disposal than I initially estimated but not enough that he was willing to keep losing them in poorly executed daylight raids.

  Yes, if I were him, I’d wait for dark…or at least dusk. Then I’d attack from several directions at once, making it harder for us to concentrate our firepower. I’d make several of the coordinated attacks more diversionary, and one of them my primary target. Where that prime target would be was the question that lingered in my mind. They’d already probed the front entrance and even though they’d given the door a pretty good battering, I didn’t think they’d try it again. The large log battering ram they’d used in the assault now lay among the dead men on our front steps. They might however try the side garden or back door, or maybe they’d use ladders and try to enter through the second-floor balcony or one of the first-floor windows.

  My rifle reloaded, I raised myself to a crouched position. “I’m going to check on everyone,” I told Claire as I hustled off toward the library and office.

  Ray had taken up a position in the library that faced out over the front of the house. Pam was in the office, behind the library where she could see out to the side and back yards of the castle. They had pushed a huge bookshelf up in front of the office’s plate glass window that had been shattered by the initial round of gunfire that killed Janet. Ray had moved Janet’s body into the office’s small bathroom. They had also flipped the enormous desk in the room over onto its side and pushed it up against one of the windows that faced out over the lawn. Pam was crouched behind it, her rifle beside her.

  “You good here?” I asked her.

  “Yeah,” she nodded, looking shaken but confident.

  I then walked to the library where Ray was knelt, watching out a small opening in one of the barricaded windows facing the front lawn.

  “Doing okay in here?” I asked him.

  “Fine,” he said. “Think they’re going to wait for night to take their next shot at us?” he asked, reading my mind.

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s what I’d do.”

  “Me too,” he agreed.

  “Where you think they’ll hit us?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Don’t know. They tried the front?”

  I nodded, “I got them through the slide window.”

  “Told you that’d come in handy,” Ray nodded.

  “Sure did,” I agreed.

  “Well, I doubt they’ll be back to the front then, but we can’t count it out for sure. My bet is that they hit us on the side entrance through the walled garden since there is more cover there and fewer windows from which to fire at them. That or they might try through the greenhouse since its glass. But the glass can work both for and against them. They can break through easier but we can see them coming and shoot at them easier too.”

  “Where do you think I should focus our defenses?” I asked.

  “I’d leave them alone. It’s impossible to know for sure where they’ll strike, and loading up one part of the castle could leave another area wide open if we guess wrong. The way we’re spread out right now, we have the place pretty well covered and we can quickly move to areas as needed. With our low number of people to cover a place this size, it’s impossible to defend every square foot. We just have to hope that they choose spots where we see them coming ahead of time or at least get to them before they gain too much of a foothold.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m going to go check on the others. You guys need anything before I go?”

  Ray shook his head, no.

  “Since Pam is in with the refrigerator, see if she’ll start getting some food together to take around to the others here in a bit. Just some pre-cooked meat…venison jerky or whatever is quick and easy. I have a feeling we’re going to need our energy for tonight.”

  “Sounds good,” Ray said.

  I checked on Will and Dad next, asking Emily if she would make a quick check of the kids downstairs along the way. Will and Dad were doing fine and holding their own, so I moved upstairs to look in on Sharron and Joanna next, taking a little extra time with Joanna to ensure that she was prepared for a potential attack on the master bedroom’s adjoining balcony.

  After I’d finished with my instructions to her, she asked, “What happened to Janet?”

  “They got here in the first round of gunfire. We were talking in front of the big picture window in the office. They must have seen her silhouette.”

  “Was it quick?” Joanna asked.

  “Instantaneous,” I said.

  She nodded, looking away, a tear running down her cheek. “Good…I wouldn’t want her to suffer,” was all she said before turning back to focus on defending her position.

  I left her. There was nothing I could say…or nothing I could think of to say…not right now at least.

  I went back downstairs and collected water to deliver to everyone. Emily came back up from the basement where she had checked on the kids.

  “Everything okay?” I asked her.

  “They’re holding up about as well as can be expected, all things considered,” she said. “All the gunfire has Jason kind of rattled, but the older kids are doing a pretty good job of keeping him calm.”

  “They have stuff to do down there?”

  “Yes. Right now they’re playing card games.”

  “Good,” I said.

  After I made the rounds delivering water, I went back to Claire. “Find some bags,” I told her quietly, not wanting anyone else to overhear. “Backpacks, cloth bags, whatever, as long as they’re sturdy and can hold a good amount of supplies. I want you to start working on making bug-out bags.”

  She looked at me questioningly.

  “Just in case,” I said. “Get bottles of water, food, clothing, medical supplies, batteries, and stuff like that, and start dividing them up among the bags. Make up one with all your diabetic supplies too, and try to find something to make a kitty-carrier for Cashmere. But try to be quiet about it. I don’t want to get everyone thinking that we’re giving up. I just want to be ready.”

  She nodded, “Okay,” was all she said before hustling off to get started.

  CHAPTER 2

  For the rest of the afternoon and early evening, things remained quiet. I watched through binoculars as people moved about in the forest surrounding the castle, but we
didn’t dare waste any of our ammunition taking low-percentage shots at them. None of us were that good – except for Ray maybe – and even he and Will agreed that it was better to conserve ammo for what might come later.

  Instead, we took time to bolster our defenses where needed and reinforce the front door, shoving some bookcases and a sofa in front of it to help keep it secure. We then spent time waiting, resting, checking guns, and forcing ourselves to eat food even though the knowledge of what lay before us had ruined our appetites.

  To help kill time but still stay productive, I found some empty wine bottles, tore rags from old t-shirts, and used most of our remaining gasoline to make Molotov cocktails. I made a total of four. It used up almost all our gas from inside the generator, which I didn’t like, but I figured it was better to use the fuel in the defense of the castle, since if we lost the castle we wouldn’t need the generator anyway.

  I gave three of the homemade bombs to Joanna and one to Sharron since they had better angles upstairs – especially Joanna, since she was positioned near the second-floor balcony – to throw them down upon potential attackers.

  As we sat watching, waiting, and wondering, the sun began to set. As I watched it in the western sky, I rehashed thoughts I’d had back at camp in southern Illinois about the American Indians. I wondered how they must have felt hundreds of years ago. Just like now, back then there was so much land with so few people, yet settlers and Indians still couldn’t find ways to live together peacefully. They fought over territory, over herds of buffalo, over ways of life and living. And as the Indians retreated further, and the settlers pressed their encroachment westward, the Indians were left with fewer and fewer options. They must have wondered why they couldn’t just be left alone, why there was always someone trying to interfere with their lives and living location.

  It’s how I felt now.

  Why couldn’t we just be left alone? Why couldn’t these people be happy sharing the bountiful wildlife in this beautiful part of the country? Wasn’t life hard enough now? Couldn’t we just focus on helping one another try to survive in this harsh new environment rather than on trying to kill one another?

  “Guess not,” I mumbled aloud.

  “What?” said Claire.

  “Nothing…just thinking,” I shook my head.

  She reached over and put her hand on my neck, massaging it. I rolled my head back and around. Her rubbing sent little shockwaves of pleasure through my body. I knew I shouldn’t relax, but her hands were magic on my neck which was sore as hell from a combination of stress and peering awkwardly outside through our tiny firing portholes all day.

  I closed my eyes and let my shoulders slump. Claire moved around behind me and started working the sides of my neck and down my shoulders. I’d been so tense for so long that her hands were melting me like butter. I inhaled deeply, held it, and then exhaled in a long, slow, deep breath.

  I wanted so badly just to sneak upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms with Claire, to be with her, and to forget about Janet’s death and everything going on around us. Instead, I gently removed her hands from me, kissed her softly, stood, and walked upstairs alone.

  It was becoming harder and harder to see out the front entrance as the sunlight faded, and I wanted a better view of anyone approaching the castle. First, I went to one of the guest bedrooms in the front center of the house. Peering out the window and across the lawn to the forest, I could see no movement. Up here, the windows were unprotected and it worried me. I turned and pulled the sheets off of a spare single bed in the room and then tugged the mattress off and pushing it up against the window where I wedged it in place with one of the nightstands. I did the same thing with the box springs, using them and a second nightstand to cover the other window.

  It wasn’t enough to keep people out should they scale the walls, but it might be enough to at least deter them from making the attempt or at least slow them down should they decide to try. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking of this earlier. Now I had six other bedrooms that needed similar treatment. It would have been the perfect project for Joanna and Sharron during the day’s downtime, but it was too late now. I needed every available pair of eyes on lookout.

  Since I wanted to stay up here for a while anyway, I decided to try to complete barricading the windows to a few more rooms to at least get the project underway. I could help keep watch up here while at the same time better securing the area.

  I did the spare bedroom next to the one I’d just completed and was halfway done with the room beside that when I heard a noise behind me. At first, I figured it was Joanna or Sharron come to see what the heck I was doing. But the sounds were dull and distant and sounded like they were coming from the rear of the house.

  I moved to one of the back bedrooms and looked out the window. I saw nothing in the yard, so I opened the window and looked below me. Again, I saw no one. Suddenly something struck the house beside me with a heavy thud and fell to the ground. Then something else hit above me on the roof. I heard rolling above me, and several seconds later, a stone about the size of a baseball rolled off the rooftop and dropped to the ground below. Just as it landed, the window beside me disintegrated in an explosion of glass as a rock crashed through it and impacted with the bedroom wall behind me with a monstrous thud.

  I jumped back and away just as another rock came blasting through the window in front of which I’d just been standing. We were being bombed with rocks. But why? I took another quick peek outside and saw nothing. I guessed that Richard’s people must be firing from the forest, but I expected to see an attack coming with the barrage. Several more rocks blasted through the glass panes of the greenhouse below me, creating a huge amount of noise as large chunks of glass crashed down onto the greenhouse’s ceramic tile floor below.

  I chanced another quick glance outside, but still saw no one. Then it stuck me; this was a diversion. And as soon as the thought entered my mind, I heard gunfire erupt from the east side of the house facing the walled garden. I bolted from the bedroom and was back downstairs to rejoin Claire in a matter of seconds.

  She had her rifle in her hands and was watching outside. She looked up at me as I made it down to her. “Everything’s clear here,” she called to me. Bullets were striking the front of the castle, some coming through the front door barricade.

  “Keep down,” I told her. “I’m going to check on Will and Dad.”

  As I ran out of the main entry foyer and into the dining room where Will was, bullets were flying. He was crouched, firing his rifle from behind the room’s huge dining room table that he’d turned on its side and pushed over in front of the front windows for additional cover. I dropped to my stomach as bullets whizzed past and army-crawled over too him.

  “How’s Dad?” I yelled.

  “Don’t know,” he called back. “He went over to cover the mud room entrance.”

  “Stay here,” I said.

  Will nodded, raising his rifle and angling it down over the table so he could fire several rounds out the window without exposing himself.

  I crawled back out into the hallway that ran between the kitchen and dining room. Moments later, I reached the barricaded mud room where I found Dad. We had boarded up the French doors that led into this area and used a variety of other wood and furniture to block the entry way. Dad was leaning up against one wall of the room, breathing heavily, his weapon gripped tightly in his hands. I could hear heavy banging outside and see the barriers we’d set up to block the doors gradually being forced inward.

  “Dad, you okay?” I called to him over the gunfire from outside. Several bullets ripped in through the barricaded doors and tore into the wall beside him. I motioned him to come over to where I was in the hallway where there was more cover.

  He looked scared as shit, but he pushed himself away from the wall. In the fading light, I could see a dark spot on the wall where he’d been leaning. It was then that I realized he wasn’t scared, he was wounded.

  I fired se
veral shots into the area surrounding the French doors in an attempt to give Dad cover as he wobbled toward me. The shooting coming from outside the doors stopped, as did the movement of our barricade, but only momentarily.

  As Dad neared, he lurched toward me, falling into my arms. I pulled him over into the hallway with me. “Stay here,” I told him as the gunfire outside the doors started up again. I’ll be right back.”

  I ducked around to where we’d pushed some chairs and other furniture into a sort of firing blind at the far end of the mud room, close to where it met with the hallway. There, I let loose with a full magazine of ammo.

  Suddenly from behind the doors outside there was a whooshing sound. Light poured in from around the seams in the door, and this was followed by screams of pain and shouts of surprise.

  “Joanna,” I said aloud, smiling.

  I caught the sweet smell of gasoline coming from the Molotov cocktail she’d tossed down upon the intruders. Moments later, the light from the burning fuel faded as did the firing from outside.

  I rushed back to where Dad sat slumped in the hallway. “Can you stand?” I asked him.

  “Don’t think so,” he said. “Lost a lot of blood.”

  “Where are you hit?” I asked.

  “Right shoulder,” he said weakly.

  I moved around to his left side, “Let’s get you into the kitchen where it’s safer, okay?”

  He just nodded.

  “Come on,” I said, laying my rifle down and getting his left arm over and around my neck. After a minute of struggling and stumbling, I got him into the kitchen.

  “Emily!” I shouted as we entered the room. “I need you!”

  She came rushing in to meet us. She gasped when she saw Dad.

  “I need you to patch him up as best you can,” I said. “He’s hit in the shoulder and bleeding badly. Grab some towels to stop the blood and see if you can bandage the wound, then boil some hot water to clean him up. I’ll have Claire come with the medical supplies. Got it?”