Compass Call: Survival & Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 3) (19 page)

Thick black smoke began to poor from the broken upstairs windows, and John prayed no neighbors would come and investigate. He saw a few curious faces peek out from behind curtains of nearby windows, but he hoped that would be the extent of their curiosity.

John continued to study the gang as they celebrated their arson. He looked for Luanne, but it was hard to distinguish her from the other female members in the gang. His eyes were drawn to a developing scene near the end of the formation. A biker had yanked down the halter top of the woman sitting on his bike. At first the woman didn’t seem to mind, but then the biker reached out and forcibly squeezed her boobs. The woman shrieked and slapped the biker across the face. Then, as she reached down to pull up her top, the biker smiled and smacked her back, but with much greater force. The woman tumbled off the bike and fell to the ground covering her face.

She was the only woman not wearing gang leather, and John wondered if it was Luanne. He returned his eye to the rifle scope and saw that it was, indeed, Luanne. Apparently she didn’t learn from her first experience with Darrel, and went and found herself a new biker boyfriend in the gang. Unfortunately for Luanne, her new boyfriend wasn’t interested in treating her with any degree of respect, and that told John she had probably lost what little status she once held in the gang.

As Luanne sat crouched on the street rubbing her cheek the angry biker slapped her again, and then he reached down and tore her halter completely off. He tossed the tattered material high into the air and yelled. More cheers arose from the bikers who now enjoyed a side show to the arson. John thanked the man for giving him a second target, and his finger went from the magazine well to the trigger.

Luanne was now little more than a play-thing for the gang, and though John felt she deserved her new status, he absolutely hated seeing a woman get roughed up. He spared her life once before, letting her go with only a warning after she participated in the brutal attack on the Hernandez family, but she obviously didn’t heed his warning. John threatened to kill her if he ever saw her again, and he could easily collect on that warning, but not without assuming a great deal of risk to himself and his family. Luanne, either through cooperation or coercion, once again managed to bring death and destruction to their quiet little neighborhood, but John felt something differently about her this time. A growing feeling of sympathy and mercy began to fill him, but he quickly subdued it. John knew it wasn’t the time to get sentimental, especially over such a troublesome woman.

John scanned the other gang members with the rifle scope while Luanne went to retrieve her tattered top. When she found that it was too torn up to use, she quietly removed the bandana from her hair and quickly tied it around her breasts to fashion a new top. The men shouted profanities and other crude insults at her as she worked, but she ignored them. When she finished, she dutifully returned to the bike and climbed back on. John was impressed with her strength and resolve, and he tried to imagine how she could have turned out if given a better chance.

With Paul’s house completely engulfed in flames and burning freely, quite obviously committed to total destruction, the gang leader issued another shrill whistle, followed by a single hand motion above his head. The biker gang immediately mounted
their motorcycles and started their engines. But instead of turning around and leaving the way they came in, the leader took the gang up the loop towards the water tower. John was glad the gang didn’t show up during the neighborhood meeting; that would have been a huge disaster.

Following their leader, the entire gang continued west up the loop to complete their circuit around the neighborhood. When the last motorcycle, the one carrying Luanne, passed John’s concealed position, he got up and sprinted south, through the middle of the development toward his home. He ran back toward his house, leaping over short fences without a pause, and reached the street shortly after the motorcycle carrying Luanne roared past.

John paused to catch his breath, but immediately resumed his run when he thought about the safety of his family. When the first few motorcycles dropped from sight over the crest of the neighborhood’s entrance, John sighed heavily and slowed to a walk. Apparently, the gang wasn’t interested in his, or anyone else’s home in the neighborhood. But then, as the last motorcycle passed John’s house, Luanne’s arm pointed to it. John figured she must have recognized Paul’s van in the driveway.

John cursed and resumed running, but the biker didn’t stop. He either wasn’t interested in what Luanne had seen, or he didn’t hear her. John knew that parking Paul’s van in the driveway was a risk, but it was a calculated risk. After all, what were the chances of Luanne coming back to the neighborhood, let alone seeing and identifying Paul’s van parked in a different driveway? He knew it was a miscalculation, because once Luanne convinced the biker gang that Paul was still in the neighborhood, they’d be back.

As the last gang motorcycle disappeared out of sight, John listened carefully to the rumbling exhaust, alert for any sound that would indicate they were turning around, but it never came. Soon, the only evidence that the bikers were ever present was the telltale smoke that rose high into the air from Paul’s house.

John knew the house was expendable, an allowable sacrifice given the potential for the loss of life. And though everything useful had been removed from it days ago, it wouldn’t justify the associated sentimentality. He believed Marissa would be upset by the news of the loss, but overall, John considered their first encounter with the biker gang to have been of little or no consequence whatsoever. In fact, he was actually surprised they didn’t come in harder, with more violence on their mind. He was sure both sides learned something from the encounter, but John considered what he learned to be much more valuable. He knew their next raid would be bolder, but so would John’s response.

When John reached the mailbox, Pete stepped out and walked up to meet him in the yard. The two men offered a casual salute to each other and turned to look at the rising smoke. “You OK?” asked Pete. “You look out of breath.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m guessing those were the bikers you were talking about,” said Pete, with a sidelong glance at John.

“Yup,” replied John. He knew his short responses communicated his feelings about the entire event. He wasn’t happy about being caught off guard by the biker raid, and he knew Pete was thinking the same thing. But John also knew that Pete would have some good ideas about preventing that in the future. He looked at Pete and asked, “Do you think we can handle a group that size . . . just us?”

“You think they’ll be back?” asked Pete in reply.

“I’m sure of it. I saw someone . . . Luanne . . . point at our house as she rode by. When she gets a chance, she’ll tell the gang where they can find Paul.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. She’s very low in the gang right now, so she’ll do it to elevate her status. She’s got no loyalty toward us.”

“I suppose you’re right. We have work to do then . . . neighborhood work,” said Pete.

John sneezed loudly and Pete said, “Bless you.”

“What are your plans?” asked John, as he wiped his nose with a bandana.

“We get them off their bikes. Take a few of them out by rigging some wire about neck high,” said Pete, with a hand held in the air to represent the wire’s height. “We can use other obstacles to canalize and limit their direction of travel . . . lead them into an ambush. But I’d rather hit them on the main road instead of here in the neighborhood,” finished Pete.

John nodded and said, “At least they can’t sneak up on us with those bikes.”

“That’s for sure.”

“I wish I had earplugs in when they showed up to torch Paul’s place.”

“You were there? You watched and didn’t shoot any of them?” asked Pete.

John couldn’t tell if his friend was surprised or impressed, but he said, “There was really no need to engage them. I would have if they attacked one of the neighbors, but they didn’t. Besides, I was more interested in seeing how they worked together and what they had for weapons.”

“And what did you see?” asked Pete.

“They had only one rifle, an M4. The rest carried a combination of pistols and shotguns. They take orders from a big white guy with a full black beard and a machete strapped across his back. Oh, and get this, he also wears a gunslinger’s pistol belt with two revolvers,” said John.

“Just like on the patch,” replied Pete.

“Yeah. Just like on the patch,” said John. “I’m sure that if we shoot the leader, the rest of them will run like rabbits. But I think we can drop half the gang in the opening volley of fire.”

Pete nodded, as if considering the ambush, but said, “Black Beard. I like it. And the meeting with Tony. How’d that go?”

“As well as could be expected. He asked about our preparedness, and he wanted to know if I’d help organize and train a security detail,” said John.

“I thought he designated that fitness jock, what’s his name, Joel, as the head of his police force?”

“He did, but he wanted me to help set it up. I told him I wasn’t interested.”

“Really?” asked Pete, a bit surprised.

“I don’t have the time, Pete. We’ve got so much to do before we leave, but you’re welcome to help him if you want. Tony asked if you’d be interested,” replied John.

“Did you tell him about the first attack on the Hernandez’s?”

“I did, but without giving him too much detail. I don’t trust him. He also asked me about our food preps. I told him we had about a month’s supply with three families. He wanted to know if I would share,” said John.

Pete nodded and waited for John to continue, but John was busy thinking that he made a mistake telling Tony what he did. He doubted the man believed anything he said about what food he had, but telling him anything less would have been problematic. He was, after all, trying to maintain some semblance of credibility with Tony, even if it was to exploit his contrived position of authority in the end. Either way, John knew his home was now a target for every desperate neighbor in the development.

All the years he spent preparing to survive a disaster, John never thought his preps would make him a target. He never imagined all that effort amounting to more stress and danger. Apparently, Aesop’s Fable, the Ant and the Grasshopper, failed to mention one important fact; that one prepared ant can’t stand up to the demands of a disproportionate number of grasshoppers.

“John? You OK?” asked Pete.

“Yeah, just thinking. I never thought I’d live to regret being prepared,” said John.

“What? Are you kidding me, man?” said Pete. “Don’t let Tony get inside your head.”

“You’re right. It’s just that the possibilities of suburban preparedness can only be realized when more people prepare. If I had enough to feed everyone in the neighborhood I would, but I don’t, so I can’t, and now we’re a target. It’s well enough right now that we’re less than a week into the disaster, but this time next week, we’ll be like Custer at Little Bighorn.

“You really think it will come to that?” asked Pete.

“Yes, I do,” said John, and after a brief contemplative pause he added, “I mentioned the container shipping yard and FedEx warehouse to Tony as a way to shake his scavenging scent, but why would he send a group of people to a distant and potentially hostile area in search of food when he can just send them here?”

“The census?”

“Exactly. He mentioned the fact that he knew we wouldn’t let him in, which tells me that we have to let him in,” said John.

“Say again?” replied Pete.

“Think about it, what he doesn’t know will only work on his imagination. If we allow his little band of census takers into the house . . . you know, let them look around and see that we really don’t have that much food, then maybe he’ll turn his attention elsewhere,” said John.

“And then we won’t have to shoot a bunch of people, and stack their bodies in the ditch by the mailbox,” added Pete.

“That’s the last thing I want. If it was just you, me, and a few other well trained guys, we could defend this place for a while. But we have women and children to protect. Do you think Bonnie could shoot to kill?” asked John.

“I don’t know,” answered Pete honestly. “I’d like to think she could, but that would depend on the situation. What about Jenna?” said Pete, “Do you think she can?”

“Same here,” said John.

“Should we act now . . . take out Tony?”

“Pete! We’re not a goon squad,” said John, as mild chastisement.

“But a little preemptive action might buy us some more time,” added Pete.

“I think we’re good for time. If I thought Tony could create a real problem for us I would act preemptively, but I don’t think he can. He’s political, not strategic. And even if he wanted to act, I don’t think he could assemble a group that would be willing to come at us, not after that demonstration we held,” said John.

“Demonstration you held,” corrected Pete.

John removed the magazine and cleared his weapon with a quick pull on the charging handle. He deftly caught the flying round in his hand and inspected the primer. It had a small dimple from the bolt slamming forward, but not enough to warrant its rotation in the magazine. He pressed it back in place and slapped the magazine back into the weapons magazine well. “Tony’s a very skilled manipulator, so we still can’t afford to let our guard down for one minute,” said John with a sigh. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“Your mouth will water when you walk in, so brace yourself. Marissa made enchiladas, and man, do they smell good.”

“Has anyone come by for water?”

“Two people. I gave water to one, but the other guy didn’t have a bucket so I sent him away,” said Pete.

“Somebody actually came for water without a bucket?” asked John, skeptically.

“Yeah, he thought I was going to provide one for him,” said Pete.

“Were you nice to him?” asked John.

“You mean, did I laugh in his face?” asked Pete.

“Yeah, something like that,” said John.