The Burning Fields (Surviving the Fall 5)

The man cocked his head to the side and looked Rick in the eyes. “If we don’t help each other, what’s the point? Someone tries to steal from me I’ll shoot him. No questions asked. Someone needs help and asks politely, though? I’ll do whatever I can.”

Rick nodded slowly. “That’s a noble attitude. I admire it, for whatever that’s worth, but I just hope you don’t end up—”

“End up what?” The man interrupted Rick. “Dead? Taken advantage of?” He reached over and hefted his shotgun, his voice growing dark. “I’ve helped out a dozen more besides you and your fellow soldiers. And I’ve buried three so far who tried to take advantage of me.”

Rick felt his heart race at the matter-of-fact statement and nodded, slowly reaching down to put the Humvee in gear. “Well, I appreciate the help.”

“No problem at all.” The man smiled and gave a salute to Rick. “Stay safe out there! And be careful crossing the mountains. No telling who or what’s up there.”

Rick gave the man as much of a smile as he could muster and eased onto the accelerator. He rolled up the front windows and pulled back out onto the highway, checking his rearview mirror frequently as he went. Behind him he saw the man walk slowly back into the gas station, head down and gun in his hands as he returned to his self-imposed watch.

“What the hell was with that guy?” Rick wondered aloud as he sped along, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the gas station as possible. Though the encounter had ended without an altercation the man’s statement about killing and burying three people disturbed him to no end. He felt fortunate that the man had mistaken him for a member of the military and hadn’t asked any questions, either, otherwise he felt certain that the whole encounter would have gone in an entirely different direction.

Wearing only a camo jacket, Rick didn’t exactly look the part of a soldier. He figured that since he was driving a Humvee that was armed to the teeth he was close enough in appearance to a soldier for casual observers to make the assumption.

“Fresh tank and full reserves.” Rick nodded as he tapped on the GPS. “That should get me close enough to Grand Junction to find more fuel.” He was no closer to a decision about where to go after Grand Junction but trusted that he would make the right choice once he got there. Until then he just had to keep pressing forward.

Chapter 6

The Water’s Homestead

Outside Ellisville, VA

Dianne and Mark continued working on moving around supplies and stacking them in front of the various outbuildings. Once they were finished they started working on the mobile razor wire fencing units out in the driveway in front of the house. Mark started by hammering nails of various lengths and widths into the boards and placing them point-up on the ground. Dianne then went back and crafted tight loops of razor wire, stapling it down to the boards so that it coiled up and around in a six to twelve inch radius around the top and sides of the boards.

Individually each board posed little threat to those on foot but when laid in a staggered row they became dangerous to both foot and vehicular traffic. The nails on at least one of the boards were guaranteed to puncture a tire while the rows of razor wire would cause anyone stepping over them some moderate amount of pain or hassle. Short and darkly colored knots of rope on the ends of the boards made it possible to drag them around without risking harm but the color of the rope would make it hard for others to even tell that they were present.

With the boards complete Dianne and Mark laid them out twenty or so feet back from the gate, at the start of a turn in the drive. The curvature of the ground in the drive made it nearly impossible to see them from the gate and completely impossible to spot from the road. The number of boards on the drive made Dianne feel slightly better since anyone coming in with a vehicle would have to use the driveway and they would, at a minimum, be slowed down by them.

With the initial work to the driveway complete, Dianne and Mark set to work crafting another set of boards. Instead of long narrow ones, though, they took a large piece of plywood and completely covered it with razor wire. They moved the plywood down near the generator shed and stapled lengths of razor wire to the outer walls of the outbuilding. Once that step was complete the pair used their experience in creating the reinforced back door to the house to mount the plywood to the exterior of the shed door, in effect creating a secondary layer. A padlock went on last before Dianne walked around the generator building to survey their work.

“I think you’re right, Mark.”

“About what?”

Dianne grinned. “This place is starting to look like a prison.”

“See!” Mark threw his hands up in the air. “I told you!”

“It’s good, though. If we do this to all of the buildings then we’ll make it a bit more of a challenge for intruders to get at anything.”

“That’s good. If somebody comes on the property again maybe they’ll just leave.”

“You know, I was thinking about that.” Dianne sat down on the ground and pulled off her work gloves. “If I was someone who really wanted to break in and steal something, would I go for the building that’s the most fortified or the least?”

“What do you mean?” Mark sat down beside her, idly picking at the brown grass as she continued.

“Imagine you’re someone who wants to take something we have. You wander in and find a bunch of buildings with razor wire and extra locks and everything on them. Would you try to break into the building that’s the least protected or the most protected? The least protected would be the easiest but the most protected would theoretically have the most valuables for you to take.”

“I’m not sure—” Mark’s response was cut off as Dianne continued talking.

“See, I started thinking about this a little while ago and my first thought is that someone would go for the building that has the most security because they want the most valuable stuff. But I don’t think so anymore.”

“Why not?”

“The guy who showed up here was skittish. He wasn’t looking for a fight. He wanted an easy target, something to take without a struggle. I think that if someone comes out here again and sees a bunch of heavily fortified buildings they’ll want to go for the ones that are least fortified.” Dianne paused for a few seconds and smiled. “So that’s what we’ll do.”

“You… you want to leave one of the buildings unprotected? Why?”