The Last Layover (4 page)

“Look, buddy,” he replied while pointing his finger at Evan in an aggressive manner. “This ain't over. I'm gonna tell the others, and you will give it up.”

“You had better just keep way from us. It will be the biggest mistake you've ever made if you try to take anything against our will—that I promise you,” Evan replied as he squared off against the man.

“Yeah, whatever, tough guy.  I won't be alone when I come back,” the man said, walking away, mumbling profanities under his breath.

Peggy looked at Evan and said, “Can’t we just give them something so they leave us alone?”

“No way!” replied Evan. “In an emergency situation like this, food is life. Chances are, the reason they are trying to take everyone's food is because they've already scouted around outside and found out there isn't any to be had. A city this size can't feed itself with its lack of production and extreme population density. They need constant resupply from the outside to keep food on the shelves. Give it a few more days, and people will be getting desperate for food and will do anything to get it. That's why we have to get moving and out of this urban nightmare.”

A look of hopelessness came over Peggy's face and she responded with a defeated sounding sigh. This was all a lot for her to bear. She was one of those people who saw modern society with all of its abundance as always being there, and could never imagine a situation such as this.

When Evan and Peggy got back to the adjoining rooms, they told the others what had happened. “Freakin great!” exclaimed Jason. “We're not even out of the hotel and we're already getting into it with people.”

Just then, another series of
thump, thump, thump
could be heard off in the distance, followed by a loud boom that made the building shutter so that it sounded like it was across the street. Damon ran to the window and saw what appeared to be a car fire one block over. He said, “What, are we in Baghdad? Do we have to deal with IEDs now? Is that what all those booms we heard were? Cars blowing up everywhere?”

Jason joined him at the window and said, “It's almost like a coordinated attack. They started with power generation and transportation. Now we're seeing stuff more locally focused. If you think about it, a grid down scenario like this would give someone up to no good the perfect cover. Law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed, security cameras are down, and no cell or land line coverage to make any reports.”

Just then, a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter flew overhead from the east to the west. Damon pointed at the helicopter and said, “That thing didn't even seem to stop and check out the car fire. That sort of says something about the big picture. Think about it. We've not seen one news helicopter, not one commercial aircraft of any kind, and really no police presence to speak of. Things must be a lot worse than we think, or things are so wide spread and serious, that our plight here is small potatoes.”

“Hey, guys,” Peggy said from the restroom. “The sewage is backing up in here. This is gross.”

“Well, hell,” Damon said, “either the city sewage system has been hit too or some pumps are down. Does the water still run?”

“No, it's out too,” she said.

“Well they, whoever they are, have managed to hit everything,” added Damon.

“The streets seem a lot emptier now than before,” said Evan looking out the window. “People are probably catching on that this isn't a simple temporary power outage anymore. And where are all the cars?”

Jason interrupted and said, “Okay guys, uh, and gal, let's hit the sack. We have a big day tomorrow. I think the situation warrants a constant watch now. We have about six hours until we need to get up and on the move, let's split this night up into three two-hour shifts. I'll take the first, then Evan, and lastly Damon, you can be the early riser.”

“Roger that,” Evan and Damon both replied.

Things were pretty uneventful during Jason's watch. He heard a few screams off in the distance that gave him the chills. In the pitch darkness of the moonless night, he couldn't see anything out the window. It was eerie how dark a major city could be without power. The hotel's generators must have finally run out of fuel; the emergency lights had gone out as well. A few gunshots could be heard on occasion. He could only imagine the fun the scumbags were having. This was like a golden opportunity for them. If the police weren't responding to car bombs, then who would possibly care about rape, murder, and robbery?

At the end of Jason's shift, he awoke Evan for his relief. He debriefed him on what he had heard and Evan took his place at the chair by the window with his SIG .40 holstered up and ready to go. About a half hour into his watch, just as Jason had fallen asleep, he heard multiple footsteps that sounded like they were making their way down the hall. He crept over to the door to try and get a peek through the peephole, as he leaned his head up to the door—
BAM!
The door was kicked open, striking him on the forehead and knocking him backwards onto the floor.

Jason, who was barely asleep, awoke to see Evan sitting up on the floor with his gun pointed in the direction of the door.
POP! POP! POP!
Evan fired three shots into the doorway while screaming, “Get out! Get out! Get out!”

A large man fell out into the hallway as the others in the group scurried down the hall to escape Evan's rage. Jason jumped to his feet, grabbed his gun, and covered the door while he ran over to help Evan up. Evan said, “I'm fine, I'm fine. Damon, watch Peggy while we secure the room.”

Jason and Evan, both with their flashlights in their non-shooting hand, cleared the doorway and checked the hall. Calling on their previous military experiences and their personal training, they were both tactically proficient and worked well together as a team. They both were active tactical shooting competitors as well, which helped to keep them on their game.

As Jason covered the hallway, Evan looked the downed man over with his light and said, “This is the jerk that confronted Peggy earlier in front of her room, wanting to take her food.”

“He wasn't kidding about coming back with more people,” replied Jason.

“Yeah, and being in New York, where people don't have the right to own a weapon unless you're a government official, they must have just assumed we were unarmed and thought they could roll over us with brute thuggery,” added Evan.

“Well, they know better now,” Jason said with a smug grin on his face.

Each of the men shared an uneasy laugh and went back inside the room. Peggy was in the corner huddled up in a ball, shaking and crying. Damon tried to console her. After a few moments, she regained her composure and said, “I can't believe you shot him! All he wanted was food. We should have just given it to him.” She struggled to keep from breaking back down into tears.

Damon said to her, “Now, Peggy, Evan did what he had to do. At this stage of the game, an attempt to take your food is an attempt to take your life. It's that simple.  Anyone who is gonna bust down your door and rush into your room in the middle of the night, plans on doing whatever they have to do to you to get what they want. Do you think they would have attacked us then started playing nice? They decided to take our group out to support theirs, and that's just not gonna happen if we have a say in it.”

Jason walked over to her and added, “And chances are, you are going to see a lot more violence before we make it home. Just remember, we are not just fighting to save ourselves, but to get home to our families to help them through this ordeal as well. And not one thug out there deserves consideration at the expense of your little boy.”

“You're right, guys. I'm sorry, Evan.”

Evan smiled at her. “It’s okay.”

Damon stood up and said, “Alright, folks, it's time to regroup. Let's go into the other adjoining room where we at least have a door still on its hinges and figure everything out.”

Once in the other room, with the adjoining and main doors locked, they pulled the recliner in front of one door and pushed the dresser in front of the other.

“That will at least keep them from kicking another door into Evan's head,” said Jason with a smirk.

“Ha ha,” Evan replied.

Damon stood up and walked over to the window.  “I think we need to get underway sooner than we had planned. We can use the dark as cover to slip out of the hotel without being obvious to our fan club downstairs. It won't be long until the sun is up, anyway. How do you guys want to handle this?”

Jason said, “I think we should use the fire escape. I'd rather avoid going down eleven flights of stairs, with each landing being a kill zone from the associated floor hallway. Plus, these jokers are probably focused on the inside of the building and more than likely don't have a sentry on each corner of the building exterior. Evan, you provide cover while I climb down, then we can both cover Damon and Peggy from top and bottom since they’re unarmed. Once they are safely on the ground, you follow while I cover you.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Evan said in agreement.

“Now, everyone grab your stuff and put your extra layers on because it's pretty cold out. Also, regardless of the fact that we have sewer issues, you may want to use the restroom now. Who knows when the next time we will have a semi-secure place to go will be.”

“Yuck!” said Peggy with a grimace.

“Suck it up, Buttercup!” said Jason, trying his best to keep a straight face, but to no avail. They all busted out laughing together. They were thankful to have each other at that moment. It would be a totally different situation to have to face alone. Deep inside, each of them worried about their families back home, but they knew they had to focus on the moment to get there.

Chapter 4: Back on the Homefront

Just two days ago, when the events began to unfold, Evan's wife, Molly, and their kids were at “The Homefront,” which is how she and Evan lovingly referred to their little piece of rural Tennessee paradise. Molly, a homeschool parent, was logging in to a co-op web site for some daily participation in a natural science class for their son, Jake. She had just gotten the live feed up, when suddenly their internet service seemed to go down. She picked up her cell phone to call a neighbor who had the same service, which had been known to be troublesome in the past, only to find that her cellular service wasn't working either. There was no signal strength at all.

“Jake, just go ahead and take a second look over what you were supposed to discuss. That way, when it comes back on, you'll be prepared to jump right in. I'm going to check on the girls.”

As Molly left the room and went down the hall, the lights suddenly went out and all of their appliances went silent. Fortunately, the power was only out for a brief moment; the diesel standby generator that Evan had insisted they invest in began to provide the home with uninterrupted power. She really started to wonder what was going on now.

“No internet, no cellular service, and now no power? What in the world could be going on?” she mumbled to herself.

Now that her television had power with the generator being online, she checked their satellite TV service only to find that it was out too. This really began to concern her, but she kept her worries to herself and decided to occupy the kids in the meantime by going outside and working with their animals. Their little hillbilly oasis gave them plenty of ways to stay busy.

In addition to meeting their sustenance and security needs, their kids also loved the property. Recreation opportunities abounded for the children. Jake, who was fourteen, found it a bit far from his friends, but since he had recently switched to homeschooling, the distance from their old home in Knoxville really wasn't that big of an issue. Evan and Molly's other two children, Lillian and Samantha, who were usually called Lilly and Sammy for short, were just two years and eight months of age respectively, so they really didn't know any different. Lilly was quite attached to her father. She clung to him while he was home and loved patrolling the property with her father on the family’s ATV. She was truly growing up to be an outdoorsy little girl in the environment The Homefront provided.

They had a garden plot of about an acre, with lots of suitable land to expand into a more self-sustaining size, if need be. This garden, in the meantime, would help them cultivate their farming skills, while providing some fresh produce as a bonus. One of the first purchases they made after buying the property was a 1952 Ford 8N tractor. It was old and basic, but for their purposes, it was more than adequate. Its simplicity made it easy to keep running on a budget, or God forbid, in a post collapse environment. Piece by piece, they also acquired a two-bottom turn plow, a disc cultivator, an aerator, a bush hog, a boom lift pole, a hay spear, and a finish mower for the tractor. All of this would be used to maintain the garden, as well as the rest of the property.

In addition to gardening for food, Molly had always wanted a milk cow since she had been raised on fresh cow’s milk as a child, so a cow was added to the homestead. Luckily, the property had an existing barn and animal pens from the previous owners, making it a relatively simple addition for the Bairds.

Evan began raising rabbits for a renewable food source. He got the idea from his like-minded friend and coworker, Jason. Jason and his wife raised rabbits as an addition to their preps since their location did not allow for larger, traditional livestock. They loved the low-maintenance aspect of raising rabbits and found that, even though they lived in a suburban neighborhood, it was easily added as a backyard project. Jason's success with rabbits had motivated Evan to try it as an entry level livestock of sorts. Molly and Evan wanted to eventually raise cattle, pigs, and goats for meat, but they didn't want to take on too much until they were sure they could handle it all. With Evan's job as a pilot keeping him on the road a lot, Molly and the kids had to be able to handle it without him for up to a week at a time.

In addition to rabbits, they had a chicken coop up and running, providing themselves with fresh eggs and occasionally meat for the table. Like the rabbits, they saw this as an easy first step to having a working hobby farm. Molly also loved the idea of raising their three children in an environment where they could see where food really comes from, and for them to be able to participate in the process as a learning experience. Evan and Molly both felt that American children were being raised in a world that was far too fragile, and knowing the basics of self-sufficiency could be key skills to have someday.

Their one hundred-acre property consisted of about thirty acres of cleared, rolling hills and seventy acres of a mix of partially-wooded to densely-wooded and hilly terrain. The house, barn, a large shop, and a tractor shed were all located on the cleared portion of the property. The remaining undeveloped land was not ideally suited for traditional farming, but it created an excellent natural buffer from the surrounding neighbors. It also provided a natural food source and habitat for deer, squirrel, wild rabbit, turkey, grouse, pheasant, and the occasional black bear. They considered this a God-given form of food storage.

The property was on its own water well and septic system, as well as having the benefit of a natural stream that flowed year-round. Although the stream wasn't large enough for fish, it made an ideal alternate water source, as well as contributing to the natural habitat that helped to bolster the wildlife population. They considered this when planning to make their home semi-off-grid. They hoped one day to make their home completely off-grid, however that would be a project that would advance as time and money would allow.

Remotely located, the property had both benefits and drawbacks in regards to security. The benefit was that your average “city rat,”—as Evan called the street thug, petty criminal types—that generally resided in urban areas, more than likely would not venture out that far, unless, of course, the situation declined to the point that a large scale migration took place. However, the more organized and tactically capable criminals may use the remoteness as cover for an assault on the property. This type of scenario could be a reality if a group wanted to take possession of the family's food and supplies in the event of a SHTF scenario, where lawlessness ensued. For this potential eventuality, Evan had put a few things in place.

As an avid hunter and already being familiar with their use and concealment, Evan put hunting style tree stands at various places around the property. This would not only allow them to utilize the natural cover of the woods for concealment, but they also provided elevated shooting and observation positions as well.

The elevated position of the tree stands, often on the ridge of the hill tops, also gave better range to the hand-held radios that the family would be using around the property. This would enable a sentry to be able to communicate with the house, even when cell phone coverage was unavailable. Due to the nature of the terrain and the remoteness of their location, several locations on the property were cellular dead spots even when the commercial phone services were up and running. In these instances, the hand-held radios would always be a basic necessity.

Evan numbered each stand and posted a corresponding map with the radio base station at the house so that a basic means of COMSEC (communication security) could be used without giving away the sentry's position in an situation where the frequency were to be compromised by a potential threat. A report such as, “we have a deer, or a herd of deer, near six,“ would indicate that one or a group of people had been spotted by stand six. The phrase would include, “doe or does,” for unarmed and, “buck or bucks,” for armed individuals.

In the event the sentry needed to vacate the stand in a hurry, having been seen or needing to react to a potential situation, a climbing rig would be worn while in the stand. This would act as both a safety harness in the event of an accidental fall, as well as serving as an emergency egress device. The sentry could simply rappel down in a hurry, on the side of the tree opposite the threat, using the tree for cover while leaving the area or reacting to the threat.

In addition to the observation stands, Evan used motion activated hunting trail cameras in the more remote locations, and wired security cameras closer to the house. The monitors for these cameras were co-located with the radio base station. Additionally, an infrared camera system was used on each side of the home for nighttime security. All of the cameras, the radio base station, and the hand-held radio charging stations, were primarily powered by a bank of batteries that were continuously trickle-charged on the house's emergency electrical circuit. This circuit was connected to normal house power with the automatic start and switchover diesel generator. This gave three levels of power continuity to the Baird's communication and observation security plan.

As for physical security, being a well-built, older brick home gave the structure a natural basic level of physical security. The two aboveground floors were fortified with steel security doors that, to the average person, were merely normal decorative exterior doors. Evan also reinforced all of the door jams with steel hidden underneath decorative wood trim. Six welded steel hinges, painted to match the white trim, held the doors directly to the steel reinforcements. The idea was to keep the house from looking like a prison, while providing an extra level of physical and ballistic strength. Any unsuspecting “city rat” that ventured out that far would have a rude awakening if they tried to kick in a door.

The exterior windows all looked normal to the naked eye; however, Evan had custom-made functional steel shutters covered with a decorative veneer. They could be closed when needed, essentially armor-plating the windows. Each side of each shutter also had a decorative cross designed into them to use as a shooting port once the glass window was opened from the inside. As a big fan of the western film genre, Evan admittedly borrowed this idea from the classic Clint Eastwood movie
“The Outlaw Josey Whales.”

In addition to the hardened forms of physical security that the Bairds had installed, they also planted Pyracantha, or “firethorn bush,” around all of the lower level windows. The firethorn bush contains thorns that leave a painful burning sensation on contact that lasts for hours. This would help create a natural defensive barrier that would merely look as if the Bairds had a penchant for landscaping rather than defense. Once a would-be-intruder encountered the firethorn bushes, they would either retreat, regroup, or be somewhat contained for the Bairds to deal with as necessary.

In the event the Bairds needed to egress through one of their own lower level windows, they cut sheets of three-quarter inch thick plywood to the size of the windows and located several of them in convenient, yet out-of-the-way locations, around the home. They could then simply throw the plywood out the window, creating a bridge to clear the bushes on their way out. They knew the same tactic could also be employed by intruders attempting to enter the house in order to defeat the defensive nature of the firethorn bushes, but they figured this would at least keep the unprepared intruder at bay while they dealt with them. If a more planned and prepared team made a coordinated assault on the house, the bushes would more than likely only provide a minimal level of deterrence.

The finished basement was secure by design. The doors from the outside, as well as the inside of the house, were similarly reinforced, creating a safe room if someone breached the interior of the home. With that in mind, all of the communication and observation equipment was located there, as well as cots, food, water, medical supplies, and a gun safe. Additionally, the basement was separated into a main open space, a bathroom, and an additional room that could be used as a quiet room for sleeping or for additional storage. This was the planned “bug in” room during any security threat that didn't require or allow an evacuation of the home.

In regards to their defensive response capabilities, Evan had a substantial firearms and weapons collection that could be employed as necessary. His collection had been a work in progress for many years. He had numerous non-tactical firearms that included both classic and modern muzzle loaders, bolt-action hunting rifles in various calibers such as .30-06’ Springfield, .308 Winchester, and .300 Winchester Magnum. In addition to these, he had a few lever-action cowboy style rifles chambered in calibers ranging from .45 Colt to .30-30 Winchester and a hard hitting, old school .45-70 Government. Evan fondly referred to his .45-70 as “thumper” due to its high mass projectiles traveling at low velocities. It was truly a knock down rather than shoot through gun.

He had an assortment of tactical guns as well. A few years back, before the gun control scare of 2012, Evan had the foresight to pick up ten VZ2008 rifles, imported by Century Arms International (CAI), while they were going for just over three hundred dollars each. VZ2008s were CAI's sporting name for the Czechoslovakian made VZ58. The VZ58 was a rifle that the Czech's developed in order to play along with the Soviet's mandate of the use of the 7.62X39 intermediate cartridge. Unlike most available AKs and AKMs, VZs were made on a milled steel receiver rather than stamped sheet metal. They also had a very unique bolt design that opened the entire top of the receiver when cycling to eject the spent shell casing. This design had several benefits that attracted Evan. First, there was no exposed ejection port. The gun appeared to be completely sealed when the bolt was forward. This helped keep any loose debris, or other contamination, out of the weapon. Secondly, it seemed nearly impossible to get a fail-to-eject malfunction as the top of the gun was wide open during the rearward movement of the bolt, rather than merely having a constricted port to allow the spent casing to be expelled from the action. The VZ58 also had a last round bolt hold open, unlike the AK pattern rifles. This saves the step of cycling the action on reloads, as is required with the aforementioned design, as well as helping the user to immediately identify an empty magazine.