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Kara gathered the box springs from the other two bedrooms. Using a hammer and nails, she attached a row of bulletproof vests to each box spring at waist height in line with where the children slept. Once she was satisfied, she dragged the two box springs into the kids’ room, sliding them along silently on handy throw rugs and a couple of towels from the bathroom.
They didn’t stir when she brought in the box springs. Two sides of the bed already had an extra layer of padding. The headboard was against the wall that formed the hallway. The other side was covered by the corner of the room.
Kara leaned the bulletproof-vest-encrusted outer shell covering the box springs against the exposed sides of the bed. These should stop anything short of a rocket from hitting the children. One box spring was on its side, and the other was perpendicular to it but on its end. Kara used three long measures of baling wire to tie the box springs together so they would not fall in on the sleeping children. Next, she silently slid a dresser against the box spring located at the foot of the bed. It not only held the box springs in place, but also provided more buffering. Kara stood back and surveyed the set-up.
What other security precautions could she take to protect the children?
Kara’s eyes came to rest on the children’s bedroom door. In a firefight, the door in place would be chewed up by the machine fire. However, the door served a purpose. She retrieved a narrow screwdriver from the kitchen’s junk drawer. Returning to the door, she unscrewed the doorknob and turned it around so the lock was on the outside. She screwed the knob back into the door. From the hallway, she tested the door by closing and locking it.
Satisfied she had done all she could, she turned her attention to defending the remainder of the home against the imminent attack. Kornev had not skimped on the construction of his homes. Both his homes’ interior and exterior walls were composed largely of cinder blocks filled with concretee, althought the areas directly under windows were not filled with concreate.During the home’s contruction, Kara determined that the window headers had been installed before the cinderblocks were filled with concreate. Therefore, under every window in the home was nothing more than hallow cinderblocks just waiting to the blown out. The walls, like the bulletproof vests attached to the bedframes, could stop heavy gunfire.
In the living room she took stock of what she had to work with to defend the home. Most of the AK-47s were field ready and could fire in semi and full auto. After counting the rifles, Kara decided to rig up guns in each of the home’s windows, except in the children’s room. To start, she took one of the rifles from the pile and pointed the muzzle of the rifle at the floor so the butt of the rifle pointed at the ceiling. With the gun sandwiched between her body and the credenza, she pounded a nail into the butt end and bent the nail over. Next, she placed the gun’s bipod atop the credenza. Through the holes in the feet of the bipod, she inserted another nail and hammered the gun’s bipod on the top of the credenza. She estimated the location of the window’s center, then placed the gun on the bipod. Aligning with the butt of the rifle, she hammered another nail into the top of the credenza and bent it over on itself to create an eyelet. Unfortunately, the gun was pointing in an upward direction. Without further adjustments, the rifle would shoot out the window and into the night sky.
To shoot in a horizontal direction, she needed to find something to elevate the butt end of the rifle. Kara went into the kitchen and searched through the drawers. She found an assortment of long serving spoons and two barbecue forks. She threaded a section of baling wire from the bent-over nail in the credenza to the bent-over nail in the butt of the gun. Using one of the spoons to prop it up, Kara positioned the gun so it pointed horizontally in a firing position out the window and fine-tuned the angle. She wrapped the baling wire around itself from the butt end to the credenza, fully securing the gun to prevent it from pointing downward. She further secured the wire by adding duct tape to the long spoon. The addition of the long spoon added rigidity to hold the gun in an offensive position.
Kara’s plan was to set up more of an illusion than a tactical defense since she was in a race against time. If she had to hold off an entire army, every minute mattered, which meant every gun mattered. She picked up a wad of paracord from the floor and tied one end to the gun’s trigger. She walked backward, spooling out the line until she found herself standing in the barricaded hallway. From Kornev’s extensive supply of every type of knife imaginable, Kara selected a knife and cut the cord. She let the end fall to the floor. She was delighted to find she had more than enough left to rig all the other guns. She left the hallway and returned to the living room.
The large living room window overlooked the side yard. Kara repositioned the waist-high bookcase so it sat perpendicular to the window and grabbed a gun from the pile. Repeating the same process as before, she affixed the gun to the bookcase so it could fire out the window. However, this time she used a barbeque fork to support the rifle. She prayed she would have time to set up the other guns before Shallah’s men attacked.
After setting up a few more guns, Kara walked into the kitchen, watching the windows for potential intruders. The pistol in the abaya’s pocket provided a comforting feeling against her body. Kara re-checked that she had turned the stove’s front and right burner dials to HIGH, starting the flow. This was the valve that led to the brass line she had replaced with the garden hose. When and if it was time to get the party started, her trap would be triggered in the tunnel filled with laughing gas or, in this case, lethal gas. Determined she would never use the tunnel again, it was time to convert that passageway into a tactical defense, or more precisely, into a catacomb.