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Not far outside the city limits, Brody was driving as fast as the dim light from their one remaining headlight would allow, when suddenly an awkward movement caught their attention. It appeared to be two individuals scrambling off the side of the road. Instantly, his heart racing, Sean unbuckled the lap belt in the old pickup and came up to his knees sideways on the front seat so he could square his plate carrier to the potential threat. He drew his Glock 19 and pointed it out the window at the tree line. Brody sped up to make it as hard as possible for the threat to get an accurate shot off if they tried. Sean figured it was the same two travelers the town had just allowed to pass through, so he was hoping they were decent folk, not looking for a fight. Sean kept his Glock at the low ready with both eyes focused on the spot where they had seen the men scramble off the road. Damn! I’m blind out here, he thought, wishing he had night vision goggles with him. As the truck whizzed by, a faint movement caught his eye again, and he could just make out the outline of what looked like two men...and something familiar about them....
"Stop the truck!" Sean yelled. Brody was completely taken aback at the outburst and hesitated, not wanting to stop within rifle range of the two potential threats. "Stop the damn truck!” Sean screamed again, turning around to face Brody.
Brody released some of the pressure on the accelerator to slow the truck's momentum but didn't show any signs of stopping. "Sean, I don't think...."
Without thinking about the consequences, Sean tried to shove his foot past Brody's and slam on the brakes. Instead, the gas pedal was crushed to the floorboard and Brody nearly lost control of the vehicle. "Ok!" Brody yelled and Sean pulled his foot back. Brody slammed on the brakes producing a loud squeal from the tires and throwing the un-buckled Sean into the truck's metal dash and nearly through the window. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Brody yelled at Sean angrily as he pulled him off the dash. Sean was half sobbing and couldn't get the words to come out of his mouth. Confused, Brody continued, "Sean, we can't stop here! If you want to make contact with those men, we need to head up the road further and plan out a proper ambush. We're sitting ducks here!" He craned his neck around, but it was too dark to see if anyone was approaching the truck from behind.
"That... that was my dad," Sean stammered. "Brody, I think that was my dad and my uncle. I'm sure it was!" Sean yelled.
Brody lowered his voice compassionately, "Sean, your dad is.... Sean, that couldn't have been your dad."
"I know it was!" Sean insisted.
"It's dark...," Brody continued.
"I saw enough. And I'm telling you that we just passed my father and uncle!" Sean looked at his friend with hope in his eyes.
"You're bound and determined to get me killed!" Brody spat in exasperation as he threw the truck in park. Brody grabbed his rifle off the back window's gun rack as he exited the vehicle. Sean was already outside and making his way down the road in the direction from which they had just come. Brody posted up behind the truck's engine block. "Hold up, Sean," Brody insisted. "Let them come to us."
Sean half turned to answer Brody, but never stopped walking. "They saw us stop, Brody. They aren't going to approach the truck. They're probably running through the woods, scared to death after you stopped like that."
"Just wait, Sean!" Brody said impatiently, but Sean ignored him and kept walking down the middle of the street. "I swear he's going to get me killed," Brody muttered to himself as he left the protective cover of the truck's engine block and headed for the tree line to Sean's left. He paralleled Sean from the edge of the woods with his rifle shouldered at the low ready prepared to provide cover if needed.
After about a hundred yards, Sean started yelling into the woods to his left, "Dad! It's Sean!" He continued to yell the same thing over and over every five paces or so. Brody hoped that whoever was hiding in the woods would feel compassion and assume that Sean was just a crazy person and not a threat to them. As they neared the area where they had last seen the two men, a figure appeared out of the woods cautiously, both hands up. Brody turned towards the man ready to fire if he made any threatening gestures.
"Sean... is that you? ...It's Uncle Lawrence!" the man hollered out.
Sean ran into the man's arms as Brody lowered his rifle and tried to catch up to his friend. After a quick hug from his uncle, Sean hollered out while scrambling into the woods, "Dad!" The second person stepped out from behind a tree and slowly limped forward. Sean caught his father up in a bear hug and sobbed like a child.
Not wanting to interrupt their reunion, Brody walked up to Sean's uncle and shook his hand. "Brody," he introduced himself, not sure if Sean's uncle remembered him from when he and Randy showed up at Sean's family farm to give them a ride. "Glad you guys could make it," he added.
"We are too," Sean's uncle replied. His relief was unmistakable. "Did the others make it okay?" he asked about the rest of Sean's family.
"Yeah, they all made it safely." Brody put his fears to rest. "They hit a few bumps in the road, but we've got them set up at a really nice, secure location."
"Good, good," Sean’s Uncle sighed.
"How's Mr. Marlin doing? He seems to be limping," Brody asked with concern.
"He took a bullet in the calf when the farm got overrun. It didn't hit bone, though, and it just grazed the muscle, nothing serious...just painful. I wanted to hold up back at the farm for a while longer and let it heal better, but he insisted on hitting the road. It's been getting worse the last couple days though. We had to swim across the river yesterday to bypass what looked like an ambush location at the Kennerdale Bridge. I'm just hoping it didn't get infected from the dirty water."
"It's a good thing you did. With the tractor and all the supplies, the others were forced to take the risk and cross the bridge. It did end up being a trap. They all made it through unscathed except for the tractor which took a couple rounds and broke down not long after. We borrowed the town's tractor and picked them up." Brody looked over to see Sean and his father talking softly. He turned back to Sean's uncle. "I'm going to head back and grab the truck. There is a doctor living at the retreat now and we should get Mr. Marlin some medical attention by the sounds of it."
"Okay,” Sean’s uncle agreed quietly with a faint smile. Brody could tell the man was completely exhausted.
AFTER LOADING THEIR packs, they piled into the pickup truck with Sean's uncle riding in the back and sped off to the East Homestead. Everyone at the retreat was completely overjoyed with the discovery of Sean's father and uncle, none more than Randy who had spent a lot of time with Sean's family at their hunting camp. Randy hugged both Mr. Marlin and Sean's uncle before running over to Pete's farmhouse to get Darren and his medical kit. Darren cleaned and redressed Mr. Marlin's leg and informed them all that he would be ok with a few weeks of proper rest. Due to the late hour, Brody and Sean debated whether or not to make the drive back to the other homestead. Sean's father said that he would abide by their decision but let them know that he would really like to see his wife and kids. He said it in such a respectful yet longing way that Sean and Brody couldn’t say no. Besides, Sean knew that every hour that went by would cause Maria to worry more and more.
Damian and Andrew had spent the day getting the Bronco running smoothly, so they quickly swapped their equipment between vehicles and were on their way once more. After passing through Tionesta again, they were forced to drive the rest of the way at a snail’s pace. The truck’s headlights didn’t work and with the heavy cloud cover, they had to sweep flashlight beams from side to side in front of the vehicle to be sure they stayed on the road.
“I’m not very happy with the results of our trip,” Brody said at one point, breaking the silence and startling Sean back into the present moment.
“What do you mean Brody?” Sean asked, concerned. “Other than the day my son was born, this has been the greatest day of my life.”
“Not for me," Brody sighed. "We drove through town three times today and I never got to see my girl a single time...,” Brody joked with a half smile. Sean grinned back and clapped his friend on the shoulder warmly.
THE SURPRISE REUNION was a very emotional scene. Sean walked his father and uncle through the front door of the new homestead where bedtime preparations were already well underway. The hubbub that followed awakened the younger children who made their way to the great room one by one. Hugs were recycled over and over, and there was as much laughter as there were tears. Sean’s mother didn’t leave his father’s side, and his little sister was practically giddy.
No one was going to settle down until their story was told. Faith got their travelers some hot tea to revive them. Meanwhile, all of the homesteaders gathered on the furniture and at the feet of Samuel and Lawrence, waiting to hear about the miracle that brought the two brothers to the retreat...alive. They retold their harrowing story to an enraptured audience, which started with a prayer of deeply heartfelt thanksgiving...and resulted in a chorus of sniffling from various parts of the room.
When the farm had been attacked, Sean's father and uncle had stayed behind to provide cover for the family members fleeing across the open pasture for the back woods. They waited until the last possible second until the raiders made it within ten yards of the house before fleeing out the back door. Knowing that there was no chance of them making it across the large open pasture, they wormed their way under the low rear deck and stayed hidden there until late into the night.
When they finally decided to make a run for it, Sean's father was shot by one of the looter's patrols just before making it to the tree line. With the adrenaline rush of being shot at while crossing the field, he actually didn't realize that he had been wounded until later when they stopped. They made their way to the empty farmhouse down the road which had always been the farm's backup plan. They saw smoke coming out of the chimney and assumed that the rest of the family was already there. To their surprise, when they knocked, the person who answered wasn't family and was holding a double barreled shotgun at their chests.
An audible gasp was heard from one of the older children, and Uncle Lawrence quickly explained that it had been a tense couple minutes but they were able to make a deal with the man. Since they had their own food and wouldn't be a burden, the man let them stay in the barn for a few days until Sean's father was able to walk better on his injured leg. They assumed that the rest of the family had noticed the farmhouse was occupied and moved on to find a different vacant house to hole-up in. Agreeing that it would be too dangerous to go around knocking on doors to find the rest of the family, they decided to just wait and meet them back at the farm after the looters had moved on.
Sean’s dad picked the story back up. By building trust with Mr. Shotgun over those couple of days in the barn, they were able to negotiate to stay for a little longer. They found out the man’s name was Jared, and they also found out that he was the farmhouse owner’s son. On the third evening, Jared told them his harrowing story.
He and his family lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh at the time of the EMP attack and tried to ride things out after the grid came down. He explained how he had actually been a semi-prepper as well and had acquired food storage and plenty of weapons and supplies in his suburban home before the collapse. After reading the book Lights Out by David Crawford, Jared's preparations kicked into high gear and he even recommended it to a couple of his like-minded neighbors. Jared and his neighbors were close and discussed politics and prepping regularly.
The book and their multiple discussions had proved to be a great catalyst. When the grid came down, they were quick to put into practice everything the book recommended. They gathered all the neighbors together on the first day and were able to explain the situation very effectively. They set up a road block at the entrance to their middle-class street. They had security patrols set up on paper and everything neatly fell into place. What happened next, though, was very unlike the book. The corporate-owned supermarkets and stores never re-opened their doors, and their plan to pool together their resources and purchase food and supplies never really materialized. In addition, there were no police around offering the stores protection, and by the fourth day every grocery store in their area had been completely wiped out by looters. Jared and his neighbors had not acquired the food or other supplies that their community would need to survive. Only one local mom and pop store had been willing to do business for money, so they had bought everything they could. But it was not nearly enough to feed all sixty people who lived on their dead-end street for very long. Since the EMP happened in the middle of winter, there wasn't any chance of growing food from the seed Jared had purchased and they only managed to kill one deer in their suburban area two weeks after the collapse. After that they never saw a living, breathing animal again, even though they lived in a wooded area.
Jared told his visitors that it only took a month for things to start getting really bad in their “community.” They had been fighting off hungry looters for weeks and been forced to kill dozens of people. Their neighbors had suffered some losses as well, mostly men. This left wives and children that needed taken care of and were moved in with other neighbors in some cases; even Jared's family volunteered to take in one of the widows.
Jared slowly realized that he was the only one who had truly taken the threat to the electric grid seriously and built up a full year’s worth of Wise long-term food storage for his family. The rest of the community was officially starving to death and everyone could tell that Jared’s family’s health wasn't deteriorating nearly as fast as everyone else's. At the same time, Jared’s food supply was dwindling a lot faster than he had planned and the one-year food storage plan they had bought from Wise was never going to last an entire year. After the first month, Jared was able to estimate that their food would only last six months at best, especially with an extra adult mouth to feed.
Finally, at one of their community meetings in mid-January, Jared's neighbor, in desperation, informed the group that Jared and his family had lots of food hoarded. Against the wishes of his wife, Jared had been giving small amounts of their food to this neighbor, his closest friend, because he felt bad that the man's kids were starving and becoming sick. But his friend had grown increasingly irritated because the charity food he was receiving wasn't nearly enough and they were still starving. The community voted unanimously that everyone must allow inspections of their basements to a security detail and insisted that that all food must be pooled together for the benefit of all.
Sean mumbled something which caused his dad to stop the story. Everyone squirmed around and shifted positions after realizing that they had not moved a muscle, hanging on every word. Faith’s youngest daughter curled up in her lap and snuggled in close. “What was that, Sean?” Mr. Marlin asked.
Smoothing Maria’s hair as she leaned on him, Sean didn’t look up from the spot on the carpet he was staring at. “A death sentence,” he said quietly. “It was a death sentence.”
“Right,” his dad nodded and continued. Jared knew that his remaining food supply would barely feed the community for a couple weeks. When the security detail arrived at his house the following day, it turned into a tense standoff. The guards eventually left because they knew Jared was well armed, but he knew that if he didn’t move his family soon they would end up dead. They spent a day packing up their supplies on three grocery carts covered with tarps on their private back patio. Jared had planned to leave in the early hours of the night, but two of his neighbors came for his food before they could leave. His once-close friend was the first to kick in his front door where Jared dropped him with a blast from his pump-action shotgun. Jared sadly described the short gunfight that ensued, in which he went through six thirty-round magazines in his M4 before the attackers fled. His time was up. His family had to escape before the entire community came down on them.
Sean’s dad stopped, and Uncle Lawrence explained that his brother had comforted Jared that evening, as he was pretty choked up. Jared had said that he could still smell the large pool of blood surrounding his friend's lifeless body from the close-range shotgun blast. Jared's wife and kids were close with the man's family as well and Jared couldn't even imagine the horror they would go through. He said that his home was close to the front gates and he immediately snuck over to the guards on watch and took them by surprise. They surrendered and Jared hog tied them on the ground, throwing their rifles into the woods. He ran back for his terrified family and the widow that had moved in with them and they immediately fled, pushing their grocery carts past the angry guards at the front gate.
Jared also described the treacherous journey north to his father's farm. They originally tried to travel on the highway, but soon discovered that they were encountering too many people who were all starving and begging for food or threatening them, even though their supplies in the grocery carts were covered by tarps. Jared said that because he kept his M4 slung in front of him, most people didn't push the subject. But after a group of men confronted them in a very threatening way, they decided to get off the highway. He said they had only made it fifteen miles out of town to the Wexford exit. From that point forward, they hid during the day in random vacant houses and travelled at night on back roads. Without a map and being unfamiliar with the back roads, he said they made several wrong turns and backtracked a lot to bypass the numerous small towns they stumbled upon. It took them a full week to make the same journey Sean and Maria had made in two days.
With a nod to Sean, his dad explained Jared’s regret at following the advice of some of the prepping books he had read about "surviving in your suburban home" and wished he had left for his father's farm immediately after the power went out. When they finally did reach the farm, he found a note that his father had left him, saying that they had run out of food and left the farm headed for his place. Jared had mentioned his food storage in passing to his father, but they had never developed a game plan with his parents because they didn't believe that America could suffer a total collapse. In their haste to escape their home, Jared hadn't even thought to leave his parents a note in case they showed up. Now they were missing and he didn't hold much hope that they were still alive. Jared shared that they had completely gone through their food storage at that point but had a very large garden growing food and they hoped they would be able to store enough to last the winter. The next morning, Sean’s dad and uncle helped them all day in the two-acre garden and shared with them some preservation techniques and pointers they had learned.
Early on the fifth morning at Jared's farm, Uncle Lawrence snuck back to the family farm to see if the raiding party was still there. What he found was more disturbing. Uncle Nathan's house had been burned to the ground. The cache in the woods was missing as well as the supplies in the extra hidden storage room in Sean's grandparents’ basement. With the tractor and hay wagon gone and the fact that he found a fresh gravesite bearing a cross with Kenneth's name, Sean's uncle knew that the family had already returned, packed up and left the farm.
Sean’s father paused when he heard the sniffles and saw the misty eyes. The sight of the family farm in ruins, and not being able to find two of their men, was seared into their memories and brought fresh emotion, even among the children, who were being forced by dreadful circumstances to grow up too fast, too soon.
Uncle Lawrence explained that they decided it was best if they left as soon as possible. They shared the location of the family's farm with Jared and explained that a lot of the crops were picked clean by the raiders, but the fields would still bear a decent harvest if he maintained them. Jared was grateful and helped top off their bug-out-bags with a few days’ worth of fresh garden vegetables in return.
They said their good-byes that evening and followed Jared's advice to only travel at night. Luckily, they had the map Sean had made to the retreat and they were able to make good time on foot by back roads. They didn't encounter very many people on their way and only once had to make a run for it to escape what looked like a potential ambush. They knew they were getting close when they passed through Tionesta, and everyone got a good chuckle out of the way Sean and Brody had scared the crap out of them on the road.
By the time they finished their story it was late and several of the kids had fallen asleep. Everyone retired and they squeezed in two more places for the two men to sleep. For the first time since their arrival, Sean’s extended family had smiles on their faces and hope in their eyes. It made his heart feel full and warm, and he knew he would sleep better than he had in a long time.