“They’re gonna kill us,” a little girl said.
“I won’t harm anyone so long as you turn around and get off my property.”
“She didn’t mean you,” a woman with dark stringy hair told him.
“What’s she talking about then?”
The woman picked the little girl up and began walking away at a brisk pace.
“Hey,” John called out after them, but they didn’t turn.
He handed his AR to Gregory. “You boys keep an eye on me. If any funny business happens, start shooting and I’ll cut left to avoid your fire.”
Tim and Gregory nodded.
John then hopped over the fallen three and jogged down the path toward the woman.
“Miss, I can trade you some water and a tiny bit of food if you tell me what happened to your group.” John wasn’t just being a concerned citizen. If a group of bandits were in the area, this was something he needed to know about.
“Thank you, but please hurry, we need to find a safe place before they return.”
John made a hand signal to Gregory who gave his rifle to Brandon and took off running up the path to the cabin.
“They?”
“We were in a large group heading for Oneida when we were attacked by men in pickup trucks. They stole our food and water and killed dozens. Everyone fled in a panic, running in every direction. I don’t know how many survived.”
“Those men who attacked you. How many were they?”
The woman blinked hard, as though reliving the horror. “I couldn’t tell. More than fifteen. It all happened so fast.” She started to cry and John tried to comfort her. Gregory showed up a minute later with a plastic bottle of water and half a loaf of bread. He handed it to the woman who thanked them both.
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” John asked.
She clutched the young girl to her chest. “Whenever my mind settles his horrible face is all I can see.”
“Face?”
“Their leader. One side was horribly burnt.” She ran quivering fingers down her cheek. “The other had the tattoo of a skull.”
Chapter 42
“Are you sure it’s him?” Diane asked, wringing her hands.
They were all in the cabin as John briefed everyone on the situation. The tension in the tiny space was palpable. Both families had had their own run-ins with Cain. Now it looked like he was back.
John stood before them. “I don’t know of many people with skull tattoos on their faces. Plus, he was surely burned falling through the floor when the Hectors’ house was on fire.”
“What do you think he’s doing this far from Knoxville?” Tim asked.
“I think he’s come to even the score. We defeated him at Willow Creek, decimated his army and fried half his face off. Wouldn’t you want revenge?”
The others didn’t seem convinced. They wanted to believe Cain’s appearance was nothing more than a coincidence rather than another horrifying attack.
“I don’t see how he could have found us,” Tim started to say before he stopped himself.
The sudden look of guilt on Emma’s face was unmistakable. However Cain had found out, it had begun when she first spilled the beans.
“Look,” John said. “We don’t know whether that’s even Cain or why he’s here. If he’s somehow found out about the cabin, our only choice is to finish this once and for all. Blood is going to be spilled. Each of you needs to take a moment and make sure you’ll be capable of performing your duty. If not, let me know now.” No one said anything. He then reached out to Emma. “Stop beating yourself up, honey. What’s done is done. At this point, I need all of you sharp. Guilt at this stage will only cloud your judgment and dampen your reaction times. We were lucky today. Our security procedures were tested, which gives us time to make improvements.” John turned to Gregory. “Great job alerting us to a possible threat, but staying in the area unarmed isn’t good. Coming to get you at the fallen tree exposed us all to danger. Next time, sound the alarm and retreat at once back to the cabin. This is our castle keep.” Then John turned to Tim. “It was brave of you to head toward the threat, but you went in armed with nothing more than a pistol. If that had been Cain and his men, he would have cut you down for sure.”
Tim shook his head. “Got it.”
“We also need to hand-drill more gun ports so we have three-hundred-and-sixty-degree coverage in case the cabin is surrounded.”
Gregory stood up and buried his fist into the palm of his hand. “If we had a tank we could blow them all away.”
The room exploded with laughter, offering them a much-needed release of tension.
“A tank would be nice,” Brandon added.
Diane sipped at a cup of lukewarm coffee. “If we’re making wishes, why not call in some Apache gunships?”
When they got the nervous laughter out of their system, John spoke. “We can’t let these terrorists or the threat they pose keep us hiding in the cabin out of fear. Each of us has a job to do, but we need to be vigilant and sound the alarm at the first sign of danger.”
For the next two hours, John and Tim used the hand drill to make additional gun ports in the northern, eastern and western walls of the cabin. They’d already made the holes in the southern wall overlooking the path yesterday and stacked sandbags around the opening.
Armed with a pistol and an AR, Gregory, Brandon, Emma and Natalie went down to the road to rebuild the camouflage protecting the turnoff that had been destroyed when the large crowd showed up. They added bushes and spread more forest debris to help hide the entrance to the cabin.
Meanwhile, Diane and Kay continued working in the garden and greenhouse, planting the vegetables and perennials.
When the last of the holes were drilled, Tim turned to John.
“I want to thank you for letting us stay here,” he said. “I know we didn’t know each other all that well as neighbors on Willow Creek, so you would have been justified in turfing us out. But you didn’t and I wanted to let you know I appreciate that.”
John gave him a half nod. He wasn’t sure why exactly being thanked made him so uncomfortable. Maybe it had something to do with one of those unspoken rules he always lived by. You did what needed to be done, no thanks required. Tim wasn’t cut from the same cloth, although John appreciated he was trying his best to make the present situation work as smoothly as possible.
“Space is tight, I won’t lie,” John said. “But having your family around has been a blessing in disguise, you might say. More hands to help around the property, and to defend it.”
Tim placed the hand drill on the table. “You don’t think Cain’s here by chance, do you?”
John didn’t mince words. “Not for a second.”
Chapter 43
Just then the kids came charging into the cabin, frantic and out of breath. They were all squawking at once.
“One at a time,” John said, alarmed.
Gregory worked to calm his breathing. “We were making our way back from the road when we saw five pickup trucks drive by. There were armed men in the back.”
“How many?”
“Hard to say,” Emma cut in. “At least twenty.”
“Did they see you?”
Brandon and Gregory both shook their heads. “No, they just drove by, but it seemed like they were looking for something.”
“They’re searching for the turnoff,” John said. He touched Gregory’s shoulder. “Get Kay and your mother and tell them to come in right away.”