Last Stand: Surviving America's Collapse by William H. Weber

Author:William H. Weber [Weber, William H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-04-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

They met at Patty Long’s house again. Her dining room was large enough to accommodate everyone and it only seemed right to keep all the meetings at the same place.

John took a moment to explain the situation. Already, most assembled had listened to the sound of gunfire throughout most of the night. Most were probably thankful Willow Creek had been spared, but that led directly to the point John was about to make.

He stood with his palms flat on the table. “So far it appears our street is the only one that banded together and erected any kind of defensive posture. There’s a good chance that had something to do with us not getting attacked last night.”

“Do we have any idea who they are?” Curtis asked. As the one in charge of gathering information, he’d been ordered to stay put after going off without an escort. Al was also in the dog house for the same thing, although once the current crisis passed, they’d have the protection they needed to find out more about what was going on out there.

John nodded. “Armed gangs taking advantage of the breakdown in law and order. Hard to say at this point if they came together after the collapse or represent a criminal organization. Either way, they proved last night that they’re ruthless and willing to take a human life to get what they want.”

Susan Wheeler cleared her throat. “Do we even know what these bandits are after?”

John shook his head. “Right now, we have very little intel. Assume it’s the usual. They want what we have. That goes for food, water, weapons and maybe even people. They want to snatch as much money and valuables as they can so when the lights come back on they’ll be set for life. Again, I’m speculating. They may not have clued into the fact that it may be months or years before the country’s infrastructure will be back online.”

“And what about these refugees?” Al said. “I saw them myself stacked against the barricade. Looks like those images of Saigon before the collapse. I’m assuming the main purpose of this meeting is to see how many we can take in.”

“How many?” Arnold Payne spat. He was in charge of food management and the very person John had expected to raise the first objection. “I’ve started going over the data we collected and it isn’t looking good. Collectively, we don’t have enough food to last more than two weeks and that’s with rationing. We take these people in, we’ll be signing a death warrant for everyone on Willow Creek.”

Al was nodding in agreement. So too was Susan. Her team was in charge of providing fresh water. The greater their water needs, the harder their jobs would be.

“More people might not be a terrible idea,” John told the group. “It means more hands to fetch water, more recruits for security.”

“More mouths to feed,” Arnold chanted.

“There may be ways to produce food,” John said.

“Does it involve eating squirrels?” Arnold offered with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

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