Neighborhood Watch 4: After the EMP by EE Isherwood

Author:EE Isherwood [Isherwood, EE]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The ongoing rain and wild winds made it difficult to confirm no one was standing behind the cars of our roadblock, but it was a little easier to see no one was at Zen’s blockade on the other side of Bayside Road. A blue SUV had been moved into position, but now it sat empty, with all four doors open. A second vehicle sat off to the side, as if Zen’s guys had brought it close to the intersection but decided not to put it in place. As best I could tell, there were no guards on either side of the road.

“What the hell is going on here?” I asked.

On the road to the south, a dozen figures marched on the shoulder, heading our way. Their drab ponchos fluttered sideways in the wind.

“All right, Tyler, will you help your dad move the Lexus so we can get home?”

I watched patiently as he and his dad endured the driving rain while clearing the roadblock, so I could drive us through. Once there was enough space, I set the Unimog in gear and went in. When I stopped to wait for them to get back in, Dante appeared like an apparition on my side of the truck.

He waved me to roll my window down.

“You’re back!” he shouted as he ran up.

“What’s happening here?” I fumed. “Why did we have to let ourselves in?”

“We have two armed guys here!” he pleaded, as if he knew exactly why I was upset. “I told them to hide in the vehicles until I got back and not get out for any reason, so they weren’t easy targets. I didn’t expect anyone would arrive while I walked to the house and back.”

My hackles went down, a little.

He pointed to the guys in ponchos. “I was hurrying back to the blockade to take care of our defense. Frank, we took in some soldiers, and they say those guys coming at us are working together to hunt them down.”

“Wait a second.” It was difficult to concentrate with rain falling in sheets. “Soldiers are inside our neighborhood?”

Dante’s red Florida Panthers jersey was waterlogged, glued to his frame. He had to hold his arm over his eyes to keep the rain out. “It’s a long story!”

I had to remind myself there was no way to plan for every contingency and that I couldn’t personally be involved in all decisions made by my team. If someone on the roadblock had allowed the soldiers to come inside, I had to trust they’d applied some logic to the decision.

The men in ponchos were now crossing the bridge over the canal running under Bayside. While observing them, I strained to see into the waterway since the level was much higher than I’d ever seen it. In fact, I was beginning to suspect it was in danger of overflowing its banks on the other side of the roadway.

“Okay, I’ll talk to these guys if they come over to us.” I grabbed my AR, as I wanted them to see I meant business, even in the blinding conditions.

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