Nine-Tenths (37 page)

Leonard gasped. Rifles and shotguns hung on the left wall and four gun safes lined the back. On the right, shelves of books reached from floor to ceiling. The room appeared to serve as both a library and an arsenal.

Leonard’s companions stepped inside. Chester made a beeline for a safe in the far corner. A mild odor of smoke or gunpowder wafted into the hallway, causing Leonard to hesitate before stepping across the threshold. Once inside, he jumped back suddenly. On his right what appeared to be two rocket launchers were affixed firmly to the wall.

He wasn’t kidding.

Chester handed a semi-automatic pistol to Russ. The dark wood inlay on the grip gave the gun a classic appeal. Russ turned it over before opening the action and taking a peek inside. Then he popped out the empty magazine and tested the spring mechanism.

“Almost good as new,” Chester bragged. “An awesome target practice pistol.”

Russ nodded. “Thanks, Ches’. It’s perfect.”

Wicker carefully took possession of the weapon, reinserted the magazine, and snapped the action closed. Pointing away, she looked down the sights. “Feels good in small hands. Laura’s going to love it.”

While they chatted, Leonard wandered over to the library section. One bookshelf contained volumes about firearms and hunting plus a number of books on aviation and aircraft. Shelves of political, economic, and history texts towered to the ceiling. A few spines with the word
Stasi
in the title caught Leonard’s eye, although Chester had collected volumes on the Soviets and the Nazis as well as Mao, Stalin, and other heinous dictators that had come and gone. Thumbing the spines on the next shelf, Leonard noticed an author called Hayek, and he wondered if that was where the Labrador got his name. All of the books were worn and a few had water damage. Others appeared to have been rescued from a fire. Leonard sniffed. The musty, smoky smell emanated from the bookshelves, not the gun safes.

“Need some bedtime reading?” Chester asked as he appeared at Leonard’s side.

“I…no. I was just looking.”

Chester sighed. “It would do the world good if more people studied these books.”

“Have you read them all?”

“Most of them. Some came from what remained of our house. Others from the Summit County Library, which had collapsed but not burned. I rescued a few others here and there.”

“And I found a bunch for him in Junction,” Wicker said, looking slightly put out that he had forgotten to mention it. Then she shuddered. “It feels weird, walking into someone else’s abandoned home and taking things. All those people, uprooted so quickly. Most of them left nearly everything behind.” Her mood lightened. “Of course people have since moved in. We’ve got quite a community.”

Chester smiled at the young woman. “She’s a good girl. I gave her a book list and she found all kinds of stuff for me.”

Wicker punched him hard in the back of the shoulder. “Not a girl. I can outrun you and outshoot you, mister.”

“Bullshit.”

“You know it’s true, Teddy Bear,” she cooed, tipping her head coyly.

Chester scowled playfully at Wicker. Then he turned his head abruptly and addressed Leonard. “She is the only person on the planet allowed to call me Teddy Bear, got that?”

“Yes, sir,” Leonard shot back.
I have no intention of calling you Teddy Bear.

After Chester relocked the door and they returned to the main room, everyone settled back down at the table. Aiden made some coffee before Chester turned off the generator.

While pouring coffee for the guests, Aiden said, “It was Natalia’s birthday yesterday. Did you know that, Father?”

Chester snorted. “‘Did you know that, Father?’ Of course I didn’t know that.” He turned to Natalia and smiled. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

Natalia blushed.

“Go, girl!” Wicker said, raising her chipped coffee mug. “How old are you?”

“Thirteen.”

“Thirteen. Damn! You’ve got yourself a teenager now. How about that, Leo?”

Leonard cringed. Why did girls think he enjoyed being called Leo? What gave this feisty little blonde the impression she could develop her own nicknames? Then again, it was a far cry better than being dubbed
Teddy Bear,
so Leonard decided to let it go.

“So I thought,” Aiden continued, as he poured his father’s coffee, “it might be nice to dip into the candy reserve.” He raised his eyebrows roguishly.

“Oh you thought, did you?” Chester retorted. “And here I believed you were being hospitable to your new friend.”

“I am.” Aiden touched his chest in mock indignation. “What could be more hospitable than a stashed Reese’s?”

Chester rolled his eyes, stood up, and fumbled with his keys. He pulled a small flashlight out of his left pocket. After their host disappeared in the back of the cabin, Leonard asked, “He keeps the candy locked up?”

“In a gun safe.” Aiden grinned, sitting down next to Natalia, his body touching hers at the hips — a little too close for Leonard’s comfort.

“A gun safe?” Leonard coughed, wondering how a Reese’s peanut butter cup with a hint of gunpowder would taste.

Aiden nodded, clearly pleased with himself. “He’s got a teenage boy to contend with.”

“Just exactly how old are you, Aiden?”

“Fifteen next month.”

“Natalia’s
thirteen,
” Leonard reemphasized.

Aiden cast him a puzzled, amused look. “I know.” He paused as if waiting for his response to sink in. “We were just talking about that, remember?”

She’s jailbait to you in three years,
Leonard thought disdainfully, but he kept his disapproval to himself.
We’ll see who’s laughing then.
The moment the thought crossed his synapses, Leonard felt a wave of shame. Having briefly been in prison, he realized that the concept of tossing around casual references to incarceration was no longer humorous. After all, here was a charming, although somewhat precocious, teenage boy who had witnessed horrors Leonard could only imagine. Aiden endured the tragedy, yet maintained his agreeable personality. The young man was courageous, a survivor. Clearly taken with Natalia, as boys will be, Aiden had done nothing criminal. Observing the two of them talking softly as if they shared some secret, Leonard glanced away.

Chester returned, lugging a large plastic container filled with old Halloween candy. He allowed Natalia to choose first and she fished out a Reese’s.

“What did I tell you?” Aiden cried enthusiastically. “Aiden Woods always knows what the ladies like.”

Leonard choked but kept his mouth shut.

After everyone had selected a piece, Chester returned the delicacies to their hiding place. The candy bars were stale, but Leonard could not detect any gunpowder.

During a moment of silence, while everyone was savoring their candy, Leonard ventured into uncharted territory. “Why do you need so many guns?”

Three adult heads turned simultaneously.

“Have a gun phobia, do you?” Chester said.

Leonard held his hands in the air defensively. “No, no. I’m just asking. Do the Feds come here often?”

“Not anymore,” Russ replied, his deep voice soothing Leonard’s frazzled nerves.

“Oh,” Leonard said softly, silently grateful that he wouldn’t have to participate in a gunfight. Glancing to his left, he noticed Hayek near a throw rug. The dog lay with his chin on the floor, front legs stretched out before him. His head remained in one position while his dark brown eyes moved from face to face.

“We had to hold our ground for several months, though,” Russ continued. “Right after the Raze.”

“Those of us who survived,” Chester added.

“And nearly a thousand people we recruited from Junction,” Russ said. “Plus a few dozen from Wyoming.”

“There are people in Wyoming?” Leonard asked in awe.

“Free communities operate under the radar throughout the U.S. Our communication with them is off and on.”

“Changes in the underground computer network are endless,” Wicker said. “It’s hard enough maintaining communication with Denver.”

Leonard chewed laboriously. His Snickers bar was especially sticky. “So what happened after the Raze?”

Russ looked at Chester. The older man appeared weary of recounting the past, so the large, dark-skinned man launched into the details. “After the Raze, the soldiers rounded up survivors.”

“We heard that part,” Leonard interrupted, hoping to spare Natalia a repeat of the ugly details.

Russ frowned, slightly annoyed. “So after the soldiers thought they killed everyone, they left.” He paused, staring at Leonard. “That part okay for you?”

“Yes, sorry. Please go on.”

“Those of us who were in hiding emerged over a period of days. We searched for other survivors. One team buried the dead while another team made their way to Grand Junction. They went through Buena Vista, taking a long, roundabout route. Those of us who remained in Summit County gathered as many guns as we could find in abandoned buildings. We tested vehicles and located unharmed gas tanks. Our Junction team returned with recruits a few days later and several truckloads of weapons, including six rocket launchers.”

“Where did they get rocket launchers?”

“A private collection. The owner came along for the fight. Thankfully, he had a shitload of ammo.”

Leonard glanced at Wicker. She listened politely but had nothing to add. He surmised that she had not been a participant. After all, she would have barely been an adult at the time.

“We did not see any activity for a week, so we started to relax a little. People planned to return to Mesa County and continue their efforts to fortify Grand Junction.”

“Then one afternoon, we heard them,” Chester mumbled. “The whap, whap, whap of the birds.”

“Helicopters?” Natalia asked, her eyes wide.

Leonard tried to imagine the depth of fear and pain such a noise would elicit in a man who’d survived a brutal attack like the Raze.

Russ smiled. “But we were ready for them.”

Chester’s hardened expression lightened. “Yes, we were,” he said proudly.

“The first two helicopters were probably scouts. We blasted them out of the sky. When their scouts failed to return, the Feds sent more. Over the next several days, we shot down every helicopter that came into view. We had launchers posted at six strategic points across Summit County.”

“You downed every helicopter?”

“Yup,” Russ said, placing both hands on the table with a slap.

“Wow.”

“Very satisfying,” Chester added.

“Then they sent a couple of fighter jets,” Russ continued. “Too fast for our gunmen.”

Chester glowered, gazing somewhere off in the distance. “Sweeping over the cities, dropping more bombs…all over again.”

Russ put a hand on Chester’s shoulder. “They didn’t triumph that day. We fired flares and actually caused one pilot to crash.”

“Obviously a novice,” Chester said.

“Then one of our gunmen got in a lucky shot with the rocket launcher.”

“He shot down a fighter?”

“Almost dead on. Two fighters in one day, neither pilot survived.”

Leonard whistled.

“It was quiet for several days before an army came through on foot. Tanks, troops, and a variety of weapons.”

Chester chuckled.

Leonard didn’t think it was very funny. What a nightmare. How could a small band of rebels hold off the Feds? As Russ continued, the situation clarified itself.

“But they all came through the tunnel, the idiots. We nailed them as they emerged. The tanks didn’t do well against the rocket launchers. It was like no one thought of coming through the forest.” Russ threw his hands in the air.

“But they did come through the forest,” Chester said.

“Days later. The defectors. They brought us weapons, but they arrived with their hands in the air, hundreds of them.”

“And you trusted them?” Leonard asked.

“We stood guard over them. Do you think we were idiots?”

“So they weren’t defectors?” Leonard’s head spun with confusion.

“After several weeks of hearing their horror stories, we began to release them one at a time. The defectors helped us prepare for the final attack. The Feds came with soldiers and fighter jets the following spring. We took them down.”

Leonard shook his head in disbelief. “That is amazing.”

“We jammed their communications and set up huge mirrors to blind the pilots. Then snipers took down a majority of the troops. Eventually, the remaining soldiers surrendered.”

“What did you do with them? The POWs?”

Russ looked at Chester grimly.

Chester glanced at Aiden and Natalia. Then he shrugged.

Russ cleared his throat. “We stripped them of their weapons and vehicles and drove them to Nevada.”

Leonard’s stomach turned.

“Some of them survived, I’m sure.”

I’m sure.
Leonard looked away.

“We might have a few enemies out there regrouping,” Chester added nonchalantly.

But most of them probably starved to death.

Russ prattled on as if dumping people in the desert was a casual affair. “Anyway, a number of defectors returned to Denver in the functional tanks.”

“You let the defectors go? What if they were spies?”

“They saved our lives. They promised to report that the resistance had been quashed and no rebels survived.”

“So you think they did?”

“The Feds never came back. And many of our defectors managed to make it to Mesa County within the year. Others operate as moles in government and military facilities.”

“Like your contact in Alina’s prison?”

“Exactly…You know, we’re looking to place a mole at the infirmary. What was the name of the soldier who helped you escape?”

“Sanders,” Natalia said.

Leonard touched his daughter’s hand and recaptured Russ’s attention. “What stops the Feds from targeting Grand Junction?”

“They don’t know we’re there.”

“No way.”

“We’ve got their satellites jammed with images of a deserted city.”

Leonard tipped his head, impressed. “You must have some pretty sharp IT guys.”

“The best. Intelligent people don’t do well in a coddling welfare state. A lot of our guys left Denver long before they closed the borders.”