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  “But,” Len quickly continued, noticing the look on Harrison’s face and not wanting the old prepper to become too elated. “I think we might have to, for the night at least.”

  Harrison’s face fell as expected, forced to wait for Len to continue and explain his thinking.

  “We can’t go anywhere without our rucksacks at least, and I don’t like leaving my bow behind with these guys, either. I think we need to lay low for the rest of the day, try and get our stuff back, and then get out of here first thing in the morning. I know you want to get to Toronto now, Harrison, but we can’t do anything without our stuff. The motorcycles will need to be reclaimed too, and I have a feeling that won’t be an easy one.”

  “Okay,” Harrison nodded after a moment, “I think that makes sense.”

  “All right,” Amy also replied, listening to her ex-husband’s rational explanation and somewhat reluctantly agreeing with him. “I can get on board with that.”

  “Good,” Len nodded. “I think it makes sense. But the question is: what do we do next?”

  Chapter 10

  Sitting at the kitchen counter, Justin watched in silence as Aubrey and his son, Max, played together on the beach just outside of the house. The three of them were all still living in Amy’s home in South Haven, leading a relatively uninterrupted life since the day Len and Harrison had left them just over a week ago. Justin had only ever wanted to find a safe place for him and Max to live, and he was more than happy to have Aubrey as a part of their small family. The two children had bonded quite strongly during their time in South Haven; it was nice to see them acting so young and carefree, exactly how children their age should be.

  It was up to Justin to shoulder the worries that their group had, though he hadn’t shared them with either of the children. They were rapidly running out of clean drinking water, even though Harrison had left them with a water purifier to use on the lake. In recent days, however, Justin hadn’t felt comfortable using it. The lake water was becoming less and less clean, slicks running along the top of it, reminding him of the oil spills he had seen on television. If there was a chance the water was so contaminated that even the purifiers wouldn’t work, Justin didn’t want to risk them putting it in their bodies.

  Of course, that didn’t make life any easier for them. They had all scoured the houses on the street in the days following Len and Harrison’s departure. They had salvaged anything and everything that could be of use: food, water, weapons, equipment. Anything that Justin felt like he could find the tiniest use for, they had taken. He hadn’t been thrilled to spend a lot of time in the houses, and though they were all clearly deserted, it still made him feel uncomfortable.

  South Haven was well and truly a ghost town. They had been on journeys into the center of the town on two occasions, both to gather more supplies. On neither trip had they come across a single person, or even the tiniest indication of life. They hadn’t seen anything change in the entire time they had been there; it was like the whole town had been completely forgotten.

  In some respects, Justin knew that was a good thing. They were safe from other people and didn’t have to deal with anyone trying to steal from them or putting them in danger. What had happened at the gas station still haunted Justin at night when he thought about it—he couldn’t believe he had been so reckless as to let Max just run off inside the shop, not even thinking about the possible dangers that could lie within. If anything had happened to Max that day, Justin knew he would have never been able to forgive himself. The poor boy had already lost his mother and brother since the solar crash. Justin was supposed to be protecting him from any further harm, not pushing him into it.

  So, when he thought of that, Justin was glad they were the only people in South Haven. The children would be safe and he didn’t have to worry about the dangers that the human race brought with them. Aside from that though, it was very strange how little life was left in the town. He would’ve understood it had the majority of the place crumbled to the ground, but it was only the very center that was destroyed. In the outskirts of town, and particularly beside the lake, the houses remained intact and the neighborhoods all but untouched. Something must have caused the people to leave, but whatever that was remained a mystery to Justin. A mystery that didn’t bring him much comfort.

  “Look, Dad!” Justin blinked the haze from his mind, focusing his eyes on the two children that now stood in front of him, their feet sandy from their run up the beach. “Look what we found.”

  To Justin’s surprise, there in his son’s outstretched hand was a Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol, the weapon slightly damp and covered in sand as it had just been plucked from the beach. Without wasting a second, Justin snatched it from Max’s hand, placing it on the kitchen counter and aiming it away from the three of them.

  “Where did you get that?”

  “It was just off shore,” Max shrugged, unaffected by the weapon he had just brought into the house. “It got stuck amongst some rocks a few feet from the beach so I used a big stick to bring it closer to shore then Aubrey grabbed it.”

  Justin looked from his son to Aubrey, her charming young face smiling and nodding as Max explained what had happened. The pair of them looked extremely proud of their discovery, but Justin didn’t like what this could mean.

  “Can you show me where?” Justin asked as he started walking out of the kitchen and through the double doors to the patio, leaving the pistol on the kitchen counter behind him. Max and Aubrey both enthusiastically led him to where they had been playing out by the lake, pointing out to the small rock pool where they had first seen the weapon.

  Justin surveyed the area carefully. Though he was certain the gun had been washed up from somewhere far away, he didn’t want to take any chances. He couldn’t forget that Max and Aubrey were both under his care, and after the incident at the gas station he knew he needed to approach every tiny problem with extreme caution. Squinting his eyes as he looked out over the lake, Justin was able to make out a few other objects floating on the water, though they were too far away and the sun reflected too heavily for him to determine what they were.

  “Come on, guys,” Justin spoke with a shake of his head, looking away from the lake and down at the two children. “Let’s play inside for the rest of today, okay? You can come back out here tomorrow.”

  “Aw, Dad,” Max whined, disappointed by his father’s response. “That’s not fair.”

  “Yeah,” Aubrey joined in. “Why do we have to go inside?”

  “It’s just to be safe,” Justin spoke seriously as he placed his hands on each of their backs, guiding both the children back towards the house. “And it’s only one afternoon. Just do this for me, please.”

  “Okay,” Aubrey eventually caved, as they were almost back to the house, earning a sigh from Max who was less enthusiastic to follow his father’s orders. Once they were all back in the kitchen and Justin had pulled the patio doors closed, Max and Aubrey both very quickly lost their resolve for disappointment. “Let’s go play upstairs, Max.” Aubrey suggested, taking the young boy’s hand and dragging him out of the kitchen. Justin watched them go for a second, the relationship between Aubrey and his son always putting a smile on his face. Then, once they were up the stairs and out of sight, he turned back to the pistol on the table and exhaled deeply.

  This hadn’t been a problem he’d expected to encounter, though it wasn’t something Justin felt completely unprepared for. It wasn’t the weapon itself that worried him; he had taken a couple of guns from neighboring houses himself during their scavenges, it making sense for them to have some sort of protection. He’d found a Beretta M9 service pistol first, on the dead body of a policeman who had sadly shot himself in the head. It was a scene Justin hadn’t been expecting to find and he’d struggled to stop Aubrey and Max from encountering it before it was too late. Later that same day, Justin had also come across a very old Thompson/Center muzzleloader, an old hunting rifle that had to date back almost to the 18
00s. Justin wasn’t sure if the latter would even work anymore, but he’d taken it with him anyway, removing it from the glass casing where it hung above a fireplace.

  As a result, he was perfectly happy to have the Colt M1911 in the house with him, and providing it hadn’t been too badly damaged from floating in the lake it would probably still work. Plus, it was a much more reliable weapon than the muzzleloader. What worried him was where it had come from. Picking up the semi-automatic and shoving it into the waistband of the pants he wore, Justin moved out of the kitchen and into the front room, where he pulled open a drawer and dug out a pair of binoculars he had also scavenged.

  Making his way back to the kitchen, Justin positioned himself in front of the now-closed patio doors and placed the binoculars over his eyes. As slowly as he could—though his hands shook slightly—Justin scanned Lake Michigan in front of him, searching for the few floating objects he had noticed earlier. With the waves that the lake carried, it was difficult to keep track of the objects at first, let alone figure out what they were. Eventually, Justin got the hang of things and started to piece together the equipment that the lake was slowly carrying in his direction.

  What he saw though didn’t really make sense to him. Making their way across the lake were wooden crates and plastic bags, kept afloat by buoyancy aids. It looked planned out and tactical, like people had intentionally placed the items in the water, relying on the current to carry them over to South Haven. Furrowing his brow, an idea popped into Justin’s head and he moved out of the kitchen, making his way upstairs to what had been James’s bedroom.

  “You two all right?” He asked as he smiled at Max and Aubrey, both of them playing on the bedroom floor with James’s old toys.

  “Yeah,” Max nodded. “What’re you doing?”

  “I just want to borrow this for a second,” Justin replied, picking up the large telescope that was positioned in the window. It was designed to look at the night sky, searching for planets in the vast solar system and beyond. Justin figured if it could do that, it could certainly be focused over the lake, hopefully providing him with more insight as to what was happening on the other side.

  “Why do you need that?”

  “Oh, I just want to look at a few things out the back,” Justin shrugged, not wanting to tell the children what he was afraid of. “Don’t you worry about it. I’ll give you a shout when I’ve got dinner ready, okay?”

  “All right,” Max replied with a smile, perfectly happy to leave his dad be and get back to the game he and Aubrey were playing. Justin was glad to avoid any confrontation, hauling the telescope back downstairs with only minor difficulties. Once he was back in the kitchen, he tugged open the patio doors and set the contraption up outside, fiddling around for several minutes before he figured out the zoom and magnification system.

  With the telescope finally set up and pointing in the right direction, Justin positioned himself above it and slowly leaned down to peer through the eyepiece. What he saw on the other side of the lake filled him with dread. Groups of people were gathered around the shoreline, organizing themselves into small rowboats, their bodies adorned with weapons like they were heading out to war. Each of them wore similar clothing: black or camouflage patterns, heavy boots, and occasionally military-style jackets. What skin was on show was covered with tattoos and the vast majority had their hair shaved very close to their heads. They looked like a gang, and not a very welcoming one at that. Making sure he gathered every detail possible, Justin began to become more and more frightened of what was about to happen.

  The Latin Kings. Harrison and Len had warned him about the gang they had encountered before they left, preparing him just in case they reappeared. Now it looked like they were doing just that, and Justin could guess exactly why. South Haven was deserted, but it was still relatively intact. It was the perfect place to set up in and take control of, an empty town that was at the mercy of whoever chose to claim it.

  Except it wasn’t empty. Justin, Max, and Aubrey had made it their home and now someone was threatening to take it. Squaring his shoulders, Justin knew he had a decision to make. He had to protect the children. What he couldn’t decide was exactly how to do that. Fight or flight kicked in and he knew he had to choose. And fast.

  Chapter 11

  Walking casually through Camp Flint, Len and Harrison mentally took note of everything around them. The camp was set up in a very similar way to the one where Amy and Maggie had been held; how it differed was the people within. Groups were mingling harmlessly in corners or around the scattered pieces of furniture that had been brought into the camp. It looked like several yards had been raided, mismatched tables and chairs arranged to make the area seem more homey.

  Len and Harrison counted each group of people in their heads, both trying to keep track of how many civilians were in the camp compared to officials. Harrison was still concerned about this number, suspecting that some of the information Captain Watt and Doug had shared with them could be fabricated. He wasn’t willing to trust anything within the camp and regretted more than ever that they had come there. Len had been right all along; their group would’ve been better off sticking on the road to Toronto.

  “What do you think?” Len muttered under his breath, nodding his head in the direction of one of the tents, where two men in uniform stood idly outside it.

  Harrison nodded in response; it was the only tent they hadn’t yet checked out and therefore it made sense to be the home of their belongings. Striding toward it, the two men prepared themselves for an altercation at the entrance.

  “Afternoon,” one of the men in uniform nodded at them, Harrison recognizing him as one of the lookouts from the guard towers. “Found your way around all right, I see.”

  “We have,” Harrison replied slowly, uncertain how to judge the atmosphere between them and the guards. “Our belongings haven’t, though. You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you?”

  “Hmm,” the guard scratched his chin in a sort of mock-pondering expression. “What belongings would they be?”

  “Our bags,” Harrison spoke firmly. “Our weapons. Oh, and we’d quite like the motorcycles back as well, since we won’t be staying here long.”

  “You won’t?” The second guard questioned with a smile. “That is a shame, isn’t it?”

  “Indeed,” the first agreed. “Where are you planning on going?”

  “I’m not sure that’s any of your business,” Harrison retorted, his patience for the two men growing thin. “But if you must know, we’re heading to Canada. So we will need the bikes to get there.”

  “Canada, eh?” The second guard laughed, impersonating a terrible Canadian accent and slapping his partner on the back as he tried to gain kudos for his joke. “Not sure why you’d want to go there.”

  “Well, we do,” Harrison replied, his tone of voice growing more and more irritated with every exchange. “So, if you could point us in the direction of our stuff, please, we’ll be able to get out of your way.”

  “I wish we could,” the lead guard took over the conversation again, “but I’m afraid we haven’t seen your bags since we let you in. Perhaps you should check over by the gate?”

  “We’ve done that,” Harrison lied. “Perhaps we could check inside here?”

  “No can do, I’m afraid. Authorized personnel only—someone’s got to try and keep this country running.”

  “And that’s you, is it?” It was now Harrison’s turn to laugh, rolling his eyes at the statement and shaking his head. “I wish our country luck in that case.”

  Without sparing another second entertaining the two guards, Harrison turned on his heel and walked away from the tent, Len following just behind. He strode a fair distance away, making a beeline for one of the perimeter fences, which he finally came to a stop at. The pair of them were out of earshot of the two guards, though they could still see them clearly. Harrison sneered at them standing there, his face contorted into a semi-permanent frown.
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br />   “So?” Len asked under his breath as Harrison finally looked away from the guards. “I guess it’s pretty obvious that’s where our stuff is. Do you think the bikes are in there as well?”

  “I do,” Harrison nodded, “and I don’t think they’re going to be giving us them back.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Talk to Captain Watt first, I think,” Harrison decided. “See if she can be any more helpful than those two buffoons. If not, then we’ll have to take matters into our own hands. We’ve done it before; I don’t see it being a problem here.”

  Following Harrison once more as the prepper turned and started walking away, Len started to feel increasingly uneasy about what his friend was suggesting. They definitely shouldn’t have entered Camp Flint. While he understood Harrison’s need for information on Canada, they had managed well enough by themselves without information for several weeks by now. He had faith that they could’ve made it to Toronto and dealt with the state of it once they arrived. Sadly, that was no longer an option.