“Vacation with the family?” Jacob asked.
“Oh, no family for me, bro. This was a fun trip… out with my boys in Atlantic City,” James said, taking a long pause before continuing. “My best friend from high school. The son of a bitch was getting married. Best bachelor party ever, you know? Boys all out on the town. Hell, they were all there, all of the old crew. His brother. One of my favorite cousins. Man, I hadn’t seen those guys in forever. It was good, Jacob, real good. We had a lot of fun for those first couple days.” James looked away, reflecting, taking several steps before continuing.
“That wedding never happened.”
James stopped and turned, looking toward the lake. He moved away so that he stood next to a tree, his tone dropping. “Shit, Jacob—I’m the only one of us left now. All my friends are gone. They looked to me, the bad ass Marine, lean and mean. They thought I had all the answers. Hell, I thought I had the answers. There wasn’t shit I could do. As soon as we hit the streets, we were separated in the crowds. It was mass chaos. I barely got out myself.
“Fucked up to think about it. Them all gone and me still here. Why me, Jacob? I’m no better than they were. Their only mistake was trusting me.”
Jacob didn’t know what to say; he stood silently waiting.
“You know, Jacob, this really is the place for warfighters like us. It’s where we belong. Warfighters need to be together. We can’t get mixed up with civilians all together in cities like that. That’s how shit gets broken.”
“Like us?” Jacob asked.
James nodded. “Oh yeah, I’ve watched you. You’re a warfighter too; you just haven’t accepted it yet. You keep fighting against it, telling yourself you’re just here because you have to be, just trying to follow along doing the bare minimum. Screw that noise. You need to embrace it, bro. Don’t endure; you got to embrace this shit, or it will eat you alive.”
Jacob laughed. “You’re nuts.”
“You’ll see.” James turned back hard on the trail. He stepped ahead and faced Jacob, his expression suddenly serious. He moved so that he was inches from Jacob’s face. “I’m telling you. Tomorrow, when we are out there on that line and those things are coming at us, don’t fight like you’re being forced to; fight like you’re standing in front of something worth protecting. If the Devil points his finger at you, you better lash out and bite it.” James turned away, not waiting for an answer, leaving Jacob standing alone. “That’s how you keep your family safe,” James said over his shoulder.
They trekked silently down the trail after that, Jacob giving the man space. They crossed over the barbed wire and exited into the clearing of the cabin. Jacob saw the others gathered near the barn. Stone had a trapdoor pulled back, revealing a deep root cellar. It was the type people used to shelter in during tornados and severe storms. Jacob edged closer and could see it was stocked with weapons. Jesse was in the hole removing items as Stone pointed to them. They stepped closer to the stack of weapons and James leaned down and grabbed a heavy machine gun from the ground. “I’ll take this 240 if you’re playing Santa,” he said.
Stone turned to face him, looking him up and down. “Yeah, you sure as shit do look like a machine gunner. Go on and take it; you’ll find some linked ammo in the barn.”
Peering down into the cellar, Jacob saw a scoped M14 leaning in a corner. The same as the one he’d used in training. “Sir, the M14.”
Stone looked back suspiciously. “You know how to handle it?” he asked.
“I had one like it in training,” Jacob said.
Stone waved a hand at the M14 rifle then pointed further in. “Give him old reliable over there. Yeah, that shorty AK47 pistol also. Works well for CQB and kicking them when they’re down.”
“How’d you buy all of this?” Jacob asked.
Stone smirked. “I owned a gun shop in town after I retired, but I didn’t buy most of this. Well, not all of it. The big hardware like that M240 machine gun and the .50 in the barn, my boys found out on the highway right where the military dropped them after things went to hell. Loads of abandoned military checkpoints up and down the highway and county roads; plenty of hardware to be picked up. Have to get to it before it gets to rusting though.
“Some of this stuff I owned from before or collected on my own. People with militia ambitions stashed the rest here. Being a licensed gun dealer, I’ve been holding some things for them. Hell, some I’m still expecting to come back and collect. Can’t believe all them crazy bastards are gone.”
Jesse looked up from the hole. “So that’s who you are, what this place is. You’re with the militia?”
“Go on, boy. Grab that big, green, square box-looking thing there and climb on out. So militia, ay? Is that who you take me for?” Stone laughed, looking down at Jesse.
The big man lifted the object and set it on the edge of the hole. “I don’t know, I guess not. But it is a lot of guns.”
The old man crept along to the edge and leaned down to lift the M202 flame weapon. He
