Joel tucked the gun into his belt and picked the AR-15 up off the hood. “We need to find our stuff,” he said.
“We will, but first things first: I need to finish clearing the houses. We’ll probably find everything that’s missing in the process. We should let the others know we’re all right, too. I’m sure they heard the shooting.” Ben was thinking out loud and hadn’t fully decided how to best go about things. Martin was armed now. That wasn’t his plan, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. He wasn’t concerned about the guy anymore. Martin could have made his move earlier, if those were his intentions, but it was obvious that the guy hated the moonshiners as much as Ben did. For now, he was going to have to trust Martin. Whether he lived to regret that decision or not remained to be seen.
There was no getting around the fact that they were going to be here for a lot longer than he wanted. It would take hours to find everything and repack the trucks. Even if they did it with less planning than the first time, they’d be here well into the morning.
Ben checked his watch and was disappointed to see that sunrise was only a couple of hours away. The lack of decent sleep over the past two nights was taking its toll on him, and he worried that it would soon start to affect his decision-making. He wasn’t alone, either, and he knew it. None of them were in top form thanks to the events of the last forty-eight hours. The night before it was the bears, and now this.
There was only one solution, and as much as he hated the idea, they really didn’t have a choice. They were going to secure the compound and protect it like their own until they were properly outfitted and ready to leave on their own terms. Pulling out of here in a hurry and half-cocked wasn’t what he wanted for them. Getting back out on the road without being prepared could come back to haunt them and have major consequences down the road—literally. That was how mistakes were made, and as far as he was concerned, they’d made too many of them already.
Chapter Sixteen
If they were going to make a stand here, they needed to pull everything back inside the gate and lock themselves in. At the very least, the Blazer and the Jeep had to be inside the camp, although the remaining truck belonging to the moonshiners might come in handy later as well. He and Martin could take care of that now, and he could send Joel back to let the others know what the plan was.
If Joel stayed to the right side of the camp and avoided the areas with the container houses, Ben was fairly certain he would be safe. There was a good chance the fleeing pickup was the last of the moonshiners anyway. If there were any left, their chance for escape would be over once the gate was locked.
Joel and Martin both agreed with Ben’s plan. None of them were in good enough physical condition to get back on the road right now anyway. It was settled, then, and Joel headed back to let the others know what was going on while his dad and Martin pulled the vehicles inside the compound.
It felt good to sit inside the Blazer and start it up. The familiar sound of the engine and the contours of the driver’s seat made the vehicle feel like home, as much as Ben hated to admit it. Luckily, the moonshiners made a habit of keeping the keys tucked into the sun visors, and it didn’t take long to park all three vehicles near the center of the compound, safely within the confines of the chain-link fence.
Sliding the oversized gate closed and willingly shutting himself inside the compound gave Ben pause. He hesitated for a moment before finally closing the bolt on the padlock. He hoped he wasn’t making a big mistake and biting off more than they could chew. What if none of them were thinking clearly because of fatigue? If they were wrong, it would cost them everything. He squashed the seed of panic that threatened to grow inside him and headed back to continue clearing containers with Gunner’s assistance.
Martin’s burst of energy had cost the man what little strength he had left; he would only slow Ben down. Instead, he asked Martin to stay at the entrance to the camp and use the air horn they found in a makeshift guard shack near the gate to signal them if he saw anyone approaching.
Ben thought about Cloverdale again and how they used a similar alert system. He wondered how the town was holding up as he and Gunner left Martin at his post. They’d have to keep a person on watch here at all times as well, at least until they were ready to leave. If the other moonshiners came around, they’d at least be ready for them.
He made his way back to the last container and picked up right where he’d left off, just like he told Joel he would. They had no way of communicating right now other than being specific about their plans. When they split up, it was important to follow through on what was said, even though he would have preferred to start at the larger place up on the hill. It was the old man’s place; that was what he assumed, anyway, based on the size of the multi-container house. It was much larger than the rest and sat off by itself a bit, giving it a commanding view of the compound.
But he had to start here. The kids were behind him, and if he could secure the containers as they made their way across the compound, their security would be guaranteed. As much
