Dwight’s eyes narrowed. “You forced people?”
John took a deep breath, then shook his head. “No—I never had to.”
Dwight twitched his shoulders in question. “So why’d ya quit?”
“I didn’t exactly. After your chum Barry refused to come with us, his neighbors shot my team up pretty bad, and our helicopter crashed in the hills near where Jared was staying.”
Dwight sat on a large couch and steepled his hands in thought. As Dwight thought, Jared eyed the inside of the mammoth house. The square footage, based on what Jared could see, was probably in the neighborhood of ten thousand square feet, not counting the garage and any outbuildings. Jared had not consciously positioned himself, but he realized John was covering the right side of the residence while Jared was facing the left. Barry sat clueless on a second couch, staring at Dwight as if waiting for him to spew forth something so profound, the event would no longer matter. This did not happen.
Jared tried to remember if it was he or John who’d posted up first, but couldn’t recall. Either way, the two men were covering the two unknowns inside Dwight’s home, and this made him feel more comfortable. The unknowns were a hallway on Jared’s side and possibly a gigantic open kitchen on John’s side.
After several silent moments, Dwight broke the silence. “You’re right,” he said, looking directly at John. “I can’t survive more than two years with the food supplies I have on-site. I do have water from a well and power for now, but the attacks started a week ago, and they’ve come every night since.”
Dwight told the trio his neighborhood was devoid of humans after the first week. Once he realized what happened, Dwight told them he’d closed the gate and refused to allow his wife to leave the house. This was probably what led to her suicide. A week prior, Dwight had been awakened in the middle of the night to the sounds of someone attempting to pry the shutters from their moorings. Dwight explained how he had issued a verbal warning to what turned out to be three men. The men did not leave, but instead demanded he open up.
When he refused, one of the men fired at the shutter Dwight was communicating through. He was not injured and returned fire, killing one of the men and wounding one other. He didn’t sleep the rest of the night. The shooting was the spark that ignited an ongoing feud between Dwight and his unknown assailants. The second evening more men came and began prying at the shutters. This time, Dwight didn’t bother to announce a warning, opting instead to simply shoot as many of the men as he could before they fled.
The third night, they returned with ten men and were much more organized. The ten men broke into groups and worked at covering each other. One group would pry while another would try to suppress Dwight’s efforts to shoot through the ports. Dwight easily thwarted their endeavors by moving about the inside of his house, constantly changing shooting positions. Dwight wasn’t sure how many men he shot since that outing had been a much higher-paced episode than the two previous encounters.
The fourth night, no one came, but on the following night, the men changed their tactics yet again by throwing some sort of flammable liquid against the house in a futile attempt to burn Dwight out of his house. Dwight assured Jared and the other men the house could not be burned down, so he waited inside without firing a shot. Later that same evening after the fire burned itself out, the men returned and fired several shots at the house in what amounted to little more than a child’s temper tantrum when the assailants realized their fire plan had failed miserably.
The previous night marked evening number six, and the men had not disappointed. They returned and began a very methodical probing operation of the property. They located and destroyed many of Dwight’s security cameras before attempting to shoot at the ports in the shutters. Their shots caused minimal damage and resulted in them giving up quickly. Dwight had a hunch the men were short on ammunition, or they would have used more of it in their raid against him and his home.
Once Dwight finished briefing Jared and company on his current problem, he sat back and smiled. “So it seems we can all do each other a favor here.” He sighed through a joyless grin. “My first choice is not to go anywhere with anyone, but I also realize this little situation I have with some neighbors is escalating, and at some point, I won’t be able to handle it on my own. If I just pack up and leave, that problem doesn’t go away, you see. It remains here, and those men do the same thing to other people.”
“What are you saying?” Jared queried.
“I’m saying I will come with you, but only after you help me rid the neighborhood of these men who tried to burn my home down and who have made my wife’s final resting place a very unpeaceful place to be buried.” Dwight gave the group a tiny nod as if he was sure they would agree.
Barry shook his head almost unconsciously as Jared bit his lower lip, thinking about what the man was asking. At first glance, Dwight wanted to exact the revenge he was unable to achieve by himself and was attempting to use Jared, John and Barry to accomplish this task. Then Jared thought about what Dwight actually said, and understood it was more about leaving his neighborhood a better place than seeking revenge or retribution.
John, who until now remained sitting still as a statue, spoke out. “We’ll do it.” He hesitated, swallowed hard, then continued, “At least I will do it, the other two can make up their own minds, but I
