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“Explain. Now,” I demand of Dylan, reaching for his arm more to reassure myself he’s alright than to guide him through the back door of the main house.
His growth spurt seems to be never ending, because I suddenly feel like he’s even taller when he stands up and sucks in a deep breath.
“We were up near Lee’s place,” he starts, still wheezing. “There were tracks I hadn’t seen before and we followed them. They sloped down into the ground and all of a sudden we, well, we found another way into his bunker, I guess.”
“It was like the garage for a bunker,” Rachel contributes. “I think it was that faraday cage thing that Mike has, but on a bigger scale.”
“Right, well, there was a big empty spot then when we walked further inside,” Dylan picks the story back up.
“Inside?” I mutter, looking between them. “Really, do we think going inside was the wisest course of action?”
“Mom, hold off on the lecture. He has rocket and grenade launchers with plenty of ammunition. There was a door that led to like, a regular looking living room, but we didn’t go any further!” Dylan says, throwing his hands up to stop me from losing it. “We went back outside and followed the tracks. There was a camouflaged tarp over this thing, it wasn’t like a tank, tank. It was like a tank and an SUV had a baby.”
“So, he’s dusting off his toys, huh?” My dad’s comment draws our attention to him, and for once he looks uncertain. One of his arms is across his chest as his other hand squeezes his temples before he slowly moves it down his face. “I spent twenty years pissed off he had that shit up there and now, it turns out, he was right.”
“You… Wait, this is why your littleHatfield and McCoyfeud began? You knew about his weapons?” I ask, sitting heavily down on the couch closest to the fireplace and thinking this information should have been shared long before now, considering the state of the world we’re living in.
“It was certainly part of it. I’m not as opposed to owning weapons as your mother was, Shelby, but the type and caliber that I saw up there. Well, I flipped out at the thought of things like that so close to my family. Now, this armored vehicle, that’s news to me,” Dad responds, matter of factly. “Frankly, I was surprised that Russ didn’t stumble upon his weapons cache when he was snooping around the bunker.”
“You’re saying that he’s been stockpiling this stuff like half of my life?” I ask for clarification, and he nods.
“Probably longer than that.”
“Dylan and Rachel…” I keep my voice low but wait until they both make eye contact with me. “You go up there again without my permission and there will be hell to pay. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” my son immediately agrees to my demand, nodding his head frantically. I look at Rachel to see her head is bobbing up and down, also.
Today doesn’t seem like I’ll be able totake it easy.Without another word, I stand and walk back to our cabin to wake up Aiden. Lee’s ‘toys’ might be the answer to holding on to our land, but only if he’ll work with us.
Aiden is stretched out, taking up nearly all of our bed as he lightly snores. I know he’s been busting his ass for us, but I need his consul, so I lift an end of the blanket to slide in next to him.
“Uh ime ss it?”
I smile as I try to make sense of his mumbled words and simply nuzzle against his throat.
“I love you,” I whisper when his arms tighten around me.
“You okay?” he asks me, slowly waking up. “What time is it?”
“Too soon for you to be up, but I need to talk to you,” I tell him, hearing him grunt in response, I know he wants me to start talking and that he’ll catch up.
“It turns out that Lee has a full armory, in addition to his bunker. Dylan and Rachel stumbled upon it earlier,” I tell him, surprised to feel his chest shaking.
“I’m beginning to wonder if he built a whole town under his house,” he says before leaning back to smile at me. “Even his house is more or less a bunker, the way it’s built into the landscape.”
“Did you know about his weapons?”
“Well, he’s made comments before, nothing specific, but I assumed he had more than a couple of rifles and archery equipment,” Aiden replies, referencing the only weapons my dad had on hand.
“Aiden, he has a tank! And grenade launchers and…” I quickly run out of steam at the look on Aiden’s face. “You think he’ll help us?”
“Look around, Shelby. Whoever he was expecting to show up and help defend his place, hasn’t arrived. Or maybe they’ll make it in the spring, who knows?” Aiden sighs, just as much in the dark as the rest of us. “But he’s no fool. If our place is overrun, he’ll be up there without anyone to help him keep what he has. If he’s dusting things off, he’s probably getting nervous about Jace and now, Eddie, not making it back from town.”
“I’ll go talk to him,” I start, seeing his eyes darken.
I take a deep breath because I know what he’s going to say, just like he knows I volunteered to go because it’s who I am. The moment the words left my lips, I knew I’d be risking too much by making the trip.
“No, baby. Your dad and I will go. No argument, Shel,” Aiden says. “We should head out immediately, if Lee’s is up to that much work again, he’ll have seen the kids’ tracks by now.”
