Last Stand: Surviving America's Collapse by William H. Weber Page B

kids that being calm and collected was the best approach.
    Diane was at the top of the stairs. “Will you talk to your daughter?”
    “What’s the problem?”
    “She wants to go to the block party.”
    John shook his head. “ I was just there. None of them have a clue how serious this is.”
    Emma poked her head out of her room. “I don’t see why we’re locked up in this house like prisoners. People are having fun outside and I’m stuck in Alcatraz.”
    “We’re doing this for your own safety,” John said. He turned to Diane. “The less in touch with reality those people outside are, the more it jeopardizes our own security.”
    “You don’t think any of them would try and take what we have?” Diane asked, worried.
    “Who can say for sure ? Hunger can do crazy things to people. But more importantly, if the neighborhood isn’t a united front, we’ll be easy pickings for roving gangs looking to raid supplies.”
    From her room Emma said, “Look outside. They are a united front, Dad. We’re the ones on the outside.”
    Diane bit her lip. “I hate to say it, but she might have a point. If we intend to stay, even for a little while, alienating ourselves from the neighbors might come back to haunt us.”
    John sighed. Under the circumstances, the willful neglect that was going on outside went against everything he held dear, but they did have a point. Adaptability and being able to swallow your pride for the greater good could spell the difference between life and death. History was littered with the bodies of men who’d stuck to their principles and died from inflexibility. He swallowed hard, knowing that putting on a smile while the world around him slowly boiled over would be difficult, but if the community was going to come together to make decisions in the future, he didn’t want to be left on the sidelines.

Chapter 13
    O utside, not long after, Al tapped John on the shoulder and offered him a Budweiser.
    John took it and twisted off the cap. “I think we should begin setting up some sort of committee.”
    “What for?”
    “Might not be long before we need to start making decisions collectively. It’s always best not to wait for a crisis to know who’s in charge.”
    Al nodded. “I suppose it can’t hurt to start spreading the word. I think Dan Foster used to work in the mayor’s office before he started his own law practice. I could have a chat with him.”
    John took a bite of a hot dog and set it down on a paper plate. “Hmm, hold off on talking to Dan just yet.”
    “ Oh, did you hear what happened on Silversted?” Al asked.
    “No, I didn’t.”
    Al ran a wrinkled hand through what was left of his graying hair. “The street runs parallel to the interstate and apparently yesterday a few dozen folks came knocking on doors, asking for a place to stay for the night.”
    “You mean the ones who were stranded on the highway?”
    “Looks that way. I believe they were all taken in, fed and given a place to sleep.”
    John took another swig of his beer, touched although worried at the same time.
    “After the power went out , a bunch of them continued on to work while the rest turned around and headed home. It was the ones who got all the way into town and found their offices closed who got stuck when darkness fell. In a situation like this, that’s all most folks want anyway, right? To find a way home.”
    “ What about the police?” John asked. “Any word on whether they’ve been out at all?”
    “Sally Wright from Maple Lane was saying she saw a number of them in groups of five or six. On some sort of patrol. Says she asked, but they didn’t know what had happened to cause this.”
    “Didn’t know or wouldn’t say?”
    “Hmm, not sure.”
    “How were the cops getting around?” John asked.
    “Bikes.”
    “ That makes sense. I wonder how they get anyone to the station though.”
    Al laughed. “ I wondered that myself. I guess the bad guys ride on the handlebars or something.