Restitution: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival series (The Dark Road series Book 8)

an opportunity would present itself. Sooner or later, these wannabe tough guys would make a mistake, and if they were ready, they could take advantage of it. Losing his cool wouldn’t help anything, and it would only cause the kids to panic. Cooler heads would prevail. They always did.
Ben stopped pacing and looked at Allie. Why was she smiling?
Joel was staring at her now, too, with a confused look on his face. Ben was afraid the stress would get to one of them, but he hadn’t figured Allie would be the first to crack. She reached down into the top of her hiking boot and pulled out her Spyderco knife.
“Before they made us get out of the Jeep, I hid it.” She proudly held the knife out for Ben. “I learned my lesson after the FEMA camp.”
“Good job, Allie.” Ben was proud of her and equally impressed with her ingenuity. He took the knife and held it in his hand for a moment before tucking it into the waistband of his pants. If they were taken out of the container, he’d hide the knife in his boot as well. But for now, he wanted it readily available. The knife wouldn’t change their current situation immediately, but it was a weapon and more of an advantage than they had a few seconds ago. When the time came for action, it would give them a fighting chance, and if he played his cards right, it might make all the difference.
“This will come in handy.” Ben patted the knife, which was now hidden securely under his clothing.
For the first time since they’d been locked away, Emma took a break from crying and looked up at him. “What now?” she asked with a sniffle.
“Now we wait, and I know it will be hard, but we need to get some rest and save our energy. Sooner or later, they’ll have to let us out of here, and when they do, we need to be ready to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself. You have to trust me when I say that we’ll get out of this.” Ben knelt by Emma and wiped the tears from her cheek. She reached up, wrapped her arm around his neck, and squeezed hard.
Bradley spoke up. “I believe you, Dad.”
Ben turned his attention to his youngest and smiled before giving him a pat on his shoulder. “Good, because it’s true. Now’s the time when we need to be strong. All of us.” Ben kissed Emma’s forehead as she let go of him, and he stood up slowly. He made his way back over to the door and studied their surroundings through the slot in the container, trying to see if he could pick up on anything interesting going on outside.
“Dad?” Emma asked, and Ben turned to face her. “Do you think Gunner and Sam will be all right?” She looked down, as if she didn’t really want to hear the answer, or maybe because she thought she already knew they wouldn’t be.
“I think they’ll be fine for now. I have a feeling they’re going to concentrate on the vehicles for the time being.” This was Ben’s hope, anyway. Of course, he had no way of knowing if that was true, but he imagined the supplies in the Blazer and the Jeep would be the focus. With any luck, they would set the dogs aside and leave them in their cages. If their intention was to kill the dogs, they would have done it when they first ambushed them at the locked gate in the woods.
Ben promised himself a long time ago that he would be honest with the kids, but now wasn’t the time to share what was really going through his mind. He was suspicious of the hillbillies’ motives behind caging the dogs, and his real concern was that they intended to eat them. He would never admit that to the kids, and he hated to even think it, but it was a legitimate concern.
He was glad they’d packed the two coolers with venison and held out hope that the meat would buy them some time. They had a lot of other food in the vehicles as well, and as much as he hated the thought of the old man and his crew going through their stuff, it was better than the alternative. If it kept Gunner and Sam alive long enough for him to come up with a plan, it would be well worth the sacrifice. If something happened to either one of the dogs, the kids would be scarred for life, beyond what damage this place had done to them already.
He had to come up with something, but right now, he didn’t have much to go on and had no idea how to break out of this container—or if that was even possible. He needed time to think and settle down. He was still wrung up from the initial encounter with these redneck cretins. Ben closed his eyes and took a breath.
He needed to concentrate on their current situation, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how far along they would have been by now if they hadn’t been captured. If they were left in here until tomorrow, there wouldn’t be a chance to escape. They could be here for days, maybe longer.
The image of Joel getting hit in the gut with the rifle butt wasn’t helping his blood pressure, either. It was all he could do to keep his cool, and now he was second-guessing his decision in that moment. What if that was their only chance to do something about their situation? No, there would be another opportunity—there had to be. Ben was so deep in thought that he was startled by Sandy’s touch.
“Sorry.” She pulled her hand back from his shoulder. Ben turned to see all the kids sitting in a tight row against the metal wall of the container.
“Hey, it’s okay,” she said.
Ben shook his head and went back to watching the