Read Lamp Black: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 2) for Free Online

seen from upstairs. He also mentioned plans to camouflage the front patio, and make it look like their home had already been looted.
    Jenna was the most curious about the camouflage, so John explained that he would spray paint the plywood window covers and make it look, at least to the casual observer, that their house had been burnt and vandalized. He said he would throw some old clothing, and other unnecessary household items around the front yard, and make it look like they had been looted. John had other plans in mind, like tripwires and early warning devices, tangle foot, and even ditches, but they weren’t at that point of a defense, so he kept those thoughts to himself. However, John did discuss what he called, emergency action drills. He covered rules on candles, and what to do if there was a house fire. He talked about what to do if someone was seen outside their home, and how to communicate the news to the rest of the family. They discussed alarms, as well as where to best observe the property from inside the house, and where to go, and what to do if someone broke into their home. John covered many other plans as well, but he spent most of his time talking about how to contend with people, especially hostile people, like the man that came to the door asking for batteries.
    “People will want what we have, and if we don’t give it to them, which we won’t unless the conditions are favorable, they’ll come and try to take it from us.” said John, with a momentary pause that was just long enough to emphasize the importance of what he was about to tell them.
    “What’s a favorable condition, dad?” asked Adam.
    “That’s a good question Adam. A favorable condition is creating a way to provide food for a needy person without giving ourselves away . . . without telling them we have food
to
give away. There are ways to ask for help that are not threatening, and there are ways to give help without revealing that we’re prepared. But most people will act out of desperation, and feel that it’s their right to take whatever they need to stay alive,” replied John.
    John studied Adam and saw that he understood, but a shadow of a doubt seemed to linger on his face. John continued, hoping to better explain his concerns, “There’s really only one way a threat can enter our house unscathed, to get into a position where they can take everything we have without destroying it, and that’s by taking a hostage.” John let the word “hostage” hang in the air for a moment before he continued. He could see by the look on their faces that they were scared. “It’s inevitable, really, since I will have to go outside several times a day, and I won’t always be able to see everything, that it willinvolve me. It will probably be an ambush. The worst case is that they shoot me, but I don’t think that will happen because that would limit their options to gain access to our house . . . to our food and supplies,” said John. “I’d be no good to them dead, or even wounded. A dead or disabled hostage is of no value to a threat, especially in our case where they would need one of us to gain access. We’ll have to make a new challenge and password every day, and include a word that indicates duress . . .”
    “What’s duress?” asked Abby.
    “It’s when someone is making you do something that you don’t want to do. You would be under duress if someone told you they would kill you if you didn’t convince your mom to open the door for you, or something like that,” answered John.
    Abby blanched at John’s example. John almost apologized once again, but he reminded himself that they were living in a new world, a hostile and violent one, one filled with many new and very serious dangers. To calm her down, John added, “Abby, baby, you have been very fortunate. You were raised in a safe and healthy family environment for many years. You mom and I have gone to great lengths to keep it that way. I don’t want to