No one questioned it.
Out here, childhood ended when necessity demanded.
On the fourth day, smoke appeared on the horizon.
The Morrison place was burning again.
Everyone stopped to watch the black column rising against gray sky.
No one spoke.
They didn't need to.
The message was clear.
Black Hollow was coming.
That night, Harlon called everyone together.
Thirty people crowded into the main room.
Families who'd been strangers days ago, now bound by survival.
Children sat wide-eyed.
Women clutched rifles like they knew how to use them, and some probably did.
Men checked weapons with the careful attention of people who understood they might die using them.
"They're coming," Harlon said without preamble. "Probably tomorrow, maybe the day after. But soon."
No one looked surprised.
"We've done what we can to prepare. Barricades are up. Weapons are distributed. Everyone knows their position."
He paused.
"But I need you to understand something. This isn't going to be clean. People are going to get hurt. Some of us might die."
A woman holding a baby started crying quietly.
Her husband put his arm around her, but didn't tell her to stop.
"If anyone wants to leave," Harlon continued, "now's the time. No one will judge you. There's a difference between courage and suicide."
No one moved.
"All right, then."
Harlon's voice roughened.
"We stand together. We fight together. And if we're lucky, if we're smart and brave and lucky, we survive together."
Thomas spoke up.
"What if they offer terms? What if they say we can avoid bloodshed by just paying?"
"We don't pay," Charlotte said flatly. "The moment you pay extortion, you're a victim forever. They'll bleed you dry and burn you out anyway when you've got nothing left to give."
"But if it saves lives..."
"It won't."
The scarred man touched his burns.
"They took my money and still did this. Payment doesn't buy safety. It buys time until they decide to take everything else."
The room absorbed this in heavy silence.
Norah stepped forward.
"There's something else you should know. This isn't just about Black Hollow. It's about what comes after."
"What do you mean?" Willis asked.
"I mean right now, Sorrow Creek is dying. Families are isolated. Trust is gone. Everyone's barely surviving. And criminals know it. That's why Black Hollow operates here, because we're weak and divided."
Norah's voice strengthened.
"But if we hold, if we prove that this valley can unite and fight, everything changes. We stop being victims and become something else. A community that protects its own."
"That's a nice dream," someone muttered.
"It's not a dream. It's a choice."
Norah looked around the room.
"You've already made it by being here. By choosing to stand together instead of falling separately. Now we just have to follow through."
A young woman Norah didn't know stood up.
"What do you need us to do?"
"The women and children who can't fight need to be in the root cellar when it starts. It's the most protected space. Everyone else needs to be at their positions before dawn tomorrow."
Norah had thought this through, mapping out scenarios while everyone else slept.
"They'll come at first light. That's when people are tired, when guards are least alert. We need to be ready."
"What about you?" the woman asked. "Where will you be?"
Norah hadn't thought about her own position.
She'd been so focused on organizing everyone else.
"She'll be where she's needed most," Harlon said, his eyes on Norah. "Same as always."