The voice from outside shook Joel from his thoughts, bringing him back to reality.
"We got plenty of those firesticks left friend...you come out now we will finish this quickly. You stay put you're going to burn."
Joel still didn't answer. Better to let them wonder about him rather than answer and confirm things for them. Besides, he thought, he doubted they had any more explosives; the cabin he was in was barely bigger than the garden shed he used to own a lifetime ago - even a medium amount of explosive should have levelled it. But it hadn't. The first blast has just taken half the roof off and made his ears ring. That was all. The walls, the door and even the window were still intact. This meant only a tiny amount of explosives had been throw. Following this thought through led him to two conclusions; either the group outside were bluffing and they didn't have any more 'firesticks' as they had called them, or they were amateurs.
Or both, he mused.
He suspected this to be the case. Even during the run in with them yesterday he had thought they were amateurs. The fact that they had tried walking through the front door had only confirmed it in his mind. Which ever option was correct he was beginning to like his chances. No point worrying about it - he would know soon enough which conclusion was the correct one.
He quickly and quietly tilted his rifle up and around to get a better look at it in the morning light. He wiped the dust from it and checked it out. It seemed ok. Looked like nothing heavy had fallen on it when the roof had came in. That first shot he had taken had been a worry, he hadn't known if it was still working until he had pulled the trigger. He already knew he didn't have very much amunition with him.
He winced at the thought.
With hindsight that was a mistake...
Tess had told him to take everything they had with him. "You never know what you're going to run into" she had said to him. He had smiled back at her and said he'd be fine, that the job would be quick and then after the drop off he had planned on doing some hunting for wildlife, using some improvised traps for that. Maybe I will catch a rabbit or two, he had told her before he had left. "Don't need bullets for that, don't want to get lead in the meat" he had said at the time.
It seemed like a long time ago now.
He looked around again for anything he could use to fight with. He had his hunting knife and, thanks to the firestick, he now had a few different sized pieces of wood following the partial roof collapse. Other than that there wasn't much of use he could see. He picked up a section of the roof wood. It was roughly the same size and length as a baseball bat. He swung it a couple of times to test the weight, but when he inspected it he could see it was rotten with age.
No good.
He tossed it to one side.
Joel moved very quietly and came to rest with his back against the wall furthest away from the door to the cabin. The only window, the small squarr of dirty dust covered glass was next to the door entrance on the right hand side of the same wall. He pointed his gun in the general direction of the door, midway between the door and window. He sat silently and waited again, ready to shoot whatever appeared in either place next.