Stone Age by ML Banner Page A

views of the ocean over the on-the-beach homes, like those owned by Max and the Kings.   These weren’t technically beach lots, because they were on the other side of the street and their views were obstructed by the beach houses in front, so all were half or a third of the price of similar sized homes on the beach.  This made beach living affordable, or for many, with the lower cost labor and materials in Mexico, the ability to build big without the hefty price tag of a lot right on the beach.
    Max’s lot and structure were built for a wholly different purpose, but were designed to look similar to all the other homes on either side of him.  His structure was three stories as well, but instead of a typical second-story master bedroom with furniture positioned to take advantage of the stunning sunrises and sunsets, the large room contained the top of a 2-story 100,000-gallon gravity fed water supply tank.  It sat on a reinforced concrete pad, hefty enough to support a 15-story building.  Built around this, the rest of the house was an enormous warehouse, a two bay garage which were reinforced in case of attack, caged against an EMP, and insulated to protect its contents from the extreme heat of the Sonoran Desert summers.  In the warehouse, he stored enough foodstuffs and supplies to feed and outfit an army, or in this case, enough for two years of survival for him and his only family, the Kings.
    The master bedroom, besides having two feet of a water tank protruding through most of what would be the floor, had a spiral staircase leading up from the ground floor and going up to the roof terrace.  Inside, the only furniture in the few unused square feet was a lounge chair placed in front of the sliding glass window and balcony, which faced the beach and ocean.  Sometimes, when the Kings weren’t in their home, Max would park himself in this chair and enjoy the views and peace its isolation offered him by not being directly on the beach.  Some nights, he found himself sleeping in what was probably his most comfortable chair.  Then he would wake up with the window open to the sounds of the ocean, and the lively aromas brought in by the breeze.  He also felt safe here, even though it wasn’t as protected as his safe room in his beach house, but he loved the ability to see miles in each direction, especially from the terrace above.
    The terrac e on the roof provided the best views of everywhere surrounding their homes.  There were two chairs underneath a canopy for protection against the sun, where they could see any approaching combatant.  Others around him built their top-floor terraces to soak up the sun and the ocean, whereas Max built his terrace specifically to afford the best vantage point if someone or some group attempted to take what he and the Kings had.   Elevated above everyone else’s terraces for protection and secrecy, Max’s terrace had reinforced walls that could withstand bullets and an inside threshold on which the bipod of his new sniper rifle currently rested, with a special weather-proof cover, mostly protected from an unknown enemy below.

13.
    Darla
    6:40 A.M.
    Clear Lake, Michigan
     
    A light breeze blew.  One by one, the sounds of morning, announced the coming day.  The flapping flags flying from their flagpole, signaled homage to the US, the state of Michigan, and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame; the calls of sparrows going through their morning rituals; the approaching roar of a jet ski, slicing through the calmness of the lake; the water lapping against the seawall from the newly created waves.  These sounds were part of the melodic music Darla King knew as summer at her grandparent’s lake home in Michigan.
    Like her parents, when she was able, Darla loved spending the first part of the morning by the water.  When visiting Mammie and Poppy, it was on one of the wooden Adirondack chairs, with coffee in hand, taking in the view and smells of the lake. 
    At the last minute,