Piper smiled in what she hoped appeared to be friendly. The newcomer seemed pleasant after all. "They ain't letting you take the RV!" the familiar-looking newcomer said with a grin.

He had just settled in with the group and had begun to speak when he was interrupted with a loud exclamation of "SHIT!". Piper swiveled her head to the source of the sound but Mason appeared, distracting her attention with an explanation. What? Piper nodded at Blake's instructions and took a steadying breath. How could this happen? Now wasn't the time, in any case. She switched the safety off with her thumb and took her place at one of the windows overlooking the hospital, crouching in the lower left corner of the windowsill. She observed the men quickly and took aim at one, glancing to Blake.

Earl wiped the sweat off his forehead. He looked around for a weapon, but couldn't find one. Looks like it was down to his climbing axe. The axe was great against walkers, but against people? That was a different story.

He didn't like being forced to make rash decisions, but he didn't have much of a choice. Maybe he could buy them some more time? He took his chair and pushed over towards to door, making some kind of a barricade. It wouldn't last long, but he now had a better idea.

There was a long, antique, oak bookcase and it was half filled with some old leather books from the previous owners, and a couple new ones that had been added through time. Survival guides, medical brochures. Anything of any use. He raced over to it, and it was definitely heavy. "Somebody give me a hand here!" He yelled out.

Mason took Blake's instructions and headed downstairs. He took position in a window overlooking the hospital. From this angle he was able to see well equipped these men were. He pulled his pistol out from his back pocket and aimed steadily at one of the men. It wasn't much but he knew he could still do damage with it. Now he just had to wait for Blake's signal.

Seconds passed, then half a minute, then a full minute, Blake was counting the seconds, each one felt like an hour as he held his rifle. His body shook with every heart beat as adrenaline pumped through him and the cool breeze carried the warmth from his body. Three minutes, that was enough time for the others to position themselves, he thought to himself. His finger wrapped around the trigger, his eye narrowed as he looked down his scope at the bandit, his face was covered by a mask. With a deep breath he prepared to fire before expelling the breath and as he did so he squeezed and the gun fired.

The gunshot shattered the night's near silence, his bullet hit the bandit in the temple and sent him falling down, the force of the impact knocking him over as his life ended. It took a moment for anyone to realise what had happened but eventually one of the bandits summed the situation up in a single sentence. "They've spotted us! They've got a goddamn sniper!" All at once the bandits broke as the other members of homestead started firing, they ran for cover and returned fire but with the house walls as shields and the darkness providing a veil of shadow along with the panic and surprise they had little accuracy. Blake quickly reloaded his gun and fired another shot from the roof, hitting a man in the arm. The battle of homestead had begun...

---

"Do you hear that?!" Whispered one of the bandits hiding in the woods. "'Course I do!" Replied one. "Wh-what do we do?!" Asked one, a lot more fear in his voice than he had intended to show. "We gotta' go help 'em! Let's move!" Barked another, authority heavy in his tone. "But what about the signal? T-the signal?" Someone piped up. "Plan's changed! Let's go!" Like a wave the line of marauders swept across the road towards the house, ready to aid their comrades.

"The Battle of Homestead"

Suddenly all around Homestead Gunfire rang out as the people began trying to repel the invaders. Nate one of those raiders sought the better part of valor in his own way by diving under the hospital's porch. His raiders where being cut down brutally by overlapping fire and he knew that when this was over he'd get chewed out but it wasn't his fault.

Hal Peters heard the distant gunfire and ordered his men to crank up his war machines. They weren't military vehicles but they had been armored with steel of rail cross ties and each sported an M-60 in roof hatches. All fitted for off-road the 6 diesel engined trucks rumbled forward followed closely by infantry.

"LIGHT EM UP!" Shouted the self declared Warchief

The Trucks flipped on the 5 million candle power spotlights mounted in the passenger sides hoods an the spot men bathed the buildings in blinding light.

Hal Peters counted on the bright lights to startle, blind an frighten the farmers who now tried to resist him. It had worked in the past so he had no doubt that it wouldn't work this time, that is before the Homesteaders fired three bright battle field illumination flares.

The three miniature suns glowed an erie red as they swung from their parachutes descending slowly from around two-thousand feet.

"Dam now we're exposed" he cursed as his machines began taking fire. He slapped the back of his personal bodyguard's head when he saw one roof gunner slump over his M-60 a victim of sniper fire.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The people who couldn't fight were herded down into the underground maze of protective bunkers beneath Homestead. The men and women of Homestead had manned pill boxes or were manning pill boxes as the invaders found out that they'd chosen to attack a badger instead of a chicken.

Designed like the ones used by the Viet Chong and laid out by men who knew their deadly abilities the pill boxes began cutting down the invading force.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Karen heard the gunfire and bridled at the fact she had to stay where she was when she thought of the help she could be out there where bodies were being ripped by lead, copper an steel.

(Alex is opposite side of the Hospital from the main homestead, laying behind the lip of a small hill, that is really little more than a short ridge of raised dirt.)

Alex grimaced as she watched Jacob retreat back into the hospital, bandits slamming against the door behind him. It was only a matter of time before they got in somehow. The redhead unlimbered her rifle as quietly as she could while remaining prone, bringing it to bear and aiming down the sights. She could only hope someone else had realized what was going on and she wouldn't be fighting alone with only whoever was still inside as allies. She waited a full minute, swallowing hard as she zeroed in on a particularly wild and insane looking man. He wasn't particularly large or strong looking, but he nonetheless scared her the most. His back was covered with scars, including two or three puckered circles that looked like bullet wounds. It was either him or the one with the slicked back hair and the pretty face. From the look of his meticulously cared for hair and clothing he was in a tossup for most insane of the bunch and she was sure that if she were to check his nails afterward they would be perfectly manicured. Both of them were out of sight for the rest of Homestead's defenders and each seemed more dangerous to her than the rest of the riffraff on her side.

She readjusted her aim, deciding that a pretty bandit just wasn't something she was comfortable with, the sight falling on his side aiming for a lung shot through his ribs. Even still she didn't take the shot, still waiting for more favorable conditions. Just as she had given up on help and her finger began to tighten down she heard the distant thunder of a large caliber rifle. She gave a steadying breath of relief as one of the men assaulting the door crumple to the ground screaming. The bandit with the neat, clean hair turned towards the sound and offered her a better angle. She smiled as her finger squeezed, knowing exactly where her shot would hit before the trigger was even partially depressed. She didn't wait for the blooms of red to appear in his chest before she swung to the next, taking aim and beginning to track the wildman under her sights as he dashed for cover.

After Karen declined Jacob's CZ, he withdrew the pistol and placed it back in it's holster. He heard several transactions of gunfire begin outside of the hospital, startling Jacob to the point where he began to consciously attempt to slow his breathing rate. This wasn't a good building to be in during a fight, but at least the gunfire clued Jacob in to the situation outside. At the very least the rest of the camp wasn't caught entirely off guard, plus the offenders were clearly attempting a stealth operation, so it was likely they were themselves taken by surprise to an extent. This possibly gave Jacob and Karen a window of opportunity to counter the offenders, or at least make a break for a more advantageous position. Jacob took a moment to think about it, noting the fact that the hospital was seriously lacking in windows. There weren't very many ways to get a more accurate idea of what was happening outside, other than trying to pin down peoples' positions based on their gunshots. It helped paint a picture, but not a very clear one.

Jacob tried to think through how he could safely breach the front door, then it occurred to him that the man who initially startled him was the only one on that side of the door. Still, there were probably others around the corner. There simply wasn't enough information for him to act on. Jacob considered the idea that Karen had a radio, but then again she would have likely used it by now if she did. Still, it didn't hurt to ask. "We need to know what's going on out there. Do you have a radio? Maybe someone can plot an escape route for us," he suggested, still making a conscious effort to maintain his composure.

Earl took a few steps back from the door in the confusion. He looked around wildly and heard the bullet smash through the glass window. The bullet hit him in the back on the right hand side and blood sprayed out across his hands. He stared at it for a few seconds and watched as the droplets of blood slip down his arms and dripped of his elbows.

He stumbled forward and fell onto his left knee. He felt cold. This was it. He didn't feel sad. He had lived a life before all this and he remembered it well. He felt sorry for the younger ones. To him, this was just one chapter in the book of his life but to them it was much more than that.

He searched his mind for a reason to fight it, but none came. He gave in, fell to the ground and rolled onto his back...

(Sorry, double post)

Mason wanted for Blake. The wait was agonizing knowing that any second those men could barge through the door. After they are done at the hospital, for all he knows they could be coming after the homestead next. He steadied his aim on a young looking one with spiked up blonde hair. He focused in on the blondes head. He was not able to get a good look at his face because a large bandana was covering half of it.

After about a minute he heard the first gunshot go off. He didn't know if it was Blake or not but he shot. He watched the young man drop as his gun went off. He aimed for the next but before he could pull the trigger he fell to the ground. Shot after shot, the men were dropping to the floor. Mason started to believe they could win this when 5 million lights shined at the Homestead blinding him.

(Wow triple post)

(Double post)