Guerillas

The enemy troops walked through the neighborhood. They had heard it was vacated and void of citizens. It was just foot soldiers and no armor was in sight. As they went house to house there wasn't much to be found. Some laughed as they found a vacant house where someone left behind a candy bar or some cookies, saying the men of the town must really be scared pussies to run away with their women and children.
It took a while for the Borax-laced candy to take effect and sicken the soldiers to near death. They would get sick in a few hours if they escaped. In some of the homes men lay in the attic, hunkered down behind boxes and other items stored by the owners. They lay facing openings watching in case any soldiers popped their heads up to look around. Some had homemade Molotov cocktails, and others had homemade explosives.
In one yard was an old dry box truck that looked long abandoned. Inside the neighborhood women and children sat and looked through peepholes well camouflaged by rust ready to point rifles through some holes and start defending their neighbors and selves. Inside some of the men were preparing in case rumors were true and welded 3/4 inch cold rolled plate steel inside the dry box. Most bullets would bounce off.
Some yards had abandoned cars sitting. Inside the vehicle, the rear seats had been removed and the floor was covered with straw so men could lay and point rifles out between the trunk lid and car. The small wood heater they had was built so it allowed no smoke or flame to be seen. With the gas and all brake and fluid lines removed it was safe to have a very small flame inside for cooking and heat if war reached the point where they couldn't get to the women for a meal.
The abandoned cars were parked in a manner they faced all directions and the men had multiple weapons. They had larger caliber for distance and small 22s which were quieter for sniping. They could hit the enemy with a head shot and nobody would know which direction the shot came from. If tanks or any other machinery came and they didn't have the driver's cupula buttoned, their head was a target.
Some cars in vacant lots looked deserted as well, but under them, small trenches were dug and the floors of some cars were cut away. Weds around the cars blocked any activity under the cars. If an enemy soldier suspected a shot came from a car and he fired at it there was nobody inside to hit. Under the cars, men pointed weapons through the weeds as they waited.
Sheds that were built off the ground on concrete blocks had men under them as well. Berms were built up as they prepared and weeds were allowed to grow up covering the underside of the sheds. behind the berms, men had small wood heaters that blocked enemy soldiers from seeing flames or smoke. The men had a variety of weapons, ammunition, and homemade explosive devices. between natural landscape barriers such as shrubs and stacks of tree branches men waited as with the men under the shed, in homemade tents camouflaged to hide wood-burning stoves and keep the small living spaces halfway comfortable.
Some men in tree stands could not be seen. For many, this would be like hunting.
All of the neighborhood residents kept communications through walkie-talkies and CB radios. They had agreed on how to handle each type of situation. They had been preparing for a year for this, so it came as no surprise when war was announced and enemy troops were spotted in various places.
The troops came and went, laughed at what they thought were cowardly people, not realizing most would get too ill to fight and some would die, and not realizing that it would have only taken one shot and all hell would have broken loose and they would have been slaughtered in a second. When the next wave came through there would be a tractor to bury the dead and captured military vehicles to join in the fight. For now, they were allowed to go their way as some used CBs and walkie-talkies to tell other lesser equipped subdivisions they would be following the enemy so they could hit them from behind and both sides as they defended their community from the front. As the enemy troops left men started leaving their defense positions and following them from safe distances.
Never underestimate the defense local folk can make to defend family, neighbors, and community.