I got it! The biker gang does not attack Kier, itself, which is idiotic. They attack an outlying farm.
I have already established that at least some of these farms have radios to talk to the sheriff. From chapter 13:
“Nice to meet you, sheriff. I’ve got to ask, do you often stand on the edge of town waiting for visitors?”
Ken snorted slightly. “No, only when I get a call that two blood soaked men, one swinging a maul, with a wolf are on their way.” That and he had a pretty good idea who they were. It seemed unlikely there were a lot of ‘huge, scary giants, but nice enough’, as Pete had put it, men roaming about.
Lupa yipped, happy to be included.
“A call? You have working phones?”
“Shorthand. It was radioed in.”
Digression: I’ve read that any number of times since I wrote it. It’s broken. “That and” and “men” both need to be deleted, which means “giants” needs to move to after the “but” clause. Done.
I’ve already decided that Ken gives Tom a radio (and presumably a solar charger for it or something; maybe battery swap at the station). I don’t remember where I put that, but I can make sure it’s before the biker gang attack.
This will also be good to reinforce the idea that the outlying farms need to consolidate into the town, at least for the winter.
I haven’t decided if the victims live or die, yet. Or who they even are. We already have Pete & Eileen as a (very small; undefined but in the 40-80 acre range, I think) farm of two and Brian, Stacey, and Marcy as a (not large; undefined but in the 120 acre range, I think) farm of three. Maybe a bigger family on a bigger farm that holds them off long enough for the pack to arrive?
The on-screen human death toll is zero, so far. I think it may be time to kill someone. The father or one of the sons seem the obvious candidates. Add in a few threats of rape toward the wife and daughter(s) and we have a good reason to feed the survivors to Bob.
I think I’ve finally got enough background figured out to start writing again. It’s about time.
Update: I’m posting a lot without a “featured image”. I think I’ll fire up the AI and generate another couple thousand images for potential covers.
Marked Up 