CHAPTER 41:
The sun rose on the first day of the final countdown, and the valley woke before it. There was no delay, no hesitation, no wasted motion. The decision had been made, and every person in the camp moved with a single, shared purpose—we would not go quietly. We would not go easily. And we would not go unprepared.
The fortress on the southern ridge became the heart of everything. Hundreds of people worked in shifts around the clock, hauling stone from the quarry below, felling timber from the upper slopes, carving deep foundations into the solid rock. Walls rose ten feet high, then fifteen, then twenty, thick and solid, reinforced with earth and timber and bound with iron bands. Watchtowers went up at every corner, commanding a view of every approach for miles around. Inside, lon
