Erie Sniper Tower

The Erie Sniper Tower is a defensive position built by Hig and Bangley at Erie airfield, where its sniper deck and mortar-firing porch form part of the perimeter they share. It is both a practical answer to armed attacks and, for Hig, a landmark of belonging: on his return, seeing the tower brings the realization that Bangley has become his family.

Setting and Purpose

Erie airfield is valuable to survivors because it combines water, fuel, and infrastructure for power. It sits beside a large creek, and its houses have solar panels while the FBO runs mostly on wind. In the aftermath of the collapse, those resources make the airfield a target as well as a refuge. Armed intruders arrive mostly at night, singly or in groups, carrying hunting rifles or knives and drawn toward the lit porch. The tower belongs to the defensive system Hig and Bangley build in response to that persistent danger.

Defensive Position

The tower’s most clearly identified features are its sniper deck and the porch from which Bangley fires mortars. The two positions associate it with distinct forms of defense: watching and shooting from the deck, and firing the stored mortars from the porch. The narrative does not give its dimensions or describe its construction, but Hig identifies it as something he and Bangley built together. Its significance lies in this shared work as much as in its combat use: it is a fixed point in the perimeter they maintain against repeated threats.

Return and Significance

After a journey that has kept him away for just over six weeks, Hig flies back toward Erie airfield. From above, he recognizes the last trees at the edge of the prairie as the perimeter and margin of safety, then sees the tower they built. That sight prompts him to understand that Bangley has become his family and that returning to him is, in a real sense, coming home. The recognition is set against evidence of devastation: Hig avoids looking too closely at scattered, unburied bodies, and then sees the burned houses, foundations, and a hangar torn open and charred. The tower therefore stands in sharp contrast to the ruined buildings around it—not proof that the airfield is safe, but the surviving landmark of a defense and partnership that have given Hig a home.