Home Coming (The Survivalist Book 10) A. American (read after .txt) 📖

“What about the beef for the folks in town?”

“They’re going to deliver it tomorrow,” Sarge replied.

“We’re going to section up two beeves tomorrow and carry them up there. They’ll have to either cook it or start smoking it right away,” Dave added.

“I’ll take care of that,” Cecil said. “I have a big smoker and can easily fit one in it. I’ll put a slow cold smoke on it. It’ll just take some time to get it all cut up.” Thad and Mary had joined us, and Thad offered to help. “That’d be fine. I could use the help.”

Sarge held his hand out to Dave, “Thank you very much for the hospitality, Dave. You know where we are now, so if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Shaking Sarge’s hand, Dave replied, “It’s been truly great to meet you all. It’s good to know there are people out there trying to get things put back together. And we’re here to help in any way we can.”

“Dave,” Cecil said, “it was a pleasure to meet you. Since you’re bringing that beef to town tomorrow, how about we come out in a few days to work on that picker? It sure would make harvesting that corn a hell of a lot easier.”

“That’ll be fine. I’ll get the boys started on it. I don’t think it will take much to get it going.”

Janet made sure we had plenty of leftovers to take home with us. She knew we had some people that couldn’t make it out because they were on security. As we were all loading up, I saw Mike and Crystal holding hands as they walked towards the Hummer. Sarge was already standing at the passenger door and shouted at Mike.

“Get her number! It’s time to go!”

“Ignore him,” Mike said. “When can I see you again?”

Crystal shrugged, “Whenever you come over. I don’t leave the ranch. They wouldn’t let me go anywhere alone and I’m not going to ask someone to come and hold my hand.”

“I’ll hold your hand,” Mike said with a smile. “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

“Saddle up!” Sarge barked again. Then he looked at Ted, who was still talking to Janet. “You too, lover boy!”

Ted gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“Ok, take care of Milo there too. I think Crystal likes him.”

Ted rubbed his head. “Yeah. I really thought she would be smarter than that.”

Janet folded her arms over her chest, “Same could be said about me.”

“Not hardly,” Ted laughed. “I’m nothing like Milo there.”

“We’ll see.”

CHAPTER 8

After much discussion and deliberation, it was decided that Danny and the old man would go with me to Mom and Dad’s. I didn’t think we needed three of us to go, but Sarge insisted. I think his real motivation was to just get away for a few days. We planned for the trip to last three days, but with the understanding that no one should worry about us for five days. We had radios and would be able to stay in contact, we hoped. As a precaution, we were taking some extra antennas that could be thrown up into a tree to get a better signal.

Of course, we went heavy on weapons. For this trip, I added to the boat one of the new Kalashnikovs we’d taken from the Russians. It had a grenade launcher on it and there were piles of the VOGs to go with it. We also brought a couple of disposable rocket launchers, you know, for just in case. Enough food was added to see all of us through, both some fresh stuff and a couple cases of MREs.

Everyone assembled their own gear to be able to support themselves for however long we’d be on the river. I added a spare NVG to my pack and made sure I had plenty of charged batteries. As an afterthought, I tossed two light spinning rods into the boat as well. Might as well try a little fishing should the opportunity arise.

We were set to leave at daylight the next day. Thad was off in town; he’d taken Mitch and Michelle back when he went to help Cecil with the beef that Dave’s people delivered. Everyone else was around the neighborhood someplace. Sarge left standing orders that no one travel alone while we were gone. He knew the guys would want to go see their new lady friends and there was no way he could stop them. So, he made it clear that everyone should at least travel in pairs.

I talked with Dalton, Jess, Aric, Mel and the girls. I told them now that the major threats to us were gone, we needed to start focusing on the community. Or what was left of it. And that meant doing routine patrols. We planned it out so that the two markets would be visited every day, at least once. And there would also be a patrol all the way to Eustis to check in with Shane.

“We need to start showing more of a presence. Give people a sense that there is some kind of law,” I said.

“What do we do if we catch someone up to no good?” Jess asked.

“You go get Mitch. He will hold court right there. Any sentence he passes will be carried out by Dalton.”

“Don’t worry. We can handle this.” Dalton said. “You just worry about yourself and getting back here.”

“Yes,” Mel replied, “that’s all you need to be concerned with.”

“We’ll be fine. I doubt there will be any trouble on the water and we’ll have an escort to the boat ramp. There shouldn’t be any issues.”

We went home and spent a quiet evening there. Mel fixed a light supper at the house and we hung out, lounging around the living-room and watching a movie on the TV. I’d found a blue ray player in a house still in the box, and it worked; so, we could watch some