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

the pile of seasoned oak he’d brought to the school. “I think we’ve got enough and if we don’t, I have plenty more at the house.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am, now take what you need.”

Jess found her a spot in the shade of a large tree to start her fire. Cecil had all the makings for one and it wasn’t long before she had a good blaze going. Realizing she needed something to set the huge kettle on, Jess left her fire to burn down a bit and went hunting for a stand of some kind.

She found what she was looking for in what had been the shop class. There were several old metal stools there. You know the kind that look like they were from WW II, painted some form of indescribable governmental color. They had a wood insert in the seat and she figured that it would just burn away and leave her a stand. Once the stool was sitting over the fire, she waited for the wood to burn away and went looking for water.

Water had been provided to the school in any container that would hold it. People would boil water at home and bring it to help with their loved ones. The school also had a firepit and large kettles they used to boil water in as well, and there never seemed to be enough. She carried two five-gallon jugs back over to the area where they were working and poured all of one and part of the other into the kettle. And there was still room for the bones!

“Cecil, where in the world did you get this thing from?” Jess asked.

“I’ve had that for years. It came off a Navy ship. Thing’s big enough to cook a person in!”

Jess wiped the hair out of her face and replied, “Two, if they’re small.”

Thad was hard at work cutting the beef. He and Perez both worked with the precision of a skilled butcher and the meat was quickly piling up. Each of them was working on a leg, removing every scrap of meat they could. Perez finished the one he was working on first and looked up at Thad with a smile of satisfaction.

“I beat you!” He announced.

Thad smiled, “Good, get started on the next one.”

“Hey, Jess!” Perez shouted. “Come get these bones!”

Jess walked over and looked at the leg bone that was still whole, connected by the ligaments. “What in the world am I supposed to do with that?”

Perez nodded to the kettle that was starting to steam. “Put it in the pot, Chica.”

“I can’t get all that in there!”

Thad reached over to where Cecil had his wood stacked and gripped an axe. He laid it on the table. “Here, break it up with this.”

Jess rolled her eyes as she grabbed the axe and slid it off the table. She looked around for a place to cut the bones up, and seeing no better alternative, she laid the large section of bone out on top of the wood pile. Holding it with one hand, she raised the axe with the other and brought it down with little force, using gravity to do the work.

The axe hit the bone and bounced off, doing nothing more than chipping it. “Damn, that’s hard.”

“Swing it like you mean it, Chica!” Perez shouted.

Jess looked at him, glaring as she blew a strand of hair out of her face. Gripping the axe tighter, she brought it up again. This time, she put everything she had into it. The head of the axe slammed into the bone, sending chips of the shattered femur into the air, but the bone separated.

Jess smiled, “I got it that time!”

“Be sure and break all those large bones,” Thad said. “You’ll want that marrow to cook out.”

Jess looked at him with a smile and said, “You do your job; I got this.”

Thad held the knife he was using up in surrender, “Okay, Okay. I was jus’ sayin’.”

Jess smiled at him and raised the axe again. “And I was jus’ sayin’,” she brought the axe down with force again, “that I got this!” The bone snapped, and she collected the large pieces and headed towards the kettle with them.

“Come on!” Mike pleaded.

“Nope,” Ted replied. “I ain’t riding bitch.”

“Whatever, you can drive!”

Ted leaned in, “The answer is no. Get it through your fucking head. If you want to go see Crystal, get in the fucking wagon.”

Mike walked around the other side of the war wagon, saying, “Whatever, man. It would just be so cool to ride up on that Harley.”

“Yeah, yeah. I think it’ll be pretty cool to just go see the girls.”

Mike sat in the passenger seat and agreed. “You’re right. Let’s go see them.”

Ted drove out of the neighborhood, waving at Wallner who was sitting on the top of the bunker with no shirt as they passed. As they came to the market, Ted wheeled into it.

“We going shopping?” Mike asked.

“Nah, just flying the flag. Making sure they know we’re around.”

The people at the market all watched as the war wagon pulled through. Seeing Mario, Ted waved, and he returned the gesture. Leaving out the other side of the market, Ted opened the wagon up and they sped down highway forty-two, leaving swirling leaves and debris in their wake.

Ted pulled up to the gate into the property and stopped. Mike hopped out and ran over to it. Looking back, he shouted, “It’s locked! How are we going to get in?”

Ted was thinking when he looked across the pasture. Nodding in the direction he was looking, he said, “Let’s ask him.”

Mike looked up to see a rider on a horse heading towards them. He wasn’t in a hurry, allowing the horse to walk. Mike lowered his sunglasses and looked at the rider, then back at Ted. Ted shrugged and sat back in his seat. Mike put a foot up on the gate and leaned over on it as he watched the rider slowly approach.

“He should get