A Long Lonely Road

On The Road Again

Book Four

By

TJ Reeder

All rights reserved by Author

Dec. 4th 2012

Ahh Spring in East Texas, sweet smell of Honeysuckle in the air, cool breeze coming from the north. I swear I can smell the Mountains in it. It’s truly a beautiful day.

So why am I sitting here all pissed off? I’m glad ya asked. First thing is I’m not a farmer, nor am I a gardener. Ain’t sure what I am but I damn sure know I ain’t them other things. And there is no sense in acting like I am.

What I’m really pissed about is getting shot again, yea yea  well at least not in the ass this time. And it’s all my fault the whole damn thing.

It started with me stompin into the cabin and grabbing the shorty double 12 ga off the wall by the door. And of course little smart ass just had to step in front of me and ask what or who was I planning on killing?

I told her to just follow along and see. She did and when I leveled off she said “Johnny Long Walker” that’s a bird!! Yep says I, sure is and soon gonna be was a bird,  I’ve been working in the garden all morning and that sumbitch ain’t shut up a second and I’m tired of it!

She said “ It’s a blue Jay and noise is what they do for a living!!

Well she said some other things I won’t repeat and I can assure you I’ve no idea where she learned to talk like that but it sure and shit wasn’t from me!

Needless to say I didn’t shoot the damn Blue Jay ( Damn Noah ! If he’d had a pair of nads he would wrung their necks while stomping on them damn spiders.) After making me sit on the porch a spell and getting me a cold drink we sat and rocked a bit and I told her I was tired of farming and all that crap.

She just smiled and said “ Thank God you finely got yer head outta yer ass! See how she talks? Anyway we rocked some more and she kinda giggled and said John lets saddle Buck and the “Rab” the Arab and go to town, we can go to Sally’s café and have a nice early dinner and some pie and plan to make our break outta here.

Well Sir by the time she had that out I was up and heading inside to clean up a bit with her trotting right along. Very shortly we were saddling ol fat ass Buck and the “Rab” and rode over to the cabin where we added our rifle scabbards with a couple of nice old lever guns.

Around here things got so peaceful we don’t pack the heavy artillery much and in these thick piney woods a 30-30 slug will do better then a round from a poodle shooter, plus folks act funny when half pint walks around town with that MP5-40 lol, she do look rather wild!

We also pack our 45’s everywhere. American express guns. Never leave home without em!

Well it’s only a bit over three miles to town and it was so nice to be back in the saddle. Buck was really stepping out too I think he could tell we was about to flee this happy prison we been in.

We got to town and headed right to the café where we tied the critters in front at the new hitching post. Since the troubles came most folks seem to have adapted well to going back to more simple times. I sure did. As long as it don’t involve a hoe or shovel.

The smells coming out of the café was getting to me so we got to getting and settled in a corner table looking out at the animals since I don’t trust most anybody.

One of miz Sally’s daughters came to take our orders, she was the cutest little bean, bout 9 years old and very serious so we acted serious too. I ordered the chicken fried chicken and the usual, fried Okra, smashed tatters and gravy and biscuits. Sandy said “ Me too!” and off the little honey went.

The food is cooked in the outdoor kitchen out back and the old wood  cook stove was putting out a nice hickory smell. Iced tea without ice was fine.

After eating that I wanted pie, Sandy didn’t so I was eating that and watching her to keep her away from my pie. I heard the door open and before I looked up I heard Sandy say real quiet like “ Well Shit” I didn’t even have to look up coz I knew it had to be that sorry son of a bitch “ Call me Parson” Brown.

He was no more a preacher then Molly was and maybe less so. But he had his flock of sheep that baa baaed around him. He was of the opinion that all the trouble was Gods wrath for us all being such bad folks.
And every time he came around I never let him forget I was proud of my contribution to it.

He knew we was there when he saw Buck which was the root of our failure to communicate. He actually informed me one day in town a bit ago that it was my civic duty to donate Buck to his church to be used as a communal work mule.

Well since Buck can’t speak for him self I looked at buck and said “Huh”?? then put my ear down by his mouth nodded a couple of times and told the parson Buck said to kiss his red hairy ass.

A bunch of the town loafers took to laughing and the fart stomped off mad. I don’t know where he come from nor what he thought he was doing with his bunch of bible thumping sheep but I wished he would go back there.

He headed right for us and stopped about 10 feet away glaring at Sandy like she was a demon which I knew she was and he could find out if he wasn’t careful, which thought got me to laughing with a mouth full of pie. And that pissed him off. He raised his hand with his bible in it and said “ God will not be laughed at” !!

Sandy just glared and said “ He was laughing at “you” ya simple son of a bitch!” ( Yep she was mad )  Well sir several things right then shoulda of happened. He shoulda kept his mouth shut and I shoulda paid more attention to the dude standing beside him.

He was dressed in all black like the idiot with a long frock coat and I just assumed he was a sheep following his master.

Wrong assumption.

First thing was the idiot turned red in the face so bad I thought he was gonna stroke out. But after starting a couple of times he roared out “ Shut your filthy mouth you unmarried Whore!! “

Well there I set, left hand on the table, fork in my right hand and Sandy just hauled off and threw her heavy white crockery cup and hit the silly bastard right in between the eyes and you shoulda seen the blood fly!! 

I was so busy sitting with my mouth open that I barely saw the other fool pull a gun from under the coat. And before I could do more then try to jerk away he shot me. Yep he did. Not very well I might add.

I was still falling away when I heard the next shot and several more then I was on the floor face covered with blood and Sandy yelling her lungs out!

Well he was fast that’s for sure only he was so busy trying to finish me off he paid no attention to the flaming mad Red Head. And she just reached under her jacket and pulled that 1911 from the shoulder holster and shot him a bunch. Then for some reason she shot the Idiot Parson several times.

Then she was pawing at me all over my chest and then screamed

“ OH! My God he’s been shot in the head!!” Well I was pretty happy it wasn’t in the ass again. I put my hand up and swiped the side of my head and let out a beller! Son of a bitch shot my ear off!! Well actually it was the little hangy down part where I would have an ear ring if I was that kind of a guy.

Sally had come running with her shotgun and saw what was going on and headed back for a pan of water and some clean rags and they commenced to cleaning off the blood. After she saw where I was hit Sandy started laughing.

Stress will do that or maybe a crappy sense of humor. I know which one I picked.

Well they got me up in a chair and got the blood more or less stopped and really there’s enough I can still wear a small earring.

About that time folks started pouring into the place and the local town marshal a former deputy sheriff looked it over and said “well John wanna explain how you got yer ear shot off and still killed these two?”

I said Howdy Fred “ Just call it PFM” he looked at me a bit and took the bait like a starved fish. “ What’s PFM John”? Ear or no ear I had to smile when I said “ Pure Fkn magic” Fred! He didn’t even smile.

Sandy stood up to her full 5 ft + not much and said I shot the bastards then replaced her empty magazine while saying it.

Fred’s eyes watched the empty fall to the floor and heard the loaded one slap into place and got that dear in the head lights look.

But she slid the 45 back under her jacket and into the rig.

Fred looked kinda relieved.

So we sat and told the story and he asked Sandy why she shot the Parson. She looked him right in the eye and said sweetly “ Well Fred he had something in his hand and was pointing it at me!”

He looked down at the parsons outstretched arm and he still had that bible in it. Fred looked at that and at Sandy who was smiling at him with those pretty green eyes shining and he just nodded.

I said if he had any more questions he could come to the homestead but we was heading out in a few days for a short trip and might be gone a while.

He just nodded and said that’s good idea John, might be best to let this cool down. If I need you I’ll come out.

We shook hands and out the door we went. Pushing thru the crowd I heard a few of the Parsons sheeple wailing to beat all and a few people muttering in angry tones. I just looked at them and pulled the rifle out and laid it across the saddle and heard Sandy doing the same.

Fred came out and said all right break it up and go home. It’s over! And one of the crowd yelled “Not by a long shot it ain’t!!”

I kind of turned Buck so the rifle barrel was pointed more or less at the loudmouth and just looked at him till he quieted down.

Not one to ever pass up an opportunity to have the last word

I said” Your Parson and his friend assaulted us, the man with the preacher shot me with no warning while I was eating. And would have finished the job if my lady here hadn’t dropped him and the preacher who appeared to be armed.

Now if anybody wants to say something do so right now coz I don’t wanna hear nothing about nobody bringing trouble to the Homestead. Coz you all know that will be a bad thing.

Fred spoke up and said go on home John and get your head sewed up ( I think he meant my mouth but..) so we turned and rode out slow and easy coz my head was splitting.

We rode along quiet like and finally Sandy asked if I was mad at her? For what I asked? Saving my life?

She said no for shooting that loud mouth bible pounding, woman beating asshole!

I said well hell you thought he was armed! She looked at me and smiled and said “ Right”! I looked at her riding along smiling sweetly after just killing two men who needed it, well one did for sure. I was wondering if I raised her wrong.

She said “ John the words been out for a while among the women around the area that he took the “Man it the head of the family” to the point that he was beating the women on their bare butts with a paddle!

And for gods sake those sheep bastards allowed him to do it whenever he decided somebody’s wife or daughter needed to be guided back to her place.

I was just flabbergasted as they say, lost for words. Finely I managed a “ Your shittin me right”? Nope she said and the only reason she didn’t shoot him 5 times was coz I taught her to always leave the last round in the chamber while reloading in case she needed it before the Magazine was in it.

We road along quietly a bit and I had to ask “ Now let me get this straight, you shot the first guy 4 times and then the preacher 4 times and in the middle of all this you remembered to save that last round if you could?” Yep she said.

I said “ Damn you done good!! She looked at me shaking a bit and said “well I forgot to reload until Fred started acting like a cop right then“. She was starting to shake harder so I just leaned over and hauled her out of her saddle into my lap and held her almost all the way home.

After she was over the shakes we pulled off the road into a clearing and she got back on “Rab” and we talked it over.

We decided to just quietly let Rick and Miz Sheri know and tomorrow we would head out.

We had planned to ride all the way when we went but now we both felt maybe we should get moving fast and worry later about riding.

After we got home and put the animals away we made it to the cabin and got me out of the bloody shirt and cleaned up better. I looked at the ear in the mirror and said “well crap I’ve cut myself worse then that shaving!.”

Ain’t it funny how the smallest head cut bleeds all out of proportion to the wound size? About that time Molly gave her woof that company was coming and Rick stepped up on the porch and knocked.

I told him to come in and he looked at my ear and said “Well hell I’ve cut myself worse then that shaving! “ Which set the two of us laughing and him looking like we had flipped out. Finally. 

We stopped and he looked at Sandy and said “ Well Wyatt, how you doing”? She just smiled and said “why I’m just fine thank you for asking and I have reloaded by the way”. He just grinned.

We sat down out on the porch and Sandy poured some tea and joined us. I asked if the word had beat us back and he said almost and that there was some bad talk going around over the preacher being unarmed.

I said well fuck em, that bastard set that whole thing up and you know he was trying to grab the whole area and especially this place. He said yea he knew that and fortunately so did a lot of others.

I told him we planned to be on the road the next day with the Dodge and the trailer loaded with the livestock. He just nodded and said that’s probably best and we all know you been chomping at the bit every since y’all came back from that mess over in New Mexico.

I said I was sorry I wasn’t cut out for the farming life yet but I figured I had one more good run before I was ready to settle down and write it all down.

I could tell there was a small part of him that wanted to say screw it and come along but he wouldn’t. Because being the kind of man he is he needed order in his life. And keeping it here in this place kept him happy.

He’s one of the most decent men I ever met and I often wish I had been like him. Happy and always busy with something , I’d be bored shitless ……

When we returned from New Mexico we hauled a ton of military hardware back with us and it was right here on the place and very few knew even a part of it. And that was why I wasn’t worried about the place with Rick in charge and some of the folks who returned here to settle with us who knew about the stuff but even better had used it and knew how to.

Today we got up with every intention of being gone real fast but there was just too much planning and preparations to make for a trip like this to just jam it because some sonofabitch tried to have me whacked.

And only failed because he was so convinced that women were here as servants to men that he never figured on Sandy droppin his ass in the dirt.

So when we woke up I put my “stubborn  don’t screw with me” hat on took my coffee out to the porch where I’m now sitting all pissed off like a one legged Marine in an ass kicking contest.

But the coffee is good and hot with a bit of sugar and real cream in it and just a taste of home made brandy. Nice. Wyatt is sittin here with me having hers while she swabs out the barrel and chamber of her Colt Gold Cup.

She does love that thing and right now I’m loving her and the damn hand cannon!

Better to have a bit less of an ear then getting prepped for a dirt nap like the two asshats in town. I’ve almost expected to see the women from the sorry bastards so called flock show up at the gate with fresh hot cookies for Sandy but they are probably still acting all sorrowful. Acting being the key word.

We talked it over and decided we would spend the next few days really getting things in top shape for the trip which now that we really are going has kinda morphed into something different. We may be gone a lot longer then we had planned so we needed to take everything including the kitchen sink

The truck will go into the homestead shop this morning for a complete going over as will the trailer. Our food supplies will ride in the trailer in any nook or cranny we can stuff.

Mostly dehydrated right here at home, some Mountain house we picked up where and when we could in barter or finding a place the rats or other survivors had missed.

We did take home made jelly’s simply because the world turns on PB and J sanny’s! if you have bread! We also had plenty of dried goods, bean and rice etc plus we will hunt as needed.

The mules and Rab are being shod and the Vet who stayed when we went after the “Nasty’s” is making sure all’s well with them.

All in all it’s sure much simpler now then when I left that camp ground in MT what seems like years ago and is really what? A year? No.. maybe 18 months? Damned if I can remember… but I think this is the second spring after the EMP. Who cares? I don’t,

Don’t carry a watch either, yet some folks do. Why I’ll never know, we get up with the sun and usually in bed by dark.

Much easier and it solved that damn daylight savings time crap. Which I never understood, musta just been another “Control” thing to keep the sheeple in line and used to getting ordered around.

All in all this area here and in general the whole state of Texas/Oklahoma is pretty well adjusted to the whole way of life and things are really going good, with few vehicles the fuel supplies will hold a while longer and folks with the know how are working at getting small refinery’s going although it will be a while.

The lawless types are pretty much worm food and other then dipshits like the former parson and his sneaky gunman nothing much goes on that can’t be solved the way “Wyatt” solved their hash.

I thought the Wyatt thing was a good way to get her goat but seems she’s liking the attention.

Some of the rougher types around the place have taken to calling her Miz Wyatt.

Her head gets any bigger she’s gonna need a bigger hat. But she did save my old white ass and for that I’m very grateful!

And it’s gonna be a long cold day in hell before any sombitch gets off on me that way again! I was very lucky this time. That and the fact she bullied me into working with her on that draw from the holster.

And she worked at it damn hard and it showed! Not that I saw it since I was busy bleeding and chewing my pie.

And the only two witnesses died fast of slow and stupid.

Anyway I’m spending all the time with Mom I can cause there is a big chance she won’t be here when we get back….IF we get back.

Hell she may be here long after we become worm food in some wash someplace.

Miz Sheri is sad to see us go and I’ll miss her so very much. Maybe next time around our karma or little blinking light whatever will find each other sooner. Love ain’t blind and it is in fact forever, several forever’s, contrary to the religious types ideas on the subject.

We had a meeting with Rick, Sheri and the other folks in some form of leadership but those two run the place.  The security really ain’t an issue, the guard force is made up of people who went to New Mexico and have good skills.

As for outsiders being an issue…They won’t be. In fact if it becomes necessary to drag out the hardware we brought home there is nothing or nobody in this corner of Texas that can even be in the fight.

One of the folks I don’t know brought up the issue concerning the local law and the towns people who might decide to come after Sandy. I just smiled my best meat eaters smile and said they won’t.

Being a persistent cuss he said “ Won’t what? “live” said I and Sandy laughed at his expression. He still rattled on with “ Well you can not fight the Law and the will of the people!”

I was getting tired of this guy so I said “Whose laws? What will of what people? It was kind of funny watching him grow more confused and that damn Rick was enjoying the show. Then it dawned on me this dipshit was a thorn in Rick’s side and I was having to pull it!

Nice going Rick.. paybacks a medivac.

Before I could say a word Miz Wyatt popped up and said “ What’s your main problem asshole ?( Crap this is how the shooting in town started) I reached over and put my hand on the bulge in her jacket and not the soft one. She glared and the fool was shushed by Rick and Sheri. To hot to did a grave I guess.

Moving on, after the meeting I had a talk with miz fire brand who was taking the Wyatt thing a bit far. She just smiled and said did you see his eyes when you put your hand over my gun butt?

I said nope he thought I grabbed your boob! That got her laughing and I gave up, with the warning that if she didn’t stop it I was gonna make her start wearing two low slung guns tied down so’s the pilgrims would know she was a fairly dangerous hombre.

She got a look on her face and I said NO!! No damn way!! Then she laughed and said gotcha! She’s like dancing with snakes. Not sure what that means but it fits!

We spent the next few days going thru all the stuff we were taking and at this rate we might have to get more mules or just hunt trouble from the truck.

We were ok for food, over weight in weapons and ammo and a few other surprises from the arsenal in NM. We would worry about it when we got someplace where we needed to worry about it.

Poor old Molly wanted to go on this trip but she wouldn’t last long but then Sandy said damn it John, let her come.

She will be riding in the truck as long as we are and at least she can go out being the guardian of her family and if she makes to where Will Bean and Joe Frazier set up then she will be able to teach the pup what he will need to know.

I had forgotten we were getting a pup from Joe and that settled it, Molly was gonna go with us for as long as she can and if she gets tired she can ride on one of the mules like she’s done before. I was happy and so was Wyatt.

After five days there was still nothing coming out of town so we said to hell with it and got the animals loaded and checked the check list twice, checked the main tank and the bulk tank and the extra drums we had loaded with diesel and gas for the Honda generator and it looked like we was stalling so we hugged the huggers, shook the shakers and kissed the kissers.

We headed for the gate where we found two trucks with several of the guards waiting. The guard boss smiled and said we thought we would take a ride along with yawl just to see the sights ya kno.

I laughed and said thanks Tom it does relieve my mind knowing I’ll get Wyatt out of town without wasting ammo.

I can breath just fine with my ribs caved in so she stopped hitting me and scooted over and put her arm around me. Then asked me if she had told me she loved me today, I said I don’t think so, she said good! Laugh a minute.

We hit town and rolling right thru when Fred walked out into the street and when I stopped he came to the window and stuck out his hand and as we shook he said John, Miz Sandy I want to apologize for not doing my job and leaving it up to you two.

My raised eyebrows pulled the story out of him, He had heard about the way the sumbitch was treating women but hadn’t had anybody willing to sign a complaint and all the while knew he should just go out to the old place they stayed and just shoot the bastard but didn’t.

Sandy said hey Fred no problem, he was gonna get shot sooner or later by somebody and I enjoyed it so it’s all good. He just shook his head as he does every time he has any dealings with her.

Then he smiled and stuck his hand thru the window and when she grabbed it he said “ Good job Wyatt!” And with no warning she jerked him closer and shot across me and kissed him smack on the mouth and said Be safe Fred!! Poor ol Fred had not been kissed by a woman other then his wife in 30 years and he was scarlet !

We left him standing in the street shaking his head. She is a cracker jack and a pistol for sure. Then she smiled real big and hit a button on the radio and out came Will singing “ On the road again!!” she thinks of ever thing ..

Texas / New Mexico State line.

We burned the road all day as fast as we could go and rolled up to the State line and saw the place had been greatly improved. Real bunkers and small house trailers for barracks.

And a real guard house. And standing there with big grins was Bear Jackson and Guard Commander Harry Jackson. We rolled to a stop and got out stretching and groaning.

Both the gents shook hands with me and took their hats off for Sandy. She looked at them like “Ok what you two up to“. But they was just being polite.

Bear then looked at Sandy and very gently shook her hand while she smiled at him, then he said “ Proud to meet ya Wyatt”! and roared out laughing, And we all joined in, Sandy finally was able to ask if every smart ass up the road knew the story.

Harry said well I can’t speak for folks in maybe Oregon or Washington but yea everybody else pretty well knows between here and there.

I just shook my head and said how? Harry said the radio comm had greatly improved in a lot of areas and the short wave radio folks were passing news and the old cop channels were kind of working so Fred was able to pass the word along.

It was too good of a story to not pass on. Then both looked at my ear and Bear laughed loudly and said “ Shit! You call that getting shot?? I cut myself worse then that shaving! Says the man with a foot long beard.

Harry said John that’s to damn close!

Bear, not being one to stop kicking the rattler leaned over and said in a booming whisper “ Did you really forget to reload?” She just said

“ Shut up you over grown excuse for a fat bear” which really got him going.

I was glad she liked him coz I’m not sure nine 45 slugs would drop him and I wouldn’t wanna piss him off.

We went inside for a cup of coffee and Bear said he would have the rig moved over to the corrals and the stock unloaded since we was staying here tonight.

We agreed and had dinner with the troops manning the outpost in the chow hall set up in a former double wide prefab. We spent the evening talking with everybody that stopped by.

Most wanted to meet Wyatt who was I think starting to rethink being known as a super pistollero.

But whatever, she had the reputation now and the word was heading ahead of us faster then we could drive. I could only hope we ran out of places with them damn radios.

We spent the night in our trailer and slept like baby’s and Molly never twitched all night even when the guards walked past the rig.

Come morning we headed to the chow hall and enjoyed a good breakfast of ham and eggs and fried spuds with a bit of onion chopped up and fried with them.

We were just having a last cup of coffee when an old gent in a beat up old Stetson came in and looked around and spotted us and headed our way.

Surprising me Harry and Bear both stood up so I did too. Harry said Good morning General and shook the mans hand and Harry introduced him to us as a General Officer of the Marines, Retired.

I wanted to salute but Marines never wear covers inside unless under arms meaning on duty and Marines never salute uncovered.

General Will Flint had fought in the tail end of the Island war in the Pacific, Wounded on Okinawa and then stayed in and lead troops in Korea and served in Viet Nam in the early days when a bout of malaria ended his long career.

He returned to his native Texas and settled down to raising beautiful Quarter Horses. We sat and talked for a long time and he was a delightful man. And he seemed to really enjoy Sandy’s company and surprisingly she was a perfect lady.

He didn’t enquire into the shooting but he knew about it. And before we ended the visit he said he would be right back. When he returned be had a bag in hand and after sitting down he was quiet for a moment or two and then kind of shook his head a bit and smiled at her and said I spent my whole life in the Corps,

I never married because the Corps was my wife and the men whose care was my responsibility were my children.

He seemed to go away for a moment then took a deep breath and sighed and smiled and said I want you to have this because I can think of nobody I’d rather think of having it, it served me my entire life and I want to know it’s got a new home and somebody who will understand.

He took a zipper case from the bag and unzipping it with a bit of a tremble in his hand he drew out a very well used but very well kept and very old Colt 45.

He held it out to her and said I want you to have this and I hope if ever you are in need of a back up to the one under the jacket there that you will use this with all your skills and bring justice to whatever the situation may be.

I looked from the gun to Sandy who with tears running down her cheeks jumped up and came around the table and hugged the old man for a long time then kissed his cheek and said “Thank you so much, And I’ll care for her as long as I live“.

He looked at her a bit and said why did you say “Her” ? Sandy’s reply was so positive. She said I could tell the way you held her that someplace long ago there was somebody you loved and you for some reason couldn’t have and I think you named this close friend after her…right?

The old General smiled a sad smile and said yes your right, Her name was Ellie. When the causalities report was released it showed me as KIA not WIA.  Thinking I was killed in Okinawa she later married my best friend who couldn’t serve due to partial vision loss in his right eye.

He said when he found out she was married he just stayed in the Corps and never went back until he heard she and her husband had moved away. Shit I think I got a knat in my eye.

He walked with us to the truck and was again assaulted by Sandy who said Ellie should have waited! He smiled and said well if I was 10 years younger I’d wrestle John for you! Another hug and kiss and she got in the truck and we rolled away.

She gentle cried for 20 miles then sat up and said what a truly wonderful man. He gave the country his life in service for a lost love. How sadly beautiful.

Then she opened the zipper case and took a good look at the old 1911.

It had a lot of dings and showed the battle scars of three wars but was still in very good shape.

If we had access to a book on my shelf in the cabin we could have checked the number and found the date it was made, it was also not an issue gun, it must have been his from day one, I wish we had gotten more information but he seemed to want to keep it private.

Sandy said she would have to find a way to carry Ellie so she can carry on the good fight. I suggested that after she had a chance to shoot her maybe she could just carry her instead of the gold cup.

She liked that idea and agreed that come evening she was going to try her out.

It’s so much fun to talk guns with a woman who truly likes them and enjoys owning and shooting her own. Even if she’s rough on dipshits and fake preachers….thank God!!

I often wonder if I would still be alive if I had not found her when I did. Of course she wouldn’t be alive either so it was our lucky day.

She is a Warrior, a bit reckless at times but never in doubt. I would storm the gates of hell with her at my side. Of course we would get our asses trashed but they would know we were there.

I know if she keeps picking up weapons at this rate she will need her own truck just to haul them. She has my former AK, the MP5/40 her m-16, 2 1911 45’s . Also I’m not sure what all she packed away from the Armory in NM.

Hell I can’t keep up but I know they weigh more then she does. I guess it could be worse, She might collect cats!

I do have a good recipe for cat but you need fresh bamboo sprouts and rice. Mmm good.

We were making very good time but I was very aware that things outside Texas were not settled except in the towns and small cities that survived.

We had taken the time at home to set up the interior of the Dodge so the back seat area was our rolling gun safe with everything we might want in it’s own rack standing upright with a loaded mag and a round in the chamber safety on. Some will have something to say about the loaded chamber but they ain’t here and they ain’t seen what we have.

I will take any shortcut there is if it gains us even a second in shooting time. I’ll get back to ya if it don’t work out. Don’t turn blue holding ye breath.

I have very few rules for gun fighting. Never give them a break. If ya need to do it get it done, Talk later. But the most important is this. Never shoot till you think he’s dead, shoot him till he thinks he’s dead.

A very wise old Border Patrolman always said “ There ain’t no second place winner in a gun fight. Bill Jordan would know, he won more then most people who had names as big guns. Retired Marine Lcol. Retired Border Patrol Agent. A real gun fighter.

Sandy and I talk about this kind of stuff as we drive or ride along. I just talk about what I’ve heard, seen and done. What I would have done different ( like shooting instead of eating pie ) dying is easy, staying alive is a bitch and a 24/7 job.

Whenever we can we shoot every day even if it’s just popping rocks with the rifles. Hitting head size rocks out in the 200 plus range is damn good practice.

One of the things she’s learned that just blows her mind is how with practice she can hit or at least be real close to a target or rock at long pistol range like 100+ yards.

Fools will call BS but it ain’t hard if you work at it enough to know your gun and the load.

She’s like most women when it comes to shooting, they listen and learn better then men. I think because men even though they never shot a gun in their life seem to think they have to try to show they don’t need instruction because …well because they are men and guys just know shit.. Women don’t have that testosterone fueled ego problem.

I think it’s a good thing women in the old west didn’t wear pants and guns or it may have been Doc Holly Day in Tombstone.

By close to dark we started looking for a place to stop for the night. We could have made it further but we both have had enough of people so we turned off on an untraveled road into the countryside and found a place where we could turn off into some boulders.

While Sandy was getting things ready to eat I took my rifle and did a foot patrol around the area and saw no sigh of human activity. I laid in shadows and watched for dust or anything that might indicate people were around.

I did see a pair of Coyotes hunting and figured if they were satisfied I was. Back at the camp Sandy had fixed a quick meal and we got that eaten and sat out as night rolled in.

The open so called “desert” country is about the most beautiful

place to spend a night just watching the sky.

We decided to sleep on top of the trailer so we could watch the stars and also be in a better place to fight from if need be.

Molly was in the trailer so she wouldn’t get drawn out by the “youtes”.

Buck and company were our night guards and we slept like babies.

Waking up with the sun is a wonderful thing out in open country and the morning chill had us moving quick into the trailer to get some coffee going. We decided a camp fire was to much of an invite to visitors.

We did take time for sandy to put a hundred rounds thru Ellie and I swear they bonded from first shot. I don’t think there was even the slightest need to change the sights.

We were loaded up and on the road in a couple of hours, since as I mentioned watches are not important the time wasn’t exact and that was good!

We rolled out of the boulders and right onto the road as an old truck with a bunch of Navajo pulled over the little rise. Now most folks would have slammed on their breaks and scattered these days but they just nodded and kept going. I like their ways. Bet there wasn’t a watch in the whole bunch.

We were looking forward to seeing Charley and his people again, it seemed so long ago. Being stuck among people will do that. Everybody in a hurry to get something done so as to hurry up to get something else done so as…..you get the picture.

We had talked a lot about all the lives lost and that it was a horrible thing but now that it was a done deal I guess it kept us sane to look for an up side to it all.

For one and the main thing, the chances of somebody using a nuke on us was real slim and the Earth was going to get time to heal which is a good thing because if we had kept going the whole planet could have died.

Thinking about all the folks who did die was just something that as time went by kind of got swept aside what with the fight to stay alive on a daily basis.

We slowed down a lot and decided to just enjoy the road trip and if trouble came we would deal with it as best we could. We spent the night wherever it looked like we could get out of sight and relax.

The slower travel was much better on the crew in the trailer and the earlier stops gave us a chance to find a place with some graze for them.

And frankly we were enjoying the peace and quiet of being alone with our happy band of gypsies. I think they all knew we were soon going to be really back in the saddle and I know Buck was ready.

We took a week to get to Shiprock and arrived close to mid day and it looked just like the day we first drove up to the café. Same bunch of elders sitting in the shade but I almost think I saw a tiny smile or two when we stopped.

Charley walked out of the café and came over followed by a few younger boys who went right to unloading the trailer while we just watched.

Buck leading the way headed right for the water just as if we never left here, and maybe in a way we never did.

Charley looked at my ear and said “ I cut myself worse then that skinning a rabbit. I just shook my head while Sandy laughed.

She stopped when Charley said “ Good shooting Wyatt”. Then I laughed.

Charley lead the way to the café where the old woman did smile and welcome us and brought coffee. Which surprised me since three pounds won’t last that long.

After she headed back for food Charley said she saved some for when you came back. I was flattered to say the least. Sandy got up and went outside and in a bit was back with all three boys carrying boxes that looked like unopened cases of coffee!

I just shook my head and left her to it. She led the boys to the kitchen and shortly was back and set down while the boys made another trip.

I was dying to ask but damned if I would give her the satisfaction of admitting I didn’t know half of what I was supposed to.

And this time I caught Charley with a glint in his eye and a tiny smile.

I just shook my head and was saved by lunch arriving. If I keep shaking my head so much my brain will roll out.

The old woman said to Sandy that it was lamb stew she made special for us. I almost opened my mouth to ask how she knew we were coming but I just shut up and started eating the stew with flat bread cooked on a flat rock and it was awesome even though I never was one for eating sheep.

After we were done we followed charley outside to a table and chairs under a brush arbor where we sat and let the food settle and relaxed.

Finally Charley made a throat clearing sound and shortly spoke about having heard word from Joe and Willy and the bunch they took with them. He said they had in fact settled in a canyon where the lake waters had backed up when Lake Powell was formed.

He said they had been busy building homes into the sand stone and using native stones also. Their gardens had done very well and of course the fishing was very good and they were happy.

I had a feeling there was more so I waited and after a bit he said “They thought they might have trouble soon from some people who have decided the whole area belonged to them.” My first thought was it never stops. Good folks work to build and others just want to take.

Charley said he didn’t know anything about who it might be so he sent a few of his younger men over to ease in and take a look. Of course it’s a big lake or will be until the damn lets go with nobody working it but that might be many long years down the road. 

Even then if our friends had located in a canyon with water coming from creeks or springs then if the dam let go it shouldn’t effect them too much. I’d hate to be in the country below the dam.

We decided to hang out with Charley until he heard from his scouts since we knew Jack about the country except from books plus we really didn’t know for sure where our friends had settled. But Charles’s people did and we would have guides with us.

Mostly I wanted to know as much as possible about the “Who” of it all since I knew Joe and Willy and their group had a lot of the equipment we had “rescued” from the Air base so if he was worried about anybody while having all that hardware it would be smart to walk not run into it.

But we are going for damn sure. If I think it’s needed I can send word back to the different places our bunch settled and have them all on the road.

We had some real nice long talks with Charley about this area and I have to say it’s more to my liking then East Texas but there are pulls from both places.

Charley said they hadn’t had any trouble at all since we wiped out the mystery people who were there to ambush me when I came thru. I was glad peace seemed to be spreading across the land. At least the land we traveled. I was sure the big cities were hell holes and would be for many years.

I figured the ruling Gangs would eventfully turn into Tribes and as time passed would evolve into something more and maybe much worse then street gangs. Time would tell and as for right now I had no interest in entering any of the remains of civilization.

On the morning of our third day Charley told us his scouts were headed in and had been involved in a fire fight with strangers and one was dead.

He didn’t show much but I could tell he was both very angry and saddened to loose one of his young men. I just hoped it wasn’t one who had been with us when we fought the cannibals as we had all gotten close in that mess.

Around mid day they arrived in an old dust covered truck with their friend wrapped in his blanket. Sandy and I stayed away while the People did what they had to do. I had no idea how the People performed their ceremonies and didn’t want to offend.

That  night Charley came to tell us what had happened. He said they located Joe and Willies group and watched from the hills but really didn’t see any trouble. He said the group looked to be doing real good and had built a very nice home place.

He also said they had built fighting positions all over the area and from the description had interlocking fields of fire. The scouts didn’t see any sign of any weapons outside the rifles they all carried everywhere they went.

Also their canyon was filled with twists and turns and the group had fighting positions all along the rim and could control anybody coming by water. After they had watched  a few days they decided to head back and report what they knew and what they thought.

They were only a few miles from their watch point when they drove into an ambush and just blew thru it because the men setting it up were caught off guard and only got off a few shots and bad luck one of the young men was hit and died instantly. He had been in the back of the truck and returned fire causing the shooters to do more ducking then shooting.

There was no pursuit and the scouts thought it was because the people at the ambush weren’t interested in an old truck with some Indians in it. Meaning they were maybe looking to ambush our friends.

And that was something I just wasn’t going to allow. It was a pretty good distance from here to there so we decided to haul everything with us and get as close as possible and hid the rig and ride into the area low and slow.

Charley nodded and said day after tomorrow first light. I agreed since I knew they were dealing with their loss. Sandy and I would get out what we needed. And told Charley we could haul their horses or they could ride the other mules. He smiled and said thank you but we will ride horses, but you can haul some of them, We would leave all the pack mules and have room for three horses.

Fires burned long into the night and drumming and rattles with other sounds from afar. We just slept thru it all. It was a sad time but then again we have been living in very sad times for a good while now. Having no idea what the Navajo burial ceremony consisted of we stayed in our camp until Charley showed up.

We made no mention nor did he of the burial and waited for him to initiate the conversation.

After sitting with coffee for a while he said we would leave tomorrow morning early as it was a drive and parts were real rough.

I did say that I had no plans of charging in guns blazing like some action b movie. He agreed and added that he was wondering why they would be setting an ambush so far from the people they wanted. I think Charley was wondering if maybe the whole thing was a very bad and sad mistake caused by jumpy people startled into firing.

We were going in as a scouting party not a war party so we didn’t haul out the heavy weapons just sticking to our usual carry stuff. Charley headed back to his duties such as they were and we started checking our equipment.

Sandy was bouncing back and forth on what rifle to take and the MP5 was just not an option since any shooting would be longer range.

She smiled and started digging around and came up with her AK and I smiled too. It brought back memory’s of our time together. How romantic! An AK for a warm memory. But she did love it as did I before I gave it to her. And it looked good on her. It accented her cammie pants and dusty desert boot. Such a fashion queen.

I was taking the 308 bolt gun and of course we put our 45’s on when our feet touched the ground. We packed saddle bags with ammo and dried foods. And our favorite home made pemmican, Jerky ground up and mixed with home made pecan butter, dried berry’s and rolled in powdered sugar and.

How long one could live on it I had no idea but it was damn good and stuck to the ribs.

One day I’m going to add some to boiling water just to see how it tastes. I’m betting damn good and if it’s cold it will be like a soup …kinda.

                                          ***

Here’s a secret I’ve never admitted to anybody. About 20 years back I was hunting up in Elk country and towards mid day I was further from the truck then I had planned to be. And hungry, the kind of hungry that gives me the shakes then a headache.

I had my old beat to hell pack on that I’ve carried hunting for the previous 20 years, one of those cheap nylon types made in Japan before they got too uptown to make our cheap junk.

Anyway I found a spot out of the wind and opened the pack and dug out the big zip lock baggie that had, well easier to say it didn’t have a kitchen sink but that was it.

I dumped it out and I swear a cloud of dust billowed out ( I’m really prepared ) looking the mess over I got my GI canteen and took the cup out of the carrier so I had water and something to heat it in.

Now I needed fire and that is never a problem because I use a handy little tool called a Blast Match. Best fire started this side of gasoline and a match.

I got some twigs and broke them up and rubbed them back and forth between my gloved hands and made some nice bark dust and small fibrous material, I put that between some rocks and hit the sparks to it with the fire starter and I had a small flickering flame.

I never even had to move to get what I needed for my fire because it was all around me. After the fire was going a bit and I was warming up I set the cup on the rocks about 2/3 full of water. While that was going I laid out the treasures I found from god only knows how long ago.

Two instant oatmeal packets different flavors but who cares. Two of the small snickers bars like you give away at Halloween. They were so old they were white chalky looking but WTF say’s I  tossing them into the water that was starting to boil.

I added the oatmeal which was oat dust but again WTF. And the super find…A tin of C ration peanut butter from ages ago. And! I even used my P-38 can opener ( issued to open C rations )as issued to me a young Marine Recruit back in the last ice age!.

Adding the peanut butter I used the one of two thing you never go anyplace without. A small towel and a spoon.

I won’t explain it but ask somebody who’s old and was a grunt a long time ago.

I stirred that mess until it was all dissolved and I leaned back against a rock and just sipped a drink from heaven. Of course I was cold and hungry and tired and 50 miles from Mickey D’s.

It was delish and worked but I never again went off for a day hunt without taking a lunch and I did replace the stuff in the pack but first I had to patch the inside bottom with duck tape. I said it was old.

                                       ******

When we had everything loaded to our own idea of perfect we loaded the three horses. Then our two in the back. The other truck was pulling a four horse trailer with five horses in it.

Indian ponies seemed to be smaller then the ones white men breed but I bet their horses would thrive on the stuff growing here long after the Rab starved to death but then again the Rab is a desert breed.

Of course I didn’t say anything to Sandy about her horse being too citified to be here in this country. I don’t like sleeping alone since I got used to company.

We took our heavy coats and warm hats because the high desert will fry you all day and freeze yer ass off come sun down. We also each packed along a thermal blanket that would keep us warm plus our GI issue ponchos plus the poncho liners.

Before first light we were up and loaded and ready to roll, we had a good breakfast in the café with good strong coffee all cooked in an old iron kitchen stove that looked 200 years old but still worked like it was new. That old woman could really make it hum at cooking time.

We rolled out with Charley riding with us and the rest in the big crew cab truck they hauled out for this trip. I think it went to the fight in NM with us.

We followed the other truck and trailer with another truck a mile ahead of them. We weren’t burning the tires off but we made good time.

Sandy curled up and slept in the back seat. Must be nice to be small enough to make a truck seat look like a queen size bed.

We rolled all day long and were on so many different roads both paved and dirt or rock. Finally about dark we slowed down and turned into a dirt track that headed down into a bowl where the trucks were out of sight.

A couple of the young men had bailed out back at the road and when they got done it looked like nobody had been on this road since the last rain. 1929 I think Charley said.

Sandy made dinner for the bunch opening quart jars of some kind of stew from back home. She made biscuits in the oven and we all just sat by a small fire and chowed down washing it down with hot coffee laced with sugar and cream.

For living thru the end of civilization we were doing pretty damn good. I asked where dessert was and damned if she didn’t jump up and haul out a big box of Miz Sheri’s  triple thick and chewy death by chocolate Brownies! We needed to lose the world more often!

Before it got dark two of Charles’s lads saddled up and rode out to scout the area where the gun fight took place. We put the fire out just at dusk and everybody headed for the bed rolls. Except us, we had a nice comfy bed in the trailer. And no I wasn’t ashamed nor embarrassed to be sleeping in a real bed. I’m old and wounded. Kinda.

I woke up to a small light shining and the smell of coffee and hearing the sound of the percolator makes. she was really making a feed for the bunch and we might be a while getting another one like it.

Hot biscuits with real butter and hot honey and sweet creamy coffee and bacon! What could be better. By the time it was ready the men had a hot smokeless fire going and when we carried all that food out I thought they were gonna cry.

Looking around I saw the two from last night were back so I figured Charley would fill us in when he was ready. After eating and refilling the cups we all just leaned against something and groaned. Sandy was pleased!

Charley waited until it was quiet and made the throat clearing sound that meant he was about to speak and everybody perked up. He said the scouts found the place where the fight took place and all they found was a grave meaning the dead man took somebody with him.

They also said the sign looked more like the people had just been stopped to fix food and as we whites say “ Shit happens” so we lost a fine young man and they lost somebody. It sucks but welcome to the new world. Long ago this was called friendly fire. Nothing friendly about getting killed.

Well it looks like we can ease on in with our rigs and the scout truck out ahead. I’m good with that because the sooner we can meet up with our friends the better.

As soon as camp was cleaned up and Sandy had the cooking area cleaned up we rolled out of there. We stopped at the lonely grave and all felt sad or I assumed we all did, I did and so did Sandy.

So much death in the world that one by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time seems more of a tragedy. We drove most of the day making slow time due to the roads. 

It would have been quicker to just ride cross country so when we started looking for a place to stop I asked Charley what he thought about finding a place to dump the rigs and leave two of his men to guard them and we just ride.

I swear I saw a look of relief on his face. He agreed and had the scout truck look for a good place. After they returned we followed them to a place even better then the night before.

It reminded me of the rock fortress where I got shot in the ass. A natural place surrounded by huge boulders and room enough for all the vehicles.

All the comforts of home again tonight. Sandy said there was enough home canned stew to repeat last night if we wanted. All the young men were nodding a lot.

I think it was because they knew there was more brownies. Miz Sheri could open a bakery in Shiprock and own every piece of jewelry in the place.

We were up with the sun, saddled, everything loaded and tied down, We had a lite breakfast and rode out. Charley had a long talk with the two young men who were staying behind. Imparting old Warrior wisdom.

Or letting them know what happens to sentry’s who sleep on the job. It’s not always a slap on the head, sometimes it is the feel of a sharp knife sliding across your throat. Only once.

It was wonderful being back in the saddle again but I wasn’t tempted to bust out singing. Guess I grew up on the old B&W B grade westerns.

We were riding NNW and so far hadn’t had to detour for any deep canyons too steep to get down. And besides Charlie’s scouts knew where we were going.

I figured we left the trucks about 20 miles from our friends settlement as the crow flies. Of course that could turn into a 100 miles if the crow flew over a shear drop of a mile or so.

We weren’t pushing it but it was pretty easy going so while I didn’t figure we’d make today I knew we would by mid morning tomorrow.

We rode single file and spaced a good 20 yards just incase. When you’re in Indian ( opps) country it’s good to not make a big target.

We stopped every couple of hours to let the horses rest and chomp on the scrub, The Mules were loving it and even the Rab was getting into it. Hungry will do that for ya. I was grinning too big and got a glare.

Screw it I just smiled bigger causing her to start laughing. I’m sure the friends with us were wondering about the crazy white folks who laughed over nothing.

Or maybe not since I know two of them had some college under their belt.

About an hour before the sun was gonna drop behind a mountain Charley said if we pushed on we could make it by dark.

We both decided that might not be smart if things were tense. Hate to have a real friendly fire Issue. About half an hour later we found a good over night spot with a large overhang and a sand floor with signs of fires from eons back.

Or last week for all I know but places like this got found and told about and as time went by they became like an overnight motel is today.

I started to think this place was well known to our party because there just happened to be a small pool of ice cold water a bit further down the wash which seemed like a rather big coincidence.

I ask Charley how long he had known of this place. He said all his life but he had never been here.  How’s that for racial memory.

When I asked him how he knew exactly where it was he held up a compass and a topo map which caused Sandy to start laughing then Charley joined her as well as the whole damn bunch of them.

Big joke on the white man. And so much for the stoic red savages. My ass.

I pointed out that the remaining brownies were in my saddle bags and that stopped the laughing. Until miz smart ass said “Nope, I removed them at the mid day stop”. The laughing started again. I hate em all. Charley slapped me on the back and said it’s ok, young people have no respect for the elders.

We built a nice hot fire and munched on our on whatever from our bags while the coffee cooked on a rock in the flames.

That fire smelled really good. Sandy said it was pinon, I said I was impressed at her knowledge.

She smiled that million watt smile that said I was about to eat my words and said Charley told her.

I was losing every battle so I just shut up and waited for the coffee. I made damn sure I brought plenty of sugar and real cream in a thermos and I was the instant hero when I got it out. These boys like their coffee like I did.

We got our blankets and the two foam pads I brought and curled up and went right to sleep.

I don’t know who was on guard but I woke up to a fire and more coffee going and didn’t see anybody.

Shortly one of the guys came back with his rifle and a blanket over his shoulders. If his hair had been longer and a head band he would have looked like something from 100 years ago.

Well the M-16 was a bit out of place but you get the picture. I laid there until the call of nature won out and shook out my boots and laced them up and headed for the Men’s Bush.

The sun was just turning the eastern sky a beautiful pink so I got my blanket and walked up on the cliff above the overhang and sat down. Shortly Charley joined me followed by herself. I think Charley chuckled.

She was wrapped up in her blanket and sat down between my knees and I became a chair.

She does have a way of filling the whole area with her presents.

Charley said, you could get 4 horses and a good rifle for her in the old days. I said how about now and got a head slam to the breast bone. Ouch. I pointed out Charley started it.

She said “I like Charley.”

I wisely kept my mouth shut. But the sun broke the rim of the distant mountains and shortly the show was over and the coffee smell was killing me so we headed back to camp.

An hour later we were on the road again, well there was no road but it’s all I had. I noticed the lead rider was way out and another half way between us. I felt like I was on a cavalry patrol 140 years ago with my Indian scouts. I think maybe I missed that by being born to late.

Around two hours later we heard the ringing sound of a hammer on steel in a steady rhythm. The scout moved out further along with his back up and we slowed a bit.

Finally we stopped completely and waited for the scouts to return. Maybe half an hour they were back and said they recognized Joe and a few of the others and they didn’t looked spooked but all had weapons close to hand. They also spotted the lookouts and were able to get close without being seen.

I figured the best thing was to get close and “Helloo the camp” and that’s what we did, when we got close the scout motioned for me to dismount and follow him. He was a damn rabbit and I’m a damn old coyote and he kept stopping and waiting for me, finally I resorted to sign language, I flipped him off, causing a big grin to appear.

At last I was laying behind a rock peeking down in the shallow canyon where our friends had settled in to build a home. There was people working all over the place, gardens growing and what looked like fruit trees. I couldn’t see any cabins but figured they were out of sight.

I watched Joe a while and realized I missed the whole bunch a lot. When he sat the sledge hammer down to catch a breath I spoke up in a voice that carried well into the canyon.

I said “ Well maybe if you wasn’t so old that hammer wouldn’t be so heavy. After the echo bounced a bit he jerked his head up and reached for his rifle and I laughed out loud.  

He got a big smile and said you sneaky sumbitch!! Get yer ass out in the open then said no don’t!  He turned around and yelled out “ It’s John and friends! Don’t get hasty! Well that bounced around a bit then he waved up on down.

We stood up and he waved I headed down while the scout headed back for the rest. Shortly Joe and I were pounding on each others backs and dancing around like idiots.

I heard a shout and saw Willy Bean and the whole bunch all coming and the hugging and back slapping started all over again. Then with a clatter of hooves Sandy rode down the trail and was all but dragged off Rab! Laughing and sounding happy.

Charley and the party road in more stately like befitted their ways. Everybody was happy to see them and showed it without all the silly white mans way.

That ended the work for the day and a party started. Food was brought out and we all settled down under the willows on picnic tables that looked to have been liberated from a Wal-Mart garden center.

After a great lunch of deer stew with plenty of fresh veggies and bread baked in one of the earth ovens like Sandy and I built up in the high country of Idaho we relaxed and talked.

We had to catch them up on what we knew about our group since we scattered to the winds.

I told them we had come so fast that we really didn’t see hardly any of our friends but we left word of possible trouble for this bunch and where they were, so maybe more would show up.

That brought up the reason we were here and it turned the mood somber. Willy told Joe to tell it and he would mention anything Joe didn’t.

They had been here in this beautiful place which as far as they or anybody else knew was Navajo land, Charley nodded. It was a beautiful spot right where the river flowed into the lake that backed up into the canyon.

The soil at the base of the canyon walls was good soil that had washed down for eons and some stayed above the high water marks.

They had dug ditches from the river and diverted water that was used for irrigation just as the tribes a thousand years ago had done right here in this spot.

There were big willow trees all over the area where the wall of the canyon met the bottom. Looking around it took a moment to spot the houses they built.

The had used a sand stone ledge above the  oldest and highest flood water mark and had use natural cuts and places where wind and time had eroded the face of the sand stone and there they started using the single jack drills and hammers to cut into the face where they set small charges and blasted out rooms and used the bigger rocks to form outer walls that blended in like they were formed that way.

They also had several gas powered generators they used to power heaver tools when needed but they all loved the quiet of the place and avoided using them as much as possible.

They were living life like it was 1870 but they hadn’t given up on modern technology. They had Solar panels set up and had lighting in their homes all 12v LED and kept batteries charged. Their vehicles were out of sight in a small box canyon.

I knew they had several of the Humvees and enough fire power to stop anything before it started. So I wanted to know everything.

Joe said they had been in the canyon about three weeks when the sound of their blasting had been noticed and one day several boats cruised right up the canyon. and spread out as they approached.

Most of Joes bunch were already in their defensive positions and out of sight but every man in the boats had a gun sight on him.

Joe and Willy stayed right where they were but close to cover and both had rifles in their hands as did the others who had stayed out in the open.

The biggest boat was some kind of large lake cruiser in the bad old days and the man standing up like General Washington staring at them had to be the leader.

When his boat crunched onto the shore he stepped off and marched right at them with a dozen men following.

He stopped about 20 yards from Joe and Willy and just looked at them then looked all around and finally said. This is my land and you’re trespassing.

Well Joe just smiled and said show me your deed and we will move otherwise get your ass in your little boat and get the hell out of here.

Well one of his men called Joe a sombitch and started to pull a pistol and was shot dead in a second.

The others all froze and looking around started seeing things they hadn’t seen before. Their boss didn’t seem to even notice he lost a man but said he didn’t have to show Joe any deeds the place was his because he said it was.

Willy of course busted out laughing and said “Well we now say it’s ours so pack it out asshole!” That almost caused more shooting but the boss man knew he would die first. He said they had 2 weeks to move or he would be back to move them. Joe said well we ain’t moving so we might as well start the dance right now,

Now that bothered the Boss man because it was for sure these folks weren’t scared of him one bit. So he said “Two weeks” and I’ll be back with an army.

Joe just nodded but Willy just had to say”  Yawl have a safe trip home and write when ya find work.”

They left their dead man laying where he was and roared out of the canyon. Right then they started hardening the place for the return of the idiot.

First was the lookout posts on the rim of the canyon. Next was to send out scouts to see where the fool had come from and to see how hard or easy it would be to come across country.

When all was said and done they waited and the two weeks passed then two more but they never let their guard down and after 2 months had passed they heard the lookout signal and all went to their prepared fighting positions.

When the boats arrived they filled the canyon and only a fool would fail to notice they would get wiped out if they opened the ball.

The boss man hailed them from his boat and Joe asked him what he wanted. He said he had decided that he would let them stay under conditions.

Joe said well we are gonna stay regardless of your conditions but go ahead and talk. Willy spoke up and said it had been easy to read the mans expression and that he really thought he was dealing from a position of power.

He laid it out that they could stay in return for half their crops and turning over most of their weapons and relying on his protection. Joe was quiet for so long the fool asked if he had heard?

Joe said “ OH I’m sorry I thought there had to be more, lots more, I mean why are you letting us off so easy?”

As stupid as he seemed to be the fool knew he was being played with and became so angry he was turning purple.

Joe said I have a counter offer, leave right now and we won’t kill you all with the boss first. You have 30 seconds and we open fire.

The man standing beside him spoke into his ear causing his head to turn back and forth and finely he realized his ass was hanging out a mile and he was only seconds from dying. He waved his helmsman to turn around but yelled “We will be back and you will all die.”

Right then I asked Joe why they didn’t just end it? He had them in a bad spot and why wait until they came back at a worse time?

Willy spoke up and said John we were just fresh from that cluster fuck in New Mexico and in truth most of us were sick of being forced to kill people because they are stupid.

So yes we could have and probably should have now looking back at it but at the time we just wanted peace.

Well I could understand that, Sandy and I had gone home to Texas and tried the same thing but we found that life too calm and restrictive or boring.

Whereas these folks never had any down time from fighting to working their asses off and now maybe being in another war.

Well we would see about it now that we were all here. I asked if they had located the home place for this wannabe warlord? Joe said yea we had a boat ready last time and some of us followed them back by just staying way back.

He said the man had taken over or had already a place on the shore of the lake maybe 5 to 7 miles give or take. He said the land crossing was too rough and too many canyons to climb down and back out of.

The only way was by water or by coming the long way around and in the way they had come.

I was puzzled about the man having a place on the shore when the shoreline had been closed to building except a few Marinas scattered around the lake. So whatever was there had to be since the event.

I had a thought that maybe these people were preppers who had planned to bugout to that area if and when.

I had a feeling after hearing the story that maybe we weren’t facing a war but maybe just scared people who were being stupid paranoid and maybe with a slightly unhinged leader. It’s didn’t sound like they knew anything about tactics.

And driving loaded boats into a dead end canyon to deliver an ultimatum to armed and prepared people was sort of like riding into the Little Big Horn while not listening to ones scouts.  

I told them all what I was thinking and all of our friends agreed they would much rather get along as to have to fight an unnecessary war. And God knows there had been enough death since the start of this mess.

We talked about how to approach the others and maybe have a sit down face to face and see if we could work things out. And the best idea was to take a boat across like they did.

I looked at the only boat they had and decided that wasn’t going to cut it. Fine for hauling a couple of people running trot lines or even following somebody at a good distance. Charley said he could take care of the boat thing and sent three of his men off on a mission.

We took the $2.00 tour of the place and loved it. If you wanted to live a farm and fishing life away from the world which these friends did at least for a while it was a wonderful place.

They were still working on building enough cave houses ( As Joe called them) for everybody which really amounted to one carved out room and a front area built out of native stone and what looked to be concrete.

Joe said they hauled it in when they made up their mind as to where they would settle. I think they took an entire hardware and garden center store. They had enough stuff to build a small community which I guess was their plan.

I was puzzled about how It all got here since we rode cross country to get here but since we wanted to ease into the area we didn’t follow the road system that was there. It seems the main road went right past the area and they just used the off-road abilities of the vehicles to make a trail to this area.

Well since we didn’t need to be sneaking around we could bring our equipment right on in but the last couple of miles were not a road just a path they had made.

Charley sent word back to the men at the rigs to bring them on in and told them what to look for. Joe said their plan was to stay low profile until life settled down and then improve the trail into their place. They weren’t looking to become hermits just people wanting to live a quiet life style that was geared to simple ways.

We took a tour of their houses and were impressed. They were very nice, warm in the winter and cool in the summer and comfortable feeling not at all like living in a damn dark cave.

They had used a mixture of sand and redi-crete to smooth out the floors so it was like walking on tile.

They had used a portable gas powered drill unit that was made for doing shallow wells but used it to cut vent holes from above.

They had cross ventilation that way and small fire places in the front add on area with stove pipe going thru the roof. Sandy and I were very impressed with all these friends had done and still had planned. Even the few kids seemed to be very happy and were kept busy with chores when not in the brush arbor class room.

This was turning out to be way more then I had imagined. Goats for milk, chickens free ranging in the area so they had eggs. They had plans to get a couple of milk cows.

Once everything was settled with their troublesome neighbor they were going to start a trade trip once every few weeks for the stuff they needed. They had in mind a place out near the highway system to hold a trade fair once every few months. They had a plan and it was a good one and people like these would rebuild the country and hopefully into a better one then we had before.

I really was more and more impressed with the place and I knew Sandy was since we got here she had been all over the place with the other women.

Early that evening our rigs arrived and we met them in the area where they could be parked out of sight. We spent all day the day before riding what turned out to be a drive of an hour or so. But we enjoyed the ride more.

After a great evening meal and some time around the fire with our laced coffee we turned in and I know I slept wonderfully, a soft bed is better then the hard ground but it’s hard to see the stars at night and hear the night sounds.

Sandy and I talked a bit before falling asleep and agreed that once this problem was solved we would decide where we wanted to go and just do it. So far coming here to help our friends was job one and thankfully it was looking more like something that could be handled thru a meeting of minds and not gun muzzles. We both hoped so.

Morning brought a surprise. When we walked down into the canyon there against the shore was a boat. A fairly large boat, not that I would know a damn thing about boats never having owned one and only having ridden in a few owned by friends.

Actually there was two boats, the other was further up the beach in shallower water, it was a large pontoon boat the only kind I ever had an urge to buy and funny thing was I wanted it to run the shoreline and explore the canyons of this very lake! How strange.

We joined the others for breakfast and coffee while talking about the boats Charlie’s men had returned with. After talking it over we decided that the best way to attract the attention of the folks across the lake was to head over in the big power boat with just four of us.

The idea was head over in the dark before the dawn. I didn’t want Sandy in the boat with me but that argument went down like the titanic only faster. I’m going to need to give some thought to trying to remember if I’ve won one yet with her. Maybe it would be better for my ego to just not think about it.

The only way I could see to do this was to just head right over and get their attention with a white flag waving. Hopefully a parley would settle this once and for all. Having decided that and after some hard thought for 15 or 20 seconds I said screw it lets just go now.

Me, Sandy, Joe and Willy took the big power boat.

It turned out that the only person who had ever spent more then an odd hour on one was…you guessed it. The fireball herself. We figured if things went south Sandy would put the peddle to the ….fiberglass? Anyway we figured this bout was plenty fast and could move us out of danger in a hurry.

After what seemed just a few minutes we were approaching the far shore where we saw smoke from camp fires so we turned parallel to the shore about 400 yards out and raced back and forth for a bit with a while flag waving and the horn blaring.

Sandy turned the bow to the shore and we watched for some sign of life. Which wasn’t too long. We saw people running every which way and a group gathered on the shore looking at us. We just looked back.

Finally one waved in a come on motion. Sandy moved a bit closer and stopped.

After a lot of what looked like arguing back and forth four men got into a power boat about the size of ours and headed out our way.

As it got closer Joe said the big man standing up holding the wind screen was the Boss of the bunch.

When they got within fifty feet they stopped and their leader asked what we wanted. I told him my name and asked his.

He didn’t seem to be too willing to part with that information but I just waited watching but not talking. Finally he said we could call him Boss like everybody else did.

I laughed and said well since we are not getting anywhere with that you can call me by my nickname. I waited for it and finally he had to ask. What is it? I smiled and said “Sir”!

Well he turned red and almost went off just like the guys said. This man was wound way too tight. Maybe his meds ran out.

Seeing we weren’t getting anywhere I said “ Ok, here’s how this is gonna work, you stay on this side of the lake and my friends stay on their side. The lake as such belongs to any and all who wish to fish it and live on it in peace.

And he went right into melt down right there. He was screaming so loud and hard, while clawing at a pistol. while his men tried to control him. But the harder they tried to stop him the worse he got.

Sandy had slowly maneuvered the boat closer to the other one until we were close enough to step across. He was a big man and looked strong as an ox, but he was damn near insane at this moment and his men were having all they could handle to control him.

One of them looked at me then realized we were so close he let his grip relax for a second and the man was able to get his pistol out and shot one of his own men and was bringing it around at me when Bang! And he dropped.

We all stood stunned in both boats. They stood looking at us then him until Sandy yelled at them to see if the other man was dead or needed help. That got them moving.

I looked around just in time to see Sand putting “Ellie” back in the shoulder holster.

Once again she had acted when needed and saved my life. It was becoming clear to everybody where the shot came from and everybody was staring at her.

She shrugged and left the controls of the boat and taking her pack jumped across to the other boat where she shoved the others out of the way.

The man on the deck of the boat was alive and had a nasty crease right between his ribs and arm. Right thru the arm pit and it was bleeding like a faucet. The million dollar wound. She got his shirt off with a knife, hope it wasn’t his only one.

In 5 minutes she had cleaned the wound and put some tube antibiotic cream on it and wrapped his arm then a large pad held on with tape against his latts, She gave him something in pill form and told him he would live and her bill would be in the mail.

Everybody laughed at that until they all realized we were tied to their boat and there was a lot of stuff that could happen right now.

Sandy reached into the bottomless bag and pulled out a bottle of some kind of whiskey and taking the cap off took a big swig and handed the bottle to the wounded man who managed enough to choke on it.

The bottle was passed back and forth across the two boats for a good half hour while we talked. And when the bottle was empty we had forged a treaty so to speak.

We followed their boat to shore where we gathered on shore with all of them and introductions were made.

I won’t go into all the names but the second in command was a man in his 40’s named Smith, the dead boss man had been the leader of their group of survivors who were at the lake when the EMP hit.

They had all come together and the man they called Boss had taken charge thru sheer size and aggressive personality. They were holding their on but were slowly losing ground so the Boss took to raiding other surviving groups.

Most had agreed to pay tribute in way of food and anything else they could find. This stuff had only been going a short time when our friends showed up and attracted attention.

Wiser minds had tried to reason with the man but that wasn’t to be. Our group had a lot of stuff he wanted and when they didn’t cave to his show of aggression he was planning to attack and kill all the men and keep the women.

There was about 50 people left in the group with several men being killed in raids. After their last visit to our people several of the men tried to talk sense to the man but that didn’t work and they had decided to do whatever it took to stop him and we showed up.

Word had spread about their leader being dead and who did it. Everybody was looking at Sandy with awe and fear which was getting to her.

Finally she just stood up and said “ John is my man, the love of my life.  Your leader pointed a gun at John and I did what needed doing.

Nothing more nor less so please drop it because killing somebody isn’t a good thing even when it has to happen. And that pretty much settled that.

We made plans for the next day to return and go around to the other groups and tell them the raids were done and start some kind of barter fair to get folks acquainted.

With that we headed home to our groups canyon where the people there must be dying from want of information. We arrived to smiles and cheers which got bigger when told the troubles were done for now.

In all the haste to solve the troubles we had forgotten we had a new member to our family we hadn’t met until Joe walked over with one of his dogs and a bundle in his arms. Sandy knew instantly what it was and met him at a run.

Out of the blanket tumbled a beautiful pup looking just like the one with Joe. He asked Sandy to sit down on the blanket and to let the little guy get to know her and to let mom decide if her baby should be with these people. But Sandy had spent a lot of time with Joes dogs and always had treats and the mother remembered that and nuzzled at Sandy’s pocket.

I went to the trailer for some Jerky and handed it to sandy and the deal was sealed! One baby for jerky. Mom laid down and chewed while baby chewed on a small bit of it while laying in Sandy’s lap.

I told her to not get used to it because in 6 months the cute puppy would be a beast to be admired from afar if one were a stranger.

From that moment on She and the puppy were inseparable which is just what I wanted. Molly was a bit put off at first but she soon figured out that by staying close to the pup allowed her better access to snacks.

I asked Sandy what she had named the pup? she said nothing yet that he would name himself in the days to come. I think She’s been around the People too long. Going native on me.

Sandy and I stayed in the canyon when several days later Joe and Willy took the big boat and 3 women to start the barter fair and to spread the word of peace. I felt since we weren’t going to be here that the people who were should be the ones dealing with the others.

Also I knew Sandy needed some alone time to work thru what happened on the boat. In less then two weeks she had killed three people.

All had needed it and were a threat to us but still she needed to work it out.

Of course she had done so before but not in such one on one manner. When you’re part of a group shooting you never really know if you your bullet was the one or not.

After a couple of days of riding Rab, and walking with the pup underfoot every minute and just thinking it all thru she was back being her old self. I had missed her while she was in doubt. All’s well now or as much as anything is all well. She was smiling now and all over the place just absorbing everything she could.

Joe and Willy said as word spread around the lake the other groups were meeting and the barter fair looked like it was going to be good. All any of the other groups wanted was to be safe and live in peace.

Hell that’s all anybody wanted these days. Well except the trash that was still out there. But the garbage man was coming they just didn’t know it.

I also noticed the men were referring to Sandy as “ Miz Sandy” and the “Wyatt” stuff was laid to rest. She had used the Ellie pistol to handle the Boss and now wore it everywhere she went.

One of the men in the group worked leather and she asked him to make a holster that carried her Gold Cup inside her waist band like I carry mine just behind the right hip. But she also had him make one that carried the gun in the small of her back butt to the left.

She was working every day learning to draw with her left hand and by the end of our stay she was just as fast with either hand, then she started shooting with her left hand. Slow at first but she was getting better fast and in typical hand gun fighting ranges she was able to keep all her rounds in the center mass area and what more was there?

By the time we took leave of our friends to head back to Shiprock she was damn good with either hand. I was kind of wondering what was going thru her head to be pushing her but figured she would talk when she was ready.

We left early in the morning just over two weeks after the war was diverted and our friends were living in peace and had bonded with the other Lake dwellers.

Goodbyes suck so I won’t bother with it just that we left with promises to return often. We were back in Shiprock the next day and were met by many more of the people then I had seen before.

Charley said it was the time of the year when the people gathered for many ceremonies of much importance.

While we were welcome we were still outsiders in the tribal sense and stayed in our camp for several days mending things and cleaning weapons.

It’s amazing to me just how much stuff a woman can squirrel away in a small space. I’m lucky to get a tenth of my crap in it’s own place but Sandy I swear had a ton of stuff that I had no idea of.

I did ask her where all the coffee came from? She said one of the men at the homestead had arrived with an old tractor pulling a forty foot trailer carrying a load of the stuff! That’s like hauling a truck load of gold!

She went to barter with him and couldn’t come up with anything he needed. Yet the whole time she was talking to him she was playing with some coins in her hand and accidentally dropped one which being a gentleman he picked up for her. It was a $20.00 gold piece.

Gold has a way of worming it’s way into a mans soul and it did. A few days later he came looking for her and asked if she was willing to trade gold for coffee.

The upshot was she got 20 cases of the stuff for several of the gold cart wheels. She had conspired with Miz Sheri on a place to stash it. She planned all along to share with Charles bunch.

So what she gave to old woman was three cases of that and the other boxes held stuff like sugar and salt.

All things that people in the south of Texas were working on right now. I hope they can grow coffee beans.

Salt is mined right in East Texas and sugar cane is being grown someplace south of our place and is just starting to make it up our way.

I had a friend long ago who tapped into a weeping Birch tree and boiled off the sap and I remember tasting it after it had cooked a while and it was like thin syrup but not as sweet but still beat the hell out of no syrup.

One thing an event such as we were living thru can’t do is stop the use of knowledge of the things mankind had developed.

People could find books with everything they needed to know.

A man who was a mechanic before the event didn’t lose that ability.

His tools still work, and the parts needed to make something work are out there some place.

The danger is in the lack of ability to make more parts. But I don’t think mankind is going to go back to the cave.

Well of course our canyon dwelling friends are but of their own choice and when they are done those cave homes will be the cats ass for sure. 

We still have all the tools we need to bring civilization back we just need to remove the trash that won’t live peacefully.

And slowly but surely they were being removed, But of course they will always be among us as they always have been.

And will be dealt with as they always have been. Except folks these days don’t believe in building prisons when a grave is easier to dig.

I believe “We The People” truly in charge of our lives and country for the first time in 200 years and I somehow doubt we will hand our lives over to politicians again.

I know I won’t but then again in a hundred years when we have built it all over again there will be those who want to be in power who will work at convincing people they need to let somebody else worry about it all.

But that’s for the distant future for now there is beautiful places to see and where better then with Sandy and Buck and crew?

Sandy and her pup were all over the area sticking their noses into any and all there was to see. When she was riding the pup would stand being carried a short time then demand to be let down. And learned fast about mule hooves. And he was always out in front leading the way.

I swear in the last week the damn mutt has grown a foot or more. And he’s filling out but is a spoon compared to the shovel he will become.

He’s also showing the traits he got from his father and mother. Very watchful and learns fast. He almost never leaves her side unless she’s with me. As if he’s handing off her security to me while he does important puppy stuff which is mooching snacks in back of the café. The old woman must feed him every time he’s there.

There are other dogs around but he ignores them and understands that Molly is the queen bee around here only after Sandy. I’m just a minor  annoyance in his life.

I’ve never seen an animal bond like this pup did with Sandy. And when he was full grown he would be a hand full if you threatened her. Note to me “ Don’t yell at her”  not that I would but I’m sure somebody someplace would discover the hard way that it didn’t pay to mess with her.

One day Sandy was coming back from a ride and the pup was out in front and suddenly slammed on the breaks and backed up. She eased Rab forward until the dog turned to block the horse. Sandy kept watch and shortly saw movement away from the trail. It was a big rattle snake getting away from all the traffic.

When they came in and she told me that I said well it’s damn lucky he’d rather walk then ride. Sandy got that twinkle she gets when she’s got something going in her head.

She looked at the pup and called out “ Walker” !! come. And I’ll be double damned if he didn’t. From that day forward the mutt’s name was Walker which she loved as a play on our name ( Did I forget to mention we had tied the knot?) Yep Navajo way and Charley handled it all, we just showed up and nodded and made a grunt sound when it was time.

At least I guess that was the way of the People. Hell for all I know they were making fun of us. But I doubt it cause the old woman was smiling big and she loves Sandy.

We spent a week before deciding to head out. We were going to go drift into Monument Valley and make a base camp and take day rides all around the area and return to camp at night.

We said our goodbyes and rolled out one morning and headed for the place. We spent 2 weeks just riding all over the place. The nights were wonderful with the uncountable stars. We laid on the top of the trailer many nights and play spot the satellite first.

They were still doing their thing way out there. A blinking moving light among the still lights we call stars but are in fact Suns like ours, And that will make you realize how small we really are.

I wondered if the EMP had burned them out or if they were still sending data to a planet that wasn’t answering. I guess if nobody is sending a signal then it can’t very well send one back. It’s a strange thing to think about.

After Monument Valley we headed over to Canyon Lands National Park and did the same. Camp out and ride looking at the beauty of it all.

Once in a while we would spot the smoke from a camp fire but we avoided meeting anybody. It was a time of quiet peace. We both knew it could be shattered at any moment but we relished it while we had it.

The way I see it in the next few years a lot of towns and small cities that escaped the horror the big cities faced will in fact be well on their way back to having power and most of the other things they lost. Maybe not a complete recovery, hopefully we can dodge that bullet.

Maybe we can avoid the stupid so called “Reality” TV shows or!! No TV would be great. Hell no big Government would be wonderful. Folks just living their lives free and dealing with their own problems in their own way.

But deep inside my cynical paranoid brain I knew somebody someplace was right this minute hatching a way to become the Big Dog in the pack.

I mentioned my thoughts to Sandy she just shrugged and said fine, if he screws with us we can just shoot him.

I like a short logical argument. If it’s not our plan we shoot them. I think I need to have a sit down conversation with her. Or not.

We were riding up a deer trail to a ridge line where we heard shots. A few at first then a lot of them. We eased on up to the area just below the top of the ridge and dismounted and tied off to some sturdy bushes. After crawling to the top we used bushes to break up our outline and saw obvious below us an obvious Navajo homestead.

From where we were we could see the folks in the Hogan were pinned in by what looked like four or five white men who were blazing away at the place.

Not knowing what the hell was going on we just watched until one of the whites ran out to throw a Molotov cocktail on the roof of the place. He didn’t make it because a shot from the rocks nearby hit him and when he dropped it was right on his fire bomb. It wasn’t a pretty sight. But he was dead so he didn’t care.

I eased my rifle thru the bush and sighted in on the shooter in the rocks and was surprised to see it was a Navajo girl maybe still a teenager.

I kind of figured now that maybe the white guys were the bad one in this fight when another girl maybe 10 or so ran out of the Hogan towards the rocks and almost made it but was hit and went down out of sight.

That said it all for me. Adults can feud all they want but by god shooting a kids just ain’t gonna cut it with me. Sandy asked me which of the bastards I was taking out so I said I’ll start from the left and her reply was a shot they rolled one of the men. My shot was a heartbeat behind hers but it was a good one. Two down and three to go.

We each got one more before the last one realized what was going on and turned and fired at us and damn near took the rest of my ear off!!  But Sandy dropped him before he fired again. It’s true if a bullet passes your head close enough your eyes will water. Mine were gushing! I think it’s the super sonic crack from the bullet but who cares? It missed that’s enough.

We laid low for a couple of minutes then Sandy yelled out something I had no idea what it was but pretty soon I saw a head peek around the door frame. Sandy waved and stood up before I could stop her but nothing happened.

I stood up and waved and got mounted up and we rode down to the small home place. The man and a woman ran to the rocks where the child fell and shortly ran out carrying the girl. We got there just as he laid her down on a blanket.

He looked at us kind of funny then the mule and nodded, meantime Sandy was looking the girl over and found a bullet creased her right leg and the fall was likely just from the shock of it but she was smart enough to lay low.

The man called out and the girl in the rocks came out packing an old Winchester as tall as her. It looked like it was a hundred years old and likely was. But it did it’s job.

While Sandy cleaned the wound and wrapped it the man stood and said he was called Sam and I figured that was as close as I’d ever come to saying his name so I told him I was John and he pointed and said “Sandy”.

I had to smile because I was starting to get the idea maybe we were getting well known in this area of the country. Sam and I checked the body’s and all were dead. The girl had gotten one and Sandy and I got five and there was two more that we didn’t see before.

I asked Sam what they were after and he simply pointed at his daughters and wife. That said it for me. No tears or remorse in our camp.

We gathered up their weapons and everything else that could be used. I searched the body’s because I knew Sam was not gonna be messing with any dead men if he didn’t have to.

After we stripped them of anything useable I asked Sam how they got here and he pointed down his narrow path of a road so we walked down there and found an old truck with a lot of stuff piled in it leaving little room for more then maybe a couple of people so I walked down the trail and around a boulder pile and found another old truck filled as was the other one.

I told Sam he was a rich man and we got the rigs started and drove them to his place and looked thru them. Booze of course. Canned foods and a lot of ammo for the guns they had. None was carrying a 45 yet there was several boxes of Golden Saber HP and I told Sam I wanted those if he didn’t need them, he said he wasn’t a pistol shooter. After we got done with emptying the trucks I asked Sam where we could take the body’s to dump them?

He said about a mile back down the path there was an old mine shaft and they would be good company for the rattle snakes that filled the thing.

I thought that was fitting so we loaded them all in the back of a truck and headed that way.

I had told him I would load them but he said no he was going to help so I asked about handling them and he said there was an old man nearby who would do the proper ceremony to cleans him. I’m glad because they were heavy after the first two.

We drove right to the shaft. I had pictured a tunnel but it was a vertical shaft that somebody a long time ago dug by hand. I was surprised because we were on Tribal lands I thought. Sam said yes but for a while people had just done what they wanted. I understood that!

We backed up to the shaft and I tossed a rock in and it seemed pretty deep and with no further ado we tossed them into the hole. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Sam went to the cab of the truck and came back with a gunny sake he had put all the porn magazines and such in and dropped it in on top of them.

After our return to the home place we sat under an arbor made from poles and brush near a trickle of water from a spring coming from some rocks.

I tasted it and it was cold! So cold my teeth hurt.. I’ve often wondered how it is that in this dry hot seemingly barren land ice cold springs could exist.

His oldest daughter offered to water the Buck and Rab and with no effort jumped onto Rab and off she rode to a pool further down stream. There was a corral there with a paint horse in it. They all did the nickering howdy to each other and were happy for the water.

Sam said as soon as Sandy stood up and waved he knew who we were and was sure happy to see us.

He said he was down to his last 10 rounds of ammo and his daughter only had what was in the old rifle that belonged to his grandfather.

I said well you now have enough to fight off the seventh cavalry and he smiled and said I think they already bit the dust. Like all of his people he didn’t show much around outsiders but I guess he saw us as insiders.

And yes Charley had passed word that we would be in the area and the People should keep an eye on us in case we found trouble as we seemed to do way to much.

Sam said they hadn’t had any trouble before this but that these men had seen something that got their attention and they just drove up and started shooting.

Driving up was easier said then done so I decided maybe Sandy and I would ride their back trail and see what we could find. Which I hoped was nothing because I’m getting tired of having to shoot assholes who won’t learn to live peacefully.

I mentioned sorta out loud that if we kept this up we weren’t always gonna be lucky. Sandy of course said well hell John your always getting shot so maybe you need to settle down and farm. She’s a barrel of laughs! Right uh huh. So’s a snake bite.

We decided to make a bee line for where we left our rig and the other livestock. Maybe these jerk offs weren’t alone. So we bid goodbye to Sam and his family and headed back the way we came and didn’t slowpoke along.

We eased up to our camp and all looked well Molly was sitting in some shade watching us. Walker the pup was sound asleep one second and wide awake the next. Both were happy to see us and came out to meet us.

We were camped in a small twisty canyon that we could drive into and turn around in and after brushing out tracks nothing was showing. So it was pretty secure.

We built our fires after dark so the smoke wouldn’t show and the walls of the canyon were high enough to not allow any glare so we felt safe plus the dogs have good hearing as do the other critters.

We sat a while and talked about the days events and I told her that I really was getting tired of having to shoot these folks who just won’t learn to live in peace. She said well what was the alternative?  I sighed and said there wasn’t one. She said exactly.

We both loved the quiet isolation of this beautiful high desert land and we talked a lot about where we would want to settle if we were to want to.

I loved the high country to the north but this high desert was really getting into my soul. It’s beyond words to describe the beauty of it. But hell what would we do? Get a goat and build a stone hut? I love the life we are living right now. Going where we want, seeing sights few have seen and fewer will ever see for a long time.

One thing tho was we can’t live off the past. I mean sure there is plenty of fuel for the truck because there are really very few vehicles left running or people to drive them. But food is an issue that we will have to face down the road.

If we have to start growing our food that means settling down some place and growing it then canning and drying and all that stuff. Or we live a nomadic life style. Hunting and gathering. I vote for the last one!

Sandy said maybe we should just travel around and be guns for hire. I laughed but I think she really meant it. It does seem like every time we turn around some son of a bitch is trying to do us in or we end up helping folks like Sam. Which ain’t a bad thing.

This is a problem I had not foreseen. Being Nomads could become hard work.

Of course we can dump the vehicles and take the riding stock and just keep riding but sooner or later that will become harder to keep up.

There are places where we will always be welcome such as Shiprock or in the canyons with our friends. But sooner or later that will come to feel like leaching.

Sandy’s idea was to head back to Texas every fall and winter there helping out and plan to leave again come spring. I wasn’t completely sold on that yet.

The other idea was to spend time in the canyon community and build our own cave shelter and be a part of the community helping out any way we can but remain free to come and go.

Damn this remaining free is getting harder then it seemed to be. We can’t depend on can foods left from before the event. Finally we decided we were making way too much out of it and to deal with it as it happens.

We were going to need fuel in another few weeks so we will be looking for a place we might find fuel like an abandoned station that hopefully the tanks haven’t been drained.

We could always buy fuel if somebody wanted to sell or trade for it and same with food. With that thought we decided to load up and cruise in the direction of the nearest small town to see how things were shaking out.

The first place we came to the town was a wreck and mostly burned out. There had been a station there so we checked the tanks, the fill lids were in place and marked so we dropped our pump hose down it and I worked the hand pump and shortly Diesel was running out. Sandy caught some in a canning jar and we looked at it and it looked good and our electrical pump system had a filter.

We fired up the Honda generator and were soon filling the drums that we carried then the big tank on the truck. Our gasoline cans were fine since we didn’t run the generator much at all.

After that we looked over the rest of the town such as it was and it had been picked over pretty good. The local sporting goods store was a wreck. It looked like a fire fight had taken place which was most likely the truth. The weather had really done a number on the place as well.

Sandy was in the back area and called me to come there. I found her looking at a large safe that somebody had beat the dial off before giving up. She had the look of a child on Christmas morning and was thinking real hard on how to get into that safe.

I have to confess I was getting the fever myself. It was something I hadn’t thought about and there might just be a lot of very useful stuff left behind and would be of use in rebuilding. Or was that an excuse to ease my mind about ripping open somebody else’s property.

Would opening this safe make us thieves? I didn’t think so nor were we harming anybody to get whatever was in it.

I asked Sandy how she felt about opening it to take somebody else’s property.

She said well we took the truck and trailer, and anything useful off the people we had to kill rather then leaving it to waste and we gave most of it to folks in need and we will most likely do the same with anything we get out of here. Sound logic so ok how to get into it.

A cutting torch would work but might ruin whatever was in the safe. An angle head grinder could cut thru the sides or the back I was pretty sure. I tried moving it by shoving it just to see if it would budge. It didn’t. Most likely bolted down.

We couldn’t do a thing about it for now but we marked the place on out area map and headed on toward the next town. It too had been hit by what or whoever and the remains were still laying out as they fell.

It seemed somebody had rolled thru here like a wave and just killed everybody in their path. This town too had been picked over but I kept looking for what I knew was here and found it. A small garage for auto repair.

It really had not been touched since the raiders weren’t interested in tools. Although most of the hand tools were gone the power tools were laying all over the place since they were of no use to anybody without power.

I gathered everything I thought we could use including the cutting torch and tanks. There was a grinder and a few new blades for it as well. We might be in business of robbing the past to help the future.

At least it was something to do so we loaded up and headed back to our last stop and that damn safe that was nibbling at our minds.

We even teased each other about it but agreed we were both excited about what might be in there.

I will not bore you with the fact I would have never made it as a safe cracker. It’s a hell of a lot of work getting into one of these things and I know there must be a better way. And if it appears worth it we will find that way.

It took the rest of the day and part of the next to get into that damn thing. I had decided that taking the top off was the only way so I went at it with the grinder. Slow and hard. I found that not putting so much pressure on the grinder was easier on me and the blades.

When it was cut all the way around there was of course the inner walls. Using every thing I could think of in the way of tools I will only say that the top came off.

Sandy all but dove into the damn thing. We got a drop cord to light up the inside of the thing and of course there was guns in it after all this was a gun store so we removed them and laid them on a blanket out of the way.

Nothing earth shattering just some high dollar hunting rifles. And a lot of handguns still boxed so those got piled up too.

The safe had a raised floor with storage shelves under it which was just rug covered wood which gave way to a few smacks of a hammer.

Thank god Sandy is a small person because she did get down inside the safe and did the hammering then started handing out boxes and bags which I stacked off to the side. When the safe was empty we took a rest and just looked at the haul.

I said ok baby there’s your treasures get with it. She was like a kid at Christmas. The stuff from the lower safe turned out to be very interesting. There was a lot of Navajo jewelry, the real stuff not the tourist stuff.

Also a lot of junk silver and gold coins mostly worn from use. It hit me that maybe this was also a pawn shop where the locals hocked their personal jewelry between checks.

There wasn’t a fortune here but a lot of somebody’s lives. I had the notion that maybe Charley or Sam might recognize some of it and the person who had owned it might be alive. That would make us feel better about being safe crackers.

I did take time to study this safe and figured out how best to burn thru one without harming the stuff inside. Most good safes have fire proof material between the outer steel and the inner liner which is usually thinner.

So now were scanning the map for places to look at with a different eye. There are so many small towns that aren’t even on the maps as more then a tiny dot. We were going dot hunting now that we had gold fever or whatever.

We took to stopping at abandoned homes where we looked for anything useful to survivors that nature was working hard at destroying as fast as possible.

We found a place off the road about a week after the first place we hit. It was a large home on what looked to have been a horse ranch. We pulled in with horn tooting and found nobody. The front door was open and had bullet holes in it.

Inside we found what the remains of several people. I’m sure the ranch owners and some of their attackers. It looked like they put up a good fight but lost in the end.

I was afraid of what we might find in the horse barn but all the stalls were open and the horses and tack were gone. I hoped it wasn’t the raiders that took them.

We went back into the house and searched the second floor which was all bed rooms we looked in the master bedroom and found a small safe in a back corner either over looked or the raiders weren’t staying long enough to try to open it.

It was bolted down solid but gave way to the wrecking crew. Inside it was a lot of cash which was now just fire starter but there was a lot of jewelry and some junk silver and a small bag of gold coins from some other country.

There was also a very nice Colt Officers model 45 with two extra mags with a holster and mag carrier which was a find! Worth more then all the flash combined. Sandy said maybe I should start carrying it in my back like she was. I said she might take it since it was a lot lighter then her Gold cup. She said NO! end of story.

We searched the rest of the house and found an open gun safe empty of course as it would be if the owners were fighting for their lives.

There was an office/den on the main floor that had a box of 45 ammo in the back of a drawer. Golden saber HP’s !

We stood there looking at the dried out remains of the folks who lived here and thought about burying them but who was who?

We decided to just leave them but we shut the door.

It was sad pawing thru the remains of somebody’s lives but in a sense it made little difference to them and if somebody could get some good from it then so be it.

The man of the house must have been my size because there was a really nice sheep skin coat with the fleece lining so I took it since the it was just going to rot away.

But sometimes it’s easy to find excuses for our actions and yet what we were doing wasn’t a sin against man kind. Like the coat, why let it rot away? It might be years before one like it will be made again.

The survivors of the EMP event didn’t ask for it but they managed to live thru the days of horror after it so why should useful things not be used?

I remember on some of the SHTF forums folks would say how they would never scavenge since it was no different then stealing. Bullshit, none of them would leave a good rifle laying in the dirt after a fight so what’s the difference?  Everybody was scrounging for food any place they could find it.

Good intentions usually fall victim to need pretty fast. I wondered how those folks were doing now? Hell if they hadn’t got a new attitude fast they were dead.  So much for high ideas.

I guess I just need something to do and this “mining” of our past civilization is something to do as long as we aren’t taking from somebody who needs it.

We were approaching another town out in the middle of nowhere but this one showed signs of life.

We kind of eased into the edge of it and saw a few people scattering but nobody shooting at us.

We stopped to see what might come our way. Shortly we saw somebody walking down the road at us and it looked like an old woman so I eased the rig forward to make it easier on her.

She marched right up to the front of the dodge and stopped with her hands on her hips with her feet spread looking like a pit bull just daring us to get out of the truck.

Sandy climbed out and marched around in front of the woman and said “Howdy! I’m Sandy and that’s Johnny Long Walker.”

Well that old woman took a while and then spit a blob of brown juice and said “Well howdy back Sandy! And offered her hand which Sandy took and they went to shaking like a hound passin a peach seed.

She had some kind of an old hog leg belted around her waist and looked tough enough to not need it. I got out of the truck slow like with my hands in the open and waited while she looked me up and down then said “Ain’t you a tad bit old for this sprout”?

I said “You got no idea! I have days I can’t hardly crawl out of bed! And that got her to laughing long and loud. She said she had heard of us which stumped me until she said well come on in Any friend of Charles’s is a friend of ours.

I just looked stupid at her till she said “Radios son remember how they worked?” I felt as stupid as I looked because we had a working short wave in the truck and never turned it on.

She turned to walk back and refused a ride, said cars and trucks were the main thing wrong with the country and we was better off without them. I couldn’t disagree but at the moment I kept my mouth shut for fear she would take my keys away from me.

I flat missed hearing her name but Sandy said it was Maude and I flashed on that old TV show I never watched. We got into the town which was maybe 500 people in it’s day but from the folks I could see it was down to maybe 75 and they were mostly in their 30’s on up we saw nobody younger or any sign of kids..

We parked in front of the post office building which was the newest and most sturdy one in town. The people gathered around us and some asked if the Government was going to come help them?

Maude said damnit to hell y’all know they ain’t no Government left to come and if there was we would be low down on the pole. Besides we got way more then most folks so shut up yer whining Clyde! Singling out the main one.

She led us into the post office where we found a café and meeting area. I looked around and noticed it was also a fort and from the pock marks on the outside it had served as such in the past. But the walls were brick and seemed to have stopped most of the inbound stuff.

Maude said have a seat and tell us what’s going on out there. So we did that while having some water which seemed to be all they had, I figured the coffee king would jump up and run out and bring a ton of it in but she just sat there kind of quiet. Which made my neck hairs stand up.

We jawed a bit and didn’t learn much from them and I was getting kind  of edgy like there was something going on that I didn’t understand but from the look on Sandy’s face she was ahead of me.

Before I could pin down my feelings I heard Molly and Walker let loose and they were pissed ! And before I could blink “Wyatt “ showed up again. I never saw that girl move and yet there was Ellie in her right hand and the gold cup in the other. One pointed at Maude and one at the crowd of people in front of us.

Well shit I thought, asleep again! I needed to find a porch and a rocking chair coz I sure as hell wasn’t doing any damn good here. Anyway I unlimbered my 45 and right then was wishing I had that Officers model that was in the truck. Hell I wished I had Sandy’s MP5, now that was an attention getter! In the few seconds it took for all that to run thru my mind Sandy had got behind Maude and had the 45 jammed into the base of her neck.

I was on my feet now and them under the gun too, Sandy said take her gold cup and I did then she wrapped her hands in Maude’s hair and said now we walk out of here real nice and polite.

We got outside to find the dogs guarding the truck and one of the towns people holding a bloody hand. Somebody was getting extra chow tonight!

Once we moved the crowd back a bit we got to the truck and I grabbed Sandy’s MP5 and turned it on the crowd who had been edging forward but now they slammed on the breaks.

Sandy backed into the truck and using the hand full of hair pulled Maude into the truck while I ran around and jumped behind the wheel, ten seconds later we were hauling ass .

When we cleared the town by half a mile Sandy just pushed Maude out of the truck and shut her door.

In her hand was Maude’s hog leg which turned out to be a Ruger 44 Mag. And surprise! Only two rounds in it. Now this was interesting. But not enough to go back for another talk.

That was a spooky mess that turned out ok but we were lucky. Or was it luck? We both had the same idea at the same time, Sandy just acted sooner then I did. Which was damn good because I had my head up my ass.

We talked about it as we put the miles behind us but could come up with nothing that made sense to either of us. They had done nothing to us but we both picked up something, what? We would never know. Also that “ Any friend of Charlie’s is a friend of ours” stuff sure threw us off.

I was tempted to call Charley and ask about these folks but not now. I just wanted plenty of miles between us and them. Sandy was loving up the dogs for their warning and their chomping one of the creeps back there.

When the word Creeps flickered thru my mine I flashed on the ones we wiped out in New Mexico…or did we? Wipe them out ? Now I really wanted to talk to Charley.

We put a good 20 miles between us and them before we slowed down and looked for a good spot of high ground to watch our back trail from.

We did find such a place where we could turn off the old roadway and moving real slow eased around behind a hill which was the best we could do since we couldn’t park on top.

We unloaded the critters and Sandy fed and watered them while I climbed the hill to watch the area. When Sandy was done she joined me and we laid behind some bushes to watch.

We saw no sign of anybody and after a couple of hours Sandy went back to camp and fixed some chow for us. She brought it up to me and we sat there watching and eating.

I told her about how the “Creep” word had come into my mind but she said she didn’t pick up the smell we had come to associate with them. I had to agree but sure hoped she was right.

When dark came we decided to sleep on top of the trailer and had both dogs loose to move around. I had trouble getting to sleep and just laid there listening to Sandy make her soft snoring sounds that she made when she was real tired and deep asleep.

Just before the sky got light I headed back up the hill to watch, After a while Sandy brought hot coffee up to us with Walker trying his best to trip her. We sat behind our bushes and just watched. Nothing.

This was one of the strangest events I had seen up to now. There wasn’t any one thing we could pin down for our mutual reaction to those people but it sure triggered something!

We decided to just lay up here for a while since if “yer not moving yer not leaving sign“. I did walk back to the road and brush out the tracks we made leaving the road. And felt better for it.

We made us a comfortable spot on the hill by smoothing out the ground and brought up a tarp and a foam pad from the trailer and took turns watching and napping all day.

Nothing moved all day until about late afternoon when we saw a pair of trucks heading toward us from that town. The rolled right past where we turned off but thru my rifle scope cranked to full power I saw Maude in the second truck.

I had a thought that made me uncomfortable. What if they had check points scattered about to warn of people coming into the area? And what if we never went past that check point so they knew we were nearby?

Now I was worried. So down the hill I went and cranked the truck up and turned on the radio and called Charlie’s call sign several times but never got thru. Either we were blocked by the mountains or we were too far away. I was never sure about these radios what with the EMP and all. But I would try later.

Before Dark we saw the two trucks heading back past our hill but nobody looked like they saw anything. We tried Charley off and on most of the evening but nothing.

I was getting the feeling we should get moving but that’s how the hunter gets the Whitetail buck. Move slow and then stop and be still and be ready because he will get spooked by the silence and jump up, usually right under your feet.

So we set tight and waited. When morning came we tried Charley one more time and it worked. All we could do was talk in the open so we told him what happened. He had no idea who this Maude person and had never heard of her.

I asked if there was a chance these people were survivors of the creeps in New Mexico. He was at a loss on that but advised us to sit tight for a while.

Sitting tight wasn’t in my plans but there was something in the way Charley had said it that made me wonder what was going on. I thought about just blasting down the road away from here but those two trucks had me spooked.

About midday the same two trucks drove by again kind of slow and they were for sure looking for tracks of our vehicles. They did move on and again later in the day slowly came back.

I was getting real tired of this shit real fast, I have the patients of a Fire Ant which is damn short. But I was sitting tight because of the Whitetail buck analogy and I wasn’t gonna be the first one to blink. But I was getting pissed all the same. We just laid out on our blanket taking turns napping and watching.

I was really snoozing when Sandy nudged me awake, I said “ Not tonight honey, I have a headache” She didn’t laugh but I thought it was funny as hell but stopped smiling when she jammed a thumb into my ribs.

I said “What!” and she asked what DF meant? I asked where she heard it. She said Charley had said it a couple of times. I guess being damn near deaf from so many years of gun fire I missed it.

She said when he said stay put he said “DF” I just shrugged and laid back and was just damn near asleep when I sat right up and said

“ Fuck me to death!” Usually she would say something like “I try” but this time she just said “What”?

DF means Direction finder! They been copying our mail and know we are around here someplace. The must have somebody down the road and who knows where else.

I realized right then that because we hadn’t been on the radio at all they had no way of knowing who we were until they laid eyes on us. It still didn’t tell us who we were dealing with but I was pretty sure we would find out soon enough.

I left Sandy to keep an eye out for trouble while I did a better jib of looking over our location. And because God does have a thing for complete fuck ups we had landed in as good a spot as could be asked for.

Where we had parked the rig put it out of sight and protected on three sides. We had the only real high ground around and the only way they could get to us was from the road the way we came in or by dropping people off to walk in on our back side.

I re-parked the truck and trailer in a Jack knife position and close as I could get to making a holding pin out of it. But the main thing was the stock was pretty well protected.

I brought a shovel back up with me and went to digging a fighting hole big enough for us to be really well protected. We had good firing abilities 360 degrees as long as nobody got close enough to the truck to use it as cover.

We debated on it and decided to bring several weapons up to our fighting hole. I went down and raided the empty grain bags we saved because they were too handy to just toss away.

They became sand bags and really did give us a very good shelter to fight from and a steady rest for the rifles. I went down and brought up my 308 bolt gun and the AR 10 with 10 loaded mags then brought up Sandy’s M-16 and her AK.

After thinking for a moment I also brought up two shotguns with shell belts. We had our pistols. After thinking about it I went back down and placed another m-16 near the front of the truck and another shotgun near the back of the trailer.

I wanted to keep them shooting at us up here but if it came to it I’d head down and get in close. We looked around and couldn’t think of anything else we could do. Sandy went down to feed the live stock and get food for us.

I kept watch and spent it hoping this was for nothing but if it came to it I planned to hit them at long range and get as many as I could. Of course if they came at night we were all at a disadvantage.

But then I had another “ SHIT!!” moment when I remembered the Night Viz gear I had borrowed so long ago. And used to good advantage in the early days of my trip south.

When Sandy came up with something to eat I mentioned the Night viz gear, She jumped up, flew down the hill and was back faster then I could have hobbled down the hill.

I hadn’t looked at this thing since I used it long ago but sure hoped it was still working. I’d know soon as the sun went down. At this point I didn’t know if we were being paranoid or what. But it’s not like we really had to be anyplace so we were losing nothing by being careful.

I really did not believe these folks had direction finding equipment, I mean where would these folks get gear like that? Even an old fart like me ain’t seen any and I‘ve been places where it was available but I never even seen it much less know how it works. I classify that kinda stuff under “ PFM” pure fkn magic.

While sitting there I had a major brain flash and asked Sandy where the other Eotech sight was? We had picked it up some place in our travels.

She bounded down the hill like a damn mountain goat making my knees cry with envy. She returned with it and I studied it and looked at the rail system on my 308. I hated to take off my scope but it was on a quick change mount and was supposed stay accurate when put back on.

What I wanted to do was put the Eotech on as far forward as possible and leave room to adapt the night viz unit behind the Eotech.

With the day light remaining I made the switch. I screwed the can onto the barrel and with sandy calling the shots I sighted in on a rock maybe 150 yards out. With the can the 308 sounded like a 22 lr so I figured that was as good as it could get.

It took five rounds to zero the sight and hit the rock, Now I adapted the night gear to the remainder of the rail which took some spit, used gum and duck tape. But all it had to do was let me see them coming and the red dot would show green and I knew I could make quiet kills out to 150 yards or further if need be.

If we got thru the night without getting hit I was gonna improve the system. I really didn’t think they would find us until we gave them something to see. I’m getting pissed off enough to set a truck tire on fire and get the dance started.

We took turns sleeping all night and had no visitors so in the darkness before the dawn I turned on the sight and scanned the area looking for a target to try out the rube Goldberg sight system.

I picked out a rock about a hundred yards away was about the size of a human head. It was very clear thru the night gear and the red dot was now green. I don’t know why and I doubt anybody really gives a crap.

I rested the rifle on the sand bag and set that dot on the rock and pop! The bullet hitting the rock was much louder then the sound of the round going off.

Sandy sat right up and started grabbing her rifle and I laughed quietly while she started calling me a lot of “Endearing” things. I whispered to her what I had done and she wanted to look thru the set up.

I was uneasy about that because I had lost a lot of gear to that request of “Let me see that”. After telling her there was way she was getting my rifle I let her look thru it.

While I should not have been I was surprised to hear the “pop” of the round going off and the whack of the bullet meeting the rock brought forth a giggle and a whispered “ Holy Shit!” I want one!!..

I told her if and when we found one we would fix her up. The AR I left up in Idaho had been set up for this same can and I was now regretting having left it but it was with damn good folks and I hope it helped them if trouble came again.

Morning came and again it was a quiet night, we had breakfast of home canned stuff from the home place in TX which made me thing of my Mom and the other folks there and how it seemed to me I always missed home but had trouble remaining there.

After we had eaten and had coffee I wanted to see if that QD ( quick Detach ) mount’s would really put my scope back in the same zero I had before.

I took off the night rig and replaced the scope, chambered a round and sighted in on the rock I shot the day before, pop whack! Just like that.

So now I had it both ways. This was cool. Bring em on, day or night and I could waste em!.

I was really getting tired of this crap but didn’t really know what to do. Well we could simply drive out and risk an ambush down the road a ways. We could just saddle up the critters and ride out but I wasn’t leaving another Dodge truck plus it was our home.

I spent all day sleeping and thinking and came up with a plan sorta. If these people really wanted a piece of our ass then let them come.

I talked it over with Sandy and she agreed with my plan saying she was tired of the view here and wanted to get on with our vacation.

My plan was real simple. We would call Charley and stay on the air long enough to get fixed. I figured they would come at night and we owned the night. Well a small part of it.

The plan was for me to head out into the night when we knew they were coming and find a place to lay low. Sandy would stay on top of our hill. She had a ace in the hole. A bunch of flares and a launcher, all Milspec.

When I clicked my radio she would pop a flare overhead lighting things up enough to give her targets but dim enough to hopefully not bother the night sight.

It wasn’t the best plan but it was what we had and I figured we could do a lot of damage in a very short time. We spent the afternoon getting our gear laid out. Sandy had her flares and launcher all set.

I took a walk out a ways and looked back at the hill then walked all the way around it. I found no place where anybody would have the cover to sneak up close.

We were as ready as we could be so I fired up the big radio and called Charley.

It took a while but that was fine. At last we got a reply from one of his people who said Charley would call us back in a bit. I signed off and waited and shortly Charley called. I told him we had been holed up and that we had seen the town people looking for us.

He said maybe we should just make a run for it, I agreed and said we would wait here thru the night and roll out in the morning. I told him we had been doing some salvage work and it was going pretty good if a person valued gold and guns.

After about 10 minutes of chatter we signed off and had dinner and I loaded up with my camelback and my chest rig loaded with mags for the M-16 I would take with me. My 308 and 100 rounds topped out the load and I headed out into the open country to the side of the hill.

I wanted Sandy to have a clear field of fire while I moved around. We worked up a simple way for her to know where I was at all times. We designated the road right in front of the hill as 12 and the area behind the hill as 6 that made it simple.

If I moved from say 9 to 11 I just had to say 11 and she would not fire that way.

Yea I know.. Shit happens but that’s the way it goes. Can’t make an omelet till ya steal some eggs. or something like that.

It was chilly out in the open so I hunkered down behind a small mound of rocks and wrapped up in my poncho liner and waited. And waited some more. The night became the longest one I could remember. And then they were here.

Just like that I heard vehicles moving very slow and then stop. I clicked the radio three times and heard a click back in my earpiece. I lit up the Eotech and the night sight and did a slow scan. I could see several vehicles and a lot of people moving out toward the hill.

I had a moment of fear for Sandy but shook it off she was tougher then an old boot and more dangerous then a wounded Cape Buffalo. I should be worrying about my old ass. What in the hell was I doing out here? Having fun if you really wanna know. I wouldn’t trade this moment for anything.

As close as I could count there was about 15 shapes slowly creeping toward the hill. I scanned the shapes but couldn’t pick out one that might be Maude. I scanned the area where their vehicles were parked. And there she was.

She was staying back while her people did the deed, Well I was gonna change that plan. I waited knowing Molly and Walker would open up when they smelled or heard these people.

And good ol Molly came thru followed by Walker. They barked, Sandy fired a flare and when it popped I popped Maude who just dropped.

Did I feel bad shooting a woman? Yes I did for about 2 seconds. She had plans for us and for all I know we were gonna be dinner.

I came back to reality hearing the roar of a lot of guns going off. I got back to business. Sandy’s flare had lit them enough for her to take some of them down. I clicked and said 10 then I went to work.

It really wasn’t sporting but WTF, war never is. These people came here to kill us. Dance with the devil you gotta play the fiddler. Or some such shit.

I put the green dot on the glowing shape closest to me and tapped the trigger and he dropped, and then another one until they started looking around wondering where their friends were.

The flares were still popping when they figured out there was something out here in the night with them and it wasn’t warm and cuddly. Some were moving back toward their leader and the vehicles which wasn’t gonna work out to well for them.

I started with the one closest to the road and pop he was down, then the next one. Sandy was using the flares to great advantage by cleaning up the stragglers.  None of them made it to their rides.

I hunkered down and waited and listened and soon heard the sounds of somebody breathing and a sliding sound. It sounded like a wounded person dragging their way out of the fight.

Pretty soon it stopped and I heard a gurgling sound, then nothing. I still didn’t move. I was in no hurry at all. I did click my mike and got a reply. We waited. After about two hours it started getting light so I switched to the M-16 and when I could see ok I moved forward toward the road.

My ear piece clicked then her voice asked me if I was ok, I said I was fine. She said good because I had been getting shot a lot lately.

Everybody is a fkn comedian. I raised my right arm and extended my middle finger. She laughed and asked if that was my age, IQ or a promise?

I reached the road and found Maude laying there still alive but time was leaking out. I looked at her then knelt down and gave her some water. She just stared at me with hate in her eyes. I asked her why and her last words were “fuck you”. Then she was gone. A nasty bitter woman who had wanted me and Sandy dead for no reason that I knew of.

This trip started with a shooting and it looked like it was gonna keep up if something didn’t change. I wondered when it would all start to weigh down my soul. But it was a small thought and was gone.

Sandy and I were just two reasonably decent people who were willing to live peaceful if folks would let us. But we weren’t gonna sit still when somebody wanted to bring harm to us.

If more good people had gotten trained and carried guns and defended themselves the prisons wouldn’t be so crowded and so many good folks wouldn’t have suffered at the hands of trash.

I looked down at Maude and shoot my head. Why did she end up here in the dirt bled out? She could have done things different and helped so many people by rebuilding the area.

Sandy was headed my way so I met her half way and we just held each other. Finely she asked how it was that we seemed to always do so well even when faced with great odds. I said it was because I was a great warrior and planner.

Pretty women should not use language like that.

I think it was because all the people we had trouble with were over confident and they brought the trouble and we were prepared for it. Like here, we thought it out, made our plan and prepared for it then did what was needed.

My ol Granpappy always said never start a fight with two people if ya only have one bullet, he  was a smart ol coot. I hope he would be proud of me for surviving this long.

We were just finished loading the animals and about to head out when we heard the sounds of vehicles coming fast. We both said “Shit” at the same time and grabbing our rifles and dump bags of magazines ran up the hill. We had just gotten into the hole when we saw three vehicles sliding to a stop in a huge cloud of dust. When it settled we saw Humvees with machine guns mounted.

I was thinking well crap we are done when Sandy said that’s Joe! And Willy! We stood up and waved, they waved back and headed our way checking over the dead laying scattered all over the place. We met them half way and got hugs and back slaps from everybody.

After the Hummers were driven to our camp Joe told his people to gather up all the weapons laying out there as well as anything that was of use.

Sandy got the big coffee pot going in the camper while Joe, Willy and I sat down in the lawn chairs we use when we stay in one place a while.

I told them everything that had happened since we left their place which was mostly peaceful until we ran into Maude and her bunch.

Joe said they had stopped by the little cross roads village and found it deserted. It looked like the people there had just packed up and moved on in the days since we were there. I’m very confused about this whole thing.

Who were these people? Where did they come from, where did they go? Why was there leader so hell bent on finding us and killing us? Were they just a roving band of people looking for places to raid? Where they part of the New Mexico Creeps that got away or had branched off?

The entire country was a complete mess with different groups forming like tribes. With all the suspicion and paranoia that comes from living in a tribe mentality?

I finally thought to ask how they happened along when they did knowing damn well Charley had contacted them. They both admitted that was the case. Charley told them we had stepped into something rotten and we really weren’t that far from the canyon group.

I was really feeling bad about them busting ass to find us when it wasn’t all that bad. But it sure could have gone south on us if we hadn’t had gear most folks don’t. The night vision gear as well as the suppressor made the difference. Such tools are a force multiplier most people didn’t have and once again it saved our butts.

We knew someplace further down the road Maude’s bunch had a lookout posted but we would never find them so we didn’t bother looking.

We told the guys about mining for anything we could find that would be of use in the future. I did say I kind of felt like we were robbing the dead but then again we had just stripped anything useful off Maude’s dead so what’s the difference?

We showed them the weapons we recovered from the pawnshop/trading post. All were high dollar stuff. Not military stuff but how long before weapons like these would be built again.

Also the Navajo jeweler. Both agreed that Charley might well recognize some of it and who it belonged to. Pawning their hand made silver jewelry wasn’t uncommon among the people to fill in gaps when short of money. But they generally always recovered it.

We talked about the idea of doing salvage runs to gather needed items before it was worthless due to weather of just plain stupid vandalism. Take window glass, how long before somebody could make it again?

I think in truth we were all kind of restless and bored stiff with farming. Joe and Willy both admitted they were ready for some adventure now that the lake people were all living in harmony and looked to remain so.

Looking around at us all Sandy burst out laughing and said if mankind is waiting for you guys to rebuild civilization they are up shit creek without a paddle ! But, she added I’m all for it!

We spent the rest of the day dragging the dead out into the open country where we found a gully to dump them into and kind of caved the bank down onto them.

Back at camp we talked and planned how to get the “Mining” going. We salved our consciences by calling it that instead of scavenging. What’s in a name ? A lot!!

First we would need to figure out how many people we needed and what kind of transport to haul the stuff we were sending back to the storage area in the canyons on Navajo lands. The desert is a good place to store stuff because of lack of rain and humidity.

We were acting like a bunch of kids going on our first snipe hunt and it was fun! I realized how much we had missed these friends. I was hoping Charley might go but the people had some heavy beliefs when it came to the dead so I wasn’t sure.

We decided that we would return to the canyon and leave the livestock there but we would keep the trailer for hauling recovered stuff. It would take a while to gather the people and equipment we had gotten at the air base.

We also had to plan for meeting folks who weren’t peaceful or who might resent us hauling off things they didn’t want but regarded as theirs. So we made a list of things to be done then split it up between all of us.

The next day we headed back to the canyon all excited about the new plans. By the time we arrived there Charley had arrived with several of his young men and women.

We laid out the plan to him and he was all for it. As to the tribal taboos he said the young people had grown away from the old beliefs and as for him he knew enough to keep him safe until he could get back to get a cleansing ceremony.

We figured we could find the tools we would need in any decent size town so we just needed to gather the transport and weapons. I figured we would be rolling into some bigger cities and God alone knew what we would meet up with.

Somehow I knew this would become something more then a salvaging trip so we would really need to be prepared for trouble of all kinds.

We were like kids around the Christmas tree! Talk about excitement , last time we were together we were stamping out a living horror, this was not on that level. And I hoped it wouldn’t turn into something like that.

After we talked it over and made and compared lists we put out the call to our former team to come along if they desired. We decided it might be smart to haul a Bradley on a flat bed and as many of the big 6x6 trucks as we might need.

We asked the drivers to head back to the base and get the trucks ready and we figured on at least one tanker truck . This was turning into a military campaign but we wanted to be safe and have to horse power to insure it.

Two weeks later the trucks and people started rolling in and all looked very happy. I knew the feeling, once you tasted the freedom of adventure it stayed with you.

When everybody was here we made sure everything we needed was here now. We might not be able to replace things that broke down.

We had decided to leave the truck and the trailer in the canyon along with Molly who was having a great time playing with all the kids.

Walker on the other hand made it plain he was coming as were his mother and father.

It was now time to move out, the route was planned, the scout units were already to take the lead. We were loaded for bear but had brought several tons of MRE’s to pass out to any who were in need.

We hade an entire field mess hall and the cooks to run it and the man power to get it set up and running. We were just going to head out and check every town along the way. If there were people there we would offer help if they had needs we could fill.

We also had people who could operate the high tech metal cutting gear we had acquired. No more spending hours grinding the tops off of safes. This equipment could cut like butter but not set fire to the contents of the safes and vaults we would find.

It was August first when I looked back down the line of vehicles with all the drivers standing tall beside their trucks and hummers. Gunners were standing by their guns. And just for shits and grins I raised my arm and making a winding motion I Bellowed out in my best John Wayne voice.

Forewardddddd Hoooooooooooooo!!!!!

Yes there will be another Road book, I’m so into these folks I feel like they are friends. I’m still amazed when I read what I’ve writen and can not believe I did it. Sadly it makes me think I wasted so many years when I could have been doing this. But today is what we have as there is no guarantee there will be a tomorrow.

So I’ll see yawl down the road a piece when Sandy and John and Walker head into the wilds of a dead America.

TJ