A long Lonely Road

A Dish Best Served Cold

Book nine

By TJ Reeder

Have you ever had a nightmare so bad you wanted to scream? A nightmare you can’t wake from? That won’t release it’s grip on your heart?

    That’s where I am, I see flashes of bad things, things that are breaking my heart but I can’t escape this fkn nightmare.

     I keep seeing the same scene as if on a video loop and it’s killing me.

It’s a beautiful day and I decided to take a ride since we haven’t ridden since Vegas and that was just too long, Buck and his clan were starting to think retirement had come. So I broached the idea to the ladies and it was greeted with squeals of delight and hugs, which are a good thing!

So after breakfast we headed for the box canyon we used for a corral where we found Buck, Rab and the “Horse with no name” waiting as if they knew, hell maybe they did, who knows, life is a mystery and always has been and who are we to solve it? Not me, I don’t care enough to care.

After we had them saddled we stopped at the

Cave as I call it and loaded the stuff we took as we would a BOB. Saddle guns, over night gear and some food and water. The plan was to just have a nice day trip but to be prepared to be out over night, common sense even if the world wasn’t in melt down.

    We spent the best part of the day just riding and looking and feeling the easing of tensions that being on a horse will bring. Riding is better then all the Prozac ever made. We stopped often just to look across the land which with the rains that came had turned green for a while, it was beautiful.

We were hading back home and on a trail that cut off some miles when something spooked Buck causing him to toss his head and jerk to the left. The next thing I knew blood was flying off Bucks head and he was rearing up! As we went over my last sight was Beth falling off her horse, her chest covered with blood. Buck and I hit the ground and everything went black but I could hear gun fire as if thru a long dark tunnel then nothing.

    This dream was the cause of my breaking heart, and I couldn’t wake up. I thrashed and thought I was yelling for Beth but she never came. I called Sandy and May and heard them from afar, they too were in the long black tunnel and I couldn’t find them.

I make a promise that if I can wake up I’ll never sleep again, silly huh? I felt hands grabbing at me in the dark and I was filled with fear.

I tried to fight but I was being held down, I couldn’t move my arms, I had a lot of bad dreams after the war but never like this. At last I felt hands on my face and a wet cloth, thank god, somebody was trying to help me.

    I heard Sandy and May both saying “Wake up John!!” like they always do when I nap, and usually waking up involves bailing them out of their latest problem.

    I heard a mans voice, one I know, but I can’t place it. He’s telling me I need to wake up, well shit! Really dude? Like I’m stuck in the fkn black tunnel because I wanna be? I should wake up so I can slug the silly bastard!

The voice calmly says. John, Beth is fine, Buck is fine, And John, The Baby is just fine. I sat up and fell back but my eyes were open, I could tell I was in a darkened room with just a bit of light.

    I looked at the man leaning over me and said “Hey Doc, how’s it hanging? I smiled and said what a fucked up nightmare! He smiled back and said John, what did I just say to you? I had to think for a moment and feeling very proud I repeated it to him, then I stopped smiling and said Doc? It wasn’t a nightmare was it?

    He said no John, you got a very bad concussion when Buck went over on you, lady luck was with all of you.

Then his words hit me, Buck and Beth were ok? That means there weren’t ok before they got ok.

    Then his other words hit me.

BABY? What baby? We didn’t have a baby! He looked at me and smiled and said well no shit you old fart, but congratulations John, in about six months you will have a baby. I was confused, where was I gonna get a baby? I saw the girls standing behind the Doc and held my arms up and they gently hugged me, not at all like the dog pile I was used to.

I asked where Beth was and they pointed to the bed next to mine and there she was! All smiles and wrapped in bandages around her chest. I tried to jump up but the room got drunk and spun away. When it settled down I asked for food and water and then said ok, somebody tell me what the hells going on.

Sandy spoke up first telling me that just as Buck spooked and turned a bit a rifle bullet passed thru his ear, missed me and hit Beth! I looked at her still smiling and reaching her hand out to me, I reached out and took it. I asked if she was really ok? She said yes but she needed a new pistol, I must have looked lost so Sandy opened a drawer by the bed and pulled out Beth’s STI 10 mm, the slide was bent and had a bullet sticking part way from it!. I looked at her and the doc spoke up saying the wounds were from the metal splatter from the impact, all shallow cuts that bled a lot. She has a big bruise but was ok otherwise.

    I asked the girls where we were getting a baby? They both lit up and made the Ta Da thing with their hands at Beth. Looking at her I said where are you getting a baby? She smiled the most beautiful smile and said “from the usual place John” I’m slow, even without a concussion I’m slow and it took a bit laying there looking at all three of my wives all radiant and happy looking.

Then it hit me! My mouth fell open and I was making some kind of sounds that sounded like Ba BA Ba BA!!! All three nodded and smiled even bigger.

    I still had Beth’s hand and looked at her and asked the age old question… A baby? She nodded. You’re gonna have a baby? She nodded. How did that happen? They all laughed, even the Doc thought it was funny.

    I fell asleep or passed out for a bit, then my eyes popped open and I bellered “ A Baby? We are having a baby? When? Who’s is it? Beth was still smiling and said well John I guess it’s yours since you’re the only man I‘ve been with since my husband was killed, so yes love we are having a baby.

    Sandy and May were bouncing like balls, they looked like they were having the baby, but then of course in a way they were. I was too shocked to think.

    I’m too old to have a baby! How will I support a baby? The girls went to the other side of Beth’s bed and pushed it against mine so Beth and I were close together. Dizzy or not I managed to raise up and kiss her then hugged her then the girls who were on the beds with us. Doc was just smiling.

    After that I fell asleep for real, and no dreams. I slept for ten hours according to the nurse lady who was there when I woke up, I was hit with several emotions all at once, I knew I was starving, I knew I needed to take a leak really bad, and I looked at Beth who was sleeping with a smile on her face and her hand wrapped tightly in mine.

    I just laid there for a long time watching her and wondering how in the world I had managed to make her pregnant? I’m old, really old and tired and hard to live with and …old, too old to be having kids. But it looks like I’m not as old as I thought. But was this the world to bring kids into? Couldn’t be any worse then the ones brought into the  middle of a world war.

    Whatever, it was what it was so I’d deal with it as always, one step at a time. I watched Beth breathing, looking for any sign that things weren’t right. I trust Doc but I believe in trust but verify.

    She looked beautiful laying there and her smile was so sweet. I sensed motion behind me and looked in time to see the girls tiptoeing into the room, both stepped out of their shoes and like cats just flowed onto the bed and curled up with me. All of us watching Beth sleep, they were smiling softly and almost purring.

    The look on their faces it was like self Congratulations, and I suddenly  wondered if they had set this whole thing in motion? And like clock work both sets of eyes swiveled to meet mine and both smiled like a cat with feathers sticking out of it’s mouth.

    And I knew right then and there that both of them had conspired to bring a small bundle of joy(??) into our lives and it explained the bigger house. I looked at them and wondered if Beth was in on it or was innocent? And both simply shook their heads “no”.

    I didn’t know if I should beat them or hug them but from the look on Beth’s face I knew the answer. Our own warm, kind, sweet spirit of peace and love was going to bring something to our family that was lacking, even if I didn’t know it. So I took the chicken way out and hugged them both to me.

Someplace in there we went to sleep, all four of us together as it should be. When I next woke I was alone in my bed and still holding Beth’s hand, she was watching me sleep and smiled when I opened my eyes, then her smile failed and her lips quivered so I dragged myself close to her and just held her close while she softly cried, when she stopped I kissed her tears away and said so you’re making me a Dad? She said nope, you’re making me a mom! We both laughed and then the Doc came in and said hell I think I’ll kick you both out this morning.

    He checked my eyes and everything else and pronounced me as ok as I was gonna get then checked Beth and said she was fine. The door opened and the girls came in with clean clothes so Doc left us alone while we got us up and dressed.

    In a few minutes walk we were home and I was ready for bed again but just plopped down on the slab bench I call the stump and sat. The girls all went inside and soon were giggling and carrying on like a bunch of teenage girls or at least what I assumed teen girls would sound like.

    I looked up and saw Charley walking toward me but he stopped and made a hand motion so I walked to him and we headed for a more private area. After we were seated he asked what I knew about the events after I was knocked out and that was nothing, I was aware that nobody was talking about it and figured they were hiding something. But I figured it could wait a while.

    Charley said he had gone over the area with a fine toothed comb along with his best scouts, he read it like this.

    The shooters had come into the area from a southerly route, moving at night and laying up during the day. My first question was to ask if we had just been unlucky? He said no, these people were sent in here to kill you. I thought a moment and said how did they find us out there? He said pure dumb luck on their part. They were infiltrating into our area and we rode up on them causing them to jump the gun so to speak.

    He said he found where Buck had spooked and that it had been Walker who alerted to the danger and had leaped in front of Buck as he raced to the point of the attack.

  When Buck jerked he moved his head into the area in front of mine and I slipped to the right. The bullet intended for my head hit bucks ear spraying me with blood and when we went over backwards I hit the ground and it looked like I was dead.

    Beth fell at the same time and the girls had opened up with their 45’s so fast they had the shooter and his team ducking, before they could regain the momentum the girls had charged right at them with their rifles and just hosed the shit out of them.

Charley said they killed three of the hit team but two got away, first on foot then onto horses and rode them nearly to death getting out of there. The girls had dropped the chase and headed for Beth and me.

    They saw right away that Beth was ok just some splatter cuts but they knew I was in bad trouble so May took off riding for the canyon while Sandy stood guard.

    When May got to the canyon Ralph bailed into the chopper and May jumped in with the Doc and they flew out to the scene. After checking both of us Doc got us loaded in the bird and leaving the girls to gather the stock they flew us back to the canyon and Doc’s mobile hospital.

    Surprising me the girls after stripping the bodies of anything they had on them they headed back instead of trying to run down the two who got away. They were all five Mexicans and not really very good at their job except for the main shooter who got away with one other.

    Charley got word right away and within minutes had people on the way to the scene to start tracking the runners while others scattered out across the country on roads and high points waiting and watching.

    I was surprised to find out that I was out for three days! So the bastards had gotten away I said. Charley smiled and said no, they think they have, but we have them spotted and can shut them down whenever you say the word.

    He added that he figured I would want to know where they were running to and who they were reporting to. He was right but I think we both knew who was behind it.

    We sat quietly for a while until I had a thought, I asked if there was any way we could get ahead of them and get close to the border and wait for them to get there. I knew who sent them and he was a dead man walking. And if I had a chance he wouldn’t die real quick, trying for me was fair but Beth? No fucking way, for that he was gonna die slow. Charley knew what I was thinking and said John, you know Beth got hit with a bullet meant for you. I agreed but wasn’t gonna back off so he just said ok, lets get with it if you are ready.

    I thought for a bit and said ok, here’s the rub, I don’t want any of the girls involved. He smiled and said good luck. But I was not letting them get into this one, it was all mine. After talking it over we decided I’d lay back for a day or so and when they girls were up on the ridge beating the building crew to go faster coz they needed a nursery, I would simply drive off in the truck and meet up with Charley who would have one of his lads drive the truck back and hopefully get away before being tortured to death for what he knew.

    Charley and I would then take his truck and head

south, me with the old hat on and with my beard I had growing since we left for the ride. Charley had everything we would need at his place and would be loaded when we met up.

    Now to clear my mind of the details because I still believe they can hear me think. Yea I know, it’s crazy but there is no other explanation for it.

    So I was gonna work on only thinking about the coming addition to the family. Which I admit is really filling my head. I’m scared and thrilled and worried because I remember people saying women past their 30’s might not ought to have babies or some such crap. I guess if Doc and all three of the ladies weren’t worried what was I worrying about? Fk it, I have the right to worry. It’s my job! And I give great worry.

    Charley headed out after we agreed on when and where, he did remind me that I was gonna be in really deep shit over this, but I wasn’t gonna let them chance getting hurt. I’m the head of the family and I’m the one who’s the boss…Well that might be a stretch but I’ll still stand on it.

    I got back and had just sat down on the stump when they came out and dragged me inside for a nap. I had no complaints. We had dinner on the bum and made the rounds to all the cook fires where Beth was the queen of the canyon and I was sorta tolerated. Well not really. But I like to take on the mantle of abused. Now they are laughing at me. I think real hard about the baby. Beth leaned over and said John, the baby will be fine, I will be fine, all’s well so stop worrying ok? I smile a weak smile wondering how she knew?

    As always dinner on the bum was awesome, if it swims in the canyon waters we eat it, the young hunters are having to work harder finding the rabbits everybody loves stewed. we made a rule that all hunting had to be at least a half mile from any of the living areas to create a safety area for us and the animals, I enjoy seeing the rabbits ducking from bush to bush as well as the deer slipping down to drink so with a safe area we can enjoy seeing them here and eating the ones from elsewhere. Simple. Well except the fish, they get no safety area.

    I’m still amazed at how the clan, tribe, bunch, family? have adapted to this life style, no hurrying off to a jib, no taxes, no keeping up with anybody. We were all healthy from living outside most of the time and more exercise, yet nobody was killing themselves working.

    I can imagine how it was for the Indians who lived here a thousand years ago, but they didn’t have a doctor with a complete mobile hospital and even a dentist.

    No we had the best of all worlds and I truly believe none of us would ever again want to live as we did before. The kids never mention stuff like TV or those games they played on the boob tube. We had kids reading and learning stuff several grades above their age bracket simply because nobody said “ You can’t” They learn at their own level.

    We had some young girls learning medicine from Doc.

Some learning how to rebuild an engine on vehicles they couldn’t even drive. Our motto is if you know it, teach it, if you wanna learn it go do it.

    Some of the older kids have taken up with the miners and are working on our home, learning how to make square rocks out of round rocks. How to make the concrete that lays between each level. They just want to know how and do it.

    Charley has sent some of his scouts over to take the kids who are interested out into the desert to learn to scout and survive. So I guess our school is pretty damn good but I’m sure the National Teachers association wouldn’t approve but in the words of my immortal old Gunnery Sgt., Fuck em if they can’t take a joke!

    I slowly got the gear I wanted to take out of the cave and into the truck, I warned the Mechs that one loose word would cause pain, they said “Shit, them girls gonna kick yer ass so bad you can’t hurt nobody” see? no respect! They all three headed up to the ridge and I was ready, before they were on the trail up to the top I was at the truck.

    I did leave a note saying I was sorry but I needed to do this and couldn’t do it and worry about them and that I loved them and would be back as soon as the job was done.

    Now I know the note won’t save me and won’t buy even a tiny bit of understanding, but I needed to do it.

    I fired up the truck and eased out and away and was gone. I also figured I had maybe a few hours before they would miss me. And that was all I needed.

    I met up with Charley within the hour and loaded my gear in his truck while one of his scouts climbed into my truck, he was smiling and said you two are so gonna get yer asses kicked when you come home and the entire people will be here to see it. And he was gone.

    I looked at Charley who said he’s right you know, and I’m a fool for getting involved in this, I pointed out that the old woman would protect him, that got me a head shake and the comment of “ No, she like them better then me so as you whites are fond of saying. We are good and well screwed”

    I’ve been in more then a couple of wars, small wars but still a war is a war and I’ve never had a dread of coming home, now it was there. But I was gonna live with it.

    We headed South on highway 491, and keeping in the cover of our role of a couple of old coots from the rez we just putted along at about 55 mph, ever watchful because this was rather strange country to us at least since the troubles hit.

    The people we were after had handled their job right, they used horses and stayed off the roads and out of sight but that also implied to us that they had a base camp close to the area simply because it was a long ride from the border to our canyon and I doubted they made that ride.

     I heard a garbled voice which caused Charley to reach under his seat and pull out a radio mic and start talking of course I didn’t understand a word of it. After putting it away he said the scouts were reporting the two runners had gone to ground in an old ranch house back in the rough country and that they had people there so it wasn’t gonna be as easy as we thought.

    I didn’t care, hard, easy, makes no never mind coz I’m ending this shit before I return home to face the girls. One fight at a time, this one I knew we could win, the one with “them”? not so.

    We drove on until late into the night until a light flashed from the side of the road where we pulled over and were surrounded by dark shapes, with the motor off and in the pitch blackness of a moonless night I listened to the scouts starting to report in their native

      Charley said English, and the head scout who was just a voice from the dark said “Sorry John” I said it’s fine go on.

    He said we were about five miles from the old ranch and everything was quiet there after a night of boozing and much laughter and bragging they all passed out, the scouts had gotten close enough to hear the two shooters bragging how they blew my head off and killed one of my “Puta’s” that one might take a while to die.

    I had been pretty calm and quiet ever since I woke up but deep inside me was a burning fire that was about to rage out of control, I’ve never been a hater nor one to even think about inflicting pain on another human, kill them? Hell yes but that’s war, torture is a different thing but if it gets me what I want I’ll personally pull their finger nails off with red hot pliers one at a time. Did I mention I was angry?

    We drove the truck slowly over the old washed out path leading to the old ranch house but got only about a mile from the highway before we had to get out and mount up on the horses the scouts had with them. Charley thinks of everything. How the white man ever took their land is beyond me.

    Riding in the dark can be interesting in the Mountains where there are tree limbs just waiting for you to forget to keep your head down, out here is was rather beautiful with only the stars to see by but the ride ended soon enough and we were walking in to our positions.

    I had brought my 308 with the can plus the Ruger 10-22 with it’s can, that and my 45 and knife was it. Charlie’s  lads were armed for just about anything.

    The plan was simple, we would wait until we could see and then ease in and take them out. Or at least the ones we had to, I wanted talkers.

    These fools didn’t even have sentry’s out! Some sleeping by the fire and some in the old house, the barn had fallen in and I doubted any were sleeping there. The scouts had reported only ten people here and with the two we wanted that made twelve and I could see at least six by the fire.

    I whispered to Charley asking how he wanted to do it, he took the 10-22 and gave it to one of his lads and whispered something to him, he smiled in a very wolfish way and was gone. I next saw him by the fire shooting the sleepers in the head, I couldn’t even hear the bolt rattle on the rifle and knew he was holding it shut when he fired. I watched this young man snuff out six people like it was nothing and I guess to him it wasn’t.

    They all knew Beth and her getting shot was a matter of grave importance to them because they believed they had some how failed by allowing strangers to infiltrate into their home unseen.

    I told Charley I didn’t agree but he said it didn’t matter what I thought it mattered that they felt it was a matter of honor to end this problem and leave a message to stay out of Navajo country.

    I couldn’t argue with their logic. I felt like I had taken my family right into an ambush and even Walker had been slow picking up the danger, but he had saved my life when he scared Buck so I owed him big time, shit I might start being nice to him, Charley quietly laughed. Shit now he’s reading my mind. He sighed.

    After the six by the fire were out of the picture the rest of the scouts just seemed to lift from the earth and like shadows flitting across my vision they were gone. I started to jump up but Charley stopped me and said wait. Shortly a small light flashed from the dark and he said ok lets go and simply walked right in.

    The house was really trashed and inside we found six men on their knees with their hands on top of their heads, all looked like they were seeing a dark pit in front of them, I guess in a way they were.

    Charley pointed out two of the men and said they are the shooters who got away. Both jerked their heads up and looked at me and I swear they turned white.

    One made a moaning sound while the other tried to cross himself and was rewarded with a rifle butt tap to his head. I just stood there looking at them for a bit then said separate them all well away from each other, put blindfolds on them and plug their ears with something and strip them.

    This was done in quick order and Charley and I started asking questions, when your naked, kneeling on rocks and have a blindfold over your eyes you have a come to Jesus moment and all these ol boys were finding God pretty fast, every time one tried to make the sign of the cross he was smacked with a rifle butt, no asking for forgiveness in this church.

    All I wanted was a name and a location for the mystery man who had evaded me and caused this whole mess. The first man knew nothing and it was obvious, he was just a gun thug along for the food and any loot he could find. Charley said something to his men and they tied the man while one of them fired a rifle shot into the dirt, we left the man shaking and pissing himself but unharmed.

  It went that way until we got to the third hired man who gave us a name,  El Gato Negro. Of course, The Black Cat, uh huh, gonna be the dead black cat soon enough. But he didn’t know where to find the man, he too was “executed” so to speak. The forth man gave the same name and told us the man was hold up near the town of Twin Lakes which is a Navajo town, this surprised me.

    But if he was keeping his head down and not hurting anybody I guess the people would leave him alone. After “shooting” this guy we got to the two we had been chasing.

    We asked them the same questions and got the same answers but a more precise location for the one I wanted.

    After we had pumped them dry I had them stood up and their blind folds removed. Both stood there blinking in the bright sun light. Both were sorry examples of humanity, also one had been clipped with a bullet. I was so proud of my wives, they had charged into an ambush with guns blazing and took out three men and clipped one more and I’ve no doubt would have killed these two but for worry about Beth and me.

    I just looked at them and tried to work up to just shooting them out of hand but I just couldn’t, they deserved a nasty end but just shooting them seemed to easy. One of Charles men spoke up and that started a long discussion which I didn’t follow but I believed it was more to confuse the prisoners then me.

    Charley took me aside and said his man had a really good idea, we drop them off naked, alone and with only a canteen of water each out in an area with no people, blindfolded until they were tossed out of the trucks.. If they had their shit together they might make it.

    I said I was fine with it as long as there was no good folks living within miles of the drop off point. Plus we could drop them close enough that they would maybe find each other and fight over the water. I liked it.

    As soon as it was dark we did just that, we dropped them about half a mile apart in the dark with one canteen each and then we drove on into the dark and drove in circles just to confuse them more. I think Charley felt better and I know I did. They could survive if they used their heads, but therein lay the problem facing them.

    Now all we needed to do was locate the Cat and finish his nine lives. And I wanted that task for myself. As my old grandpa said Revenge is a dish best served cold. In other words don’t rush in all heated up, ease in slow and get the job done.

    We gathered back at the old ranch house and loaded up everything usable to us, we took their horses and vehicles with us. We left nothing for them if they made it back here.

    Charley had sent a couple of his men into Twin lakes to see what they could find out about strangers in the area. We met up with them several miles from the town which was almost empty because the people were heading into the canyon lands where it was safer with the coming sickness.

   But they said some of the younger boys had seen signs of people in a canyon several miles out in the dry country where there was a spring. The didn’t go look as it wasn’t smart these days but they were willing to show us. Couldn’t be better! For us, not so good for the cat.

    I was a bit worried that this could be a trap to draw us in since this was Navajo land and not the best place to hide.

    We rolled into the small town and were greeted by the few folks left, Charley went to talk to them and returned to say as soon as we were done these people would leave with us for the canyons.

    Charley sent five of his scouts with the boys who reported seeing the signs of movement, they would learn what  they could and report back. We had nothing to do so we just rested and cleaned weapons and waited. It was dark by the time they returned, three of the scouts stayed behind to observe.

    The two that returned reported a camp of around fifty men, all heavily armed with HV’s with machine guns mounted. They also said these people weren’t slack like the ones we took out, they had people out and weren’t making any smoke. Just waiting.

    They reported seeing a big Black man who was clearly in charge and was doing a lot of pacing. I had to wonder why he was so restless, the people we took out had no commo gear so he couldn’t be expecting to hear that way. It was something to ponder along with how we were gonna handle such a large force. And frankly we were out gunned by a lot.

    We talked about it from every side of the picture we could but could find nothing to get our teeth into. We laid out our bed rolls and went to sleep, And in the night I had a dream where my old gunny was talking about how when your looking at your enemy and he’s doing something that don’t make sense then there is something you’re missing so hunker down and wait a bit while looking for the logic of it all.

    Time is always on the side of the one who takes his time, well most always.

    I woke up fuzzy for a bit and laid there thinking and it came to me that it was a set up, the whole thing, he sent those fools in to draw me out with no thought that they might get lucky and get me. And we did just what he thought we would.

    He left the bait out for us at the old ranch and expected us to kill them getting information out of them, Why else would he tell low level people where he would be?

    I sure wouldn’t, nor would anybody I knew of so it is a trap! And for all I know we might be about to get hit. I whispered to Charley who was also awake and within minutes we had all the others awake and in place to meet a dawn attack. We were in a bad spot. Really bad. We could load up and run for it but if we were right they would have the roads blocked.

    We quietly pulled back into the town to the concrete block building the Feds built as a community hall of sorts. We got the people still in town gathered and filling anything they could find with water. We did an inventory of our ammo and weapons, we had gathered all the stuff we took from the bait crew and while it wasn’t a lot it beat the hell out of nothing.

    Charley got the people gathering anything they could fill with sand to build bunkers inside the hall, the block had concrete and steel in it but a machine gun could just saw thru it if they had the ammo. Better yet there was an inner room that was also reinforced blocks with a heavy door, I asked if they had tornados here in this area, Charley said when the gov did something they used one set of plans for everywhere. We now had a place for the old folks to be safe. Of course all the men were planning to fight and we had the weapons so WTF.

    Of course this might all be for nothing but I didn’t believe that for a minute. One thing I planned to do was be outside with my 308 and the can on it.

    I figured I could do more good there then inside. After thinking about it we decided we would meet them outside and when forced to we could withdraw to the hall. I like this better. So we eased out into the dark and into whatever we could find for cover with our ammo and water.

     I found my spot on a small hump that was trying to be a hill but not doing so well at it. We did keep the shooters in pairs so there would be cover fire at a flanking movement. I dug out a small trench and pushed the sand up in front of it with a thick bush right in front of it, the best I could do.

     I saw Charley head for the truck and figured he had remembered the extra ammo we had in there. Plus a bag with a dozen grenades from the girls stash, if a thousand grenades is a stash.

    I’d kill for one of Beth’s 50 cal. Barrett’s and a few hundred rounds of ammo, I think I hear my Grandpa whispering in my ear about rushing into things.

   Dying here in this place will piss me off to no end, getting Charley or his people killed will wilt my soul, I’m so pissed at myself I could just scream. Not seeing my baby coming into the world will surely rip my very being wherever it goes. Ok so I’m being a bit dramatic, I got my best friend in the world into this shit and I’m pissed.

    We were as set up as we could be and could only wait to see if we were right or wrong. I was hoping for wrong but think right will be the answer.

    And I can hear the sound of HV’s heading this way at speed. Charley eased in beside me for a moment before he would move to my rear. We watched as three HV’s roared into the town with guns ripping apart the small thin walled houses. We were not going to return fire until I gave the word and that would be hopefully when I had a shot at the Cat.

    The HV’s tore thru town and looped back still sawing the houses apart. It was a few minutes before they slowed down and started looking things over, Shortly another HV rolled in and there he was, the big man himself, stepping out of his HV. Only I had no shot, he was tall but he had others taller all around him, smart move!

    After looking around they finally spotted the meeting hall and opened up on it, the FMJ bullets were just eating thru the walls and that wasn’t gonna work so I shot one of the gunners thru the head , worked the bolt and shot the next one then the third one, when the guns all stopped it took a moment for them to realize they were being shot at, Charley and his people opened up and dropped everyone they could see. I shot out the tires of the HV’s including the one the boss man came in. He was hunkered down behind his and the one next to it leaving no clear shot but I kept the cross hairs on the area waiting for a target which didn’t take long, he shoved one of the drivers out into the open to draw fire, it did but not from me. I was now listening to Grandpa. Wait and them wait some more.

    I could hear more vehicles coming in the distance and figured his ground troops were almost here. I eased back from my hide and with Charley following headed around to the area where the troops would likely unload. I was now wishing I had brought my AR 10 for the greater fire power.

    Charles lads were still keeping the enemies heads down which was good but I wish a few were on the side like us, the incoming troops were going to be fish in a barrel for a bit. But Charley and I would do what we could.

    And they were here, four 6x’s with at least 20 to the truck. I made the decision to stop them as far out as possible so I shot the driver of the front truck and then the next one, both trucks rolled forward and ended up hitting the edge of the road causing one to flip on it’s side and the other on rammed it. The rest of the drivers were slamming on their breaks so I shot them as fast as I could work the bolt.

    The Cats troops were here but were a hundred yards or more out in open ground with nothing for cover but the trucks and they were no good to him out there. We had separated the leader from his troops and now we had to try to finish them.

    I felt Charley ease away and move to my right using all the cover he could find, I fired at any of the men behind the trucks that showed anything to shoot at. I figured a blown up elbow of foot was as good as a head shot.

    I really didn’t know what Charley was up to until I saw something fly thru the air and roll under a truck and out the other side and blow up.

     God I’m glad the girls stole a ton of them, I only wish I had brought a few hundred of them.

   That caused panic to set in and they were running, most throwing down their weapons to run faster. I turned my attention to the leader trapped between the HV’s. I watched one of them trying to sneak into the gun turret and shot him as soon as his head was in sight. On that note they took off running for it.

    Most weren’t making it very far, it wasn’t a fight it was more of a gopher hunt. I still hadn’t seen their leader running for it and that bothered me. With nothing to back it up I called out to cease fire, it took a minute or two but then it went quiet. Charley rejoined me and asked why I called a cease fire? I didn’t know but this had been too easy and it had cost us a lot of our limited supply of ammo.

    I yelled out to the few hiding behind the HV’s to come out with their hands in the air, it took a minute or so but they started straggling out. Some of the scouts moved in a searched them then marched them away from the HV’s.

    Charley and I headed for them all the while my mind was elsewhere, something was wrong with this picture and it was driving me crazy.

    The leader was still unhurt as were the three men who had come out with him. He was tall and well built but he looked more like a street thug then a leader. I walked right up to him and asked him his name and got nothing.

    I jerked his shirt open and saw gang tats, this was not the real leader of the gangs, Capt. Harry had commented on his lack of tats since it was very unusual.

    I told him he had one chance to live and that was to answer my questions otherwise I was giving him to the Indians. That got his attention.

    I said first question…What is the main bosses name? He said El Gato Negro, I asked for his real name but the man didn’t know. Second question… What was the main plan? He said he didn’t know except the bossman had said something about fighting fire with fire. Third question… How long was he supposed to hold us here? He said his orders were to pin us in the town but to withdraw at least a mile by noon. Forth question…How did he contact the man? He pointed out his HV with a short antenna on the back. He added that all he was to do was click the mik 5 times when we were pinned down. Last question…when did  he click the mik? He said when they rolled in and thought we were pinned in the block hall building. I looked at my watch and it was 10:00 am.

    I started to tell Charley to get his men changing the tire on each HV but they were almost done, good men! They were also working on the trucks, In less then 30 minutes we were rolling out in every vehicle that was running, we torched the rest to make it look like the fight was still going on. And we ran for it, on the road and a few miles away. Then we scattered off the road, the men doing all they could to camo the rigs, brush and sand helped a lot.

We waited and right at 11:00  here came a large plane, it wasn’t a C-130 but it was pretty good size and it had a drop ramp on the back, I remember seeing one used by skydivers, so they could jump massed together. Out the back slid a strange bundle with a chute, I put the glasses on it and saw what looked like a pallet filled with GI jerry cans! Well Ol Cat Man is innovated for sure!

    But his jump master don’t know shit about dropping loads by chutes, he missed the town by half a mile and the load was just hitting the ground when it blew up. Pretty good blast but no Kewpie Doll.

     I had kept the fake leader with us and asked if the boss was in the airplane? He said no way, that the man wasn’t one to put himself in danger if he could avoid it at all. I also pointed out that the plane had arrived early meaning he wasn’t planning on his troops to survive the blast. He got that real fast and started cussing in Spanish, Good he was pissed and will now talk freely.

    I asked where the Real Cat was located and he asked for a map, after looking at it he pointed to Gallup NM, I couldn’t believe it! The asshole was only 15 miles away!

Charley asked if the Cat would be pissed that the people in the plane missed the town and we got to listen to the imposter telling us in very colorful language just how crazy he would get and that the plane would be coming back as soon as possible.

    Charley told him to get on his radio and make a real big deal about the bomb missing the whole place and that he was pissed about it coming early coz

his people would have been caught in the blast. He needed no prodding to sound angry and did his share of yelling at the man on the other end. Soon another voice came on and screamed at him to stop crying and tell him how far off the bomb had been

    Still sounding pissed he laid it on plus added that his people were keeping us pinned inside the meeting hall and we seemed to be low on ammo. The voice said to keep us pinned down and the plane would be back within the hour and shut down with nothing else.

    We knew the gang leader only had maybe twenty five shooters with him and without a thought we were going to take it to him. Charles men had changed the tires resulting in all the six-by’s but the roll over and all the HV’s three of which had guns mounted on them.

    With Charles people we had about twenty shooters. The elderly men of the town offered to come along but Charley asked them to drive two of the trucks with all their people and all their food supplies and necessities to Shiprock where they were to wait until we returned.

    With that handled we mounted up in the vehicles and were rolling. We needed to be there before the plane took off simply because they would see us coming and radio back to the boss man, and that wasn’t in my game plan.

    The former Cat said they boss traveled in a big black Suburban like some big shot government man, this wasn’t real good news because we had nothing that would go that fast so we needed to have a blocking force on the road south. We had four to an HV so that was twelve shooters, the rest were in one of the trucks. Simple, the truck was the blocking force. It would keep going south and set up a blockade in a low spot with no place to go. The rest of us were going to roll right in with all guns blazing. I was planning to kill the plane but Charley said Ralph might like it. Good idea.

    We made the fifteen miles in damn short order and as we came in the reformed gun thug told us if we sent somebody west on the interstate to the next off ramp and they came back on old route 66 while we kept going thru town till we hit 66 and turned west we would have them pinned at the airport, the only way the Catman could run was East into town or West on the one road. So that’s what we did, we sent one HV and the truck West on I-40 while we cut thru town and turned onto the old 66.

    We slowed until we figured the other team was heading at us and we rolled. We hot the airport and saw the activity near a hanger, the plane was being loaded again, we got within a quarter mile before being spotted and even then nobody moved for several minutes, Then a gunner on an HV opened up but missed us by a lot, our gunner didn’t miss, practice makes perfect!

    And there went the Black Burb! Hauling ass followed by an HV trying to keep up, we heard the Catman yelling over the radio and the reformed guy said he was ordering the HV to stay and fight us but they chose to turn off the road and head cross country. A burst from the second HV shredded their tires and ended the chase. We kept rolling but were losing ground fast we watched the Burb rollover a hill out of sight and then come flying back over the hill right at us.

    Our gunner opened fire and blew the front all to hell and with smoke and steam shooting out everywhere it left the road and rolled. I figured he got the driver. We rolled to a stop and just waited and soon enough the door was pushed open and a small black man wearing camo came out with his hands up, followed by a good looking young lady, and last but not least the boogie man himself.

    He was crawling out when I started walking at him and had turned just before I got there and was saying “I want a lawyer”  And I hit him with everything I had, with the heel of my right hand with fingers closed, right on his nose which splattered like a ripe tomato. Then I kicked him in the balls as hard as I could and when he hit the ground I treated his jaw like a football. I didn’t make the extra point but his jaw shattered, for good measure I stomped his kneecaps as hard as I could. All because he was 30 years younger and 50 pounds heavier then me, never fight fair. Charley rolled him over so he wouldn’t choke on his own blood, I woulda let the bastard drown in it.

    Just to make sure I asked our reformed Christian if this was the real cat or another fake, he said this was the one. I sat down in the shade of the HV breathing hard and dizzy, one of the scouts brought me some water and I poured some over my head then drank the rest.

    On the ground the ghost called The Cat was gagging and bleeding and still mumbling for a lawyer. I would hake kicked a rib thru his lungs but I would had to get up to do it so I just thought about it.

    Finally Charley told his men to pick the bastard up and cuff him. The one who was cuffing leaned down and listened for a moment and said “ you want me to call you a lawyer?” The Cats head went up and down and they young Navajo said well ok man, You’re a Lawyer, there feel better? I started laughing so hard I tossed up the water, then Charley started and soon we were all laughing, well all but the Cat, hard to laugh with a shattered jaw.

    Right then I heard something coming but was too tired to move, then it came into sight and was landing in a cloud of dust. The engine was shut down and the blades slowed and out of the dust cloud walked three women. Armed to the teeth and looking beautiful. I was so fucked.

    They stopped in front of me and just stood there and finally Sandy said, are you ok? I nodded and said for the moment causing Charles lads to start laughing, May looked at them and said you clowns aren’t out of the woods on this by any means, now they weren’t even smiling but were looking around for someplace they needed to be. As one they started to move but Beth said freeze right there. And they froze.

    I saw Ralph walking at me and I called him an ungrateful bastard to which he smiled real big and said well yes I am but my ass ain’t gonna get kicked! I pick my battles.

    Sandy said “Shut it Ralph” He still smiling said “yes Sir” and headed for his bird, chicken shit!

    Sandy looked at Charley and said something to which he nodded and answered her then nodded at the shithead on the ground.

    Sandy walked over to him and asked if he was ok! He mumbled and it sounded like lawyer, Sandy said soon sweetie you’ll be taken care of. She walked back to me and said John , really, are you ok? You look bad, I said I had a headache ever since Charley tossed the grenade under the truck, She looked at him and said who had the grenades? The rat pointed at me causing her to say “You blew up a truck with our grenades? And didn’t invite us? You’re a special kind of dumb ain’t ya?

    Then she started laughing along with the other two and were on their knees hugging me. They helped me up and let me lean against the HV where I got my first good luck at the chopper, it had been painted with flat colors and sticking out from both doors were M-60 machine guns. Then they told their story. They had been watching all the time, from up high and off a ways, as soon as I drove out they got going on mounting the guns on the bird, and since they could hear the very limited radio chatter between Charley and his people plus the bad guys they knew more then we did! When it was confirmed where we were going they flew out and landed where they could watch from a ways off, they watched the entire thing.

     They missed the beat down I gave Mr. El Gato but they saw everything else, and were ready to back us up when and if the time came. Bite off more then you could chew.

I had to ask how they knew and just got that look, so I asked why they didn’t try to stop me or at least come along?

   Beth stepped up and hugged me close and said because John, we knew you needed to do this, this shithead laying here had become a big booby man in your mind and after the ambush you needed to end him once and for all, so we decided to let you go and do it, But we had no intention of allowing you to get hurt or get in over your head, we have faith in you and Charley, together you are almost unstoppable.

    As usual when wrapped in her arms I felt calm and relaxed so I hugged her back and said should you be here with the baby? She just laughed and said John women have been fighting wars and giving birth since the beginning of mans time on earth. Nothings changed.

    The shitbird on the ground was mumbling about his lawyer and his rights so Sandy walked over and flipped him over and said “ Your rights? You want your rights? OK!

    You have the right to remain silent, and she shot him right between the eyes. I never even saw her hand move but between the shoulder holster and her back to me I guess I wouldn’t. She can be abrupt.

    She turned and looked at me and said

This piece of dog shit almost killed my husband and our wife Beth, he got his trial. She then asked Charley to have the trash taken to the desert for the buzzards to eat and then thru him into buzzard shit, fitting end. It was done.

    We took a look around and watched Ralph looking over the plane they had been using and talking to the pilot who it turned out was also the owner, He realized what they were planning to do and intentionally flew so the wind would blow the fuel bomb off course. He asked if he could move to the canyon and bring his family who lived in Gallup. We of course said welcome, god knows we need more pilots. He left to get his family.

    While he was gone Ralph went into the hanger and yelled for help and soon they were hauling parachutes and sky diving gear out and loading it into the plane. I asked why and Ralph said one of the girls had mentioned how cool it would have been to parachute into the battle and save my ass. I was still saying NO, Not only no but HELL NO!!! when they loaded the last of it and shut the back ramp. Nobody listens to me.

    I was informed I was flying home as was Charley and even he didn’t argue.

    I think we were asleep before the chopper lifted off, I had my head in Beth’s lap and a girl on each side holding my hands. I woke up when we dropped into the clearing at Shiprock and waved to Charley who headed off to the café and the Old Woman. We took off again and I went back to sleep and woke up again as we settled onto the landing pad at home. My wives carried my gear and took me home then to the solar shower and washed me like I was a baby, I felt like one.

    I woke up sometime later with the Doc standing over me checking my eyes, I was gonna shoot him but they had taken my guns away. Doc laughed and said good luck John they are ahead of you. I laughed and said No shit.

    The were all standing around our bed and Doc said I was just tired from adrenalin let down plus not eating much at all and a bit dehydrated. With that he left and I went back to sleep. I woke up in a pile of girls, and I couldn’t move a thing so I just laid there and enjoyed the feelings of love and home and happiness. Beth was close against my side and curled up in my arms, May was wrapped around Beth and Sandy was wrapped around my back, I was trapped and it was wonderful. I went back to sleep.

John?…

JOHN!….

What?

We’re hungry…

So go kill some small cute little creature and suck the marrow out of it’s tiny little bones…Ouch!…

John?….

What?

We’re hungry ….

Ok lets get up and I’ll find something for us to eat…

John, your being sarcastic!

No.. I’m hungry too.

Well…ok

And they unwrapped, I wasn’t sure who was talking but it didn’t matter, I either fed them or I might lose a limb.

So I said ok, how about hot cakes and bacon and eggs? Now that got them moving, I knew they would take over because I was a slow cook and when they are ready to “feed” they don’t screw around.

We built up the fire outside and got to cooking, pretty soon we had bums hanging out waiting. Life in the canyons. The kids were first as always, we kept cooking and they kept eating, well them and the girls and any adult who came by wanting breakfast. Sometimes it takes a couple of hourse to finish the meal, others came by, one with a huge cowboy pot of coffee, another with real home made butter ( the only kind now days) another brought a big cast iron skillet and a couple dozen eggs. I was soon pushed aside by one of the women and a teen age girl who took over cooking, I sat on my stump and relaxed and watched my wives eating everything that got close. I was worried about feeding them if we ever ran out of food. I smiled thinking about my usual comment about killing some small critter and all three looked at me and shook their forks at me.

    Beth was really starting to eat more what with the baby helping out. That made me smile and all of them smiled. Whatever it was I liked it, most of the time..

    After breakfast was done and everybody had wondered off we sat in the sun and made small talk, like what now since things were settling down and hopefully would remain so? I said I wanted to see the house which excited all of them so we walked up onto the ridge and I couldn’t believe how much had been done since I was there last.

    The walls were all up including the inside walls which were smaller stone, meaning only about 20 inches thick, I knew somebody was thinking bullet proof, I liked it!. The window spaces were perfect, we could see everywhere!

    Harv showed up and we talked about what was next, he said he wanted big roof beams, like BIG, whole trees that would be shaped, the place was going to have a open beam ceiling, I said I’d contact Charley to hire some of his young men to do the logging if they wanted the job. Also the high country with the big trees was their land so it was up to them.I guess we could truck them in from Texas, god knows there are Oak trees down there in East TX that are three plus feet in Diameter. That might be the way to go and we could visit the family. I asked the girls and they were all for it so there it was, back to Texas.

I needed to put out the word for a long goose necked flat bed trailer so I got that done and within a mater of hours the call came in from Fort Navajo that they had one located and could bring it up to us.

But the girls decided they wanted to go visit the folks at the Fort and see what goodies they might run off with. So now we were going West and North before we went South and East. Makes perfect sense. Another thing is that we can get logs for the beams closer, but no, not Oak or cedar, why it matters I’ve no idea except the builder and the wives have decided so there it is.

    I’m just the driver. Just driving Miz Sandy and Miz beth and Miz May, could be a movie, maybe I can learn to shuffle along saying “Yazum” missie. Yea, that sounds racist? No, sounds like truth. I loved that movie! But I’m old.

So we loaded the great white Whale with all the stuff a family needs for an extended road trip.

Weapons…check

Ammo…check

More ammo…check

Grenades…check

Food…check

Extra fuel… check

Camping gear…check

I think we had it, our BOB’s had clothing and other personal stuff.

But we would be stopping back here before we headed out to pack better for a more extended trip.

Truck loaded, girls high carding for the front seat, Beth wins, I wonder how they stacked the deck to get that done. Sandy and May have become very protective of Beth which is understandable but they carry it too far.

    I swear they wanna hold her hand in the bathroom. She just smiles and lets them do as they will, she’s the most patient and calm of the three.

    We haven’t been to the Fort in a while and all want to see what goodies the hunters have rounded up, they send out armed groups of salvagers who gather whatever might be useful and not likely to be produced again for a good while. So much stuff will spoil as time goes by so they just gather it and store it away for later use, even if it’s something not needed at the moment.

    We made good time and got there before dinner where we found they had killed the fatted calf so to speak and put on a feast in our honor, or at least that’s the excuse. All’s well in the prison, everything running as it should be, there are now cargo containers neatly laid out and numbered to correspond to a list.

    They are doing an outstanding job! I seldom hear from any of them since they are busy and don’t feel the need to make reports, they did at first but I stopped that. Just do what you do and all will be well.

    We rolled thru the gate into the court yard, ours was the only vehicle inside the prison, the rest were in a motor pool area behind a tall fence and under the guns of the guard towers which remain manned 24/7 motion sensor lights everywhere outside. Plus a roving patrol with guard dogs. They take their salvaging very serious and don’t plan to get salvaged themselves. After we unloaded we were greeted by, well everybody. Hell I didn’t know 90 percent of them but they all knew me and the girls knew most of them. After the hand shaking and such we were lead to the chow hall where the cafeteria style serving was laid on. I won’t even go into the whole thing, there was plenty of everything.

    I grabbed a slab of beef that was charred on the outside and bleeding from the inside, a baked spud with butter and some hot rolls and headed for a table. The girls took some of everything in small servings.

    My steak was perfect, except for the forks that kept stabbing bites on my tray. I finally said why? With an entire cow over there aren’t you moochs eating your own steaks? Can you by now guess their answer?

“Well, because your’s looks so good”

“And you cut it into perfect bites”

“Plus we want you to know we like how you take care of us”

All delivered with sweet smiles…what bullshit.

    They aren’t even acting embarrassed,, nope just laughing and chattering among themselves. I look up and see one of the cooks heading our way and he’s got a large tray with cut up steak on it which he places in front of them. They give him a big smile and dig in, when I reach for a bite one of them growled at me I swear. But then they all laughed and piled a bunch on my trey. God it’s like living on a strange planet and not knowing the rules of the native species.

    All in all it was a great meal, what I got of mine, desert was pie and cake and god love them real ice cream, I needed to know how they pulled that off. I knew from their reaction that the girls would have the head cook backed into a corner getting all the facts, they do love ice cream. And it is hard to come by.

    We settled down and just visited with everybody who came by, all wanted to hear about the chase and end of the so called El Gato, so I told it as it was then the girls got into it telling it from their perspective which sounded way more wild then mine.

     They were all thrilled to hear Beth’s with child as they called it, I guess “knocked up” went out of style. I just got glared at by the two she cats who guard the future ruler of all things large and small. They argue over it, May wants a boy, Sandy wants a girl, I just want a healthy baby, Beth just wants us all happy. She smiles at me.

    When we told about the ambush and my one point landing on my head and Beth’s wounds the women all clucked over her, the guys were agast about the STI being ruined! I laughed at that and got glared at by every female in the room but Beth. She agreed with me!.

    Finally we headed off to our bed room which the folks here keep just for us and that’s just damn nice but then there are a lot of small bed rooms here. I think they call them studio apartments, the former tenants referred to them as cells.

    We passed a very peaceful night, I know I slept like a log. I woke up to Beth and May gone and Sandy laying beside me smiling, I held her close and told her I missed her lately. She said her and May were just giving Beth time to really settle into the strange arrangement. I said I understood that but I didn’t like missing my number one wife, that got a really nice response and we almost missed breakfast.

    We gotto the mess hall and were greeted with two wives bouncing like balls, I worried about Beth getting too excited but was told to zip it. Beth slid a box to me and I saw the STI logo on it, in the box was a beautiful handgun, An STI Legend in 40 S&W, not a 10mm but close since a 40 is a sawed off 10mm.

    The hunters had found a bunch of top dollar weapons in a gun safe in a burned out store but the safe was fine. They heard about Beth’s 10mm stopping a bullet and saving her life and of course that the gun was trashed so they had dug thru the piles of gun looking for something to give her, this was at least a $3000.00 gun before the lights went out, now it was a $10,000 gun because when would somebody be making them again?  But then I remembered STI was in Texas!

    I figured they might just be in business still. But in the meantime Beth has an almost 10 mm which is cool because it comes with mags that hold from between 15 up to 23 rounds and that’s not to be sneezed at. They had a stack of mags to go with it and several thousand rounds of ammo which included everything from FMJ to Flying Ashtrays ( big hollow points) And it fit her shoulder holster just fine, maybe a bit snug but we can wet it down and let it dry around the gun. She was thrilled and asked them if they had any Barretts which got a sad no. She smiled and said you do now!! I swear those ol boys were doing the happy feet dance over a damn gun.

    But since Beth had five of them I figured that left one for each of us so god save anybody trying to get at us from across the lake!! Or anywhere else since we could see for miles up there on top of the new house or would be able to when it had the roof on it.

     Beth wanted to shoot her new toy so we all headed out to the Fort range where she spent a few minutes sighting it in  and then went to work on the Silhouette targets and was really ripping them up, after the first magazine full she smiled really big and said “ I’m faster because of less recoil”! and more accurate.

    We all agreed with that. Of course “they” had to get in on it so pretty soon they were all piling up the empty brass but the range boss said not to worry because they were set up with the best of Dillon’s wonder machines. Also they said before we left they would put some ammo in the truck for the 40. I figured we probably had more then they did but they were gifting Beth so why say anything.

    Even the girls can get tired of shooting, it takes a while but they managed to realize they were starving, I reminded them we ate just before coming to the range, the reply in triplicate was “ And your point would be???” We went to eat.

    When we were done we took a tour of the “Vaults” Meaning the isolation cells, where the good stuff was piled. I still get a laugh walking past cells stacked with gold then silver and on and on, doors not locked and nobody gives a shit. There are cells filled with works of art, books by the many thousands, these are in some order and you could find what your looking for but it might be in a box under five more boxes.

    There was a cell just for dvd’s loaded with all mans knowledge or at least a great deal of it, as well as machines to use to study them, all checked out and working. Nothing frivolous down here, this was the stuff  that would be of the most use in rebuilding if and when we started. If and when somebody really wanted to. Right now it would be damned hard to find anybody in our area interested in going back to the “good old days”.

    After the tour of as sandy calls it “ king Sillymons mines” we headed up and out to the sunshine. We met with the head “accountant” he who knows where all the skeletons are stashed. He knew we wanted to use a large gooseneck trailer, when he asked what we were doing I explained about the big house and the builders wanting beams so the trip to Texas to get big Oak or Cedar logs.

    With the happy smile of a man who loves his work he clapped his hands and headed for his log books and after swishing pages and pages he let out a loud “ AH HA!! And follow me!!

    We headed out to a golf cart and piled into two of them, Sandy and May of course fighting over who got to drive, Beth and I got in with Mr. Inventory as I think of him and off we went, it wasn’t long before the other cart passed us with May driving and both laughing manically, I swear they had repressed childhoods, Beth was kind of squirming so I asked Mr. Inventory to toot his horn which got their attention, we pulled up and I said ok baby there ya go, and with a laugh Beth was gone over to the dark side, I yelled “BABY!!” and got a one finger wave from two of them and a smile from one.

     Wilber the gate keeper which sounds better then Mr. Inventory said “ my they sure are frisky” I had to laugh at the understatement of the century. Being a book worm he didn’t really know much of what we were doing out in the world and I think didn’t want to.

    He did ask if it was true that we took a walk thru the Museum of Natural History before we blew it up? Hmm did I detect something testy in that?

    So I told him all about the whole thing and he was relieved that we didn’t blow it up. I asked where he heard that, he said two of the ladies with me were talking about it at breakfast, I shook my head.

    Sandy and May torturing the poor geek, I would have a talk with them later, wasted air but one has to try to reel in ones rowdy children, shit what did I need a baby for? I can’t keep two small ladies under control, at least they were almost house broke. Maybe the baby would bring them to heel ( laughter??)

    We finally got to the container with the right number on the door ( all at 2 mph I might add, lucky girls) ( Sucker I hear in my head) sigh.

    When it was opened there was a shiny new something , it looked very complicated and heavy, I said ok, very nice!! What is it. Mr. whipple said well it’s supposed to be a portable saw mill! Now I took a big interest and crawled in and over and sure as shit there was a big saw blade thingie, I crawled out and said “I want it!!” How do we move it?

     The girls come sliding up in a cloud of dust and they were covered with it and laughing like crazy, how anybody could get a golf cart to move fast enough to raise dust is beyond me, after it cleared I see Mrs. Delicate mommy to be is driving and grinning biggest. Mr. Whipple was saying “Oh my, Oh my over and over and wringing his hands.

   They saw bright shiny colors and were all over the saw for a few minutes until they realized it wasn’t something to shoot or blow shit up with and came out asking why we needed it, I said well how would you square 20 foot trees into beams? That got some interest but not as much as if it would blow the trees down. I went wrong with them someplace. How can I raise a baby when I can’t raise my wives? They all hugged me and said it’s ok daddy we will be good. Bullshit.

    Mr. Whipple said we could load the whole container on the trailer and haul it that way, cool, how do we pick it up? He did his “ AH HA!!” thing and said come along and we made a slow trip to the main storage center where he found two guys and said we needed the big gooseneck trailer and container number something on it, they said “yes sir!! We will jump right on it!!

    Mr. Whipple said he needed to get back to his office and since we seemed to have our own cart he would leave us to our business, as he rolled away I looked at the two and said “ yes sir? Right away sir?”

   They laughed and said he’s really a lost person, he was a bean counter for a Forbes 500 company and was never suited to survive, but we found him in one of the places we were mining and brought him home, he needed a job so he undertook handling inventory of all this shit and really had done a great job, so we just give him a moral boost every chance we get, now we all laughed but I was glad we had these kind of people in our huge extended family.

    They said they could mount a gooseneck ball in the truck and load the container and we could leave tomorrow if we wanted to. But in the meantime we were welcome to look around and see what else we might need or want. So I gave them the Dodge keys then remembered Walker who was tied up so Sandy took off with the cart and returned with the mutt…oh yes, the mutt that saved our lives.

    So I scratched his ears which worried him since I was being good to him but he decided I was his newest bestest friend who needed a lick in in the face, gonna be a short friendship at this rate.

    The girls poked me and said be good he loves you!! I pointed out that they loved me but didn’t lick my face. Wrong thing to say when sitting in a golf cart.

    When they got done I was all slobbers. And they were laughing their asses off.

    We took off on an unguided tour of the place and I swear they had at least 10 of everything ever built! I guess once they got into hauling stuff off they couldn’t stop. There was a vehicle parking area that looked like a giant car dealership.

    All diesels it looked like but buried in the mess was a Jeep, a forest green Jeep, now that was strange so I said stop and after almost being tossed thru the non windshield I got out and walked over to it and saw it was new but what was it doing here?

    I popped the hood and low and behold there was a diesel engine! Now I never seen a Jeep with a diesel, I know they had made them but they didn’t seem to go over or something. At any rate here was one and it said Turbo on it. I think it may have been a special order, complete with roll cage and racing harness and was looking wild, I want it! I looked to see if the keys were in it and they were, I checked the fluids, all good and hit the starter but of course it didn’t start, I looked and saw the battery was disconnected.

    We headed back to the place where we found the two guys and they were already at work on the truck, I asked about the jeep and they only knew it was brought in about a month ago and parked, I said I wanted it and who did I need to talk to? They said shit John, you’re the boss, the General, take it. I said oh bullshit, I’m one of the working stiffs, they both laughed and said if you say so boss. The girls laughed.

    I asked for some jumpers and headed back to get it running and it fired up right away, after it ran for a bit I backed the golf cart out of the way and watched my new toy heading off with three wild cats in it screaming like kids.

    I drove the cart back to the two guys who laughed and said shit John didn’t you see that coming? I had to admit I didn’t and should have. One of the men said they would be along shortly because the jeep only had a couple of gallons of fuel in it and sure nuff here they come like bats out of hell with my pregnant wife number three in the damn thing, and of course guess who was driving?.. shit.

    But I had to smile they are so much fun and I had such high hopes in Beth to be a shining example of lady hood. But I think she’s having fun now because in a short while she will be forced to slow down a lot. I guess we will all be slowing down ( I hear laughter)

    Beth scooted over when May got in back with Sandy so I could drive. And wouldn’t you know it, the damn seat won’t go back anymore and my knees are in danger of bashing the dash, but it is fun to drive! And I hear from the rear two low talking voices planning on how to mount a machinegun on the roll bar. I know I should have tried harder to raise them right, but I failed someplace.

   By the time I got back to the shop I knew one thing for sure, the girls had a new toy. And from the back I hear high fives and giggles, beat again. They all leaned over and hugged me and said thank you daddy for the new shiny!!..

    To make things worse one of the ol boys said, well did you find out why you seen soccer moms driving these things? Big men don’t fit well huh? I flipped them off to loud laughter.

    The girls wanted fuel so one of the guys filled the tank and then told them to be damn sure to have the seat belts on because these things will roll if your not careful. They roared off in a cloud of dust but I did thank him for his words. He smiled and said john them girls ain’t gonna screw up, they just love jerking your chain and everybody knows it but you. Well I know it damn it but…… shit!

    The ball is mounted and we went over to hook it to the trailer which was also brand new and looked as long as a freight trailer, I asked about the cargo container and was told it was a 20 footer and after it was loaded there was room for the jeep if the girls didn’t kill it before then, all we could see was dust where they had been.

    One of the men got a big fork lift while we took the truck and trailer to the container which we loaded almost before I could get out of the dodge. They had it dogged down with chains and binders and were waiting for the girls to show up which took a good while, so we drove back to the office and one of them went in and brought out three very cold beers, I had died and gone to heaven!

    We had two more before the girls showed up covered in dust and the jeep looked like it was ten years old but it was purring, then I noticed Walker was in there with them, all seat belted in and grinning like a fool. 

    I just looked at them and laughed, they were as wild as  wolves, ten times more dangerous and as funny as a room full of kittens.

    They bounced out and grabbed my beer and passed it around, beth took a small sip to wash the dust down, Willard went in to get more and brought out an ice cold Dr pepper for Beth who smiled and said thank you, the outlaws were too busy choking down their whole beer to do more then nod, both finished and belched like a couple of red neck truckers. Wilson the other dude went in and brought out a bucket of beers in ice, that settled them down and I grabbed one before they took the whole bucket.

    They sat down on the ground and Beth leaned on me and whispered “thank you”! for what says I? The jeep she said, they love it and they just know you set it up for them. I laughed at that but I wondered if I did. I’ve never been a jeep fan, they are too small and the last one I drove was the old CJ5 and it was dangerous as a bed roll full of rattlers. The last fatal I worked as a Deputy Sheriff involved one and I never forgot it.

    These new ones had longer and wider wheel bases so were much safer, IF the drivers don’t get crazy. If they already crazy then …I don’t know. Beth said, they will settle down because the baby means as much to them as anybody else and they aren’t gonna risk missing out on the arrival. I hoped she was right, they were so competitive that I worried. But I wouldn’t change them for anything.

    We headed for the Fort after thanking Willard and Wilson for their hard work and the cold beer. I was in need of food so we headed for the chow hall. The menu for the night consisted of Prime Rib and all the usual stuff that goes with it. The head cook said he wished pigs were as available as cows, I agreed, I loves me some pork roast and ribs. I guess we need to think about raising our own but I’m not sure they will do well out here in the desert, he also said they needed more chickens because they don’t have enough eggs. Now that is something we can help with, we are over loaded with chickens and eggs, the boys with their 22’s keep the local varmints at bay so except for the Hawks and Owls we really don’t lose many and we have a lot of broody hens, I told him we could help him out on that issue, he was thrilled. And on second thought I know Texas is flat over run with wild hogs and we might be able to help out there. Catch them young and raise them up and they tame right down what with free food.

    We had other things to look for in Texas so it’s not just a trip to better us personally, I worry bout that stuff,

Between the beer and the long day I was beat and said I was gonna take a shower and headed for the room, Shortly joined by all here of the girls, the shower was plenty big enough for all of us but the insisted on crowding in on one shower head, I sigh, they laugh.

    Bed was wonderful, I think I was out like a light as were the girls, I woke up to one warm body next to me and it was May, I laughed and said your turn? She smiled and said naa, we flipped a coin, I lost! Ha-Ha-H…. funny… We rejoined the crew in the chow hall and feasted on the usual, Hot cakes and bacon and eggs, I figured and was right that Sandy and Beth had cooked it.

    The head cook came over and offered to buy them but he figured he couldn’t afford to feed them. I told him I got that a lot. We laughed, they didn’t, May asked if he was implying they were fat? He said OH Hell no!!, yawlz fine, then he turned red and beat feet for the kitchen, they have a way of doing that.

    Sandy asked if there was still room for more stuff, I said not if it goes bang, we have enough of that stuff. She said no she had asked and found there was a supply of windows in containers and wanted to look at them, I hugged her and said baby anything you want!! She said cool coz they have a lot of 45 ammo! I was beat. They laughed all the way to the truck to go window shopping.

   Willard and Wilson were already and took us right to the containers that held windows. It took two hours but the found what they wanted, tall double hung windows, they explained that with the double hung they could lower the top glass and let the hit air out.

    I acted impressed, but I knew that before they were born, I’m old, and wore out, and tired and did I say old? And about to become a daddy…jeeze.. The windows were loaded before I could blink and Willard asked if we had power in the canyon, I said we did and he said pull down three more containers, next thing in the container was the biggest refrigerator I’ve ever seen, then they said stop at their office where we loaded about a hundred cases of beer.

    I was thinking the canyon ladies were gonna steal this thing long before it ever got a beer in it but I never said anything to the guys. But then I had a brain flash and asked if they had ever found any reefer vans out on the roads, they had and  brought them in. Now I was thinking. I asked if they knew anybody who could drive a tractor with one and they of course said they would be happy to do it. They said the reefers ran on propane and they had been salvaging propane tanks by the dozen as well as trucks with 5000 gal tanks on them. They said to head home and they would be over in a day or two. I love these two ol boys.

    We headed home, slow and steady and pulled in right at dark. We just parked and headed for bed. Morning brought getting the container unloaded and I was right, the ladies started in about the big fridge, I told them to hold off a day or two and there would be one a hundred times bigger coming in, I think they didn’t trust me but Beth said it was so and they was good enough.

    Harv and his guys came to see what I had and were going bat shit over the saw mill as I figured they would, I could see it was gonna get a lot of use. I told them my idea for the reefer trailer and they were up for that.

    I also planned to ask Willard and Wilson to bring another one for Harv’s family area as well as one for The Bremmers who had settled in a canyon on down from Harv’s bunch, I figured we could make this reefer idea work just fine and that would help a great deal and make life a bit easier for the ladies.

    And I could keep my beer cold! And my nice big fridge was gonna go in the new house, we was gonna get half assed civilized. Yea I know, but I’m old and tired and I like cold beer and did I mention I’m old?

    I’m still torn over the trip to Texas for big Oak and cedar logs or to the much closer pine tree country. Harvey said in his opinion using Oak was very much preferable, I said ok. I’m easy and I wanted to see Mom and Miz Sheri who was gonna shit over a third wife plus a baby coming. I might not be able to pull Beth away from her. So we were going to Texas, cool.

    Only one issue in my mind, was it right to expend fuel just to haul logs back to make our new home even more over the top then it was? I worry about this kind of shit. But when I mentioned it I was surprised to hear the women talking about us bringing back some Hickory because they wanted to try smoking some meat. None of them thought I should be worried about it.

    I’m continually blown away at hos peoples personalities have changed in just a few years, things they would have started a bloody feud are now not worth even thinking about. We live in a communal life style and share everything, If somebody came up right now and said hey I want a house on a ridge, everybody would say go find your location and we will help. No time clocks, no rush, wanna stop and take a nap or make love? Go do it, nobody’s gonna care unless your endangering the group like walking away from guard duty but that’s like maybe four hours every few days so nobody is worried about that, in fact we have people who due to age or an injury can’t do much and they are thrilled to have guard duty to be of use. Lecture over for the day, we have packing to do.

    Unloading the container wasn’t as easy as loading it without the big forklift but we got it done right where it could be of use. The truck was fussed over by the under worked mechanics and it was ready to roll.

    The back loaded with the things we needed and all the stuff the girls were taking as gifts from the Fort for our Texas families.

    We rolled out early and made good time to Shiprock where we found Charley waiting for us as usual, I will go to my death still wondering how he knows. I know the Canyon Commo people aren’t telling him or so they say. I know his young men are all over the place just watching but they don’t have hand sets.

   I file it under PFM and hear giggling in my head, I ignore it. We stopped for just a few minutes to say hi and for the girls to fill up on Old Woman wisdom or maybe to gather up a supply of powdered bat wings ( You’re gonna regret that one buddy boy! In my head ) Shit ( stop cussing!) sigh.

    Charley smiled and said John you will never learn will you? I guess not was my reply. He warned us to avoid strangers because the sickness was still far away but people were moving around a lot more.

    His men were stopping strangers from entering Navajo country which I had not heard, but if figures. Better early then late.

    The girls bounded out and said lets roll buttercup! Which got a laugh from Charley, I think they do that crap just to get to me, Charley said “No shit Sherlock “ Now I’m laughing. I also noticed the girls didn’t tell him to stop cussing. Rank really does have it’s privileges unless it’s me. I sigh again, Beth leaned over and kissed my cheek, May leaned forward and wrapped her arms around me and Sandy ruffled my hair, what there is of it. We rolled out.

    I dropped the peddle to the metal as they used to say so we could make it to the Texas state line before dark, which we did and found Bear and Harry waiting for us all smiles and big hugs for Beth. Sandy tapped him on the chest and said if you squeeze too hard I’ll hurt you! He laughed his loud beller and wrapped Beth up in his huge arms and lifted her off the ground, she was laughing while Sandy was kicking him in the shin. He set her down and was laughing at Sandy when Mrs. Bear arrived and smacked his head which was a reach and reminded him she was in a family way. He never blinked and just kept smiling. I swear everybody in the whole country must know Beth is pregnant!

Mrs, Bear herded the girls away from bad influences and met up with Mrs. Harry who was hurrying along glaring at Bear who ignored it all and smiled big.

    I swear, the woman just recently roared into a fight in a chopper manning a M-60 with blood in her eyes now she’s a marshmallow? I don’t get it. Bear and Harry led me to the mess hall and the cold beer, life is easy in Texas, the world goes to hell but by god their beer stayed cold. I love their priorities! Protect the women and kids and keep the beer cold. What’s not to love.

    I told them the full story of the ambush and the chase and the ambush and the chase leading up to capturing Mr. El Gato Negro. I brushed over the things I did to him and Bear asked if Sandy had really just shot the shithead while he was demanding a lawyer.

     I said yep but you know Sandy, never one to pass up a chance to shoot assholes, Bear laughed long and loud, Harry was quiet so I asked why, he said he wondered what kind of information we could have gotten out of him.

    I had not thought about that but doubted it was worth keeping him alive wasting good air and said as much. Harry sighed and agreed, I love Harry, never stops thinking, Bear? Well he’s like a 300 pound almost 7 foot version of Sandy.

Shoot it, if it moves shoot it some more. Both are right.

    We talked about the LA war and the coming plague if that was what it really was. They had pretty well closed down Texas as much as possible, the entire Texas national Guard was activated and helping seal the road ways from the big cities where there might be outbreaks, it wasn’t gonna be easy but they had plans laid on to have fall back road blocks and if need be would shoot if they had to. It was a crappy thing but necessary to protect the whole. I was so happy we didn’t have that issue in the canyons. And with few roads it was easier to close down access.

    We spent the night and all had breakfast together and we rolled out early. It was so different in East Texas from our home, the trees were green and of course it was humid which kills me but it was good to be back even if only for a while.

     We rolled up to the gate before dark and were met by two strangers pointing rifles at us, this I didn’t like. I opened the door and stepped out only to hear one say get back in the truck and head on out of here. I didn’t do that I walked right at the fool and asked who he was, he replied by asking who in the hell I thought I was. I said well son, I don’t “Think”, I know who I am because I knew who my daddy was ( yes I was tired and getting pissed ) which of course pissed off the one talking.

     The other looked at me then the truck and then at the very pissed off Red Head who had gotten out of the truck and had taken her light jacket off, revealing the shoulder holster. And said Luke you best back off that’s John Walker and the woman is the one they call Wyatt.

    Now Luke was possibly inbred or just stupid cause he wasn’t gonna back down, so I repeated what the second guy said, my name and that we lived here part of the time.

    From out of the dark I heard a voice I knew! Good ol Fred who said Luke you stupid bastard your about the get yer ass killed, point that gun at the ground right now!

    Luke didn’t like it at all and watching his eyes I could see he was gonna be a problem, if not now the later, But for now he did lower the muzzle but just had to add that he would see me later. Sandy walked closer and said “ Well look real close shit head because your later is gonna be real short if you keep the shit up. Before he could raise the muzzle again fred hit him with a hard right to the jaw hinge and we all heard it snap and Luke dropped like a used condom.

    I was watching his partner but he told Fred that he would not work with luke again ever and wasn’t gonna have anything to do with him ever again coz the stupid bastard was gonna get himself and maybe others killed. I asked the man his name which was Duke and we shook hands while he tried to apologize but I waved it away and told him he wasn’t responsible for Lukes stupidity.

    Fred told Duke he would send another guard team to relieve him and somebody to take care of the idiot, we dragged him out of the way and drove on in to find Miz Sheri standing by our tent home with her soft smile of welcome. Hugging Sheri is like hugging Beth but even better if possible. She puts her whole being into every hug and you know you’re home when she does it.

    Sandy and May got their hugs and Sheri looked at Beth, then me and smiled and reached out for her and really hugged her and whispered in her ear, Beth smiled and got teary eyed and just held on to Sheri.

    At last they let go and Sheri looked at her closely and got a big smile and asked when the baby was due, How do they know? Well actually Miz Sheri is kind of a Witch, a good Witch, well Witch is a strong word but she just knows stuff, She hears things others don’t. I can’t explain it but she’s a lot like Beth or Beth is like her.

    I headed over to see mom, she still looks got for her age but she’s really lost a lot of short term memory, She thought I had been here all along so I just went along with it.

    I think growing old is vastly over rated and I think I’ll opt out of it.

    The tent was opened up and had been airing out for a while, all the spiders had been evicted as well as anything else that had moved in. And it was just as comfy as when we left, Beth loved the earth oven and the fire place. But it had been a long day so we headed for the solar shower house and got cleaned up and found food waiting for us. A lot of the folks were there and had to hear all about our wars and adventures.

    One ol guy asked if we really burned Vegas to the ground, Sandy said damn skippy we did! He said good! Seems he had lost a lot of money plus got rolled by a hooker back in his youth which got a good laugh. It was funny how nobody seemed to miss the modern day Vegas. I always said it was a much cleaner and safer place when the mob run it, At least they kept the street crime down.

    Being tired we called time out for now but promised we would answer everybody’s questions in the days to follow and on that note we went to bed and slept hard.

    I woke up to wonderful smells, bread baking in the earth oven, compliments of Sheri, the girls making breakfast over the camp fire, lets see, can I guess?

    Hot cakes, smoked ham steaks and eggs and coffee! When they cook breakfast that’s what they cook, fine with me! I like it all. And it reminds me about taking hogs back to the canyon.

    We sat on the ground and stuffed ourselves, and I have to say I love eating this way, tables and chairs ore ok in their place but nothing beats sitting around the cook fire. It’s hard to find anything better.

    Breakfast over the girls took Beth around to show her off and introduce her to everybody and show her their range, I was thinking an after breakfast nap was in order but Rick showed up and joined me, he don’t drink coffee and never has but he had his never ending can of Pepsi. I swear he must have a ton of it stashed someplace.

    He said his family was all well and I needed to stop over to see Chris which I was sure to, I love her almost as much as miz Sheri, she’s a very hard working lady who always looks wonderful and smells good.

    Rick said he had been busy getting my logs gathered, I was kinda surprised by that, he said Charley had passed the word up the line on the radio that we needed logs for beams in our new home and Rick being Rick already knew where all the forest giant were that had died in the last year of so, meaning they had dried standing.

    He had even located some big cedars as well as the Oak. I mentioned I had a request from the ladies in the canyon for some hickory to smoke meat with. He of course had that too. If a tree dies in the forest Rick hears it.

I said we could start tomorrow on cutting them down, he laughed and said they are down and stacked off the ground, just pull the trailer over when you’re ready.

I’ve never known anybody like Rick. He don’t move real fast but he never has to cut twice if you know what I mean. He wondered off to do something and Fred showed up, we sat in the shade and talked about the young fool at the gate, Fred said he had come in with somebody’s kin and had been a problem from day one. He wouldn’t work and argued about everything, I asked why he was still here and Fred said well he’s only been here a few weeks, we were giving him a chance but he’s out of chances and will be gone by dark to day.

    I knew one thing as sure as the sun rising and that was we weren’t seeing the last of Ol Luke, he was a man looking to fill a grave one way or the other and somebody would oblige him. I just didn’t want an innocent person being his victim.

     I asked Fred if he could be hauled to the state line and dumped out but that was gonna take more effort then it was worth. I knew one thing for sure if he hung around and wasn’t careful Wyatt would stop his clock.

    Maybe I need to deal with him myself before it got to that point. So Fred and I went to where he was living to tell him to pack up.

    He could only mumble around the wired up jaw and was filled with anger to the point I thought he was gonna go for a gun but Fred stepped in and stopped him.

    The folks he came in with said good riddance as far as they cared, he had just latched onto them and wasn’t kin at all.

    So we packed him up and hauled him out of there. He mumbled he had no where to go but that was his problem. We dropped him in town where he could either work or they too would run him out. I had misgivings about dropping him in town but couldn’t see any other option.

    A week later we heard about s shooting and robbery just out side of town and sure nuff it was luke, The wounded man testified about the attack and that he survived by playing dead. The trial was the next day and they hung him that evening. Justice was served and fast these days.

    I asked Fred to go with me to the old mans place who was robbed and shot so we could apologize for our part in the deal.

He was good about it and said trash was trash and nobody was at fault cept for Luke’s folks for not drowning him at birth. Another good ol boy who understands how thing work best. He said he didn’t even go watch the hanging because he needed to water his garden, priorities ya know.

    Well we had been home a week and while we didn’t shoot anybody we were kind of in part responsible for a hanging. Well maybe not.

      I’m starting to feel like the little guy in the old Lil Abner funny’s, can’t remember his name but he wore all black with a big hat and a black rain cloud over his head all the time.

    Seems like doom and gloom follow us everywhere we go, but then I think of the Girls and Beth and the coming baby and I see the lie to those thoughts.

    We don’t cause evil but we sure do help eradicate it a lot! Some folks are just born to die by a bullet or a noose and  me and mine have nothing  to do with it.

    Fred and I stopped in at Miz Sally’s for pie and coffee and before we got it the door opened and my brood rolled in laughing and in general breaking the quiet laws.

    Sally ran out of the kitchen and hugged Beth who she had never met but the baby rumor mill was in good form, she dragged them all into the kitchen leaving me and Fred waiting for our coffee and pie.

    Sally came out with pie, it was peach, I reminded her I ordered apple, Fred ordered Cheery but she said she was out of everything but Peach. I got up and walked over to the kitchen batwings and peeked in and watched my wives eating all the Apple and Cherry pie in sight, they all looked up and smiled real big.

    Sally was waiting for me with a smile and said John, shut up and eat your peach pie, I did. Fred did. I got to pay for their pie too. I sigh, Fred laughed and said I sigh more then anybody he ever met, I told him about a Navajo out in the canyon lands who sighs more then me, all at me.

    Finally “they” were done eating Sally out of business and joined us. I just shook my head and sighed again. They laughed. No respect.

    We headed back to the homestead, Fred said the town folks had come out and begged him to take his badge back.

     His wife said she would shoot him herself if he did, besides he enjoyed herding cats for a living so they stayed on the homestead. I was proud of him, it’s hard to take off a badge, been there done that.

    We went to look at the logs Rick had found for us and I was doubting the Dodge could budge the trailer after it was loaded but  was wrong.

    They were so big that Harv and crew could get several beams out of each one and all were dried pretty good so the weight wasn’t as bad as it looked. There was even room for a couple cords of Hickory for the ladies back home so all in all it was a good trip.

    I talked to the guys who do the hog trapping and they had a bunch of young sows and a couple of young boars we could have but how to get them back with us? The trailer is full as is the back of the truck but after the girls passed out all their presents to the family’s on the homestead it wasn’t as bad.

    We put out the word for a roof top cargo rack and had one in two days, Sandy traded some 45 ammo for it. We put it on the truck cab roof for all the remaining gear leaving room for a cage made from angle iron and sheep panels which we anchored to the top of the logs and looking like the “Real McCoys” we were ready to roll. We would have to stop and water the pigs but that was fine.

    We made our goodbyes and I spent a while with Miz Sheri just talking about life. Her family is doing ok, She misses me as I do her but maybe next time around. A hug and kiss goodbye and we were gone again.

    The trip home was pretty boring, well as boring as it can be with Sandy and May popping off rounds at jack rabbits running along the road way. I threatened to cut off their ammo supply but remembered they stole a truck load in Barstow.

    I was thinking it was good there wasn’t any of those shoulder mounted tank killer rocket launchers on the base when Sandy said “ I wish they had some of those rocket thingies at Barstow. 

    I told her to stop it and got the poor lil innocent me crap with the other two siding with her, so no it’s never boring with them and in fact when they get quiet I really worry unless they are sleeping and even then I worry.

    Once again we make it to the state line and are greeted by Bear and Harry, Bear was admiring the pigs and talking BBQ when Sandy told him to go catch his own. He asked for her permit to transport Texas live stock out of the Republic, she told him to go do an impossibility. Mrs. bear came up and twisted his ear then took the girls away. Sandy said bear I can hear you!! Best be good!

    Bear asked again as always, How does she do that? And once again I said “ beats the shit outta me” one of lifes mysteries.

    We sat in the mess hall and had a cold beer and talked about the goings on,  I had to tell them the Luke story, both agreed it was a wasted life but at least he failed in killing somebody else.

    The admired the logs especially since the biggest tree here was a mesquite bush, They both thought about going over to the homestead and getting a bunch of pigs to raise since they didn’t have many of the 5 million or so in Texas. I had to explain about the hickory which also got them interested, everybody loved the Hickory smoked meat for their BBQ’s.

    Morning found us on the road just at dawn since we needed to try to get home without the pigs having heat stroke, I wasn’t sure how this was gonna work but besides knowing rock work the West Virginia hillbillies knew hogs so I expected they would have an idea. In fact I could just see a huge rock smoke house doing it’s thing, I can see me hauling trailer loads of Hickory back here often. But for hickory smoked ham and bacon I’d do it!

    Dark found us rolling into Shiprock where Charley and Old Woman were sitting on the porch waiting for us. As soon as we pulled in she headed inside to set the table I’m sure, the girls headed that way after making their respects to Charley.

    We sit on the porch and talked, He just shook his head over the Luke affair. He was happy Bear and Harry and their bunch were all well. I asked if he might take a ride next time we went that way, he allowed as how he might. I could imagine him in the dense woods of East Texas.

     A desert Indian and all. I’d bet he would do just fine there, he’s that kind of man.

    Dinner was good, different but good, I didn’t ask what it was. I love the so called “Indian fry bread” dunk it in the stew and chow down, awesome. I asked the girls why they never fix it at home and got that Oh shit duh look and three sets of shoulder shrugs, never thought of it, bet they would get to it since they love it too!

    We headed home early in the am and got there in good order, the pigs were greeted with cheers, not if the Hill Billy’s can keep them alive all’s well. The logs were a big hit since Harv and his crew were aching to get that saw mill going. Since it was all set up we dragged the logs off and worked one onto the log deck or whatever it’s called. Harv fired up the gas powered motor and after adjusting thing cut a long thin sliver off the log, that went well so he figured out how much had to come off to get the first beam right then went to work, it was real cool!

    That thing was like a hot knife thru butter, As soon as he had the first side trimmed down he flipped it and did it again, When he had it all square with the world he made four beams out of the one log. He figured it out and there was plenty for extra beams so that’s good, there was also a couple of good sized Cedar logs that he cut into three inch slabs and as wide as he could make them, he had an idea for a door and shutters he wanted to try.

The girls headed off to see what was happening in the canyon and I stayed to watch. It was fascinating watching the saw mill working. I could see we were going to get a lot of use out of it but the logs needed to come from closer then East Texas!

    Before he shut it down all the logs were now thick long beams and stacked on thin spacers to air dry even more which wouldn’t take long here in the canyon. We talked about getting some big pine logs from up in the Arizona mountain area if we couldn’t get any from around here.

I next went to talk to the Mechanics about a project I had thought of just today. I found them playing cards in the shade of a tree/bush. I told them I had a idea, one asked it it hurt, one asked it that was the burning rubber smell, and one asked what I had in mind, I chose to answer him. Asshats I said smiling, sometimes it seems only the smart asses survived the troubles.

    I asked him to explain the reefer cooler system. He chewed on his cigar for a bit and then took it out and spit a stream of brown juice and said “ Well, when it’s running it keeps shit cold and when it ain’t it don’t.  I asked him if I called the girls over could he answer better, he said NO SIR John! and launched into a technical speech that I lost in 10 seconds, then one of the others interrupted and got an argument going, the third wiseass asked what I had in mine.

   I said my new place was almost finished and when it was I was gonna ask harv and his guys to enlarge our cave, a lot and I wanted to know if the cooling unit on a reefer trailer could be removed and hooked up to turn the cave into a huge walk-in cold storage place.

    All three said Hell yes! But why? I mentioned the hundred or so cases of beer I had brought back in the container.

    They said to get the miners digging and they would plan it out and when was the trailer gonna be here. Seems that even wiseasses like cold beer. Lifes rough in the new world.

    I asked if we really needed the trailer here or could we just go unhook the unit, they said it was important that the trailer was here, I asked why, stupid question, they wanted it for a machine shop, fine, works for me. I headed for the commo shack and called the Fort and said get the trailer headed this was and fill it with any machining tools they may have found that they didn’t need plus more beer!

    The commo lady on the other end was laughing when she hit the send button but said right away General! I was gonna correct her but she brok it down before I could.

    I looked at our commo lady who was not smiling, I asked her why, she said cold beer was not a joking matter! We agreed! I could see morale was gonna improve vastly!

It was several days before I bothered to go up on the ridge since I had been told to go away while I had my toes, So I headed up there where I was surprised to find the beams set with the wall ends anchored between the top row of huge rocks and coming to a peak in the center where they were pinning them to one of the big cedars that had been set aside for the center support. It had been peeled and some finishing work started. They had built a steel ring with a lip to set the ends of the beams on and were putting large bolts thru the beam and thru the lip of heavy steel where they were bolted into place. It was awesome and almost medieval. Harv called out to me and waved me over to where he was, there I found him and two of his boys building a door out of the cedar planking, each plank was two inches thick and on closer look it was two layers thick with something between the layers, I got close and saw it was ½ inch steel plate! I looked at Harvey and asked if it was gonna pull the house over. He showed me the hing pins it was gonna hang on and they were huge! I asked where they got the steel? He said Charley told him where there was some left from some forgotten government plan that never got done. He cut the piece for the door and used a grinder to smooth the edges and now they were drilling flat steel metal that had been cast into 3/8 inch by 3 inch 10 foot lengths, they had laid the flat iron in a Z pattern a were drilling all the way thru for long ½ inch bolts. With a corresponding Z on the other side this thing was gonna weigh a ton! I asked why? He said well it’s a castle and it needs a castle door plus shutters made the same way. I didn’t know what to say. I had no words, he just slapped me on the shoulder and said John you give your all for everybody you come across and you’ve fought and bled for us here so this little project is nothing plus your kid needs a secure home. We both laughed at that as if this canyon wasn’t secure enough.

    Mostly he said it was something he always wanted to do but never had time, now he could do whatever he wanted and was loving it, I asked if the girls had anything to do with it, he laughed and said Sandy wanted to know how to stop bullets with a door, he said this door would stop anything but maybe a .50 But he wasn’t gonna let them try a .50 on it. I was very impressed but I need to ask about the reefer room so I explained the idea and he was loving it and asked if there was any extra cold units? I said lots and a truck with a huge full propane tank on it.  He left his boys working on the drilling and we headed down to look at the cave. It was just like all of the ones we had, his bunch had built bigger. He said this could be enlarged a lot but he would want big beams to shore up the roof for safeties sake.

    I ask him if they could get on it as soon as we moved out, he said sooner if y’all don’t mind living in your camper trailer a while. I said I’d check with them and get back. He finally asked just what I had in mind, I said cold beer, he said we can start tomorrow!! We walked away laughing and ran right into them, May said ok, what you two doing and why are you doing it?

    So I explained, Sandy said all that trouble for a cold beer? And shook her head. Then busted out laughing and ask Harv when he could start? A barrel of laughs a minute.

Next morning we moved out and into the camper, Harvey and three of his people showed up and after moving their drilling stuff off the ridge where they were done working stone they hit it on the cave.

    I told the girls I’d be back later and walked away, they asked where I was going and I said to see Charley

    They passed me like I was standing still, Beth took my arm and walked with me, I asked her if she was ok, she said yes just tired out easy, but no morning sickness thank got, she was getting a bit of a baby bump and when we were all in bed for the night we all put our hands on it and just seemed to gat something from it, Beth laughed at us but liked it.

    We got there to find them sitting in the jeep which I had forgotten about, it was all clean and shiny, they had been busy, I told both of them I was not riding in the cramped up this unless I was driving, first they got mad, then tried the pout thing then promised to be very careful but neither of them will ever be poker players. I took the keys and said where are the weapons, they looked funny and took off and came back with our rifles and extra ammo, I took the bib Bob from the dodge and we were off.

    It wasn’t the dodge but with only the bikini top on it was nice and breezy. We rolled along at about sixth MPH which was a good speed and the whole area looked different without the sides mostly blocked.

    We pulled in and for once we fooled Charley, he didn’t know the Jeep but greeted us as we unloaded. The girls all went to him and held his hand a moment, Beth the longest, he smiled a beautiful smile and said Good!! Very good!

    They headed in while Charley and I sat in the shade, we talked about everything, the house, the jeep, the reefer cave which I could see interested him so I went into it even more. I said if he wanted the set up I would take care of it. He said he needed to talk to Old Woman but would let me know.

    I told him we needed some big logs for shoring up the reefer room and if we could get them closer it would be good. He said no problem we could take them off the land a big rancher claimed. I asked who we needed to talk to, he said him, the big rancher was flying when the EMP happened. We both laughed because he had been a prick to the people whom his grand father has screwed out of the land. What goes around comes around.

    He said lets steal the jeep and go look for logs! Which we did. It was only about twenty miles to the gate and another five or so the ranch house where several of the people had moved in, these were some who moved back to the land ahead of the sickness that still hadn’t showed up.

   We drove on after Charley greeted them and explained what we were about. We climbed higher until we hit timber line and there we found some huge Pine trees,perfect fpor the beams. We headed back and was back sitting in the shade when Beth came out to get us to eat, they didn’t even know we had gone or so I thought. May said well will the pine trees work? Sandy laughed and Beth shook her head and said why do you try John? Caught again.

    After eating lunch we headed home to line up the logging crew, these logs were gonna be heavy because they were green, I talked to Harvey about it and his idea was to go up and fall them and buck then into the lengths we needed and leave them to dry until needed.

    It wasn’t much but it was better then nothing so the next day I headed back up with Harv and two of his boys or somebody’s boys, they all bred true so it was hard to say.

    They had a pair of chain saws and once we were there it was even easier then I hoped, these were huge trees and it only took four to bake all the beams we needed for now. 

    When they were bucked up they cut the limbs into firewood lengths for Charles people to burn. We filled the truck with the fire wood and headed down to the house where we unloaded it with help from the men. They nodded as did we and we headed home.

    Harv had some of the older boys doing the drilling while he and his clansmen were up on the ridge, They had the roof on which was a surprise, they had used tongue and groove Knotty pine 2x6  and it was ready for the roofing metal, I asked Harv where this stuff came from, he said the Fort guys were bringing it over in the reefer trailers,.

    What Reefer trailers I asked? He said the ones parked at our place, with a smile, he said it was a surprise they had cooked up, he also said the Fort folks were the worlds greatest scavengers! He said they had more crap squirreled away then could be believed and were hauling in more every week since it was at least that long for them to go out and get back since they had cleaned out everything for many miles around.

    The roofing metal was colored in a shade I remembered as Sage which blended in very well and with the stone work the whole thing was hard to see except against the sky where the form stood out. It was beautiful. And I was feeling guilty again, Harv knew me well enough to know what I was thinking, he said to stop it because if it wasn’t for me most of these folks would be dead they knew it. I still felt guilty but was gonna have to live with it.

    Harv said ya know John if push ever comes to shove this place will shelter everybody here from an attack and nobody will get up here if you don’t want them to. I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it and could see where he was coming from and knowing the girls they 105’s would be here flanking their own LAV. Yea this place would be a tough nut to crack. So I felt better about it.

    By the end of the week the boys had drilled everywhere Harv had laid out and Harvs brother James laid the charges and we all cleared the area.

All we got was a thump felt more then heard and dust blowing out the door opening, when that stopped we went in and I couldn’t believe it, the small room was a huge room! The canyon boys got into hauling out the rubble and found their “moms” waiting to show them where to put the rocks as they had plans for them. We all pitched in and before days end the room was cleared.

    Some shelving and rood supports and it was ready for the cooler unit. We headed up the next day with the trailer to load the logs which wasn’t as easy as it sounds, we had ramps to roll them up and since they were all ten footers we let them hang over on each side.

    We got it done with some scrapes and one mashed thumb nail already turning black. Harv took a bic lighter and heated his knife point red hot and set it on the nail where it melted right thru and blood shot out and almost instantly the pain was gone compared to the way it was. I’d seen it done with a paper clip and it is the best way to go with a black nail, let the blood out and relieve the pressure.

    We decided to let the logs dry more so the beams wouldn’t warp and twist which was fine with me. The girls had been very quiet and out of sight a lot lately and I was starting to worry but that evening I found out why. They told me to go shower and we would eat after I got back. Fine, so I did. After I was dressed they kept me waiting forever while they debated what to wear, being smart I kept my mouth shit and after an hour or more they were dressed and I might say looking very nice, I asked why the dress up, they said it was just a girl thing and lead me out of the trailer where I found a crowd of everybody from the area, all three canyons worth! And all yelled

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!!” And proceeded to sing it, I was happy and grateful and embarrassed all at the same time.

    I looked at the girls and Beth held up my drivers lic. And said damn John I thought you were younger then this!

    All to a huge laugh, I smiled a gotcha smile and patted her tummy and said well I’m not too old I guess! The crowd went wild! We then trooped to the community cooking area for a feast! There was everything one could want, I asked how in hell they had got all this done without me seeing it. And I looked at Harv and said you fart! Getting another big laugh, he had run my ass all over the whole countryside keeping me out of the way.

   There was an entire roasted calf from the Bremmers, they had cooked it at home and brought it over while I was being delayed.

   I said there best not be a roasted hog and got more laughs. I heard the sound of vehicles and wondered, then the motors stopped and here come the Navajo Nation followed by Bear and Harry and their ladies!! I was blown away.

    After everybody settled down with drinks before eating I asked why my birthday was so important and one of the ladies said John, you brought us all here to this wonderful place, you in a sense led us to the promised land, You have fought and put your life on line more then any of us, all because you see it as a duty and that’s enough. We all love you John and we love these wild cats they are keeping you young and Beth for bringing you a child, so this is why we are honoring you and this day from now on will be John’s day and a feast day.

    Well I was humbled to sat the least and I had no words just a lump in my throat too big to swallow. So I raised my glass and said to the good people of Navajo country for allowing us to live here in their heart land!

   I had never seen Old Woman anyplace besides her kitchen yet here she was walking up to me and holding out a silver and turquoise necklace and smiling real big she said “ Thank you John for your kindness to my people and for your help in fighting our enemies, and for being a role model for our young men. All in perfect English. I was flat out blown out of my boots. Even the girls had open mouths, She finished by saying thank you for bringing these delightful wives of yours to us.

    The yelling and laughing went on for a long while, I reached for the necklace but she stopped me and said turn around and stoop down, I did and she put it on me then turned me around and smiled and said you may now hug me! And I did, gently and for a long time and I had tears running down my cheeks, she wiped them away and said

“ What’s a lady got to do to get a drink around here??” and that brought the house down!

    I swear the party, was still going on when the sun came up, there was native drumming and a big fire that lit the canyon as it did eons ago when these people celebrated whatever they found worthy.

     Old Woman was the center of the women who were all listening to her like she was a teacher which I found out later from Charley she was! His mom was one of the first Navajo women to graduate from college with a teaching degree. I would never have guessed. What a wonderful woman. I also found out “Old Woman” was more of a title and since she was called that for so many years it just stuck, I didn’t find out her name.

    Most of us slept where we dropped and woke up to bad heads and a thirst that wouldn’t quite. I got up and walked to the waters edge and peeled off my clothes and jumped in and had a heart attack, well not really but close, I came up gasping. Fkn desert water shouldn’t be this cold! I floated for a while and watched others coming down to fall in, the best hangover cure, now for some coffee.

    The girls refused to get wet and of course Beth wasn’t drinking and the girls don’t much anyway, they had spent the evening being astounded by the Old Woman who spent the evening telling them all about her life. So the coffee was ready for us when we staggered out of the water. I wrapped up in a blanket and shivered while trying to cool the boiling coffee. In time there was breakfast made up from leftover’s heated and stuff like eggs and hot cakes too. After we ate we laid down and slept again, it was a birthday to remember.

    Most of the guests headed home the next day, The Texas crew stayed several days looking things over and asking questions. Their wives spent most of their time with the women just watching and asking questions.

    Finally one evening as we set by the water I asked Harry and Bear what they had in mind. Both sat a moment and looked at each other and shrugged, Bear made a you first gesture to Harry. He thought a moment more and said Well John, we are thinking about making a move and we all decided if we liked it here and if you’ll have us we would like to move here.

    I won’t say I was surprised, Both men were showing restless signs and being pinned down sitting on the “Border” of the New Republic of Texas had to be tiring.

    Bear added that he and his wife wanted to get their kids to move also because they too believed things were getting ready to really go into the crapper. Harry and his wife didn’t have kids but both had family that they wanted to move too but it was looking like none of them wanted to.

    I told them both they were welcome as were their families, but I added that when we shut down entry it would apply to everybody, family or not, we couldn’t and would not rish the whole area because somebody wanted to wait until the end was upon them.

    Both men said they understood that and if need be they would stand at the dead line with rifles to turn back even their own kin. Hard but good men, no bullshit with them.

    Bear smiled and said besides John you’re having way too much fun running around out here dealing with scumbags and speaking for myself I wanna get some! I laughed and said bring a note from Mrs. Bear first, he stopped smiling. Harry and I laughed.

    That night the girls and I had piled into the ever smaller camper and they told me that Harry and Bears ladies wanted to move, mostly the same story I had gotten but Sandy said Mrs Bear had said Bear was going crazy to get out and cowboy around with the other boys and if she let him go I had to promise to sit on him so he didn’t get killed. I laughed and said good luck with sitting on that big shit! Sandy said yea I know so I promised her I would control him. Now that I agreed with, if anybody could control that big bastard it was little Sandy.

    The next morning while the girls were cooking breakfast in the trailer I rounded up the refugees and brought them to eat. While eating I said we wanted them to come join us and welcome! Relatives included as long as they fit in with our life style, if not they could move on further down the lake.

    All agreed with that and Harry asked if it wouldn’t bebetter if they did as the others and moved into a close canyon of their own like Bremmers and Harv’s clan had.

    I said that would work since we were all close in case of trouble so we headed out on the Pontoon boat looking for a home for them, and we found a nice place up lake from us they wouldn’t have a creek but they had a whole lake to get water from and since the boat traffic had ended it was cleaning up really well. They could use Berkey water filtering units for drinking water as we do.

    All in all they would have maybe at the outside twenty five people counting them. They were leaving right away to get things moving. I told them to call Charles commo to give us a heads up when they were on the way.

    We needed a commo tower to get better radio service here, that was a problem that needed fixing.

    I had taken Harry aside and asked him to try to contact the Homestead and see if they might want to move too. I was worried about them but I also knew Rick and Sheri were not gonna leave their homes and all the work they had done. Plus they were pretty well set up and could defend themselves till hell freezes over.

    The work on the reefer cave was going very well, the boys were squaring up the walls and as soon as the beams were ready they would be ready to put them in.

    Harv checked the logs and said “lets make beams!” So they fired up the saw and got with it. I’m not sure Pine is the right kind of wood for support beams but these were gonna be some big beams, they were gonna average out at 12” beams, that should hold since there really wasn’t a lot of over burden on top, maybe 6 to 8 feet. But we wouldn’t want to have a cave in that crushes the beer.

    Three days later the reefer cave had not only beams it had ¾ inch plywood above the support timbers and shelving from the excess logs. This sawmill was gonna be worth it’s weight in gold! Hell more so because at the moment gold was pretty far down the list. I figured Harv was gonna be training some of their older boys in the fine art of saw milling lumber.

    After the cold cave was done on the inside the gear heads took over and started their part which was installing the cooling unit, I stayed out of the way because I know jack shit about it and they said they would charge double if I watched. It took longer to get the cooling stuff working then it did to cut the logs, haul them home, dry them, make timbers out of them and finish the inside.

    But the day came when they said ok and threw the power switch on the Propane unit and it started doing it’s thing. I won’t go into the whole thing but I guess there is a generator that fires the compressor or some such. I’m a shooter, I don’t under shit that don’t go bang or boom. All I want is cold beer!

    We put a few cases inside and shut the insulated door they built and waited two hours and went in and found exploded cans from freezing, back to the drawing board.

    They finally decided to turn the thermostat all the way up and start there, two hours later the beer was almost too cold to drink, almost being the operative wording. But we couldn’t stay in there and drink it or we would become peoplecicles, we may have to figure out a way to warm things a bit.

    One of the gear heads said maybe with more volume in the cave it would change things??? Nobody knows. But we can experiment and see what we get. Mean time anybody can wait a couple of minutes for the beer to warm up to a good drinking temp. Life’s good in the canyons! 

    It suddenly dawned on me the girls had been very absent since we got up this morning so I set out looking for them and after an hour I had checked every where I could think of except the “airport” as we referred to the place Ralph parked his birds.

    I asked him if he had seen the girls and he started fidgeting which was a dead giveaway so I asked again with more statement then question. He licked his lips and his eyes twitched but he finally admitted that while he had helped them hee had also told them it wasn’t a good idea.

    I was working at not losing my temper when way off in the distance I heard a sound that once heard is never forgotten, I stared at him until he confessed they had talked him into helping mount an M-60 on the Jeep roll bar and they were out in the canyons playing “ Rat patrol” which he admitted was his fault because he told them about the old TV show by the same name where the Army was fighting the Germans in the desert and used jeeps with machine guns mounted on steel poles and ran around flying thru the air over sand dunes spraying the area with bullets.

    I was still listening to the gun roaring away and figured they would have to come back to reload on ammo pretty soon. While I was at it I walked over to look at the chopper since I barely remember flying home in it but I sure remember seeing two guns mounted in the doors, the guns were gone but the rigging was there, not a bad set up in fact, Ralph used heavy bungie cords to hang the gun on and had rigged up a harness system for the gunner to keep them from falling out during hard banks.

    Ralph had come over to the bird with me and explained the set up, I was impressed, I also told him I wasn’t mad about the jeep gun it was just that they took every thing in life and made a toy out of it then played with it until they broke it and only pure luck so far had prevented them from breaking themselves. He agreed but said they were really hard to say no to. How well I know that.

    I asked if Beth went along with it? He sighed and said Beth was driving. I swear I’m gonna super glue their feet to the floor of the new house.

    The distant gun fore had stopped and here they come flying uo the road and the jeep leaving the ground on every little hump in the road. Beth was driving and with her long hair blowing out behind her and the huge smile on her face and the same for the main two delinquents I had to smile, they are hard to say no to and harder to be mad at.

    Beth locked the breaks up and cut the wheel and slid to a stop in front of us. She bailed out and arms around my neck jumped up and wrapped her legs around me and said “ I’ve been bad daddy you need to spank me and laughed so hard she needed a pat on the back, they other two were standing there one on each side of the gun leaning on the roll bar with  dirty faces and big smiles.

God knows they are wild and crazy and may kill themselves at any moment but they will die laughing and trying to out do each other. I sat Beth down and said ok bail out you witches I wanna try it! Ralph was handing them belts of ammo when I climbed in. Beth got behind the wheel and after I was in the makeshift harness off we went, Sandy sitting with Beth in front and May standing by me to feed the belts.

    We roared down a dry wash and May pointed out the rocks that were pockmarked from their other runs, I opened fore and went wild! Before I knew it I was out of ammo, three full belts worth, May was a damn good ammo man, she linked the belts together while maintaining her balance and feeding the belt.

    We rolled back to the hanger which is a brush arbor and parked in time to be greeted by Harv with a bucked of cold beer, even the girls had one, Beth took some of mine then snagged a drink from her “ Sisters” or “co-wives” whatever. Sandy said get your own but Beth said this way I’m not really drinking I’m just sipping, Sandy smiled and said well shit have another sip!

    God they are a riot, tomorrow the jeep would be today’s toy and they would be getting into something else.

    I told them about the frozen busted beer and how that project was going, May, ever the engineer said well stack the beer close to the door and up on a shelf where the temp will be higher, I could only shake my head, so simple it takes a PHD to figure it out in 1.02 nano seconds.

    I could see I was gonna steal the information and look really good when I figured out the solution to the problem. But I forgot Harv was standing there, another good chance shot in the ass.

    I told them after they cleaned the gun and put it away and turned the brass and links over to the two old armory farts they could come have another beer, they said since I shot it last I could clean it, I reminded them I was the Elder and the Husband and the General! And got pelted with empth and not so empty beer cans. No respect. I helped them with the gun since none of them knew shit about it except load and shoot, that part they had down pat.

    It was bum at the fires night so off we went, our donation was buckets full of very cold beer, we were greeted with cheers. Life is good in the canyons, have I mentioned that?

    That evening before dark we walked up to the castle in the ridge and walked thru it. To say it’s beautiful would be an unforgivable mistake, it’s beyond that mere word. And it’s just a few days from being ready to move into, there are things like water but they have a plan, also furniture but they have another plan, and some lighting of some kind and they don’t have a plan for that. They say I need to contribute something to the place so lights is my thing. Sigh.

    We headed down to the camper and got our shower stuff since we were covered with dust from Rat Patrolling and off we went.

    Showering in a big shower room with several different heads is nice except they all have to crowd under the same one, but it makes showering very interesting.

    We used the propane stove in the trailer to make coffee and settled down for the night. Walker was crushing something in his jaws, Since the boys have been restricted from hunting within half a mile it opened up prime hunting for Walker, he don’t comprehend the term “Half Mile Safety Zone”. I went to sleep with my coffee on my chest and felt the cup being removed from my hand and that’s all I knew until daybreak.

    I woke up with one warm body in my arms, it’s fun to keep my eyes closed and to figure out who it is. Later Sandy and I joined the girls at the communal fires for breakfast. Oat meal with butter and brown sugar and a hand full of raisins for me, Beth and May will sometimes put raisins in their oat meal but Sandy will cut off her thumbs before she will eat one, she says they are decayed grapes which makes me laugh and the other people wanna stone her. Good breakfast talk!

    There is so much we need to start growing or trying to grow, grapes is one, and raspberry’s hell anything berry and fruit trees

    I guess we need a road that don’t involve killing people and burning down cities. A trip to gather things to grow, create life instead of taking it. I decide to have a talk with our resident green thumb, a lady named Mable.  She’s black as the inside of a chunk of coal and has the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen, like a panther I guess, We got her away from slavers and she stepped right into the life style.

She had many suitors but seemed to be waiting for Mr. right, she said she had a couple of Mr. wrongs and wasn’t going down that road again. She can grow anything so I’m gonna ask her, Beth came along with me but I told the girls they could jeep all they want but no more running thru 10,000 rounds of ammo.

    They fooled me, they were heading to the reloading dump to help reload their recovered brass. I reminded them that powder and primers and bullets aren’t being made these days.

    It’s a waste of time because they got an entire truck load from Barstow. I’m not sure what all they have since they are pretty close mouthed about it. “Their Trucks” are parked and covered and the mech crew in fear of their lives haven’t allowed anybody near them.

    Beth and I found Mable in her garden, talking to her plants, she also sings to them. We all love our Mable. She could make a rock smile.

    She took a break in the shade of a tree she waters every day and it looks like it’s happy as a clam at high tide. I explain what I’m thinking and she shakes a finger at me and says “Ain’t nothing like a good man finding out he gonna be a daddy to make him start paying attention to real life.” Beth laughed and I said “Oh shit Mable knock off the Aunt Jemima routine” which cracks her up but she settles down and then talks like the very well educated lady she is.

    She did say again that she was glad I was thinking with the big brain for a change, I sighed. Then we got down to it, she already had a list she had been planning to talk to me about between city burnings ( ha ha ha still being funny) She went for the list and showed me and I handed it to Beth who looked it over real close and asked a lot of questions about “Will this grow here?” or wow it would be great to have these growing!!

    My two bits worth was ok, lets go find this stuff, Mable said have you bothered to ask that bunch of land pirates hanging out in that prison? Head slap and a quiet under the breath “shit” ( stop cussing!!) Shut up!! ( giggles).

    Mable said them girls gonna drive you crazy if you don’t clean up your act John! I looked funny I guess and she said John everybody here know they in your head, My god boy when you gonna smarten up?  Beth laughed and I sighed. I don’t understand it I said. Mable said well no shit John, nobody else do either but it don’t change a thing. I said uh your slipping back into the Auntie J routine again. She laughed and said sorry John but I love jerking your chaine too.

    So I was gonna get on the radio and see if we had any seed and other garden stuff. Mable said come on I’ll go along coz sure as god done made dem lil green apples you gonna screw it up, I swear white folks is sumptin else.

    Beth was laughing so hard she had tears, I was worried about her tummy jiggling too much for the baby. She patted my hand and said chill out white boy then her and Mable were off laughing again.   

    Well once again I’m proving I’m not a leader. Not only is there like a ton of seeds at the fort, they have every fruit tree they can find planted and growing, I asked about winter and they said “ Uh green houses duh? I said we would be there tomorrow and signed off. I was feeling pretty stupid but Mable said John you have life and death problems facing you almost daily, how are you gonna think of everything?

    With those words ringing in my head I put out the word to all the people in all canyons to come to a feed and a meeting, then informed the ladies we were hosting a meal this evening. I think a few years ago they would have killed me, now they just wondered off talking about who was gonna do what. I really can’t believe the change in all of us.

    By late afternoon everybody was drifting in on boats of every type even those amusement park paddle boats where you sit and peddle like a bike. We find fun where we can.

    After we had eaten I stood up and explained how the day went with the gardening thing and how Mable had wanted to do this but didn’t mention it and I wanted to avoid this in the future, I explained that no one person can be in charge of everything and we needed a central place for people to bring their wants and needs or ideas so we could get to it.

    Beth spoke up and said since she was going to be moving slower pretty soon she would be the central fixer and that all they had to do was write it out and “FAK” it. That got their attention. She smiled and said “ Write it out and “ Find a Kid!” send it to me and I’ll get to working on it. Everybody was laughing and talking about “FAKing” but it made sense, the kids were all over the place so one could run or boat a message easy. And just like that another problem solved. By Mable and Beth.

    We sat around and shared some cold beers and talked until it was just light enough for folks to get home before dark, goodbyes and they were off.

    The girls were excited about learning to load ammo but they said they get it on wasting it after a day of working the presses.

    The girls headed for the camper and I sat with Joe and Willy for a while talking about nothing, Willy is worried about the plague, Joe’s wife told him today she’s gonna have a baby! Her and Beth about the same time, I asked why he was just telling us and he said they just wanted to have it to themselves a while. Me and Willy laughed at him but we both shook his hand. I swear he was red in the face.

    I guess I would have been but I was out for three days and got the news as a jilt to wake me up. But I knew how he felt, so I said Joe don’t worry, the world went to hell but we are rebuilding it and can you think of a better place to bring a baby into the world then right here? He agreed and did look relieved.

    I headed to the camper and wondered where I was gonna sleep since they were sprawled all over the bed but they did let me squeeze in. I waited a bit and said “ Joes gonna be a daddy. It was quiet for a moment and all three sat right up and turned on the 12 volt light and started pounding on me asking why I hadn’t said anything, I said coz I found out five minutes ago! Jeeze.

    Now sleep was set aside for plans for a “ baby coming party” I went to sleep, and woke up alone, I mean really alone, and feeling a bit hurt about it, then the door flew open and they all jumped on the bed and talking at once never noticed I was there. I thought of those old kings who had a hundred wives and five hundred concubines and wondered how they did it, They lived else where that’s how!

    We had to get moving because we were going garden shopping today so while I hooked up the gooseneck they went after Mable and then I realized we needed more room so Sandy and May said they would drive the jeep! Mable said she wanted to ride in the jeep so off we went, I made them stay in front of us so I could keep an eye on them. But they fooled me coz I saw May stand up and reach over the seat and raise up the M-60 and place it on the roll bar while Beth laughed, I said they had this planned didn’t they? She said yep and she was sworn to secrecy. I sighed.

    As I watched Mable stood up and placed the harness around her waist and swung the gun back and forth but I could see there was no ammo in it but I’d bet there was a mile of belted 308’s in the Jeep. My sweet little loving wives were ahead of me as usual. Beth said they just wanted to show it off to the Fort people, that I could understand, what’s the sense of women getting shiny’s if they can’t show them off?

    But a fkn m-60 on a jeep? Why not a ring or some other girly bling? Beth scooted over and leaned against me and said John they are just living the life they never could have had the lights not gone out. I knew and I often wondered how with so much death and misery all over the world from our stand point it was an improved world? That seemed so wrong in so many ways.

    I used to say that when any species over bred it’s habitat that Mother Nature would solve the problem and that mankind was there and Mother Nature was gonna shake us off one day. But we did it to ourselves. And this plague might be the icing on the cake. Time would tell.

    We got to the Fort and were greeted as usual like we hadn’t just been there a while back, the girls headed off looking for the storage crew to show them the jeep while Beth and Mable got with Mr’ wipple as I can only think of him. He took his papers and off they went in the golf cart with me following along.

    Suffice to say we made a haul, we had every fruit and nut tree known to man with burlap covered root balls and a ton of garden tools and a ton of seeds of every kind on the frigging planet.

    Mable was smiling from ear to ear. We even got a couple of big roto tillers and the promise of a new John Deere tractor if we wanted it with all the tools for working land. This was turning into a lot of farm work and as I know I pointed out I’m not a farmer.

Beth patted my arm and whispered calm down love, Mable is the farmer, let her run free! And run free she did! One one of her trips she threw her arms around me and said OH John!! Thank you thank you!!! I didn’t know what to say so I just hugged her back. And she was gone again.

    The girls came back grinning and I got worried but they were just proud that they had the idea of getting a towing hitch put on the jeep and had found a 12 foot trailer to help haul stuff, I swear they are growing up! ( HA!! Watch it buddy!) shit ( stop cussing!) sigh.

    We settled in for the day and had a great meal. Mable had toured the entire place and glanced at the piles of gold and other stuff but spent hours going thru the green houses and gardens, I could see the wheels turning and before I could say a word Sandy said Mable guess what!!!??? Mable just shook her head and May said tomorrow the storage guys will be bringing your green houses over and will help set them up! I swear Mable almost cried. It’s good to make people happy and Mable loved her gardening but knew she needed more and now she had it! I smile!

    Next morning at breakfast Mable said well that’s the first time I slept in a prison next to a gajillion dollars worth of gold!  Sandy said OH? Did you miss all the silver and diamonds and other stuff too? Mable just shook her head and went back to eating.

    We rolled out followed by the storage guys driving a big diesel truck pulling a big trailer. When we got home they asked Mable where she wanted her garden shed? She asked what shed? That one pointing at the 40 ft box trailer, They said they were gonna take the wheels off and drop it onto some beams they had, leaving her a super shed! They worked it out and with everybody helping out we got it done before dark. We did have to unload it first and stack things out of the way. When we got the green houses out there stood a small garden tractor with all the goodies to work small truck gardens. It was a Kubota with a diesel eng. Gardening had just gotten easier!

Standing aside I whispered to Beth that I thought there might be some romance going on as one of the guys was really taking an interest in Mable as well as her garden. Beth said yep she had seen that too.

    I knew Willard was married but Wilson wasn’t, so maybe. After they were done Mable invited them to her fire for supper and Wilson jumped at the offer while Wilber said he was going to visit a friend so we took off and left them alone.

    I for one hoped the smoke had a tiny bit of fire under it, the girls said they knew Mable would make the right decision and it was her business, I said ok, I’ll shut up getting me smiles.

    To make a long story short, Wilson stayed to help get the tractor set up and working then to get the green houses set up and never left. Well he did go back to get his personal stuff but Mable went with him and they brought back a lot of things to make their plans go better.

    Everybody was happy for them and two weeks later there was a wedding Canyon style and a feast. Life is pretty good here in the canyons in case I never mentioned that.

    Oh, a word on canyon style weddings, the happy couple simply stand and pledge to love and honor each other until they can’t or they die. We all know nothing is permanent anymore and people can either live with each other or not, but nobody wants to remain in a relationship if they are unhappy and here it’s not necessary. Yet with the easy out things seem to last, I think because the only “issues” are maybe getting killed in a fire fight, everything else is pretty well nothing. Plus there isn’t the push to be successful, just remaining alive is success enough.

    Plus we are surrounded with people who are true friends and who are where they want to be. I guess or at least that’s what I think.

   The mechanics had worked on the cooling system and found a way to turn the temp up some so now the beer was cold and nothing was freezing.

    Now we could hang a beef or deer and just use it as we needed it, one of the guys had some abilities as a meat cutter so he would cut up the meat in the proper manner and put it in pans on the shelves, the cooks just went in and got what they wanted. It works so it’s good.

    We pitched in and helped Harvey’s clan and the Bremmers with building their cold storage and now everybody has cold beer! Well and meat kept fresh until it was eaten.

     Harvey’s building crew decided to build entry ways into the cold rooms so you can go in and shut one door then open another thus keeping the cold in and the heat out, great idea. I was thinking a room off the cold room maybe a cool room with comfy chairs would be nice, a great place to drink beer and nap.

    That got shot down by “them”. Sometimes I feel like I’m being controlled! ( laughter) Shit! ( Stop cussing! The baby can hear you!) WHAT???… sigh.

    Well it’s been a busy few months, we tracked down the Bad guy and he’s now the former bad guy. We have a new home to move into and the whole area is getting organized to the point I hope it stops. To much organization leads to problems we don’t need. We have pleant of time to play or read or study, nobody is killing themselves unless they just want to. Mable has found her a wonderful man who is at her side every minute of the day working right with her, Those two are going to feed the whole damn area and are so happy doing it. I hate farming.

    I did find time to remember poor Bucks ear and went to see him, he seems to think we are bonded brothers since we both have parts of our ears shot off. Promised to take a ride later, he said no shooting!! I love old Buck! Rab and the Horse with no name are crowding in for attention and I notice them looking over my head and know I have company.

    They come marching up and ask when Beth gets her own horse? I said I guess when she says she wants one and should she be riding? I was informed riding is good exercise for a woman who’s PG.

    Now I didn’t come in on the last banana boat and I know when I’m being played and this is more about a trip to Charles then a horse for Beth. But I say ‘Well I guess we need to bring Charley in on this so we get a really good one. First they frown then after deciding I’m not being a smart ass they smile.

    So off we go to see Charley and Old Woman which is what they really wanted in the first place, I wonder why they don’t just say what they really want? ( because it’s fun to beat you up?) Shit ( stop cussing the baby can hear you!)

To my readers, I kind of cut this one short because it wanted to end here? I have no idea why it just did.

    So if it feels short it is, by about a thousand or so words. I hope nobody feels cheated.

    TJ