Finally, the family gathered around the truck as Holt locked the house door and then joined them. “Back here with me, Holt,” Sterling said. “The rest can fit in the cab.”
Just another two minutes and Jennie was taking a roundabout way out of town. Though they saw a few people, none were from the group that had tried to take the last of the milk. “You think they’ll burn my place?” Hoyt asked Sterling as Jennie headed up the track to the retreat.
“I don’t know, Holt. I hope not. You can’t have brought everything you want from there in this load.”
“The important things. I’d like to move back in, if they don’t burn us out.”
“I wouldn’t count on that, Holt,” Sterling said. “You might want to consider us going back and getting the rest of your stuff.”
“But where will we live? We can’t sponge off you for long. No one has that much food.”
“You’ll be okay. We do have a limited amount of food stored, but we have gardens and a greenhouse, and stock. We can produce food.”
“Oh. The milk. And the eggs. You obviously have milk cows and chickens…”
“Beef on the hoof and pork, too. Rabbits and fish, along with the milk, chicken, and eggs.”
“Wow! I wasn’t aware a new farm had gone in.”
“We were… discrete.”
Holt’s eyes widened. “Survivalists!”
“Preppers,” Sterling replied. “We’re preppers. Never had a thought of trying to overthrow the government, or go up against them in any way. We’re hoping that those that were in government positions will try to continue the work that is possible, and have the next elections just as scheduled.”
“That’s only about three years away. You think the country can recover that quickly?”
“Lot of good Americans died, but a lot of good ones survived. I think it can be done, once it is started.”
They were at the gate to the final stretch of the track up to the retreat. Sterling hopped out of the back of the truck and opened the gate. Jennie drove through and waited on Sterling to relock the gate and get back in the bed of the truck.
Holt’s face fell slightly when Jennie pulled the truck up to Sterling’s shop building. “Don’t worry,” Sterling told him, seeing the look. You won’t be living in the shop.”
Holt looked sheepish, and then surprised when Jennie got out of the truck with the rest of his family and led them to an incongruous looking small building. It was the main entrance to the shelter.
“Come on,” Sterling said. “I’ll show you around before we unload.
Sterling found the family milling around slightly in the common room as Jocko and Jennie talked just out of earshot. Almost out of earshot. Sterling could easily make out that Jocko was very angry, and explaining the anger to Jennie.
“This way,” Sterling said, Holt and his family to his section of the shelter. “You’ll be staying here, with access to the common area of the shelter. It was built with ten people in mind, so I think you’ll have enough room. It’ll just take me a few minutes and a couple of trips to take the rest of my things up to my apartment over my shop.”
“We don’t want to kick you out,” Holt said hurriedly.
“You’re not. I’ve been living in the apartment for some time now. Just too lazy to move my stuff.
A very demanding “Sterling!” had him turning around to face Jocko. “We have to talk about this! You cannot…”
“Outside, Jocko,” Sterling said, pushing past him.
Jocko glared at Holt and his family and Holt wondered if he’d just gone from the frying pan into the fire. He decided to look around a bit and kill some time before they moved things in.
“What’s your problem, Jocko?” Sterling asked when Jocko came out of the shelter behind him, followed by a distraught looking Jennie.
“You! Giving our food away! Bringing more mouths up here to feed! Are you nuts? We have to keep these goods here for our own use!”
“These goods?” Sterling asked quietly. “Our food? Don’t forget who invited you in and owns over half of what is here.”
“A third. Only a third is yours,” Jocko said angrily.
“Sorry, but no. I had a third, plus the improvements I made on my own property. When Nate died he left me very specific things, amounting to about half of what he brought up here. The other half went to Jennie.”
“I speak for Jennie!” Jocko said his voice still loud, his clenched fists on his hips.
“No, Jocko, you don’t!” Jennie said, stepping forward and declaring herself. “It was my choice to give away that milk and those eggs. You might lay claim to one-half of our original one-third, but Nate was pretty clear in wanting what he left me and Sterling doing the most good for the most people. That included us using a major part of it, but so we could continue to help people. Ten percent of Triple Seven’s trade goods were earmarked for humanitarian aid. Just like ours.”
“Yours,” sneered Jocko. “I never agreed to that and never intended to just give anything away. I… We come first, and then we make a profit on everything else. You don’t like it; I’ll take my share and leave. I can make it on my own with what I’m entitled to. You won’t like it if I leave.”
“Don’t make threats, Jocko,” Sterling said coldly. Jocko was looking menacingly at Jennie.
He turned that look on Sterling. “Stay out of this! You’ve done enough to turn my wife against me!”
“I think you’re right,” Sterling said suddenly, surprising both Jocko and Jennie. “About leaving. Your trailer was never unloaded. Get your personal things out of the shelter and be on your way with the Winnebago, Suburban, and trailer.”
“You can’t make me do anything!” yelled Jocko. His right hand went to the holster on his hip, but he didn’t draw it, seeing Sterling ready to draw his own weapon.
“I wouldn’t,” Sterling said, barely loud enough for Jocko to hear. “Not unless you intend to kill me and are successful. I’ll empty all fifteen rounds in this P-14 into you before I die, if you try to draw that gun.”
“You aren’t good enough,” Jocko said, his face white now, rather than red.
“Try me, Jocko. Just try me.”
After several long moments of the two men staring at one another Sterling spoke again. “Get his pistol, Jennie.”
“You do and I’ll kill you,” Jocko screamed at Jennie, his rage back now. His hand quivered over the grips of his pistol. But he seemed to collapse in upon himself when he looked at Sterling again. Sterling had the P-14 out and aimed at him now. Again Jocko lost color in his face. He made no move to prevent Jennie from taking the Glock he carried from the holster.
“Jennie,” Sterling said now, “Go get the Holt family out of the way. I’ll take Jocko in so he can get what he wants to take with him.” When Jennie hesitated, Sterling cut a quick glance over at her. “Go ahead. It’ll be all right.”
When Jennie moved toward the shelter entrance, Jocko started cursing Sterling and Jennie using some words that Sterling didn’t know. It was a low monotone, but gave the impression of a rattlesnake coiling up to strike.
With everyone out of the shelter, Sterling got behind Jocko and ordered him in. Jocko hesitated, but not for long. One look at Sterling’s face after the diatribe about Jennie convinced him.
Carrying the two large suitcases, Jocko came out of the shelter with Sterling still behind him. Again Jocko was outraged when he saw that Jennie had trained up the motorhome, Suburban, and trailer. All that was left was for Jocko to get in and drive. There would be no chance to try to turn the tables on Sterling in the process of doing that.
“Inside,” Sterling said and followed Jocko into the open side door of the Winnebago, still holding the P-14 steady. Only when they reached the locked gate did Sterling back away from Jocko, though the gun was still pointed at him.
“You’ve got one chance to live, Jocko,” Sterling said, his hand on the door knob of the motorhome door. “That’s to sit there until I open the gat
e and then you drive through. If you have a gun somewhere in here, and try to use it, I’ll kill you like I would a rattler.”
“You’ll get yours, in time, old chum,” Jocko said. He kept his hands on the steering wheel. “I’ll see to it personally. And Jennie, too.”
It took every part of his strength of will not to pull the trigger of the P-14 then. But Sterling held onto his cool, opened the door and stepped out. Holstering the pistol he ran to the gate and unlocked it, glancing at the Winnebago every couple of seconds. Jocko, realizing how close he’d just come to getting shot, sat where he was, his hands on the steering wheel.
When the gate was opened, Jocko floored the accelerator. Sterling easily jumped out of the way as the heavily loaded rig only slowly built up speed.
Sterling watched the rig, going much faster than it should be, considering the condition of the track, disappear at the first turn in the track down from the gate. He turned and walked back to the retreat.
An anxious Jennie was waiting at the yard fence and ran out to meet him. He opened his arms wrapped them around her when she got to him. “I’m so sorry!” she cried. Sterling just held her for a few seconds and then eased her away. Now was not the time to tell her of the torch he’d carried for her for all these years. Not under these circumstances.
Instead, he said, “Let’s go settle the Cumberland’s in and try to reassure them that this isn’t the normal situation here on the Triple Seven Ranch.”
“Sterling,” Jennie asked, “Do you think Jocko will try to get revenge on you?”
He simply lied. “No. I don’t think so.”
It took a while to get the Cumberland family settled in after the double whammy of being run out of their own house in only minutes and seeing Jocko run off the ranch at gunpoint. But settle in, they finally did, more than happy at the accommodations and the much brighter outlook on the food situation. They’d been stretching their supply of food as far as it would go, not knowing when they might ever find any more.
Two weeks passed before the CB sounded off again. The man said his name was Jim Plimpton.
Holt was there and nodded. “He’s a good guy. Wouldn’t go for any kind of ambush or anything.”
“What do you need, Jim?” Sterling asked, after keying the microphone of the CB.
“Any chance of some of that milk and eggs again? I’ll even work double what you usually charge. I have to admit, me and a couple others are in dire straits.”
“At the store, in the morning?” Sterling asked then.
“There’ll be six families for sure. At least, that’s all I’ll tell. On the radio like this, there’s no telling who’s listening.”
“Yep. I’m aware of it,” Sterling replied. “We’ll be there. With bells on. I expect some help from you if there is trouble.”
Jim didn’t respond to that and Holt looked at Sterling with a worried look on his own face.
“You really going into that ambush?”
“Nope.”
“But you said…”
“I know. And we’ll make the delivery. It just won’t be there.”
“Oh. You going to fill me in on the plan?” Holt asked.
“Yeah. Come on. Let’s go get some things ready.”
It worked like a charm. With Jennie and the rest of the Cumberland’s locked down in the shelter, in case Jocko decided to come back while Sterling was gone, Sterling and Holt, Sterling in his big pickup, and Holt in Nate’s little LUV, made the delivery. But not as had been agreed upon.
Sterling took the lead, and went directly to the store where he was to meet Jim and the other families. He could almost smell the ambush. He slowed when he turned into the parking lot but didn’t stop. When several more people stepped out from hiding places, all armed, Sterling spun the wheel and took off.
The thick plates of high tensile steel stopped the bullets that were aimed at the back of the cab and the tailgate. Lengths of high tensile chain hung down in a triple row around the wheel wells to protect the tires, another idea he’d learned from Nate’s stories.
Not surprised to see three vehicles suddenly appear in his side mirrors, Sterling smiled and became the fox in a life and death fox hunt on wheels.
After the hidden vehicles were started up and the ambush party took off after Sterling, Holt drove the LUV onto the parking lot to the group milling around, all the individuals wondering what was going on.
“Any more around?” Holt asked, his rifle in his hands.
Jim shook his head. “They all took off in the cars.”
“Well, let’s hurry up and get this done.”
Thirty minutes later Holt keyed the CB in the LUV and said, “Done, Done and Done.”
“Roger that,” Sterling radioed back and took to the side ditch, and then up the embankment and over, leaving the cars to come to sliding stops, unable to follow the highly capable truck and unable to take another shot, since the truck was now behind a ridge.
Jacob slapped his feed company cap on his leg and glared at Jocko. “You said it would be easy. That he didn’t have the brains of a gopher. Well, he sure played us for suckers. Blew through and no one got milk. He won’t make that mistake again.”
“Shut up, Jacob. If we have to, we’ll take the place.”
“Uh… Jacob?” asked one of the other men. “Uh… another guy… guess it was Holt… he made the milk delivery at the store while we was chasing that truck. They had rabbit and chicken, too. I could sure go for rabbit stew.”
They all turned and glared at Jocko. “I’ll get him. He’ll pay. So will Holt. And that woman.”
“Leave the woman out of this,” Jacob said. “We don’t hold with hurting no women.”
Jocko was about to tell the man off, but the looks on the other men’s faces decided him not to. He’d take care of Jennie, but alone.
Twice in the next two weeks, Jocko attempted to get close enough to the retreat to try and take out Sterling or Holt, or both. Jennie he would do close up and personal. But he and Triple Seven had done an excellent job in picking the land for the retreat. There just wasn’t a good way to approach without being seen, even at night. There always seemed to be someone on watch, even at night.
Both times he was run off by single rifle shots that impacted very close to him. Jocko couldn’t tell if they were warning shots or just missed shots.
He was livid, when in another two weeks, he heard Sterling make another delivery promise to those in Winnemucca. Same place. When Jocko talked it over with Jacob, Jacob was a bit leery of trying to intercept the shipment again.
“Come on, Jacob! What’s the matter with you? What’s he going to do? We’ll just stay out of sight and let him go and catch that traitor Holt in the second truck when he tries to make the swap.”
“Don’t know, Jocko,” Jacob said. “A lot of the guys don’t really like trying to take out the guy that has the best chance of feeding us through the winter. You said yourself that it was a sweet setup and could produce way more food than just what those living there could eat, even in the winter.”
“I’m telling you, with either Sterling or Holt out of the picture, they can’t keep us from going up there and just taking over.”
“Well… We’ll give it another try, I guess,” Jacob replied. He went off to gather what had become a gang.
Jocko, on the other hand, sharpened the knife that Jennie had given him as a gift for his birthday one year. The Cold Steel Oda was razor sharp when he was done, the thoughts of it slicing through Jennie’s skin bringing a smile to Jocko’s face.
On the appointed day, with a very nervous, very large group of people waiting in the parking lot of the grocery store, Jocko, Jacob, and the gang took up ambush positions, much as they had the other time.
And, just like the other time, Sterling’s big pickup came up into the parking lot, slowed, and then rocketed off up the street.
“He can’t be that stupid,” Jacob told Jocko as the two men waited in place for the LUV to show up.
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“He just thinks he smart,” Jocko growled. “No way he’s smarter than me.”
Several minutes passed and the LUV didn’t show up. What did happen was a voice called out and said, “Those wanting to trade for food head to the Red Lion Casino parking lot. Those wanting to take over, just stay where you are.”
The group began to hurry into the street, and toward the Red Lion. Jocko screamed something unintelligible and stepped out from behind the corner of the store. A shot rang out, and Jocko dived back behind the corner of the store.
Another man tried to break cover and another shot sent him scrambling back, too. Expecting to be able to rush out and surround the LUV when it showed up, the gang had chosen hiding spots with that in mind, and not with defense from a roving sniper.
Whoever was shooting was moving after every shot. After a long quiet time, without any of the gang trying anything, and no resulting shots, one of the gang stepped out into the open, his rifle held over his head in both hands.
“Look, mister! I don’t want no more part of this! My family needs food. I’ll trade for it like the others.”
“Harrison,” Jacob muttered.
“Harrison!” Jocko screamed, “You turn on us and I’ll kill you and your family!”
Harrison looked like he was wavering, and Sterling, for it was Sterling that was doing the sniping, shouted, “Take a stand, Harrison! Help me keep these guys pinned down and you’ll have your chance for food, just like the others.”
Jocko lifted his rifle, and before Jacob could stop him, fired a shot at Harrison. But Jocko was shaking with anger and the shot missed. Harrison dived for cover again, this time cover from the gang, his back open and exposed to Sterling.
“I’m in, too!” said another of the gang members. He ran backwards a short ways from where he was, to another safe spot, keeping his rifle pointed at where the rest of the gang was pinned down. No one shot at him.
The Mechanic Page 6