Timberline

by T J Reeder

  She gathered a small bit of wood for a fire and dug a pit for it to help shield the light from it. She was thinking of everything.

  Around midnight she was ready to go. She hugged me, kissed me and told me to be good and not to chase loose women. What a kidder! And just like that she was gone. That damn bike was so quiet it was like a ghost whispering. I watched her with the night glass until she was out of sight, then all I could do was wait. Molly- sweet ever-loving Molly came up and lay with me and I knew I could rely on her to warn me of trouble.

  Every minute moved like an hour. I dozed off and would jerk awake scared for a moment. Molly would just look at me and wag her tail. Sometime after moon rise such as it was I caught a hint of movement and looked thru the night viz.

  It was an animal sniffing around the bodies. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I figured a coyote. I watched the critter for a bit because if anybody was around it would take off damn fast.

  I was filled with fear for Sandy. I felt helpless and pissed off and weak. I wanted another drink of JW but knew that was the last thing I needed. I ate one of the candy bars from Sandy’s stash and that helped, swigged some water and splashed some on my face. That woke me up. I was freezing and decided I needed to light the fire and did so.

  I kept it small, and rocks on the other side reflected the heat back on me. It was a small thing, but worth its weight in gold. I must have dozed off, because I snapped awake when I heard Molly growl.

  Grabbing the NV, I looked all around and spotted two shapes moving toward the rocks- both armed and moving quiet. They were checking the bodies and taking whatever there was on them, thieves and murderers. No mercy.

  After making sure they weren’t a diversion I eased the 16 into place and when I thought it was aimed right I opened up with full auto and hosed the area and was rewarded with screams.

  Looking thru the NV showed both down and only one moving and him not much. I checked the area again and looked for Molly but she was gone; under the truck most likely. Buck was looking up at me but didn’t seem bothered.

  I kept a watch with the NV until the sky turned gray, and figured if they were gonna come again it would be right at first light, so I made sure everything was loaded and where I could grab it. It was now dawn and I could see them coming. Three trucks loaded with shooters, so I decided to use the 308 and stop them way the hell out there.

  I lined up the crosshairs on the driver’s side of the windshield of the first truck and taking a deep breath I let half out and started the squeeze, when the truck stopped and Sandy jumped out waving old glory.

  I was able to wipe the tears away before they got there and was looking pretty tough for a guy with a hole in his ass. Sandy came bounding up the rocks like a mountain goat and threw herself on me, causing a groan to escape. She just called me a sissy and hugged me tighter. Where’s the compassion for the wounded hero?

  Several of the men were checking out the bodies, when Sandy noticed two extras and looked at me. I shrugged and smiled. She just said, “Nice shooting for an old cripple.” Love truly is blind.

  Willy helped carry me down and got me loaded in the trailer bed, then helped load the animals while Sandy fussed at me. They had a doctor with them and he checked my wound and gave me a pain killer shot that helped it a lot.

  We rolled out with Sandy lying beside me and Willy driving, and we returned to Santa Rosa where the Doc spent about thirty minutes digging the bullet out of my ass and giving me way too many shots.

  He said the bone wasn’t touched, but there was a lot of muscle damage so I’d be here a while. Needless to say I plan to spend the time working out the plan for the hunter group.

  This ends the second part of “A Long Lonely Road, Timberline.”

  I had planned to stop this with John and Sandy getting to Texas, but I started thinking about the fact that some folks just need killing, and if this was real, I’d say it was time to stop coddling the asswipes and just bury them.

  So please, if I haven’t bored you to tears stick around for the next book with the adventures of John and Sandy as they head into a scary new world.

  TJR