by Ricky Sides
Jim nodded and said, “Yes you told me they were yearlings, but they will be able to breed next year won’t they?”
Bob nodded and said, “Yes, and it’s possible a couple might mature enough to bred this year too, but I doubt it.” Shrugging he said, “Best to deal as if they won’t. The odds are bad agin it.”
Jim stood up and said, “Alright it’s agreed then. If Lacey and Evan like the place, you get the gold for half your stock and thirty for the farm. We can close the deal the moment they see the place and give me their opinion.”
Bob stood up and offered to shake hands with Jim. The two men shook and Bob looked at his fingers making a show of counting them. Smiling, Jim said, “They’re all there, Bob.” Then he laughed and said, “I think maybe I’d best count mine though. As shrewd a trader as you are, you may have gotten a couple of my fingers and I’d not even know it till I missed them.”
Bob laughed and said, “You’re pretty good yourself you know. Not bad at all for a young feller.”
Jim walked into the kitchen and told Lacey that they had a tentative deal but it depended upon whether or not they liked the place. They said goodbye to Mrs. Baker, and thanked her for the food.
They followed Bob to the farm. It wasn’t far away and only took about ten minutes to get there.
Lacey and Evan both fell in love with the place as soon as they saw it. Evan liked the big oak trees that were scattered around the yard near the house. He immediately ran to the old tire swing that someone had set up on one of the oak trees. As far as he was concerned, he had seen enough.
Lacey loved the house. She liked the porch that wrapped around three sides of the house. She also liked the large rooms, and felt they had have plenty of space and would never appear jammed up with furniture. Jim smiled as Lacey went from room to room describing how she wanted each set up.
Jim called Bob aside and said, “I guess she likes it.”
Laughing Bob said, “I know. I should have shown her the place before we negotiated. I might have gotten a few more thousand out of you then.”
“You’re already getting what you were asking for the place,” Jim grumbled.
“I know, and I love it!” Bob chortled in happiness.
Jim couldn’t help but laugh at Bob’s statement. He paid Bob for the farm and the cattle and said, “I’ll be over in a week to pick up the cattle like we agreed.”
“That’ll be fine. Just remember, I’m not responsible if some of your cattle go missing to the hungry before then,” Bob said with a smile. One of the concessions he’d gotten was if any stock went missing before he picked up his stock, the missing animals automatically came out of his share. Jim wasn’t worried about Bob cheating him. He loved to dicker, but old Bob was no thief.
Bob walked outside and got into his truck, but before he could start the motor, Jim said, “Oh, there’s something I meant to ask you earlier. You said someone offered you twenty-five for the place. Who was he?” Jim asked. He was just curious about who had shown an interest in his new piece of property.
Bob scratched his head a moment as he tried to remember the man’s name. Finally, he snapped his fingers and said, “Pete Damroyal. That’s the guy’s name. I met him once years ago.”
An excited Jim asked, “Did Pete say where he was going?”
“Yes, he did. He seemed to think I might change my mind and accept his offer. He said he’d be in Athens for three days. He said something about going looking for a friend.”
“Did he say where in Athens he’d be waiting?”
“Yes, he gave me an address where I could locate him,” Bob said and pulled a worn leather wallet from his pocket and fished out a scrap of paper. He handed Jim the scrap of paper and said, “Today’s the last day. If you hurry, you may catch him before he leaves.”
Jim thanked Bob and went to the car. He blew the horn and waited impatiently for Lacey and Evan to come out, so they could leave. As they came out onto the porch, he smiled and he said, “Pete is in Athens, but he may be leaving to look for me. Hop in and we’ll try to catch him.”
Lacey and Evan scrambled into the car. Their doors had barely closed before Jim had the car in gear and was barreling down the dirt road that led to the highway.
Old Bob was shaking his head in disgust. He said, “I don’t know why I told him he’d better hurry. Pete said he’d wait for my final decision till dinner.”
The old man smiled when he looked at his watch and saw that Jim had an hour and a half to catch his friend. It was a twenty-minute ride at worst. “Oh well,” he said, still talking to himself. “I guess I’d better go mind the cattle before someone runs off with another one.” He started his truck and headed leisurely out of the driveway.
Chapter 41
Tim and Patricia had just crossed into the state of Alabama. Tim was happy because in just a matter of hours he should be back in his hometown. He was certain that once he got there, he’d be able to locate his brother in a couple of days. Then he hoped to persuade him to join them in the war against the Marauders that he and Patricia had been fighting.
As usual, Patricia was at her beloved communications console monitoring the ship’s systems and any radio traffic they might be able to intercept. She saw the happy expression on Tim’s face and she smiled herself. She was fervently hoping that Tim would be able to find his brother. She realized that if he couldn’t find Jim he’d be bitterly disappointed.
“How long will it be before we get to Athens?” she asked.
“Without an incident, we should be there in a couple of hours,” replied Tim. He added, “The town we just went through was Bridgeport. It is in the northeastern tip of Alabama. Following the highway, the computer puts the distance at one hundred-three miles. Considering our average speed the past few days has been about fifty miles per hour due to the terrible roads we’ve been following I’d say two hours, unless we hit better conditions.”
Smiling Patricia said, “Then with a little luck you should be eating dinner with your brother tonight.”
“That would be nice,” Tim said with a huge smile on his face.
***
Jim drove to the address Bob had given him. He stared in amazement when he reached the street listed on the address. A convoy of vehicles lined both sides of the street. He parked his car at the end of the block and got out. He took his rifle and slung it over his shoulder. With Evan and Lacey walking rapidly behind him, they proceeded to walk up the street. As he walked, he saw several armed men in camouflage guarding the vehicles.
Jim stepped between two parked vehicles and proceeded to walk toward the house listed on the address. As he headed toward the house, he saw a group of three men standing on the front porch. They had been talking until he stepped from between the parked trucks. As soon as they saw him, they stopped talking and two of the men stepped off the front porch and started walking in his direction.
Jim stopped and waited for the men to approach him. When they stopped in front of him, he said, “I’m looking for Pete Damroyal. Is he here?”
The men exchanged glances and Jim saw them grin at each other. One of the men asked, “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Jim, would it?”
“Yes, I’m Jim. Jim Wilison,” he responded and offered his hand to the other. As they shook hands, he again noted the smiles exchanged between the two men.
One of the men said, “We’ve heard a lot about you from Pete. He thinks very highly of you.” Then the man seemed to realize that he was delaying Jim. He said, “If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to Pete.”
Jim followed the soldier as he led the way into, and then through the house. When he entered the room, he saw Pete talking to a lieutenant. He was pointing at something on a map. Jim smiled broadly and walked toward his friend’s back. He was within a few feet of his old friend when a tall woman wearing a black beret stepped between them. “Back off, Mister,” she said, as she stood poised with her right hand on the handle of a knife worn in a scabbard on her right side
.
Jim stopped immediately and stared at the woman. He looked past her and saw his old friend smiling at him. He noted the almost imperceptible nod his friend gave him and understood that Pete wanted to see how he would handle his bodyguard.
Jim smiled at the woman and asked, “Why should I back up?” He took a half step toward her with his right foot. When Jim initiated his forward momentum, the woman’s hand was a blur of motion as she drew her blade and lunged where she anticipated his groin would be at the time of impact. However, Jim never completed that forward step. Instead, he shifted his position in mid-step. The foot that had been going forward, reversed its direction and came down on the floor, two feet behind his left foot. When the woman lunged at him with the knife, he was already out of range of the attack. His left hand shot downward with precision timing and grasped the woman’s wrist. Pulling her in the direction of her forward momentum, he stepped behind her as she hurtled forward and still holding her wrist, he forced her blade near her own throat.
The sound of several pistols being cocked filled the room. Jim released the woman and slowly raised his hands into the air. Looking around the room, he spotted three other women wearing black berets. Each of them had their pistols drawn and aimed at his head.
Keeping his hands raised, he slowly turned to face Pete and said, “It’s good to see you. How have you been, Pete?”
Pete laughed and said, “I’ve been fine, Jim. How about you?”
“Better. I met a wonderful woman and her son. We aim to get married soon. You can be my best man, if your guards don’t shoot me.” Turning slowly to face the three guards who still had their weapons pointed at him he continued, “I’m going to put my hands down now. Try not to shoot me. I just had these clothes washed. It’d be a shame to get blood on them.”
Pete laughed good-naturedly at his friend’s antics and said, “Stand down ladies. He’s a friend, believe it or not.” Looking at Jim he said, “You haven’t changed a bit have you?”
Shrugging, Jim responded, “Why change perfection?” Then laughing he said, “Actually I have. Pete, meet Lacey. The woman who taught me to love again and the young man is her son whom I adore.”
Lacey and Evan stepped forward to meet the man they had heard so much about. Only then did the two men realize that the pair had been terrified by the encounter with the bodyguards. Pete, noting this, said, “I’m sorry folks, but this is a game Jim and I play whenever we’ve been apart a long time. We test each other a bit, or as in this case, he was testing my security. I see that we startled you, and I apologize for that.”
This mollified Lacey’s growing anger to a large degree and she responded, “It’s good to meet you at last. Jim regards you quite highly.”
Jim kissed Lacey on the cheek and said, “I’m sorry, Lacey. I shouldn’t have pulled a stunt like that.”
Lacey smiled weakly and said, “Well, you had warned me that you guys test each other, but I didn’t expect anything quite so, dramatic. It’s all right.”
“No, it’s not all right, Lacey. But thank you for letting me off the hook. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”
Looking at the four women who were Pete’s bodyguards, Jim noted, “I see that you still like to surround yourself with beautiful women.”
Pete said, “They seem to have adopted me.” He smiled at Jim innocently, and continued, “For some reason people keep trying to kill me.” Gesturing at the Women’s Elite Corps members he finished, “They’ve taken it upon themselves to protect me and they do a really good job of it.”
“So I learned,” Jim said with a smile. He offered his hand to shake with the woman he had subdued and said, “No hard feelings?”
The woman shook hands warmly with Jim and smiled. “None if you’ll show me how the devil you did that someday. Apparently, I need to work on a defense against that.”
“Sure, I’d be happy to do that,” Jim said in response.
Turning to Pete he said, “Okay, Pete, who’s trying to kill you and why?”
Sighing, Pete replied, “A twenty-three year old punk, named Reggie Hammond. It’s a long story that will take hours to explain.”
Pete was about to say more when a gunshot rang out. Jim and Pete both drew their pistols in an automatic reaction to the gunshot in close proximity. Pete nodded his head at the lieutenant and Jim saw the man run from the room. Jim also noted that Pete’s guards spread out to cover the door and windows. They were remarkably efficient. That spoke volumes about the level of training that they had received.
Moments later the lieutenant returned and said, “There’s a large group of Marauders in town. They’re attacking us.”
“Why the hell would they do that, Bill?”
“Reggie’s with them,” was all the man said.
Jim noted the look of cold anger in Pete’s eyes. “What’s going on Pete?” he asked.
“Later,” Pete replied, and then he looked at Bill Young and asked, “How strong are the Marauders?”
Shrugging, the lieutenant said, “It’s hard to say. They’re staying behind cover, but they have been spotted in enough different areas to be sure that it’s a large group.”
Sporadic gunfire was still ringing out, but it was irregular enough to indicate to Jim that no mass rush was taking place as of yet. He looked to Pete to see how he would handle the situation.
“How do you know Reggie is with them?” asked Pete.
“I saw him when I went outside to see what was happening,” Bill replied.
Pete nodded his head in understanding. He said, “Set up a defensive line and try to drive the Marauders away from our perimeter. We need to be able to get the vehicles out of here with the non-combatant women and children.”
Bill nodded his head and said, “I ordered that while I was outside and then I returned to report.”
“Good,” Pete replied. Pointing to one of the women guards he said, “Escort Lacey and Evan to the rear. Make sure they board a transport for the evacuation and return here when they pull out. Guard them until then.”
The woman nodded her head to acknowledge the orders. She stepped over to Lacey and said, “Come with me.” Smiling down at Evan she said, “I’ll get you out of here safely.”
Lacey turned to Jim to ask a question, but Jim just kissed her and said, “Go please. It’s going to get rough here, and I need to know that you and Evan are safe.” He said this last looking pointedly at her son.
Lacey nodded her understanding. She said, “You be careful.” Then she kissed him and followed the bodyguard out of the room.
Jim cursed and said, “Pete, I brought an M16 but I wasn’t expecting a war. I only have one magazine with me.”
Pete nodded his understanding and pointed to a rack beside a wall. “Take what you need.” Jim walked to the rack and picked up three extra magazines, which were loaded with ammunition. He jammed these magazines in various pockets.
Pete nodded to Bill and said, “Let’s see how the line is holding up.” Jim fell in behind them as they exited the house.
When he got outside, he saw why the Marauder’s attack hadn’t worked. There were armed men all over the place. He could see armed men in the prone position on rooftops all along both sides of the street. These men had a tactical advantage of holding the high ground. They had superb views of the enemy while the enemy could barely see them. He hadn’t seen them when he had walked up the street. He turned to Pete and asked, “When did the men on the roofs get into position?”
Pete smiled and said, “They were stationed in the houses until the attack began. We cut holes in the roofs to give them access to the high ground.”
Jim smiled, and said, “I see you still have a few tricks that I don’t know.”
“We’d better be careful from here on out. We’re getting close to the perimeter,” Pete said.
Jim and the others had kept walking down the sidewalk, keeping pace with Pete and Bill and staring at the rooftop defenders. He hadn’t even noticed the defenses at th
e end of the street until Pete mentioned that they were getting close to the perimeter. What he saw at the end of the street amazed him.
Pete smiled at the amazed expression on his friend’s face. He said, “Now you see why I wasn’t in any great rush to get out here.”
“I sure do,” Jim said. He stared in amazement at the multiple rows of concertina wire obstacles that had been strung all around the area controlled by the survivalists. At least he thought it encompassed the entire area. It certainly seemed to be everywhere he looked. “How in the hell did you guys get the wire up so fast?” he asked, “I know it wasn’t up a few minutes ago.”
Pete laughed and said, “If you want to survive in Chicago these days, you have to know how to set up defenses quickly. I’ll explain later in detail. The short answer is that we use bikes. Anchor it and then spool it out from the reels attached to the back of bikes. Ride around natural obstacles to anchor it. Like that light pole, and that utility pole,” he said, pointing to the two poles that had the wire strung around them. The people who had deployed the wire had detoured enough to go around the poles, which served as makeshift fence posts.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Jim said. “When this is over, you’re going to have to bring me up to speed on some of these new things that you know.”
“Sure, Jim,” said Pete. He walked over to a tree, braced his rifle against it, relaxed, and gently squeezed the trigger. The rifle bucked once and he stepped back over to Jim.
Jim was staring at a man who had fallen from a rooftop three hundred yards away from their position. The man had been trying to shoot the rooftop defenders to lessen the effectiveness of their defensive firepower.
Pete smiled and said, “That was pretty stupid. The guy should’ve known he couldn’t get away with a stunt like that.”
“I guess he thought he could,” Jim said with a smile.
Jim turned his attention to the Marauders, who were now taking shots at the convoy vehicles in an effort to take out their tires. Several were already sitting on flats. Even as he watched, the left rear tire on a pickup truck was flattened.