Home Coming (The Survivalist Book 10) by A. American (best business books of all time .TXT) 📗

for a while enjoying the buzz from the nicotine. Not something you experience when you do the crap every day. But a long break like this brings it back. After a bit, I asked, “How are the kids?”

“They’re good. They don’t ask about their parents anymore. I guess they’ve accepted it. Of course, Bobby was hard on them. But there’s enough people around here and everyone checks on them. They’re doing well.”

I nodded and asked, “How about you?”

There was a long pause. After a moment, he replied, “It hurt you know, a lot. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it and so many people have lost someone. I guess it’s just the way of it now.”

“We need to change the way. We can’t just accept the fact that this is the way things are now. I can’t, won’t.”

Danny nodded. “You’re right. I’m really hoping that what you guys did last night changes things for us. Something has to.”

“Yes, it does.” As I replied, I heard a diesel engine rumble to life. “Sounds like the festivities are about to start. Guess I need to go get my shit together.”

“You guys be careful,” He said as I got up from the chair.

Going back to the house, I found Mel in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. She was at the Butterfly stove and looked up when I came in. “We’re now out of sausage. This is the last of it.”

“We have hogs. I’ll get with Thad and talk to him about butchering one,” I replied.

“We have plenty of eggs. Just no meat.”

“Do we have any bacon?” Little Bit asked.

Her sisters laughed, and Taylor said, “Mom just said we didn’t have any meat. Bacon is meat.”

Little Bit smiled and rocked in her seat. “Bacon’s not meat; it’s bacon! I wish we had some.”

I tussled her hair as I walked past her. “I’ll talk to Thad and see if we can make some.”

A smile spread across her face and she asked, “You can make it?”

“Maybe,” I replied. “We’ll try.”

“What are you doing today?” Mel asked.

“We’re going back to get all the hardware at the auto auction. Those Russians and Cubans had a huge load of stuff and we don’t want the wrong people to get their hands on it.”

“Is there anyone there?”

“Yeah, a couple of our people stayed there last night. Do you not remember our conversation when I came to bed?”

Still looking at the pan of eggs she was cooking, Mel replied, “Nope. Sure don’t.”

Laughing, I replied, “Of course not. I was talking and we both know your brain can’t detect that particular sound pattern.”

Glancing at the girls and seeing them not paying attention, she gave me the finger. I smiled and stepped over and kissed her cheek. “That’s my girl.”

“You want to eat before you go?”

“Sure! I’m starving.”

In honor of the last of the sausage this morning, Mel made tortillas. She prepared me a couple of burritos with fresh tomato. Thank you, Thad. I got my gear together as she fixed them and stopped by the fridge to refill my tea before heading for the door.

“Can we come with you?” Taylor called out as I gripped the door knob.

I had to remove the burrito I was holding in my mouth and looked back. “Sorry, but no. I’ll be back later today.” She looked deflated but didn’t try and argue with me. “Hey,” I said, “I’ve got a project I need your help with later. When I get home, I’ll show you what it is. We’ll have to go out into the woods for something to help all the injured in town.”

Her very unenthusiastic reply was simply, “Ok.”

I needed to do something with the girls. They were bored and getting antsy. They weren’t little girls anymore and I shouldn’t be treating them like they were. It’s a hard thing to face, your kids growing up. All those memories of them when they were young are hard to let go of. But there are new memories waiting to be made as they grow. Hopefully, they will get better than some of the ones we’ve made recently.

Knowing there was a lot of stuff to bring back, I hopped into the Suburban. With a little prayer, I turned the key. The old Cummins rumbled to life and I smiled and took another bite of burrito while I headed towards the gate.

Thad was out in front of his place as I pulled into the drive. He was beside the little red truck and I called out to him. “You taking that today?”

“Yeah. We might need the extra room.”

I waved, “Alright. I’ll see you at the old man’s place.”

As I turned onto the road of the old man’s place, I was greeted with a fog of blue smoke. The tank sat in the road idling as well as the only remaining two-ton truck and a Hummer. It looked like there were a lot of vehicles headed to town. The problem was drivers. Sarge stood in the road with Jess and Wallner and two other Guardsmen. I assumed these were our drivers.

“Is this all we have?” I asked as I walked up to the old man. He was leaning against the Hummer, drinking coffee.

He looked around and nodded, “I reckon it’s all we need.”

“Of course, it is. I’m here,” Jess said.

Then Doc came out of the house with a pack slung over his shoulder. I smiled and nodded in his direction, “Here comes your boyfriend.”

Jess looked back over her shoulder, then back at me and gave me the finger. “Don’t be an ass,” she added.

I shrugged, “You can deny it all you want.”

“Knock it off you two,” the old man barked. “We ain’t got time for this shit. It’s time to get on the road.” As he spoke, Thad pulled up. Sarge looked at the little pick-up and my Suburban and asked, “You two planning on driving those?”

I nodded. “Looked to me like there was a load of shit there that needed to be hauled back. I figured the