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

hundred and I’ll give you a pregnant sow. That’ll give you a litter. I’ll also make sure you have a good boar in the mix to keep you in hogs.”

“Some pork would be real nice,” Janet said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love beef. But when it’s all you have, a little variety is real appealing.”

“I totally agree,” I replied. Then I looked at Dave and asked, “We got a deal?”

He held his hand out and replied, “Deal. You want me to deliver the cows? Or do you have a stock trailer?”

“If you’d deliver them, that would be a big help. I’m assuming you’ve got a tank around here for the fuel. Bring it and the cows. We’ll unload the cows and put the hogs in the trailer. Then we’ll get your fuel.” I was already starting to like Dave and thought I’d add a little sweetener to the deal, though I didn’t have to. “Tell you what, I’ll also throw in a fifty-pound sack of flour.”

Dave’s eyes got wide and he looked at Janet. She smiled and said, “Yes, Dad. I’ll make biscuits and gravy.”

“Morgan, that really says something about you. You didn’t need to do that. But the fact you did really speaks volumes about your character. I see us becoming very good friends,” he said with a smile. “I tell you what I’ll do. Let’s have us a cookout. Bring your folks over here and I’ll put on a feed. We’ll grill up a bunch of steaks for everyone.”

“Now that sounds awesome. But make some burgers too. I’ve got some youngins as well. We’ll make buns for them. I’ll also bring some sausages.”

Laughing, Dave replied, “You’re just full of surprises! How many folks you got?”

“Figure about twenty-five, give or take.”

“You got that many folks you’ve been feeding all this time? How the hell have you done it?”

“Ain’t been easy. But we’ve managed. They’re all really good people. Salt of the earth and I trust them with my life, literally.”

“Give me a couple of days and we’ll bring the beeves over. Then we’ll have us a hell of a cookout.”

“You need any security for the delivery? I can provide that if you need.”

Dave smiled. “Naw. My boys can handle that. Janet will take care of everything.”

I told Janet how to get to our place and we shook hands again before I dumped the hat full of grapes I’d been holding the whole time into the saddlebag and mounted the Harley. It started right up fortunately and as the loud pipes rumbled, Dave laughed. I waved and headed home. This was an amazing development and I wanted to let the old man know about it.

As I approached the market in Altoona, I thought about stopping for some butter. But decided not to. Looking at the market as I passed it, I saw two off-road Endura-style bikes there. They stuck out because I hadn’t seen anything like it in a long time, that and I just happened to be riding a motorcycle as well.

Making it back to the neighborhood, I rolled to a stop at the bunker. One of the Guardsmen, Stinness, was waving me down. I rolled to a stop and he asked, “What is this? National ride your motorcycle day?”

I glanced down at the Harley and replied, “Just taking it out to blow the dust and cobwebs off it.”

“You’re not the only one. Saw a couple others a little while ago,” Stinness replied. Then he pointed towards the country road and said, “See, there they are.”

I looked back over my shoulder to see the two bikes I’d seen at the market sitting in the road. The riders looked as though they were discussing something, then they sped away to the north.

“That’s weird,” I replied. “I haven’t seen anything moving in a long time and today there just happens to be three motorcycles out on the road.”

“I thought it was odd too. Even more so because they stopped down there and looked in.”

“Yeah, we need to keep a careful eye out for a while. That just seems odd.”

I said goodbye and rode over to the old man’s place. I shut the bike down in the driveway of his house. And walked to the one next door where all the weapons we’d looted from the Russian’s were being carried in.

“All that going to fit in there?” I asked.

Sarge looked up from a clipboard he was making notes on and replied, “Yeah, it’s gonna fit. But it’s gonna be crowded.”

“At least we won’t have to worry about weapons or ammo. For like, ever.”

“Naw. We should be pretty well set. If you don’t mind using commie guns,” Sarge replied and looked over at the bike. “What in the hell are you doing out riding around on that thing?”

“I just took it out to blow the carbon out of it. No sense in just letting it sit there and rot away.”

“About as useless as a piece of shit. You can’t carry a damn thing on it.”

Pointing at the bike, I replied, “Actually, those saddlebags are full of grapes. I found a vine that was heavy with fruit and picked a load of them. We’ll turn them into juice for jelly and whatnot. I’m sure Miss Kay will have a use for them.”

“There’s no doubt she’ll find something to do with them.”

“A couple other things. First, I saw two bikes at the market in Altoona. Stinness told me he saw them ride by earlier and while we were talking, they stopped at the end of the road down there. And I don’t think they were admiring the Harley.”

Sarge thought about it for a minute, then asked, “Who do you think they are?”

“Same ones you’re thinking of. Some guys with a deuce and a half and bunch of motorcycles.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. We need to set up an OP out there closer to the road.”

“I don’t think they’ll just ride up to the entry there and come down in here. Needs to be