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

to have a little around. For medicinal purposes and such.”

Dalton nodded eagerly. “Oh yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Medicinal, yeah.”

I shook my head and rubbed my face with my hands. “Let me guess. You want to do the distilling.”

Dalton cocked his head to the side and patted the still. “Well, I mean, unless you’ve got a still somewhere.”

“What?” I asked, unsure if I was catching exactly what he was insinuating.

“I have a still and you’ll have corn. Looks like a match made in heaven to me.”

Aric started to laugh and said, “Oh man, that’s priceless.”

“No, that’s horse shit. But whatever. You can do it. Better come up with a souring tank too.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve already got a fermenter.”

Aric laughed, “You’re already to go, aren’t you? I don’t think it would hurt to have a little hooch around.”

“Tis proof God loves us!” Dalton shouted with a flourish.

“That’s beer, bonehead,” I replied.

Shrugging it off, Dalton replied, “Potato, tomato; it’s the same thing.”

“Ah, you don’t know how that saying works, do you?”

“Sod off!” Dalton shouted and picked up his little hammer, “I’ve work to do!”

Jabbing a thumb over my shoulder, I said, “Yeah, back over there at that house. Your boss man is probably already looking for you.”

Dalton laid the hammer back down and leaned in close to the still. Patting it, he whispered, “I’ll be back soon, sweetie; don’t worry.”

As we walked back towards the old man’s place, I told Dalton and Aric about the two bikes we saw. As soon as I mentioned them, Dalton said, “You think it’s the same crew we had a run – in with down the road?”

I nodded. “I think they’re out looking for that fuel tanker.”

“We need to set up another OP and catch them sneaking around.”

“The old man wants to put a couple of guys in one of the burned-out vehicles out there at the end of the road. They’ll be able to see all the way down the road to the north, where they’ll have to come from.”

“I say we go pay them a visit in the middle of the night. We know where they are.”

“We could take boats up the creek. They probably wouldn’t be expecting that,” Aric said.

“Maybe. But I’d prefer to deal with them when and where we choose. Not go kicking their door in and trying to slug it out,” I replied.

Dalton nodded. “We need to catch them away from their AO for sure. If we take a couple out, they may send others to look for them. If they don’t come home as well, they’ll either call the game because they can’t take the losses, or they’ll come in force. Either way, we’ll be able to take care of them. No way they have the kind of resources we do.”

“Maybe, but I do not want another fight here. I’ve had enough of that shit.”

“Me neither. Not with Fred being pregnant,” Aric added.

“Fugetaboutit!” Dalton shouted. “We’ll take care of them.”

As we walked up to the house, the old man looked at his watch. Shaking his head, he replied, “About damn time you cheesedicks got back here!”

“Come on, Top,” Dalton replied. “We were on important legal business.”

Sarge stared down his finger at Dalton and shouted, “You best unfuck yourself and fast! I ain’t got time for your grab ass games.”

Dalton stopped and thought for a minute. “Top, you know what Army stands for?”

“Don’t press your luck, asshole!”

“Ain’t ready to be a Marine yet.”

“You ain’t even a Marine!” Sarge shouted, adding, “you fucking window-licking retard!”

“I am!” Ian called from the driveway as he and Jamie carried a crate inside.

Sarge looked back at him and shouted, “Marine my ass! About as useful as the maître fucking d’ on the fucking Titanic! You halfwits get your asses to work!”

“On that note, I’m leaving,” I said as I mounted the Harley.

Sarge turned and shouted, “Damn right! Get to steppin’; you’re about useless too!”

I started the Harley and held my hand to my ear, “Huh? What’d you say? I can’t hear you.”

When the old man went to shout something at me, I revved the big bike. It infuriated him and got everyone else to laughing, which of course only made it worse. But I was smart and dropped it into gear and got the hell out of the blast zone before he could get a hand around my neck. I rode back to the house and pulled the bike up front. Going in, I grabbed a big cloth bag and brought it back out and loaded the grapes into it.

Mel and the girls weren’t back yet, so I was going to use the time to process the grapes. Since a large part of the job was smashing them, I carried the bag over to Danny’s. The kids were in the back yard playing in the sprinkler. No doubt, they’d get a kick out of mashing the fruit. Danny brought out a bucket and when I asked for something to pound them with, he disappeared and returned with what looked like a table leg. It was raw wood and unfinished and would do the job perfectly.

We set the bucket on the porch and dropped the leg in. Then I called the kids up to the porch. They all came running, dripping water all over the porch. I showed them what I wanted them to do and Little Bit quickly grabbed the leg and went to work. The kids were all giggles as they smashed the grapes, taking turns in a not-so-round robin. I instructed the kids to not pound too hard, but to pick the masher up and drop it.

“Why?” Danny asked.

“You don’t want to crush the seeds. It’ll make it really bitter.”

As the kids were working and we were talking, Miss Kay came out of the house with a couple glasses of ice tea.

“You boys look hot. Brought you some tea to cool you off,” she said and looked down at the bucket, “what’s this?”

Taking the offered glass, I thanked her and said, “I found