A Long Lonely Road by TJ Reeder Read Free Book Online Page A

the mules but the brothers assured me the load was light compared to the usual loads they packed.
    I decided to dump the extra ammo into canvas feed bags they had and leave the cans.
     
    After looking at it I could see I was over loaded with 12 gage ammo still so I cut it back to 100 rounds of each if buck and slugs.
    I still had plenty of trade good since I didn’t intend to shoot my way across the country.
     
    The Ladies announced supper which I must say was a feast, I won’t even bother describing it except to say that poor riding mule was gonna earn his keep for sure.
     
    After supper it was back to the barn to double check the loads. They used a old fashion method by hanging a cross tree from a rafter and a pack from each side making it easy to level the loads then weight all 4 against each other and soon they were even.
     
    Bill went in the house and returned shortly with 2 bags that contained more junk silver coins and then pulled another from his pocket which he poured into his had and it was small gold coins.
     
     
     
     
    I told his it was too much but both said no it’s not even close to enough. Bob said “ John, in truth we figure you saved our lives because while we have LTS ( long term storage ) food enough for a few years we were really caught short on ammo and thanks to you we might make it now”.
     
    We just all smiled and shook hands and pulling up a stump so to speak we passed that bottle around a bit but we all sipped sparingly. Soon enough it was dark and time for bed, it had been one long day for sure.
     
     
    But a peaceful night wasn’t in the plan. Along about what felt like midnight or so I heard one of the lads on the roof say something followed soon by one of them moving down the ladder.
     
    I whispered to him asking what was up, he whispered back that he had heard what sounded like a car door shutting out by the road. He moved quietly on to the house to pass the word.
     
    Right about now I was thanking a sweet lady in Texas who was one of the most prepared and smartest people I know. She not only knows all about whistles and bells she also has them.
     
    Before I headed off on this trip she had loaned me or insisted I take one of her neat toys, it was a night vision device that while not for use on a weapon could for sure help one control the night.
     
    In truth I had forgotten about it until now. hard to believe but there it is. I dug it out and powered it up and headed up the ladder to the
    crows nest where I found the other lad hunkered down looking over the wall.
     
    I asked where and he pointed toward the road . I put the sight to my eye and turned the night to green day and sure enough there was a group of green blobs easing down the road towards the log pile.
     
    As soon as they got there they all hunkered down behind the logs making it pretty clear their idea was to wait till morning and ambush the men and anybody else when they came out to do chores.
     
     
    There was a slight sound and Bill eased up beside me, I handed him the sight and pointed he raised it up and looked thru it and then looked at me.
    I could see his teeth in the dark.
     
    He whispered in my ear that he wanted to leave the sight with the boy and he and I would ease back down the ladder for a brainstorming session.
     
    After we were down we went to the other side of the barn behind some bales of hay and talked it over. And we came up with a plan that just might work.
     
     
    Bob joined us and we told him what was going on and he agreed to the plan. Which consisted of one of them and myself heading away from the back of the house a ways and then flank them.
     
    We would check their vehicles and see if they had left a guard behind. If so I’d take him out with the Ruger with the can. We did talk about that a bit since we really had no idea just what these folks wanted but it was real clear it wasn’t a friendly visit.
     
    We decided to wait until about an hour before the first bit of the coming