Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure by Mark Tufo Read Free Book Online Page B

ain’t that bad, it was only a pellet gun, the only thing that got hurt on him was his pride and his ass, I guess , ” Max said a little loudly, daring Beth to reprimand him for his use of cuss words. Beth said nothing , though, she figured th e kid had long ago earned the right to use swear words whenever he saw fit. “Besides , if he had kept following us he would have gotten a lot worse.”
    “What did he want?”
    “He wanted to know where we were located , I guess , and where our stash was.”
    ”Your stash ?” she asked .
    Max stood up without a word and motioned Beth to follow him to one of the doors opposite the armory. Beth walked in and nearly froze upon gazing inside. The room was nearly as big as the room she had just left and was crammed with case upon case of different liquors, vodkas, rums, tequilas, beers, everything . It was an alcoholic’s nirvana. “Where the hell did you get all this?” Beth turned to look at Max who had a huge grin spread across his face.
    “Well , when the shi — stuff really started to go down, we had first gone up into New Hampshire, a bunch of us figured for some stupid reason that New Hampshire was probably safe.” Max’s face dropped a little. “Lost my best friend in New Hampshire ,” Max said , apparently unwilling to elaborate any more on that subject. “ Anyway , while we were leaving, one of the kids, Sammie, spotted one of those ‘ n o g oody’ stores on the highway.”
    “‘ No g oody’ ? Oh, ‘no duty’ stores.”
    “Yeah , whatever. D o you want to hear my story ? ”
    “Yes , sorry ,” Beth said as she did her best to shield a smile.
    “Any way , we trade in the pickup truck we’ve got and Sammie gets one of those big tractor trailer trucks, we spent almost a whole day stuffing that thing with everything we could fit in it.”
    “Sammie drove the truck?” Beth asked.
    “He’s almost sixteen , ” Max answered defiantly.
    “And so how did you find this place?” Beth said motioning her arm across the expansive room.
    “That’s a whole ‘ nother story , lady , and don’t be bringing it up to Sammie.” Max looked at her until she answered.
    “I promise , ” Beth answered.
    “His big brother, who worked for the parks department or something used to bring him here and do all sorts of awful stuff to him.”
    “His big brother? How awful.”
    “Not like his real big brother, but like one of those organizations.”
    “Oh B ig B rother s , B ig S ister s . How horrible.”
    “Yeah , he doesn’t talk about it much . H e got his revenge though. The creep was hiding out here when we took over.”
    Again Beth waited for him to elaborate but no new information was forthcoming. Beth figured she knew how that story would play out anyway.
    “So about once a month, Sammie and a couple of other kids pack up a car we have and head down to Worcester, we trade this stuff for food. Good food like hamburgers and hot dogs and sometimes even deer if their hunters have been lucky. They tried to follow us once and once they tried to make a bad deal with us. But when we didn’t show up for our scheduled monthly runs, I guess they knew better than to screw with us, it’s gone pretty smooth since then.”
    “Max , you are just a wonder, not only are you surviving , you kids seem to be thriving.”
    “Yeah , I like that , it sort of rhymes. We have no choice, we have to do it lady, it’s for the little ones ,” Max said .
     

    CHAPTER EL E VEN
     
    I felt healthy but I found myself just staring off and pondering not only my fate but that of the planet that housed all that I loved. I finally decide d to get up off my ass and do something about it, I asked for and received a tread mill and some weight lifting machines. I did my best to not try and wonder where the y had been confiscated from . I could allay my fears a little with the knowledge that more than likely the y didn’t come out of any homeowner ’ s house. The y were top notch machines ,