Graham's Resolution Trilogy Bundle: Books 1-3 by A R Shaw Read Free Book Online Page A

safety. Typically, they’d take the highway up near Seattle and then shoot northeast. But it was safer to snake up the less-traveled back roads.
    Graham knew they would have to rough it on bikes until they bypassed the bad guy Campos. Since he had not ventured out lately, Graham really didn’t know what conditions he would find, but he knew there were the feral animals to worry about. He also knew that the highways were cluttered with abandoned cars, and maybe they could secure one. The best idea was to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Once he could see where the bad guy hung out, then maybe he and the kid could slink through unnoticed.
    Unfortunately there was no other way to get up to and across the overpass either by road or on foot. They would just have to go as quietly as possible under the highway and cross by the gas station.
    Graham hoped to get past without drawing the guy’s attention. According to Hyun-Ok’s letter, this Campos character apparently stopped folks who were coming into town, not those trying to get out. If he had to confront him he would just reason with him or offer him food to pass through peacefully. But Graham would be armed, and he would have Bang ride on his left, providing a little cover for the kid in case things got hairy.
    To get to the cabin on the outskirts of Cascade, along the Skagit River, they’d go hopefully by “borrowed” truck, up the road through Fall City and Carnation. Then, they’d go finally up to Monroe, but Graham doubted they could drive freely on Highway 2, so he opted for the less traveled back roads that would take them around the lake and then north to Granite Falls. From there, they’d take another back road through Darrington and then finally north to Cascade.
    All these small towns were now deserted. If they ran into any trouble, they could always change their route. The last thing he wanted to do was end up hiking with a five-year-old, making it an epic trek through the wilderness.
    Now that Graham had his plan mapped out, he also thought it might be wise to grab his dad’s binoculars so that he could scout ahead.
    Graham heard a grumbling noise coming from the little guy who was shadowing his every move; this signaled lunchtime. Again Graham resorted to rewarming the last of the leftover beans, forgoing the rice this time. There was just enough for the two of them.
    “Okay, Bang,” he said. “It’s time we tidy up this place so if— when —we come back here someday it won’t be a mess. We’re going to ride our bikes out of here tonight, and I don’t know when we’ll get a chance to sleep. So, if you need to take a nap before we go, this is the time. What do you think?” he asked the boy.
    Bang hastily shook his head, and with an offended glare, answered, “I don’t take naps.”
    Note to self: Bang does not do naps. At least he was learning more about the boy.
    Looking Bang over, he decided the boy needed more cold weather gear. Nightfall often brought cooler temperatures. Bike riding at night would be quite cold indeed until they could procure a decent vehicle to drive. He checked out the hall closet for extra gloves and jackets. He found pink gloves and mittens but did not even try to pass them off to the boy. Instead he opted for one of his own black knit hats and his mom’s black knit gloves, which stretched to fit all sizes.
    As he rifled through the closet Graham kept thinking about a potential confrontation with the Campos guy. He thought it might be wise to stash the boy and their bikes nearby while he confronted Campos on foot. He would wait to decide until he could get a visual of the situation. If it were true that Campos had already killed two people, as Hyun-Ok had claimed to witness, he’d likely killed more. “How crazy could this guy be?” he muttered. In a few hours the answer would be clear.
    Graham looked through his mother’s hall of portraits, about which he often chided her. He looked for one with a decent likeness of