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  A long Lonely Road

  Book Three

  Texas and Home

  By TJ Reeder

  Copyrighted 10- 10-2012

  By now yawl know I don’t do the road warrior thing. I just don’t have it in me to write that way. I try for humor and some of what I feel would be most likely to happen in a real TEOTWAWKI event. But this time I somehow drifted off into an area that I really haven’t been and in truth I wanted to get out of it asap and I did. I hope it don’t turn anybody off to my writing because I didn’t plan it and don’t plan for it to happen again as it just ain’t my thing nor are Zombies . I read Zombie books but I just ain’t interested in writing it.

  And yea I really don’t have a clue where a story is going when I start, and I’m usually very surprised where it ends.

  I didn’t use my disclaimer as to my lack of good writing skills because by now you know it. But I did go through this 4 times and used spell and grammar check 3 times so I tried.

  A Long lonely Road

  Book 3

  Texas and Home

  I will tell yawl for free. Getting shot in the ass is a great big pain in the ..well.. the ASS! And listening to the comments about it would get somebody shot but they took away all my guns. I hate em all!!

  Especially Sandy my so called friend / woman. She’s among the worse. She thinks slapping me on the ass and saying stuff like “ IF ya lose more weight yer ass wouldn’t be sticking up like a Shoot me here target!!”.

  Today the Doc said I could most likely hit the road anytime and the sooner the better. I got with Willy Bean who hit me with a new idea. He felt the new Hunter group should head for Texas with us.

  His theory was that we could get organized there with any new recruits and train everybody together. I admitted it was an outstanding idea if everybody was ready to load up and roll by next morning.

  Willy laughed and said hell Boss we got ready while you babied yer ass!. See what I mean ?

  No respect and no gun to shoot him with.

  We spent several days getting loaded up with all the gear the group had gathered up and once again we were on the road but this time we were a rolling Combat Team, A hunter Pack. Well ok that’s a stretch but we were together.

  Shortly we passed the place where I had turned off to make our stand and Sandy asked if I wanted to visit it. I ignored her and just kept driving while she laughed.

  And shortly we passed the turn off into Clovis with no trouble and then we hit the Texas state line!

  And a solid barricade made up of semi trailers laid on their sides and earth pushed half way up what had been the top.

  Cut into the former top were firing ports with lot of gun barrels pointed at us as we slowed to a stop about a hundred yards from the barricade. I eased out of the truck while Sandy did the same and we just stood waiting.

  The funny thing was we saw no signs of any fighting anywhere around the place which seemed comforting or not. Maybe they were just neater then most.

  We stood looking for a bit then a man stepped around the box trailer on the left and looked us over then said “ Johnny Walker? “ I nodded and said “Yep” He looked at the convoy behind us and said “ They peaceful”?

  Again I nodded and said “Yep”

  He smiled and said “well yer buddy Rick said you was a talkative one”

  I felt relief course thru me because I knew if he had talked to Rick then I had a feeling Mom and the rest of the Homestead was ok.

  He walked on out and stuck a big paw out at me and said

  “ I’m Bear Jackson” He was bigger then the average bear by a whole lot and it sure wasn’t fat.

  I shook his hand and introduced Sandy who’s hand simply disappeared into his.

  She looked down at it and said “If you break even one tiny bone in my hand I will shoot you dead!

  He busted out with the biggest roar I ever heard and said “With what little lady?”

  She just smiled that sweet smile and looked down at his crotch.

  When he looked down her Gold Cup was pointed right at his pride and joy!

  Now he really bellowed out with laughter!! And very gently let her hand go.

  Bear Jackson was a man who could laugh while Apaches pealed his hide off one strip at a time. He was just a great big good ol boy born and bred in Texas.

  He wasn’t dumb by a mile but he liked to put on the Ol Red neck act but Sandy had got his attention for sure.

  Well we was in Texas and sitting with the local home guard commander Harry Brown who brought us up to date about things in Texas.

  He said” The day the lights went out the Caca really hit the rotators in the cities” Houston was burning in less then an hour while the gangs fought over the neighborhoods and the spoils.

  Then it was just open season on everybody who wasn’t a Mexican or in some areas a Black or a Red Neck White.

  “It was just open season on anybody they didn’t like or know and even then it didn’t seem to matter. Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin held out longer because the Governor brought in the National Guard” He said.

  But the Guard and Cops were out numbered and by now even the decent folks were shooting anybody who was a stranger he added. After the first week the cities were raging infernos and no fire fighters, no water and that was that.

  The People in the gated communities were next to go and it wasn’t pretty. Most thought their silly gate and the minimum wage guard with pepper spray was gonna keep them safe.

  The mobs over run even the few who had guns and it was a massacre. Women and girls raped non stop till they died or were killed. Men tortured and in some cases burned alive.

  It was like mass hatred had overtaken the cities which in a way it had.

  “Finally” he said “ The folks in the more rural areas just barricaded the bridges and wait for them and shot them dead. Piling bodies up like hills before the raging fools turned and ran.

  The good folk then went after them and ran them down and killed all they could catch.

  “How about the good folks who weren’t a part of the mobs” I asked?

  “Weren’t none “he replied.

  “Every body in the mobs were a part of it and them as wasn’t was already dead.”

  I knew what I had seen but none of it was like this. I had traveled about a thousand miles and never came close to a major city.

  We were all quiet for a while but I had questions and needed answers.

  I asked him if Texas was stable at this time? He said “ yea more or less simply because the whole damn state was armed to the teeth and most rural folks have the ability to feed them selves”

  He said that as the scum floated to the top it was dealt with. And most of them were working real hard to become gardeners and being helpful.

  He smiled and said “nothing brings about a conversion in attitude like seeing yer buddies swinging from trees“.

  I told him what my plans were and he thought I was crazy to go back out into the mess looking for trouble.

  I asked him how many times he looked at the remains of an entire family murdered for whatever they had on them? That got his attention real fast!

  He said “ My god! You mean that’s going on out there?

  I just looked at him and said “that and worse!” I guess these folks hadn’t seen a lot of the crap I had seen

  We took our leave and headed home with our convoy of trucks full of armed people and pulling supply trailers .We must have looked pretty tough. Folks just waved and smiled.

  Of course with the Nations Flags waving on a lot of vehicles plus the Lone Star Flag of Texas ( And of course the Stars and bars of the Confederate States of America) most folks saw us as some part of the state Guard which was fine.

  Sandy told me th
at we needed to stop for the night about 30 miles from home and I was surprised and said so. She said

  “ I’m going to be meeting your family and I won’t do it looking like GI Jane Rambo!”

  Being the kind and considerate ( Smart and chicken shit) Man that I am I agreed that we all needed to clean up so we pulled over by a creek and everybody spent the rest of the day washing the trucks and their bodies and clothing.

  Come morning when Sandy and I came out of the camper there in formation stood our “Army” at attention. all 97 of them.

  Somebody had spent some time working with these folks because they looked damn sharp! All were in some form of BDU’s and a mixed lot it was but all looked clean and in good shape. Their weapons were a mixed bag but I would bet my last breath they were all clean and loaded.

  I was lost for a moment then taking a page from Willies playbook I snapped to and marched over to him where he saluted like a pro and I returned it.

  He then asked if I would care to inspect the troop. Which I did. Looking each person in the eye and thanking them for their service.

  I marched back to the front while Willy took his place at the front and I said “ At Ease”! in my best Marine parade ground voice.

  I looked them over slowly wondering what you say to people like these who were willing to put it all on the line for no pay, no glory and most likely a lonely grave by some back road.

  Finely I said” Words of thanks don’t work well in a case like this. We are embarking soon on a journey of no less importance then out fathers and grand fathers did in WW2 where they fought and so many died in far away places.

  We are not a trained Military unit but we are each and every one of us a volunteer no less so then the Marines I fought beside long ago in another war on distant shores.

  But! This time the war is here on our shores in our cities and towns. The enemy we will meet is “US” our own people. But people who shown their inability to live as decent people. People who have chosen to rob, rape, murder and torture their fellow man.

  We will stop them once and for all. No lawyers to cut deals. No suspended sentences. We will in the words of my old Recon team “ Find em, Fix em and Fuck em!

  And at that they roared like real Marines! OooohRahhhh!!! And I felt my buttons popping and a shiver run up my spine! And the next roar my voice was as loud and then Sandy was beside me adding her war cry!

  We were one! We were a Unit! We were Warriors!

  After it quieted down I told them that the military stuff was great in garrison but all saluting and such was a good way to get me and the other officers killed so please don’t salute!

  I nodded at Willy who yelled “Attention!!” and my Band of brothers snapped to and when Willy yelled “ Dismissed!! And they gave their battle cry “OOOOH Rhaaa!!

  After that we loaded up and headed out and by God we looked good!! Pride was flowing off like glitter and you could feel it.

  There was no yelling or cat calls when we passed people. Everybody was being professional and looking the part.

  I saw this in the Marines long ago but it came only after men had worked, trained and fought together for a while. Somehow we had it already.

  We rolled into the small town near to where my people and our homestead were. As we got closer I was filled with dread at what I might find.

  We turned onto the narrow farm to market road that lead to the turn in between two bridges. And the gate I had hung with a lot of sweat and work being so out of shape and over a hundred pounds heavier then now.

  The gate was closed and there was a well placed bunker just to the right and almost out of sight. I stopped the truck and got out and stood in the open.

  Nobody or thing moved then Molly bailed out and took off under the gate and up the road towards my little cabin which I could hardly see for the huge garden growing tall.

  At last a vehicle could be heard coming and there was my good friend Rick our neighbor. He bailed out and said “bout time!”

  We met at the gate and shook hands and pounded each others shoulders ! I knew he would be there caring for everybody.

  In moments the gate was open and the convoy started coming thru. Rick was wide eyed as they rolled thru. After the last on was in the gate was closed and locked and a heavy cable was raised and locked.

  It would slow down a gate crasher because they couldn’t gain speed what with having to turn so sharp into the gate.

  I looked at the bunker as we walked up the drive and then went over to it and still had trouble really seeing it. Rick called out a password and out popped a young man in full face paint. It took a moment to realize it was his youngest son Jim.

  I shook my head as he disappeared back into the bunker. Rick said there was a sound powered phone inside and that it was mostly an advanced warning post with a bug out route down into the creek and back to the main defenses.

  We walked on while he told me all about how things were going for them.

  He said my Mom was doing pretty good for her age but that like everybody her meds were gone and no hope of finding more but that the women had gotten into advanced herb gardening and were growing all manner of stuff that was helping mom and a lot of other people.

  I had been on the road so long and 10 minutes after getting back I felt like I never left. We headed to moms house and he left me to check on where my troops were gonna be billeted. Tents in the trees of course.

  I stepped inside the door to my Mothers home and she was napping in her chair so I eased down on the old couch and just relaxed. After a bit she opened her eyes and looked at me and asked me if I was going to the store that she needed some things.

  I said sure mom I’ll be going in later and she nodded back off. I eased up and out the door and headed to see to the troops.

  My cabin was sitting just as I left it so I opened the door and saw it was just the same.

  Dusty and the bed unmade. I had to laugh.

  But the two old Mauser rifles and the sawed off 12 ga double barrel on the wooden pegs were dust free and lubed against the humidity. I took the shotgun down and sure nuff it was still loaded with # 1 buck. It was good to be home.

  I found the troops scattered in the woods between Ricks fish ponds in the trees setting up tents. The trucks were scattered among the trees too.

  My new truck and trailer was parked where I always parked my trailer before I took my last road trip. It now set with the truck in a park in Montana.

  Sandy was in the camper waiting for me with a shy look on her face so I took her hand and we walked around the place meeting all the people I knew and a lot I didn’t.

  Rick’s wife Chris was happy to meet Sandy and took her off to see girly stuff. I looked for Willy and Rick and asked to be filled in on what all had happened while I was gone.

  He said that surprisingly not much, that the main problems were the cities and the trouble makers who headed out into the rural areas got their asses handed to them. And the local bad guys had met the same fate. Folks were just not taking shit anymore.

  He said the gardens had been very successful and they had plenty to eat. That the lack of power had been an issue but they had bartered for a few generators that used diesel so they could run them for a few hours a day and keep the freezers at temp and charge any batteries needing it.

  He said that all in all it was going good. People were working well together doing whatever they could do best. He said people were going to bed at dark and up at sunup just like the old days.

  Everybody was getting in better shape, losing weight and seemed healthy as compared to the past. No fast foods and mostly fresh veggies. Plenty of eggs since the teenagers after a hard safety course had been armed with 22 rifles and were keeping the chicken flocks safe just as I saw back in Idaho at the mine compound.

  The goats Sheri had were producing plenty of milk since she was home to handle them. Rick had traded some ammo for a milk cow and calf and Sheri was milking her and making butter. All in all things were go
od.

  No TV. No Football. No commercials for products nobody really needed.

  All in all it was going even better then I had hoped.

  Willy, Rick and I sat on the dock by his pond and I laid out the battle plan for the coming months. He said I was too old for that shit and I agreed with him but I was gonna do it anyway.

  He said he did understand it since he had seen some shit in the early days of the troubles.

  I looked at him who I knew wouldn’t kill anything unless it just had to be and I could see that he had been to the wars himself. I didn’t ask and he never offered.

  I was sad that he had to do that but we had talked about it and both knew he would do whatever had to be done.

  If there was a nail sticking up he would hammer it down. He was just a get it done kinda guy. Just exactly what the combined homesteads needed.