Chapter 17

While Louise and I had been unloading the camper shell I'd seen the big hardcase that contained that fucking cannon John had sold me. It might actually be too much gun for bear hunting, but I knew it would do more damage to a bear than the 35 Remington had, even if the bullet was traveling too fast for proper expansion on the way through.

It would do the job, especially since it had a ten round clip and was semi-automatic, not to mention that I could shoot at the bear from easily ten time farther away than I'd have to be for a shotgun to do any good. I was pretty sure I could get off ten shots, change clips and get off ten more before a black bear that was receiving them could travel five hundred yards.

My plans unraveled slightly when I opened the case on my camper's kitchen table again. I hadn't paid any attention last time but the damned thing didn't have any iron sights and there wasn't a scope on it. It had the rail to mount a scope but there wasn't one in place. The answer appeared when I looked in what I'd thought was a big ammunition storage box inside the hard case.

Said box held an ATN four to twelve variable day/night scope. Goddamned, that thing probably cost more than the rifle. Hell, John had already paid off probably half of the loan I'd given him. The rifle, scope, and five thousand round for it must have come to a big chunk of change. Whatever, money didn't mean shit to me now anyway.

Even with all the fucking around this morning it was still just now noon. Louise was making noises that were intended to get me and whatever the hell I was playing with off the table so she and her new co-wives could get a meal put together. I stalled long enough to mount the scope and then took my business outside.

While waiting for food I nailed the last couple of short two by fours back onto the sheet of plywood they'd come off of, and then wrassled it down the new path toward the spring. The not really a road road had the advantage of being straight and mostly level and it would work as a good place for impromptu rifle sighting. Lunch was ready just as I got things sorted out.

Louise and the girls had a surprise for me on the table. I'd wondered that I'd been able to get so much done after they ran me out since I'd assumed they'd just warm up some more stew. They had, but they'd made some kind of fry bread while they were at it. It wasn't cornbread or biscuits but it was pretty damned good.

When they started cleaning up after the meal I made good my escape. There were a few more details to take care of before sighting in my artillery. First things first I fetched and then opened one of the cases of ammunition.

It was a relief to see that at least John hadn't bought some type of armor piercing rounds for the damned thing. Of course they were the biggest rifle cartridges I'd ever seen but after a few minutes they grew on me. Instead of the stupid military type full metal jacket bullets they had normal appearing hunting type bullets, with the lead exposed at the tip. Sorta like normal, just giant in proportions. What the hell, they had to do because they were all I had.

After loading one of the five magazines that had also been in the case I slipped it into the rifle and then worked the action to put one up the spout. Things were set to call down the thunder now.

Entering the trailer again I let Louise and the other two know I wanted them to come outside for a few minutes. They didn't give me any static about it but I could tell they wondered what was up.

Help from them wasn't on the agenda but there was no sense letting the first few shots scare the shit out of them. I pointed to the makeshift target on the plywood, shouldered the damned cannon and then pantomimed firing a shot while shouting BOOM as loud as I could. It only took two tries before Louise, who'd become proficient at figuring out my sign language, explained to the other two.

Encouraging them to go back inside didn't bring results; they were determined to see what happened. Putting on my ear protection, I mentally dressed myself down for not having more. At least they agreed to stand back about twenty feet and they caught on to the sticking your fingers in your ears motions and complied. I checked again before firing to make sure they still had their fingers in place.

It still surprised hell out of them, and they all squealed when I touched one off. The bullet had impacted practically where I was aiming and that was a relief. Since the target was only about fifty yards away, it meant someone had been a pretty good guesser when setting the scope for a five hundred yard shot with no testing to help.

There was no sense wasting another round at this distance, I just drove out to my practice target, put it in the back of the truck and hauled it out to my best guess at two hundred yards. I set it up, drove back and got out to fire again. The girls saw I was going to make more noise and I guess they decided that they'd seen and heard all they needed to since they went back inside.

Firing three shots this time, from a prone position, with the scope dialed up to twelve power got me a fairly tight group of the half-inch holes, probably ten inches high. Just about what I figured. I moved the target out to approximately five hundred yards and went back to try again.

Another three shot group showed me that it was only about an inch high at this distance and that was good enough. I couldn't believe it had been set up so well right out of the box, but I was glad. Even with the ear protection, the noise the son of a bitch made was getting old, and I wondered again what in the hell John had wanted with it.

About ten minutes later I heard the fake birdcall that let me know someone was here from George's place. I didn't know how to make the damned call and all three of the girls were still inside. So I just yelled.

"Come on in here whoever you are."

That must have been good enough because Sky and two other young braves came trotting up. I had an idea what they were curious about and when they approached I held up the Barrett and shouted BOOM again. Sky grinned and they all nodded their heads. What the hell, a demo wouldn't hurt.

Sending them back about where Louise, Nancy, and Helen had stood, I made the fingers in the ears motion again. They complied and I took a standing shot at the target, not caring if I hit it or not. To say that they were surprised was putting it mildly. As soon as the noise died away I noticed that all their mouths had dropped open. I just grinned again.

"For Bear," I said.

I figured at least Sky knew what I called bear by now and he must have, he rattled off something to the other two and then they were all grinning again.

"Louise, we have company," I yelled, toward the camper.

She and the others must have heard Sky's signal afterall, or else she understood from my yelling in answer to his call. Nancy came out with two cups of coffee, handing Sky one and me the other, and then Helen came out with coffee for the two braves.

Setting the Barrett down in its hardcase, I pointed to the lawn chairs and being a fine southern gentleman, I went to the U-haul and fetched the rest of the furniture. There were more than my original estimate, eight in all. The other two had been discovered when we emptied the camper shell into the U-Haul.

I got back just in time to see Louise, Helen, and Nancy coming out with their coffee and I was glad I'd brought all the chairs from the trailer. After opening them and spreading them around we all had a seat and did away with the coffee.

After a short visit, mostly talking to my harem, Sky and the two with him got up to leave. He asked Louise something as he was about to trot off and so she asked me. She put her hand on the Barrett and said name with an implied question in her tone.

"Gun," I said, "Big Gun."

No translation was possible of course but Sky and both the other two repeated gun and were about to take off when I remembered something they could help me with pretty quickly if they would, so I asked Louise if she'd ask them.

No, she wasn't far enough along with her English yet to understand my question, but she did realize I wanted something out of the three. It only took a little hand waving and pointing to get them to agree.