Chapter 15

Sharon and Jim returned to the kitchen to warm up. The barn wasn’t as cold as out in the open but it wasn’t heated either.

Fifteen minutes later, Betty and Allen returned with suitcases. Bob placed an armload of food on the table. He said, “She had this secreted away.”

Misty said, “She can keep it.” I noticed that there was nothing that children might want or need in the stack. I wasn’t surprised.

Misty said, “Allen, take your suitcases outside and put them in your car.” Bob helped. When they returned, it was time for the really tough decision.

I said, “Your wishes will not necessarily be dispositive of the situation but. Trevor, Opal, do you wish to stay here when your parents leave?”

Trevor immediately said, “I want to stay. My mother will get us killed. I want to learn to shoot and to be smart.”

Betty said, “Trevor, you’re my son! You have to come with us and leave these evil people!”

Opal answered, “Mother, I will stay with Trevor and Sharon. They are not evil. We do not have to follow you into trouble.” Trevor nodded.

Betty wailed, “You must stay with your mother!” She looked at me, “If they don’t go, you can’t make me go!” Allen just looked troubled but said nothing.

I said, “They may be your children but they’re not your chattels. We will not force them to leave this house. We will protect them and teach them how to be adults.”

“They’re my babies!”

I said, “Not really. They may be children but they are showing a decent amount of good sense and mature thinking about what is good for them.”

After a moment, I said, “It’s time for you to go. Don’t come back. If you really care about your children, you won’t tell others about this place thereby risking their lives. Help her up, Allen.” He did slowly. His wife was sobbing but allowed him to lead her out. I had to use my truck to push their car out of the drive and onto the road. Opal cried but Trevor did not and did comfort his sister. Sharon and Jim stood with them.

Allen drove away.

I parked my truck back in the barn. We closed the gate though with some difficulty. We all went inside.

It had become a long, emotional day. Misty and I sat on a couch together holding each other comfortably. Opal came to us and crawled into Misty’s lap. Misty put her arms around her while held her. Opal said, “My mommy’s gone?”

“Yes, dear.”

“She left us?”

“Yes.”

“What was wrong?”

Misty said, “She was opposed to allowing you, your brother, or herself to learn about guns. She also stole food. The first reason is why she was leaving though the second would have resulted in that same result also.

“We can’t allow people here to steal food from the group. Everyone is welcome to eat as much as they want. There is no reason to steal food.”

“She tried to stop us from doing anything to learn about the world. She wanted us to stay babies and always do exactly what she said. She did that to my dad, too.”

Misty said, “I know. That’s part of the reason he left also.”

We just sat with each other and her. Sharon and Jim joined us later with Trevor. Trevor looked troubled and finally said, “What are you going to do when they come back with a gang?”

I said, “I would hope that they wouldn’t think to do that.”

“Mister Taylor, my mom will want us back. She will do something to get us. This place is good and people will envy you when they hear about it.” There was a silence. “My mom will tell people about it planning to get us back in the fighting or after. She won’t think about what might happen because of her actions.”

I was a little surprised. “We’ll have to prepare to defend this place better than we have. We could make other plans but I would rather stay here.”

The rest of the day passed with rifle practice for Katie and Bob and for the two children. All four were quick studies knowing that learning this skill might make the difference between life and death. Jim and Sharon were outside in front thinking of ways to slow an attack.

Over supper, Jim said, “I know you fought off a group before. However, Sharon tells me they weren’t organized nor ready for a real fight. I don’t think we can depend upon that luck in the future.” I nodded. “Sharon and I are building some simple booby traps to force raiders to stay on the road or find their vehicles disabled. We need some safe ambush points and a way to communicate.”

“Dad, don’t we have some more of those old hunters’ radios?” I nodded. “They aren’t much but do have a range of a couple of miles. If we used code words, people won’t know what’s going on even if others are listening.”

“That’s good. They’re out in the barn somewhere.”

“We’ll find them.”

We all went to our beds. In the morning, we started thinking about our preparations further. We also started some initial work. Misty and I hiked out to our hidden storage spot. It was fine and, since we had Katie and Bob with us, they now knew where it was. Katie and Bob were carrying guns now. They were not good shots yet but would be able to make people duck at the least.

We returned to the house. Sharon had left a note that she had taken Trevor and Opal with Jim to practice shooting. That eased my mind since I had heard some shots in the distance when we returned.

The four of us in the house talked about how we might set up an early warning system for the road. Being warned by engines as they came up wasn’t comforting. It wouldn’t give us time to react well. I continued to realize we were lucky last time.