Chapter 8

After their arms were strapped behind them we had them stand up and head over to join the others detainees. Of course the racket the dogs made had all of them awake and they laughed at our new bunch as the dogs herded them.

"Well, well. If it ain't the rescue squad. Did you geniuses come to get us out of this fix?" the short asshole asked.

"Naw, they thought your bunch was being too hard on our women so they came to get in on the fun. Wonder how much fun it'll be for them when the target practice starts. Jane and Karen might even give up the chance at you to practice on them. Maybe not thought," Carl said, and then laughed like hell.

"We might as well stir up the fire and get breakfast ready Hank. If that's ok with you," Jim Bob said, and nodded toward Carl.

"It's fine with me Jim Bob. You and Hank are running the camp out here. I'll have Casey bring you some more chains and you can latch this bunch up before you start though. I wouldn't want them to wander around and get more teeth in their asses. I'm afraid the dogs might catch a dose of dumbass or something," Carl said, and he and I went to his trailer.

Casey was still in his guarding spot outside the door and he said he'd take Jim Bob and Hank some more of the eight-foot big loop chains. Carl and I went inside and Scotty was sitting at the table, just now finishing his breakfast. At first I hoped for the best, especially since Scotty was now dressed in jeans, boots, and a nice western shirt. As soon as he said hello though I knew things hadn't turned out as well as we'd hoped.

"Hello Billy Joe. Have you and Carl been hunting?" he asked, and it was a normal enough question but was still the same old Scotty from last night.

"No, we went out to meet some more of the guys from Graveyard," I said.

"What did they want," Scotty asked, and it was clear that he hadn't really missed any of his old Graveyard buddies.

"They came to cause trouble Scotty. We have them chained up to the trees now," Carl said.

"Good. I promise I won't cause any trouble Carl. Please don't chain me up to the tree no more," Scotty said.

"We won't Scotty. How do you feel this morning?" I asked.

"I feel fine. Better than I can remember feeling in a long time. And my finger is really well, I didn't just dream it," he said, showing me his repaired hand.

"That's good. I'm glad you feel good Scotty."

"There's something else funny about my head now, but it's not hurtin'," he said.

"Well what's funny about it Scotty?" I asked.

"I hadn't thought of it since I got hurt, but I hid my truck and stuff before I ever went to Graveyard, and I haven't thought about it since those guys jumped me. It seems like I should go and make sure it's ok," Scotty said.

"What kind of truck was it Scotty?"

"It was my welding truck. I had it fixed up for horse shoeing too. I was a pipeline welder to make a living but I shoed horses on the side. I like shoeing horses better, but there wasn't enough work in that so I took up welding," he said.

"Do you have any idea where it is?" Carl asked.

"I do this morning. I'd forgotten all about it and the trailer until I woke up today," Scotty said.

"Do you remember what you were doing when the greenies picked you up?" Carl asked.

"Yes. I'd just been RIFed from a pipeline job and was driving home to Hunt Texas, towing my stock trailer behind my welding truck. I needed the trailer to carry some pipe and other steel that I'd bought from the scrap pile at the end of the section we'd just finished," Scotty said, and for the first time he sounded almost normal.

"Where do you think you hid it?" Jane asked.

"I can't tell you, but I know if I was there again I could find it. The trouble is I didn't arrive at the place here. I was put down over thirty miles away," Scotty said.

"I didn't know they had safe areas that far from here," Karen said.

I was about to say the same thing when my handy dandy info closet that the spacemen thoughtfully installed into my head pulled up a map for me. There were sixty different safe areas. The map also showed that there was usually a very small town within a few miles of every group of two or three areas. No doubt they were along the lines of Graveyard. Just before I shared this knowledge Carl spoke up.

"Was the place west of here Scotty?"

"Yes. After my safe time was up I hid my truck and trailer. They had a town sort of like Graveyard there too, but I'm pretty sure it was full of even more assholes. I didn't want anything to do with it and so I came this way with a few things I could carry in my backpack.

"I did ok in this area until I decided to go into Graveyard to see if I could trade for some food," Scotty said.

"It must have been a hell of a hike from the place you came down," I said.

"I guess it was, kinda, but I wasn't really headed anywhere since I didn't know where anything else was. I happened on Graveyard by accident," he said.

"Well, it won't hurt us to go and see if we can find your truck and trailer for you, but it is a long way to walk," Carl said.

"That reminds me of something. Do any of you know of anyone that has tried to catch one of the horses that are roaming around here?" I asked.

"I've heard several people talking about it, but they could never get enough others interested in trying it. One man named Al tried for weeks to get up a bunch to go, but he came up missing before anything came of it," Carl said.

"I guess we should put the Igloo to work again then," I said.

"Making what?" Carl asked.

"We'll need more of the light chain to keep our workers in line for that project," I said.

"What project?" Jane asked.

"The horse catching project. We have the luxury of not needing to ask them to help. We can just tell them they're going to. The chains will make sure they don't get lost.

Jane and Karen started cooking breakfast for Carl, Casey, and I then. It didn't take long and after we'd eaten and emptied the coffee pot the three of us went outside. Jim Bob and Hank had finished feeding their bunch too and the last of them were being hooked back up to their trees for now.

"Jim Bob, you and Hank need to think about how much stuff you'll need to feed these guys for five or six days. We're going to catch some horses. Don't worry about meat; we can get that as we go. Just try to figure out if there's anything you'll need for cooking to make the meals more than just cooked meat. Nothing fancy you understand, just enough to keep it from seeming like the same thing every meal. Tell Jane or Karen if you get something figured out," I told them.

We spent the rest of the morning getting the chains situated. It didn't take much fooling around to make the Igloo give us two that were light, had big loops, and were forty feet long. I also copied until I had six sets of posthole diggers and eight more axes. When Scotty came outside we gave him the job of filling up the gas cans again for Old Man Mitchell. We didn't want him to run out while we were gone.

One other thing we'd have to do is deal with the rest of the residents of Graveyard before we took off. I didn't want any of them running loose since we couldn't be sure there'd be anything left here when we got back if they were. I saved the really bad news for the work crew until another day, but Carl and I did make up some harness so six of them at a time could pull my wagon during the trip.

After supper we decided that we still needed to stand our same watches. Thankfully we didn't get any more recruits during the night.

After breakfast the next morning Carl, Casey, and I headed out for Graveyard. Jane and Karen said they'd be able to handle things with Scotty's help. We let Jim Bob and Hank know that they were responsible for making sure not one of the workers got loose while we were away.

The first sight I got of Graveyard was depressing. People had been living here for years and the whole town wasn't really a town at all, just a collection of hovels. It could have been trouble I guess, since there were eight men living there, but it wasn't. We had fourteen of Carl's dogs and the three of each had a Glock, one of the sawed off shotguns, and a Marlin. We walked right to the center of all they had for a town and made the happy announcement that the Mayor was dead and we were taking over.

We were nearly mobbed by happy women. Four of them were from the Mayor's household, such as it was, but there were forty-one in all. The only trouble came when some of them men that were still in town tried to corral a few of the women they said were theirs. It took a few butt strokes and some convincing from the dogs but we had the men's hands tie strapped behind their back and they were all attached to the long chain by the eight-foot neck chains pretty quickly.

The next little fracas was trying to keep some of the women from beating some of the men to death. After three hours to gather people and things we were headed back to our campsite with forty-one women, eight chained men, and seventeen children ranging from twelve down to babes in arms. I didn't have any idea where they were all going to sleep.

We were back to Carl's trailer by about thirteen-thirty. Jane and Karen must be mind readers because they had over a hundred baloney and ham sandwiches ready and they were working on blue jeans by the dozen. It was good that Carl and I had already rigged up the water supply and refilled his propane tanks since the lottery for turns in the shower was one of the first things the women wanted, even before food.