Conflicted Home (The Survivalist Book 9) by A American (learn to read books TXT) 📕

control of the ports. The biggest problem they’re having is distributing it. He was kind of relieved you came. That’s why they sent so much with us. He knew you’d get it out to folks.”

“Are things getting back to normal, then?” I asked.

“Normal?” Sarge asked. “Normal will be a long time in coming. But they are starting to stabilize a little bit. Just as soon as they round up those Russians and Cubans, they’ll be able to focus on getting the country restored. They have engineers working on some things now, but they just don’t have the manpower.”

“How are they deciding where to focus their efforts then?” Aric asked.

Sarge smiled. “They’re looking for the spark, that’s how he put it. Places that are trying to get back on their feet. So much of the country is a lawless land, wilderness as he put it.”

“Are we a spark?” Fred asked.

Sarge nodded. “Indeed, we are.” He swept his hand out over the mounds of supplies still to be sorted. “That’s why all this is here. And there will be more coming.”

A clapping of hands got everyone’s attention. We all looked up to see Kay standing with her hands on her hips. “Come on now. This isn’t going to sort itself. The sooner we get it sorted, the sooner we can take it to town.”

“Back to work!” Sarge barked.

I wandered around, inspecting things to get an idea of all that was sent. I found Dalton stuffing cans of sardines into a backpack. He looked at me and grinned, “I love these things.” Looking at a can in his hand, he lamented, “Just wish they had ‘em in hot sauce.”

I shivered. “Man, I had a bad experience with those once.”

He laughed. “Yeah, it’s always a good idea to eat ice cream afterwards so you have something to look forward to when you’re sitting on the shitter.”

With his bag full, he slung it over his shoulder and walked back over to where Ted was inventorying the trailer-load of ammo. I walked over to see what sort of goodies the old man had managed to get for us.

“Anything exciting over here?” I asked Ian.

“All this shit is exciting. You just don’t want to be on the exciting end of it is all.”

“The old man was thorough,” Ted announced. “He got everything from hand grenades to 105 rounds for the Stryker. We’ll never shoot all this shit up.”

I looked around at the crates of ammo and replied, “I sure as hell hope not. If we do, it’s a bad damn day.”

Dalton chuckled, “Ain’t that the truth.” He opened a can of grenades and took several out, then opened another can and removed detonators for them.

Ted wagged a finger at him. “Do not arm that shit standing here!”

“I’m not, I’m not. This is just for my personal collection.”

Ted waved him off. “Close that can and get those out of here.”

Dalton dropped it all into his pack and carried it off a distance where he set it down under an oak tree before returning to the inventory. Looking over the ammo cans, cases and crates, I saw one that caught my eye. While I didn’t speak military shorthand, it was obvious it was full of smoke grenades. I opened it and indeed, it was red smokes. I took a couple out and stuffed them into my dump pouch.

With this task well in hand, I told Sarge I was going to take care of some other things. He said they had it under control and that we would be taking the supplies to town tomorrow. I told him I’d see him later and went over to Thad, who had been doing most of the heavy lifting. I asked if he wanted to go for a ride with me.

He looked around and smiled, “I’d rather stay here and finish this,” he replied.

I patted his shoulder. “No problem, buddy. I’ll get someone else. But I’m going to borrow your little truck.”

“You’re more than welcome to it. It ain’t mine anyway.”

I laughed, “It’s as much yours, if not more than it is anyone else’s.”

“I’ll go with you,” Aric piped up.

“Cool. Let’s go.”

While I collected Little Bit, he went and gave Fred a kiss, telling her he’d be back. Little Bit protested, “I don’t want to go. I want to stay here and help.”

“I have to leave, kiddo. We gotta go.”

“You can leave her here,” Kay said. She patted Little Bit’s head, adding, “She’s my special helper.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“Of course, I am. You go on. Tell Mel that I’ll bring her home later.”

Little Bit smiled up at her, “Thanks, Miss Kay.”

“You be good for Miss Kay now.”

“I will!” She smiled back.

“Where are we going?” Aric asked.

“I want to go up to Save-A-Lot and take some parts out of their light fixtures.”

With a look of confusion, he asked, “For what?”

“I’m going to build something that might help keep the houses a little cooler. Create a little airflow.”

He rolled his eyes. “Anything would be an improvement.”

We walked towards Danny’s house where the little truck was parked. On the way, I stopped by the house to tell Mel we were running to Umatilla real quick and that Little Bit was with Kay. She said she was about to walk down to see if she could help anyway.

“Ok, babe,” I said. “We’ll be back in a while.”

When I came out of the house, I could hear the little truck running, and I walked over. At the back of Danny’s shed, I grabbed a ten-foot step ladder and slid it up on top of the lightbar of the truck and tied it with a piece of rope from the bed. Aric was sitting in the driver’s seat as I climbed in. “To the market, James.”

“Right oh!” he quipped as he pulled out.

“How are you going to make something out of light fixtures to cool the house?”

“You take two-liter bottles and cut them in half. Then, you insert the small neck through something, in this case, the lens from