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

this, Sheriff. If we ever get to vote again, you’ll have mine for life.”

I shook his hand and laughed, “Thank you. But it ain’t a job I want for life.”

As soon as it looked like we’d passed all the bags out, I went to the trailer and grabbed several bags and took them over to Mario and Shelly. They’d been watching the show from the seat of their UTV. “Well, that was interesting,” Mario said as I walked up.

I placed the bags into the bed of the UTV and laughed. “Yeah. Once they settled down, it wasn’t too bad.”

“The way they swarmed the trucks when you first got here, I thought it was going to go a lot different,” Shelly said.

“Me too,” I quickly replied.

Shelly picked up one of the bags. Holding it up, she said, “Thanks for this.”

I nodded. “You guys do a lot for everyone. Only fair you should get some too.”

“Yeah, but we’re doing better than most. We have something everyone wants. Unlimited supply of it,” Mario said.

“I was thinking about that. How’s security out there?” I asked.

Mario rolled his eyes. “It’s never ending. Like I said, everyone wants it. We give a lot away, trying to help people. But some people try to sneak in and take it.”

“We’ve lost some hives,” Shelly added.

I nodded. “I’m going to see if we can help you with that. Your hives are a huge benefit to the community. We need to support you guys.”

“How?” Mario asked.

“We could put some Guardsmen out at your place. You’ve got forty acres out there to secure. You could use some help.”

Shelly looked at Mario, “John would appreciate the help.”

Mario shrugged, “It would make things easier.”

“Yeah,” Shelly laughed, “we could actually get some sleep.”

“That would be nice,” Mario agreed. “Most of the trouble comes at night.”

“Come on, Morgan!” Sarge shouted. “We got shit to do!”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll catch you guys later,” I said as I headed for the truck where Mel and Little Bit were waiting.

Once I was up in the truck, Mel said, “That was kind of scary.”

“Maybe in the beginning. But things calmed down quickly,” I replied.

“I thought it was fun!” Little Bit added.

“I hope the next time is less fun,” Mel replied.

We did things differently in Umatilla. There were more people here. Sarge had the Stryker pulled right into the parking lot. I told Mel to wait in the truck and got out and walked over to the parking lot where Dalton, Ian and Perez were making a visible show of force. It worked and the people backed away, to wait under the old gas canopy. There was no trading going on today, everyone was waiting for the promised food delivery.

Once we had the people out of the way, I addressed them. “Alright, we will do this in an orderly fashion. You will form a line and act like adults. There’s enough here for everyone, so there’s no need to push and shove. We will not tolerate or allow this to get out of hand. Are we in agreement?” Many of the faces nodded back as they whispered amongst themselves.

I turned around and waved the trucks in. They moved into the parking lot and parked. As things were getting set up, I walked back over to the truck and told Mel that she and Little Bit could go over and help. This time, things did go differently. The initial show of force had the desired effect as everyone lined up in an orderly manner and patiently waited for their turn.

There was a lot of excitement among the people when they received their package. Some tore them open immediately, just as in Altoona. Others quickly spirited theirs away. Here too, we were peppered with questions about what was in them. Was more coming? Where did it come from? We answered the questions as best we could, telling them we didn’t know if there would be more.

I stepped over and looked into the back of the truck, surprised to see the amount of supplies that still remained. Despite the amount we’d already handed out, which was considerable, there was still a mountain remaining. But that was a good thing, because we had not yet been to Eustis where there were the most people.

This stop at Umatilla went much faster, despite the fact there were more people. Altoona provided a couple of lessons that we quickly learned from. Umatilla provided more, which was good, as the main show was about to start when we moved down highway nineteen towards Eustis. As we drove, Sarge called Ted on the radio, “Keep an ear on their net. Let me know if anything else comes up.”

“Roger, boss. I’ve been monitoring it. They say a couple of thin-skinned trucks came through. Doesn’t sound like much to worry about.”

“Just keep me updated.”

We rolled into Eustis and parked on the road in front of the armory. We never came to town to deliver the message that food was coming, but we did tell Scott and Terry to pass the word. It must have made it because there was a large crowd gathered at the park down the road from the armory. Before we were even stopped, Sheffield and Livingston were stomping their way out of the armory and towards the trucks.

“Keep her in the truck,” I said, referring to Little Bit. “I have a feeling this is going to get ugly.”

“We’ll wait here,” Mel replied.

I got out and made my way up towards the old man’s Hummer. Livingston pointed at the Hummer, saying something. I saw Sheffield nod his head as he stepped into the street.

He immediately stepped in front of Sarge, jabbing his finger in his face, and started shouting. “You fucking lied to me! You said you needed my people for something up your way, some bullshit you made up! Just so you could sneak off!”

Sarge held his hands up, trying to calm him. “Now calm down, Captain. Just relax and let me explain where we went.”

But