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

acquainted with my man Dalton,” Sarge said to Micha as he spun him around to face the big man. “And all we’ve done to this point was with the aim of keeping you alive.” Sarge laughed and patted Micha’s shoulder. “But that’s no longer an issue. Now is it?” The last words Sarge spoke directly into Micha’s ear.

Panic gripped the naked man as his new reality swept over him. “But I can help you! I know where they all are! I can tell you!” Micha pleaded.

Sarge stepped behind Micha and tussled his hair. “Oh, you will. See, now, we know you have more to tell us. And we know you want to.” Sarge stepped back in front of him and asked, “you do want to, don’t you?”

Micha nodded, “Yes, I’ll tell you everything.”

Sarge stepped back over to his chair and took a seat. He chewed on his thumbnail as he made a show of thinking. “That’s good. It’ll make all this easier. But,” he paused and looked at the nail, “we have to be sure you’re telling us the truth. We have to believe you.”

“I’ll tell you the truth!” Micha shouted, believing he’d found his salvation.

Sarge looked past Micha to Dalton and asked, “Do you believe he’ll tell us the truth?”

“I’m not sold,” Dalton replied.

Micha was reinvigorated and now stood on his tip toes. He tried to spin around to see Dalton, but Dalton prevented him from doing so. “I will! I have no reason to lie now!”

Sarge leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

I listened to the exchange with little interest. Whatever the information we could extract from the little slug paled, at least in my mind, to the value he would serve swinging from a rope on the gallows in the park. His death will serve a couple of public purposes, and a private one as well. The people of northern Lake County have not yet forgotten the evils of the DHS and what they did to people here. While we thought we vanquished that particular evil, this will demonstrate that the threat still exists. It will also demonstrate the fact that we are still very much fighting it, and will not shrink from the threat.

On a personal level, it will be vengeance for Bobbie. For the pain her death has caused my friend, my wife and my daughters. She was someone who never caused harm to another person. Innocent in the evils of the world around her. But just another tick mark in the column for those that, still it would seem, seek to oppress or rule over us.

It was this last thought I had the hardest time with. It’s only natural that there will always be those that seek to subjugate others. To lust for power and control. But control over what? Our society has so little now, of anything. What good is it to rule over a wasteland, other than to serve one’s own ego perhaps? Because, with the power, even if sought vindictively, comes responsibility. And it was the latter I sought to avoid, not covet.

I willingly accept my responsibility for myself and family. But I damn sure didn’t want it for everyone around me. It was as foreign an idea to me as space travel at the moment. Our once soft lives were now hard, and the thought of willingly, wantonly, trying to complicate it further through conquest was unfathomable to me. But the fact remained there were those that didn’t think this way and it was because of them, we, I, had to stand where I did.

“You want to live then?” I asked Micha. He nodded eagerly, his eyes wide with the thought of saving his skin. “Then you need to give a full accounting of your actions, since the beginning. You will read them aloud tomorrow in the park, before the community, so all will know your scheming.”

Micha nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll do it!”

Sarge looked up at me and didn’t say anything. I could see he was thinking. “Good. Then you can make your confession tonight. Dalton will be here to make sure your memory doesn’t fade.” I replied. I looked around at the guys. “Tomorrow morning we’re going to have a service for Bobbie, before we go to town.” Solemn nods were the only reply. “I’ll leave you to it then. I’ve got other things to attend to,” I said as I headed towards the open garage door.

Sarge got up and followed me outside, waiting until we were out of earshot of the others. “Then what?” He asked.

“Then what, what?” I asked.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked at the ground. “Tomorrow, after he reads his confession, as you call it. Then what?”

“We hang him,” I replied easily.

Sarge nodded. “I figured that’s where you were going with it. Having him list his dirty deeds in front of everyone is a good idea. They’ll never believe us if we just say, it wasn’t us.”

I nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too. We need the folks in town to know we’re trying to help them at best and not trying to kill them at the least. This will serve to do that.”

“And him swinging from a rope will also send a message that we aren’t going to tolerate this sort of bullshit.”

I let out a breath and looked up as a mosquito buzzed in my ear. “We’ll let Mitch look at his confession in the morning. Have Micha sign it in front of him to keep up the appearance. But in the end, we will stretch his neck. I, we, can’t tolerate people that don’t want to work for the benefit of everyone. And we certainly can’t tolerate those that will actively conspire against it.”

Sarge laughed. “Careful, your commie is starting to show.”

I grunted, “Whatever. We’re not forcing anyone to do anything for the benefit of others. If you want to benefit, you have to provide, labor, something. We’re not making anyone work so