Into the High Country

by T J Reeder

  The mouth screamed again that his brother was dead that’s what was the problem. I had to try so I said quietly that his brother tried to sneak shoot me in cahoots with the preacher and left no choice. He wasn’t hearing me and had no intentions of hearing and made a very stupid mistake. He was almost foaming at the mouth when he said “Which one of these cunts back shot my brother?” Sandy smiled her very dangerous smile and said “I shot the sorry piece of inbred dog shit from the front and if you call me that again you can join him.”

  “Oh shit thinks I.” I saw Fred flinch and the dumb bastard just had to do it, he actually smiled and said “Fuck you cunt!” and died right there while trying to draw his gun. The one next to him was quicker but not fast enough. May shot him twice and the first one again while me and Fred took out the last one. The older man never moved from his place. Fred dropped behind cover while yelling “DOWN!” but I had already heard the sound of my rifle firing three fast shots. The first one was right when the dumb bastard called Sandy the name. My shooter knew that was it so why wait? I did hear the first shot simply because you really can’t silence a rifle shot with standard ammo and subsonic just wouldn’t cut it in this case. So there was a faint pop. When nobody shot at us Fred got up looking kinda sheepish. I said “Fred if I woulda had cover I would have been behind it too.”

  The girls were still standing there with their guns out and then Sandy loaded a full mag followed by May. Damn they were good, one loading while the other provided over watch. I was a very lucky man!

  I looked at the older man who was just waiting to either get shot or to finally talk. I pointed to another table a bit away and said “Let’s go sit.” May brought over a bottle of JW’s finest and poured it into glasses; the man looked very surprised but drank it right down. May poured another for both of us then joined Sandy at the truck.

  At last the man said “I’m Josh Higgins” and offered his hand. I took it and gave my name. He sat a moment and looking at me with sad eyes said “I’m sorry about all this, I tried to stop it but they seem to think since the lights went out that they could do anything they wanted.”

  He said they were his kin but had never really listened to anybody in their lives and had made nothing but trouble for the family since they were kids. He also said he knew nothing about the three shooters my man took out. He caught the look I gave him and said I’ve heard a rifle round fired through a can before in my life and that first shot told me these men had broken the agreement.

  He asked nothing but to be allowed to take them home to be buried and for the family to be allowed to just live and get past it. I said it was all I wanted and I hoped we would not have to revisit this whole issue again. He said we wouldn’t, because bringing six dead men home for a burying was gonna shut up the hotheads real fast. I hoped so. We helped load the bodies into his truck and it wasn’t a pleasant task, we had to just pile them in but Josh said it was fine and again offered his hand and drove off.

  We stood there for a bit then Fred and I joined the girls who both thanked Fred for his help and we headed for town and as hard as it is to believe we were all starving. So we hightailed it to Miz Sally’s. Fred joined us as well as the overlook team who had done superb work. After pushing two tables together Simon, the one who used my rifle looked at Sandy and said, “damn good shooting Wyatt" then he looked at May and said “you too ‘Doc’” and they all busted out laughing while I just held my head and groaned. Fred sat a moment and then joined in laughing.

  Sandy stood up and bowed and a second later May joined her and said “would you boys like me and Wyatt to sign your napkins?” More laughter, I gave up and laughed too. Finally Fred said “we just killed six people and we are laughing, why is that?” Sandy said “because we’re happy we’re here having breakfast and not getting dirt nap.” That summed it up pretty well.

  Simon looked at me and said “wanna sell me that rifle?” I said “Hell no. He thought a minute and said “Wanna sell one of these to troublemakers?” I said “let me think on that” and ribs on both sides caved in, I wheezed out “NO.”

  We headed home and vowed to ourselves and promised Fred we would not come back to town for a month. We couldn’t keep that promise because a week later while checking the stores for unlocked doors somebody ambushed Fred. He was hanging on when the word got to us and our medical team was on the way in very few minutes. I was moving slower because I had to load the truck with weapons, the Higgins clan was gonna get a visit.

  Sandy and May were crying and cussing and I had to stop them from filling the whole truck with weapons. I saw Sandy hand May the MP5/40 and she took the old Thompson out of its case and handed me the magazines.

  I knew she could load them but she just needed me close by. She and May went inside the cabin and came out wearing their body armor and handed me mine. I could see this was gonna be a wild trip. We rolled for town with about 25 shooters with us and made a beeline for the clinic where we found Fred was awake and able to talk.

  He had lately been wearing his body armor and the shooter was using a sawed off shotgun so Fred got some buckshot in his left arm and one broke a bone in his wrist. The Doc said all in all he was damn lucky to even be alive and after looking at his vest I had to agree. Two loads of buck at close range, too close to really spread.

  Sandy said “enough bullshit, Fred who shot you?” He said “there was two of them and both were Higgins men.” I went to the door and asked the folks who knew where the Higgins people lived. Most folks just looked at me like I was speaking in tongues. I finally just snapped out “Open up you worthless bastards! Fred got shot keeping you people safe and you’re playing the old I don’t want to get involved game?” One old guy said “Give me a minute to fetch my rifle and I’ll show ya.” One of the crowd said “Hey, you got no call to be bad mouthing us, you brought the trouble down on us to begin with.” Before I could slug him Simon did it for me. That scattered the rest of them. I went inside and told Fred he was moving to the Homestead and that his days working for this bunch of worthless assholes was done.

  He just looked at me and nodded. His wife came over and hugged me and said “thank you John, I’ve tried for 30 years to make him see these folks weren’t worth his life.”

  Old Man Jones returned with I swear to god a real and true 1886 Winchester in 45-70 and it looked as old as he did but both were in good shape. I said “damn man did your dad buy that new?” He smiled showing all five teeth and said “Shit no, I bought it new my own self!” I had to take a better look at him and I bet he did sometime around 1925 maybe. He said “nope, 1930!” Christ he was damn near a hundred. But he knew where the Higgins bunch squatted so he was going.

  Just as we were about to pull out here come folks from the Homestead, driving two of the HV’s with guns up. I didn’t want to turn this into a war but damn it these Higgins folks just seemed to have a death wish, so maybe a major show of force would settle them down, or not.

  Old man Jones said “holy shit!! I wanna ride in one of them thangs!” So we let him take the place of one of the security people who grabbed a ride with us. The HV with Jones in it took the lead and we rolled out. We covered maybe ten miles when we turned off on an old Farm to Market road which covers this part of Texas like a net. We followed that for a few miles when the brake light of the HV came on and I saw a gunner stand up and the gun barrel moved down. Easing to the left I saw several vehicles sitting in the middle of the road with people standing in the road.

  All had their hands in the air so I jumped out and walked up to them. It was Josh Higgins with a big bunch of women and kids and several men. He walked to me and said “John these folks had nothing to do with shooting Fred and I’m moving all the ones who want to get away from the hotheads, we just can’t take this fighting and killing no more.”

  I asked him how many were at the home place and he took a minute and finally said “about 10 maybe less if some took off which could have happened coz they was fightin among themselves.” He said
the two that shot Fred were the last of the trouble makers. I have to admit I like Josh for his honesty but I also knew he just wanted to get his people out safe.

  I asked him to wait a moment while I talked to my people, what I did was ask Jones if he knew Josh, he said “Oh hell yea and he’s a good man who keeps his word but he never could handle them worthless Higgins.” I went back to Josh and asked where they were heading at the moment. He said just away from the old homestead and hopefully if we didn’t burn it to the ground they could go back and try to get on with living.

  I asked if he had any sway with the ones still there and he said there was a few he might get through to but the real problems were not gonna listen to him. He was willing to go along with us if I wanted. I said “load up in my truck and lets get this done.” We drove for another 15 minutes and turned off the road into a farm lane with a big old farm type house standing there in the clearing.

  Josh got out and yelled out to them saying he was there to try and save them but they had to come out right now. This was followed by a lot of cussing and name calling but only from a couple of voices. Josh called them out by name and told the rest they had one chance to make it out alive and time was running out fast.

  After a bit the door opened and several men walked out with their hand up and walked right up to Josh, who told them to get out of sight and stay low. The ones who came out said only the two who shot Fred were inside.

  Josh called out to them again and was answered with a shot that hit the tree we were behind, thank God for huge old oaks. I had enough of this and called for the front HV to roll up and as soon as it did I told them to lay down a heavy fire right over the roof, and not to shoot up Josh’s home.

  They lit it up and it had the effect I was hoping for. They came out running and shooting, and 3 or 4 shots from us and it was over. Only two of our people fired and dropped both men. We rolled up and checked but they were dead. I just sat right down and motioned Josh to join me. I asked him what had been settled.

  One man tried to sneak attack me and got killed along with a nit wit preacher, then 6 more got killed trying to ambush us at a meeting to talk, not shoot. Now Fred was shot and two more men were dead; nine men dead for what? Stupid redneck misdirected pride? Josh said he had no answers except that the family had always had plenty of good folks and just as many sorry ones.

  He added that it was looking now like the sorry blood line was extinct. I thought how sad that some good seemed to come out of this shit. Josh rode back to his people and told them what had happened; there was crying but no angry voices. Josh said the gun going off scared the crap out of the younger ones who had come out and they knew it was over for good. I told Josh that we had a lot of resources and would be happy to help them if they needed it. He said thanks but they were ok.

  We rolled for home but stopped to see Fred and tell him what happened. He seemed relieved and who could blame him? His wife again thanked me for taking them in, and Sandy reassured her there was plenty of everything at our place and so many folks working together that nobody had to work too hard. The doc said Fred could be out in a few days after they made sure there wasn’t any infection.

  We went home and I just sat right down and sighed. Sandy and May both came to sit with me, and May brought a bottle. I love how her mind works. Sandy had the glasses with ice in them. Life in the EMP aftermath was real rough. After a bit Sandy said, “We have to go to town tomorrow, I moaned and asked why?” She smiled that smile that wins all arguments and said “I’m meeting Old man Jones at Sally’s.”

  “Why in the world are you doing that” I just had to ask. She and May both started giggling and May said, “We traded him out of his old rifle!” I sat up and said “What in the world would make him trade that old cannon?” Sandy said “well I’m giving him an M-16 and some other stuff.” “What other stuff?” I asked knowing somehow I wasn’t gonna like the answer. She snuggled in close and kinda mumbled something. I pulled her up and said “Stop dodging the question and talk!”

  She tried the smile again that always works and I knew I had lost something. She said “Well he likes Johnny Walker and can’t find any and you have several cases so I added a case of that.” I looked at her for a second and leaned back and said “Shit you had me worried for a minute.” I did have to ask why in the hell she wanted that old rifle, her answer made all the sense in the world. She didn’t have one. I didn’t even bite I just took a sip of my rapidly dwindling supply of JW and sighed. They both snuggled in closer and I heard May say “See I told it would work.” I didn’t bite, I didn’t even ask, I just kept my mouth shut because if I open it I’ll lose again. We now have an old rifle that was old when I was born. But I was waiting until she shot it, then I would laugh.

  They both said “We heard that.” I hate both of them and they both said “Do not.” I can’t win, they said “nope.” I shut down my thinking and they both said “Good boy.” I never believed in Witches...’til now.

  We had to find someplace for Fred and Maggie to live so we fixed up the cabin for them and we pitched a big tent from the military supplies. Hell it had more room than the cabin, and it was fun, kinda like camping out which it was. We took some lumber and made a bed frame and sewed two old blankets together and stuffed them with hay then sewed the end closed. We didn’t have box springs so we used rope stretched tight across the frame. We had way too much fun doing this, lots of laughing. When it was done it was very comfy! And king sized! We had canvas folding chairs and an old couch Miz Sheri had and a table where we could play our nightly games of cut throat yatzee or any of the board games that abounded all over the homestead.

  I liked chess but few play it but now May does so we have a game every once in a while, Sandy’s been watching with the intenseness that only she can bring to something and I know she will challenge me any day now and probably kick my ass.

  Like her shooting, she’s a dead shot, and just don’t miss, but half the winning is getting the gun into action and she worked on that till her fingers bled. As I said single minded, master it today! May has a streak of that too but I think she gets it from Sandy. They are like twins that don’t look alike, so one itches and the other scratches. How it happens I’ll never know. They just “are.” Anyway, we now had a more roomy home and after being out on the road sleeping wherever, this was special.

  Sandy suddenly wanted to build another outdoor oven like we built at that hot springs. When I asked why, “Because” was the answer. I said “Hell I knew that!” So off we went in search of stuff to work with. We had sand by the tons, good old sugar sand. We had red clay and even some gray clay but not much. First we scoured the whole place for stones, and after being in the Rockies I never thought a rock could be hard to find but here they are scarce.

  After a long search we had enough to form a heat sink and mixed clay and water to a mush and spread that over the rocks. Then we took wet sand and made the bee hive shape and took more wet clay and spread that over the sand hive. We put it on thick. I have no idea how this is really done but who cares we were doing it. After the clay was several inches thick, we let it sit for a bit to set up then took a large bladed knife and cut a hole through the wall of clay big enough to get stuff in and out easy. We debated having a hole for smoke to get out but couldn’t decide, so we left it for later when we could see the need.

  After a day or two of setting we gently scraped the sand out of the clay hive and laid a fire and lit it off and kept it going for a good while. After it burned out we cleaned the ashes and looked it over. This was much nicer looking than our first one. Sandy and May went to Sheri’s and got with her and made bread dough and an hour before it was ready we built a hickory fire and let it really get hot. The girls brought the dough over and shaped small loves and used a heavy spatula to put them into the oven. The door part we cut out went back in like a plug, I wasn’t sure about that but who cares.

  When we opened it up, the bread was golden brown and here come Sheri with home-ma
de butter and jam. We headed into the tent and stuffed ourselves and sent Sheri home with some. Over the next several days we had I’ve no idea how many people coming by to study the oven and ask questions. In a week there was dozens of them turning out bread and anything else they could stuff in them, cast iron pots on coals, leave it and come back for supper. You’d think we invented it, but crap it’s been around for a few thousand years probably.

  People are really strange ducks, while I could see the usefulness of these kinds of ovens they were something new here in this crowd so of course everybody had to have one, and some were really wild. One, I swear, was big enough to park a VW bug in.

  But with no TV, no computers, none of the time wasting crap we used to be burdened with, people had more time to work at real projects. Here on the Homestead, there were gardens of every size and shape. People were being creative in their work so it was more like fun than work. There were mound gardens, and another I can’t even pronounce much less spell. It involves digging a long narrow pit and filling it with anything that will compost, then that’s covered leaving a raised bed area. I don’t know jack about gardens except poke a hole, drop seed in, and cover then repeat over and over. I would starve if it was up to me.