Renewal 10 - Blind Force (4 page)

“My name is Terry Shelton. We’ve got a tense situation right now, but I can get you to David Carter’s family. David has been dead for years, as far as I know. In fact, that’s David’s granddaughter in the truck.”

“Pleased to meet you, Terry. I’m Ned Stamps, and my friend is Cindy Blaine. Those people back there are our adopted family. We’ve been gathering them for more than two thousand miles.”

“Wow! Where did you start? Oh, pleasure to meet you both... Sorry.”

Ned smiled for the first time. “Out on the West Coast. Cindy and I go all the way back.”

“Well, I can’t wait to hear that story,” Terry said, returning the smile. “It’s only a mile, but I can give you folks a ride if you don’t mind a few sitting up top.”

“A ride,” Ned said with a distant look. “I can’t even remember the last time I had a ride. Sure, that would be great.”

Chapter 10 – 7

Thanks to Terry’s clumsy but rapid arrangements with the patrols, Bill was waiting as Terry pulled the truck onto the grass by the front guard houses. In a form of unit discipline, Ned’s people stayed in and on the truck while Ned and Cindy stepped down to the ground. From his position in the cab of the truck, Terry could see members of the guard moving in on the front houses to cover whatever might occur. Once he was convinced that Bill was safe, Terry killed the ignition and joined the group forming around Bill. Seth followed him while Sally and Suze stayed in the truck.

Ned was saying, “I’ve heard stories about you, Mr. Carter. It seems like Joe spent a lot of time with you when you were a kid.”

“That’s true. I didn’t know him for long, but he was there for about ten months of hard work. He was sick at first, but eventually he was right in there with the rest of us,” Bill replied, still looking warily at the two newcomers. “Why don’t you get your people out of the truck? They’re pretty packed in there.”

Ned gave a simple hand signal and his people were on the ground in seconds. Bill noticed that there was nothing particularly military about the way they stood, but he recognized the speed and competence at a glance. It was nothing less than he would expect from a group who had traveled all the way across America.

“So, Ned. I have to admit. I’m pretty anxious to hear how you ended up in Coffee County, of all places,” Bill said.

Ned was completely aware of the situation just outside the heavy hedge rows around the guard houses. Cindy, being the fighting side of his command, was even more attuned to the movements of Bill’s people. Ned quickly glanced in the appropriate directions just to let Bill know that he was  tracking the buildup of force. “Well, as I told Terry, we ran into Joe Miller’s people outside Fort Smith, Arkansas. They had the notion this would be a good place to go since Fort Smith was not allowing immigration,” Ned explained. “But, there’s plenty of time for that story. Terry also mentioned something about a tense situation. I can see that you are being very cautious, and I can respect that. Right now, I don’t have an interest either way, but if I’m walking my people into trouble, maybe we should start with your story.”

“Fair enough, Ned.” Bill turned and gave instructions to one of the guards. “Call down to Aggie and get some food up here. Twenty-five or thirty people. Tell her she’s needed as well. See if you can round up Tommy or Kirk. Then, get some tables out on the back lawn.” The guard ran into the house, and Bill turned back to Ned. “Let’s head around back. It’s cooler there. We’ll have something to eat and talk it over.”

“Sounds good. We’ve been eating jerky for days,” Ned replied.

“Been in that situation, myself,” Bill said with a smile. “Terry, you and Seth carry on. Good job with bringing them in.”

“Ok, Bill. See you later,” Terry replied. He and Seth climbed back into the truck, intent on their original mission. Terry started the big diesel and eased it back out on the road.

Fifteen minutes later, after Sally had asked ten thousand questions Terry couldn’t answer, Big Bertha was rumbling past Westwood School again. Faces appeared everywhere from houses and gardens in the neighborhood. By the time Terry drove into Jared’s yard, Mrs. Cooper was standing outside, waving to them from the sagging porch. Several other people were milling around the front door. Terry wondered what was happening at the Cooper house as he shut the truck down. He wasn’t expecting a crowd. “Seth, let’s go. Sally, find some quiet cover until we know what’s going on, please.”

“Got it,” was Sally’s terse reply.

Terry was wasting worry. As soon as his boots hit the dusty driveway, Mrs. Cooper walked over to greet him. “Hello, Terry... Seth,” she said, giving the big man a quick smile. “Jared’s working hard for you. He’s been telling the story for a solid day.”

“I’m just glad his wife let him live,” Terry said, grinning. “It’s good to see you again, Mrs. Cooper.”

She laughed. “I was kind of proud of him. He finally put his foot down and told her to shut up. He said he had work to do, and they could fight later. He made her go round up the neighbors.” She looked over Terry’s shoulder. “Looks like they have some questions,” she added, indicating the new crowd with a nod.

Terry looked back and saw at least fifty people filtering into the driveway. Seth followed his glance and said, “Looks like it’s time for another speech.” Seth turned to Mrs. Cooper with a toothy smile. “He’s a sweet talker, this boy.”

Terry found himself in a mad rush of handshakes and names he would never remember. He took a moment to wave Sally and Suze down from the truck. When they arrived, Terry introduced them around as best he could in the crowd. A number of the men were noticeably staring at the young women, and Terry remembered what Bill had said about having them along. He watched Sally smiling and talking, her copper hair shining in the morning sun, and couldn’t blame anyone for staring.

The greetings turned into rapid-fire questions, and Terry tried to answer them individually. He was quickly overwhelmed. He held up a finger in the one-minute gesture and strode across the front yard to the porch. He stood on the head of the steps, finding a stable board to use as a speaking stump.

“Good morning, folks. By now, I expect you’ve heard the story,” he began. Another half dozen people emerged from the house and stepped past him to join the crowd on the yard. He waited until they were settled. “So, I probably don’t need to tell you what’s been happening around here. What I do need to tell you is that the Dragon army is back in Coffee County.” A round of booing and hissing washed over him.

Terry continued, “They started out in Columbia with three thousand men, who came to help Wyatt Jenkins fight against us. When I say ‘us’, I don’t just mean the four of us.” He indicated his friends with a short arc of his arm. “I mean all of us.” He made a much larger gesture to encompass the entire crowd. “The Dragons and the Jenkins and all of the other families are on the same side for a reason. They are all in the same business, and that business is to live by taking advantage of good people. All of you have done well. I can look around this neighborhood and see that you grow your own food. You live in a back corner of Manchester that keeps you out of sight of the people who want to take what you have made with your own hands. But, I can also see that you are struggling to get clothing to wear, materials to repair your homes, and everything else that makes life easier. I grew up in this town, just like you, and I know why we can’t get those things, just like you. The families have kept a choke hold on all trade. If you can make it or grow it yourselves, you’re doing fine. The minute you need something that someone else makes, you are forced to trade for it. That’s where the families have got you.”

Terry paused to watch the nods of agreement. “Then they control the work. They are the only ones who have work, and they use that fact to make sure that you make almost nothing for your labor. They say they own everything from the grain silos to the food stands on the square. That’s not technically true, but it’s been that way for so long that it might as well be. And finally, most of you don’t know this, but we have had a functioning state government for years. Not a strong one, but one that actually tries to help each and every one of you. Those bars of soap you have been trading two days of work for, those shirts that cost you a week’s work, those are yours by right from the State, and the families have been stealing them for years. They take them and then sell them back to you for days of your life, all so that they can keep you in control, all so that everything you do makes them richer, while you just barely get by.”

The crowd was getting angry. Terry kept talking. “So here we are, almost forty years after the Breakdown, living like it just happened. That whole time, one family has been working to change this sorry state of affairs. They have been building against the day when the Jenkinses and the Coxes, the Talleys and Cantners and MacMillans would make a mistake that gives us a chance to take back our lives. As a guy who grew up among you, I can say that I’ve only known about this one special family for a short time, and I know,
I know
that they are ready to take on the families, to give you back your freedom and your ability to live and work and trade in a fair world. You all know what Bill Carter did to the Jenkins farm. You all know that we stopped the Coxes and Talleys from burning our town. You know we are ready.”

“There’s a catch. By sheer chance, Bill got involved in a mission for the State. It was good mission, a worthy mission, but it stirred up a big hornet’s nest, and that nest is bigger than the one we have here in Coffee County. Now, the Dragon army is here to help the families, and I can’t say that Bill is ready for that. It’s bad luck to plan for one thing for years and find out you have to fight something worse. So, the hard truth is that we need you. We need your help. You all know what you get if we lose, because you’ve lived with it your entire lives. What you don’t know is what you get if we win. You’ve gotten a taste of it when Charlie Bell came down to give you your state supplies in person, but what does it really mean? It means that you get a fair shot. You and me and Bill Carter and everyone else in this county will have the same rules and the same chance to build a life that actually works in your favor. That’s what’s on the line today. Your lives and the lives of your children.”

Terry waited for the people to work through the implications. It took several minutes. These people had lived too long without freedom and opportunity. The fact that they could grasp the concept at all was evidence to Terry that people were actually created to be free. Once he felt the resolve form up in the small crowd, he continued.

“I’m asking you today. Make up your own minds. If you want to help, pick up any weapons you have and meet me this afternoon at Hickerson Station Elementary. You know where that is?” He saw enough nodding heads to feel comfortable with his spot decision. “Along the way, do whatever you can to convince your friends and neighbors to join you. We’ll gather as a free people and we’ll deny anyone who wants to keep us from our freedom, our happiness, and the best lives we can make for ourselves.”

Terry stepped down from the porch, signaling the end of the speech. There was a long interval of silence. Terry was ready to accept his failure. He was ready to climb back into Big Bertha with his friends and leave. He would try again, of course, but he honestly didn’t know a better way to say it. If he couldn’t do it here, with these people, with Jared’s word to help, then he couldn’t do it.

A large man in blackened overalls stepped out of the crowd and faced Terry. From his facial expression, Terry couldn’t tell if the man was preparing to deny him or punch him in the face. The man slowly extended his hand and said, “We’ll be there.”

Terry shook the proffered hand and said, “Thank you, sir.”

The crowd broke into cheers. Terry smiled. He knew he had found the right words.

Chapter 10 – 8

Wyatt Jenkins was beginning to have serious doubts. As he looked across the remains of the Dragon army scattered haphazardly across the remains of his own family’s farm, Wyatt could see Gary Tucker scuttling from one group to another, trying to rebuild some semblance of order in his ranks. Wyatt grimaced at the sight of the Junior Dragon. The fact was, Wyatt thought Gary was a complete ass. The only reason it was worth putting up with him was the guarantee of overwhelming force in the upcoming battle with Bill Carter. Looking now, overwhelming force was not guaranteed. Hell, it wasn’t even likely.

Then there were his morning conversations with the other heads of the families. George Talley had flatly refused to participate. Wyatt heard the story of what had happened and really couldn’t blame the man. Wyatt’s father had built a solid group of unscrupulous men to do the Jenkins’s dirty work and all of them, to a man, had been killed by Bill Carter’s raid. Wyatt had also lost his entire family, as far as he knew. Just days earlier, he had commanded enough force to compel the other families into line, but now he was like a beggar, pleading for the other families to follow his cause. It wasn’t a secure feeling.

Garrett Cox had waffled as well. He did not refuse Wyatt. He had simply cut his force in half, giving forty men to the fight, and keeping forty at his farm, in case Bill Carter decided to make good on his promise to burn it to the ground. What Garrett did not know was that his farm was already forfeit. He had not been able to spot Bill’s watch and concluded that it was just a bluff. It was not. As soon as his forty man force left the farm, word had been sent to Bill.

The Cantners and MacMillans had taken Cox as an example and had given half their fighting men to Wyatt. The end result was that he had an even hundred men working for him, but even that was a stretch. George Cox was on the premises and would likely take his men home if the battle turned against him. Meanwhile, the Dragons had lost almost two-thirds of their men in the disastrous crossing of Bedford County. Vehicles were a serious issue as well. It would be just on the edge of possibility to pile the remains of the army into the trucks on hand.