Shadows Of Sanity And Survival (Old Preppers Die Hard Book 3) (14 page)
Read Shadows Of Sanity And Survival (Old Preppers Die Hard Book 3) Online
Authors: Ron Foster
He was attempting to be nonchalant about it and his first instinct was when he first saw them was to consider hauling ass back into the woods but for some reason, here comes Farley. The man motioned for the two riflemen to lower their weapons which gave Farley a big sigh of relief but this deal wasn’t done yet.
“Good day for a hike! What ya’ll doing out and about today?” Farley yelled out still eyeing the side of the road and a small ditch that he could hopefully dive into.
“We are just passing through, don’t need no trouble. The name’s Banks.” The man said.
“Why don’t you come up and meet me in the middle, leave your crew back there.” Farley hollered.
“All right.” The man said and conferred with the group for a moment before heading in Farley’s direction.
Farley did the same, conferring with the nothing of his ghost column as he turned around and made several gestures to nonexistent and unseen folks and carried on his way to talk to the man.
Farley kept his shotgun pointed at the ground in a low slung one handed fashion with a big grin on his face and said “Well howdy, would ‘hello neighbor’ work?” as his disarming statement made the other gentleman laugh.
“Works for me! If you want to call us standing out in the middle of the road together talking being some kind of neighbors.” The old grizzled haired Sarge called back.
“Farley Wilkes.” Farley said extending his hand for a handshake.
“George Banks.” The man returned.
“What brings you out on this country stroll?” Farley asked.
“This ain`t no stroll, we are hard pressed to have even hiked this far. We have been marching down this road a few days and we’re out of gas.” Banks said looking over Farley’s shoulder and trying to catch a glimpse at the non-existent backup he couldn’t see.
“Yeah, we all got those problems, I been out of gas for months. Can’t help you on that one, but it’s nice to see somebody smiling today!” Farley said disarmingly and doing the ‘how quick can you get to your pistol size up’ of the man in front of him who was shifting around nervously.
“We were vehicle caravanning down this way from Huntsville way until we finally ran out of fuel and now you see us on the hoofs just dragging along. I know generally speaking where we’re at but can you tell me a bit closer as to just where we actually are at?” Banks questioned.
“Depends what or where you want to get closer to? What are you looking for?” Farley asked then saw movement in the column in the back of the man and said “They are going to be nice and not froggy aren’t they?” and then stared hard at the man.
“They’ll be as nice as your people care to be. Like I said, we’re having to walk now, seen a lot of things that ain`t healthy on this road. We’re hopefully headed to some lake cabins; they are not supposed to be too far up the road.” Banks said sternly.
“Lots of lake cabins down that way, lots of cabins around for seven hundred fifty miles on the shores of this lake. Which ones you are going to I don’t know, might not want to know, but the closest ones to here are probably about four miles In back of you. The next lot that’s on the shore is about 6 miles in the direction you’re heading; there is a small engine repair place down that way if it helps you to know that. I’m just out here hunting with my group today. This terrain is not too familiar with me when I’m using the woods as a compass versus this highway so I can’t help you out on directions too much.” Farley said.
“You mind if we just pass on through? We aren’t out hunting that is unless there’s an opportunity that presents themselves. Sounds like we are about 10 miles from where we want to be.” Banks said after conferring momentarily to a man with in his group more familiar with the area. Farley eyed him warily but the man was respectful and you might say pretty much very friendly regardless of the mutual shared nervousness of this chance encounter.
“Oh we don’t mind a bit, most travelers are down on their luck bums just like us now. We don’t have any claims on this stretch of road. Let me warn you all about something though, there’s some crazy hunters back in them woods off to the left a few miles back but since you’re an armed party I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble with them goomers but ya’ll be cautious. Good luck to you all and watch out for them bad souls I warned you about. No sense troubling trouble if you can avoid it. You can proceed on by us no problem, no worries.” Farley said and shook the man’s hand with a sense of camaraderie about it all and said he hoped to see him again.
“Good deal! So we all right, everything’s ok? I mean about us passing straight on through by your folks?” Banks said still studying the invisible area in back of Farley behind the small hill.
“Not a problem and the road should be open for you. I got to cut off just over here myself now.” Farley said pointing and indicating the well traveled game trail off to the left of the road just a bit in back of the group’s leader that he just saw. “As far as my party goes, as long as they don’t hear gunshots or me hollering they are going to leave you unmolested and take the back trail around. They should of already started moving up so don’t shoot anyone in the brush. We were just about to turn off from this road when you started approaching, gave us quite a surprise I must say.” Farley said carrying on his usual Farley bullshit when he got into a sticky problem of doing what he called his shucking and jiving.
Banks looked around and then studied Farley for any subterfuge or lying ways, he then told Farley how nice it was to see a somewhat friendly face these days and asked him further about what conditions were around the lake the way any other survivor that made it this far would.
“Not so bad, not so good neither. You know there’s no food to be had anywhere and there are way too many hunters out shooting up the woods these days. Game of any kind is kind of scarce in most places. Fishing has gotten surprisingly better these days for some reason if that’s any consolation to ya. Lake’s about five miles off to the left. But like I said, I would try to make me about five or ten miles to the next turn offs in order to avoid the rowdies if you know what I mean.” Farley said pretending to look over his shoulder at the nonexistent people that might now be watching and hiding in the woods or moving off down another trail.
“We’re all past due for a break now if ya’ll want to come over and have a little coffee with us. Got no food to share with you but we’d be happy to share our coffee.” Banks said still studying Farley’s who ‘don’t give a shit’ attitude is” was wearing thin
on him. In his opinion, anybody that didn’t give a shit about meeting an armed group had something to hide or was up to something and Farley was looking awfully scruffy and worn out to be any kind of a regular scout but who could tell these days.
“Thanks buddy but we are just moving on. We are heading towards the spillway over by the power station.” Farley said just picking a distant point to say he was going to.
They said their farewells and Farley with great relief headed off into the woods and away from the highway to have himself some lunch.
“Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.”
Hunter S. Thompson
7
SILVER FIRE SAVIOR
Farley dug around in what he called his traveling kit and took out his Silver Fire Scout ultimate stove and got ready to fix his dinner. This was one of his favorite survival trekking tools. It was worth every few ounces it took up in his backpack and made the job of heating food or purifying water immensely easier.
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The chore of setting up a traditional cook fire, even a tiny one is often arduous. Because the compact stove is so fuel efficient you can utilize any kind of biomass fuel such as twigs and dried pine cones. It is a lot easier to just be able to bust up some small branches and cook your dinner with a few twigs in smokeless efficiency rather than trying to build a traditional camp fire and then letting it burn down to coals etc and then starting the process of trying to feed the flames more wood and control it for cooking. Farley could get on and off the trail quickly and effortlessly utilizing it while leaving very little evidence to mark his passing. Everything was there to make his life easier in one compact unit with room for him to add a few small survival supplies to.
The all stainless steel construction of his rig was rugged and the well designed nesting unit is the perfect size to stuff in a backpack pocket.
Farley was lucky; he had himself a can of chili con carne and some tortillas he hade made up with flour and stuck in his pack for himself. His meal took but moments to get hot and he wolfed it down ravenously.
He felt better after having eaten and packed up his gear as soon as his stove cooled down.
“Well onwards and upwards, time to hit the road once more.” Farley thought to himself and trudged wearily back to the county highway and resumed his trek. He wished he knew some way to go through the woods to get home but he was lost enough already. Walking on the side of the road these days could be dangerous, speaking of which I hear something coming!
Farley got close to the edge of the road but not out of sight and waited for whatever he was hearing approach.
He strained his eyes to make out what it was and was rewarded with the sight of Dump hauling ass down the road on his motorcycle.
Farley rushed back to the road and waved him down. He was totally exuberant and couldn’t quit grinning at his luck to have Dump Truck run across him like this.
“What cha doing in these parts of the woods?” Dump asked as soon as he shut his Harley down and took his helmet off.
“Long story, very long story. I need a ride back to camp. Damn buddy good to see you! You don’t know how lucky it is we bumped into each other.” Farley said just wanting to get off the road and home.
“Sure buddy, no problem, jump on.” Dump advised.
“Man I was afraid I wouldn’t make it back in time to go to that meeting with you. We got a lot to talk over and do before Friday. Come on time you know where I live at.” Farley said and they headed back towards the resort.
