Pedestals of Ash Read Online Free PDF

read his commander perfectly and stepped forward ready to receive orders. Marcus pointed to the map and said, “ Position the reserves here , and tell those Cajun tank jockeys they had better fight those damn machines well , if they want to see the sun set tonight.”   
     

Chapter 3 – Alpha-Bet Soup
     
    Smokey glanced at the hundred or so men gathered on the front steps of the Alpha courthouse. They were a ragtag group at best, more closely resembling a mob than an organized fighting force. About a quarter of the group cons isted of former prisoners Hawk and he freed from the local jail. The rest were mostly starving college students and others who long ago developed an insatiable taste for drugs and booze. Like mercenaries whose allegiance always fell to the highest bidder, many of Smokey’s soldiers fought for the contraband that he could provide.
    The smell of body odor, gun oil , and fear filled Smokey’s nostrils. While they had enough food, water supply was always an issue for his people. Bathing was a luxury available to only a few. He ruled the vast majority of Alpha , Texas with the exception of one small corner of the town. That area was the source of the city’s water supply, and it was controlled by Deacon Brown and her congregation at th e First Bible Church. Smokey’s crew made several attempts to push the holy rollers off of that small corner of Alpha , but the congregation unified, held its position, and eventually fortified the perimeter.
    For months, the two groups patrolled, s c av enged and skirmished all over Alpha. Smok ey lost over 80 men to the B ible th umpers in various ambushes, gunfights , and snip ing e ncounters. Hawk had been his mole inside the church , feeding him critical information. Smokey believed the zealots were losing heart, setting the stage for h is men to overwhelm the resistance and seize control of the water supply. This Bishop character ha d ruined all of his water regulating efforts and more. Not only had Bishop discovered Hawk was a spy, he had “eliminated” several of Smokey’s vigilantes, reigniting hope in Deacon Brown’s parishioners . Smokey was wise enough to know moral e could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Even beyond that, there was the issue of the water.
    The Old W est had a long and bloody history of fighting over water, or least using the life sustaining liquid as the excuse for a brawl here and there . The Pleasant Valley War, Mason Country War , and the more commonly known Lincoln Country War had all involved water rights to varying degrees, or at least that’s what most people thought. In reality, water had very little to do with those historic skirmishes. While the standoff in Alpha did involve water, and Smokey’s people truly needed it, there were far more important motivations for this clash .
    Deacon Brown’s presence denied Smokey absolute power, foiling his every attempt to consolidate his rule of Alpha. Smokey wanted the desirable woman in one of his jail cells, an d after having his fun, he planned to crucify her on a cross in the town square. She provided an alternative to his rule , and many had joined her flock. It seemed like every time Smokey tried to establish some service in Alpha, the people who knew how to make things work had already joined this woman and her church.
    The latest source of this frustration was an oversized fuel storage tank, owned by the school district and used to feed the large fleet of yellow buses. Smokey needed that gasoline, but didn’t have anyone who could figure out how to pump the liquid gold out of the tank. One man finally volunteered to show them where the school’s maintenance man li ved. A visit to the address revea led the fellow had abandoned his home and taken his family to the church compound . And that was just one example of how Deacon Brown’s influence had thwarted Smokey’s plans. Practically every step to restor e some level of civilization resulted in a dead