Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

fashion. That was alright, he could be the brawn in the group. He certainly could be intimidating if he got angry.
     
    Mick said he didn’t want to risk going up I-91 so we set out west to hook up with Rt 7 – which went all the way north to Burlington. It was in Burlington where the state had its National Guard headquarters and they also had jets. That was going to be our target, where any other army guys like Mick were headed. Major Morna was there. It seemed that the base was so small it had not been a target, the Taliban nuts must have overlooked that there were F-35 fighters up there. Only a handful of them, and I guess that fuel and maintenance must be hard to come by – so the jets would only be used in a win or lose situation.
     
    It looked like things could get dangerous, at least on horseback we would be able to hear if someone was speeding up on us on a bike or a 4-wheeler. I was starting to get nervous now. Amherst was just an hour south of the state border; it looked like even if we stayed civilized the chaos was coming to us. Doug and some other people in town said they were going to pack and be following us north in a few days.
     
    Sure enough, before we stopped to camp the evening of the first day out, we heard the sound of motorcycles in the distance. Mick supposed since they went so far on gas he figured that was how most of the people would try to get around. If you scrounged just a few gallons you could get to the next place to hunt for some more. Ed nodded.
     
    “That’s probably some people trying to catch up with us,” Sue chirped too loudly. She was trying to convince herself.
     
    “Lena, lead Sue up into those trees and take all the horses up with you. Ed and I will stand here a little back from the road and see who these guys are.”
     
    There was no time at all. We weren’t even fully in the trees when the bikes came roaring into view. Three of them. Each doubled with a man driving and a girl riding behind. It was the girls who pulled out pistols and started firing!
     
    Sue’s horse jumped, almost threw her off and started running for the trees. Lady stayed solid and the other animals took comfort from her and stayed grouped together and trotted into the trees after Sue, who must have been hanging on for dear life. She did come out with branch slap marks all over her face and legs.
     
    The bullets hit wild. Gee, poor girls; must be hard to shoot from the back of a moving bike.
     
    Mick had his pistol out and dropped the first two bikes. The third spun around flinging gravel and dirt and took off. Loved the loyalty. One driver was dead and his girl started to scream and cradle his head. The other driver was shot somewhere and his girl was scrambling and patting the ground around her. It dawned on me she was trying to find her gun! What f-ing nerve. She was going to try to kill Mick. I was swinging Clint around to go help when another shot rang out.
     
    I saw Mick with his arms out to his side, his right hand still holding his gun.
     
    Then I saw the girl slump.
     
    Mick just stood there.
     
    It was like an eternity. Then he lifted his gun and shot the other girl and then the wounded driver. I watched his pale face. I knew he was wracked with remorse. I felt sick to my stomach. It was different finding my dad dead. Helping the neighbors bury the ones who died. Those people had died a sort of normal death, as if they all got really sick at once.
     
    I watched these guys get shot down. Like mad dogs. Suddenly I had no strength and I slipped off Clint and crumpled on the ground sobbing.
     
    Mick was there in a second.
     
    “Did you get shot?”
     
    I could only shake my head no.
     
    “Oh. I see.”
     
    Ed reached us then. He had been nicked by a bullet along his upper arm.
     
    “Cry if you need to. But when you think about tonight, think about how they started firing on us the second they could. They didn’t even know we had guns to fight back. They were fixin’ to take