The Blue Ridge Resistance Read Online Free PDF

interned nearby.” He paused for a moment and asked, “Nate, how many horses does Mildred have over here now?
    “Three total. The one I rode today and the two in the stable.”
    Evan scratched his chin. “Well, Jason and I will deal with the body, but we will need to borrow your horses. All three. We’ll use one for a packhorse for her, and we will ride the other two. That way we can make good time getting over to Daryl’s place so we can talk things over with him. He seems to be the unofficial mayor around here these days.”
    Jason replied, “I guess that comes natural, as being a bachelor he has the time to get around to the other homesteads more than most.”
    “Good point,” Evan replied. “That and the man who makes the bombs has some clout by default,” he said with a chuckle.
    “And the fur hat helps,” added Jason. “It gives him that distinguished look.”
    The three men shared a stress-relieving laugh and began to get everything together to deal with the body. Once they had her wrapped up in some old bed sheets, they tied her securely to the packsaddle on the horse. 
    As Evan and Jason mounted up, Evan said, “We’ll bring the horses back tomorrow and get our bikes. By the time we get this situation dealt with, it will be getting late and we’ll need to get back to the Homefront. You keep an eye on them tonight,” he said with a tip of his hat to Nate.
    “Yes, sir,” Nate replied. 
    Evan and Jason awkwardly got underway on the horses and began the trip over to Daryl’s cabin. They both had learned the basics of horsemanship but were far from being experienced and proficient. 
    As Nate chuckled under his breath watching them ride away, he turned and began to walk back into the house, saying under his breath, “I’d rather fight off looters and thieves than the cartels any day.”
     

Chapter 5: Facing Reality
     
     
    As Evan and Jason rode towards Daryl’s cabin with the packhorse in tow, they proceeded with great caution, not knowing where the dead woman’s companions were, or if they still had nefarious intentions. They both scanned the road up ahead, while simultaneously looking into the woods that lined both sides of the road. Jason finally broke the silence by asking the question, “What do you think the odds are that they are lying low to make another move?”
    Evan replied, “Slim to none.”
    “How do you come to that conclusion so fast?” Jason asked.
    “They have small children with them and the men ran off at the first sign of trouble,” replied Evan. “If they were really bad news, like those that ran with Frank Muncie, Jr., they would have engaged when shots rang out. Also, the fact that they are caring for children, even if resorting to crime to make it happen, says they have other priorities than revenge or conquest. The true scumbags would have seen those little ones as liabilities a long time ago.”
    “That makes sense, I guess,” replied Jason.
    Evan continued, “My guess is that they were normal people—normal as in dependent on society, that is—who simply can’t make it on their own now. Once you’ve got a hungry child, you’ll do whatever it takes to feed them. Now, you aren’t the kind of man who would be dependent on others, but imagine if your lot in life was to live in an apartment you didn’t own, without the resources to produce or procure your own food. You survived paycheck to paycheck, but somehow just barely always got by, getting anything you needed from within the system. Now imagine it all went away overnight. You and I had a game plan. You and I had skills and resources, and look how much we have still struggled, and how hard we have had to work in order to live as we do. That’s just not something everyone is blessed with. If you were in the aforementioned situation and your paycheck stopped coming, your grocer stopped stocking the shelves, and the society you were so dependent on simply stopped functioning, how long would it take