The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

them
to follow their cause.” Ancil looked at Harley as he said this. Harley was
looking up at his grandfather intently, never taking his eyes away. Whatever
part of Ancil that regretted taking him here today was gone. The boy needed to
hear this.
    “I hate to break it to you,” Lee broke in, “but
this is all going to happen within the next year probably, not years. We wake
up each morning and hear more and more trucks in the woods, clearing trees. Soon
this will be all gone. All sacrificed for their project”.
    “So, what’s your plan?” Allen said.
    “First of all we can’t get anything done without
numbers,” Ancil said. “We need people to get involved. We need you to spread
the word, okay. We need people willing to take the chances. We need people who
are going to stand out in front of their homes and block them from setting foot
on our property.”
    “Sure, and probably get killed doing it,” Allen
replied back. His wife, Charlotte, took his hand.
    “Honey,” she said as she gestured over to Harley
on the couch. Allen ignored her.
    “No, it seems like you invited us here today to
try and recruit us all to die in your crusade,” he said, eyeing Ancil and Lee
as he did. “Well, I have a family, I have kids and I’m not going to put their
lives in jeopardy to fight some war you have no chance of winning anyway. Come
on Charlotte, let’s go.”
    He stood up and made his way to the door. Ancil
called out to him. “If you walk out that door, you can consider yourself one of
them.”
    Allen stopped and turned to face Ancil. “What’re
you saying?”
    “I’m saying no matter how much you try, you
can’t turn your back on this thing. You can leave now, bury your head in the
sand and nothing may happen to you. But what are you going to do when they
knock on your door, or maybe they won’t even knock. Maybe they just come in the
middle of the night and force themselves in, dragging your family out, kicking
and screaming. What will you do then?” Allen stood silent in the doorway. His
hand slid off the doorknob just as all the energy he had from a moment before
seemed to slide off him.
    Ancil continued, “You think if you play ball
they’ll leave you alone? The fact is Al, we have nothing they want. They only
want to get rid of everything we built and stand for. You want to help your
family, preserve your legacy and your children’s future? This is how you do it.
Now’s the time to choose which side you’re going to be on.”
    Allen looked back over to his wife, who was
still over by the couch. She held her hand out to him and pleaded with her eyes
for him to accept it. To accept them. He took her hand and sat back down. He
looked up at Ancil and said, “We’re going to need weapons.”
    “Weapons we have,” Lee said.
    “I never fired a gun in my life,” Theresa said.
    “It’s nothing to be afraid of,” Ruth assured
her. “I was nervous at first too, but after Lee showed me, I got the hang of
it.”
    Ancil spoke to Earl and Allen, “Do any of you
have military training?”
    “Four tours in Iran,” Earl said with pride.
Ancil looked at Allen. “Four F”, he said, “but I used to go hunting with my
father every weekend.”
    “That’s fine,” Ancil said. “Lee and Ruth will
show Theresa and Charlotte and anyone else who needs it.
    “What’s to train?” Earl said. “You just point it
at what you want to die and then pull the trigger.”
    “Do you have to be so graphic about it?” his
wife asked.
    “Graphic? Honey, I don’t know about you, but I’ve
never seen a gun that didn’t fire when you pulled the trigger. And if someone
happened to be in front of that trigger when it’s pulled, you’re damn sure that
someone better go down or I’ll want me money back.” This garnered a slight
chuckle from everyone except Theresa.
    “What about him?” Allen asked, gesturing towards
Harley.
    “He’ll learn like everyone else,” Ancil said.
“He’s a part of this now, unless