Vessel: The Demontouched Saga (Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

of here. As you can see.”
    I look over to my right, noticing three black trucks sitting side by side about a hundred yards off the road. “Those look familiar?” I say.
    “Nope,” he says. “Not unless they found the trucks somewhere.”
    “We should pull off over here,” I say, pointing to a barn off in the distance. “I don’t think driving in is a good idea.”
    “I agree,” he says with a wicked grin on his face.
    I roll down the windows of the Expedition and squeeze my body outside keeping my butt on the door. I point over towards the barn we are going to park next to, signaling the cars behind us. Hate to have one make a turn now and ruin the plan.
    He turns off on the gravel road leading to the barn, I look back in the mirror, noticing the large cloud of dust our convoy is throwing up. “Hope they don’t notice the cloud,” I say.
    “We should be fine,” he says. “I know a pass around the back we can use to get in. Right along the river.”
    “Smart,” I say. “Glad you scoped this out already, I would have still walked there, but went through the front.”
    “That’s why I’m in charge,” he says, smiling. “Besides, you haven’t seen the best of it.”
    Nal walks over to the front doors of the large red barn we are parked behind. It looked typical as far as barns go. That is to say that if it could fit on your lap without crushing it, you would swear you played with it as a kid. I sit back and wait for the doors to go ‘MOO’ when Nal opens the door. He reaches into his pants, pulling out a large ring of keys. The type of contraption you would have expected to see on a security guard in a mall. I’d almost swear they would have made a master key that could open all the stores and doors up, but instead they gave him individual keys so you can hear him coming from three stores down. I’m sure there was a practical reason for the large keyring, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the noise wasn’t part of it.
    When the doors open to the sound of a rusty hinge and not the ‘MOO’ I’m expecting, I snort. Maybe I should have got out of the house more often as a kid.
    “Viola!” he says, pushing the doors out of the way. “Our chariots.”
    “Holy shit, Nal. When did you get all of these.”
    “I didn’t want to make it obvious that someone was in the plant when we got it running the first time,” he says. “So I brought up a truckload of golf carts from that place that sells them in O’Fallon.”
    “You’re smarter than I give you credit for,” I say, laughing. I remember seeing truckloads of golf carts being trucked around for years. I figured they had a plant or sales office close for me to see so many. Guess I was right.
    “I appreciate the vote of confidence,” he says. “OK people, here’s the plan. We need to get these carts out of the barn and get them gassed up. While you three are doing that, the rest of you are going to park the cars inside the barn.” He looks around the group a few times before speaking again.
    “I’m sure you guys saw the trucks in the field behind us.” The group looks at each other before muttering something that sounds like a ‘yeah.’ “I’m going to assume there is another group there trying to turn the power back on,” he says. “We also need to be prepared for the reality that they already have the power back on to their sectors and that they are going to do whatever it takes to keep us out.”
    “Won’t they want help keeping it up?” one of the men wearing blue jeans and a long sleeve plaid shirt says.
    “They might,” Nal says. “But they also might be using it to barter for supplies.”
    Like he used to do. Part of the reason for getting things back online was for his comfort, sure. But he knew that he could name his price when it came to selling it off to others.
    “I assume you all took my advice and brought a firearm,” Nal says.
    Most of the crowd nods their heads. The two or three that didn’t look young.