Will of Man - Part Two Read Online Free PDF Page B

time to be goofing around.” She grabbed me and pulled me in tight. Not in an angry way but a comforting, yet worried way.
     
    She said, “You need to stay close to your dad and me from now on. We may need to leave soon – very soon.” My mom wore her feelings on her sleeve and I could tell she was scared and upset by the tears welling in her eyes.
     
    Someone came running to the front door yelling that the ROAMERS were on their way. He informed us that Bath was destroyed and everyone in it.
     
    He went on to say that two scouts sent by the locals were caught by the ROAMERS. The Ranger allowed one to send Laingsburg a message – surrender or else.
     
    The ROAMERS tactics were known and that they gave no mercy. The ploy for our surrender was a lie and we all knew what the end result would be when they arrived. There was no use in sending any message back to them. The choice was made to flee. Organizing a convoy was out of the question by now – there was no time. It was every family for themselves.
     
    I listened to the sorrowful and panicky sound of the man’s voice until my mom gave the man a grimacing look to change his tune. I guess she could sense the man was scaring me.
     
    She thanked the man for informing us and wished him good luck and to be careful. She turned to me and said, “You’ll be safe if you do what your father and I tell you to do. Don’t leave the house again until you’re told to do so.”
     
    She was obviously nervous and irritated that Dad was still over at the neighbors. My mom was a worrisome person. She was always telling my brother and me to be careful. She'd tell us to stay out of the trees, chew our food fully so we don’t choke, watch for coyotes in the woods, etc. Always something, so today’s events must have really sent her into worry mode. But today, I was glad to have her watching over us.
     
    My father returned with a look of determination. I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask, but figured it wasn’t the best time. My mom said for me to keep quiet and let Dad do what he was going to do - whatever that was.
     
    From what Dad gathered from his meeting at Sam’s house, was we had an hour till the ROAMERS hit town. And then he figured that meant another hour or so till they reached us here in the country. That gave us around two hours to pack what we could and leave.
     
    I had never seen my dad look so worried – it scared me. He was a third grade school teacher. So that meant a lot of patience and a mild temper. He rarely lost his temper with Tanner and me. But something about his personality made you want to follow his rules. Tanner and I could be bickering or whatever and Dad would just give us that look. We never did test Dad enough to find out what would happen if we ignored that look, but something tells me we didn’t want to find out.
     
    Before the LAST DAY, I was a very active person who rarely took a day off. Not saying I was a workaholic, more like a work-out-aholic. I was always training for something. Whether it was a triathlon, adventure race, mountain bike race, you name it. I was on a quest to master all solo sports available to someone my age. I’d workout for hours running, swimming, biking, doing cardio workouts, whatever.
     
    I’d ask Dad to enter us in triathlons all through our summer vacations. Dad enjoyed training us. He’d make sure we trained by doing swim lessons, running, and biking - most every day! When we were little, he’d sit in his chair in the nice shaded garage and make us run and bike laps around the house - 15 minutes running and 15 minutes biking.
     
    After a while we got smart and walked once we were on the other side of the house where he couldn’t see us. But then he started timing us and expecting us to beat our previous time. So then we had to push ourselves.
     
    Now don’t get me wrong, we always had the choice to not do it. But if we chose not to “exercise” as he called it, then we gave up playing video