Free The Quest: Countdown to Armageddon: Book 6 by Darrell Maloney Page A

which allows him to go around and search abandoned houses for old bicycles and bicycle parts, and he collects them and brings them back here.
         “He refurbishes them and trades them for stuff we need, like shoes and clothes and medicine and ammunition. Sometimes he trades with the traveling merchants, and sometimes with people from other neighborhoods. Word has gotten around that anyone in southwest San Antonio who needs a reliable bicycle should come to Baker Street and ask for Tony.
         “And Jessika and I are doing the same thing with our clothing repair and alterations business.”
         “How so?”
         “Jessika had an old Singer sewing machine her grandmother left her. It was a real antique, and Jessika never used it before the blackout.
         “But she’d grown up watching her grandmother use it, and she figured out how. It operates with a foot crank, so you don’t need electricity.
         “Anyway, she taught me how to use it, so we got a permit to raid the fabric stores. All the department stores had been cleaned out of clothing by that time, but nobody took the bolts of fabric because there wasn’t any way to do anything with it.”
         Sara finished the thought.
         “Unless you had an old Singer sewing machine.”
         “Exactly. Word got around that we could repair torn clothing for bartered goods, or even make some clothing from scratch.”
         Tom, being a man and not knowing the value of such skills, asked, “But why would someone barter to repair a shirt when they could just barter with a traveling merchant for a new shirt off the back of a truck?”
         “Well, they could. But if they had limited bargaining power, or not much to trade, they might want to save their own goods for something more important than a new shirt. They might just have their shirt patched and tolerate it a little bit longer so they could barter their own goods for food, or medicine, or ammunition.”
         Sara’s face took on a mischievous tone.
         She said to Tom, “You know, Tom, it’s like when you were a boy growing up back in the great depression. Your parents might have had a few pennies and they could have bought a sack of potatoes to feed your family for a couple of days. Or they could have bought you a new pair of those blue denim coveralls you seem to like so much.
         “Which one do you think they’d have chosen?”
         Tom started to say something in retaliation, but Sara smiled so sweetly he decided to let it go. Instead he just smiled and said “I wasn’t born until the 1950s.”
         “Was that before or after the great depression?”
         “ After .”
         “Okay. World War I then.”
         “Pardon me, little smart aleck. I had you confused with someone who wanted to be my deputy.”
         Tom had her and they both knew it. Sara wanted to be a sheriff’s deputy so much she constantly begged him for the job.
         So she surrendered.
         “Tom, have I told you lately how really young you look? Oh, and handsome, too.”
         “That’s much better. Go on…”
         Scarlett laughed out loud and said, “I hate to interrupt this little lovefest, but there’s Rhett. It looks like he’s ready to take us to see Hannah and John.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    -15-
     
         Rhett turned toward Tom, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of Rhett’s patrol car.
         “Tom, you’re a sheriff. Have you ever heard of Frank Woodard?”
         “No, I haven’t. I’m only the sheriff of Kerr County because no one else wanted the job.”
         Sara interjected from the back seat, “Don’t let him get away with being modest, Rhett. They asked him to be sheriff because he singlehandedly killed the whole infamous Garza gang. Then he put their bodies on display on