Free The Battle: Alone: Book 4 by Darrell Maloney Page A

alive. Can’t say I blame him much.”
         “Did you get them?”
         “No, I’m afraid not. By that time able bodied men were hard to come by. They was killin’ themselves and their families right and left, or stickin’ to themselves and protectin’ their families. I couldn’t raise a second posse, and lit out after them myself. They told me I was crazy, but with Jason gone I honestly didn’t care if I lived or died anyway. The only thing I had left to live for was revenge.
         “But I never found ‘em. They were long gone. Killed a prepper and stole his truck, and lit out west toward Colorado, I heard. I was tempted to go after them, but Colorado’s a big place, and you can’t track a pickup truck on pavement by horseback.
         “So I came back here, to do what I can for the rest of the townsfolk.”
         “I’m sorry, sir. It sounds like you’ve been through hell.”
         “Well, no more than a lot of other people, I’d expect. Who’d have ever thought that taking away something as simple as electricity would bring this world down to its knees like it did?”
         Dave simply nodded. He had no answers for the old man, and began to feel guilty for bothering him. He’d come here looking for help, but it was obvious the man had none to give.
         But he offered anyway.
         “You still haven’t said what you needed to see Jason about, son. Is there anything I can help you with?”
         “I’ve come up here from Texas, to get my wife and daughters and to take them back to San Antonio with me. But I found out they’re being held against their will, by the same kind of escaped convicts that killed your son and the others.”
         “They’ve turned this whole state into a big graveyard. More than six hundred got out, and less than a third of that recaptured. Where are they at, exactly?”
        “At the Spencer farm.”
         “Is that in this county?”
         “Yes, sir. South and east of here.”
         “Can’t say I’m familiar with it. But a lot of places have changed hands since I retired and Jason took my place. Do you know how many are there?”
         “I haven’t had much time to stake it out, but I counted at least nine, and probably more.”
         The old man whistled under his breath.
         “I’m afraid what I can do for you is next to nothing, son. I’ll go back with you if you want, but I won’t do any shooting. It’s not that I don’t have the heart. And not that the bastards don’t deserve it. But I’m eighty two now. You’d have to help me on and off my horse. And although I can see you well enough to know you’re a man and not a woman, I can’t see much farther than that. I’m afraid the bullets from my gun would have just as much chance of finding your wife or young’uns as they would a bad guy.”
         “Is there anyone else?”
         “Nobody willing to take on those odds. I’ll ask around, but the anger against the escaped convicts is gone in most folks now. The survivors we have here have pretty much accepted an uneasy ceasefire with the convicts that are still out there. Kind of a you don’t bother us and we won’t bother you type of arrangement.”
         “What about the state police?”
         “The state police don’t exist anymore, son. They disbanded a month after the world went black.”
         “The national guard? The Army? Surely there’s somebody who can help.”
         “The National Guard was absorbed by the Army, which is now under control of FEMA. And you can’t get FEMA to do a damn thing they don’t wanna do. I know ‘cause I’ve tried. It’s an exercise in futility, like dealing with the Three Stooges. Only not that funny.”
         “So there’s nothing you can do to help me?”
         “I can pray for you, son. That’s about it.”
         Dejected, Dave thanked the man for his time and started to