Free Renewal 9 - Delay Tactics by Jf Perkins

the dark. He had no way of knowing the progress the Dragon army was making through Bedford County, but knowing Tam Rogers, he expected the white-robers were having a very bad day.
    The circuitous route gave Bill and Terry plenty of time to talk about the events of the day. Terry was still nervous about Tullahoma, though Bill assured him that they were nowhere near the dangerous heart of town. Not completely convinced, Terry kept his eyes moving, looking for any signs of trouble on the overgrown lanes they traveled.
    “Would Kirk have gone through with it?” Terry asked.
    “No. Kirk has never actually had to go through with it. He’s more of a pitt bull dog than a cat. Cats like to toy with their prey, for some reason. Dogs try to stay out of the fight until they’re in it, and then they are one hundred percent in. And like a fighting dog, once Kirk decides to move, us normal folks can’t see anything but a blur. But I know he’s not interested in hurting people. He only interested in winning.” Bill sounded like he was convincing himself for at least some of his answer.
    “Did you tell him what to do?”
    “I told him to try to take some family members alive. I didn’t expect him to get the exact family members we needed. I trust him to handle the details, and he usually does it better than I would,” Bill replied in a flat tone, like a military report.
    “So, you specifically decided to do the hard thing to avoid doing what we did at the Jenkins farm?”
    “I felt bad about destroying it, and I also realized that it’s too easy to turn into what we’re fighting. We’ve never been out to take anything from anyone else. Our entire fighting system is designed for defense. I realized that I had overstepped the lines of defense by striking out in revenge, half way across the county,” Bill said, pausing for a few beats. “Then there are the politics, which is a crappy topic up against life and death, but if we just set out to eliminate the families altogether, then we would end up doing what they have always done, holding onto control through fear and intimidation. We made our point with the Jenkins men, who we know for a fact were involved with Dusty’s death, and we used that one action as leverage against the rest. I hope that’s enough. I half-expect Garrett Cox to show up in a white robe on Sunday.”
    “So, no matter what we do about the Dragons, it’s always more about making friends than winning fights,” Terry said, trying to sum it up in his own mind.
    “Yeah. That’s a good way to put it. If you have enough to live, and can protect what’s yours in this world, then helping someone else is almost always a good idea. Sometimes people can disappoint you, but not too often to stop trying.” Bill dug in his pocket for a pouch of tobacco, and held it out to Terry.
    Terry glanced at it and shook his head.
    “Good. Terrible habit,” Bill said.
    “Why Sunday? Is that when you think they will attack?” Terry was full of questions.
    “I think it will be soon. Remember what we found in Nashville? Those Dragons had about three days’ worth of food on hand. They probably don’t think about the long haul. They cover two counties and they have plenty of working vehicles, so they probably think in terms of quick raids, out and back. I’m fairly sure they don’t have any concept of supply lines, or even any home base to keep the supplies coming, so no matter what they’ve come to do, they’ll have to do it quickly. Of course, they may be counting on the families to keep them fed while they work out a plan. I’m hoping they will be disappointed.”
    “I hope so, too. Do the other two families have enough to feed an army?”
    “The Cantners do fairly well with their big farm, and they don’t seem to waste as much on bullshit as the Jenkins and the Coxes. The MacMillans are small potatoes compared to the other families. Dusty used to tell me that they would be paying Jerry Doan Jenkins back for