Free Barren Fields by Robert Brown Page B

anything wrong yet.”
    I look at each one of them, wishing they could step beyond the veneer of civilization they are holding on to so desperately. Letting these six people live is no different to me than letting a rattlesnake live in your garden. It’s ridiculous to choose what people think is the moral route if the moral choice could get you killed.
    “I’ll let them live, but you all have to accept responsibility for what they do to us in the future. What they do will be on your shoulders like Chad Hansen’s actions are on mine.”
    “They may not do anything,” Arthur offers.
    “And they may not let you live to regret this decision,” I counter.
    “You know they can’t survive on their own and what that means, right?” Simone asks.
    “Yes... I know. We’ll have to take them with us. I hate the idea of trouble makers like them at the ranch, but with the threat from Isaac’s people, those other six skeletons don’t seem like much of a problem now. Maybe they’ll insist on not joining us and make all of our concerns a moot point.”
    “What about not having Isaac’s group on the ranch at all?” Hannah asks.
    “Do you mean killing them?”
    “No, that’s not what I meant, but it is an option isn’t it? If they are threatening to kill us and take our supplies, they wouldn’t just kill us Atheists, they would kill everyone that worked with us. They would kill everyone at the ranch.”
    “I can’t kill them because they are decent people. At least some of them are.”
    “More decent than the six from here you were going to kill? None of them said anything about killing us or stealing our supplies.”
    “Jeremiah is delusional because of his beliefs but at least he has a reason to think ill of me, even if I don’t agree religion is a good reason to do so. Those six others are just bad people and seem like the type that cause problems just for the sake of causing them. I’ll take a crazy religious person over a genuinely bad one any day.”
    “I still don’t think we need to let them live at the ranch,” Hannah says reiterating her point.
    “Besides the trouble we could face if we don’t let them in, they have seventeen children that will die if we don’t help them learn to survive. I don’t know their ages yet, but I can’t let that many young people go without help.”
    “No, Dad, that’s not what I mean. If we are going to help them, why not have them move to the farm instead of the Ranch?”
    “That is an excellent idea,” Simone tells Hannah and gives her a motherly hug that makes Hannah blush and look like the little girl I remember.
    “That could help with all sorts of issues with them not feeling stifled and your lives not being threatened,” Arthur offers.
    “That sounds good. If we can make the farm secure it would be a great place for them to stay. If you all think that will work, I’ll make that offer to them.”
    A round of agreement is heard, and the group splits up to leave.
    “Hannah, good idea. I should listen to you more often.”
     
     

 
    Chapter 5
    Gulf of Mexico
     
    Eight Months Earlier.
     
    The four men are a ridiculous looking group travelling across the Gulf of Mexico. George didn’t have much clothes below deck on his boat. His girlfriend, Heather, got seasick so he didn’t spend much time on it. He bought it right before he purchased the property in Mexico so he would have a large enough boat to make the journey across the Gulf. He was able to find one pair of shorts, two t-shirts, and a bunch of towels. Due to Keith’s grieving state, they opted to give him the shorts and a shirt, which fit him as well as George. The rest of them wrapped the towels around their waists and looked like they were headed to the showers.
    The boat is stopped now and even under the canopy, the sun is oppressively baking them. The relieving wind of a breeze occurs with such little frequency and duration that they are certain the air is only torturing them when it decides