Free A Long Lonely Road by TJ Reeder Page B

Damn this sitting in the sun is cooking my brain! Best be making some miles.
     
    I feel like I’ve been on this mule all my life yet I’m broke in to it now and I’ve lost the “Deer Gut” I packed for so many years, I know Buck can tell the difference.
     
    We had been steadily dropping down out of the high country for days now and were getting into more crowded country. I was figuring it might be wise to travel after dark, laying up during the day but it would be a lot slower and time was hounding me yet I know I have many weeks if not months to go.
     
    After so long in the high lonesome I was quick to notice the smell of smoke and at first thought it was a camp fire but soon it was quite obvious that it was a structure burning. Or rather that had burned just from the smell of stuff like wiring and carpeting.
     
    It was time to become cautious. The wind was quartering from the west and a bit south and I could have just ridden on past but I also couldn’t damn my nosey ways!
     
     
     
     
    So I turned Buck into the breeze and road forward into what? Sometimes I hate myself! But I’d hate myself more if I thought somebody needed my help.
     
    And in the end the only help I could give was to bury the folks I found in the yard of a burning house. A man and woman and two small boys. All shot at close range and worse yet the clothing of a woman. All had been cut from her body while she stood in the blood of her family.
     
    I was burning with rage as I studied the tracks in the dirt of the drive way. It looked like maybe a truck and for sure a few motorcycles. I knew I was going to be too late for the girl but if I could I’d see if I could find the bastards who did this.
     
    I got my shovel and started digging a grave big enough to hold the family. After it was dug I looked for the mans wallet and found it in his pocket.
     
     
    His name was Tyler Jones, I never found anything with the family names but  I’d do the best I could for them.
     
    After I got them buried I started tracking these scum and on a dirt road it wasn’t hard. But it was in the wrong direction for me so no matter how I felt I couldn’t spend too long on this.
     
    We covered about 5 miles before I started to hear loud music, which surprised me. Figures, the worlds electronics are burned out as some dickhead gets heavy metal going.
     
     
     
    I got as close as I dared before I rode Buck into the woods and behind some brush. I unsaddled and un packed the mules and left them loose in case I didn’t make it back.
     
    I had to think a bit about what weapons I wanted and settled on the Ruger pistol with the can on it, and my Ak, Put on the Tac vest with 5 mags for it plus one in the rifle.
     
     
     
    Molly and I started moving closer with her on a 10 ft leash. Molly hates thunder and lighting and gun fire so she was going to be kept close until the shooting started.
     
    After that she was free to run back to the mules and wait. If I didn’t make it she was on her own and I hoped she would maybe back track to Harvs camp but had my doubts.
     
    I got closer to the loud music and soon could see smoke thru the trees. They must have just moved this far before they couldn’t wait any longer to use the girl. It was a mistake. A bad one.
     
    I made it within 30 yards of their camp and saw 3 dirt bikes and an old pickup and what looked like 5 losers, one of which was in a tent with the woman while the rest shouting encouragement.
     
    I was still trying to figure out how to do this when the one in the tent let out a blood curdling scream and staggered out of the tent. Pants around his boots and both hands where his dick used to be.
     
     
    Everybody stood frozen for a moment trying to understand out what was going on when the woman charged out of the tent buck naked and a bloody knife in her hand! Which she abruptly drove low right into one of the shitheads gut and ripped it straight up.
     
    Before the others could react I shot them. The Ak