Free America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere by Lindsey Rivers Page A

about,
Bob?" Mike asked.
    "Um, well, what for?" Bob asked.
    "For everything. All of it, because me and
Kate, Ronnie and Patty are going in with you on this wilderness
idea. We talked it over; we're going to do it," he told
him.
    Bob's face lit up, "Really?" he
said.
    "Really," Mike said. He looked over at Ronnie.
“Watch him in case he starts jumping up and down," he
said.
    "Did you tell Janet?" Bob asked.
    "Nope. Thought you would, should, " Mike said. "But
I was wondering if chickens can travel. If, since we will need
chickens, we should take these," he said.
    "We could," Bob said, "but we'd probably lose
an awful lot of them, we got quite a ways to go. Plus, they'd stop
laying almost immediately."
    "Why?" Ronnie asked.
    "They don't like change, noise, different, and
anything else that upsets their normal routine," Bob told him. He
paused. "We're going to have to change our direction of travel,"
Bob continued. "If we're going to the place I picked. Who all is
going?" he asked.
    "All of my people want to," Jeff said. "I was
going to get with you about it myself. But, well, this seems to be
a good time for it."
    "I can't speak for anyone except the four of
us, but, Sandy and Susan made it clear they want to go as well,"
Mike said.
    "Tom and Lilly also want to go," Bob
said.
    "That leaves Nell and Molly and Tim and Annie,"
Mike said.
    "No, Tim and Annie said they want to go to,"
Ronnie said. "And last I knew Nell wanted too. So really that's all
of us, except the little ones. That's twenty four people. Wow,"
Ronnie said.
    "We should discuss it further tonight," Mike
said.
    "So animals, how are we going to
do it, Bob?"
    "Well, to be honest, I hadn't thought quite
that far. But I've been thinking cattle trucks," Bob
said.
    "What's that?" Jeff asked.
    "They're just big trucks with a stake rack. You
can run twenty cows up in one, I wouldn't try it with horses. But
we need that kind of space. I think we'll have to drive them, cows
and horses together. They graze with each other, they should herd
with each other," he seemed to be thinking out loud.
    "You lost me, Bob. Drive them in trucks?" Mike
asked.
    "No. Drive them on the ground, as
in cowboy style. I don't think we'll be able to get those trucks as
far back as we want to go. It's pretty wild country. But, even if
we did, we have no fences. We have no homes. We have crops to
plant. It would be better to go with what we need, seed, food,
tools, get ourselves established this year, get a crop in the
ground. Next year we could come out and get horses, cows, other
animals. Or, drive them in with us and, well, turn them loose . Most of them will
stay near us, some would go wild pretty quick though.” He shook his
head slightly “We're going to have to sit down and talk this out...
all of us... and also make sure everyone wants to go," Bob
said.
    "If we kick it open, we'll probably get some
more good feedback," Ronnie said.
    "That's the best way to do it," Jeff
agreed.
    "I like both ideas. Maybe we could take some
animals with us then come out for more in the Spring? Most likely
by then there will be a million and one things we need anyway,"
Mike said. "But yeah, we can't discuss it like this. Everybody
needs to be in on it."
    "Well, we can't take these chickens with us,
but it's early, I bet we could get a bunch of them ready to eat,"
Bob said.
    "Never did that before," Jeff said. "How's it
go?"
    "Me either," Ronnie said, looking a little
nervous.
    "Ditto," Mike said.
    "Well, gotta learn some time," Bob said. "Ain't
hard."
    ~
    By the time the four men had gutted and plucked
the feathers from twenty chickens, it was well after noon and
everybody was covered with blood and feathers.
    "Let's get these back to Jan," Bob said. "then
we'll get down to the stream.”
    "I second that," Mike said. He was trying to
blow a small downy feather off his nose, reluctant to touch his
nose with his hands which were blood sticky, and looked themselves
to be feathered. "Hey, didn't Janet say there