Read Online Ever Onward by Wayne Mee - Free Book Online Page A

on his own eagerness to
participate.
    Two had declined the
privilege.
    As for Dolores Delgotto, one of the
two women found wandering the base, she had had the misfortune to
tick off George the Man at the high point of his evening. It seems
that good old Georgie-Porgie, having had a wee bit of trouble
getting his pudding in the pie, had decided to live by that wise
old axiom: You are what you eat. Dolores, however, had been
somewhat less than ecstatic about the whole thing, and so, like her
predecessor before her, Shirley Bates, Deloris had chomped down a
might too hard on old Georgie. The second time ends the rhyme so
they say, and old Georgie had blown her brains out.
    By the end of the evening’s
festivities, counting himself, the Army of the Dark Stranger now
numbered nine men and two women. Not exactly a ‘flowing multitude’,
but then again, great things come from small beginnings.

 
    Chapter 9 : RARE BLOOD
    Hawthorn, Lake Champlain,
    Upstate NY, June 24(Day
3)
    Josh and Doc sat out the back on the
old vet’s porch watching Jessie play with the dogs. Princess, the
mother, still favoring her back leg, ran with Jessie across the
field. Her gangly pup raced around them in circles, his short tail
wagging frantically. Jessie had named him Og, the nick-name his
father had called him since he was a child.
    “The dogs have taken to the lad,” Doc
said. “It does my old heart good to see them run.”
    Josh nodded, his own heart warmed by
the sight. He stiffened as Jessie and the dogs disappeared into the
forest just beyond the field. The boy was seventeen, and though
still a child in many ways, Josh had taken him hiking and canoeing
since he was old enough to walk. The woods were like Jessie’s
second home. Josh however, now worried more about two legged beasts
than four.
    Doc put down his cup. “I’ve been
thinking a lot about what you told the boy this morning. When you
were teaching him to shoot that .22.” His lined face creased into a
frown. “That part about not being able to trust strangers right
off; how most you meet will still be good people, but probably
scared and confused, and that scared, confused people are likely to
do stupid things.” Doc took his pipe out of his pocket, filled the
bowl and struck a wooden match. Josh reached for the pipe Doc had
‘loaned’ him last night. He hadn’t smoked in years, but after what
they had all just been through, he thought, ‘what the
hell?’
    “And?”, Josh said, filling his own
bowl.
    Doc coughed and spit, then sat back
amidst a cloud of blue-white smoke. “And you’re right. I don’t much
like it, but you’re right. It’s probably why that fool took a shot
at you yesterday.”
    Josh shrugged, not sure just where the
conversation was leading. He soon found out.
    “So,” Doc said, leaning forward
through a grayish haze. “We’ve got to advertise. Let whoever is
still out there know that we’re around and that we’re
friendly.”
    Josh grinned. “And how do we do that?
We can’t exactly place an add in the paper.”
    Doc winked. “No, but we can make one
bloody big sign.”
    Josh’s grin spread from ear to ear.
“Of course! Down by the Food Mart! And outside the Sear’s store!
Anyone left will probably go to one place or the other for
supplies!”
    Doc slapped his knee. “And we can tell
them to meet at a central place, say, the town square. That’s out
in the open and should be less intimidating.” The old man leaned
closer. “Also, that way no one will know where we live, just in
case the wrong sort shows up.”
    Josh smiled and stood, calling Jessie
and the dogs. All three came out of the woods on the run, the pup,
Og, bringing up the rear. Soon everyone was in the van and headed
downtown. Doc brought several half used cans of paint from his
garage. Josh brought his father’s guns.
    A little after noon they
stood in the middle of Hawthorn’s main street admiring their
handiwork. On the brick wall of the Food Mart was printed in