Read Online Take Back Denver by Algor X. Dennison - Free Book Online Page B

I’ll go south from here, get the lay of the land around Colorado Springs, and we’ll meet up on the way back to the ranch in a week or so.”
    Brad and Rory liked the sound of this, but Ron grumbled. “I should come with you, McLean. You might need a backup gun.”
    “ Nope. That’s part of why it makes sense for you to go to Denver,” McLean explained. “No offense, but if I take you south, the chances of getting into a firefight triple. I can go unnoticed a lot more easily if it’s just me, and you know Denver better than Brad or Rory. You need to keep them on track and out of the danger areas. And obviously if it comes to it, they’re more likely to get through a tight spot with you at the trigger. If I get into a tight spot down south, it will be an all-out run for it, not a shoot-out. I have no intention of going up against soldiers.”
    Ron finally agreed, and they split the group again, McLean turning south on his solitary journey to Colorado Springs and sticking to the foothills of the Rampart Range. Ron and the others left their two horses hobbled near a small lake in Roxborough State Park, and after making sure no one was in the area they crept into the southern suburbs of the city on foot.
    What they found was not at all encouraging.
    The outer neighborhoods were either empty, barren ruins with a few grimy-faced kids and dogs picking through the rubble, or they were hostile. When they stumbled onto one street that had skulls spray-painted all over, the three intruders were told in no uncertain terms by a punk in a leather jacket to keep moving.
    No one seemed to want to talk to them, so their questions went unanswered as the three men made their way past a subdivision that was almost entirely burned down and got deeper into the city. There was a roadblock with razorwire stretching the width of one major street, but no one was manning it. In one empty corner lot that a gas station used to occupy, several buzzards were feeding on something mangled and unrecognizable. Two lean men were hungrily eyeing the birds and talking in hushed tones, but didn’t seem eager to go after them.
    The three interlopers moved into some looted buildings and got several more blocks northeast without being challenged. Here they finally they began to encounter some people and dwellings that looked like they had weathered the storm a little better. There was one house that even had a sign out front saying “Welcome, take what you need-- PEACE!”. A variety of items were arranged in the yard, from garden hoses and buckets to blankets and a mattress or two. No one was around, though, and the items looked well picked-over.
    Three hours after they had left McLean, they penetrated eastward into Centennial. There they found mostly peaceful but guarded neighborhoods. Few people were out on the streets, and those that were eyed the three newcomers suspiciously. A skinny kid approached them to beg, but Ron told him to get lost.
    “ We’re not here to build good will or give out charity,” he told the others. “Give one kid a shiny gum wrapper and we’ll be surrounded by a crowd of them in minutes.”
    Brad expressed interest in going out to Parker to see his brother, but agreed to stick to Rory’s quest for the moment. They would see the people they knew if they had time later on. At the moment they had to find their way along Cherry Creek to the home Rory knew his ex-wife had been living in.
    Finally they turned onto the street Rory said would take them to their destination. But it wasn’t going to be as simple as walking through the neighborhoods to the right house. They faced a newly erected wall made from packing crates and reinforced with a sheet metal and cinderblocks. It stretched all the way across the street between two homes that looked abandoned. One section, too small to fit a car through, had a wrought-iron gate attached, obviously procured from elsewhere and fastened into place with wire. There were several armed men