He Left Me to Die. Now I'll Survive Without Him! novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Wire Holds

The raider leader stopped at the cattle guard and looked up at the plow.

He was fifty, heavy in the shoulders, with a gray beard and a deputy's tan jacket he had clearly taken from somebody.

"Evening," he said. "Nice setup."

"You're on my land," I said.

"I'm on a lot of land today." He smiled at Brent. "Your man says you've got a spring, a cellar full of cans, and a good fence. I'm going to take all three."

"He isn't my man."

"No?" He looked at the rope on Brent's wrists. "That's fine. I got what I paid for."

Brent flinched.

"I'll give you one chance," the raider said. "Open the gate. Hand over the food and the women, and I'll leave the old man and the kids. I'm told that's generous."

"Who told you?"

"Everyone I've ever met."

Hank leaned out of the dozer cab.

"I've got a counter-offer," he called. "It involves my boot."

The leader laughed, tipped two fingers to his brow, and walked back down the lane.

I counted his steps.

At the end of the lane, a hundred yards off, his men were already spreading out in the dark.

"Positions," Eli said quietly.

I knew what to do. We had walked it a hundred times.

The trench ran across the north field and along the lane, eight feet deep, with the dirt thrown up on our side in a berm.

Hank had cut two gaps in the berm and covered them with planks and a thin layer of straw.

Eli was behind the plow truck at the cattle guard.

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