The Blue Ridge Resistance Read Online Free Page A

accomplishments, helping them to thrive in this new world they lived in, rather than merely surviving.

Chapter 4: The Burden of Blessings
     
     
    Back on the Thomas farm, Luke was on the roof of the house repairing some damaged shingles that had been causing a leak. He was not experienced at such a repair but did just as his brother said; look at how the old shingles are installed, and do that . He was installing the replacement shingles and was quite proud of his self-taught accomplishment so far. He hoped to have the job completed before Nate returned home from the community meeting at the Murphy place. There were two reasons for this: to show his brother that he was capable of such a feat and to avoid the harassment that would surely come from needing Nate’s help.
    As he tacked down the last of the shingles, he saw a small group of people walking up the driveway towards the house. There appeared to be two women in their late twenties or early thirties with three children, ranging in ages from around five to ten. He immediately went over to the ladder and climbed down to meet them in the driveway before they could reach the house. He had his sidearm holstered on his right, as he always did, but pulled his shirt to the side to make sure it was in plain view and readily accessible. 
    Once he reached the ground, he ran over to the front door and yelled inside, “Eyes open—visitors!” He then walked out to the women and said in a polite but serious voice, “Can I help you?”
    One of the women spoke up and said, “We’ve been on the road for a week now and are out of food for our children. Do you have anything you can spare?”
    Nate looked around uneasily and replied, “Are you traveling with anyone else?”
    “No, it’s just us,” the woman said. 
    “Are you armed?”
    The woman replied, “I have a pistol in my backpack. I need it to protect my children, so please don’t take it.”
    “I’m not going to take anything from you. I just need to figure out if you are a threat, and you did just come walking up our drive, not the other way around. You know as well as I do, you can’t be too careful these days,” Luke replied. “Where are you traveling to? And where did you come from?”
    “We’re coming from the Richmond, Virginia, area and are on our way to Indiana. We’re trying to find some family we have up there, or used to at least,” the woman said.
    One of the smaller children grabbed her mother’s hand and said, “Mommy, my tummy hurts. When are we going to eat?”
    The young mother just shushed the child, whispering to her to be quiet.
    The look in the child’s eyes was heartbreaking for Luke. He had seen and had been hardened by a lot of pain and misery, but it never gets any easier when it is children who are the ones suffering. 
    “Stay right here,” Luke said in a serious tone. “Don’t move. I’ll get something for your children to eat.” 
    As he turned to walk into the house, he heard Judith screaming from one of the back windows, “Get out of there! Get out! Luke! They are in the cellar!”
    Realizing the women and children had been sent as a diversion, Luke quickly turned and saw that the woman who had been doing the talking was pulling a small revolver from her backpack. He immediately began to draw his pistol and screamed, “No! Drop it! Drop it!”
    As she continued to raise the gun towards him, he fired a round at her as her gun simultaneously discharged. He felt as if a bee had stung him in the thigh while everything seemed to go silent and into slow motion. The woman fell backwards with the jolt of the impact of the one hundred and eighty-grain .40-caliber bullet from his Glock 22. He stumbled back onto the porch, falling into the seated position while covering the other woman and children with his pistol. They turned and began to run, leaving the downed woman behind. He couldn’t shoot a woman and children in the back, so he lowered his gun and struggled back to his