The Blue Ridge Resistance Read Online Free Page B

feet to check on the woman on the ground. 
    He stood over her with one hand on his wound while using the other to cover her with his pistol, just in case. He saw that the round had entered the center of her chest. There was no chance she could still be alive. He then began to limp around to the back of the house to check on the situation Judith warned him about, to find her standing on the back porch, shotgun in hand, pointing frantically at the cellar. 
    “They broke into the cellar. They were stealing our food,” she shouted.
    Just then, Rachel came running out of the house in a panic. “You’ve been shot!” she yelled as she ran over to Luke. He looked down at his leg and began to feel a throbbing, burning pain. He started to feel dizzy and reached over to grab the porch railing as Judith and Rachel, one under each arm, helped him up the steps and into the house. They sat him down on the sofa as Rachel frantically ripped his pants open to get a better look at the wound.
    “There isn’t much damage,” she said, relieved. “The wound cavity is pretty small and it doesn’t look like it went too deep. What kind of gun did she have?” Rachel asked Luke.
    “Some little stubby revolver,” he said. 
    Mildred came running up the stairs from the basement. “Haley is downstairs in the basement,” she said. She was carrying Ollie’s old, double-barreled twelve-gauge and had a fire in her eyes that the others had yet to see. “I’m sick of this! Sick of it! I’m sick and tired of having people come, take what is ours, and try to hurt us to get it. Enough!” she screamed as she walked over to the open door leading out to the back porch. “You sons of bitches had better keep running,” she screamed as she fired both barrels sequentially into the woods, in the general direction the men had run to escape. She quickly reloaded and said, “Judith, you watch the front of the house, I’ll watch the back. Don’t take your eyes off the road and the tree line until Nate is back with Evan and Jason. We don’t know if those bastards are coming back for their woman, or not, once they realize she is down. Rachel, you take him downstairs to your office and get him all fixed up. We can handle this,” Mildred said as she nodded to Judith.
    Following Mildred’s direction, Rachel led Luke downstairs to her makeshift medical office. She cleaned the wound and removed the bullet from his leg. She wasn’t sure what caliber it was, not being a gun aficionado herself, but she was thankful it was small and did not seem to carry much energy. After treating him as best she could with what she had, she closed and bandaged the wound and started him on an antibiotic to avoid infection. She was glad that in the farming environment, most farms had their own livestock antibiotics that could also be used on humans. This is something many preppers had caught on to before the collapse, but being that Ollie and Mildred raised cattle, they naturally had a supply on hand.
    After she got Luke’s wounds treated and wrapped, he said, “I’ll stay down here with Haley. Why don’t you go and see if Mildred or Judith needs anything.”
    She kissed him on the lips. “Okay, dear. Yell if you need anything,” she said as she turned and walked up the stairs.
    A few hours later, Nate, Evan, and Jason came into Judith’s view as they rode up the driveway to the home. Nate was at a slow trot, trying to stay back with Evan and Jason, who were much slower on their bikes. Judith waved frantically to get their attention, as she was relieved they were finally home. As Nate saw her wave with one hand, he realized she had a shotgun in the other. He immediately nudged the horse in the ribs and raced to the house. Evan and Jason both jumped off their bikes and pulled their VZ58s around from their backs and into the ready position; they both scanned the surrounding areas of the house, not knowing what the threat was, or if it was still around. They then covered