Dragon Unleashed: Blades of Grass Book 2 (A Cascadia Fallen Apocalyptic War Thriller) by Austin Chambers

Author:Austin Chambers [Chambers, Austin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781736047934
Publisher: Crossed Cannons Publishing LLC
Published: 2022-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

West of Cardwell, Missouri

The path of Apollo led to the small sliver of Missouri wedged between Arkansas and Tennessee. Lou and Kyla had chosen to take a thread of smaller U.S. and state highways on the continued trek.

“I’m assuming that was the first time you’ve seen the Mississippi River?” Lou asked.

“Yes,” Kyla said sharply, not hiding the fact that she was still upset with Lou for ordering her around at the gas station the afternoon before. They’d spent the night in a parking lot in Caruthersville in awkward silence and not getting a decent sleep once more.

“Oh! Happy birthday!” Lou said, trying to break the ice. “Almost forgot.” He pulled a small box out of the interior pocket of his camo coat, the same one he and Brandon had procured from the Army. He tried to hand it to her.

“I’m driving, Lou,” she said coldly. “Do I have permission to take my hand off the wheel and take that from you?”

“Listen, I know there’s a lot I haven’t told, you, but—”

“Do you realize how condescending you were?” she said emphatically.

Lou took a deep breath. “Okayyy, since you’re eighteen today, I think I should welcome you to adulthood by reminding you that conversations are allowed to flow both directions. Even tough ones. It’s what grown-ups do.”

“Oh, so now I’m a child?” she demanded.

“Maturity level has nothing to do with your biological clock, Kyla. It’s a behavior and you get to choose it,” Lou said with just a bit of edge in his voice.

After two full minutes of silence, Kyla attempted to communicate more earnestly. “Look—I just didn’t like the way you sided with that lady,” she explained. “We had every right to be there.”

“No, we didn’t,” Lou laughed at the statement. “What makes you think we were entitled to be there?”

“It’s a public place!” she exclaimed loudly. “That jerk started the whole thing!”

“You are correct on that point—we didn’t do anything wrong, technically… But it was private property. Our need for gas doesn’t trump that lady’s right to keep angry and possibly violent people off her property. Don’t you understand that? What about her rights?”

Kyla went back to silent contemplation.

“Welcome to Arkansas,” Lou read aloud after Apollo crossed a bridge and the state line. Finally, he thought in exasperation. Both parties were rapidly approaching the point of wanting the trip to be over, let alone half-over.

“I guess I get that,” Kyla finally admitted. “But I still say I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“No,” Lou agreed. “You didn’t. But laying on the horn was called an ‘escalation.’ What the world needs a lot more of right now is de-escalation.”

“He was a jerk!” Kyla protested.

“Yes,” Lou agreed calmly. “The world is full of them. Do you know who Winston Churchill is?”

Kyla made a small noise of annoyance. “I dunno… that British guy? The one from Monty Python?”

Lou laughed loudly. “Sure, we’ll go with that. But he had a famous saying. Something like, ‘You’ll never get where you’re going if you stop and throw rocks at every barking dog.

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