RISE AGAIN: To Victory! by Lally Paul

Author:Lally, Paul
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

The BLAP/BLAP/BLAP of a compression-braking rig swings their attention to a Kenworth pulling a lowboy trailer onto the pasture.

“No need to be jake-braking in my damn cornfield,” Nesselroad grumps.

Seth cackles and shows his few remaining teeth, “Hellfire, perfesser, old Bubba Johnson, he’s just showing off for us. Proud as piss of what he’s done.”

“Are those church pews he’s got on there?” J.J. says.

“Former church pews, yessir. Bubba figures he can haul forty troops on his rig alone.”

“You ain’t got that many men.”

Seth don’t say nothing. Just grins like the Cat that Ate the Canary.

“You mean to say—”

“Let’s just say Bubba’s pews will be filled with a lot more folks than they would at a church service.”

“Some ‘pastor’ Bubba is,’ Nesselroad says.

“Some service, perfesser.”

J.J. don’t say nothing. Just bites back what he really wants to say: Jeb and Beauregard have marooned his sorry ass high and dry, along with his men and Seth’s too, as piss-ant “ready reserves.” Sure as hell they’re charged up to fight but they ain’t going anywhere soon—and probably not at all.

To vent his anger in a different way, he spits his chaw onto the ground.

Professor Nesselroad don’t miss a trick. He knows the look on a man’s face when he’s got to eat a shit sandwich instead of T-bone steak. He shoots a look at Seth, who quickly nods in understanding. (I swear these backwoods boys are nothing short of telepathic, because Seth knows what’s coming just as sure as if the professor spelled it out for him. )

“Major Lewis,” Nesselroad begins, “I had me a hound one time that when he wasn’t hunting, he was hard to live with. Had to pen him separately from the others.”

J.J. shoots him a “look.”

Nesselroad continues. “That’s not an option here, considering you’re a commissioned officer in the state militia reserves and what would your men think if they saw you chained up in my barn to keep you from going crazy?”

J.J.’s brow lowers as his anger rises. “You’re a private, now, professor, don’t forget.”

“I resigned my commission because there comes a time for a man to bless his successor and get the hell out of the way. You were that man.”

“Still am.”

“You were, until they wiped Blacksville off the map.”

J.J. tears off a fresh plug and commences chewing furiously.

“Don’t spit at me, J.J.,” Seth says. “Betty Ann just washed this here army field jacket.”

“That you ‘borrowed’ from the armory,” Nesselroad adds.

“Hell yes. Got to look the part, don’t I?” Seth smooths the front of the jacket. “Need me some rank though.”

J.J. talks around the plug. “Don’t you want blood, professor?”

“I want victory, son. Jeb Lee and old Beau cooked up a battle plan. We’re part of it.”

J.J. spits a juice jet onto the snow-dusted ground. “My ass.”

Then he swings around and points to the motley group of hillbilly clans gathered in the cornfield. Smoke rises from breakfast campfires, along with exhaust fumes from idling trucks, vans, and stock cars.

“You didn’t lose friends and family in Blacksville. We did. And by God, an eye for an eye and plenty more before the day is through.

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