Wonder where that next chapter went................

I just started reading and enjoying this very much!

Sure would like to read more!

............Mounger

It's not dead, I've got 3 chapters ready to put out but I am having a hard time getting them posted from the old computer - it just doesn't want to open up with the word document I have so I've got to piece it together.

I'll get back to it soon, don't want it to die either, it's actually my relaxation...

Thanks for reading.

It blows me away how many of you talented writers don't know what to write with!

I'm far from a geek, but I can probably help, and, I want to read moar!

Send me a message off list with your contact info and let me see if I can help. In the mean time, try this: http://download.openoffice.org/

If that dont work, email me a zip file and let me see if I can open it.

Also, to keep from your "whatever" your word processing program is, use this: http://www.cutepdf.com/

to back it up as a pdf.  As long as your hard drive dont completely crash, you can access it.  That way if your "word" program becomes corrupted you still have it.  If you want to restore it to a "word" program to edit, ect, you can simply copy and paste in to the "word" program.

Please, I am out of good stuff to read!

Also, your portrayal of the Ohio State Guard is uncannily like my experiences in my State.  I swear my CO read your stuff!  Where did Semper Gumby come from?  That is his favorite!

.........Mounger

Sorry for the delay

Chapter 17

Nearly two hours later with Chad driving the little Bobcat, they had loaded up the back of the dump truck and Chad’s work truck with firewood as best they could.  This is once Chad and David were able to clear enough of the gate area to close it again using the pickups plow and Bobcat, the dump truck was still running a little rough and had to be coaxed to start and it's throttle babied by Jason until it ran on its own.  This time, David would be securing the gate with one of those ‘cut-resistant‘ bike locks that no other employee had a key for. If someone wanted into the lot, they‘d have to either cut the fencing or the metal supports. After some lively discussion, they had also attached the snowplow to the dump truck and the plan was this; After David delivered the firewood to Jason‘s, he was going to try and plow as many of the bigger lots while Chad was to plow a few smaller lots hopefully to keep up their current customers happy before curfew, which was only a few hours away. Then David and Chad would take both trucks back to Davids house for the night and at first light tomorrow continue with clearing the lots. David had already pulled the Excursion into the pole barn/workshop for safe keeping along with Jason's Jeep, they figured 'out of sight, out of mind'.  

Everything was going well until Jason heard a shout.  Looking up he saw Chad frantically motioning to Jason when he saw David walk out of the garage door with a shotgun and putting it into the dump tucks cab.  Jason jogged over to him with Chad hustling to catch up once the bobcat was shutdown. "Whatcha doing David?" he called out approaching the dump truck.

"Going to pay Tony a visit to fire his ass and get my stuff back."

"Sure you want to do that buddy? Let’s just file a police report and let them take care of it. There‘s a lot more other stuff to do then go over there half cocked."

David slammed the cabs door shut, "Seriously?" he said pausing for a minute giving Jason a look as if he just said something really stupid. "Seriously? I’ve had it with people stealing shit from me. Tired of that son of a bitch thinking HE runs my place and can take whatever he wants when ever he wants.  I’m tired of it Jason, TIRED OF IT!"  He wiped the back of his hand across his face, his nose started bleeding again.  "Damnit."

"C’mon buddy, let’s go inside, let me check out your nose again and warm up a little bit before we take off. There‘s a lot to do before curfew. Let‘s do a sweep of the place to see what he took instead of just going over there all pissed off and only get half your stuff back."

"Yeah David, Jason’s got the idea. Come on buddy." Chad began walking toward the office and stopped after noticing neither was following him. "Come on, what’s ten minutes or so going to change?"

David just glared at them both, then began walking toward the building muttering, "Stupid son of a bitch."

Sitting in the office, they warmed up with instant coffee Chad had made atop the little apartment sized gas stove in the break room and the wall mounted ventless heater was hissing away. Normally David would have the Vogelzang Defender wood burning stove running during the winter months since he had such an abundant supply of it available but to fire it up just for a few minutes of warmth using the ventless heater was a better choice.  David had made a list of the items he believed to be missing and would try to head over to Tony’s house and retrieve the company items he‘d taken first then if that didn‘t work, he‘d just make a police report for stolen items.  So far they found missing, the 16" and 14" McCulloch chainsaws, a 2700w generator, a half dozen two and six gallon fuel cans, the pickup truck and utility trailer Tony normally used with its plow and all three of the big self propelled Honda snow blowers he just bought over the summer to replace the old ones.  Jason convinced David to ride along with him once they dropped off the firewood, propane, kerosene and the pickup at his house then he’d come back for the Cherokee tomorrow with Erika.  Convincing David to even do that was a nearly monumental one.  One thing about David, is that once his mind is made up about something it took a LOT of persuasion to change his mind.

It was close to three pm before they shut everything down and secured the office and shop area as best as possible.  After locking the gate, Chad turned right out of the driveway, Jason followed David as he turned left heading toward his place mainly to make sure David didn‘t do anything stupid.  There were very few vehicles on OH SR795 as they decided to take I-280 north instead of the side roads that most likely would be still snow covered, they weren’t disappointed with the route they had chose, it was clear sailing, although they were driving under 50 MPH and the posted speed was 65MPH.

It wasn’t long before they pulled into Jason’s subdivision keeping in touch via FRS radios.  While driving to Jason’s, David suggested over the FRS that they just drop off the pickup first so they can use the weight inside the dump box to their advantage while plowing then dump the wood when he's done plowing.  As they pulled into the subdivision, Jason was surprised to see that several driveways were cleared off and vehicles were sitting in them, they were not there that morning just after curfew ended. Bruce Phillips was coming out his door as David lowered the plow and began plowing the street after Jason asked if he could make a quick pass before they entered the development.  Jason stopped at Phillips’s to tell him what they were doing, rolling down the window as he walked around to the drivers side. "Hi there Bruce."

"Who’s truck is that?"

"Friend of mine.  We’ll plow off the streets in the neighborhood to make things easier for us.  You know that‘s not a good idea to be openly carrying that AR. Police might get the wrong idea and think you‘re one of the bad guys."

"We’ve not seen anyone.  Cops haven’t even shown up yet to check out that house on your street." he paused to look up the street. "Think we could have your friend help pile up snow to block off your street? We’ve got a ATV with a plow, but that big plow will do it faster."

Jason looked up the street, David was turning around to plow the other side of the street in the cul-de-sac on Phillips side.  "Where did the ATV come from?"

Phillips looked slightly nervous, "On your street, the people who got robbed came back with friends of theirs in a big camper and a ATV with a snowplow along with some other people.  Guess they were happy we tried to help them so offered to do a little plowing - as long as we provided the gas."

"Hang on a second. Let me call my buddy." he reached for the FRS radio as David pass him and Phillips.  "David, you copy?" He looked in his side mirror, seeing the dump trucks brake lights light up at the stop sign.  It only took two swipes to plow the street.

"Go ahead."

"On my street, could you just pile up the snow at the end of the street where they’ve already started doing it? They only want one way in and out to the subdivision."

"Sure, why not. That’s a good idea actually. Who thought of that?" he replied.

"My neighbor standing next to the truck.  Think it'll be a problem?"

"Nope, I'll see you at your house in a couple of minutes. Out."

Jason put the FRS radio onto the seat turning back to Phillips.  "I see some other neighbors came home. What‘s up with them?" motioning his head behind him.  

"I don’t know really. We went to go see them and I guess a couple got themselves generators, and one or two of them realized their fireplace weren't just for decoration."

He laughed slightly. "Imagine that, a fireplace being actually used to keep warm. Okay, I hate to be rude but I gotta get going Bruce, c'ya later."

"See you Jason.  By the way, we're going to have a meeting tonight if you're interested.  It's at my place at seven p.m."

"Isn't that past curfew?"

"Like I've said, I've not seen a single police car come into our neighborhood since before all this started so I don't see the harm in having a block watch meeting then."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do.  See you later." Jason looked over in the side mirror as he pulled away, Phillips was still standing in the street with the AR slung over his shoulder the FRS radio buzzed.

"Go ahead."

"Who was that guy you were talking to?" David asked.

Jason replied. "The guy who thinks he’s in charge of the neighborhood watch group."

"Don’t tell me, he’s the idiot standing in the street with the AR?"

"Yep."

He heard David laugh before replying. "At least he has one bright idea. That guy’s going to get himself shot walking around with that rifle. See you at your house when I‘m done plowing. Out."

Jason pulled into his driveway, finding it clear of snow except for Erika’s car sitting where she parked it. Across the street at the Lacttka’s, in it’s driveway was a large camper trailer, out front along the street sat a early-2000 dark blue crew-cab F-250 Ford pickup truck.  Climbing out he heard the front door to the Jaffee’s house open and Doug stepped out pulling on a jacket calling out, "Hey neighbor, where have you been?"  

"Had some running around to do, got your propane by the way."

Doug shook his head with a frown, "I asked if you can pick up some kerosene.", following Jason to the back of the CUCCV.

"Oh, that’s right," he grinned then opened up the canvas back to reveal it’s content and lower the tailgate.  "Surprise."  Inside were the cans of kerosene and propane.  He had put the propane canisters into milk crates from Davids so they wouldn’t roll around.

"Thanks a lot. I’ll be able to get Amy off my back with the house being too cold crap. At least until this runs out, just seems as if the fireplace isn‘t keeping the house warm enough for her. By the way, your guest is over at our house.  The stove went out and she didn’t know how to work it, hell, I don’t know how to work it after I took a look at it, sorry if your place probably smells like smoke though."

Jason shook his head, "That was pretty stupid of me not to show her how to run it.  Figured she watched me do it and could figure it out herself."

"Damn kids these days." Doug replied with a grin.  At that time David pulled the dump truck up to the end of the driveway leaving it running.  Doug did a double take at seeing his face and the gauze sticking out of his nostrils. "What happened to you?" looking back at David then Jason.

"Doug, this is my buddy David." he introduced David as he approached.  "We had a little incident earlier today."

"Hope the other guy looks worse." Doug smiled broadly shaking David’s hand. "Nice job plowing the street."

Before David could reply Jason interrupted. "C’mon, let’s get this stuff inside and tell me what’s been going on around here. Looks like we’ve got some new neighbors."  He looked across the street to see Ron standing in his front door waving, he waved back then looked up the street.  He saw the large diesel pusher RV parked in the street in front of the house that had been robbed.  They walked inside and Jason instantly felt the house had gone cold.  Not good.  He went right to the wood burning stove and began to relight it using newspaper and scraps of wood that were piled next to it.

As he began to work on getting the wood burner going David announced looking at his watch, "Jason, we’re running out of daylight fast.  I’m just going to dump the firewood and head home before curfew hits.", they turned toward the door as it opened and Bandit ran in barking at David followed by Erika telling her to be quite.  David turned and gave Jason a curious look, his bruised face one of confusion.

"Daivd, this is my brothers god daughter Erika Morano. Erika, this is a good friend of mine David."

Erika smiled and went to shake his hand, "Nice to meet you. Boy who kicked your ass?" She said bending down to grab Bandit from jumping up on David.

The three men just started laughing at her bluntness.

D'oh ... ran out of reading material!


Nice, can hardly wait for MOAR!

I guess that will hold us for a bit.  

Great story please continue.

I just read the whole thing for the first time from beginning to end and this is great stuff Tonto.
Please push hard to the big finish.
Thanks for your work.

It lives!  we need moar please most ricky tic...................

I guess everyone has taken off for the Holidays.  Can't blame y'all but I too am out of reading material!

.......Mounger

great story keep up the good work

Is there any more, please?

In the great computer collapse of last year I lost the entire story plus a few more chapters to wrap it up.  I'll try to piece it together and maybe add a few more to wrap things up because I hate stories that don't have a ending.

Thanks for reviving this.

Thanks! Looking forward to some new installments!

I would really like to read more please!

more?

Great read, love the character development and relationships. Just discovered this thread and read it front to back, sucks your computer dumped the files. You have something here and should definatly continue with your writting. It's killing me the way you left us with Frank standing on the pourch confronting the police as his neighbors start getting worked up on the bus...must know how that one unfolds.

thanks for the words.  I wish I've had more time to work on this story and a couple more that have been bouncing around in my head.  Hopefully once things settle down and get back to writing this fall/winter.  I really do miss writing.

Now that the story has been resurrected and I'm hooked on yet another incomplete story..... we need MOOOOAAAARR!