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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 58: Beam 145
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 75
Reaching the front door, Beam quickly thought through the next move.
“Dawn and I will take point. I want Bob behind us, and Warren behind him. Warren, if Bob yells something like ‘duck’, hit the ground, because it means someone is about to shoot at us. Bron, you follow Warren so you can drag your cart, and Ash, you walk with him and cover the rear with your pistols.”
With that, he shouldered the rifle and drew his own pistol, looked to be sure everyone was where he directed, and said, “On three. One, two,” and he opened the door and stepped through, pistol pointed ahead, as he said “three.”
The chaos that was the enemy had not yet managed to subside, but he scanned as he walked, looking for anyone who might pose a threat. He heard Dawn’s rifle fire more than once, so she obviously was more observant than he was. He also heard some gunfire close behind him, so he knew that Ashleigh was also finding targets. Finally he found one, and put a couple bullets into it. Mostly, though, he focused on heading up the road and out of the area as quickly as possible. Soon there were no more enemies out front, and as he quickened the pace he said to Dawn, “Fall back and help Ashleigh guard the rear.”
Then he turned his attention to Warren. “Well, Dad,” he said, “we need to lose any pursuers, make it so they can’t follow our trail, and then find a place to camp where we can build a fire and pitch our tents and cook a bit of food without being found by the enemy. You know the territory better than any of us, so we’ll rely on you for this.”
Warren slowed, almost being run over by Bob, which was something given that Bob was the slowest of the group. “Keep moving,” Beam said. “Think while we walk.”
Warren nodded. “In the next couple miles we should cross a brook. They’ll expect us to head upstream, so we should go down. There will be a couple other crossings, but we should be able to pass beneath them without leaving the water, so there will be no track for some distance. There’s a trail a mile or so downstream that leads into the woods. That’s our best bet.”
“Good,” Beam said. “Lead on.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #470: Verser Turnings. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
