I asked, "How did all of you escape?" Vernon said, "In all the commotion of what was happening, me and Sarah snuck out the back door of the barn and made it to the woods. We made it to near the top of the ridge and hunkered down where we could see but not be seen."
He nodded at Adam to speak. "I was squirrel hunting and heard the large bore shots. I snuck back over the ridge and saw bodies on the ground and what was being done to the women. There was no way to stop it, all I had was this .22 caliber squirrel rifle. When Sarah and Vern ran from the barn, I joined them. As we watched from up on the hillside, they tied all the prisoners and put them on the front wagon. Then those killers ransacked the cabins and stole everything they could carry before they set fire to the buildings. While that was going on, several more gathered the livestock and got them ready to travel. It was well past lunch when they were ready to leave; A big guy who looked to be their leader yelled, ‘Come on damn it. Get a move on. I wanna get back to Poplar Bluff while this weather holds.’"
Sarah questioned me, "Are you going after them?"
I glanced at the faces watching, "Are we?"
Heads nodded and I heard, yeses, hell yeses, and damned right we're going.
The whole group looked to me. "We want our young people back, but we can't run off and let our food rot in the field. We'll work dawn to dusk for the next week getting these crops in. I'm guessing we could be gone a month. The hard part will be locating these assholes after we get to the Poplar Bluff area. It's about two-hundred miles from here. That's six to eight days by horse, considering we'll need to take wagons along. We'll leave five people here to continue the harvest, feed the stock, and take care of what...thirteen kids? We'll travel as fast as the horses can hold up, but we can't afford to injure them by pushing them past their endurance; we need them healthy to extract vengeance on those rogues and then get back."
I hung my head and exhaled as I shifted back and forth on my feet. I looked at the four newcomers. "Several months ago, you chose to stay with the pacifist group. When we find these killers, I need to know if you can stomach a no holds barred, take no prisoners assault. Think about it overnight and let me know in the morning."
"There's no need to wait till morning, Tom," Adam said as he stood grimly and swiveled to engage the crowd around him. "We talked about this on the way here. All of us stayed only because we didn't want to hurt our family members who were adamantly opposed to violence. I asked you for directions to get here before you left because I knew I would leave at some point and join you. We agree that none of those cold-blooded murderers should be spared." He looked to each of his traveling companions; they all nodded, some more aggressively than others. Allen stepped forward and hugged his brother. Tears ran down Adam's cheeks as he said, "Vernon said they made Dad get on his knees before they shot him in the head."
Morgan turned to Able and Richard, "If it's any consolation, Barlow's family wasn't in the group that was murdered. They all died about five weeks ago. Verlie and Marcie thought it was from food poisoning. They got sick and went downhill fast."
Richard was silent for a time. "Accidental food poisoning, I understand. But murder by a bunch of low-down thieves is too despicable to ignore. I'll be riding with you." He turned to his wife. "Carmen, we'll need you, too, in the likely event we have causalities."
She smirked, "As if there was a chance in hell that I wouldn't go." Carmen's kids and several others grinned at the feisty woman's retort. Able was silent, but the tears flowing down his cheeks revealed his pain from the loss of his parents and two siblings. "I'm going, too. I want my little brother and sister back, if they're still alive.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A short time after daybreak, our convoy rode out. Saying our good-byes to Kira, Junior, Vivian, Adam and Sarah was painful because we had no idea of how many of us would return. Ten days seemed like it should have been enough time to adjust to the planned separation, but it wasn't. Junior and Adam didn't want to stay behind, but they saw the need for mature men of large stature to stay with the women and children. Kira and Vivian were both strong and exuded confidence, and both were excellent shots. But if another group of roving outlaws caused trouble, I wanted two men like Junior and Adam to face down the intruders. Of course, that would only work if they weren't outnumbered by eight or ten people. We didn't need another massacre while we were away righting a previous slaughter. Besides all that, Vivian was closing on being seven months pregnant with her and Shane's last child. She had no business taking a lead roll in confronting aggressors.
Me, Richard, Mitch, Paige, Suzie and Vernon were on horseback and the other ten people were distributed on two supply wagons. Each rubber-tired wagon was pulled by four draft horses and carried our food, heavy weapons and other supplies for a month long campaign. Four aggressive dogs trotted along and disappeared at times while they chased a wild
