“Yes, we need to speak with Sam!”
Tom said, “Go to Shale City Road, and go until one of our drones signals for you to stop.”
***
Sam’s crimson cheeks, her glare, and balled up fists told Tom that she might have been a bit upset. He didn’t give a crap. “Sam, let’s get this straight. I’m in charge of this group, and I call the shots. You are a team member and will follow orders. I didn’t need your permission to contact the vigilantes. You had no authority to tell them that we’d take in all their problem children and elderly. Now, put your boots and jacket on. You’re going to tell your friends to travel to their new base camp. Then we’re going to transport the sick and elderly over to that camp. Then we’re all done with them.”
“Tom, you and your family are such good people. I was sure you’d take these needy people into your hearts.”
“Sam, stop the crap! We can’t feed and take care of these people! We need people to join us who can work and help grow food and hunt! This is over twenty people, not a couple of women and children!” Tom shouted.
Sam came out of her room and followed Tom to where Kate watched the vigilantes on her monitor. They had stopped only a mile south of their new home. Tom showed Sam how to speak into the drone’s microphone and motioned for her to talk.
“Greg, this is me, Sam. I’m glad everyone survived the attack. Did you booby-trap the home, barn, and equipment as I instructed?”
“Yes, there should be several explosions that can be heard for ten miles any time now. We know Mendoza’s leaders monitor the gang’s walkie-talkie transmissions. We gave the last couple of trucks time to report the attack. Why are you coming back?”
Sam said, “Great! Good job on the ambush! Greg, the people voted me to be their leader. Until I hear different. I’m still their leader.”
Greg mumbled something under his breath. “If you come back here, you’ll be just a follower and not a leader. No one trusts you now that you’re with this new group. How do we know that you’re not working for Mendoza? Goodbye, and tell your drone buddies that we’ll start shooting them down in five minutes.”
The drone’s motors whirred and the drone shot up to a thousand feet in less than a minute. Tom looked at Sam and saw tears forming in her eyes. He thought these were real tears, but didn’t know for sure.
Sam raged on, cursing and kicking her chair. “They throw me out? After all, I did for them! The bastards just used me to take care of their sick and wounded. I hate them!”
The crying and rage stopped. Sam looked from Kate to Tom. “I guess you’re stuck with me, and I learned a good lesson today.”
Kate kept the drone watching the vehicles below. “What do we do with the vigilantes’ people that are five miles from here?”
Tom gritted his teeth and steeled his resolve. “Nothing! Not a damn thing. They were abandoned by their group because their leaders would rather attack Mendoza than take care of their own wounded, grandmothers, and grandfathers. We can’t help everyone and certainly won’t help those who won’t take care of their own. Kate, keep them under surveillance. Sam, go back to your room!”
Tom waited until Sam disappeared and fetched a box from the barn. He attached the metal carriage below the drone and tried the servo actuation button. “It works!”
A few minutes later, Tom’s drone was high above the vigilantes who’d found their new base camp. Tom used the camera to aim and touched the servo activation button. The can dropped, and the red streamer unfurled behind it. The can hit the roof of the home and rattled to the ground. Tom saw a man run out of the house and pick the can up from the ground. He twisted the top off and read the note, which said, ‘If you shoot a drone, the next things we’ll drop will be bombs. Go fetch your own people and take them with you. We won’t feed or care for them.’
The man looked up and shook his fist at the sky. Tom moved the drone a short distance from over the man and released over fifty large, sharpened nails that had fins glued to their ends. The nails spread out and peppered the ground in front of the man. The man turned so quickly, he fell. He crawled a bit, then jumped up, running into the home, and didn’t come back out. Kate and Tom took turns buzzing the house while the other watched from above the home. A door opened, and two men walked out and spread a sheet on the ground. The writing on the sheet read, ‘We agree, just leave us alone.’
Tom and Kate watched over the area until they were confident the group had no plans to try to attack the ranch. The group who was camped a few miles from the ranch walked away the next day. Tom taught Jerry and Doris how to fly the drones, and they helped Kate and Tom keep an eye on the area for threats. Tom cut back the flights after two days to keep from killing the batteries too soon. He knew the drones were now a big part of their survival plan.
Tom worked with Jerry and Granny B to develop bombs and attach a couple of .22 caliber semi-automatic pistols to the drones. It took practice, but Tom and several others could drop a bomb from five-hundred feet and hit
