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The first man, the larger of the two looked at his partner, nodded, then jerked his head toward the top of the mountain.
With a scowl on his face the second man jumped on his four-wheeler and took off up the mountain. He spun his tires enough to pelt Aidyn and him with stones and he heard a few taps as they hit his truck. Since he’d been here, his truck had fared worse than everything else.
Tate tried engaging in conversation. “What’s your name?”
“What’s it to ya? Gonna ask me out on a date?”
“Just trying to be friendly.”
“We’re not friends. Ain’t gonna be neither.”
“Point taken.”
He glanced at Aidyn, who shrugged and leaned against the front of his truck. He stared at the other man and Tate took the chance to look around.
From this vantage point, the trees were still full and the brush was wild and unkept. It provided cover for their four-wheelers as they hid, and he guessed they kept it that way for just that reason.
The sound of a motor growing closer made him look behind the man standing before him for the second man to approach.
The dust from the road rose up and the second man appeared soon after. When he stopped his four-wheeler, he spun slightly toward them, once again pelting them with stones and dust. It was getting irritating.
“Everett says he’ll see you.”
Tate nodded and turned to get into his truck. “Nope. You’re on foot from here.”
“No, we’re not going up there on foot without any protection.”
The two men looked at each other and laughed. But the first man shrugged his shoulder. “Suit yourself.”
He and Aidyn climbed into his truck and followed the two men on four-wheelers. It didn’t take him long to realize why they thought it was funny he wanted to bring his truck up the mountain. The terrain quickly turned to narrow rutted-out dirt paths. The overgrown brush scraped the side of his truck and, once again, he thought about his poor truck. He’d worked long and hard to afford this vehicle and it kept taking the brunt of this mission.
They bounced around for a while before finally Aidyn sat up straight and said, “Stop.” He shook his head. “Let’s walk. They’re doing this on purpose. We’ll walk up there, we have weapons if we need them and when we come back down, we’ll hop in here and take our time coming down without completely destroying your truck.”
He put the truck in park and pulled the keys. “Agreed.”
They exited the truck and began walking up the hill. The two men who were leading stopped up ahead and laughed and he tightened his jaw in irritation.
By the time the terrain had leveled he had sweat dripping down his back, and his legs were twitching from the workout. Note to self—add hill climbing to my exercise routine.
The overgrown brush thinned and the grade leveled off. The two men parked their four-wheelers and waited there for him and Aidyn.
Aidyn mumbled, “Fuckers.”
“Yeah.”
As they drew close, he saw their camp. Or town, or whatever they called it. Homemade cabins were built around a central area. In the middle of the central area was a large fire pit. The cabins were not of equal size or distance but placed where they were on level ground. Some were more neatly made than others. Some with superior craftsmanship, while others looked like something tossed together to get through a night. Since money wasn’t something that the BRR exchanged with each other, it was interesting to see even up here there were classes.
“Hurry up. Everett is waiting.”
He shook his head and moved along behind the two men, Aidyn alongside him.
They sauntered between two nice-sized cabins and to an area that was sheltered and located at the foot of another large hill. It provided shelter for the cabin nestled at the base of it on two sides. The trees provided shade from the heat and the temperature felt a few degrees cooler in this area.
The two men stepped up on the large front porch and knocked. The door opened and a man stepped from inside looking like an old-world Santa. He had long white hair which he left hanging free. It blended with a long white beard. His clothing was simple, but also interesting. He wore pants in a khaki color, but they were homemade and had few pockets or visible stitching on the straight legs. The shirt he wore was loose fitting and hung over the top of the pants. The style reminded him of hospital scrubs. But over all of that, he wore a long vest-type garment that hung to the ground and swirled around like a cape. It was trimmed in what looked like squirrel tails and fur of some sort.
He stood tall and imposing, and he didn’t say a word. Tate decided to do the same. He and Aidyn stood tall and proud, shoulders back, and waited for this man, whom he presumed was Everett Howard, to speak.
“Why are you here to see me?”
