Read Renewal 10 - Blind Force for Free Online

been stealing them for years. They take them and then sell them back to you for days of your life, all so that they can keep you in control, all so that everything you do makes them richer, while you just barely get by.”
    The crowd was getting angry. Terry kept talking. “So here we are, almost forty years after the Breakdown, living like it just happened. That whole time, one family has been working to change this sorry state of affairs. They have been building against the day when the Jenkinses and the Coxes, the Talleys and Cantners and MacMillans would make a mistake that gives us a chance to take back our lives. As a guy who grew up among you, I can say that I’ve only known about this one special family for a short time, and I know, I know that they are ready to take on the families, to give you back your freedom and your ability to live and work and trade in a fair world. You all know what Bill Carter did to the Jenkins farm. You all know that we stopped the Coxes and Talleys from burning our town. You know we are ready.”
    “There’s a catch. By sheer chance, Bill got involved in a mission for the State. It was good mission, a worthy mission, but it stirred up a big hornet’s nest, and that nest is bigger than the one we have here in Coffee County. Now, the Dragon army is here to help the families, and I can’t say that Bill is ready for that. It’s bad luck to plan for one thing for years and find out you have to fight something worse. So, the hard truth is that we need you. We need your help. You all know what you get if we lose, because you’ve lived with it your entire lives. What you don’t know is what you get if we win. You’ve gotten a taste of it when Charlie Bell came down to give you your state supplies in person, but what does it really mean? It means that you get a fair shot. You and me and Bill Carter and everyone else in this county will have the same rules and the same chance to build a life that actually works in your favor. That’s what’s on the line today. Your lives and the lives of your children.”
    Terry waited for the people to work through the implications. It took several minutes. These people had lived too long without freedom and opportunity. The fact that they could grasp the concept at all was evidence to Terry that people were actually created to be free. Once he felt the resolve form up in the small crowd, he continued.
    “I’m asking you today. Make up your own minds. If you want to help, pick up any weapons you have and meet me this afternoon at Hickerson Station Elementary. You know where that is?” He saw enough nodding heads to feel comfortable with his spot decision. “Along the way, do whatever you can to convince your friends and neighbors to join you. We’ll gather as a free people and we’ll deny anyone who wants to keep us from our freedom, our happiness, and the best lives we can make for ourselves.”
    Terry stepped down from the porch, signaling the end of the speech. There was a long interval of silence. Terry was ready to accept his failure. He was ready to climb back into Big Bertha with his friends and leave. He would try again, of course, but he honestly didn’t know a better way to say it. If he couldn’t do it here, with these people, with Jared’s word to help, then he couldn’t do it.
    A large man in blackened overalls stepped out of the crowd and faced Terry. From his facial expression, Terry couldn’t tell if the man was preparing to deny him or punch him in the face. The man slowly extended his hand and said, “We’ll be there.”
    Terry shook the proffered hand and said, “Thank you, sir.”
    The crowd broke into cheers. Terry smiled. He knew he had found the right words.
     
    Chapter 10 – 8
    Wyatt Jenkins was beginning to have serious doubts. As he looked across the remains of the Dragon army scattered haphazardly across the remains of his own family’s farm, Wyatt could see Gary Tucker scuttling from one group to another,