Against the Grain Read Free Page A

bin over there,” I pointed. “I’m going to hang out by the window we came in for a bit so I won’t be far. I’ll give you a couple good hours and then we’ll need to head out,” I said as I grabbed my old ball cap, stained and still damp jacket, and my AK, then made my way back down the hallway, not really giving her a chance to say any more.
    I was trying hard not to show it, but I was tired as hell myself. It was past midnight now and I didn’t want her to know just how little sleep she’d really be getting.  

Chapter 2
     
    After nodding my head asleep on “watch” two or three times, I went back in and quietly repacked my gear and got ready to go. Megan woke up tired, although I could tell she felt better with the little bit of sleep that she did get. After eating some food and drinking a few sips of water from my stores, she was packed up and we were ready to go.  
    Before leading her out to the entrance I went over the basic directions. “Okay, same as before, no talking, no noise. Move when I do, stop when I do. We won’t have to be so hard core once we get out of town and into the woods. We’re only going a few miles but let’s take it slow, we should probably be there by early afternoon with a couple breaks along the way.”
    “Alright,” came her timid reply. She knew it was coming, and after all she’d been through on the road to this point, I could guess that more traveling was not something she was looking forward to.
    At the entrance before climbing through the window, I handed her my AK. It wasn’t necessary, but it allowed me to use both hands to get up and out of the basement, plus it was also a little test on my part.
    “What do you want me to do with this?” She asked nervously, using as few fingers as possible to hold it, extending the gun away from her as if it would suddenly come alive and bite her.    
    “Hold it for now, hand it back to me when I ask for it . First time holding a gun?”
    She nodded her head , indicating that it was.
    I had thought as much. Living on the other side of the state, a veritable Mecca for liberal ideals, she had just not had much of a chance to be around firearms… and this thing was probably the embodiment of every fear tactic ever formed around the evil “Assault Rifles.”  
    I had built this gun myself, and it was in fact completely legal, or at least what legal was, back when such things were worried about. I didn’t actually know if Federal Firearms Laws even existed anymore.  
    I had spent plenty of time with American made M16’s and AR15 pattern guns, but I found I enjoyed the ruggedness and simplicity of Russian weapon designs, and this particular AK74 was a great example of that. For a design seen as crude by the gun snobs, mine was a very well made piece, which was necessary for utilizing a suppressor as I did. AK’s in general, and the ’74 in particular, did not suppress well, but I had chosen a specific suppressor that I could put onto multiple guns, and while it wasn’t ideal, it was in fact, better than nothing.  
    Suppressors or “silencers” didn’t make guns “Hollywood” quiet, but they made shooting without wearing ear protection tolerable, so I liked them. Heck in Europe it was considered rude to your neighbors to shoot without one. In this little section of the world though, I liked keeping a low profile and didn’t want to unintentionally scare off any wild animals in the area either, so they made sense to me.  
    Besides the suppressor, I had a holographic sight mounted on the receiver. The stupid thing was near indestructible and had a battery life of over three years, making it very useful for my needs. There was no way I would have been able to make the shots on those two guys last night without it. Unfortunately, my pistol was not as well equipped anymore as the glowing tritium sights on my Glock were just about dead. I would have replaced them a year ago, if the stores had have still been open to buy