…Sam was intimidated by Al and his friends. He knew he and his family were being used but it had been going on so long, how could he shut Al down now? If he decided not to help Al any more, he was fairly certain it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Ben on the other hand, was the better man. He may not like it, but he would still be a friend no matter what Sam did.

When Sam was coming back in from fishing one day, he saw Al with another guy right inside the tree line with rifles. They were pointing the rifles at the area around the barn and equipment. “What are you doing?!” Sam asked.

“Nothin’ you need to worry about Sam” said Al, then they turned their attention back to their shooting as if Sam didn’t exist. They were shooting at stuff like the tractor tires, the hen house, the hog pen…just doing damage that had to be fixed before whatever it was could be used properly again.

Sam could tell that they weren’t exactly hitting what they were wanting to hit though. About that time, one of the bullets that were aimed at the tractor tires hit one of the lug nuts near the hub. It ricocheted and hit the side of the barn and Sam cried, “Hey! My wife and son are in there!”

“Relax, we ain’t gonna hit ’em” said Al’s buddy. “How do you know? Y’all ain’t ‘xactly hitting what you tryina to hit” Sam said. They got all huffy and mumbled something about the second-hand reloads they were using. They packed up their guns and left talking about coming back again in a few days with better ammo.

A few days later, when Sam was out hunting down in the bottom, he saw Al and another guy burying something about twenty yards inside the treeline from the pasture. When he approached, and asked what was going on, Al’s friend told him that it wasn’t any of his business. They also said that it would be a good idea if he kept his mouth shut about it.

Sam figured that he didn’t have to tell Ben about this kinda stuff. Ben would probably find out on his own and then Al couldn’t hold it against him for telling Ben.

Sam would do what he could to help Ben fix what could be fixed. Ben called the law out a few times but the law wouldn’t do anything being as Ben had no proof as to who was doing it. They wouldn’t go into the woods to investigate because they feared for their own safety. Being as nobody else in the neighborhood seemed to be in danger, and they were there for public safety after all, they decided it was Ben’s problem and not theirs.

Things were really starting to get dangerous. Then Al and one of his buddies set off some backyard napalm in the hog pen. This stuff can do some damage but you really don’t knows when it’s going to go off or exactly what it’s gonna do to what when it does. And who know who will be around when it goes off? But that didn’t seem to be a major concern for Al.

The incidences just kept happening more often and were becoming more aggressive as time went on.

Ben decided to go shopping…

Part 5