Boys Become Men: Book Four ~ Backwoods Survival

It would be a long time before all of the injured people from the Great Central Valley would be healed and an even longer time before they would feel safe again. The problem with the Mexican Gangs and Cartels was going to have to be addressed, the sooner the better!

The remainder of the winter was relatively calm, but Jason and Jake knew it was but the lull before the storm. They had attacked and destroyed a bandit group, rescued the slaves they had acquired, and taken in potential slaves who had escaped the bandits down in the Great Central Valley. They knew it was only a matter of time before the cartels and bandits would discover Meadow Valley as a new source of victims.

They had already defeated a couple of small gangs, but they had word that large, well-organized gangs were roving the Central Valley and that they were moving in their general direction.

They encouraged the younger men and the older boys from among the latest group to join the Troopers and Pine Tree Rangers. They formed a third Ranger Squad under the command of Local Corporal Tim Blaine and promoted Phil Heath to Sergeant and in overall command of the Pine Tree Rangers.

The Ranger Squads were larger than a normal squad, but not as large as a platoon. The individual Rangers were trained to work alone, or with just one other person and they would "live off the land".

They might not report in for a month or longer and they were provided with silver to purchase anything they needed. They were NOT thieves and, in a few short months, their reputation for honesty and fearful destruction of the raiders had become legendary.

They patterned themselves after the much-storied Scouts of the time of expansion, when their country had originally expanded to cover the continent. They had a waiting list long enough to fill at least two more squads and probably even a third squad!

Local Corporal Toby Doan took command of Pine Tree Ranger Squad One. Toby had seen up front and personal how the Scouts worked and he pushed himself without mercy to be named Commander of Pine Tree Ranger Squad One! Squad One was the Lead Squad!

They also formed a third platoon of Meadow Valley Troopers and placed Local Second Lieutenant Bobby Falcon in charge. Bobby was part Indian and had come to them when his family's farm had been overrun and his parents were both brutally slaughtered by the cartel members. Bobby asked if he could train his new troopers as scouts and both Jake and Jason thought that was a good idea and the first Scout Platoon came into existence!

The Indian Scouts and The Patrol Scouts were merged and Bobby Falcon was promoted to Local Captain. The merged Scouts became the raiders and cartel members' worst nightmare, they were absolutely ruthless and completely without pity or compassion for the raiders and cartel members they executed. The executions fell just short of outright torture and all the cartel members lived in deathly fear of being captured by the Scouts. They called them Los Diabloitos. (The Little Devils)

It was not long before other boys of Indian heritage demanded they be included as Scouts for Meadow Valley Troopers! The Scouts were an "official" part of the Meadow Valley Militia, even though everyone called them Indian Scouts. Boys and a few girls of all the races were eager to join and would support the Troopers. In a very short time, they became feared by the Mexican cartels, who called them spirit or ghost warriors. They all became the feared Los Diabloitos! The Mexicans were very superstitious and were convinced that the spirits of those whom they had murdered were taking their revenge.

The raiders had no idea just who the Scouts were, they only knew that they left a trail of bodies from the old border with Mexico to the high mountains of northern Arizona! It would not be long before the Scouts would become a unit unto themselves within the State Militia. They wore as their emblem, the outline of a grinning devil done in red thread on their left shoulder.

At last, with the final sanction of the Meadow Valley Senate, the Scout Group under Phil Heath and his Pine Tree Rangers was formally formed as a Troop and Bobby Falcon stepped up to became Chief of Scouts and was promoted to Local Major.

The young men of Indian heritage and a select few of other races continued as Indian Scouts as a separate unit under the overall command of Local Sergeant Phil Heath, who had been promoted to Local Captain. When the designation "Local" was dropped by order of the State Congress, they extended the legend they had already gained. More than a few local citizens learned more than they ever wanted to know about Los Diabloitos!

The cartel bandits feared the Meadow Valley Scouts most of all. They invariably left their mark on those whom they had fought. Their symbol, a standing Pine Tree, would be carved in the backs of the bandit they had hanged or shot. The Indian Scouts reduced the raiders and cartel members to gibbering monkeys at the very thought that they were headed in their direction!

Donny Sexton was Platoon Three Leader and was made a Second Lieutenant. He spent many days training his Troopers as Lightening Raiders and he intended to take his men and raid the encampments of the Cartel Bandits in the middle of the night. They would rouse the bandits out of a sound sleep to the wild yells and screams that sounded like great beasts, both hungry and angry!

When they departed, nothing remained but wreckage and slashed and torn bodies of the cartel members, their blood all over everything. The number, "3" would be carved on the cheek of each dead bandit! They could never be identified as they all refused to wear a shoulder patch like the others. In time, that, alone, served as their identification.

The Indian Scouts took a page from their book and started carving the letter "I" in the bare chest of each bandit or raider they came upon. Some, they left barely alive to carry the story back to their gangs, the story always gained in the telling and their reputation among the raiders further increased!

In a short time, few could tell the difference between a Pine Tree Scout and an Indian Scout and the two groups became the most feared legend among the bandits and raiders. The mere mention of their name would reduce many of them into blubbering mounds of fear!

Every day, Bobby led his Scouts out, ranging far and wide, searching for infiltrators. Those they brought back to Meadow Valley were refugees, the infiltrators who were from the cartels and Mexican bandit gangs were never seen nor heard from again alive. They would be found by their fellow bandits as slain bodies swinging from a tree, their face or chest mutilated with the signature of the group that had captured them.

In cases where the two groups cooperated, BOTH initials were carefully carved into the raider or cartel member's body and it was apparent the carving had been done while they were still alive!

Bobby was ruthless in his hate, as a young child he had been forced to watch his mother and father brutally murdered and his older sister raped until she died of internal hemorrhage. For him, sympathy for any raider was merely a word he had read about in a book.

He and his Scouts never revealed anything about what they did to those awful people, but there were rumors among the bandits and Cartel gangs of a terrible monster that lived in the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Whenever Bobby Falcon heard of these stories, he just smiled and walked off!

The Indian Scouts were even more secretive, they would listen to the tales and express open-mouthed wonder at what they were told. Some had to cram their fists in their mouths to prevent them from laughing outright at the exaggerated stories, but they never corrected the teller, the more fear they could instill in the raiders, the easier it was to keep them out of Meadow Valley!

With the increased population, food was becoming a serious consideration. The government down in Auburn was unable to assist, so Jason and Jake were forced to consider starting up their own farms. They had small gardens and fields in the clearings around the wood mill, but the forest was thick and those fields could not be expanded. They decided that the flats around the abandoned town of Susanville would be a good place to establish a farm and small community.

The old town was totally destroyed, what had not burned had fallen to ruin. The small community had always been farmed and they believed it could be again. The soil was rich and a small river ran through the valley that could provide water for the farms and had enough elevation it could be used for irrigation.

They assigned Platoon Two and a Scout Platoon of mixed Pine Tree Scouts and Indian Scouts as security for the volunteer farmers and, as the winter snows were melting, a cavalcade of horses and wagons departed from Meadow Valley, headed for Susanville.

The huge Percherons set the pace, which was about as fast as a man could walk. The horses' great strides were like their bodies, HUGE! The huge animals were ponderous as their name suggested, but they had a mild disposition. Small children could ride on their back, their small shoes digging into the muscles that ran along their spines. The horses never complained and they would wait patiently while their young riders were lifted on or off their massive backs.

Two Scouts led the way, they would remain with the troopers assigned to the farming community and were known by the locals as the "Path Finders". The Scouts knew that Susanville was exposed to the Nevada Plains and would be a tempting target for anyone coming north from Mexico, up through Las Vegas. The two Scouts, Dill Yellow Feather and Jeston Walking Bush had relatives living up near Pyramid Lake. Both young men claimed Piute Heritage and hoped to make contact with their cousins.

The group set about building houses for the farmers and breaking the fallow soil to receive early grains. The few buildings that remained of the small town could not be salvaged, so they were scrapped for firewood and new cabins were set upon the old foundations. By the time the settlers arrived, the Scouts had erected six small cottages for them and the Scouts assisted the new settlers in building the remaining houses.

At that elevation, the growing season would be short, so they had to get the seed in as early as possible. Wheat had been grown there previously as had corn and beans, so they knew those crops would survive.

With twenty farm families, they had broken up an initial approximately five hundred acres and harrowed it down smooth. Despite having remained fallow since the time of the Bombs, the soil broke up easily and had the sweet smell of fertility.

The men and older boys hand broadcast the seed, with a team and harrow following behind them. The soil seemed moist and they were encouraged when the first few sprouts were seen, gleaming bright green against the dark soil two weeks later.

The soil had remained fallow ever since the great wars, so the soil was rich and eager to support the grain. Within two weeks, little green shoots were poking their heads above the dirt! The women and smaller children planted vegetable crops, squash, corn, potatoes, beans and spring peas.

At all times there was at least one of the Scouts and a squad of Troopers on guard to protect the settlers, both Dill and Jeston had spotted heads peeking over the nearby buttes, watching the farmers. They both suspected it was their cousin's people, just watching to see what was going on, but they were taking no chances!

The children thought they were done with schooling when they became "pioneers", but their Mothers had other ideas and the children found themselves in school most mornings! It was hard, especially for the boys, to see activity outside the classroom window and they were stuck practicing "times tables"!

Spring became summer and the vegetables began to produce, they were able to send a wagon back to Meadow Valley loaded with squash, and roots crops - beets, radishes and carrots.

Their own diet had become monotonous, dried meat, dried vegetables and dried fruits. When the first fresh food to hit their tables was squash, it historically, was not a favorite among small children. They cleaned their plates and asked for more!

They hoped the wagons they had sent loaded with fresh vegetables would bring back a cow or two on their return trip, the children needed the milk and everyone missed the butter and cheese that was available down in Meadow Valley.

They were surprised when the wagon returned, loaded to the axles with bags of flour, spices, salted hams and cheese starter! There were three cows tied onto the back of the wagon and all three were fresh!

The older boys groaned, they KNEW who was going to have to milk the beasts! More than a few of them still had knots on their legs from being kicked by an ornery milk beast! Unfortunately, they were correct! The first few mornings the boys assigned to milk the cows had purple bruises on their bodies in the perfect imprint of a cow hoof!

Dill and Jeston finally made contact with the observers, who had been peeking over the log wall, they all were from Pyramid Lake and one was the distant relative of both young men. Dill and Jeston invited the six Indian Braves to share a noon meal with the settlers. The visitors were a little reserved at first, but they were just teen boys like Dill and Jeston and the Mothers knew exactly how to "break the ice"! They knew just how important this first meeting was. It would be this meeting that would control just how successful their venture would be.

Thick sliced ham on fresh baked bread, a large cup of milk and wild blackberry pie was a mighty lure! Their visitors had to push back from the split log table, they had eaten until their bellies hurt! The six young Indian youths had blackberry smiles, just like their cousins! It was the beginning of a relationship that would save the settler's lives in a few short months!

After that, there were always several Indian boys and even a few girls visiting the folks at Susanville. The girls were fascinated with the manner that the settler women were the equals of their men and shared in all things. They were curious about the settlers and mothers had no problem inviting the girls in to see what the inside of their cabins looked like.

When Sue Singing Bird saw the stove that Mollie Jenkins' husband had built for her out of flat stones, it was not long before similar stoves began to show up at the Piute Village near Pyramid Lake and a lively trade began between the two villages in cheese, salted hams and colorful leather clothing.

It was a two-way trade and both communities were pleased with their share of the trades! The two peoples were becoming fast friends and it was not long before several young Indian families asked permission to live near the folks at Susanville and their children were invited to attend the morning school.

What the settlers had in mind was that the Indian families would live IN their town, not somewhere near it! It was made clear to their Indian visitors that they were the equals to the settlers and they would allow no discrimination. The Mothers pointed out that several of the officers in command of the Army Troops were Indians and that they had patterned the Scouts after Indian Warriors!

The Indians were amazed, their legends told of the white people as being hateful towards their people and these folks were inviting them into their own homes, feeding their children and teaching them from books! They had heard of the feared scouts, never realizing that they were White boys, not Indian boys!

When the Indian families were asked to live in the town, even next door to white families, they were astounded. Dill and Jeston were delighted, they had their own families, but they also had their cousins and their cousins' families, more importantly, many of their cousins were young Indian Girls their own age!

It was not long before there were two teen boys asking their Platoon Leader for permission to date the young girls. The Platoon Leader, only a teen himself, just giggled and told them to "have at it" and then he asked if maybe one of those girls had a sister!

It became common to see Troopers walking the village, arm in arm with a pretty girl. Nobody even looked to see if that girl was white or Indian! Mothers clicked and chattered, knowing there would be a wedding soon! And, babies shortly after that! There would soon be a flood of half White, half-Indian babies in a number of family homes. It would cause an upheaval in both communities and, when it all was sorted out, the two communities had become one.

The roving patrols of the Scouts and the Troopers never slowed, they were sure it was only a matter of time before they would be found by the cartels and raiders and they would be attacked. Unfortunately, they were correct, there was, already, an attack being planned.

Several of the young Indian teens began riding with Dill and Jeston, performing Scout duties alongside them. Slowly and without fanfare, the Indian boys were incorporated into the Scouts and assigned patrol duties right alongside those who were already Scouts.

When the Indian Boys received their "Pine Trees", they proudly showed them off to their families back at Pyramid Lake and there was a slow, but steady path being worn visiting back and forth. It soon became a path of immigration as the new Scouts' families decided to move to Susanville to be with their sons. To be a Pine Tree Ranger was a mark of pride for both the holder and all of his family.

When Dee Talking Stone was promoted to Command Sergeant, his parents and his brothers and sisters became the first Piute Indian Family to move into a house at Susanville! They would not be the last!

The flow of vegetables and row crops down to Meadow Valley continued. A wagon was sent every other week, with the interval week being for the return of the wagon. The folks at Meadow Valley always managed to send something on the return trip, a stack of sheets of plywood, framing lumber for the houses, a keg of nails, pegs or metal plates for grill tops on the stone stoves that had become popular in Susanville and had spread to the Indian population at Pyramid Lake.

The corn was so plentiful that they sent the Indian boys home with their saddlebags filled with sweet corn and blocks of cheese wrapped in old sheets for protection against the dust after a visit to their brothers in the Indian Scouts of Susanville.

The cloth sheets were always returned, washed and folded. In return, the Indians would drop off a freshly killed deer, or a saddle bag filled with fresh fish, caught that same morning and still squirming.

Sometimes, young Indian boys would lug a cloth bag filled with a crisp vegetable they called, cucks. They had a fresh, tangy flavor and the mothers made them into salads and they found that they could be pickled in brine, vinegar and dill weed and be preserved for eating during the winter when vegetables could not be grown. Right out of the preserving barrel, they were bright green, crisp, crunchy and a tangy taste the Indian boys had never tasted before. The boys from Meadow Valley quickly filled their local brothers in and Mothers then needed to keep a sharp watch on their supply closets!

Several of the Indian girls living in Susanville began making simple leather dresses and were eager to trade them for the kitchen and household items being sent up from Meadow Valley. It was a proud young Indian housewife who could show her mother her iron stove top in her new house!

The small Indian settlement grew at Susanville and a very red faced Dill Yellow Feather announced that he had asked Sue Singing Bird to be his bride! Jeston Walking Bush was to be his Best Man. They had to send to Meadow Valley for someone who could marry the two and who would not mind standing beside an Indian Shaman to solemnize the marriage between the two.

The young couple walked about town, holding hands and never realized the commotion they had stirred up! The commotion was not one of disapproval, but rather one of happiness and joy. Nobody cared or even paid any attention to the race of a suitor, nor were they even slightly disturbed if he was a boy dating another boy. All they cared about was that the couple was going to be happy! Too long they had lived with sorrow, if the new couples were happy, that was all that was important. That, also, was a philosophy that would stand them in good stead in a few short months.

Both the Farmers and the Indians were in a dither, the only calm ones were Dill and Sue. They just sat and grinned at each other while the mothers dreamed up how to dress the Bride and the Groom!

It was not confined to the Farm Mothers, the Indian Mothers were just as bad. The Shaman came to talk with the new couple and Roger Trenton, who had been a lay minister in his youth, rode a supply wagon to Susanville to help perform the ceremony. He liked Susanville so much that he decided he would make it his home.

All the Scouts and as many of the Troopers who could get away, showed up the week before the wedding was to take place. Dill was taken to a "secret place", where his friends partied with him so that he would always remember his bachelor days. There was no "firewater" involved, but there was no question that Dill was a "redskin" the entire time. His friends had him continuously blushing! The local Indians had a very "earthy" humor and an equally descriptive language. They called "things" what they were!

The girls hauled Sue off and did her hair and she was presented with a white deerskin dress, decorated with blue turquoises sewn onto the skirt. Her moccasins had red garnets and her veil had been donated by the Farm Mothers. It was intricately made and would be passed down through their family for many generations.

When it was time, Jeston led his lifelong friend and cousin, Dill, to where the Shaman and the Lay Minister were standing. Before he could catch his breath, Dill was saying, "I do" and he and Sue were made one. Dill stood facing his new bride, unsure what to do now. His fellow Scouts, both Indian and White, pushed the couple together and two very red faced Indians were seen kissing each other!

Kissing was not an Indian tradition, but it became one that very day! The Scouts had built a Wedding Cabin for them and, as the two closed the door behind them as they ran into the cabin, the Scouts stood guard, allowing no one to disturb the newly wedded couple. That did not mean, however, that those guards were above a "little humor" of their own. There were suddenly sounds like boys whistling or cows mooing directly under their windows.

It was two days before anyone saw either Dill or Sue and both their faces were still glowing bright red anytime anyone looked their way and smiled! They were both seventeen and they settled into married life with ease, two months later, Dill proudly announced to his fellow Scouts that there would be a new baby in Susanville in eight more months! The two were very shy, but it did not take them very long to figure out how all their parts "worked" together! Whenever the roving guards heard the squeaking of springs, they made mouth sounds like love sick young bulls.

Every time when one of the mothers would smile at Sue, she would get red in the face and begin to stammer. It finally wore off as she began to "show" and the mothers got together to supply baby things for the upcoming event. A baby crib was sent from Meadow Valley and diapers mysteriously appeared on their doorstep. Even baby clothes showed up and poor Sue could not find out who she should thank, so she thanked all the women for their kindness towards her and Dill and their coming baby.

Concerned about their safety and the safety of a growing community and especially now that a new baby was on its way, the older teens living in Susanville, both Indians and Whites together, decided to raise their own Trooper Platoon. They elected Carl Broadwater, a Piute Indian who had a white grandfather who had raised him when his parents were murdered, as Platoon Leader and thirty six young men became Troopers. It was a mixed platoon of Indians and Whites, but they had common enemies, Mexican Bandits and Cartel Thugs!

They worked the remainder of the summer, right up to harvest time for the wheat, building a log stockade around the small village and they moved their Indian neighbors inside the stockade, constructing new log homes for them to protect them from marauders.

They intended for ALL their folk to be safe and secure from the marauders. The Indians who had come to live among them were realizing that the white people meant what they said, that they were ONE PEOPLE!

The wheat came in heavy and they had cleared a threshing floor composed of packed soil in the center of their small town, wheat chaff collected everywhere and the wagon was kept busy, day and night, hauling the wheat sheaves inside the stockade for threshing. They sent a first wagonload of threshed wheat down to Meadow Valley and four additional new wagons returned with their old wagon. It took nearly a month for the five wagons to deliver the last of the crop to Meadow Valley. They held back only enough for their own needs and for seed the next year.

Their Indian friends showed the mothers of the village how to grind the wheat into flour until a gift from Meadow Valley arrived. Their bread did have some grit in it, but fresh bread and its smell was a delight to everyone. The mechanics at the Lumber Mill had contrived a hand cranked grist mill that they sent back to Susanville and, shortly, there was fresh flour to be had that did not have even the slight amount of grit in it. The smell of baking bread drew hungry children to whoever was baking that day. They collected wild blackberries to be made into jam and would slather fresh butter and jam on their slice of fresh bread and run like "hell" outside to gobble it down!

The young Indian boys had never seen bread with butter and jam on it, but they were quick to pick up the habit and join the other boys at standing in the doorway of the mother who was baking bread that day. They would put a sad, hungry, "neglected boy" look on their face that no mother could withstand. There would be boys of both races running across the town, pushing warm bread with butter and jam on it into their mouths, while looking for their next victim! The mothers knew they were being "hoodwinked", but the grateful look on the boys' faces was all the payment they needed.

Sue Singing Bird Yellow Feather had begun to "show" and all the Mothers smiled knowingly at her. Dill would hurry to her and assist her across the compound, she did not need the assistance, but she just smiled at her husband and he would grin like a Cheshire cat with a very red face!

As fall progressed, they got a few rains that softened the soil and one morning, strange foot prints were spotted outside their gate. The Scouts raced to their horses, including Dill Yellow Feather, and their co-leader, Jeston. The squad was already mounted and the two young men led the Scout Squad out the gate to search for the source of the intruders.

They tracked them to the old town of Doyle, where they saw an encampment. They waited until dark and crept down an ancient waterway to a spot where they could observe who was in the camp.

To their horror, they saw their feared enemies, the Mexican bandits and Cartel thugs. Their horror turned to anger as they spotted a pen, where there were children and teens being held! It was all Dill and Jeston could do to restrain their troops from charging the encampment immediately, to rescue those being held captive.

Their parents had told them what these awful people did and it took all that Jeston and Dill could do to talk the young Indian Warriors into waiting until dark to attack the camp. This was the first time they had witnessed what the marauders did to their prisoners, up close and personal! Each Indian Warrior saw himself in place of the young captives who were being tormented.

They sent Dingo Tall Tree and Paul Bonham back to Susanville to get help. There were too many bandits for themselves alone to tackle!

Help was not long in arriving, sixty Indian Warriors and forty angry Farmers arrived, looking to Dill and Jeston to lead them! The Troopers had remained in Susanville to protect the settlement. Dill took half the men and Jeston took the other half. They proposed to catch the invaders between them.

Dill took his men and swung around to the other side of the old town. They agreed that they would attack in the small hours of the morning and that Jeston would order a flaming arrow to be shot into the sky as a signal to begin the attack.

The Indians had never successfully battled against these awful people, they had always been forced to run away. They were with their White Brothers now and they feared shame more than they feared death!

Both fears paled however, as their anger mounted over what was being done to the prisoners! Such atrocities were totally unknown to the Indians and had been encountered by their white brothers only recently.

It was about three am when Jeston ordered the flaming arrow shot into the sky, all the warriors, White and Indian alike, were equipped with rifles and long knives. They began their surge into Doyle, screaming blood curdling howls. They smashed into the sleeping gangsters and thugs, trampling them with their horses and shooting each bedroll as they passed by.

There was a small tent that they figured was the leader and Dill toppled it with his horse and lariat. An angry man came jumping up, brandishing a long knife in one hand and a rifle in the other, while his trousers fell to his ankles, making it impossible for him to run. Jeston roped the man from the other side and dragged him through the dirt with his rope wrapped around the horn of his saddle. The man was screaming horrible epitaphs that they needed no Spanish to understand!

Only about ten of the bandits, in addition to their leader, survived that onslaught and they all had numerous cuts where the Warriors had jabbed them with their long knives. The Warriors were not sure what to do with them until Bear Walking Tall spotted the man, his sister had been brutally raped and murdered by this kind, the last time his people had been raided. It was time for revenge!

Bear Walking Tall took another arrow made for signaling and lit the oil soaked wool that was attached to the shaft. When it was burning good, he took aim and shot it into the chest of the bandit chieftain. The man screamed and pleaded as the burning shaft burned into his body, Bear warned anyone not to help the man as he watched the man die. All Bear saw was the shimmering ghost of his murdered sister!

When the bandit finally collapsed, the fire still burning brightly as it entered the flesh of his chest. Bear said, "Justice for my sister has been served, think all you who would defile my people, I am young and shall live a very long time. My memory burns bright and my aim is true, you all shall die a horrible death should you harm my folk!"

There was nothing that seemed to be of value, so they piled all the bodies and the invaders' belongings into a pile and set them on fire. A tall plume of greasy smoke was sent into the sky as the Warriors returned to Susanville, bringing the few captives who had survived their treatment by the raiders. They were a pitiful bunch and it would take many moons to restore them to health.

Bear's emotional outburst had cost him dearly, his whole body was shaking by the time they arrived home, Dill and Jeston sat with the young man all through the night, speaking softly to him and holding his hand.

By daylight, the young Indian Warrior was nearly recovered, it was not until Sue Singing Bird Yellow Feather walked by, her body swelling with new life, that Bear rose from his funk and shouted, "I am Bear, I shall lead my people and all those within my sight and hearing into a time of safety and prosperity. I start now, come my people of the Piute, it is time to join our White Brothers in the labors of returning our land and its people to its former glory. Come my people of the Piute, it is time that we take our place beside our White Brothers that Mother Earth may be healed. Come my people of the Piute, it is time that we join our White Brothers, our Brown Brothers and our Yellow Brothers and make us a Band of Brothers none shall dare harm!"

Is it truly time? Time to bring civilization forth, yet again! Time to destroy the dark forces of evil that hound the survivors of civilization! Time for humankind to unite as one people and destroy those who bring forth hurt and murder! Only time would tell, but it would be PEOPLE like these of Susanville who would lead the way!