A Powerless World , Hunt, Jack [easy novels to read txt] 📗

DEFEND THE HOMESTEAD

A Powerless World Book Three

Jack Hunt

Direct Response Publishing

Copyright © 2021 by Jack Hunt

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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DEFEND THE HOMESTEAD: A Powerless World Book Three is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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A Powerless World series

Escape the Breakdown

Survive the Lawless

Defend the Homestead

Outlaws of the Midwest series

Chaos Erupts

Panic Ensues

Havoc Endures

The Cyber Apocalypse series

As Our World Ends

As Our World Falls

As Our World Burns

The Agora Virus series

Phobia

Anxiety

Strain

The War Buds series

War Buds 1

War Buds 2

War Buds 3

Camp Zero series

State of Panic

State of Shock

State of Decay

Renegades series

The Renegades

The Renegades Book 2: Aftermath

The Renegades Book 3: Fortress

The Renegades Book 4: Colony

The Renegades Book 5: United

The Wild Ones Duology

The Wild Ones Book 1

The Wild Ones Book 2

The EMP Survival series

Days of Panic

Days of Chaos

Days of Danger

Days of Terror

Against All Odds Duology

As We Fall

As We Break

The Amygdala Syndrome Duology

Unstable

Unhinged

Survival Rules series

Rules of Survival

Rules of Conflict

Rules of Darkness

Rules of Engagement

Lone Survivor series

All That Remains

All That Survives

All That Escapes

All That Rises

Mavericks series

Mavericks: Hunters Moon

Time Agents series

Killing Time

Single Novels

Blackout

Defiant

Darkest Hour

Final Impact

The Year Without Summer

The Last Storm

The Last Magician

The Lookout

Class of 1989

Out of the Wild

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Epilogue

A Plea

Readers Team

About the Author

Prologue

Humboldt County, California

Four days before the event

The night Ryland Strickland chewed on a bullet, he was happier than a bird with a French fry. The cannabis farmer who’d embodied the outlaw culture of Humboldt County had scored his biggest payday on the black market since he’d gotten into the industry. Deep in the hills of Humboldt, inside a cabin nestled among the giant redwoods, he did a jig around a mahogany table; a joint in one hand, a full bottle of Dom Pérignon in the other. He uncorked it and set it down, lit two candles, and considered his fortune.

Buried on his property inside steel ammo containers were hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Illegally earned. Pure profit. All stashed away for his retirement.

It wouldn’t be long now and he could turn his back on it all.

It was moments like these he was glad he hadn’t toed the line. He’d seen the abatement letters; the notices of violation posted on farmers’ gates. They were hilarious. Permits? Who needed those? That was for the chumps scared of the government, the fools who wanted to play the legal game, and those not smart enough to know how to hide crops. Not him. Oh no, he’d tasted the better life, and it was a hell of a lot sweeter than the scraps the county wanted to toss him.

Regulations, rules, endless fees. Who were they kidding? He’d seen farmers try to go the honest route only to stumble in the process. The red tape, the hurdles, and the cost of going legal was killing the cannabis market. It had unfolded like an apocalypse, quickly destroying livelihoods, forcing thousands of growers out of business, and sending many underground. Lots of families had fled the area, leaving behind abandoned homesteads. Nothing more than shacks that once held the hopes and dreams of hard-working people. The brave few, bold enough to man up and deal in the black market, vanished into the hills, settling on smaller plots and keeping their mouth shut.

And who could blame them? The county rubbed fingers together in front of their faces, knowing full well that most couldn’t run a business under their tight regulations. They wanted sales tax before a grow, after a grow, and then if that wasn’t enough, after a sale. Were they insane? That didn’t include all the other ongoing costs, penalties, fines, and fees. It was a joke. And these suits had the nerve to call them criminals?

Ryland crossed to a mirror and buttoned up his plaid shirt, angled his clean-shaven jaw, and patted a few dabs of spicy cologne on each cheek. He ran fingers through his wavy brown hair, checking that all the hair dye had covered the gray patches at his temples. In his early sixties, he was still in shape barring a small belly that pushed at his waistband.

But that was a sign of good living. A living that he’d gained from turning up a middle finger to the man. To a government that didn’t care about their lives or morals.

No, the rule makers were hypocrites. The whole damn lot of them.

They imprisoned them when it was illegal to grow — but oh, now the idiots had come to their senses and deemed it legal, they wanted the lion’s share of profits or would imprison them if they didn’t play by their rules? How was that fair?

Screw their rules and screw them.

His kin hadn’t lasted generations by paying a middleman.

And definitely not by bending the knee to