The dog was reluctant but soon allowed him to pet his head.
“I’ve been hiding back here for an hour or so. They almost caught me when I was headed back here. I actually had to climb several of those tall wood fences to stay out of sight.” Dale whispered, looking over at the gate. He rubbed his knee. “I buggered up my leg too.” His eyes were darting all over the place.
“If you’re sure the gate is latched, the dog needs to do his business.” Tammy hesitated to let Buddy go. He was about to pull her across the concrete patio to the grass while he sniffed around.
“Yes, it’s closed.” He motioned his head toward the door. “is it alright if I go in?”
“Sure,” she said absentmindedly as she let the dog go. Buddy sniffed all the way to the gate and to all the dark corners of the yard where she couldn’t see him. She rubbed her palms on her pants hoping that there was no one else lurking in her backyard. The dog’s behavior when she opened the door was disconcerting. When she was sure he was done, she called him in.
Buddy went right to Dale again. She’d never seen him so uneasy. The dog and Dale, both of them actually.
“Buddy isn’t as comfortable with you now. Why is that?” Tammy searched for a dog treat. “Come here, boy.”
Dale walked around the table. “You didn’t put these away? You know, if those soldiers came in to see what food you had available, they wouldn’t hesitate to take all of this.”
“Oh, shoot. I mean, not really shoot.” She tried to smile to lighten up Dale and the growing tension in the room. “I don’t know why I spaced it. I never do that.” When she bumped a chair, she remembered why. She had to close her eyes and take a deep breath from the agony that shot through her leg. She started to put the shotguns in cases when Dale took her by the hand and walked her away from the table.
“Do you need to rest? I forgot you were hurt. You looked like you’d recovered when we were outside,” he asked.
“No, I don’t want to sit. You were right. I should have put these away a long time ago.” She tried to turn around to head back to the table.
He didn’t let her go. “I have to tell you something.” He waited for her to look up at him.
She hadn’t known Dale long but she could tell there was something off with him. She moved her arm to try and hint for him to let go. “Tell me what?” she tried tugging her arm from his grasp again.
Buddy was next to her right away and uneasy all over again.
“Why is that dog all wound up?” Dale asked as he tried to make Tammy move across the room again.
“You tell me. What is wrong with you? Please let me go.” She moved her arm, trying to reclaim her elbow.
“You can’t leave.”
“I’m not trying to leave the room. I just want you to let me go.” She tried to free her arm to no avail and glared at him.
“That’s not what I mean, you can’t leave here. The house.” His grip tightened.
“What do you mean I can’t leave? You kept telling me to get ready. You loaded up the freezer and the generator. I’m ready now. I was just waiting for you to tell us when.” She looked at him in disbelief
“For one, it’s too risky.” He wouldn’t look at her.
“You also know how dangerous it is if I stay. Look at me, look at my bruises on my face, you can see what’s happened already. You can’t tell me I can’t go now.” She turned her head to try and catch his eye. When she did, it was unnerving. “Let me go.”
“You’re staying put. And you will do as I say if you know what’s good for you. I know you can’t handle what’s out there on your own and I’m not escorting you anywhere. You have to stay.”
Tammy felt a rush of tingles flood her body. She was stunned and the knot of anger that burned in the center of her chest radiated all the way through her body. She yanked her arm out of his grip and shoved him away. “I will not be told what to do. This is my house. I have the means and everything I need. I will do what I think is best for my daughters and myself. I don’t need you. You need to leave.” She pointed emphatically at the door.
“What are you going to do about it? I’m not leaving. You can’t make me.” He took a stance that he wasn’t about to budge.
Tammy’s ears and cheeks were on fire as she looked around the room. Her stun stick was too far. She backed away and he followed. Buddy moved between them and bared his teeth, standing his ground to protect Tammy. Dale was distracted by the dog when she reached for the nearest handgun on the table. The Glock. She grabbed the magazine and loaded it. He was reaching for her. She backed away and didn’t take her eyes off him as she racked the slide. Steadying herself with the two-handed grip he taught her hours earlier, she pointed it at his chest. Her body was trembling but she wasn’t sure if it was from anger or fear.
“Why? Why are you telling me I can’t go? Why do you think you can tell me what to do now?” She couldn’t believe what she was doing but there was no way he was going to prevent her from leaving or forcing her to let him stay in her house. She could do it. He was going to be a dead man if he thought that she was going to allow him to dictate what she could and couldn’t do.
“Oh, Tammy has a gun.” He waved his hands in the air in mock fear. His gaze turned stony cold. “You aren’t leaving because I need a safe place to stay and this is it. They are patrolling my street near my house because they know where I live. This is the safest place in the neighborhood as long as you figure out how to lock a door and barricade yourself inside. You’ll be fine staying put. There is no way you can leave undetected now. I have to stay here where I can still check on my boys, to make sure they’re safe and that they don’t starve to death. The only way to do that is for you to stay here with me.”
All the things she’d been told. Trust no one. Don’t let anyone in. She put too much trust in a stranger. Her mind was racing and she had to figure something out fast.
“You owe me. I saved you, remember?” The look he gave her made her skin crawl.
Of course, he chose that moment to hold the fact that he saved her life over her head. Her heart was pounding as she held the gun tighter. Her finger moved from the side of the gun to the trigger. She was so conflicted. She was going to hold her ground, go through with it if she had to.
Dale backed away from Buddy as her dog growled.
“I don’t owe you anything. I’ve given you food. I’ve let you stay here even when you and I both know that no one else is allowed in here.” She clenched her teeth as she spoke, keeping her voice even and low and making sure her nerves didn’t show.
“I’m fully aware of how you’ve helped me. I also know it’s your nature. It is what you do and what you’ll continue to do. I’m not kidding, Tammy. I’m not leaving and I know you can’t do anything about it. You won’t. You don’t have it in you.” He let one side of his mouth curl up in a smile.
That infuriated her.
“Can’t you see? My finger is on the trigger. I remember how to use this thanks to you and I will shoot you if you think you are making the rules in my house.” She kept her voice low and steady so she wouldn’t draw attention to the girls downstairs.
“If you were to shoot me, and that’s a really big if, what will your girls think? They will hear the commotion and come up here to see me bloody on your floor. Then you’ll also draw attention to your house. The soldiers patrolling the street, they will come in here and see what you have spread out all over the table and they’ll take all that and you. No one will be here to protect your girls. You aren’t going to shoot me. It’s too messy. You have too much to lose. I know you’ll shelter those girls from that kind of trauma.” He shook his head. He was definitely mocking her.
That just made her blood boil more. The turmoil in her mind was so intense. Her anger was clouding her vision. Her frustration over not pulling the trigger at that moment was adding to her fury. She had to adjust her grip on the gun to do it. The dog, she had to make sure her hands were steady so she didn’t make any mistake.
She didn’t care if the soldiers came. She could hide the guns or enough of them before anyone came in her house.
He took a step closer. “I like you. That’s why I want to stay here.” He reached for her. She kicked at his injured knee.
He was ready and blocked her foot. “I don’t want to play games. Just give up. Give me the gun.” He held out his hand casually as if her trying to defend herself was a joke.
While still pointing the gun at him, she grabbed a cup of water from the table and threw it in his face. He laughed and batted the cup away when she threw that at him too. He was too close. She didn’t waste any time grabbing the rubbing alcohol bottle they’d used earlier to clean the guns. The cap was off so she flung that in his face. He blocked his eyes with his arms. She grabbed the dining room chair closest to her and tossed it at him. That hit him and he backed away laughing.
“Come on, now. I’m being nice. I could have ended this long before you picked up that gun. I can end this now, take it from you. I think you’ll do the right thing and give it to me. Before your girls come up and ask what’s going on. Do you really want to answer that question?” He wasn’t afraid of her anymore as he stopped holding up his hands and was about to casually walk up to her.
“Buddy, get him.” The dog lunged for Dale and went for his leg. She held the gun with both hands and blinked several times as she steadied her arms, kept them bent, and made sure she was standing solid as she started to pull the trigger. All she could think was don’t hit the dog. When he looked up at her while he backed into the door, she did it. She pulled the trigger and was prepared for some kick but nothing happened. Just a quiet little click.
She checked the magazine, it was empty. It was loaded when she left it on the table. Stunned she looked at it and back at Dale. She threw it on the ground before she went for the other magazine. Then he was after her, with the dog still attacking his leg.
“You did it! Tammy, wait. You actually did it. Stop. Please stop.”
She checked the magazine to see if it was loaded and it wasn’t. As she reached for the other handgun on the other side of the table, she tripped on a chair and nearly fell. He caught her from behind and wrapped his arms around her holding her arms against her sides. “Stop. I’m done messing with you. That was a test. It’s okay. I didn’t mean any of that stuff. I’m not keeping you here. I’m not going to hurt you.” He sounded desperate. “I am helping you get out of here but I have to leave you and you have to take care of those girls when I’m gone.”
She struggled to get her hands on one of the guns as her eyes watered profusely from pain. She fought through it to stomp on his foot. Her first two fingers wrapped around the barrel. Buddy was going for his arm as he held her. She let her legs go limp so she was impossible to hold. He had to work hard to stay upright.
“Sweetheart, I mean it. It was a test to see if you could actually go through with it, shoot someone. I had to push you to the point of no return. If it had been anyone else threatening you like that, you actually waited too long. You’d already be dead.” Not letting go, he pushed her hair out of her face so he could catch her eye. “You know I could have ended the standoff when it started. Only that part was true.”
Tammy stopped fighting, let go of the gun and rested her hands on the table. She hung her head. The rage was still pumping through her veins. She took a sharp inhale before she spoke. “Don’t you ever call me sweetheart.” She pressed out her elbows against his arms to get him to let her go.
“Okay. I’m sorry. I was trying to show you I was sincere. I didn’t mean to offend you. Are you going to try and shoot me again?” He relaxed his hold on her a little.
“I don’t know yet.” She had to keep breathing in and out deeply to calm her racing heart and her trembling hands. “I’m furious and I don’t trust you anymore.”
“Good. I don’t want you to. You need to feel like that with everyone you meet from now on.” He hesitated to let her go. “But I promise I’m not going to harm you if you aren’t going to harm me.” Buddy’s teeth had a hold of his jeans. “And the dog is still trying to eat me.”
“Let me go then.” She demanded. It took her a moment before she called off her dog. “Buddy, off.”
As Dale slowly let go, he started talking fast. “We are getting you out of here. Tonight, or more like super early morning. Four a.m. will be the best time to navigate out of here. I almost got caught when I was trying to eavesdrop on the troops that have been patrolling. A majority of the patrols they had here today have moved off to the west side of the neighborhoods and heading south. We are heading northeast to get you on the backroads. So we have this narrow window to get you on the road. The sooner the better. It’s not going to get any easier around here. Just the stuff I’ve heard that’s happened today even with the patrols present, you and the girls totally have to get out of this place.” He rested a hand on the table next to hers that was closest to another handgun. “I emptied the ones on that side of the table when you were out with the dog. That one right there is still loaded. If you feel I’m not to be trusted, I understand. You can tell me to leave if you still want me to go and I will go. You won’t need the gun and you don’t need to threaten to kill me. I have a lot of living to do.” He raised his eyebrows looking for forgiveness from her.
She was doing her best to control her breathing. Partly to settle her anger and she was also on the verge of tears. There was no way she was going to ugly cry with him right there. “I don’t want to be betrayed like that ever again.” She managed to turn her head to look at him. “I know it will happen again. I’m not saying it will be you but you don’t ever betray me like that again. Because it won’t take as long for me to pull the trigger.” She sighed. “At least now I know I have it in me.” She furrowed her brow trying to take that in.
“Yes, at least you and I both know you have it in you.” He rested his hand on her shoulder and a slow smile turned up on one side of his mouth. “I’m actually relieved that you have it in you. However, I was concerned for a second that perhaps I hadn’t actually checked the chamber in that particular gun when you pulled the trigger. I’m dealing with a little shock to my system as well. Can we still be friends?”
“I don’t trust you.” She glared at him.
“Fair enough.” He nodded his head back and forth in resignation looking like he was thinking about what he should do next. He pointed to the back door and then held up his palm questioning if he needed to leave. “I will do whatever you tell me to do but we don’t have to be enemies. If I can stay, I will make sure everything’s good to go and make sure you all are safe so maybe you can get some real sleep. You look exhausted.”
She sighed, second-guessing herself. They would be leaving in a few hours. She understood why he did what he did even though she was still hating him for it and he was keeping his promise to get her out of there. “You can stay on the couch and yes, please double check everything after I lock up. I will do my best to get some sleep. It sounds like we’ve got a stressful morning ahead of us.”
“We do.” The look on his face was so apologetic that it did soften Tammy’s fury a little. “I am so sorry I had to shake you up like that.”
Tammy could only shrug as she went back to the table to put the guns and ammo back in their cases. She took everything downstairs before going to bed. The handgun that had been hers for years that she hardly ever touched had a new home on her nightstand beside her bed.
She stared at it for the longest time as tears slipped out of the corners of her eyes before she fell asleep.
6
Ben
The rest of the evening Jim helped them prepare, lining out a gas can, and a few tools just in case. The last thing he did was sit them down at the table with a small gun case.
“Dave asked me if I had any guns I could give you. I only have one and I wouldn’t be parting with this if he hadn’t offered me some decent compensation for it. It’s one of my older handguns, a Ruger SR9c 9mm. He’s real
ly going above and beyond to get you guys home.” Jim set it on the table. “I guess you fellas have to decide who is going to carry it when you’re on the road. Here are the magazines and the OTW holster that goes with it. The leather is pretty worn but still does the job.” Jim also gave them a small box of ammo and his wife handed them some moose jerky for the ride once they were done talking.
Ben spent a few minutes getting familiar with the gun when Nate had finished looking it over. The thing he didn’t like about the Ruger was how small the grip was. He had watched Nate closely while he handled the gun and was wondering if he was going to keep it or expect Nate to manage it. But he couldn’t tell what Nate’s preference was going to be. It would have to wait to be discussed until morning.
“Here’s some bedding. Not sure what will suit you for sleeping accommodations. The floor is your best option if you want to stretch out. The couches are kind of short for both of you but you can sleep on them if you wanna. You know, you could leave around three or four a.m. The roads should be empty by then. If you broke down early on the trip, at least you won’t be stuck in the cold all night. The traffic will definitely pick up once the sun is up. Because you’re actually following the voluntary evacuation orders, the cops aren’t going to care how you get out of here. You could make decent progress with this thing off-road if there’s too much traffic but there isn’t all that much shoulder on some sections of the drive. So make sure you take advantage of the paved road when you can. It will make the drive that much easier and faster.”
Ben was nodding and glanced over at Nate to see what he thought.
“I like that idea. At least we aren’t trying to keep going when we’re dead tired. I guess I shouldn’t speak for you but this has been one very long day.”
“I agree.” Ben knew it was the best decision to stay put and sleep when a wave of fatigue washed over him.
It took no time for them to settle down and get some rest.
Endure Series (Book 2): Enduring The Journey: Page 4