by P. A. Glaspy
"Let's see if they change their mind when they find out they're outnumbered. Everybody pull your sidearm out and point it in their direction."
"Dad, mine isn't even loaded," Carly commented. "I'm not ready for bullets yet."
"They don't know that."
"Good point," she replied as she pulled the pistol out of her back pocket. Will and Amanda leaned forward and all five of them brought their guns to bear. The would-be car thieves' eyes grew wide and they stopped in their tracks. Joel rolled the window down and leaned out to speak.
"Looks like you boys might ought to rethink this thing. You're greatly outnumbered, and this car isn't worth dying for."
The men stood there staring at the guns pointed their way. When they didn't appear to want to leave, Joel opened the door and stepped out. Will pushed the driver's seat back forward and he and Amanda joined him. With three handguns trained on them versus their single piece, the car-jackers took a step back, and the one who was holding the gun lowered it.
"You can go ahead and drop that gun, and those other two can set their weapons down as well." The former manager in him delivered the order with authority, leaving no room for dissension. The men on either side of the speaker dropped their weapons in the snow-covered road. The one in the middle holding the gun hesitated.
"How do I know those guns you're holding are loaded? Most people around here don't even have guns. You could be lying, you could —"
Amanda fired a shot into the ground beside them. All three men jumped, shocked at the shot and the proximity of the bullet.
"Now you can stop worrying about whether we have ammo in our guns and if we know how to use them. I'd suggest you do what the man said."
The speaker dropped his gun at his feet. Joel called out, "Kick it away and take three steps back."
The sound of the shot brought Chris and Julie to their door across the street. Chris called out, "What's going on? We heard a gunshot!"
"These guys thought they were going to help themselves to this vehicle. They aren't. We're good. Thanks for checking." Chris nodded and closed the door slowly, peeking out the whole time. They could see Chris and Julie peering out through the curtains once the door was closed.
Joel addressed the three men again. "I'm going to need you fellas to move along now. I want you out of my sight in the next sixty seconds or I'll have my girl here light the way for you." He indicated Amanda with a motion of his head in her direction. She smiled and brought her pistol up from pointing to the ground in front of the men into a firing position, with the man in the middle lined up in her sights.
The men started to pick up their weapons, but Joel stopped them. "No, you can just leave those right there. You might be able to pick them up later if no one else has found them."
The middle guy started shouting. "What? We can't leave our stuff! We'll go, but we need those to survive! It's dangerous out here! We have to be able to defend ourselves!"
"You should have thought about that before you tried to steal from us. That wasn't defending — that was attacking. Now get out of here!" Joel cocked the hammer on his pistol to emphasize his command. The three men started walking backward toward the pond.
"You better hope we never meet again, you son of a bitch! I'll kill you! Count on it!" The spokesman for the group was yelling as he and his companions continued toward the park. Joel, Amanda, and Will stepped out of the garage and tracked the men's progress as they got further away.
"I doubt that will be a problem," Joel said quietly. Without taking his eyes off the men, he added, "Will, I'm going to pull the car out of the garage. I want you to go in, close and secure the garage door, then come back out the front. I didn't think about shutting the garage and I locked all the doors. You still have your keys on you?"
"Yep, I do, and I'll take care of it, Dad."
"Amanda, let's get back in the car. We'll be waiting for you, son." Joel headed back toward the house; Will and Amanda followed.
Amanda climbed in, then Joel took his seat behind the wheel again. He slowly exited the garage, stopping in the driveway. Will shut the garage door and rejoined them a moment later. With everyone once again inside the Scout, Joel headed down the street.
"Okay, let's try this again."
Frank's face was red with anger as they trudged through the snow-covered ground by the pond.
"They took the car! The only one we've seen that runs since this whole thing started! And we lost the only gun we had!"
"I told you something like that could happen, Frank," Jerry replied. "This is Tennessee. You never know who's packing here."
"You know, they looked like they were loaded up to leave. Maybe there's some good stuff in that house," Craig added. "Might make up for losing out on the ride."
Frank seemed to be thinking about that possibility. "That's a good point, Craig. We'll check it out later, after we know they're gone."
Jerry asked in a timid tone, "Because they were packing?"
"Yeah. Assholes!"
Joel pulled up in front of Jack's house. He turned to Amanda. "Can you manage watching out for any trouble? I think Will and I both need to talk to Jack."
Amanda replied, "No problem. Just hurry, okay?"
"Absolutely." Joel got out and Will climbed out behind him. They hurried up to the door and knocked. Jack answered almost immediately.
"Hey, we heard a gunshot. Was that you guys?"
Joel nodded. He quickly filled Jack in on the morning's events, then turned the conversation over to Will. Will told him about the vision. Jack's shocked expression said he wasn't sure he believed him.
"Look, I know it's bizarre, but his visions are for real. They've come true more than once. You need to move your family to the house today, because those guys that tried to take the Scout saw us packed up to leave. I wouldn't put it past them to come back later to see what we left. Past that, just make sure you and Margie are armed all the time. Maybe if you're more prepared, what Will saw can be changed." Joel sounded a bit distracted. "We really need to get on the road. Good luck, Jack. Let's go, Will."
Father and son headed back to the Scout and got in. Joel waved at Jack, who was still standing on the porch and seemed a bit shell-shocked. There was nothing that could be done for that. They had their own path to follow.
They had talked it over the night before and decided Brunswick Road was the best route to take. They would have to travel on Highway 70 — Summer Avenue — for a bit to get to it, but the upside was that part of Summer was more commercial and industrial than residential. Their hope was that they would encounter fewer people in a business district than a residential.
They took Fourth back to Appling and Appling back to Summer. Will and Amanda were quite interested to see what the area was like a day and a half later. Since it was still early, they didn't run into a lot of people who were outside, but Joel saw in the mirrors behind them that the residents were rushing out of their houses waving at the Scout. When he turned onto Appling, they could see all the windows in front of the Dollar Tree had been broken out. The part that was visible from the street was bare, with carts strewn across the parking lot, shelves broken down, and the detritus of hordes of people passing through littering the ground.
When they got to Summer Avenue, there was almost a collective gasp. The Kroger parking lot was awash with abandoned cars, broken shopping carts, and so much trash they couldn't see the asphalt in some places. All of the windows were gone, and even at that early hour, there were people going in and coming out, those leaving shielding whatever pittance they had deemed valuable from the sight of anyone else. As they passed, they could see the customer service desk had been demolished; cash registers broken open with their drawers hanging like a child's loose tooth; shelving that had been dragged outside, empty of any food or beverage. The sound of the car had the scavengers' heads jerking up, and they started running as a group toward the street. Everyone but Joel was watching in shock as the horde rushed their way.
"F
aster, Dad! Drive faster!" Carly cried.
Joel pressed harder on the gas pedal and shifted the Scout into the next gear. They watched in the side-view mirrors as the crowd faded in the distance, making rude gestures and shouting things they couldn't hear … and probably didn't want to.
Once they got past the grocery store, there wasn't much in the way of businesses that would attract a crowd. Dollar General was in the same shape as Dollar Tree had been. Walgreens had suffered the same fate, yet there were still people there trying to scavenge. Past that were more sparsely located homes all the way to Brunswick Road. Summer was four-lane, so Joel was able to weave among the few vehicles that had died on the street without a lot of trouble. Then he got to Brunswick Road.
The first thing they were met with was an accident blocking the road. Joel slowed as he approached it. There was no way around, but there was a church to his left and an open field leading to it. He jerked the wheel left and headed to the parking lot of the Brunswick Church of Christ. The parking lot was empty and had a long drive that joined Brunswick a bit further down, well past the accident. As Will had thought might be the case, there were sporadic cars abandoned on the road, but Joel was able to navigate through them. They passed through residential areas without issue. It was only about seven in the morning. With no job to go to, it seemed the folks were more apt to stay indoors, probably to try to stay warm.
When they came upon Downing Lake, they saw men and women on the banks fishing. The looks on their faces at the sight of a running vehicle were almost comical. Two days ago, they would have thought nothing of it. Now, it was a luxury most people didn't have. Any encounters with others were something they were trying to avoid, so Joel again sped up when he saw them. More than one dropped their pole and started toward the road, then stopped when they realized the car wasn't going to.
Once they passed a subdivision on their right, they didn't see any houses until they got to Valley Creek. From there to Old Brownsville Road, they saw homes but not really what you would call subdivisions. After that, it was a few sparse houses here and there, a couple of businesses across the railroad tracks, then they reached the farmland. Joel had a clear path after they crossed the tracks. He was glad they had decided to take this route.
Feeling pretty good about the progress they had made, Joel said, "Well, if things keep going the way they have so far, we should be there in the next fifteen or twenty minutes."
Carly was bouncing on the pillows between the seats. "Fifteen minutes! I'll be seeing my boys in fifteen minutes!"
Everyone grinned at her actions. Joel rounded a bend and saw the Paul Barret Parkway overpass ahead — and a roadblock beneath it. Shots were fired, some of the bullets landing on the ground close to the Scout. Joel slammed on the brakes and backed up out of sight of the interchange.
"Shit. That isn't good," he said.
"What was that?" Lauri asked in alarm. "Were they shooting at us?"
"A roadblock. Not a natural one either, like the cars stalled there. They looked like they'd been moved to block the road. And, yes, they were shooting at us."
"Why would they do that?" Carly questioned, confusion and fear in her tone. "What do they want?"
"To get cars that run, supplies, guns and ammo, people – pretty much everything we have," Will replied. "That's why they didn't shoot the car. They don't want to take a chance of damaging it."
"Can we go around them? Is there another route we can take?" Amanda asked.
Joel shook his head. "Not without a lot of backtracking and going way out of our way."
Nervous, Lauri said, "What are we going to do?"
"Let me out," Amanda replied. "I'll go have a look through my rifle scope. See what we're actually dealing with."
"I'll go with you," Will added. She nodded as Joel got out to let them out of the back.
"Be careful. Don't take any chances," he told them as they started for a copse of evergreen trees to their right.
Amanda picked a spot with a clear line of sight to the roadblock. She leaned against the tree to steady her body.
"I count three douchebags. One with a rifle — probably the one who shot at us; one with a tactical shotgun; the last one looks like a .410. Only one of those is lethal from that distance. I can probably take him out from here."
"Wait, what? Take him out? You mean shoot him? Kill him?" The shock and horror in Will's voice was unmistakable.
Looking at him, she said, "What's the alternative, Will? They shot at us. They set this in motion. Do you think they're going to let us pass?"
Will eyed her then looked toward the roadblock. "Probably not. But we should at least try to talk to them first."
"Okay, you can go ahead and try. I'll cover you. When they continue down the path they've already started here, I'll take him out. One down will probably have the other two running for home. Don't leave the trees. Don't let them see you. Just yell from here."
Will cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "We don't want any trouble! We just want to pass. We're on our way to Tipton County. Please … just let us through!"
After a moment, the one holding the rifle yelled back, "Well, the only way you get past us is by leaving that car and everything in it. I reckon you could walk from here in a day or so!" The men laughed amongst themselves.
"Told you so," Amanda murmured to Will, while keeping her sight set on the speaker.
"Can you maybe shoot close to them without, you know, actually killing somebody? Maybe we can scare them off."
"Windshield, car on the left." Amanda stated her objective, took a breath, and let it out slowly as she squeezed the trigger. The windshield exploded, making the men at the roadblock jump, duck, and scurry away from the vehicles. As they retreated, Amanda and Will saw there were four of them.
"And we sprung a gopher out of his hole. Nice," she said as she ejected the spent round and chambered another.
The would-be attackers took cover behind the supports on the far side of the overpass. One of them called out, "Hey now! We can talk this out! Ain't no call for violence!"
"You started it!" Amanda yelled back. Will looked at her. She shrugged. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Apparently, I'm twelve again."
He grinned, then turned his attention back to the roadblock. "We're going to need you fellas to put your guns down and come out with your hands up. Like I said, we don't want anybody to get hurt. We just want to be on our way."
The original speaker shouted back, "How do we know that ain't the only gun you got? We ain't just letting you go with that car!"
He had no sooner gotten the words out of his mouth than a shot came from the Scout. Joel yelled, "We got a lot more than two guns and a lot more folks than you! You can walk away from this. Don't make us hurt you over a car!"
"That car is worth more than gold right now! We can't just let you go with it!"
"Have it your way!" In a quieter voice, Joel said, "Amanda, let them know how good you are with that rifle."
"You've got it, Joel." She took aim on a spot about head high on the concrete support that she knew one of them was hiding behind. The bullet broke out a large chunk of the concrete, spraying bits everywhere. A loud screech from the other side let her know her aim was true.
"Okay! Okay! We're coming out!" They saw four sets of hands in the air as the men came from behind the vehicles to stand in front of them.
"Keep your hands up and walk this way! No sudden moves!" Joel had his sidearm trained on them as they slowly made their way towards him. Amanda had them sighted in as well. The men continued toward Joel slowly, eyes darting between him and the tree line where Amanda and Will were watching. The spokesman for the group dropped his right hand and appeared to be trying to reach behind his back. Amanda placed a shot in the ground in front of him.
"What part of keep your hands up did you not understand, buddy?" She said aloud.
The man jumped back, all four men stopped in their tracks, and the one who had dropped his hand shove
d both back up.
"Alright! Alright! Stop shooting!" They again started toward the Scout.
Lauri, Carly, pull your pistols out and point them toward these guys when they come into view. We want them to see how many of us are armed."
The two women did as he'd instructed. Will and Amanda walked to the passenger side of the Scout with theirs aimed toward the men as well. The men stopped within fifty feet of the car. Both groups eyed each other.
"Now what? You gonna shoot us so you can get on your way to Tipton County?" the spokesman said with a sneer.
"What are we going to do with them, Dad?" Will asked.
Joel replied, "I need some rope."
Amanda had rope in her bag which Joel used to tie the men's hands behind their backs and their ankles in front of them. When he had finished with the last one, he stood up and looked at the one who had done most of the talking.
"You can work together and get free, but it won't be until after we're gone. You might want to rethink your strategy for stealing from people. You aren't the only ones with guns out here. Others would probably just shoot you and keep going. We may get to that mindset at some point. Be thankful we aren't there yet." He headed for the Scout. Will and Amanda followed. They all climbed in. Joel started toward the overpass, where he put the Scout in four-wheel drive and slowly pushed the car on the right to create an opening he could drive through. He checked his mirror and saw the men still sitting where they'd left them.
"Did you mean what you said, Dad? About us maybe getting to the point that we'll kill people?" Will sounded troubled.
Joel didn't look at him but said, "I'm afraid we'll have no choice. At some point, the bad guys are not going to back down. Whether it's because they have us outnumbered, or perhaps they're just so desperate to get what we have … either way, I believe it will happen."
"I can't shoot someone," Carly replied. "There's no way."
"What if they were threatening your sons?" Amanda asked.
Carly hesitated. When she didn't reply, Amanda went on.
"You don't know what you'll do when you or the people you care about are in danger. I think we'll all be seeing sides of ourselves we didn't know were there if we make it through this mess."