I stopped the truck and she climbed over into my lap. I hugged her hard and she wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed with all her might. “I’m going to be okay. You don’t think I walked all the way home just so someone could shoot me when I got here do you?”
She sat up and looked at me. “No, but I’m worried. I’m scared that someone will try and shoot you.”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll be okay. No one is going to shoot me.” She didn’t know I had already been shot once and I was damn glad of it. I asked if she wanted to drive. Just as quick as the tears had started, they departed. She sat in my lap and steered the truck. As we approached the gate to our house, she asked why we were going home and not to the man’s house. I told her I wanted her to stay home and not go there with me. She started to protest, but I told her that it would be sad and she had already seen enough sad things for the day, and she didn’t say anything after that.
Little Bit hopped out of the truck. I told her to tell Mommy I would be back soon and waited for her to go in the house. She stopped in the door of the house and gave me a little wave.
I drove to Lance’s house, which was off a little spur road from the main road into our little neighborhood. As I pulled into the driveway I suddenly realized I didn’t know his wife’s name.
I honked the horn and saw a young woman look out the window. I stepped out of the truck and waved to her. The door opened and she looked around the side of it. “Can I help you?”
“Ah, yes ma’am, I’m sorry I don’t know your name, but does Lance live here?”
“Yes, but he isn’t here right now.”
“I know, I’m Morgan, I live on the main road.”
“I know who you are.” She stayed behind the door.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.” I was trying to figure out how to do this, but there was no easy way to do it.
“I’m Tina, what do you want?”
“Tina, can you come outside so I can talk to you?”
“We can talk right here; don’t come towards me.”
I had no doubt that she had a gun behind the door. I said, “I don’t know exactly how to say this, but Lance was killed earlier.”
She didn’t say anything. She just stood there staring at me.
“He was shot by a group of people that were trying to get in to steal food.” She still hadn’t moved. “Tina, did you hear me?”
“You’re lying,” she said flatly.
“I wish to God I was. I’m so sorry to have to tell you. I have his body in the back of the truck. I thought he should be brought here to you.”
She told me I was wrong and called me a liar again. I tried to get her to come out so I could show her, but she refused and eventually she told me to go away and she shut the door. I didn’t know what to do. I had envisioned crying and wailing maybe, but not a flat refusal to accept it. Finally, I did the only thing I could. I carried Lance up to the front of the house and laid him out, then pulled the plastic off so she could see him. I could see her in the window, but when I bent over to set him down and straightened back up, she was gone.
I sat in the truck for a few minutes waiting to see if she would come out, but I never saw so much as the curtain move. After about half an hour I started up the old Chevy and backed out of the drive and headed down the road. I turned left towards Danny’s house and drove down. Danny met me on the porch with a “Yo.”
“You get the boy to Reggie’s?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’s pretty tore up. I gotta go tell his sister that her son is dead now too.”
“Damn, first the girl and now him. I can’t even imagine it.”
I asked him if he would come and help me bury Lance. I told him how Tina had reacted and he just shook his head. He suggested we go get Mark and have him go with us, being as he was the one that everyone looked to. I agreed it was a good idea, and Danny went over to the shed and grabbed a couple of shovels. Mark was still at the barricade talking to a couple of the guys from the block and we motioned for him to come over.
He agreed to help and went back to the barricade. He asked one of the guys there to stay at the barricade and back up Dan, handing the man his carbine. Mark returned and climbed in, and we went back to Lance’s house. His body was still lying in the yard and looked just as I had left it. Danny and I stayed in the truck and Mark went to the house.
He knocked on the door a couple of times and there was no response. He called out several times, still nothing. He tried the door, but it was locked. He waved for us to come up and we met him at the door, not sure what to do.
“What do you think?” Danny asked.
“I don’t like it. She has to be in there and now I’m concerned for her safety. We need to talk to her,” Mark said.
“I’ll go around back and see if I can see anything. You want to stay here in case she comes to the door?” I said.
“Yeah, I’ll wait here. Danny you go around the right side, check the windows and doors, see if anything is unlocked.”
We both gave a nod and headed around either side of the house. I was checking the last window on my said when I heard Danny call me. I walked around to the back of the house. He was standing on the back porch and the sliding glass door was open.
Pointing to the open door I asked, “You open it?” He shook his head. He had his carbine at low ready, directed at the door. “Let’s go see,” I said. He nodded and stepped through the door. The kitchen was empty, it was small and very neat and clean. We stepped into the living room and it was empty too. I called out, “Tina, you okay?”
From outside Mark called to us. “You guys inside?”
“Yeah, we’re in the living room, we’re going to check the rest of the house,” Danny called back.
There was a hallway to our right. Danny took the lead and lit the hallway with the light on his carbine. The first door opened onto the bathroom and it was empty. Across the hall from that door was another. Danny stepped in front of it. I reached out and grabbed the knob. Looking at him, I gave a nod. He nodded back and I threw the door open, Danny stepped in quickly and checked the room. It was empty. Again I called out, “Tina, you in here?”
We checked two more rooms but she wasn’t in them. I threw the last door open and Danny stepped in with me following him. Tina was lying on the bed in a fetal position on her left side facing the door. She was clutching a picture frame in her left arm, and a Ruger .357 revolver was on the floor beside the bed, her right hand hanging off the edge. We stepped up to the side of the bed and looked down. The Surefire on Danny’s rifle revealed an entry in her temple. The skin was burned and puckered; she must have had the pistol pressed against her head when she pulled the trigger. I told Danny I was going to go get Mark and left the room. Opening the front door, Mark could tell from the look on my face what we had found. “Where is she?” he said.
Stepping into the room, Mark was visibly shaken. “Dammit!”
We looked around the house for a note and didn’t find one. I didn’t know Lance real well and her not at all so I couldn’t even imagine what had brought her to do this. We wrapped Tina in the bed linens and carried her out the sliding glass door and out to the back yard. Setting her down, we went around to the front and carried Lance around. The three of us stood there around the bodies not saying anything, just looking down at the two wrapped bundles. Finally Mark spoke up. “Can you guys handle this?”
Danny and I just nodded, and Mark said, “I’m going to search the house for anything the community can use. Whatever I find I’ll put in the back of your truck. Can you drop it off at my place when you’re done?”
“Yeah, man, you need a ride back?” I asked.
“No, I’ll walk.”
Mark headed back to the house while Danny went back to the Suburban and returned with th
e shovels. We picked a spot out near what had been a small flower garden. We walked off a plot big enough for each grave and then I took off my vest and leaned my carbine against a fence post. Danny did likewise and we began to dig. It took about three hours to dig the two graves. When we had them about five feet deep, we put the bodies in the grave. Once they were in, we stood there looking down at them. I’m not a religious man and neither is Danny. I couldn’t begin to know what to say, and after a brief silence we began to fill the graves. Once the dirt was mounded up, Danny and I collected our gear and went back to the truck.
We threw the shovels in beside two boxes Mark must have put there. The whole time we were digging the graves and lowering the bodies, Danny and I never talked, and even in the truck we were silent as we drove back to Danny’s house. Pulling up at the gate, I stopped and Danny hopped out. After shutting the door, he looked in. “I’ll see you later, man.”
“Yeah, later man.”
Thad picked Marty up and sat his chair upright. The man was still crying and whining, asking what Thad was going to do to him. Thad walked out of the barn and returned with another chair and set it down in front of Marty. Marty looked around, not sure what was about to happen. Thad spun the chair around so the back was facing Marty and swung a leg over and sat down, resting his arms on the top of the chair’s back.
Thad sat for a full minute without saying a word. Marty’s eyes shifted from side to side nervously and he licked his lips in apprehension. Thad sat there with his forehead resting on his forearms, looking down between the slats of the chair back. Finally Thad looked at Marty with an expressionless face, this just served to unnerve Marty even further and his chest started to heave as he sucked air and blew it out through clenched teeth.
Finally Marty couldn’t take it any more. “What do you want?” he asked, crying as he did.
Thad sat there for a moment. “You got a family?”
Marty answered immediately, “Yes, yes, I have a wife and son, he’s twelve.”
Thad cocked his head to the side. “You love em?”
“Of course, more than anything.”
Thad pursed his lips and nodded his head before dropping it again to look at the slats. “Me too, I loved my wife and boy too,” he said as he looked back up.
Marty’s new found hope quickly faded, his face yielding to the contortions once again. “Look man, I’m really sorry, it wasn’t my idea, Chuck did it.”
“You lit the fire, didn’t you?”
Marty’s eyes grew wide once again, his lips trembled, mouthing words that never sounded. Finally a weak “yes” issued from his lips.
“Why? You say Anita shot at you, so you two shoot her and set the house on fire while they’re still alive, why not just let ‘em be and leave?”
“You don’t understand these people. They tell you to do something, you do it, that’s it. There is no discussion. Burning the house is standard procedure for them. People don’t do what they’re told, they teach ‘em a lesson.”
“So then you’re only doing this cause they make you huh?”
“Yeah, yeah, this kinda thing isn’t me, I only do this because I want to take care of my family.”
“Ya know, I walked a long, long way to get home to my family, I did a lot of crazy shit to get home, the only thing that kept me going was the thought of them, and you set them on fire.”
“Look I’m really, really sorry, I…I didn’t want any of this,” Marty managed through the renewed tears.
Thad sat looking at the man. “You want a cigarette?”
Marty wasn’t sure how to respond. He wasn’t sure if it was a genuine offer or would open this whole thing to a new level of hell. “Uh, yeah, sure.”
Thad pointed to his breast pocket. “In there right?”
Marty looked down at the blue Postal Service coat he was wearing and nodded. Thad leaned over and fished the smokes and lighter out of his pocket and tapped one out, holding it up so Marty cold grab it with his teeth . Thad struck the old trench style lighter and held the flame up so Marty could get to it. Marty took a long hard drag on the cigarette, then thanked Thad. Thad nodded his head and held the lighter up between himself and Marty looking at it.
Marty was sucking the cigarette down hard and fast looking at the lighter Thad was turning it between his fingers. Reaching the filter, Marty spit the butt out, making sure to turn his head so it didn’t look like he was spitting it at the big man. Thad looked up and shook another one out, holding it up in a manner that asked if he wanted another. Marty nodded and Thad leaned over so he could get to it and lit it for him. Again Marty inhaled deeply, letting out a cloud of smoke.
Thad held the lighter up once again. “This the lighter you used to light the fire?” Thad was looking past the lighter at Marty.
Marty moved the cigarette from side to side in his mouth nervously. He took another long pull on the smoke, squinting his left eye as he did. Without saying anything he slowly nodded his head. Thad was still holding the lighter with two fingers between the two of them. In one quick motion he snapped his fist around the lighter. The quick movement startled Marty causing him to spit the butt out. It landed in his lap, causing him to gyrate in the chair, “Hey, hey!”
Thad stood up. Marty was still looking into his lap at the glowing butt resting on his crotch. Thad paid no attention to him and walked over to a corner of the barn. Marty finally got the butt out of his lap and noticed the big man was gone. He craned his neck around looking for him. “Hey, where’d you go? Hey man, where are you?”
Thad walked out where Marty could see him. He had a pack over his shoulder.
“What are you doing,” Marty asked.
“I’m gonna leave you now.”
“What?”
“I’m going.”
“You’re just going to leave me here?”
“Yeah, you’re on your own.”
“Thank you,” Marty said.
“Don’t thank me. I said you’re on your own,” Thad replied. He then struck the lighter and tossed it into a corner of the barn onto a pile of hay that he had soaked in kerosene. The hay caught immediately, the flame growing with rapid intensity.
Marty said, “You’re leaving me here.” Then he said it again, as a terrified screamed question, “You’re leaving me here!” He began to thrash his upper body back and forth like a child restrained in a highchair might. It was the only part of his body he could freely move and he was doing everything he could to move it. Thad stood there for a moment looking at Marty as he started to scream and shriek. Marty the postman called for help, he begged Thad to release him, and then he cursed him using every vile epithet he could imagine to impugn Thad’s race, manhood and heritage. When none of that drew a response from the big man, Marty screamed out, “That bitch screamed her lungs out, she begged for her life and we burned her ass!”
Thad stood there motionless. “You’ve already begged for your life, guess that just leaves the screamin’ and burnin’.”
Marty’s face was expressionless. His mouth hung open with drool running from the corner onto the Postal Service patch on his coat, but only for a moment. He went into another fit of fighting against the ropes, he thrashed back and forth violently succeeding once again in tipping the chair onto its side. Thad walked out of the barn and over to the Scout. He set the pack on the hood and leaned against the fender and watched as the flames grew up the side of the barn where he set the fire. Through the open door he could see the man lying on the ground, squirming to try and free himself. He could hear the man screaming and cussing.
By the time the roof of the barn caught and began to burn, the heat was enough to make Thad back the Scout up. He then got out and leaned against the fender once again. Inside, the heat must be unbearable. Thad had never heard anyone scream that loud. The pigs in the pen were also
screaming, more from fright than the heat as they were far enough way as to be safe. In one loud crack, the beams supporting the roof finally gave and fell in, silencing the man. The only sound in the air now was that of the fire and terrified swine. Thad sat there for a moment looking at the tall flames, the sparks climbing up into the pitch black, cloudless sky above. He stood there with his face raised to the heavens and said, “I’m sorry.”
Walking over to the pigpen, he opened the gate and went in. Thad drew the big blade and slashed the rope holding the body. It fell into the swirling mass of hogs at his feet. The light from the fire played off the rumps of those closest to it and lit the faces of those opposite. Thad looked down at the ghoulish, blood-stained grin of one of them, and it almost looked as though it was saying thank you. Thad left the pen, leaving the gate open and went back to the Scout. He climbed in and sat behind the wheel looking at the scene before him and remembered the scene from the house. It was a familiar scene with the only difference being there was no innocence under these flames.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sarge turned the map around a couple of times till he had it oriented. He stuck his index finger out and ran it over the map, and finding what he was looking he for he tapped the map with the finger. He told Ted to turn left when he hit the dirt road. Ted nodded and hung a hard left onto the white sand road, fishtailing the truck as he did.
Dallas was an old shack eight and a half miles due north of the Sarge’s shack. It was in a huge undeveloped area crisscrossed with roads, paths and trails. Mike and Doc sat in the back of the truck, trying to hang on as the truck careened around the corners.
“What the hell is he trying to do, turn the damn thing over?” Doc said to Mike. He was leaning against the tailgate with his right arm hooked over the top of it.
Surviving Home Page 20