by Dell, George
“What?” he said. “I told you I saw it on a cop show once. Of course I didn't know it would work so well,” he finished grinning.
“You're an animal,” Beth said, grinning back.
“Well folks,” Billy said as waved his arm at the store, “looks like the store's open after all.”
Delbert, John, and Peggy, were all grinning too, and Delbert said, “If I ever lock myself out of my house, I guess I won't be asking you for help, Billy,” he broke into a hearty laugh when he finished speaking, and within seconds they all found themselves laughing along.
“Well, let’s go get that ammo,” Beth said laughing, and they all walked into the shop.
They spent no more than an hour in the shop, before they had completely re-outfitted themselves. They were able to obtain new camping gear, ammunition, and three more of the nine mm machine pistols. They all reasoned they were much more effective than the old single-shot rifles, and shotguns that Delbert's group had been carrying, and the fact that they would all now be able to use the same caliber ammunition was appealing.
Billy picked up a canvas strap for the machine gun, that allowed him to keep it suspended from one shoulder, yet easily accessible to him if he needed it. The machine pistols fit easily into leather shoulder holsters, and there were more than enough in the shop for everyone. Billy debated briefly, and then took one more of the machine pistols, along with one of the leather holsters as well. He had a vague, uneasy feeling about the weapons. He felt as if he had joined some weird sort of commando outfit, instead of belonging to a group who had been nothing more than average citizens just a few short weeks before. He pushed the thought away, and after adjusting the leather shoulder holster, slid the fully loaded machine pistol into it, and fastened the small chrome push-catch across the blued steel grip of the weapon.
They loaded all the gear into the back of the Suburban, including every round of nine mm ammunition the store had in stock, which, Billy thought, amounted to enough to wage a small war with. After consulting the map, they set out once more.
The shop had contained a great deal of pre-packaged freeze dried foods, and that had also found its way into the rear of the Suburban.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Billy and Beth
April 22nd
Noon found them just outside of Owensboro, Kentucky. Route 60. Billy hoped Route 60 would by-pass most of the moderately sized city. Beth had studied the map, but couldn't tell for sure whether it would. One thing's for sure, Billy thought, it's certainly less traveled.
They had all noticed, and remarked on the fact that there had been no appreciable stalled traffic at all, and that had seemed good at first, until they had all begun to notice that someone had been at work either towing the cars off the roadway, or pushing them into the ditches along the side, where they still sat.
“It don't necessarily have to be bad,” Delbert said from the back seat, “could be some good folks.”
“Yeah,” Beth agreed from the front seat, “could be. But also might not be.”
They were less than a mile from the city limits when they saw the road block.
Billy bought the truck to a screeching halt, more than a half mile away at the crest of a slight rise, nearly as soon as it had come into sight. They could see better than a half dozen heavily armed men standing along the sides of two Kentucky State Police cruisers, pulled crosswise nose to nose blocking the road. The men had immediately snapped to attention when they spotted the truck, and were now staring in their direction. One of the men had quickly jumped into one of the patrol cars, and Billy assumed, after seeing him speaking into a hand held microphone, had probably radioed someone about them. Not good at all, he thought.
“Them's the same bastards we saw the other day,” Delbert said, “see that red pickup off the shoulder?”
Billy nodded his head.
“They was driving that truck, I recognize it, Billy. Was only two of 'em then, so I expect they didn't want to mess with us. Looks like they found some like-minded company though and that ain't good at all.”
Billy forced his heartbeat to slow down so he could think clearly. At first he had been positive that the men would get in the cars and come screaming down the road after them. They hadn't, and in fact seemed to be just watching the Suburban to see what they were going to do. “I'm open to suggestions,” Billy said.
“First thing,” Beth replied, “is to get the hell off the road, if they did radio someone they're probably on the way. I saw a dirt road that cuts off to the right about a half mile back, might be smart for us to get down it so we can think this thing out, before we're forced to fight it out right here.”
“That group could kill,” Delbert said, “I saw the way they were looking at us, and especially Peggy, we don't need to let them get the upper hand, and right now we're on their terms. I expect they would just as soon kill us... well most of us, and I hate to think what they'd do to the girls.”
“This is one girl they don't want to screw with,” Beth said angrily.
“How far?” Billy said as he punched the gas and squeezed the wheel of the Suburban. He bounced the truck down off the road, and the rear tires threw up rooster tails of dirt and grass, as the truck slewed around, and came back up onto the road. The tires spun momentarily dislodging the grass and mud, then found their purchase and propelled them back down the road, away from the road block. Behind them they could hear the low pop of rifle fire from the direction of the road block.
“Half mile, no more,” Beth said.
They were no more than a hundred feet down the road, when a blue Bronco appeared ahead of them moving toward them. A blonde haired man leaned out the driver’s side window holding what looked to be a sawed off shotgun.
“Shit,” Billy muttered, “Dell?”
“Got it,” he heard from the back seat. He heard the wind suddenly rushing into the truck's interior and realized that Delbert had opened the window, just before he heard the loud chattering of one of the machine pistols.
The blonde haired man fired the shotgun at the same time Delbert began to fire from the back seat. Billy saw the flash from the gun, and heard a rattle from the front of the Suburban that sounded like hundreds of stones hitting the front bumper.
The machine pistol continued to chatter from the back seat, and Billy watched as dozens of holes appeared in the body of the blue Bronco, almost in a straight line along the driver’s side. The front driver side tire blew out, and the truck veered sharply toward their lane.
“Hold on!” Billy yelled, as he spun the wheel and they left the road. The truck bounced when it left the road and entered the ditch, but Billy kept the truck under control, and without letting up on the gas angled it back toward the highway just as the Bronco began to flip into the ditch. A line of trees flew by on the passenger side of the Suburban, scant inches from the glass, and then the truck lurched once more, left the ditch and rocketed back up onto the highway. The two trucks missed by only inches, and Billy had found himself looking into the lifeless eyes of the blonde haired man, hanging loosely out of the window, for just an instant, before the truck was by him and rolling into the ditch.
Billy brought the Suburban back up onto the road, and floored it. When he came to the dirt road he almost blew right by it, but managed to slow enough to slide into the entrance somewhat under control. He barreled through the first curve at better than fifty miles an hour. Once he was around it, and hidden from the road, he slowed down. He rounded two more curves before he stopped the truck, and turned around facing back toward the main road. Thick choking dust from the dirt road rafted up into the air. No way are they going to sneak up on me, he thought, as he watched the road and strained his ears to listen. A few seconds later he heard the high whine of a vehicle on the highway, but it didn't slow down, and the high pitched whine of the motor dwindled away to silence in a few seconds as it continued onward, apparently, Billy thought, looking for them.
“Must not have seen the dust we kicked
up,” John said.
“Or pretended not to see it,” Beth said, as she spoke they heard a muffled explosion in the distance.
“Think that was that Bronco?” Peggy asked.
“Could've been, probably was in fact,” Delbert said, “hope so anyhow.”
Beth was studying the map once more. “It's a good thing we didn't break off to the left,” she said.
“Why?” Billy asked.
“River,” she stated calmly, “about a mile or so in the opposite direction, we would have been trapped if we'd gone that way. It looks like we got open land ahead here. At least it looks that way, it's hard to tell.”
Billy looked back along the dirt road. Thick dust still hung above it. “There's no way they missed us,” he said, “unless they're blind. They had to see that dust hanging in the air, and if we keep going we're going to kick up even more, and they'll be able to follow it right to us.”
“I think you're right, but what the hell else can we do?” Delbert asked.
“Turn around and go back,” Billy said. He held up his hand to silence the outburst that erupted at the suggestion. “Listen; if we sit here they're going to come back, probably with more men. If we head back to the road block now we have the advantage. I would bet the sound we heard of a passing car was one of the police cruisers. If so that leaves only one, and fewer men to contend with back there, if we wait the odds will only get worse. See?”
“He's right, I think,” Beth said, “I don't want to die any more than any of us do. Sitting here isn't going to help us at all, going back before they have a chance to regroup might.”
“Only thing to do,” Delbert sighed from the back seat, “if I gotta die, I'd rather die fighting than get trapped and slaughtered like an animal... There's just no place we can go down here.”
“So?” Billy asked.
“We go back,” Peggy said decisively. John grunted a short “Yeah” which they could all tell he was not enthusiastic about.
Billy dropped the Suburban back into drive and they began to move down the dirt road, gaining momentum as they neared the highway. Billy slowed to turn onto the highway after looking in both directions and seeing nothing. Ahead, approximately where the Bronco had wrecked, they could see greasy black smoke billowing into the hot still air.
“Could be some of 'em there too,” Delbert said, as he stared toward the greasy smoke in the distance. “If so, I'll be ready for 'em.” Billy nodded his head, and brought the truck up to speed slowly to hide the whine of the motor, which would hopefully allow them to take the road block, or whoever might be at the Bronco, by surprise.
As they neared the burning Bronco Billy could see one of the patrol cars off to the side of the road, along with the red pickup that Delbert had pointed out to them. "Looks like it," Billy said calmly, as he leaned back into the seat to give Beth a clear shot through the driver’s side window.
The young blonde haired kid from the Bronco was lifeless on the side of the road along with two other crumpled forms that Billy assumed must have also been in the truck. A small group of three men stood over the bodies. They heard the approaching truck and suddenly jumped for cover as Billy roared by. Beth's pistol chattered briefly, directly in front of his face, and the tires of the red pickup exploded with a loud popping noise. Billy pressed the gas pedal as close to the floor as it would go as they passed, and almost simultaneously heard the sound of breaking glass from the rear of the truck, along with a steady, plunk, plunk, plunk, as bullets slammed into the rear of the fleeing Suburban. A sudden cry of pain came from the rear a split second later, as several small crystals of glass flew forward striking the dashboard, and the back of Billy's head.
“What happened?” he shouted. “You guy's okay?”
“Got John,” Delbert shouted back, “it don't look good, Billy.”
“Shit,” Billy muttered, as he tried to press the gas pedal further into the floorboard. “Shit.”
The intersection, where the road block had been, appeared in front of them a few seconds later. Whatever had gone by them on the highway had not been the second patrol car. It still sat across the road, blocking the right hand lane. The left hand lane was blocked by four men, who were not armed with shotguns, Billy noticed as they neared, but some sort of machine pistols similar to the ones they themselves carried. He was just about to slam on the brakes and try to turn around once more, when a quick glance in the mirror showed the other patrol car coming up behind them. Its blue bubble light pulsing as it came. What the hell, Billy thought these guy's must think they're playing some sort of fucking game with us. Aloud he said. “We're screwed they're in front of us and behind us... To hell with it, we're going through. Hold on.”
Peggy pushed John aside, and took his place at the rear passenger side window. She leaned out facing back, and began firing at the closing patrol car, as Beth leaned out and began to fire at the four men blocking the left hand side of the road. Delbert was aiming at the four men as well from his side of the truck. Two of the four dropped immediately, but the other two were returning fire even as they ran for the cover of the patrol car, and Billy could feel, as well as hear, the bullets slamming into the Suburban, both front and rear.
The patrol car behind them suddenly swerved and then flipped, and Peggy let out a scream of triumph as she turned back to the front, knelt on the rear seat, and began to fire over Beth's head at the other patrol car. The side of the car began to take on a chewed-appearance within seconds, as all three machine pistols were trained on it. Still, the men behind it returned fire.
They were now less than a hundred feet from the car, Billy saw.
“Sit down!” he suddenly yelled into the truck, “Now!” As he yelled he swung the Suburban toward the cruiser, just close enough so that he could clip the front end of it as they went past. The two men behind the cruiser realized what he intended to do too late.
The Suburban hit the front of the cruiser harder than Billy expected, so hard in fact that it sent it spinning into the ditch like a toy. The collision ripped the front fender from the truck, along with most of the passenger door. The heavy bumper of the truck, torn half off in the collision, let go with a shower of sparks and the Suburban bounced over it leaving it behind in the road. Billy kept the gas pedal jammed to the floor boards, even though steam was beginning to pour from the front of the truck, and the motor was starting to wheeze ominously. A heavy vibration ran through the truck, and as the Suburban gained more speed the vibration became a heavy shuddering, that threatened to shake the truck to pieces. Two miles down the road he spotted a Dodge dealership and slid the dying truck to a stop in the wide asphalt parking lot.
“Out!” he shouted, as he quickly jumped from the truck. The others piled out behind him, and Billy dropped back to help Delbert who was struggling to drag John along. Beth and Peggy reached the glass doors of the showroom, and quickly held them open to allow them to hurry inside with John.
Billy stared back out at the wide parking lot expecting to see the remaining patrol car come screaming in, he did not know that Peggy had taken care of that problem.
“The ammo,” Billy said turning toward the doors, “no way should we leave it in the truck, that other car will be along any minute.”
“I don't think so,” Peggy replied icily, “it flipped. I blew out the front tires, and I'm pretty damn sure the driver was dead at that point.”
“Okay,” Billy said, he didn't question what she said at all, “Dell, let’s go get the ammo. Beth, can you and Peggy see what you can do for John?” Beth nodded her head, as Billy turned and ran back out of the showroom toward the Suburban, with Delbert right behind him.
The truck was totaled Billy saw.
The plastic grill-work was gone along with the bumper, and he could see now why Beth had jumped through the window when they stopped, instead of opening the door. The door was crushed shut. Along with that both of the front tires were rapidly going flat. Probably from running over the bumper, he thought, a bullet
would have blown them out immediately. A huge puddle of oil was spreading from under the truck, and green anti-freeze dripped from what was left of the radiator.
Billy opened up the rear of the truck, and Delbert held out his arms as Billy piled the first three boxes on them, and then managed to take the remaining three himself. They trotted back to the showroom and Billy mentally wished he had thought to pull the truck out of sight. The wrecked Suburban, with steam still rising in the air from the hood area, would almost serve as a beacon if there were others behind them. There were, he knew, remembering the sound of a vehicle screaming by on the highway when they had been hiding on the dirt road.
He reached the relative safety of the showroom just behind Delbert, the glass door whooshed shut behind them as they entered and set down the boxes. Beth stood and slowly shook her head as he approached her. She and Peggy had been kneeling beside John on the floor. “He's gone, Billy,” she said.
He could see she was close to tears, and Peggy was more than close, she was openly weeping. Delbert walked over to John's body and covered it with a carpet runner he had taken from near the front door. The old man seemed close to tears himself, Billy realized. Billy said a quick mental prayer to God, before he spoke.
“Listen, I don't want to sound hard, or as if I don't care, but we can't fall apart now,” he struggled to keep his voice calm as he spoke. “Right now, unless we want to just give up and die, we need to get ourselves in gear. If it wasn't one of the patrol cars that blew by us while we were on that dirt road, and we also know it wasn't that red pickup... someone is still out there, and once they get their shit together they'll come back for us. I for one don't want to be here, and if we intend to be gone I need help. Crying isn't going to bring John back...”
