Collision Course

by David Crawford

  He could dump them in the quarry as he’d done with the car, but they’d float. How could he weigh them down? Even if he tied some kind of anchor to pull them under, would it hold? Maybe the quarry wasn’t the best answer.

  He could bury them. In the woods somewhere would be good, but he didn’t know if there was a good-sized patch of woods around. He’d have to ask Crystal. He turned back toward the house and spat out a small amount of bile that had found its way into his mouth. He picked up his carbine at the front door and walked into the house.

  “Is that you?” Crystal whispered.

  “Yeah,” DJ answered.

  He saw the strike of a match and then Crystal’s pretty face behind it as she lit a candle. A second later, the room was bathed in the soft light. DJ saw Crystal’s eyes open wide.

  “Oh my God!” she screeched. “Are you okay? Is that your blood?”

  “No. I’m fine,” he answered, his voice raspy and low.

  “What happened?”

  “Two guys were stealing my quad.”

  “How did you get covered in blood?” she asked.

  “I didn’t want to draw the neighbors’ attention by firing any shots. I used my knife to take them out. I’m going to have to bury them somewhere. Do you know of a good place? Oh, and we need to clean up the blood in your front yard somehow.”

  Crystal just stood frozen, staring at DJ as if he were a ghost.

  “Crystal, did you hear me? Do you know of a place to bury the bodies?”

  “You killed them?”

  “Yes. They won’t be able to hurt you or Nancy.”

  “But they were just taking your four-wheeler?” she asked more than said.

  “Yeah,” he answered, not liking the direction the conversation was going.

  “And you killed them?”

  “What the hell did you want me to do? Invite them inside for some hot chocolate and a sing-along?”

  “Well, no, but I don’t think killing them was the right thing to do. Why didn’t you just fire a couple of shots over their heads and scare them off?”

  “So they could just come back with their own guns and kill us in our sleep?” he shot back. “What’s your problem, Crystal? You didn’t have any problem with me killing the gangbangers who attacked you.”

  “Those guys were probably going to kill us. These guys were just stealing something. They didn’t deserve to die.”

  “And how do you figure that?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You know,” he continued, “in the Old West, they hung horse thieves. That quad is like my horse. Without it, I can’t get to my bug-out location, and I might die. So what I did was justified.”

  Crystal’s eyes narrowed, and she stared at him. Finally, she turned and headed for her room. She hadn’t told him where to bury the bodies, but he no longer needed help. He knew where to dispose of them. Going back outside, he tied the dead thieves to his quad, one on the front rack and one on the rear. It was only a short drive back to the old shed he’d been in when he’d first heard the shots at Crystal’s house. The dirt was soft there, too.

  * * *

  “I think that’s enough,” Jane said.

  “Do you think so?” Amanda, Harold’s wife, asked.

  “It should be. Besides, I’m tired. If we need any more, we can make them tomorrow.”

  Gabe looked at his watch. It was twelve thirty. Everyone looked tired. Robby had been doing his best to keep his eyes open for the last fifteen minutes, but it looked as if he was about to lose that battle. The Wilkeses stood up, and hands were shaken all around.

  “It was so nice to meet you,” Amanda said to Jane.

  “The pleasure was all mine,” Jane replied, “and thanks so much for the help with the flyers.”

  “No problem at all. It’s too bad that it took something like this ‘Smash’ for us to meet our neighbors.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  “Well, we’d better get home and let you get that boy to bed,” Amanda said with a smile. “Let’s go, Harold.”

  “Okay. You want a ride to your house, Gabe?”

  “No. I think I’m going to sleep here on the couch again, just in case those chicken thieves come back.”

  Gabe noticed the quick eye contact Jane and Amanda shared. He wondered what it meant.

  “If that’s okay with Jane, of course,” he added quickly.

  “No, no, that’s fine. In fact, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Then I’ll see you in the morning,” Harold said.

  “Okay, see you in the morning,” Gabe said, still wondering what the women’s looks meant.

  Harold and Amanda showed themselves out the door while Jane busied herself leading her zombielike son to his room. Gabe picked up one of the flyers. It looked almost like a ransom note since each of them had written a different section of the flyer.

  ATTENTION

  Neighborhood meeting at the Calvary Baptist Church at

  6:00 PM today, June 29th.

  Topics of discussion will include Neighborhood Security, Bartering, and anything else you want to talk about.

  Jane walked back into the room with an armload of blankets and pillows. She set them on the couch. “Thanks for staying, Gabe.”

  “No problem,” he mumbled. “How’s your leg?”

  “It’s still a little stiff, but the medication is keeping the edge off the pain.”

  “That’s good,” he said, noticing that she was looking at him as if she expected him to say something else. He just stood there for an uncomfortable moment. “Well, good night.”

  “Good night,” Jane said.

  Gabe arranged the blankets on the couch and then climbed into them. He wondered what was going on with Jane. What did she want from him? Was it what he suspected?

  Christ, I need a drink.

  CHAPTER 20

  DJ woke up with a start. He looked around the room. Nothing seemed out of place in the pale dawn light that was just beginning to illuminate the room. He listened for a minute, and except for the cheerful chirping of a couple of birds, he heard nothing. He threw the covers back and rose out of the bed in one motion.

  “Ahh,” he groaned, grabbing his right shoulder. He grimaced as that motion brought pain to his other shoulder, though not as much as his right shoulder and back were experiencing. The digging had been harder than he’d thought it would be. He gingerly lowered his left hand so he could see his watch. It was just after six a.m. After burying the two bodies and then cleaning up his quad and himself, he had only gotten a couple of hours’ sleep.

  Moving as carefully and slowly as he could, he dressed and headed out to the spot where he had stopped the thieves. There wasn’t as much blood as he’d expected. The ground seemed to have soaked up quite a bit of it. The patchwork of grass and weeds that made up Crystal’s front lawn was somewhat discolored by the red substance, though. How could he cover it up? He thought about washing it off with a hose, but there was no water pressure. He could get some water in a bucket, but how far would he have to carry it? Crystal was getting low on water in the house. She probably wouldn’t appreciate him using it to wash the grass.

  He thought about getting some dirt and sprinkling it over the area. His muscles protested at the mere thought of a shovel. Besides, the fresh dirt might look suspicious. He walked around to the backyard and looked into the storage shed, hoping it would inspire him. An almost new lawn mower with a bagger was sitting next to the shed. If he cut the lawn short, most of the bloodstained grass would be removed. He decided to give it a try.

  He unscrewed the gas cap and saw that the tank was nearly empty. He figured it would only take a quart or so to mow the front lawn. He could spare that much, especially since they were going to town to get more.

&
nbsp; Once he’d carefully put gas in the mower, he pushed it around front. His shoulders were still sore, but he’d just have to live with the pain for now. He couldn’t wait and take the chance that someone would find the bloodstains. He wondered if the mower would wake any of the neighbors and cause them to come over. It might, but he decided that the sooner he got this done, the better.

  He started mowing in the middle of the lawn where the blood was just in case someone came to see what was going on. The mower not only cut and bagged the bloody grass, but it also seemed to make the red dirt disappear. DJ figured that it stirred up whatever dust there was and deposited it over the sticky red substance. However it was happening, he was pleased with the results.

  It didn’t take long to finish. He pushed the mower back to the shed and went into the house. Crystal was sitting at the table, her eyes bloodshot. She stared at DJ as he walked in, and he felt a little uncomfortable. “Good morning,” he said.

  “I think you should go,” Crystal said.

  “Why?” he asked with genuine shock.

  “You know why.”

  “Crystal, try to look at this from my point of view. That quad is my survival. Without it, I can’t get to my retreat. Maybe I could have scared the thieves off, but what if they came back with more guys or with guns? They could have killed all of us. Or worse, they could have finished what I stopped the bangers from doing to you and Nancy.”

  “I don’t care. I want you out of here.”

  DJ felt his face go hot. He’d done everything for this woman and she didn’t appreciate it. “Fine,” he spat. He still needed the gas, though. Five gallons probably wasn’t enough to make it to his retreat, but it would get him close, and he could beg, borrow, or steal enough to get him the rest of the way. He could take the car and go get the fuel himself, but what would Crystal do? As mad as she was, would she go to the neighbors and tell them what had happened? He couldn’t take that chance. “I’ll leave, but first we’re going to town to get some gas.”

  “You can go to hell, for all I care, but I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  DJ had half a mind to backhand her, but he kept himself in check. He knew it would only strengthen her resolve not to go to town with him. He lowered his voice and spoke only a decibel or two above a whisper. “If you want me to leave, then you will go to town with me. I can’t leave without more fuel. So make up your mind what you really want.”

  He could see that his words had the desired effect. Her icy stare gave way to a pensive look. “We can go to the grocery store, and I’ll buy you some food,” he added to sweeten the pot.

  “Well,” she said slowly, “I guess if that’s the only way to get rid of you, but you buy me whatever I want and then leave as soon as we get back.”

  DJ wouldn’t leave until dark at the earliest, but he could argue about that once they got back. “Agreed,” he said with his best smile.

  * * *

  “That’s the last house,” Gabe said as he wiped his brow. He, Harold, and Robby had spent the morning walking down the roads in the area and passing out the handwritten notices they’d made the night before. All the people they had talked to were excited about the meeting and promised to be there. Gabe was surprised by how friendly they all were and how they all wanted to talk about current events. It would have normally taken only a couple of hours to walk around to all the houses. If Gabe and Harold hadn’t excused themselves from several of the houses, they wouldn’t have finished until well after dark.

  The two men and the boy headed back home. The noontime sun was warm, but not hot. The sky was blue, and a light breeze blew steadily. It was a great day for being outside. Gabe would have been in his garden if he hadn’t needed to pass out the flyers. There were still a few hours of daylight left, and Gabe thought about putting them to good use.

  They said good-bye to Harold when they reached his driveway, and then Gabe and Robby continued on quietly down the road for a few minutes. Finally Robby broke the silence.

  “What was his name?” the young man asked.

  “Who?” Gabe said.

  “Your son. I know he died, and that’s why you’re sad all the time.”

  A black hole opened in Gabe’s stomach. He hated this feeling. The only thing that would stop it was the whiskey. It upset him that the boy had reopened the wound, though he knew that he wasn’t really angry at Robby. It was more that he felt vulnerable. He thought back to some of the difficult questions Michael had asked him. Questions he didn’t know the answers to, or questions with answers that he couldn’t put into words a boy would understand. Gabe had always tried his best, though, and Michael had always seemed satisfied.

  The answer to Robby’s question was easy, though. At least it should have been. It was only seven letters, two syllables that formed a simple, common name, but Gabe could not get his mouth to move. It was almost as if saying it would cause the world to end.

  * * *

  The trip to town was a quiet one. Other than Nancy humming softly in the backseat, no one made a sound. When they got to the gas station, DJ saw a large hand-painted sign.

  5-gallon limit per week per family. NO CANS.

  He noticed two men armed with rifles at the front of the building. When he pulled up to the pump, he saw that the nozzle was locked with a padlock. A second later, the attendant came out.

  “Driver’s license please,” the young man said.

  “What for?” DJ asked.

  “We have to put it in the database and make sure no one from your address has gotten gas in the past week.”

  “You have a database just for that? That seems a little extreme, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s not. You wouldn’t believe what people try to pull just to get some extra.”

  “I guess so,” DJ said as he reached for his wallet. He pulled out his license and handed it to the man. Just as he did, it occurred to him that he should have made Crystal give her license. Then he could come back later and get more gas with his four-wheeler.

  The man looked at DJ’s card for a second and then handed it back. “I’m sorry, but you’re from out of town. We only sell to locals.”

  “I’m staying with my cousin,” DJ said as he tipped his head in Crystal’s direction. “Give him your license, Crystal.”

  Crystal didn’t say a word. She handed her license to the attendant without turning her head. The man took it, looking curiously at Crystal and then the license. “Ma’am, are you all right?” he asked.

  DJ turned to see what she would say. She continued to stare straight ahead and simply nodded once.

  “She’s not feeling well,” DJ said sadly.

  “Okay, then,” the young man said slowly. “This address is fine. I’ll be right back.” He walked back toward the office.

  “You better chill, Crystal. You’re going to blow this, and if I don’t get my gas, I can’t leave. Now, act normal.”

  She turned her head only slightly toward him and stared at him with eyes full of hate. DJ decided to push her no further. A minute or two later, the man came back out of the office. He handed Crystal’s license back to DJ.

  “Do you want the whole five gallons?”

  “Yes,” DJ said.

  “That’ll be fifty bucks.”

  DJ whistled. “Wow, ten dollars a gallon. Well, we have to have it.”

  “You’re lucky we have any. We ran out yesterday, but a truck came first thing this morning,” the attendant said as he took DJ’s cash. “Fire it up,” he hollered at one of the guards.

  DJ watched as the guard set his rifle against the building and pulled the rope on the generator he’d been standing in front of. The attendant unlocked the nozzle, and soon the five gallons of liquid gold was in the little economy car. DJ thanked the man and drove across the street to the grocery. It was an old store wit
h huge glass windows. DJ parked the car. There weren’t many other cars in the lot, but there was a considerable line of people leading into the store.

  A man was sitting at a card table with a laptop computer in front of him, an armed guard standing right behind him. Someone had cobbled together some wires that ran from the device down to a car battery. The man was recording information from people’s driver’s licenses just as DJ imagined they’d done at the gas station. He seemed in no particular hurry.

  After thirty minutes of standing in line, DJ and Crystal were at the front. The man asked for an ID, and DJ nudged Crystal. He didn’t want to show his license and was glad the man at the gas station hadn’t taken his ID. He didn’t want any record of having been in the area. Crystal fished it out of her purse and weakly smiled at the man. He took Crystal’s license and entered her address. “You can buy one hundred dollars’ worth of merchandise,” he said. “Not a penny more, and you have to pay in cash.”

  “No problem,” DJ said. He wondered what people who didn’t have any money were doing. They grabbed a basket and went into the store. The large front windows, plus windows along the side of the building and skylights, made it seem as if they had expected that the power would go out one day. Of course the building might have been constructed before they had electricity in this area, DJ thought. It certainly was here before power became reliable.

  “Whatever you want,” DJ said to Crystal.

  She finally looked at him and almost smiled.

  “Well, that’s better,” DJ said.

  “I’m sorry, DJ. I guess I was afraid after what happened that you might hurt us. I’d been getting a vibe that your motives toward me might not be so pure, that you really didn’t care about Nancy or me. I figured you lied about buying the groceries just to make me come to town with you. Now I see that I was wrong.”