She was waiting for the pain but didn’t feel it. Her eyes opened and she saw Barnes stagger, his body arching, then falling onto his side. She didn’t know if he was dead but she scrambled toward him, recovering the rifle he’d dropped. She rose on her knees, aimed in the general direction of his head, and put two bullets point-blank into his skull.
She dropped the rifle and crawled to Jim. She was hypervigilant, scared, her heart racing. Where had the shot come from? She had to get Jim out of here before more people showed up. She was at his side, trying to get him on his feet when Pete ran up. Randi was startled and grabbed for the rifle, and then saw who it was.
She took one glance at him and knew that it had been him who saved her life and his dad’s. “Help me get him up.”
Pete ran to her side, slowing when he caught sight of the dead man, then Alice. Pete had seen dead bodies before but not out in the daylight like this. It was different. It was real in a way that he hadn’t experienced before, real in a way he hoped he never experienced again.
“Pete!” Randi ordered, worried that he may go into shock if she couldn’t keep him engaged. “Get over here. I need your help.”
There was a sound behind them and they both flew to attention, pointing rifles in that direction.
“Don’t shoot!”
Had Hugh not emerged from the rows of corn with both hands raised over his head, they’d have killed him instantly. His gesture of surrender gave him just enough time to state his case.
“I’m Hugh,” he said quickly. “I’m an old friend of Jim’s. I took out the ATV driver. We need to get out of here now.”
The sound of a roaring engine drew their attention to the road. Pete could hear that it was Mack Bird’s Dodge. The truck was crossing the creek and spinning up onto the pavement.
“Pete!” Mack yelled out the window. “Pete!”
There were other voices too, everyone trying to find Pete.
Randi wasn’t sure about trusting the new guy just yet. “Pete, you run to the road and get those guys up here to help us. I’m keeping a gun on Hugh until you get back. I don’t feel very trusting right now.”
Pete ran the short distance to the road, calling to Mack before he broke cover. “I’m here!” Pete said. “We need help!”
In less than a minute, there was a force of men from the valley surrounding Pete, Randi, and Jim. Mack and Buddy got in a short firefight with two men from the superstore. They killed one and the other fled. If there were any other forces remaining at the superstore, they were either hiding or retreating. It seemed the threat was neutralized.
Jim was fully conscious now. Lloyd and Hugh were helping him back to the truck.
“I don’t know who gave you that nose job, but it’s about damn time you had something done about it,” Lloyd said. “It’s an improvement.”
Jim was too battered to reply.
“You remember how Ariel likes pugs?” Lloyd cracked. “Now her daddy looks like one. She’ll be thrilled.”
Jim ignored the jab and looked at Hugh. “I appreciate your help. Welcome aboard.”
Hugh nodded. “I appreciate that.”
The sheriff and Deputy Ford retrieved Alice’s body and put it in the back of the truck, covering it with a tarp. When they were all loaded, the two law enforcement officers didn’t get in the truck.
“What’s the matter?” Jim asked. “Aren’t you coming back?”
“Eventually,” the sheriff said. “I’m going up to the store. I want to talk to who’s left. I want to make sure this is over.”
“They may be hostile,” Jim warned. “There may be men left. Or even worse, pissed off women.”
Both the sheriff and deputy held up M4s.
“We’re prepared for either possibility,” Ford said.
Jim nodded. “Then we’ll see you later.”
Chapter 49
The Valley
Mack eased his truck down over the bank and crept across the creek. Jim and Randi sat in the front, needing a slightly more delicate ride than the truck bed provided. In the back, the rest of the men watched for threats, their guns at the ready.
As the truck eased out of the creek, Gary reached over and patted Pete on the back. “You did a damn good job, Pete.”
Pete smiled nervously. He was still jittery, coming down from the adrenaline dump of the last thirty minutes. “I hope my mom thinks so.”
Gary shook his head regretfully. “Not a chance, kid. She’s going to beat your ass like she’s playing a drum.”
Pete’s smile disappeared. “I had to save my dad.”
“I know you did and I’ll help you plead your case,” Gary said, “but I ain’t sure it’s going to do you any good.”
Pete looked glum. The truck hit a bump and everyone grabbed on.
“Sorry!” Mack yelled, trying to keep a slow, steady pace. It was difficult on the rutted farm road. They started up an incline and Mack crept along. When they topped the hill and came in sight of Jim’s farm, Mack lurched to a stop.
“What is it?” Jim asked.
Mack pointed to Jim’s house.
Jim saw that there were four Humvees parked around his house.
“Shit!” Jim muttered, shaking his head. “What else can go wrong?”
“What should I do?” Mack asked.
Jim opened his door and slid out of the truck. He faced the men in the back. “I don’t know what the hell is going on down there but you all should get out and take cover. If I need you, you’ll do me more good up here. I’m going to ride in alone.”
“No way,” Mack and Randi both said at the same time.
“Look, I don’t want to put anyone else in danger today,” Jim said. “You all have saved my ass once already. That should be the daily limit for anyone.”
“Actually, Pete saved your ass,” Randi pointed out.
“I’d rather go in alone,” Jim said.
“Fuck that,” Mack said.
“Agreed,” Randi said.
Jim sighed. “Well, I’m too tired to argue. Let’s go.”
The three of them climbed back in the truck and Mack started the engine. They continued to the house and parked in the driveway. Jim’s wife, his daughter, and his parents were all sitting on the porch. Randi’s family was there, as was Gary’s. Even poor Charlie, who did not yet know the fate of his mother, was sitting there stoically. Standing among the familiar faces were men with rifles and tactical gear, men Jim had never seen before.
The trio sat there for a moment, taking in the scene. Seated on the porch steps, sipping a bottle of water, was a large man that Jim also didn’t recognize. He was dressed in expensive casual clothing and had an AR-15 laying across his lap. He wore body armor, as did the men who were with him.
“Who the hell is that?” Mack asked. “He looks like he just came from a firefight at a golf course.”
“Shit,” Jim muttered. “He probably is from the golf course. Why the hell not?”
“They better not have hurt my family,” Randi warned. “They’ll meet a side of me they won’t like.”
“Just relax,” Jim said. “Let me out.”
Randi opened her door, the operation of the latch unusually loud in the stillness of the day. She slid out of the vehicle and stepped to the side. Jim was right behind her. He walked around to the front of the truck, leaned stiffly back on the bumper, and regarded the scene before him. Mack and Randi followed, taking positions on either side of him.
Ellen’s hand moved to her mouth, alarmed by Jim’s condition. Ariel started crying, apparently not impressed that he looked like a pug. All anyone seemed interested in was his damaged face. Didn’t they realize there were bigger problems on the table? Yeah, his face hurt like hell but he couldn’t do anything about it right now.
“You guys hang back here for a second,” Jim said to Randi and Mack, noting that the armed men on the porch had moved to a heightened state of alertness. The rifles they carried were now shouldered, the barrels up but not pointed dir
ectly at anyone.
Jim approached the big man reclining on his steps. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask who the fuck the man thought he was, but he bit his tongue and cleaned it up for all of the children within earshot. He would try to keep this civil, though his fuse was understandably short at the moment.
“Can I help you?” Jim asked.
The man regarded Jim’s appearance. His mouth hung slightly open as if he couldn’t make sense of something. “Son, it looks like someone broke the ugly stick right across your face. Maybe a couple of times.”
Jim let out a deep breath, which had to go out his mouth since his nose wasn’t working at the moment. “Let’s skip the niceties,” Jim said. “As you can probably tell, I’ve had a rough day. I’m tired and there’s nothing I want more than to go soak my face in some nice cold spring water.”
The man considered this. “Then I’ll be short and to the point,” he said. “My name is Lester Hurt and I think you have my fuel tanker. I want it back.”
Jim forced himself to take another deep breath and let it out. It was supposed to be calming but it wasn’t working. The intake of air made his sinuses throb. He was tired of the fuel truck and all of the problems it had brought upon them.
“Do you know what I’m talking about?” Lester asked.
Jim nodded slowly.
“There was a son-of-a-bitch that stole a bunch of supplies from over at Wallace County,” Lester said. “That’s where I live. Some of us spent our own personal money to bring in fuel, food, and other supplies for our community. Things weren’t perfect but we were set pretty good. Then this asshole named Baxter stole our shit and brought it over here. He had plans of setting up his own little camp and using our supplies to do it.”
“I’m aware of that,” Jim said. “We probably killed him for you.”
“No, you didn’t,” Lester said, smiling. “I had the pleasure of seeing him killed right in front of my own eyes. Our own people took a little payback out on him for stealing our shit.”
Jim nodded. “Well, whoever the men with the trailer were, we killed the rest of them.”
Lester chuckled. “Those were members of his team and I’ve got no problem with you killing his people. Just saved me the trouble of doing it. I do have a problem with you keeping the tanker and supplies. I understand why you took them – spoils of war and all that – but they do belong to the folks in my community. We’re here to take them back.”
Jim shrugged. “Then take them. Those supplies have been nothing but trouble for us.”
Lester smiled. He was wearing sunglasses that hid his eyes, making it hard to tell if the smile was genuine or not. “Glad to hear you see things my way.”
Jim put a foot on the porch step and leaned forward conspiratorially. “I have to tell you, though, we blew up the roads into the valley. It may not be so easy to get them out.”
“We noticed,” Lester said. “We came in through a logging road. It was on the old maps.”
“So how do you plan on retrieving your trailers? We figured road tractors would sink up trying to pull them out on dirt roads.”
Lester wagged a finger at Jim. “This ain’t my first rodeo, son,” he said. “I came up in the mining business. We move trailers around mine sites without trucks nearly every day. I’ve got a D8 dozer being unloaded from a lowboy trailer right now. It’s pulling a tow dolly that will hook right up to that trailer and pull it out of here pretty as you please.”
“Good for you,” Jim said. “Knock yourself out.”
“One more thing, am I going to find my trailers empty?” Lester asked.
“We used some of the supplies, some of the fuel,” Jim said. “Most of it’s still there.”
Lester nodded. “I guess that’s to be expected.”
“Now you got what you wanted so why don’t you get your people off my porch? I’ll tell you where your trailer is and you can go help yourself. We won’t try to stop you.”
Lester lay back comfortably on the steps, splayed out, his foot bobbing. Despite his AR-15 and body armor, Jim noticed that he was wearing shiny penny loafers. He grinned at Jim. “I’d rather keep them here until we’re safely out of the valley. Wouldn’t want you changing your mind. It could take a few hours to finish up and be gone.”
Jim raised his radio to his mouth and looked Lester in the eye. He pushed the transmit button and said, “Water bottle.”
There was a distant boom and the water bottle at Lester’s side exploded. He jerked but caught a spray of water from the shattered bottle.
“Dammit!” Lester hissed.
His men ducked, looking around frantically.
Jim hit the transmit button again. “Balls,” he instructed, saying it loudly enough that Lester would have no doubt as to the command.
Lester flinched, slamming his legs shut. He threw a hand out in Jim’s direction. “Okay, okay,” he said. “We’ll leave. You’ve made your point.”
“Tell your men to get off my porch and get off my property,” Jim said flatly. “You can take your trailers and get out of here.”
Lester worked his bulk into a standing position, gesturing to his men. “Let’s go!”
Jim stepped to the side and watched the men file off his porch and to their vehicles. When they were all off the porch, Ariel and Ellen ran to Jim’s side.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked.
Ellen shook her head. “Just scared us. They came out of nowhere on foot and took us by surprise. They only brought the vehicles in later.”
“Are you okay, Ariel?” Jim asked.
“I’m fine, Daddy,” she said, holding him tightly.
“Where’s Pete?” Ellen asked. “Is he okay?”
“He’s with the other men,” Jim said. “They’re hanging back to make sure things are okay here.”
“I’m going to tan his hide,” Ellen warned.
“Go easy on him,” Jim said. “He did exactly what I would have done.”
“That’s what worries me,” Ellen said.
Jim pulled away from his family. “I need to go soak my face in some cold water,” he said. “It’s a little tender.”
Ariel looked at him, her eyebrows raised. “You call that tender?”
“Okay, it’s very, very tender.”
“What happened to your nose?” Ellen asked.
“Which time?”
Ellen winced and took his hand. “Come on. Let’s go to the springhouse. That’s the coldest water we have.”
Chapter 50
The Valley
Charlie took the news of his mother’s fate better than anyone expected. Perhaps he only saw it as one more facet of a world that had already shown him a lot of pain in a short time.
“The lady who came back from that trip wasn’t really my mother,” he told Jim and Randi. “She tried to be but she wasn’t. She was a different person. I’d rather think that my real mother never came back because that’s what it feels like. That’s the way I’m going to look at it.”
Jim understood. He could see Randi, who had resolved never to cry again over the state of the world, pinching her thigh to avoid going back on her word.
Randi, who had never raised a son, took Charlie in. There were several families willing to, including Jim’s, but Randi said she felt a special obligation. “That could have been me,” she told Jim. “I could have sided with the women on our trip and chosen to come back with them instead of with you and Gary. I could have had her experiences. I could have come home changed like she did.”
“You didn’t,” Jim said. “There are too many close calls in life anymore to keep track of them. Close calls don’t mean anything anymore.” That was how he saw things. With so much bad shit really happening, why worry about the stuff that could have happened but didn’t?
“Maybe close calls don’t mean anything to you,” Randi said. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to disregard them. Either way, I’m doing it because I would hope Alice might have done the same thing for me.�
�
*
After a few quiet weeks, the folks in the valley had their first frost and the leaves began to change color. While it was a beautiful time of year in the Appalachian Mountains, it also brought the awareness that it could be a long, lean winter. Everyone doubled their efforts to store food and lay in a supply of firewood. Jim imagined this anxiety might have been the way his pioneer ancestors felt going into fall and winter, wondering if they had enough.
The group at the superstore dispersed after Barnes and the other men were killed, many of the families now left without husbands and fathers. Those remaining made the decision to seek other family members to live with. Some tried to remain at the superstore but as word leaked out about their diminished numbers, local citizens began showing up and forcing their way in to look for supplies. Eventually everyone left the superstore and found shelter elsewhere. The store became a ransacked, rodent-infested ruin.
With the sheriff’s assistance, Hugh managed to get all of his radio equipment out safely. He found one of the last empty houses in the valley with a fireplace and set up there. He erected several antennas around his new home with the help of the neighbors. As Hugh had expected, the valley was excited to have a radio operator among them. Perhaps now they could hear something of the world outside of their county.
The days got shorter and people began going to bed earlier to conserve their light sources. One cool evening, as everyone was gathered at Jim’s for a communal dinner, the lights flickered on for a moment and then went back off.
Everyone sat there in silence, then looked at each other in confusion. They wondered if they’d all imagined it. Had it been a mass hallucination? Then everyone was jabbering frantically amongst themselves, trying to figure out what it meant. They came to no conclusions and the lights didn’t come back on.
Two weeks later, it happened again. There was a flicker, then darkness again. Hugh worked his radios and found that there was an effort to get coal-fired power plants back in operation again. There were no details and no prognosis, but the military was involved. Folks tried not to get their hopes up that normality could be around the corner, but it was difficult. They wanted their old lives back. Even Jim, who had seemed to thrive in his new circumstances, wanted his old life back. He was ready to drag himself back into the office and deal with people’s mundane problems all day. Life was simpler now but the consequences immeasurably higher.
Valley of Vengeance: Book Five in The Borrowed World Series Page 22
