by AJ Newman
“Mom? Mom, where are you?”
MMax growled beside me, and I knew he was on high alert. I didn’t want him to attack. I yelled, “Watch him!”
I forced my aching body to stand up and face the voices. I then turned my flashlight on to see a young boy on the ground, and a woman with a pistol pointed at me. She said, “Drop your gun, mister, or I’ll shoot.”
I didn’t realize I also had drawn my pistol and had it aimed at her. My instincts were to shoot and ask questions later. My hand shook as my mind overrode the impulse to kill this woman and her kid. I said, “I’m sooorry, but my horth got spooked end went weld ruuunning this vay. Weee must ov crushed into your camp. Air you and de boy, okay?”
“Mister, What? I told you to drop your pistol. You can call your dogs off, too,” the woman said.
My body hurt all over, and my foot screamed in pain, but I hid my pain from this stranger. There was no way I would ever drop my gun and give a complete stranger the advantage over me. “Lady, I don’t drust you any more than you …trust me. I will ass…ure you that if you shooot that pistol, MMax will rip your throat out before you kin turn that pistol on him. Tina will tear into the boy,” which was probably a lie, but it worked.
As if on cue, MMax fiercely growled to back me up. “Lady, less both put r guns awaaay and zort tings out.”
“You first.”
I noticed the more I talked, the better the words sounded. I replied, “No, we both holster r guns on the count of tree. One … two …thu…ree.”
We both lowered our pistols. The woman tucked her gun into her waistband, and I placed mine back in my holster.
I turned to MMax. “Heel, MMax” and he came to my side. I then said, “Zit.” MMax looked at me with a puzzled look. I made the sign for sit, and he sat back on his haunches, facing the woman and waiting for my next command. Tina followed MMax’s actions and stood down. The lady stooped down to tend to her son, who held his arm close to his chest and appeared to be in pain.
“Ma’am, I’m zorry fer what happeeened, but az I said my horse got spooked and …”
She had fire in her eyes. “And you ran over us. Something hit me and rolled over the top of me and then hit my son.”
“Zorry but that was me … that hit you. I was thrown from the cart, along with my dogs. Something spooooked the horse, and he went beee … serk.”
She didn’t want to hear anything I said. “You shouldn’t have been traveling so fast in the dark. You could have killed us. Hold your flashlight on my son’s arm.”
I aimed the light at the boy, and she examined his arm first and then placed a Band-Aid on his forehead. The boy whined the entire time, and glared at me every time he looked my way. The lady stopped tending to her son. “You’re lucky Mark only received a few scratches and a bruise on his forearm.”
I smiled my smile that usually charmed the ladies. “Ma’am, I have a bet of me…di…cal draining and would be glad to look at both of you.”
Her answer was, “I’ll bet you’d like to look at us. What’s wrong with your mouth? You’re talking funny.”
“I was in an accident, and den da airplane I was on crashed not far from here. I just want ta help make up for the accident.”
She softened a bit. “I’m sorry you were injured, but that’s no excuse for trying to kill us.”
She pointed to the second horse and goat grazing a few yards away. “Let me have your spare horse. My son and I can get home much faster with a horse.”
“Maybe I can loan da … horse to you… Where are you going? … Perhaps we can travel together … and then I can have my horse back when we arrive at your place,” I said. I found that if I slowed my speech and paused between sentences, I could speak more clearly.
The woman turned quickly toward me with her nostrils flared and veins popping out on her forehead. “You’re some kind of special idiot if you think I’m taking a stranger to my home in the middle of the world falling apart. Besides, my husband would shoot you for trying to kill us.”
The boy looked at me twice and then at his mom. “But Mom, Daddy died …”
“Shut up, Mark. Lie back down and take a nap until the sun comes up. We’re taking one of these horses with us. Mister, shine that light somewhere else. You’re blinding me.”
The lady was an attractive blonde about medium height and definitely my type. It was a shame I had to meet her by crashing into her and her son. The woman had lied about having a husband and had been nothing but a pain in the ass since I met … err …crashed into them. I thought for a minute and figured I owed them the horse even if they shouldn’t have been camped so close to the road.
“Lady, you can have the horse. … I wish you well and would never harm a woman and her kid. … I just thought you could use some protection as you traveled home. … I see you’re not the trusting kind …and I don’t blame you. … Something bad has happened, and you need to get off the roads and get home as soon as possible. … Take the horse in the morning.”
The lady didn’t say thanks, get screwed, or go to Hell. She just lay down beside her boy and kept guard for the next three hours until the sun rose above the hills.
I made a bed by throwing the Mylar sheet on the ground and then a couple of coats. Before I could get my head on a rolled-up pair of pants MMax lay down with his head on my stomach facing the strangers, and Tina curled up by my left leg. Their warm bodies felt good on a chilly spring night. I slept well that night, thanks to MMax’s vigilance and two Hydrocodone pills to kill the pain from me flying into the woman and her brat. I should have offered the lady some of my medicine, but she clearly refused my medical help. I kinda hoped she’d be sore all over in the morning for being nasty to me.
***
MMax had detected the odor of the same evil man on the clothes of the mad woman and boy. The scent was keen on the woman, but very weak on the boy. MMax sniffed the woman several times and decided he didn’t like her, but she wasn’t one of the evil ones. MMax had encountered hundreds of evil ones with his human over the years and could recognize them by their foul odor. This evil one was especially foul smelling.
MMax kept watch through the night. His low growl scared off a skunk and a couple of opossums, and he felt like a good dog. He took pride in protecting his human. MMax heard movement coming from the direction of the mad woman and the bad boy. The bad boy crawled toward the cart in the shadows cast by the moon. MMax low crawled in the direction of the cart, and he arrived at the cart before the bad boy. MMax waited until the boy was a few feet from the cart and growled in his most fearsome voice. The bad boy made a muffled sound and scurried back to the mad woman. MMax had protected his human’s property. He was a Good Dog.
***
I had my usual nightmares, but was so tired I slept most of the night and only remembered vague pieces of the dreams.
I was very pleased to see MMax sleeping on his back with his legs pointed skyward as Malinois do. I hoped this meant the pain from his wounds had gone away. MMax saw me watching him and gave me his goofy expression with his tongue hanging out.
I had fed MMax and Tina before the lady stirred from her fitful sleep. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and woke her son before addressing me. “I see you have a saddle hanging from the cart. We need the saddle more than you do.”
I jumped up from my bed, yawning and stretching to show the lady I had no pain. It was a lie, but she didn’t need to know. I sarcastically replied. “Take the saddle. Is there anything else I can give you to help you get home?”
The lady tried to stand up but took two tries since she was obviously in pain from her right arm and leg. She smiled for the first time. “No, I think that will be enough. Can you help me put the saddle on the horse?”
“Wait a minute while I find something,” I said, and then I searched for my crutches. I found one crutch, hobbled over to the saddle, and picked it up with my left hand. I dragged it to the horse and dropped the crutch so I could lean against the horse while I lift
ed the saddle onto the horses back. The saddle landed a bit hard, and the horse pulled away from me. I fell backward on my butt and watched the lady and her punk whiney kid laugh.
I was pissed. “I guess you always laugh at crippled people. … I’m trying to help you two, and you laugh at my misfortune to repay me.”
The smile disappeared from the woman’s face, and she came to me with her hand out to help me up. She said, “I’m sorry. I guess I was so mad at you that I didn’t care about your injuries. What happened to you? Were you hurt when the lights went out?”
I replied. “I hurt my jaw, back, and foot before the crap hit the fan in an unfortunate accident. I was banged up when the plane I was on crashed a few miles from here. There were only a few survivors, and the others thought I was dead and left without me.”
She helped me to my feet, and then made her son help gather my possessions and load them back into the cart. She acted almost human and smiled a couple of times. I noticed she was beautiful in a tomboy sort of way. She caught me checking her out and blushed.
“I guess you don’t want my company, so I’m going to load up and head out of here. Be careful, and I hope you and your son get home safe.”
As I rounded a turn, I took a quick look back and caught the lady watching me. I waved, and she waved back. She and her son were quickly out of sight, and I wondered the rest of the day if I should have insisted that I go with them to protect them. I tried to get that out of my mind, and hoped she was as good with that pistol as she was with her sharp tongue. A hunch told me she would have to use it if she wished to survive. I thought about what had happened, and each stalled car I passed reminded me that the world had fallen apart.
☆
Chapter 7
About 15 miles west of Cookeville, TN
MMax smelled the evil man from a long distance, since the wind was coming from his direction. MMax also smelled more humans, but they smelled normal to his sense of good versus evil. The man was the same evil man who had tried to sneak up on them a couple days ago. MMax was ready to bite him and hoped Jason would yell the bite command.
***
I only saw a few people on the road that morning, and all but one group avoided me. They appeared to be man and wife with two young teenage girls heading west to Nashville. MMax lifted his head and growled to tell me he was alert and the man to stop advancing. MMax sat up with his nose, pointing down the road. He growled more than usual, so I paid closer attention to the group. I said, “Watch him,” and told the man to stop. The man stopped and talked with his palms extended. The man asked, “What’s it like heading east? We were on our way to Asheville when our car died. It got rough in Nashville, so we left quickly, and we have made it this far in two days. We were separated from my sister and her boy. Have you seen a young woman and a young teen boy heading this way?”
I instantly knew the man lied about heading east. The part about the woman and boy heading west didn’t match his story either. I didn’t understand why he was after the mom and boy I’d met the day before, but I knew he was up to no good. A closer inspection of the man told me he had tattoos on his neck and one on his forehead that was covered by a lock of hair. His clothes didn’t match his wife’s or kid’s clothing. Their clothes were high end and expensive, but his were threadbare and dirty. I saw a bulge under his jacket where one would tuck a gun into their waistband. I answered while wrapping my hand around the butt of my pistol, which was hidden from sight under my thigh. “I don’t know much about what’s east of here. I survived a plane crash over by Cookeville and just headed west yesterday.”
I looked at the woman and mumbled, “Ma’am, bring the kids over, and I’ll share some food with you.”
The woman looked at the man, who gave her a dirty look and said, “We’re okay but thanks.”
The two girls had started walking toward me when the man yelled for them to go back to their mom. Then he said, “What’s wrong with your mouth?”
I called to MMax. “Watch him!” MMax jumped off the cart and stood close to the man, baring his teeth and growling.
In one smooth motion, I drew my pistol and placed my sights on his chest. “Lady, I know this man isn’t your husband. Buddy, use two fingers and drop the gun to the ground. Oh, and don’t worry about my mouth, asshole.”
The man cursed a string of swearwords and then said, “I’ll slowly back away and leave with my gun.”
“MMax, Watch him!” MMax growled and rose up on his haunches. I was surprised at how aggressive MMax behaved.
I looked the scumbag in the eye. “If you move again, MMax will tear you to pieces. If you don’t drop the gun by the time I count three, I’ll shoot you. One …two .”
“Wait, don’t shoot.”
The man slowly grabbed the gun with his left index finger and thumb. He held the gun waist high and dropped it on the ground. He then said, “If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you and your damn dog.”
This pissed me off, so I squeezed the trigger and shot a bullet past his left ear, close enough to make his hair fly up in the air. I was only five feet from him, and the explosion in his face scared the crap out of him. I surprised myself by my restraint. I wanted to kill the man, and then I almost laughed because MMax lifted his leg and pissed on the man’s leg. MMax had only done this a few times to people he didn’t like.
I yelled, “Start running east and don’t stop, or the next bullet will kill your sorry ass. Go!”
I told MMax to sit while we watched the man take off running at a high speed, and not looking back. MMax looked at me and then growled at the man who was quickly moving away. MMax had wanted to attack him. I didn’t have time to wonder why. “MMax, you really didn’t like that man. Good Boy, MMax.”
We were at the top of a rise and could see him for over a half mile. He disappeared behind the next hill, and we watched without talking. The woman and girls came over to me, and profusely thanked me for saving them from the horrible man.
The lady hugged me close for a few minutes as she sobbed. I could now see their wrists had been bound and were bruised. I finally broke free from her.
She said, “We can’t thank you enough for risking your life to save us from that horrible man.”
I blushed. “Ma’am, I just did what anyone would do to help people in distress.”
She kissed me on the cheek. “No, most people would have looked the other way, or run and hid. We owe you a debt and just let me know what we can do to pay it back to you.”
I was at a loss for the right words, so I didn’t say anything. I wished she wasn’t so emotional.
She said, “Thanks for trying. Thank God, he didn’t rape the girls or me. He kept mouthing off about what he was going to do to a woman who’d escaped from him. I’ll kill him myself if he ever comes around my girls or me again. I’m Karen Martin, and that’s Missy and Chrissy. Can we travel with you until we can find a safe place?”
I didn’t like having three defenseless women with me while I tried to make it home, but it was the right thing to do. My mind was eased a bit when I saw Karen pick up the man’s 9-mm pistol and drop the magazine out to count the bullets. She then shoved the magazine into the gun and jacked a round into the chamber. She said, “The bastard didn’t have a bullet in the chamber. What an idiot.”
I gave each of them one of my MREs and the woman sent the girls out of hearing range to talk with me in private. She ate while talking. “The SOB killed my brother a couple of days ago and he …” Before she finished, she broke down in tears again.
Karen moved to the cart and sobbed on my shoulder. I patted her on the back and tried to say something to make her feel better. Remember, I’m not good at this stuff. There was nothing I could say that would make her feel better after being captured and probably raped by that thug. I finally said, “There is nothing anyone can do to you that will make you less of a person or less of a great mother to your girls. I’d like to say you will forget about these bad times, but the truth is you’ll
heal and be able to forget about it on most days, but you will still have nightmares. If I’d known what he had done, I would have ended his miserable life.”
That was a lot to say since my mouth hurt and was still wired shut. I did notice she looked strangely at me but could understand what I’d said.
“Ma’am, I’m Jason Walker, and I’m glad to have you travel with me, but I’m only going to a small place southeast of Nashville. I’d let y’all ride in my cart, but my foot is injured, and I can’t walk. My dog MMax was injured in the same accident, and he can’t walk much either.”
Karen smiled through the tears. “Thanks. We’re only going over to Smyrna ourselves. Did you injure your mouth in the accident?”
I mumbled, “Yes, my mouth, foot, and arm were injured in an accident, and then I was banged up in a plane crash. The more I practice talking, the better I sound.” I didn’t want to tell the long story about the war and explosions, so I began telling everyone who asked that I was injured in an accident. Well, I was injured in a plane crash, so I wasn’t lying about an accident.
I knew it was only a long shot, but I asked, “You haven’t seen two white men and a young Latino woman on the road since the grid went down, have you? They might have looked like soldiers, due to the buzz haircuts like mine.”
“Are you a soldier?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I’ve been in the Army since high school. MMax and I have been together for two years.”
She frowned. “Last night, that asshole took us into the camp of what I can only describe as a motorcycle gang without motorcycles. They were on foot and bitched a lot about their bikes, not running. There were about ten men, six women, and five or six prisoners. There were three woman prisoners, but I didn’t get a close look at them. I’m sorry, but I was so scared for my girls that I didn’t worry about the others.”
Her head dropped in shame, but I stuck a finger under her chin and lifted her head, so I could see her face. “You’re the mother of two pretty young girls and need to protect them from the trash out on the road. Don’t be ashamed of not being able to save others.”
