Write
a riveting tale that takes place within the confines of one hour.
The Survivors, Chapter 4
Approx 2,694
words
©2004 by W. E. Lopez
Don helped Maggie put the dinner dishes
in the sink and the kids belted into passenger seat of the dinette. Naturally, as kids will do,
“Does your mother let you ride up front?”
Maggie asked.
“Well… only when she’s not driving with
us, then daddy usually let’s Mikey ride up front.
Daddy says he needs to keep an eye on Mikey.”
“Don and I have to keep an eye on both of
you,” Maggie said, “and I might have to help Don keep an eye on the road
too. You’ll be safer if you sit right
there and keep your seat belts fastened.
We never expect to get into an accident, but you can never tell, and
seat belts help to keep you safe.”
Both children seemed to think that was a
marvelous idea, why, Don couldn’t guess, but if it made them happy, he was
happy also. With his little band of
survivors ready for the road once more, Don turned the key and pulled out of
the parking lot then north, into the waste land on a less traveled road. To minimize the risk of accidents, he kept
his speed to twenty-five, but there was no traffic on this seldom used
road. It was clear of tumbleweeds and
other obstructions, evidently the county graded a minimum of once each year,
but it became rough gravel after less than a mile of driving.
He shielded his eyes from the late
afternoon sun until it dropped beneath the crest of the nearby mountains and
then switched on the headlamps even though they were not yet needed. Only occasionally did they see a turnoff, to
the left or right, indicating a home or ranch in that direction. As they slowly drove along in the deepening
gloom, Maggie and the kids started up a children’s song, “B-I-N-G-O, Bingo was
his name!” The sound of their laughter
and tiny voices brought back distant memories for Don.
What seemed like a lifetime ago, he had
driven while Alyce had entertained his own young twins; Daniel and
Elizabeth. Don had been a junior officer
in the Army then, and the family always took two or three week road trips with
his pickup pulling a twenty-two foot travel trailer. Alyce had a way with children, and the twins
eagerly looked forward to their summer trips during school vacations until they
reached their teenage years and developed a preference for spending their
summers with other teenagers. Don and
Alyce had twice invited friends of the twins to accompany them in their summer
travels, but Don felt uncomfortable disciplining other children and, without
discipline, four teenagers become more of an unruly mob than a family vacation. All too soon, the twins were grown and had
moved away to start families of their own.
Then Alyce succumbed to cervical cancer and about the same time Don completed
his twenty and retired from the Army, he found himself alone in life.
“Bang!”
The steering wheel jerked in Don’s hands and pulled the motor home
across the road. He slammed on the
brakes and quickly brought it to a stop.
He turned and found Maggie,
“Must have blown a tire,” he said, “plenty
of sharp rocks on an unpaved road. Wait here while I check.”
He put the motor home in Park and set the
emergency brake before stepping out.
Sure enough, the front wheel on the driver’s side was flat and
shredded. Don was certainly glad he
hadn’t been doing sixty on the Interstate when the tire blew, the results could
have spelled disaster. Resigning himself
to spending at least an hour with a seldom used jack and grunting with
cumbersome tools, Don stuck his head back inside the motor home.
“Okay, folks. All out to enjoy the wonderous sights of The Painted Desert. Concessions to your left,
restrooms to your right. Please
stay on the marked paths and don’t feed the bears!”
“Bears!” Mikey and
“Don is just teasing you, kids. There are no bears around here,” she assured
them.
“Of course not,” Don said, “but there
might be coyotes or snakes. Most likely,
if there are, they’ll be more afraid of you than you are of them, but stay
close to the motor home and don’t wander off.
I’ve got to change this tire and we’re stuck here until I do.”
The kids shouted their pleasure and
quickly unbuckled, glad to be able to run outside and play. Maggie went along to keep an eye on them and
make sure they didn’t stray too far, while Don got down to the serious work.
He dismounted the spare from the carrier
on the back, then opened the utility compartment and pulled out wheel chocks,
lug wrench and six-ton hydraulic jack.
After chocking the wheels to make sure the motor home wouldn’t run off,
he crawled far enough under to position the jack and raised it just enough to
make sure it wouldn’t move, then he began loosening the eight lug nuts.
Normally Don had the tires rotated or
repared at a garage and naturally they had last been mounted by someone using
an air driven impact wrench. Don struggled
and strained until the first nut made a screeching sound and backed off half a
turn. He went to the next nut and
repeated the process. By the time he had
all eight nuts “broken,” he needed to take a break and sat on the spare tire
which lay next to his work area. After a
few deep breaths he began again, crawling under the motor home and raising the
axel until the damaged tire was three inches above the ground.
Crawl out again, now begin removing all
eight lug nuts and dismounting the tire.
Why had he paid Triple-A and Good Sam all those years, and where were
they when a guy really needed them?
One nut down, seven to go. Maggie sat down on the spare tire smoking a
cigarette. “What do you think happened,
Don?”
“Search me, Maggie. You were awake when it happened; I was drunk
as a skunk. Say, where are the kids?”
“Right there,” she said, pointing a few
yards back in the direction from which they had come. “I can see them well enough, but they can’t
hear you.”
“How’s your arm?”
“I wish it belonged to someone else, but
it’s not too bad. I took another Darvon
about fifteen minutes ago, I hope you don’t mind.”
“You’re the patient, Maggie. Take all you need. From the number of people we’ve seen so far,
or the lack thereof, we should be able to find more supplies at the next drug
store we find.”
“You mean we’re going back to Vegas,
Don?”
“I mean I’ll go back in a few
days, as soon as we find a place where you and the kids will be safe. We’ll have to find a car or a motor cycle, we
can’t drive this rig all over
“But I was wrong about getting away on
our own where we could be safe. I’m not
the pioneer type, crossing the great prairie in a covered wagon, and I’m not
sure I can take care of you and the kids if we set up a homestead some
where. We need a place to call home, but
we need other people too. We just have
to be careful not to fall in with someone like that nut who took a shot at us
earlier.”
“I still can’t believe that happened,
Don. Why would someone want to shoot at
us? Were they trying to kill us?”
“If I see him, I’ll ask, but I’d rather
not meet anyone who shoots first and then asks questions.”
He dismounted the tire and let it fall to
the ground. “If you’ll excuse me, miss,
I need that chair you’ve been resting on.”
“Oh, sorry, here I am gabbing and resting
while you’re doing all the work,” she apologized.
“You better not let me catch you trying
anything strenuous with that broken arm.
You just take it easy, as easy as you can, at least.”
Don mounted the spare and tightened all
eight nuts finger tight, then snugged each one down with the lug wrench. As soon as he had let the tire back on the
ground, Maggie decided she needed to visit the power room again and excused herself. By now it
was quite dark and the children returned to see how soon Don would be finished
with his labors.
“Just a few more minutes, honey,” he told
“Sure, Don,” she said, eager to be
helpful.
“What can I do, Don?” Mikey asked.
“When
Mikey seemed to be pleased with such an
important job and snatched the flashlight away from
“Don’t do that!”
“Don told me to, smarty! I’m his helper!”
“I did,
“Well don’t be fighting over the damn
thing,” a gruff voice called from the darkness.
“Just finish what you started and let’s get this show on the road.”
Startled, Mikey whirled and pointed the
flashlight at a figure that had appeared on the road. Don wasn’t pleased when he saw a scruffy man
in need of a shave. What displeased him
most was the number stenciled above the breast pocket on the shirt he wore, the
kind of shirt and trousers they issue to prison inmates.
“Do you want me to give you a hand?” the
stranger asked.
“I could have used your help thirty
minutes ago, but I’m nearly finished now.
What can we do for you?”
“We’d like a ride somewhere,” the man
answered. “It’s been mighty hot today,
and we’ve walked a long way.”
“I’ll just bet you have,” Don said. “The prison is over at Jeanne. How far is that from here, twenty miles? And who’s we?”
“Just me and this nine-millimeter!”
another voice yelled, still invisible in the darkness. “No keep that light off me and don’t try
anything. Where’s the woman… make her
show herself!”
“I’m right here,” Maggie yelled. Unseen and unheard, she had slipped out of
the motor home, crossed the road, and moved far enough in the darkness to get
behind the stranger who claimed to have a gun.
Don heard the meaty chunk-ker-chunk
as Maggie worked the pump action shotgun and fed a round into the
chamber. “And I’m not alone either. Would you like me to introduce you to Mr.
Remington?”
“Not me, lady,”
the man closest to Don shouted. “Don’t
shoot, I’m unarmed.” He quickly stuck
both hands in the air. “We don’t mean no harm, we just want a ride out of this desert.”
“She ain’t gonna shoot, Max, she’s
bluffing. She wouldn’t dare to shoot
when I can blow away these kids of hers.
Just drop the shotgun lady and nobody gets hurt. I’m gonna count three and if you don’t drop
it, your man gets the first bullet, then I’ll drop the kids.”
“Christ, Kenny! Do like she says and drop the gun. You can’t argue with a shotgun. Are you stupid or something?”
“One!” Kenny shouted. “I ain’t kidding lady. I’m gonna drop this feller and then you’re
next! But I won’t shoot to kill you, no
way. I been in stir three years and I’m
gonna save you for a little fun. You’ll
like it, honest! Now put the shotgun
down.”
Maggie kept her peace.
“Two!” he yelled. “I’m not gonna give you another warning, your
man gets it as soon as I count three. Drop
it now and I’ll spare your kids! This is
your last warning. Three!”
There was a thundering bellow accompanied
by a burst of flame when Maggie pulled the trigger of the shotgun. Don half expected to feel the sledge-hammer
impact of a bullet from the stranger’s pistol slam into him; instead he heard a
crunching sound as the inmate crumpled into the sage brush.
Quickly Don grabbed the flashlight from
Mikey and ran to where he heard the man fall.
He was dead, thank goodness, but Don grabbed the pistol from his
lifeless hands and trained it at the other inmate.
“Are we gonna have trouble with you?” Don
asked.
“No boss, no way. I’ll be moving down the road now if that’s
okay with you.” He began backing away,
anxious to put distance between himself and the guns pointed at him.
“Just hold it right there,” Maggie told
him. “Why should we let you go now, just
to come back another time and try again to kill us?”
“I ain’t like Kenny. I ain’t a killer. Look, I just got in a little beef at one of
the casinos. I was down on my luck and I
tried grab some money from some change girl. The security was on me like stink on….” He
remembered the children and changed his mind.
“Well, they caught me and the judge gave me two years for assault and
strong-arm robbery. I didn’t mean no harm, I got a family myself! Or I used to have, at least. Back in
“Don?
You’re the boss. What do you
say?”
“I don’t want him here, Maggie, but I
don’t have the stomach for cold blooded murder.
I say let him go, but you’ve got the shotgun.”
“Tonight is your lucky night, Max. Turn around and start running. If you slow down before you hit the state
line, I’m apt to be right behind you and I won’t miss.”
Max turned and broke into a run. Quickly he disappeared into the darkness and
Maggie appeared at Don’s side. “You
certainly weren’t kidding when you said you were no weeping TV actress, Maggie.”
“I’m sorry, Don, I had to shoot. It was either him or you, I’m sure he would
have done what he said.”
“I’m sure he would have also,
Maggie.” He took the heavy shotgun from
her. “Just how did you manage this thing
with your broken arm?”
“It wasn’t easy, Don. I pert near dropped it. Finally I was able to bounce it up and down
like Sigourney Weaver did in Alien, and then I could prop it up with my bum
arm. Still, I didn’t know if I’d have
the courage to pull the trigger until he shouted three, and by that time I
figured I didn’t have a choice.”
“No, you didn’t have a choice. I think you made the right one. Get the kids into the motor home and let’s
get away from here.”
“Aren’t we going to bury him, Don?”
“Why?
Burying is too good for scum like that and I’m too tired. Let the coyotes and vultures have him. At least they keep the desert clean.”
Maggie put a hand on Mikey’s shoulder and
steered him toward the motor home while Don took