A Distant Eden (16 page)

“Makes sense to me. They hear gunfire and that can only mean one thing: someone has food and someone is trying to take it away from them. If you’re starving, it’s worth checking if you can take the food for yourself. I wouldn’t be surprised if another gang doesn’t show up and they either decide to share the meat or fight for it.”

Jerry spotted another group. “No sooner said…look, there’s another gang; five of them.”

As the first gang had shown up, the emaciated men armed only with kitchen knives fled. As the second gang came into view of the first gang, gunfire erupted. The firefight was quick, with group one taking two casualties and group two taking three. The uninjured men in group one chased after the fleeing group two. For a few minutes came brief bursts of gunfire. Then the first gang came back.

They built a fire and began butchering and cooking the hog on the spot. They eventually tended to the wounds of their comrades, in crude fashion, but not until they had meat cooking. Within an hour, they had gorged themselves on partially cooked hog.

Dave, watching them, shook his head. “They’re going to be sick puppies in a few days. That hog probably has several kinds of internal parasites and they can carry several diseases transmittable to humans. I can’t believe they don’t know not to eat partially cooked pig.”

“Yeah,” replied Jerry, “and it looks like they’ve settled in for as long as the meat lasts. I bet they stay right there until they eat all that hog or it turns rotten. That means we have ugly neighbors for a few days. I wonder how long before they start checking houses. My bet would be they start in a couple of hours, after they get full.”

“Our house will be on the list, maybe one of the first. We need to decide what we’re going to do, Jerry. Wait and see what happens or take preemptive action.”

Jerry paced back and forth. “Tough decision. If we attack them we may be able to kill them all. If we wait until they are in the house it could get bad, with the kids and wives too close. If they come in and look around and leave then we should be OK. If they come in and look around and stay or find us, then it would get ugly.”

Dave continued watching from the window. “Four healthy men and two wounded. Our best bet would be to ambush them without warning. Question is, just us two or do we include the women?”

Jerry stopped pacing and looked out the window. “My inclination is not to include the women in the ambush, but we could use the extra firepower. Two more guns would make a big difference. Maybe we should ask them what they think, include them in the decision. I’ll go bring them up.”

Jerry returned with Karen and Shirley. The women looked out the dormer window at the situation. Jerry and David explained what they thought the options were and asked their opinions.

Shirley turned sharply to face the two men. She looked outraged. “We have children to protect. Those thugs would probably rape and kill them if they got a chance. We don’t give them a chance. We attack them tonight while they sleep. I bet they keep that fire going all night and the guard, if they post one, falls asleep. We can be out there a couple of hours before daylight and open up on them. With four of us shooting and total surprise, I think we can eliminate them without them getting off a shot.”

Dave smiled grimly. “I’m glad I’m on your side, woman.”

Karen said, “I agree. We can watch them from here until it’s time to go. I’ll put the kids on notice so they know what’s going on.”

Jerry said, “OK, we agree on the plan. Now, let’s look beyond the shooting. Do we leave the bodies there or do we get rid of them? Clean up, so to speak. It would be a lot of work. I am not sure if we want to get rid of them to reduce our profile around here, or leave them there as a warning to other gangs. What do you guys think?”

Dave returned to the window. “Good point. I vote to leave them there, and in fact, I vote to pose the bodies in a way that makes the message clear.”

Karen said, “I like that. You know, Roman said the next phase would be armed gangs roaming around. Looks like he’s right. I bet there will be more gangs coming through here. Maybe a message will help.”

That night the four of them worked into positions around the sleeping gang. At the first blast the sleeping men struggled to rise, but were brutally mown down. The two women went on watch while Jerry and Dave posed the bodies in a circle, setting them back to back with a loop of rope to hold them up. The next morning the men with knives returned and removed most of the pig’s carcass—they did not touch the dead men.

That night a herd of hogs came out of the creek bed and ate the remains of the pig’s carcass and most of the men’s bodies, leaving a gory sight for Jerry to find the next morning.

Matt hiked to the high fence and began a long slow inspection. He was looking for signs of where this new poacher may have breached it. By the time it was dark he had not found it. Perhaps the poacher had climbed over? That would have been smarter as it would not leave a signal as to his presence.

After dark, Matt walked back to the windmill where they found the arrow. He climbed the inspection platform and looked in all directions. He thought he saw a faint glow in the distance, but surprisingly it was on the property, not off it as he had assumed.

There was another windmill closer to where he thought he saw the glow, so Matt went to it, climbed it, and looked. This time he was positive he saw the glow—and he knew where it was. Three dry washes came together there, in a deep hole that would provide a good camp in dry weather. It would be out of sight and a careful person could build a small fire. As Matt thought this the glow went out. The poacher must have finished cooking his dinner. “Careful, this one,” Matt thought. “He’s savvy.”

Matt knew that he should get Alfred before confronting this poacher, but he wanted to get more information first. He wanted to see how many there were and how they were armed. Matt could find the camp without the fire to guide him; he knew the terrain here intimately.

Walking slow and careful, Matt made his way to the camp, sticking to the darkest shadows. This was slow and tedious going. It was all too easy to step on a dry twig, making a noise like a firecracker in a church. But he had the whole night—and the next day—so he took his time.

The moon would rise around midnight, giving him some light, so at the campsite Matt stopped and waited before moving closer. As the moon came up, Matt’s eyes could make out shapes easily. He crawled the rest of the way to the wash, slipping up to the lip. He chose a low brush to come up beside so that when his head cleared the wash’s lip it would hopefully appear to be just part of the bush, if anyone was watching. When he could see down into the wash, he saw the poacher staring in his direction. Possibly staring right at him. He was wide-awake and looked alert. Matt had moved so slowly that he believed he was undetected even though the poacher was looking in his direction.

The poacher said loudly, “I’ve been waiting for you. You might as well come on down and talk.”

Matt kept still and quiet. He recalled a joke about a poacher who every night before going hunting would walk out to his porch and yell out, “I know you’re there, Mr. Game Warden. Might as well come in and have some coffee.” The game warden would come in and they would enjoy a cup of coffee. On the day the game warden retired, he asked the poacher how he always knew when he was out there watching. The poacher replied, “I didn’t—I just yelled it every morning and if you didn’t answer I went hunting.” Matt had plenty of time; he didn’t have to rush. So he waited.

If the poacher had actually seen him, he would keep talking. After half an hour, the poacher shifted his position and said the same thing in the opposite direction. Matt remained quiet. After another half hour, the poacher laid down to sleep. Matt watched until he was sure he was actually sleeping. Looking around, he saw the bow and arrows, the deer hanging from a tree limb, and a backpack. Encircling the area, he searched for anyone else—but there was only this one poacher, alone.

Armed and with the element of surprise, Matt decided to wait until daylight to capture him. He wasn’t about to shoot him down. Matt had killed the men at the roadblock because they had chosen to be a direct threat to his family. He had killed the other poacher out of self-defense. This felt different. So Matt waited.

As the sun came up the poacher awoke. Matt had been awake all night and was eager to get on with this. Matt called out, “Freeze, and I mean freeze or die! Don’t sit up, don’t move a muscle.”

The poacher froze in place, then visibly relaxed and waited. Matt climbed down the gully side to the bottom and stood twenty feet away from the man lying on the ground, keeping him covered with his rifle.

Matt said, “OK, now we decide whether you live and leave or stay and die. At the moment, I’m leaning towards you die. You’ve stolen food from my children. So, explain to me, poacher, why I should let you live—and how I could believe that you wouldn’t come back.”

The poacher knew his psychology; he knew that his best chance of surviving this was to be seen as a person and not as an object. He said, “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is James Randolph. I am a game biologist and I lived in Ozona. I worked for the State of Texas before the grid dropped. I made game counts out here for the owner a few years back. My wife and son were killed by a gang that came through Ozona. I was nearly killed by them, badly wounded. I managed to drive them off, but not before they shot my wife and son through the wall of the house. I’m still recovering from the wound, but I’ll never recover from their deaths.

“To answer your question, all I can say is that if you want me to leave I will. I can’t prove it ahead of time but I give you my word that I won’t come back. On the other hand, if you want to shoot me, go ahead; you’ll be doing me a favor. If it wasn’t for my faith, I would have killed myself the day my family died. But I can’t do that, so I’m stuck here—and I detest it.” James sat up straight and looked at Matt with steady, calm eyes, projecting that he was ready and willing to accept whatever his fate would be.

Matt waited, then said, “There may be a third option. If I can be convinced that you are a Christian, that you have told me the plain truth, I might have another option. But how can I be sure you aren’t conning me—like you tried to do last night, calling me in like that. That sort of action doesn’t lend itself to me trusting you.”

Surprisingly, James laughed. “You were there when I did that? I’m impressed that you didn’t fall for it; anybody else would have. OK, look at me closely. I called you in, but I’m unarmed, no gun. Just a bow and knife, both of which are over there, well away from me. I may be a poacher—no, I am a poacher—but I’m not a random killer. I hold no bad intentions towards you. I don’t blame you for not trusting me; you’ve no reason to, every reason not to, and a family, according to your words, that counts on you getting this right. It’s a quandary. Want to have breakfast while we consider it?”

Matt thought, “This guy is smooth, very smooth. Too smooth to suit me. His story could be true, but how would I ever know?” Matt had an idea. “Alright, James. I don’t believe you; you’re too smooth. I can’t afford to take a chance on being wrong, so I’m going to kill you here. You can face the gun or turn around and take it in the back of the head. Your choice. But you have three seconds to make that choice.”

Startled, James swallowed hard and met Matt’s eyes. In them James saw his death. He got on his knees and bowed his head. He began praying: “Oh Lord, please once again forgive me for all of my sins. Please, Lord, you are my savior and if you will but accept me, I will be your faithful servant as always. And, Lord, please forgive this poor man for the horrible choice I have imposed on him; he is only doing what he has to in order to protect his family. OK—I am ready to be with my lord and my family. Shoot true and clean.”

Matt said, “Sorry about that. It was the only way I could think of to test your profession of faith. Either you’re the coldest con man on earth or you are truly a Christian. Go ahead and cook us some breakfast while I ponder on my plan. I want to think about it some more, but be relaxed in that the worst that will happen is you’ll walk away from here alive.”

James built a fire and carved off two pieces of meat to roast. While doing that he brought out a small cowboy coffee pot and made camp coffee.

The two men sat quietly drinking hot coffee and eating roasted venison as the sun continued to climb. After they finished and James had put his kit away, Matt said, “decision time for you James. Here are your alternatives. You can walk away, or you can come back to the house with me. If you come back, I’m going to propose to Alfred and Wilma that you stay on to help them. I’m convinced that this place can support three people, but six people will ruin it inside of two years. I think the best thing to do is to take my family elsewhere, but I didn’t want to leave Alfred and Wilma to fend for themselves at their age. I have somewhere to go; they don’t. Well, they do, they would be welcomed, but they would probably not be able to make the trip.

“So, if they agree, you’ll stay permanently, giving me your word you’ll take care of them for the rest of their natural lives, staying on afterwards as the owner. Or you can walk. Your choice.”

James looked at Matt for awhile and asked, “Are they Christians? I wouldn’t consider it if they aren’t. “

“Yes.”

“Before I commit I would like to get to know them, which will give them a chance to get to know me as well. Fair enough?”

“Fair enough,” Matt said, then repeated, “Fair enough.”

Roman led Adrian, his men, and the women into the brush to meet up with Sarah. When Sarah saw Adrian, she jumped up with joy and hugged him hard. She wiped tears from her eyes and said, “Oh honey, we’ve been so worried about you, but look at you, you’ve never looked healthier.”

Adrian said, “Well, these past three weeks’ve been like a Caribbean cruise. We took our time getting here because the ladies needed to recover, so we spent most of our time hunting and eating. I don’t think I’ve ever had an easier three weeks.”