Going Home (37 page)

Thad slowed the truck to a stop; there was still a hundred yards between them. An asphalt driveway ran down the right-of-way to where he brought the truck to a stop. The four men were spread out across his path. There was plenty of room to go through them but not without taking fire. Thad put the truck in park and stepped out. The four men spread out on the road just stood there.

“What’da ya want!” Thad called out.

The one leaning on the hood of the old Ford answered, “Yo truck.”

That just pissed him off. They already had a car that ran, and now they wanted his. This was what things had come to, the iron rule. Those with the iron and the will to use it, make the rules. Checking them out, Thad saw that one of them had what looked like an AK. The other three didn’t appear to have any long guns. Thad started to develop a plan. “I’m comin’ over,” he called out to the supposed leader of this little tribe.

“You bes’ be real slow about it,” came the reply.

Thad put the truck in gear and started to ease forward. He was still trying to put his plan together; it really all depended on where the men were when he stopped. As he got closer, they started to gather around the car. As they did, Thad could now tell that none of them had a long gun. He didn’t even see a handgun on any of them. If they had them, they were under their coats. That would certainly help. Thad slipped the shotty into his lap, holding it with his right hand, the muzzle pointed at the door. As he got closer, the one that had spoken stepped toward the truck. “That’s right, keep coming,” Thad muttered. He was just barely creeping along.

The man coming forward was proud of himself. He was talking it up to the guys with him. Thad couldn’t hear what he was saying, but they appeared to be eating it up. They were all laughing and really carrying on, excited about getting another ride for their group. The other three fell in behind the one with the AK. As Thad brought the truck to a stop about ten feet from them, the one with the AK started to walk up to the window by himself. As he stepped up, he had a huge grin on his face, full of himself.

“Good fa you. Now get yo ass out of my truck,” the man said.

The other three were still eating it up. “Yeah, get yo ass outta our truck.”

Thad raised the shotty a bit; as the man stepped forward, Thad pulled the trigger on the shotgun. The blast caught him high in the chest, knocking him over backward. The other three dove for the ground. Thad jumped out of the truck, drawing the Glock as he went, before the others could react. One of the three rolled onto his back and went to draw a pistol from his waistband. Thad planted one of his size thirteen boots on the kid’s neck; he had the shotty pointed at the second one of them and the Glock at the third.

“I’ll be keeping my truck. What the hell makes you damn people think you can just take what you want from others?” Thad said; he was incredulous and wanted to kill them all. “You two, on your belly. Put your hands out to your side. If you try anything, I’ll kill you.”

The other two were looking up at the big man. The fear on their faces was real. It was something they weren’t used to; they were used to being the ones feared, not the ones in fear. They had run their game around Dunnellon with little opposition. They knew who they could go after and who to stay away from; this was their first mistake, and it was huge.

“Come on, man, all we wanted was the truck. We wasn’t goin’ to do anythin’ to ya,” the one with the shotty trained on him said.

“It’s my truck!” Thad screamed at them. “See what you caused here!” He nodded to the nearly decapitated body lying beside him. The sound of the man under his boot gagging got his attention, and he looked down. The madder he got, the more pressure he had unintentionally applied to the man’s neck. He had both his hands wrapped around Thad’s ankle. “You still think you a badass now?”

The kid’s eyes were huge, and he was gasping for breath. “I told you two to roll over. Do it now!” Thad shouted. The two immediately rolled over. One of them started to blubber about not wanting to be killed. With the other two on their bellies, Thad looked down at the one under his boot. “I’m gonna take my foot off your neck. When I do, you better roll over. Try anything, and I’ll unload this buck in your face, understand?” Thad lowered the shotgun so it was pointed at his nose. The kid tried to nod, Thad lifted his boot, and he rolled over.

Thad tucked the Glock into his belt and knelt beside him, watching the other two as he did. Reaching under the kid, he pulled the pistol out of his pants. Lowering his head, he whispered into the kid’s ear, “You so much as sneeze, and you’re a dead man.” Thad quickly searched the other two, finding one more pistol. He took the two pistols and threw them into the cab of the truck and picked up the rifle, which turned out to be an SKS with a thirty-round mag. Keeping an eye on the men on the ground, he pulled a hank of 550 cord from his pack and went about tying the hands of each of them.

“What’re you gonna do to us?” one of them whined.

“You worried about yourself; ain’t none of you so much as looked at your buddy over here.” Thad pointed to the body. “All you worried about is yourself. You’re pathetic.”

Thad walked over to the car to see what they had in it. Lying in the front seat, he found two boxes of ammo for the SKS. The floor was littered with beer cans and liquor bottles. Opening the trunk, he found more liquor; he was hoping for food. Sitting in the driver’s seat, he turned the key on to check the gas level, quarter of a tank. Oh well, if it had more gas, he was thinking of taking it. The old truck was starting to suffer a bit. He pulled the keys from the ignition and put them in his pocket. Taking the ammo and a bottle of vodka from the trunk, he went back to the truck and tossed those into the cab and turned to the three men tied up on the ground.

Then he had a second thought and returned to the trunk of the car and pulled out the remainder of the case of vodka. Thad opened all but one of the bottles and poured them in the car, making sure to coat the seats and floorboards front and back. Taking the last bottle out of the case, he reached into the backseat and pulled out a T-shirt, and, ripping a piece off, he soaked it in vodka and stuffed it into the neck of the bottle. Then he took a lighter from his pocket and lit the rag. Looking back at the three men on the ground, he flung the bottle at the dash with all his might; it exploded into flames, and the fire immediately engulfed the entire car.

“Let’s see how bad y’all are now,” Thad said as he climbed into the truck and started it.

“You just gonna leave us here! Tied up!” one of them shouted.

“What was your plan for me?” Thad asked as he put the truck in gear and drove away.

Knowing that 41 should be off to the east of him, Thad turned the truck out onto the paved road the bandits had come down. He was right and hit 41 in less than half a mile, where he made a right and headed south. There would be other little towns on his path home; he just hoped they would be easier to get through. Looking down at the dash, Thad noticed that his little run through Dunnellon had cost him some gas. He had less than half a tank now. Trying to find gas was now his primary concern. Having to walk the rest of the way home just wasn’t an option he wanted to think about.

After about fifteen minutes on the road, he came into the small town of Hernando. This was where 200 and 41 merged, with 200 coming in from the left. There was a gas station that could be entered from either of the two roads. Thad let the truck coast into the station. He had been driving with the headlights on, since the area he was driving through was virtually uninhabited. Swinging into the station, the headlights illuminated a camp of sorts. A number of men were gathered around a burn barrel under the canopy for the fuel pumps. They stood up, reaching for rifles as they did. Knowing he was taking a chance, Thad wanted to see if he could get some fuel.

The men were all on their feet. There were five of them, looking at the truck. Thad stepped out with his hands where they could see them and called, “Y’all got any gas I could trade for?”

“Yeah, we got gas. What’cha tradin’?” came the reply.

“I got a few things; depends on how much I can get,” Thad said.

“Pull the truck up here to this pump.” One of them pointed to a pump.

Thad hopped back into the truck and pulled up to the pump. Most of the men went back to the barrel, keeping an eye on him and the truck. One of them walked around to Thad as he got out. “What’cha got fer trade?” Thad reached into the cab and picked up the bottle of Vodka off the seat.

“I got this.” He held it out. The man’s face lit up, and he let out a holler, drawing the attention of the others.

“That’ll do jus’ fine,” he said. “Crank that generator!” he called out. A moment later, the hum of a generator could be heard from the back of the station. The man stuck the bottle of vodka in his coat pocket and picked up the pump handle. He opened the cap on the gas tank on the truck and stuck the nozzle in. With the gas flowing, the two of them started to chat about things a bit.

“Where you comin’ from?” the man asked.

“I was up near Tallahassee when it happened. I’m trying to get over toward Tampa,” Thad answered. He had his hands shoved into the pockets of his field coat, the Glock tightly gripped in his right hand.

“That’s a hell of a trip. How was it? Any trouble?” the man asked.

“Yeah, it ain’t been easy. There’s been some crazy damn people. How about ’round here. You guys had any trouble?” Thad asked.

“Thur’s been some. Couple of times, some have tried to hit this place. We keep men here around the clock, only store in town. Plus they’s a kerosene pump here, and lots of folks need that right now. We offer protection, and the owner pays us with fuel and a little food, but that’s starting to run out now.” The handle on the pump shut off; the truck was full.

“Yeah, I’ve seen a few people who was working together, an’ I’ve seen some straight-up craziness too. Seems a lot of folks think they are owed whatever they need or just want and just try taking it from folks,” Thad said.

The man pulled the nozzle from the truck and put the cap back on. “Yeah, this truck looks like you’ve seen a little shit.” He nodded to the windshield as he hung the handle back on the pump.

“Somebody dropped a block off an overpass on 75,” Thad replied.

The man let out a low whistle. “Shit, yur lucky ta be alive.”

“Well, I hope the owner is okay with that bottle for the gas,” Thad said as he stuck his hand out.

“Oh, this one’s off the books,” the man replied as he took Thad’s hand and shook it. They both let out a little laugh. “Good luck getting to Tampa. I wish more folks acted like this, makin’ a fair trade for what they needed. We’ve seen our fair share of them what think just ’cause we got it an’ they don’t, we should give it to ’em.”

They shook hands, and Thad climbed into the truck and started it. Pulling out from under the canopy, he waved out the window as the men began to pass the bottle around the fire.

9

My nose tickled. In my half daze, I blew at it. It still tickled, so I reached up to wipe my face. Opening my eyes, I was greeted by a face covered in camo paint; a boonie hat sat on the head.

“Mornin’, sunshine.” A smile spread across the face, bright white teeth shining through the greens, brown, and black on the face. Instantly my heart was in my throat. Looking past the face, I saw the backs of two more men, facing away. Looking back at the one before me, I did a quick look-over of the figure before me. He was wearing woodland camo and cradling an AK in black furniture. Well, he isn’t a fed.

“Mornin’,” I said as I started to sit up. The XD was still in my hand, under the blanket.

“Don’t do anything silly now,” the camo’d face said, nodding toward the blanket. “I know what you got under there, and that.” He reached down and slid the carbine out from under the sleep mat.

“Well, I guess that all depends on you guys,” I said. Not knowing what was about to happen, I was glad the pistol was still in my grip. I flipped the blanket down as I sat up and rubbed my face with my left hand.

“Aw, you ain’t gotta worry about us. We caught on to you when you approached the bridge. We tried to catch up to you before you crossed the river, but you picked the worst place in the world to cross, and we weren’t about to follow you. I’m surprised they haven’t found your ass yet. You should have seen all the shit you stirred up when they found your tracks. Good idea getting back in the river and going upstream. They were looking downriver for you. Some poor bastard on the bridge got his ass chewed for letting you get by,” he said.