Robert looked at her with wide eyes. “You have superglue?”
“One small bottle. I’ll get it.”
Robert placed the inner tube flat on the ground. He put one large drop of glue directly on the small puncture in the tube. Then he placed a small piece of plastic that he cut from the tarp over the hole and pressed with the heel of his hand. After several minutes he let go, placed the inner tube back on the rim, and shimmed the tire tread back on the wheel. He put the wheel’s front axle back on the fork and pushed the quick release lever down, locking the wheel to the frame. Using the hand pump, he slowly inflated the tire.
“That did it. Kyle, take it to the parking lot and I’ll drag the rafts over to you. We’ll load up and leave.”
Kyle looked toward the parking lot and asked, “What do you think the woman that owned this bike was hiding from?”
“Exactly what we are going to walk into.”
Kyle walked away with the bicycle and Robert watched the bike and its little trailer cut through the tall grass, bouncing across the bumpy trail to the parking lot.
“You see Robert, my prayers are answered,” said Alexis, tucking the cross back into her shirt.
“What did you pray for?”
“Help.”
“And that’s why we have the bike?”
“Yes.”
Robert scowled when he thought of the dead mother holding the rotten corpse of her child, both being consumed by insects.
“We have the bike because someone left it there, and then they died. One of them was an infant. Is that part of God’s plan?”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways and I don’t question my faith. I’ll keep praying for you.”
Robert draped the rifle over his shoulder and said, “Tell God we need bullets.”
Robert saw Alexis kneel again and pray. He did not know what she was praying for and did not ask. The rafts needed to be taken to the parking lot and that was what he did. He dragged them over to Kyle and dropped them beside the bicycle. The asphalt was slowly warming in the morning sunshine.
“Tie the bags together and balance them over the bike frame like saddle bags. Stuff as much as you can into the little child trailer and we’ll drag the suitcases behind us,” said Robert, as he looked back toward the river.
They walked away from the roadside park leaving the three rafts behind them. The gusty wind lifted the front of the empty rafts up, and then let them drop back down to the ground. It reminded Robert of stallions rearing up in a corral. Like stallions with boundless energy, wanting to run free on the open range.
They began the long walk out of the river valley. In the distance, the road crested in front of them. It was the first of many hilltops where they would stop to use the binoculars to examine the unfolding landscape, scanning from left to right and then back again, looking for any foul thing.
The afternoon sun was hot. Its heat reflected off the black asphalt and back up to the three weary travelers. The heat and the weight of their belongings soon began to feel unbearable. There was no shade or mercy from the sun. As the sun grew higher, their pace grew slower.
“I have to rest,” pleaded Alexis. She was already trailing behind Robert and Kyle.
“We can’t stop here.” Robert held his hand to his forehead for shade and judged the angle of the sun in the sky. “We’ll stop when we find shade. I promise you.”
“Can you please slow down? I can’t keep up with you.”
Both men stopped and looked back at Alexis. She was far behind and struggling on the hot pavement. They nodded to each other, stopped, and patiently waited for Alexis to catch up with them. Alexis was moving slowly, struggling with the heavy suitcase. Kyle removed the binoculars and went to the crest of the hill to scan the landscape before them. Robert looked back at Alexis and watched her trudge slowly along. He wanted to help, but he was holding the bicycle laden with their supplies. Looking past Alexis to the distant hill behind them, he saw something move. A dark object was at the top of the previous hill. It appeared to be a car. He stared at the object and it moved again. He looked toward Kyle, who was coming back to rejoin them.
At Kyle’s approach, Robert pointed to the hill behind them and said, “Look.”
Kyle brought the dark object into focus, “It’s a car. I see a man standing by it.” Kyle put the strap around his neck and let the binoculars hang free. He rested his hands on his hips. “When I looked ahead I saw a car in the road. It was across both lanes and looked like the front end was wrecked.”
Robert’s heart sank. He was familiar with this road and knew what it looked like ahead of them. Just over the hill, the road construction crew had dynamited a path through the limestone bedrock to lower the grade of the road. The limestone was blasted away, creating bluffs, in ascending steps to the top, on both sides of the artificial canyon. It was a perfect bottleneck for an ambush.
“It’s a trap!” exclaimed Robert.
“I didn’t see anybody ahead.”
“Let’s move to the top and keep watching.”
“Do you think that car behind us is part of the trap?” asked Alexis.
“I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out,” replied Robert.
Pushing the bike and pulling the suitcases behind them, they went almost to the crest of the hill. Exhausted, Alexis stepped off the highway and down into the drainage swale, which was overgrown with tall weeds. Robert took his turn with the binoculars and panned the landscape in front of them. He saw a car, wrecked, on their side of the divided highway. Surrounding the section of road in front of them were stepped walls of limestone blasted away years earlier, creating an artificial valley. The sun was getting lower on the western horizon and the limestone bluff began to cast its shadow across the wrecked car. The top of the bluff had a few trees and sparse shrubbery, enough for someone to hide behind. Robert lowered the binoculars and went back to his companions.
“What did you see?” asked Alexis.
“The valley of the shadow of death,” replied Robert coldly, before he kissed his rifle.
Alexis gave him a glare, and clutched the cross dangling at her neck for comfort.
Suddenly the distant car, atop the previous hill, began moving in their direction.
“Get back from the road and stay low in the ditch. Where’s your pistol, Kyle?”
Robert held the rifle to his shoulder, but pointed it downward. Kyle crouched behind the bike concealing the pistol. They did not want to start a confrontation, but were ready if need be. The car moved to the lane farthest from the ditch and sped up. With that lane change, Robert knew they were only wanting to pass and were also trying to avoid confrontation. In the brief moment when the old rusty car passed by, they saw that four people occupied it. Two men were in front and two women in back. In the instant of passing, they made eye contact. They all looked scared. These people in the car, in their haste to get by, were going directly into a roadblock. Robert started to raise his hand, but it was too late. The car had passed.
Just as the car went over the hill out of view, they heard the sound of tires on pavement with brakes locked tight. Robert ran to the top of the hill and put the binoculars to his eyes just in time to see the car’s front window shatter. The driver had been shot dead from a distance. He heard another shot and saw steam erupt from the radiator. Robert looked up and saw a man with a scoped rifle bounding down the stepped levels of the jagged limestone bluff. Another armed man emerged from behind the wrecked car that was blocking the road. Kyle and Alexis were at his side and witnessed the ambush.
Alexis gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, dear God,” she continually repeated to herself.