The man in the street took another step toward the truck, raised his right arm and extending a finger directly at Chet and yelled, “Hey, who do you think you are? Why are you so special? This thing is a piece of shit! I have a nice ride. You should be the one walking.” His cheek was full of tobacco and he spit the dark juice onto the asphalt as if he was marking his territory.
Robert looked into the cab of the truck from the rear window. He saw that Lee had the rifle level with the dashboard and the barrel pointed toward the door. Lee’s hand was on the door handle and he was primed for action. The men in the street could not see the rifle that Lee had ready for them.
Robert stood in the bed of the truck and said loudly, “We don’t want any trouble. We’re just moving through—”
The bearded man interrupted Robert, angrily yelling, “Shut your mouth! If I want any shit out of you, I’ll squeeze your head!”
Robert quickly turned to the rear of the truck and stepped toward the tailgate. He jumped out of the truck, landing solidly on both feet and reached back into the truck bed to grab the baseball bat. He did not want to fight, but he knew this needed to end, and would not tolerate any delays in his plan. As Robert walked to the front of the truck toward the lunatic, he quickly glanced up at Kyle and shrugged his shoulders. Kyle nodded to Robert in a way that meant, “I am glad you are doing that and not me.” Richard cowered in the truck’s bed, just as Robert had expected.
Pointing the bat at the man, Robert said, firmly, “Listen, asshole, like I said, we don’t want any trouble. Step back from my good friend’s truck and we’ll be on our way.”
The man moved his right foot back and turned his left shoulder toward Robert, narrowing his profile. Quickly, the man reached into his back pocket and pulled out a switchblade with his right hand. He pointed the blade at Robert and said with gritted teeth, “I am going to stick that bat up your ass sideways.” Then he stepped toward Robert.
At that moment, Robert heard the loud report of a rifle discharging. He had not noticed the bald man with a pistol behind the group, but Lee did. By the time the bald man had pulled the pistol from under his shirt and begun to point it toward Robert, Lee had the rifle on center mass of his target. Lee pulled the trigger and the bald man collapsed, falling backward. The pistol landed near its owner’s warm corpse. As the bearded outlaw turned toward Lee, the bat Robert had already begun to swing met him directly in the face. On impact, Robert felt the man’s skull collapse and sunglasses disintegrate simultaneously. Lee stepped forward to get the fallen pistol and moved the barrel of the rifle from side to side at the group of men in the street. Robert bent over to get the switchblade, but he knew that what he really needed was the pistol.
While Lee was still stepping backwards to the truck, Robert had already jumped back into the truck bed and dropped the bat where he found it. The men in the street parted into two groups and moved away. Lee sat back down in the truck and held the pistol out the window, ready for action. As the truck began to move forward again, Richard said to Robert, “Hey, I didn’t know you liked to play baseball.”
“Maybe you can play next time.”
“No, thanks.”
It did not take long to drive across the small town and find the ramp to the interstate going north. This highway took them to an access point for the headwaters of the Missouri River and, according to Robert’s plan, equipment for the long journey home. As they traveled to their destination on the highway, they passed many stalled cars. People were walking on the highway, most waving for the vehicle to pull over. The men drove onward without slowing. Robert could see how these roads were going to become very dangerous. He knew traps would be set and people would be killed in the struggle for survival. He felt confident that his decision to use the river was the right one.
He remembered the sign on the convenience store that they recently passed, warning of cash-only transactions, and became slightly nervous. They wanted to get the equipment with credit cards because what they needed to survive would cost more than the cash they had with them. Robert’s plan to get equipment was based upon the assumption most people had, that the power would be on again soon. Get the seller to capture the information from their cards and complete the sales transaction when the lights come back on. He hoped the suits added to their respectability, which would help insure that their credit cards were accepted.
The truck was going fast enough that the three men in the back crouched down as low as possible to avoid the annoyance of the wind trying to knock them over. At highway speed, the turbulent wind passed over the cab of the truck and whipped around the men’s heads, creating enough noise to discourage talking to one another.
Robert saw the sign for their exit and knocked on top of the truck’s cab as a reminder. Chet had already seen the sign and started slowing down to pull over. According to the map, the access road was parallel to a small lake connected to the headwaters. The store where they planned to get their equipment was on this road and near the lake’s shoreline. The brochure for this facility described it as a family operation. Robert assumed that the owner lived nearby and would be resourceful enough to make it to work even under the current circumstances.
The sky was clear and they guessed by the position of the sun that it was about noon. The waters of the lake were calm and devoid of boats. They noticed one person casting a fly rod. Robert was not a fisherman, but already knew how important that would become in order for them to get food to stay alive. The store and marina area became visible in the distance and they noticed a pickup similar in age to what they were in. It was parked in front of the store. Kyle and Richard were still kneeling with their backs turned away from the front of the truck. Robert’s eyes squinted in disbelief. The store was open! Robert saw the bright neon light in the store’s front window blinking, OPEN.
Robert tapped the kneeling men with his foot and said, “Get up! Look, the lights are on!” Both men quickly stood to attention and immediately saw the flashing neon light and the fluorescent lighting inside the store. Speechless, they looked at each other in amazement at the site of electric lights. The truck slowly coasted to a stop at the side of the store. Chet turned off the ignition and the sound of an emergency generator from the back of the store became obvious to the men. The subtle hope that maybe, just maybe, the power was not out everywhere faded away and reality set in. Each man grabbed his possessions from the back of the truck and set them against the side of the store on a narrow sidewalk. Chet remained in the driver’s seat, and Robert stepped up to the window.
“Chet, I can’t thank you enough for giving us a ride here,” Robert said, as he shook Chet’s hand.
Chet replied, “No problem, glad to help. The only advice I can give you is to stay dry.”
“Hey, buddy, come around here,” Lee said, as he slapped the outside of his door with the palm of his hand.
Robert went to the opposite side of the truck and reached through the truck’s open passenger window to shake Lee’s hand. Lee extended his arm and handed the pistol to Robert. “You earned it,” Lee chuckled. “You have some big balls.”
Robert accepted the pistol and thanked Lee profusely. He gripped the handle and extended his index finger to touch the safety, ensuring that it was in the correct position. The gun would be a nice insurance policy. Robert turned to look around and see if anyone noticed him with the pistol. No one was around, just as he expected it would be. The pistol fit nicely in the deep front pocket of his dress pants.