“Maybe it was dumb to lower your gun,” said John. “But now I want you to do something smart. Put the gun on the ground. Slowly. Then step away from it.”
The park ranger did as he was told.
“Never lower your gun,” said John. “Unless you’re sure of what you’re doing.”
“Don’t kill me,” said the man. “Please, don’t kill me.”
“Why shouldn’t we?”
John had the feeling he was a good guy. A decent guy. Obviously, he hadn’t wanted to hurt John and Cynthia, since he’d lowered his gun far earlier than he should have.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t take precautions.
“What’s your name?” said John.
“Tom.”
“Tom what?”
“Tom McGlover.”
“You have a family?”
Tom shook his head.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m a park ranger.”
Tom was practically shaking in fear.
“Please don’t kill me.”
“Just answer the questions. Tell us your story?”
“I was at work when it happened.”
“The EMP?”
Tom nodded.
“Then what?”
“I couldn’t go anywhere.”
“Why not?”
“My truck didn’t work.”
“It didn’t work?”
“Yeah, how would you expect it to work after an EMP?”
John shrugged. “The cars I’ve seen worked.”
Tom gave him a suspicious look. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Tom shrugged. “Well, all I know is mine didn’t work.”
Cynthia glanced at John, but he didn’t know what she was thinking.
“You look like you haven’t eaten anything,” said John.
“I’m hungry all right.”
“Hungry enough to kill us for our food?”
Tom shook his head, looking horrified. “Of course not. I’ve been getting by. I know how to get food.”
“It doesn’t look like it,” said Cynthia, glancing meaningfully at his thin frame.
“I was skinny before.”
“You think he’s a problem?” said Cynthia.
John shook his head. “Nope. I don’t.”
“Can we trust him?”
“I don’t know. I guess we have to.”
“We don’t have to do anything.”
But John already knew which way his decision was heading. He already trusted Tom, whether or not he should have.
The safest thing to do would have just been to kill him. Safest in the sense that he wouldn’t pose a threat.
Of course, in those terms, Tom, alive, could also potentially help them. He could give them information. Tips and tricks. Ideas on edible plants. Ideas on which way to head.
If he was a different sort of person, John could have just demanded all the information, and then killed him.
John wasn’t like that.
Maybe it was weakness. He didn’t know.
“OK,” said John, moving over to pick up the shotgun that Tom had set down. “Any false moves, and you’re dead, got it?”
Tom nodded.
“Thank you,” he said.
“It’s not over yet,” said John, moving over and starting to frisk Tom while Cynthia kept her gun trained on him.
“He’s clean,” said John.
“I won’t try to hurt either of you,” said Tom, his voice raspy and weak. “Really, I won’t.”
“Where have you been staying? In that building over there?”
Tom shook his head. “No,” he said. “I mean, I was, before the trouble started.”
“What trouble? The EMP?”
“No, I mean the group that lives at that community, that compound.”
John and Cynthia looked at each other.
“So what happened?”
“They started out fine. Just a group of people who’d gotten things prepared before the EMP. I asked to join them, when they came by, but they said I wasn’t a good fit. Not sure what they meant by that.”
“I have an idea,” said John.
“What do you mean?”
“Turns out they’re looking for a specific kind of person.”
“What kind?”
“Female.”
“Oh,” said Tom, still looking confused.
John and Cynthia told Tom a brief version of what had happened to them. They left out some key details, like what had happened with Max. John didn’t want to give too much away, but he wasn’t quite sure why.
Slowly, throughout the conversation, John and Cynthia lowered their guns. Tom had started to relax, and he seemed more and more like a good guy by the minute. He wasn’t overly boastful, in the way that Drew had been. He didn’t seem like a scammer, trying to sell them something, trying to trick them. He really just seemed like an honest guy.
Tom told them a little bit about what it had been like to work as a park ranger here. For him, it had been the ideal job.
But it turned out that Tom was far from a wilderness or outdoor expert. In fact, he’d spent most of his life working in a soap factory, before finally finishing the night school classes required and lucking out by getting the park ranger job just a few months ago.
“So you’re pretty new at all this?”
“Yeah,” said Tom.
It was disappointing, but John was sure that Tom could help them in some way. He just wasn’t sure how yet.
“So tell me more about the people who’d come by from the compound.”
“Well, they were nice enough at first. Offered to trade things with me. But as the weeks went on, they got meaner. More demanding. More intense. I don’t know how to explain it. I’d gotten kind of friendly with one of them, knew him on a first name basis and everything, and I asked him what was happening. When the others weren’t around, he whispered to me that something was going on at the compound. He told me they were under orders to take what they needed and make no more trades. He didn’t seem happy about it.”
“Let me guess,” said Cynthia. “Was the leader’s name Kara?”
“That’s what he said,” said Tom.
“And so you refused to give them something, and they gave you trouble?”
“Something like that,” said Tom. “At first they just wanted some small things. You know, the batteries I had. Don’t know why they wanted them, since they didn’t work anyway. But I gave them to them. But then they’d be coming by more and more frequently, and pretty soon they’d cleaned me out of all the food. There was quite a bit of stuff stashed away in that little ranger station. The guy who worked before me, I think his name was Jerry, he’d stashed all sorts of snacks. Mostly unhealthy ones, but they were food. He died of a heart attack, actually, which is how I got the job.”
“Got it,” said John, trying to keep Tom from going off track too much. “He had an eating problem. What did they do to you then?”
“They got rough with me. Beat me up a little bit. I had to flee into the woods. I have a little camp out there, by a tree. I’m scared to go back to the ranger station. This way, I’ll know if they’re coming. They don’t know where I stay, so they can’t sneak up on me again.”
“Why didn’t you move farther away?” said Cynthia. “Why didn’t you just leave the area, if you’re worried they’re coming back for you?”
“Well,” said Tom. “Truth is I don’t really know my way around.”
Cynthia laughed. “A park ranger who doesn’t know his way around the park. That’s rich.”
“Hey,” said Tom. “I’m new here. I didn’t have a chance to learn it all. It’s a hell of a lot to learn.”
“No need to get defensive,” said John. “So you didn’t go far. I got that. Have they come back yet?”
Tom shook his head. “Nope. Not yet. But I’m waiting for them. That’s why I pointed the shotgun at you two. When they come back, I’ll be getting my revenge.”
John nodded. “Understandable, I guess. Sounds like they’ve been tormenting you.”