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“I can’t thank you enough for bringing him back to us. His Mother, well, she was barely hanging on for the past few days.” He turned away emotionally.

As the Sheriff was getting his composure back, a man walked up to the table that they hadn’t met yet. He had a smile on his face as he looked the kids over but his eyes were cold. Alex felt herself shiver when he looked at her.

“Well, here’s the heroes of the day! You must be a tough group of kids to take out Skull and his men. Yes Sir! You all did this community a great service by ridding us of them.” he exclaimed in thanks, but the smile on his face never reached his eyes.

The Sheriff beamed at the man, “They sure did John.” He replied turning to the teens. “This is my right hand man, John Harper. He’s on the town council and helped us get organized and security set up after the lights went out. John, this is Quinn, Alex, Josh, Dara and Cooper. They brought my boy back and the other missing kids from the field trip. You probably heard that the biker gang had them.”

John had been nodding as the Sheriff was speaking

“Yes and a great day it is to have our children home. I’d love to hear more about this great escape. Tell me kids, how did you manage to get off the wall hooks?”

Within seconds of him asking the question he had five guns pointed at him

The Sheriff shoved his chair back and jumped to his feet, “Whoa, whoa. What’s going on here kids? Why are you pointing guns at John?” he asked frantically as his hand moved toward his holstered weapon.

Without taking her eyes off John, Alex answered him in a cold voice. “Because we never told anyone about the wall hooks they put us on. So the only way he would know is if the bikers told him or he’s been in the place. Either way, it means he was working with them. Tell me John, did you know they had the children too?” Alex asked him in a disgusted voice.

The man was red in the face and tried to act surprised at the charges but it was clearly an act and he couldn’t keep the hate from his eyes.

The music had stopped and in the silence everyone had heard Alex clearly. All of the townspeople were staring at the drama unfolding at the Sheriff’s table and some had even drawn their weapons. The Sheriff was studying his friends face when he drew his weapon and turned it on him.

“Where were you this afternoon John? I sent a man to your place and you weren’t home. With all the excitement I figured you would show up. Where were you?” he asked in a harsh voice.

“I’ll tell you where he was.” Dara spoke up. “He went with the guys from town out to the house we burnt down. You went to join the party didn’t you? They told you they had a couple of young girls strung up on the wall, hanging from hooks and you went out to have some fun. And when you found the place burnt down you hung back while your friends chased after us. That’s what happened, isn’t it?” she was yelling by the time she ended.

The man turned to the Sheriff in desperation, “You have to believe me! I just went to try and get them free. I was negotiating with Skull to get the children back. I never would have hurt them. I was trying to help the town!” he pleaded, looking around at the confused and angry faces.

The Sheriff grabbed a bunch of John’s shirt, bunching it up and yanked him face to face. “You knew where my son was? All along, while Jane and I were frantic and you knew where he was? You were with us when we found the empty bus and watched as we grieved. You knew he was being kept like a dog with a collar on his neck and being beaten and you let us weep?” He threw the sniveling man away from him.

“You were my friend!” he roared in disbelief just as a shot rang out. John Harper crumpled to the ground face first and there was a large bloody hole in his back. Standing behind him with her gun still raised was Luke’s mother, Jane.

She looked to her husband and stated simply, in a calm voice “They burnt my baby’s skin with cigarettes.” and then she turned and walked away. The crowd parted for her and when she was gone everyone started talking at once. The Sheriff scrubbed his hands across his face and turned to the kids.

“Thank you again. I think the party is over.” and he followed his wife out.

Alex motioned to her friends, “Let’s go guys. I’m tired and just want to sleep.”

They went back to the camper and decided that they would need to stand watches after all. There might be more people in town that had worked for the bike gang.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

After the excitement of the first night the kids enjoyed the next three days of peace. They took stock of their supplies and repacked them for easier access. They had decided to take the van with them in case one of the other vehicles broke down they would still have two. They traded the guns and ammunition to the Sheriff for things that they didn’t have and took as many hot showers as they could. They knew that once they left, it would be back to sponge baths and boiled water. By the third day, Josh’s face was a rainbow of colours but most of the swelling had gone down so he could see better. It had been nine days since they left Disneyland and they were all anxious to keep heading homeward.

Alex couldn’t help thinking of Emily and David and wondering how far they had come and if they were safe. She tried hard not to think of her family and all the “what ifs” or she would sink into depression. They planned to leave the next morning as early as possible to take advantage of the daylight and get as far as they could. The days were getting longer but the sun still went down before seven at night and they wanted to push hard after staying in the town for three days.

They had dinner at the Sheriff’s house the night before they left and they were all happy to see Luke full of energy and happiness. With the resilience of young children, he seemed to be none the worse for his ordeal. The physical scars on his small body would take time to heal but his mental state seemed good. His mother, Jane, was a charming hostess and bustled around mothering all the teens. She seemed not to be effected by the fact that she had shot a man in the back only days ago

Alex remembered what Dara had said in the change room, about a return to the old ways and guessed that it really would be a new world. They left the Sheriff’s house feeling good about what was to come and went to bed early for the next leg of their trip home.

Chapter 15

Six days later, Alex was happy to see the mountains of Montana after taking so long to get through Idaho. They had left the town and cut through the north western corner of Utah with no problems. They tried to stay away from towns as much as possible and Idaho made that easy with its low population. Of the six days they had traveled since leaving the town, two of the days were spent in frustrating back tracking. Some roads had been impossible to get around car crashes and at one point they saw homemade sign’s warning traveller’s to turn back or be shot. They didn’t want to get into another fight so they turned back and searched for another route. Local maps were getting hard to find as it seemed that all the gas stations they stopped at had been looted. The group did see other people but not as many as in the first few days.

On the second day they saw a woman pushing a stroller down the side of the road and stopped to offer her a ride. She was very suspicious and clutched a small pistol in her hand. When Dara told her she could ride alone with her, the woman relaxed and was very friendly. Her baby was under a year old and she had been stuck in a bigger town that she had gone shopping at. They had stayed as long as they could with friendly strangers but food was tight and she wanted to go home.

They gave her fresh baked buns and water and dropped her off outside of her town. The group had discussed helping people, especially people with children when they could but all agreed that avoiding people was better. Not all the people they stopped to help were nice.

In southern Idaho they saw a man walking with two boys and they stopped to offer a ride. The two boys were skinny and dirty and didn’t speak. The man took in the three working vehicles with calculation and envy. He accepted the ride and they climbed into the camper.

Alex was driving with Josh taking a turn keeping watch out of the roof vent. Alex tried to engage the man in conversation but he just answered her questions with grunts. She could see him in the rear view mirror, taking in all the supplies piled up in the rear of the camper. He kept taking quick looks at Josh’s legs braced on the water cases.

Alex had a bad feeling about the guy and wondered about the silent boys. She’d given them juice boxes and more of the buns that they kept stockpiling. The boys ate in small bites with their heads down. She was getting nervous about the way the man kept checking on Josh’s position. She eased her hand gun out of its holster and set it on her lap. They had been driving in silence for twenty minutes when the man made his move.

He stood up from the dinette table and stretched. As soon as she saw him in the mirror take a step towards her, she tapped the brakes twice and grabbed her gun, keeping it down on her lap. He came in a rush and got right beside her. There was a small revolver in his hand and he pointed it at her side. He was trying to hide what he was doing if Josh came down into the camper.

In a normal tone of voice, like they were just having a conversation he told her, “I don’t think it’s really fair that you kids have three working cars. That seems very greedy to me so I think you should give me one. At the next side road I want you to turn off and give it some gas. We’re going to ditch your friends and then when we are safely away I’ll let you and your friend go.”

Alex didn’t know if the man was blind or just stupid. He didn’t seem to remember the assault rifle that Josh had in his hands when he was on the roof or the two guns Alex had strapped to her waist. He was seriously out gunned.

“That’s not going to happen, Mister. How about I pull over and let you leave my camper alive instead?” and she nodded downwards. With her right hand on the wheel she had the gun in her left hand and her arm was across her stomach which meant that the gun’s barrel was inches from his ribs.

The man looked down and paled a bit but his resolve hardened, “Put that away little girl. You know you aren’t going to shoot me in front of those boys.” he ordered.

“I wouldn’t mess with her Mister. That “little girl” snapped the neck of a biker with nothing but her thighs and if she doesn’t take care of you, I will!” Josh told him. He had come up behind the stranger, alerted by Alex’s braking pattern.

The man slumped in defeat when he felt the barrel of Josh’s gun against the back of his head. He whined “I wasn’t going to hurt you. I just want the camper. It’s not fair that you kids have three vehicles!”

Josh ignored the whining man and plucked the gun from his hand.

“Alex, toot the horn twice and put your signal light on. Pull over and we’ll get rid of this trash.”

Josh grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him back onto his butt, then dragged him back towards the side door. Alex pulled over and put the camper in park. She slid out of her seat and went into the back of the camper. She looked at the two boys and felt bad for them.

“I’m sorry boys. You’re going to have to go back to walking with your Dad.” she told them.

Neither boy had even looked up at the commotion but the older boy mumbled something. Alex thought that he looked around eight or nine. She crouched down beside him and asked “What did you say sweetie?”

The boy finally looked up into Alex’s eyes and she was shocked to see that they were full of rage. “I said he’s not our Dad! We don’t even know him and he’s an asshole!” the child said with force.

The pathetic man on the floor yelled at the kid, “Shut up you ungrateful little shit!”

Josh poked him with the rifle barrel to shut him up.

“Tell me what happened, sweetie.” Alex asked the boy gently.

His eyes welled up and his little brother started to cry. “My Mom was driving us to school and we had a crash. I couldn’t wake her up. I tried all day!” he cried out. Then in a whisper, “I think she was dead.”

“I’m so sorry honey. There were a lot of car crashes that day.” She gently rubbed his back. “How did you end up with this man?”

The boy looked over at the man with fierce eyes. “No one came. All day we waited for help and we were hungry and scared. When it was getting dark, he came and made us go with him. He said we had to pretend that he was our Dad because people would help us if they thought he had kids. He said he would beat us if we spoke to anyone. And he hit my brother lots of times to make him be quiet. He’s a really bad man. He robbed some people that were going to give us food. And they kicked us out of a shelter when they caught him stealing stuff. Please don’t make us go with him. We will be really good and quiet if we can stay with you guys.” he pleaded.

The camper door was thrown open just then and Cooper and Quinn were standing outside with their guns pointed in.

“What’s going on?” Quinn asked, eyeing the snivelling man on the floor.

“We’re just getting ready to throw out some trash.” Josh joked and shoved the man out the door. Quinn jumped back and the man hit the pavement hard. “Off you go buddy. We’ll take care of the kids from here.”

He scrambled to his feet and whined. “My gun, please can I have my gun back. It’s dangerous out here. I need to be able to protect myself.

“That’s funny. It sounds like you just said something but that can’t be right because dead men don’t talk.” Josh said in an amused tone that turned menacing. “Start walking or I’ll start shooting.” He lifted his gun to his shoulder and took aim.

“Fine, fine I’ll go! The little brats were too much work anyways. You can keep them.” The man jumped and took off running when Quinn shot the ground at his feet. Josh looked to him with a grin.

“What?” Quinn asked with a shrug. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Alex rolled her eyes “Can we go now, please.”

After getting as much information as they could from the two boys about other family members they checked the map and found that their Grandparents lived in a town that was only forty miles out of the way. They drove the boys to the town and handed them off to the guards at a roadblock with promises from the guards to get the boys to their family.