Day 34
They’d spent the night taking as many supplies as they could carry comfortably, taking only what they could use in a pinch. All of the weapons and ammo. Basic dried food and bottled water. An extra layer of clothes for the cold nights ahead.
Darlene knew they were leaving more than they wanted to, but they didn’t want to be overburdened with items that could slow them down and possibly hurt them in the long run.
Getting shot in the back because you couldn’t move fast enough isn’t an option, Darlene thought. She felt sorry for Austin and Aiden, who looked miserable lugging bags in each arm and a rifle strapped to their backs.
Rosemary had balked at first about the boys being armed, and Herbert had taken her into a bedroom for a few tense minutes. When they’ve exited, Herbert had his jaws clenched and Rosemary wiped tears from her eyes but didn’t say anything.
Terri had been reluctant to leave her home.
“But my parents will be coming home, and I need to be here for them,” Terri had argued. “Their flight from Florida is delayed. That’s all. I need to wait by the phone.”
Herbert had sighed and went to take Terri into the bedroom, but Darlene intervened. She knew Herbert was beyond stressed, so she’d done it.
Terri had listened silently as Darlene laid out the facts: no planes were currently flying, her parents were to the east, which was the direction they’d be headed, her parents were likely to go to the same spot they were headed, and so on. Terri had nodded and in a moment of calmness she agreed and even packed sandwiches for the walk.
Herbert had made sure to leave anything they couldn’t carry in plain sight. Maybe they’d get lucky and the Sawyers would take it and not search for them. They might think only Terri had been living there, and she’d run off.
It was worth a shot.
The field was overgrown, which was a good thing. They’d managed to find a slight dip in the ground, an old path heavy farm equipment had dug, and were hiding in it.
Darlene was about halfway between the farm property and where everyone else was hidden, making sure they weren’t followed.
From this vantage point she couldn’t see much. If they’d come straight down the driveway and burst into the house, she wouldn’t be able to see it.
They might have come last night and had gone in, grabbed everything and left.
Darlene wanted to sneak back and see if it had happened, but knew it was a stupid move. If the men were smart they’d leave a couple of them behind to make sure no one came back.
She wondered for the hundredth time how many had survived the attack at the Brinker farm of those they’d tried to protect. She hoped it had been at least a few, and even now they were headed to safety or out of the area.
The idea they’d gathered all of those innocent people just to get slaughtered with ease… Darlene knew if she kept thinking about it she’d spiral into depression. There was so much negative right now, and it would be easy to dwell in it. So easy to...
Movement on the back porch pulled Darlene out of her dark thoughts.
A lone man carrying a rifle stepped out the back door and looked around.
Darlene slowly got into firing position from where she was flat on the ground, a clean shot through the weeds. She had a small hill of dirt for protection if there was a return fire.
She’d need to make the first shot count.
Another man came out as well, also armed with a rifle. The two talked for a minute before walking down into the backyard, both looking around.
Darlene didn’t know how many more there might be inside. Had they just shown up to search the property? Or had they spent the night in hiding, waiting for Terri to return?
Neither man was close to her or heading in her direction, but if they got within thirty or forty feet she’d be seen.
It was too late for her to slink back to the tree line, too. Any movement would get a bullet in the back, and if there were more of them inside or out front, they’d come running.
Darlene was the only protection between Herbert and his family, and she needed to stay put and play this out.
Because the two were spread out and moving in opposite directions, Darlene kept the rifle facing the one on the left and her eyes followed the one on the right. She’d look back and forth to make sure neither were getting the drop on her, and watching the porch for signs of more joining them.
The guy to the right disappeared into the dilapidated barn. The other was heading to the far pasture, where horses or cattle had once been penned in by a wooden fence, now rotting away.
Keeping an eye on both men and the house was giving Darlene a headache. The heat, her exhaustion and the lingering pain of her injuries was getting the best of her.
Every minute movement gave her pain, and the constant turning of her neck was flaring her shoulders to extreme anguish.
The man in the barn came out and began walking across the field toward the other man scanning the penned-in area.
His path would take him within twenty feet of Darlene.
She held her breath and made sure the rifle was ready.
The man was looking around as he walked, not acting like he was expecting danger, but he wouldn’t be caught unawares.
Forty feet away from Darlene.
She glanced back at the house. So far no movement. She prayed these two were alone.
The man was within thirty feet, and his head slowly swiveled in her direction.
Now or never, Darlene thought, knowing the chaos pulling the trigger would cause.
As the man turned in her direction and it registered on his face she was lying on the ground and pointing a rifle in his direction, he opened his mouth to shout.
Darlene pulled the trigger and silenced him.
She rolled to her left and turned, looking for the other man.
He’d come running at the sound of the shot instead of standing his ground and firing, and it likely saved Darlene.
She shot him twice, once in the chest and the second in the head as he fell.
Darlene let out her breath. The flaring pain in her shoulder from firing the rifle was excruciating.
She scanned the house and the side property, expecting someone to come running or at least return fire from a hiding spot.
Nothing.
Darlene didn’t know whether to run back to the woods or go to the house.
Do something, she yelled at herself. You can’t lie here in pain.
She glanced back to the trees, expecting Herbert to come running, but all was quiet.
Darlene stood, waiting to hear a shot. She began to run as fast as her hurt body would allow, serpentine toward the house.
She got onto the porch and the rifle led her into the house, but there wasn’t anyone else around.
After a cursory search of the rooms, she found the front door open. The two men had loaded the supplies into the pickup truck parked in the driveway.
Darlene ducked down, paranoid she was being watched.
She counted to ten and made a dash for the pickup truck. The keys were in it.
Now what? They couldn’t just drive off the property. The roads might be filled with the Sawyer clan, stopping everyone coming and going. Their best course of action would be to stay to the woods and hop from farm to farm in hopes of escaping.
Darlene could leave the pickup and the extra supplies, she could hide it in the barn and hope no one came back to check, or she could take the fight to the Sawyers and drive into a firefight.
If she was feeling a hundred percent she might’ve decided on their third option.
Darlene drove the pickup into the barn and did her best to hide as many of the supplies as she could, leaving the pickup but taking the keys with her.
As she made her way back to the safety of the woods, she kept glancing back, expecting pursuit.
Knowing as long as she lived in this new world someone would be pursuing her.