And the group didn’t look friendly. Even in the photos, Shawn could swear he felt a malevolence from them. Andrea had put forth that since they hadn’t taken the boy, he’d joined someone else. Even as she’d said it, Shawn had known even Andrea hadn’t believed it.
They had dozens of photos of the group and the boy moved with them too easy to have just joined them.
Getting back up to speed, Shawn glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the road was empty. “People at the house on the left,” they heard Kirk call out over the radio.
Turning, Shawn saw a brick house well off the small road they were on. “You see them?” Shawn asked and turned to see Tony looking at the house with binoculars.
“Yeah, I see someone peeking out the front window near the bottom and hiding behind a curtain,” Tony answered. “How in the hell did Kirk spot them?”
“The only one who’s been with Poppa longer is Nicole,” Shawn reminded him.
Lowering the binoculars, Tony kept his eyes on the house as they drove past. “Shawn, I don’t want to mess up and get someone hurt,” Tony mumbled in a breaking voice.
“Hey,” Shawn said, looking over at him. “If Poppa thought that, you wouldn’t be with us, so get that thought out of your head. You do what he says, like he says, and you don’t have to worry about that.”
Slowly, Tony started to smile. “Yeah, Poppa would know,” Tony finally said, feeling much better.
Reaching over and patting Tony on the chest, Shawn pointed out a parking area near a small stream. “That’s where you head for if you get separated,” Shawn told him.
“Poppa called it a rally spot,” Tony blurted out and Shawn just nodded with a grin.
Turning onto the road that would take them into Conway, Arthur called out to stop at the edge of town. They saw Shelia jump out and run over to a garbage can before pulling out a camera on a tripod. When she climbed back in, they pulled off.
They were heading back to one of the home improvement stores to get the stuff they had boxed up several days ago. The only place they’d visited repeatedly had been the truck terminal and Shawn really wanted to stop that. It was totally random to everyone, except to Arthur of when they would go back to get stuff they left behind.
“Truck ahead opposing lane,” Arthur called over the radio and Tony pulled his AR up again.
“Remember to watch behind us,” Shawn said, glancing at the mirrors.
“I am,” Tony answered when Shawn saw a shiny truck heading toward them. Nobody slowed and Shawn saw people waving from the truck as it passed them. Behind the truck was a small trailer that was loaded down.
Watching the truck in his mirror, Shawn saw shopping bags in the bed of the truck. “Somebody’s been shopping at Walmart,” Shawn laughed.
“We won’t go there because there’s food,” Tony said as they turned, heading into the home improvement center’s parking lot.
“Like Poppa said, we will grow our own food,” Shawn nodded, feeling his heart speed up. Arthur had always told them that when they revisited a place was the most dangerous. For the life of him, Shawn couldn’t figure out why people would fight over this stuff when there was stuff to get all around here.
By no means was he stupid. Shawn knew that the man Arthur had shot hadn’t been talking about Vicki’s cat. Thinking that someone would do that to a little girl made Shawn’s blood boil. Now, most in the group were armed and it just didn’t make sense to attack a group that could shoot back.
They rounded the store and pulled past the loading dock to the drive-in door at the corner of the store. As Arthur slowed, Shawn couldn’t help but be awed in his memory of Arthur. When they had added the new trucks and trailers, there wasn’t going to be enough room for all three to pull in and face the front roll-up door.
Without telling anyone, Arthur just backed the Suburban with the trailer into the store and guided it down one of the aisles. The speed and ease with which he did it made everyone jealous, that Arthur could drive a trailer backwards better than they could forward.
Shawn came to a stop behind Andrea and saw Arthur get out and was thankful that Nicole wasn’t in the baby sling. Arthur locked the door he had pried open and walked back to the Suburban. “Rally point, backup route,” Arthur called over the radio. “Will feed the babies and then return tomorrow.”
“Oh fuck,” Tony gasped, hearing the code that someone hostile was around. Looking around with wide eyes, Tony begged. “Can I chamber a round?”
“Hell, no!” Shawn snapped, seeing the Suburban pull away. “You’ll shoot one of us with as nervous as you are.”
Nearing the door, Shawn saw the rock Arthur had placed there to keep it closed. “Oh, shit!” Shawn cried out, making Tony levitate out of his seat. Turning to the building, Tony saw Arthur squatting down beside a stack of shipping pallets behind the building with Donald and Daisy beside him.
“What the hell is he doing?” Tony gasped as they followed the Suburban out of the parking lot.
“Something I’m sure somebody won’t like,” Shawn said, picking up speed and heading back out of town.
Crouching down next to the pallets, Arthur scanned the trees behind the store slowly. Not seeing anything, he glanced at Donald and Daisy and saw they were looking at the door he had used to get in the store. “Yeah, I know someone’s in there,” he said softly.
Crouching over, Arthur moved back along the store to the loading docks and looked around for movement. Unless the ambushers were a big group or very lucky, the kids
