His accent was slight, Joe noticed, not thick like some he had heard. "We feel the same way," Joe said as he slipped an arm around Becky. He looked at Becky who nodded before he continued. "We could all make the trip together," he offered, "might be a lot safer that way?" When he finished Becky echoed the invitation.
"See no reason not to," Delbert said slowly, as he turned his eyes to the couple beside him. "Peggy, Bill?"
"I'm for it," Bill agreed. He had a slightly thicker accent Becky noticed, well, maybe not an accent really, she told herself, he just talks somewhat slowly.
"Me too," Peggy said, and a smile lit up her face as she spoke. "No lie. I've been pretty scared, and it'll be good to have more of us, I think."
"I lied," Becky said, and then hastily continued, "We didn't stop because we saw you. We stopped because we need ammunition. We got ambushed, sort of, and... Well, we got out of it. I didn't mean to lie, I just wasn't sure we could trust you, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to tell you we were running low, not knowing if...you know..." she finished lamely.
"Don't give it a thought," Delbert said, "can't say as I blame you. In fact," he said reaching for his shotgun, and opening the breech, "we did too, but there isn't any here. I hoped to scare you off, but the truth is, we're out of ammunition ourselves. If you had been...well, bad, I guess we would've been screwed." He finished by setting the empty shotgun against the door frame, resting butt down on the pavement.
"You mean," Joe said, "you're out completely?"
"Oh yeah," Bill said, "been out since yesterday, and whatever was in this shop is gone. Somebody cleaned it out."
Joe and Becky followed the others into the small shop. It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust to the sparse light inside, but once they did they could see that the shop had been ransacked. Two large glass display cases that had probably held, who knew how many handguns, Joe thought, were empty. The glass fronts had been shattered into the cases. Racks that had once been likewise protected by lockable glass sliding doors had also been broken into, the thick glass that had once protected them lay inside, but the rifles they had protected were gone. Nothing had been left. The floors were strewn with empty boxes, wads of packing paper, and literature on several different types of guns that had been discarded. The glass from the cases was everywhere, Joe saw.
"Looks as though they didn't leave anything at all," Joe said.
"Told you," Bill said, as he shook his head. "Somebody got here before us, and it looks as though they weren't about to leave nothin' behind," he sighed.
"You have any ammo at all," Becky asked.
"I do," Peggy answered, "I got seven rounds for this 30.06, that's why... well that's why I hung back when we saw you, you know. I could see you through the window, and... If I had too, I was going to shoot," she seemed embarrassed as she spoke.
"She's 'bout the best shot between the three of us," Delbert said, "my eye's is going, and Bill just never learned to shoot."
Bill turned red, but nodded his head before he spoke. "Just never saw a real big need to learn," he said, "course now I wish I had."
"Been anywhere else in town?" Joe asked, "Maybe there's another sporting goods store around."
"Didn't have the time," Delbert said, "we got here only ten minutes or so before you did."
"Well," Becky said, as she counted up what ammunition she had left for the machine pistol, "I've got one full clip of sixteen, and...Looks like two in this clip, and I'm done."
Joe had checked over what he had while she was speaking, "Looks like this one is down to ten in the clip, but I've got probably better than a hundred rounds for the Remington in the truck, that should help a little. But we need to find a place to get our hands on more, especially for that machine pistol," he gestured at Becky's weapon, "and this one," he said holding up the machine gun they had taken from the kid who had tried to shoot Becky, "this is a," he held the machine gun up so he could read the writing on the side, "a, hey, Becky', this say's it'll take nine millimeter slugs like yours, let me see one," he waited until she handed him one that she took out of the full clip, and then compared them side by side. "Yeah, same thing," he said, "this doesn't have a brand name on it though, just says what sort of bullet it takes, everything else has been ground off, see," he held the side of the machine gun up so that Becky could see it.
"That's been converted," she said, "and that's probably why they ground off the serial number, and most likely the model and make at the same time. That's been converted to full auto," she finished.
"Gee, does that mean it's illegal to carry?" he asked, "you're not going to arrest me or something are you."
"Ha-ha, mister funny man," Becky said smiling. "It does explain something that has been bugging me though. When that guy popped up and let loose on me, I thought he was squeezing those rounds off pretty quick. You can buy that gun, or could, I should say, and you could even order the conversion kit, but if you got caught, big trouble. I've seen a few though...Just the same, and I'm glad that one fell into our hands, and not someone else's."
Joe turned the gun over in his hands; his appreciation for it was much greater than it had been. "So what
