“Yes. You’re right. And that’s why I’m here. Not to repent, but to accept my punishment,” Ben replied. “That kid was right. I deserve a bullet to the head. Or to be tied up and pushed out of the gate. All I can do right now is to tell you that I am sorry and let you do what you will.” His face had become ashen as he spoke.
Several people spoke up at once. Shelley heard Breanne call Ben a dirty rat, and Ern say that he was only a soldier following his orders. Joe had stood up again and faced the crowd.
Slowly, they simmered down.
“Folks, please,” Joe pleaded with his hands raised. He was silent for a moment. “I’ve been trying to think, ‘What would Craig do?’ every time we get into a situation. I think Craig would tell us not to rush into a decision. He’d probably say that we sleep on it and vote in the morning — or continue questioning Ben for more information.” He turned to Sarah. “Am I right, Sarah?”
Sarah’s expression softened from an angry frown to a more thoughtful look. She nodded. “Yeah.” It was barely more than a whisper.
Joe looked from person to person. “I also think that we should wait until John and the rest get back. They deserve a say in this as well.”
“You’re not leaving that murderer to walk around freely!” Rachel said, a little too loudly.
Joe flinched as she spoke, and a look of exasperation passed over his face.
“Oy!” Emily stood up. “I’m just as gutted as the rest of you lot, but if he wanted to murder you, he would have done so, and not showed up to surrender, yeah?” As some opened their mouths, she added, “I’m not done! Ben is a trained killer. But he”—she pointed at the man sitting behind her—“hasn’t personally killed any of us, or any of our friends and families. As a matter of fact, some of you owe him your lives.”
She received several noncommittal shrugs in reply to her statement.
“We can put him up in one of the rooms. And I will post myself up as a guard to his room if that helps ease your mind.”
Shelley could tell that this made sense to the group.
“I can take a shift as guard too. This dude tries anything, and I’ll blow his ass off,” Romy added with a contemptuous glare at Ben.
“All right, all right,” Joe intervened with a stern look at Romy. “Ern, are you up for some guard duty?”
“Yessir!” Ern replied with a grin.
“OK. I will also volunteer for this. The four of us will each take a shift.” He looked back at the audience. “Are you guys all right with that?”
He received a couple of glares, but mostly nods of assent in return. Things happened quickly after that. It was decided to put Ben in John and Melissa’s room, as it was empty anyway. A few people volunteered to go through the room and put the Millers’ personal belongings in Sarah’s room for the night.
People filed out of the cafeteria, leaving Ben under guard for the moment. Emily called out to Joe as the big man left with his family. He stayed behind and waited as she caught up. She pulled him aside for a moment. Shelley stuck around as well, curious to hear what Emily had to say. She didn’t want to spy on the twosome, so boldly walked up to stand beside Emily. She didn’t seem to mind.
“Thanks for stepping up, Joe. Somebody had to take charge,” the short woman said, with a light touch to his elbow.
“It’s all right,” Joe responded, slightly flustered by the compliment.
“We haven’t always agreed on things,” Emily continued. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to go against Rachel’s wishes.”
“Yeah.” He looked at his retreating family as they ascended the stairs. “That woman is a handful...”
“Handful?” Emily smirked. “Your wife’s a right nutter, mate.”
She had not meant it in a malicious way, yet it must have hit a nerve. Joe looked like he was going to get angry with her for that remark. Shelley prepared to step in between the two so she could stop the altercation. Joe hesitated though. He looked back from Emily to Shelley, and back to Emily. A mix of emotions crossed his face, and he worked his jaw as he worked through his inner conflict.
“She’s my wife,” he finally said. It sounded apologetic. “She is going through things. It has been hard on her...”
Joe might have been about to say more, but he suddenly excused himself and walked away.
Emily and Shelley stared at his broad back as he retreated, then shared a curious glance.
Something was going on, all right.
Chapter 32
John
November 8, 1:20 P.M.
John was pleasantly surprised when they pulled up to the Jeffersons’s property. It had only taken them a few hours to arrive, despite the less than perfect weather and some major obstacles on the highways. They had parked their vehicles on the shoulder of the secondary highway and stared at green trees under a gray sky. Just up ahead, John could see a sign hanging from chains. “Jeffersons Organics” swung back and forth as it got pelted by rain and wind.
“Hand me the radio receiver, will you, Abi?” John stuck out his hand. The stocky woman complied with an enthusiastic look.
“Ah. Service with a smile.” John commented and smiled back. Abi had this irrepressible positiveness about her. John liked it. It was a lot better than the attitude of some of the other folks at the Ren.
He wondered, not for the first time, how Craig had managed to keep everybody civil and productive.
That’s not for now. Get your troops organized, soldier.
He squeezed the push-to-talk button. “Car One to Car Two. Over.”
“Car Two to Car One. Read you loud and clear. Over.” It was Tammy speaking.
“I’m going in on foot to reconnoiter the area. Bill, I’d like
