"All right, that's far enough," called out one of the young men. He lounged against a car, a bolt action hunting rifle casually draped across his shoulders like a yoke. "You two look like you got a lot of stuff. Where you from?"
"Ellsworth," Reese said at the same time that Jo replied "Mount Desert Island."
A couple of the teens behind the one who'd spoken snickered and shot glances at each other.
"That so?" their leader said, his eyes on Jo. "Well, soon as you two pay the toll, you can be on your way. We’re not allowed to let anybody into town right now, so you'll have to keep moving."
"After you pay the toll," a higher-pitched voice called over the leader’s shoulder.
"I already told them that," the leader said, which caused another round of snickering.
Reese frowned. “No one at the last barricade said anything about needing to pay a toll. We’re just trying to get home."
The kid looked at him. "Oh yeah? Where’s home?"
"South Carolina," Reese said.
"Man, that's a long walk. I think we oughta double the toll for you two, seeing as how you got such a long ways to go."
"That doesn't make any sense," Jo blurted.
"Course it does," the leader said with a wide grin. "Think of it as us helping you lighten the load on your backs. Now, let's have a look and see what you want to donate to—”
Reese shook his head. "We’re not donating anything. You boys have a good day." He pulled Jo with him and they continued along the road and walked directly in front of the barricade before they turned left to head south. He hated showing his back to the teenagers, but the more they argued, the worst things would get.
"Hey, I'm not done with you—you don't get to walk away," the leader called as he stepped away from the barricade to follow them.
"Reese," Jo warned under her breath.
"I got this." Reese turned to face down the wannabe guard. "Look Junior, I said we’re done here. We’re not looking for any trouble."
“So why did you come to my barricade?"
"Your barricade?” another voice called from the other side of the roadblock.
The leader rounded on his followers and chopped his hand in the air like a tomahawk. "Shut up!" He turned back to face Jo and Reese, then pulled the shotgun up to his shoulder. The muzzle still pointed to the side of the road, but Reese knew things were about to go sideways.
"Hey," he said as he raised his good hand. "Let's slow down for a second. I said we don't want any trouble."
"Neither do we—we just want our toll. Now pay up.”
"You don't have to do this," Jo said quietly.
"You're right, I don’t,” the teenager said, “but I am…because I can…and because it's fun.”
Reese wasn’t sure exactly who fired the first shot. The bullet kicked up gravel six feet to the right of Jo. Faster than a rattlesnake, her pistol was out of its holster and she fired two shots in the general direction of the barricade.
Reese tried to yell for everyone to stop, but the kid screamed and pulled the trigger on his shotgun, which blasted a branch off a tree and showered Reese and Jo with leaves.
He grabbed Jo, and they ran to the side of the road, then dropped down into a shallow ditch and covered their heads as bullets ricocheted off the asphalt all around them.
"We gotta get outta here!" Reese called.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were so smart?" Jo complained. "I don't think they can see us," she added. “Can’t we just keep crawling along the ditch? We might be able to cut through the trees up ahead."
Reese agreed, and they slithered and crawled their way through the muck and mud in the belly of the ditch, working their way ever so slowly away from the barricade. Eventually the gunfire slackened. They pulled themselves up out of the ditch and disappeared into the underbrush lining the road. "I don't see anybody following us," Reese said as he peered through the branches.
“Great, let's get outta here," Jo replied. She pushed her way forward through the vegetation, then froze as tires squealed down the road behind them.
"Oh, that's not good," Reese moaned. "Let's go!" He and Jo ran as well as they could with the heavy packs. They made it about a hundred yards down the road before the car caught them. It squealed to a stop behind them and Reese and Jo split up to move behind trees for cover.
"There they are! I saw ‘em go behind those trees," the leader’s voice called out. A new round of gunshots exploded and bullets and shot peppered the trees behind which Jo and Reese hid.
"What’re we gonna do?" Jo wailed.
"I don't know!" Reese called. "Shoot back!" He pulled his pistol free of the holster with his left hand and braced his arm on the tree trunk. He squeezed off a couple shots and managed to put a hole in the front quarter panel on the driver’s side of the little sedan the teens had driven up from the barricade. Two of them yelled and clambered around the back of the car to hide.
The leader scoffed, racked another round in his shotgun and marched forward, full of bravado and righteous indignation. "You two aren’t getting away! When they hear how I cut you down after you attacked the roadblock, they're going to promote me!"
Reese shook his head at the stupidity the teenager displayed. "That kid’s lucky I'm using my left hand." He squeezed the trigger, and his Glock bucked, throwing his aim off. The driver’s side-view mirror exploded in a shower of sparks. One of the teenagers behind the car stood and ran off into the
