After the ammunition cans were in the hole and it was covered, they did their best to eliminate any signs they had been digging in the area, going as far as uprooting several plants and replanting them on top of the cache site.
The men left everything else intact to be used by whoever stumbled upon Dwight’s hard work and forward thinking. John stepped out into the bright morning sun and headed toward the driveway. The stench of death was strong as the four crossed the front of the property. Each man stole furtive looks at the carnage before moving on down the driveway, heading to the gate.
When they reached the gate, Dwight punched in a series of numbers on a keypad Jared assumed would have been inoperable after the event. The gate silently swung open. Keeping true to his promise to John, Dwight left the gate open so others could benefit from the food and supplies they were leaving behind.
As they stepped outside the gate and onto the road, the sound of women’s voices drifted across the quiet morning air, causing the group to scramble back inside the gate, where they took refuge behind the stone wall. John motioned for Jared to watch the opposite direction from where the voices were coming while he looked to see if there was a threat approaching. Jared nodded his acknowledgment, leaving John free to move up to the gate and peer down the road.
As the voices grew louder, John moved back away from the gate. Just as Jared caught sight of three women, John stood and let his rifle hang in a gesture of goodwill. The women were gaunt in stature, with a couple having the drawn facial look of a woman who’d had some surgery done in her quest to outrun father time. Their clothes were expensive, but worthless now, and the shoes they wore were not practical by anyone’s standards.
“Howdy, ladies,” John greeted them, a giant smile stretched across his handsome face in an attempt to ease the tension he was sure he’d cause by appearing out of what assuredly seemed like thin air.
One of the women screamed, and all three shrank away from John, who held up his hands, palms out in a gesture of goodwill.
“Easy, ladies, me and my friends are just passing through. Not here to bother anyone,” John cajoled.
For a moment the women just stared at him, with their hands clutched over their chests and their faces painted in fear.
“We don’t want any trouble; we’re just looking for our husbands. They went out last night to look for food,” one woman blurted out.
John’s smile disappeared. “Your husbands take part of a telephone pole when they went out?”
The woman who had spoken nodded her head. “Yeah, so they could get into abandoned houses. Everyone’s starving to death around here.”
“Come on out, boys,” John said.
Barry, Dwight and Jared stepped out onto the road, which caused another episode of panic amongst the women.
John gestured to Dwight. “This man lives here, buried his wife in the backyard a while back. Some men have been coming up here and trying to break into his home. This man prepared for what happened, and therefore he has been making it just fine. Then along came your husbands who think, since they outnumber this man, they can take what’s his.”
The first woman looked frightened but demanded clarification. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I think your husbands came up here several times and tried to kill this man and get into his house. Hell, one night they tried to burn his house down with him in it. Then last night they brought that pole and used it as a battering ram while shooting at his house to kill him, and, well—I’m sorry, but they paid dearly for acting that way. They weren’t just trying to get food. They were trying to kill this man to get his food.”
All three women clapped their mouths with their hands and gasped. One woman began crying as she sank to the ground. The woman in the middle put a hand on her friend’s shoulder, looking horrified.
“What have you done?” cried the first woman.
“Who the fuck goes looking for food at night anyway—fucking shady—did y’all know what they were up to?” John barked in a voice devoid of any empathy for people who turn a blind eye to bad behavior in family members but would be outraged if they fell victim to the same bad behavior by an outsider.
Jared stepped forward. “Listen, ma’am, we did what we had to do to survive. We’ve been doing it since day one, and not once has anyone here taken advantage of another human’s less fortunate position in all this mess. It is very probable that your husbands are lying dead up there at the house because they were trying to take advantage of what they errantly thought was a weaker person. There are twelve very dead men up at the house. I suggest one of two things. If you all have any menfolk left, have them come up here and deal with the dead. If you don’t, then you should probably circle to the rear of the house and avoid the front yard. There’s an open sliding glass door you can access the house from if you come through the backyard. The house is full of food and water. This man”—Jared gestured to Dwight—“did what he had to do. Take what you need and know the four of us would never have done what your men tried doing last night.”
Jared turned and began walking south. The other three men hesitated for only a second and then pivoted and followed Jared. They weren’t concerned for their safety since none of the three women were armed, and they seemed more in shock than anything else
