“That’s it?” shrilled the first woman.
Jared stopped and drew a deep breath before reeling on the woman. “Do good, make your men do good, and for God’s sake, teach your kids to do good—it’s literally that simple.”
The women stood dumbfounded as the four men continued walking south. After a few seconds, the three women hurried up the driveway, disappearing into Dwight’s heavily vegetated landscape. Less than a minute later, the four men heard a woman’s scream.
“I told ’em to go around back,” Jared muttered, not even bothering to look over his already tired shoulder.
Chapter 19
The men’s packs were twenty pounds heavier than the trip into Woodside, which made for a slower pace. Anytime the foursome stopped and drank, they searched for a water source. When they located one, they topped off all their water containers. Running out of water was a sure way to get into trouble. John still itched from his poison oak episode, but, for the most part, the blisters had either popped or gone down. Dwight had given John a tube of lotion for the rash, and he had administered it liberally, especially in and around his genitalia, which brought him some much-needed relief.
As the men trudged along the side of Portola Road, Jared lamented about what they had been forced to do the evening before and wondered if they could have handled it differently. Could they have deescalated the situation, or would the men have simply gone ahead and done what they were there to do anyway? Jared didn’t have the answer to his question, but knew he was quickly growing tired of all the killing. It seemed like every good act was accompanied by a ferocious act of violence, and this haunted him greatly. Jared wished he could do something good for someone without something bad being part of the equation.
As the men walked, Barry and Dwight talked in hushed tones while Jared and John constantly searched for potential threats, choke points or outright hostile people. Before the men reached Alpine Road, Jared noticed a walking path, which led off to the west, marked Windy Hill.
“Isn’t that the name of the trail we were on up in the hills before we dropped down to the neighborhoods?” Jared asked.
John looked at the sign and nodded approvingly. Jared shrugged, and off they went up the Windy Hill trail. Both men were glad to be off a main road and walking on dirt again. Jared was sure there would be fewer people up here than down below near all the homes. The climb to the summit was difficult for Barry, Dwight and Jared with the added weight in their packs. Barry even brought up the idea of ditching the whiskey, but both Jared and John shut him down.
“Jesus, Dwight, I can’t believe you don’t have a working car. Even I had a motorcycle,” Barry complained.
“Wife always made it clear she would never leave our home no matter what came our way, so I never felt the need to invest the time and energy into setting one up.” Dwight huffed as he struggled up the path under the weight of his pack.
“How are your feet?” John asked.
“Fine, how is your poison oak?” Barry rifled back.
John scratched his crotch. “Wanna see?” John responded with a sense of pride for his quick response.
“Nope,” Barry said through labored breath, with no energy to engage in a battle of wits.
“Wouldn’t matter anyway,” Jared chimed in. “A car would get us only partway before we would have to walk. Freeways are all choked with cars. The power went out during rush hour, so unless we had some off-road-type vehicle, I think horseback or foot is just as good.”
The men walked in silence until they reached the top of the hill before turning south, leaving the trail and moving along the ridge another mile or two, where they picked up a hiking trail headed south. Another hour and they began seeing the same signs the three had seen on their way to Woodside. When the four men stopped for water, Barry checked his feet, and John lathered his genitals with the lotion Dwight had given him.
When the sun began to near the Pacific Ocean, John and Jared scouted a camping site while Barry and Dwight hid out in a clump of vegetation. Jared and John soon found a suitable spot they felt was easily defendable and could not be readily seen from the hiking trail. Jared left John and went back to retrieve the other two men, showing them to their home for the night. By the time Jared returned with Dwight and Barry, John had already begun digging a flat area where three of the men could sleep while one was on watch.
The men silently laid out three sleeping bags and set up a small gas stove, which they used to heat water and mix into freeze-dried meals. The men had gathered as many of these meals as they could carry from Dwight’s stores in his basement. Both Jared and John were relieved since the food they’d brought had begun to run a little low after leaving a portion for Claire and Stephani. John wouldn’t have been too concerned if they’d only been operating in the hills, but much of their travels would be in the built-up areas.
He’d seen plenty of animals in the hills they could have shot, cooked and eaten, but most of the return trip would be through the built-up area. John knew they could live off rats like Devon was doing, but preferred not to if he could avoid it. He didn’t have a problem killing and eating deer or even a squirrel if it came down to it, but there was some lingering social stigma that curbed any semblance of enthusiasm he might have had when it came to dining on a rat.
John knew that if push came to shove, and as long as the head, skin and that God-awful tail were nowhere in sight, he
