Sam picked up the discarded pistols and dragged the seriously wounded man off the roadway. The man bled profusely and would likely die if left unattended. The man coughed blood as he begged for help. Sam debated giving first aid. He decided against it. He didn’t kill the wounded man but continued walking away. Bad people reap what they sow, or something like that, he’d heard in church years ago. He paused, then passed the four confiscated pistols to J.R. All four were 9mm semiautos of various brands and sizes. She was second in line from the four pump islands.
In the two pickups belonging to their attackers, Sam confiscated another pistol and a dozen full boxes of 9mm ammunition for the thieves' pistols. Several thousand dollars in currency was in the glovebox of each truck. He shared two boxes of ammo with the people who took guns from the thieves they stomped before they were shot.
Parked alongside the pumps Sam said, "As soon as I pay, we'll get the hell out of here. This is the kind of thing we spoke about earlier. We’re going to see more of it as the situation becomes more desperate. I don’t want to wait here until more State Police finally show up, or we’ll be here till midnight answering questions and defending our actions." He paused. “The station operator tripled the price of diesel to near nine dollars a gallon, but we’ve just accumulated an even larger abundance of US dollars to dispose of; so the fuel isn’t costing us anything. JR exercised Smokey as fuel poured into their tank.
Sam stood alone at the pump when he observed an elderly man and woman leave the truck behind his and approach.
“Young fella, I want to thank you for corralling those hoodlums who were robbing folks. My wife and I were prepared to do the same thing. I was a sheriff in Kansas before I retired. Ethel was one of my sergeants. Expect we’ll see more of that behavior as this crisis grows. The bad side of people is coming out and now it’s vigilante justice taking over. I was never pro-vigilante, but now it’s becoming the law of the land. It’s a shame to witness that even though it’s necessary.”
Both people shook Sam’s hand and then returned to their truck as a pump in the next row became clear. Two more vehicles were in line behind the ex-sheriff. In the near distance he heard a single siren coming from the south.
JR and Smokey returned a few minutes before he finished fueling. They left as an ambulance pulled into the station to treat the victim who’d been shot by the thieves and the man JR shot.
“I guess the station owner was robbed by those people too.”
“He was. His daughter got their money back from the shoulder bag one of the women was carrying. The woman was one of the two thieves who were killed at the pumps.”
“I’m also surprised not everyone at the pumps had a gun. I assumed by now everyone would be armed.”
“Several did, but most were disarmed before the thieves robbed them. The other man waited his chance for a clear shot. I suppose some of the other people are so dead set against guns they can’t bring themselves to use one even if it gets them killed. They’ll either change their attitude or be harassed and intimidated until someone kills them. It’s sad, but that’s what is happening.
Sam was silent a minute longer. “I wish what happened back there hadn’t. Killing another human leaves a bad feeling even though it’s necessary. I thought I was totally prepared for it, but I learned it’s not that simple. I’m sure there’ll be more acts like that, and I guess the empty somewhat guilty feeling will go away. But right now it’s hard to accept that I actually did it.”
JR nodded. She was having the same self-incrimination issues and hadn’t been nearly as acclimated to it as he was.
Approaching Strasburg, North Dakota, shortly past noon, the truck’s engine started spitting and sputtering and running erratically. Sam flipped the fuel selector switch to the other diesel tank. He pulled off the road and stopped on the shoulder and ran the engine at higher speed while in neutral. “That asshole at our last stop likely pumped his diesel tank too low and had water in the bottom. We might lose that whole tank of fuel. It’s a good thing we only filled the one tank. We’re barely ten miles from there.”
“Everything about that stop was negative, I hope there’s no more like it,”
Sam frowned. “And we can’t go back there to raise hell with the owner because the police will likely be there by now.”
After several minutes, the engine smoothed out and ran better but not like usual. They continued sputtering along another ten miles into town. Sam parked on the lot of a gas station but left the engine run and had JR hold the fuel throttle down to maintain a higher engine speed than idle. He went in the office and asked the attendant where a garage was located. The only garage in town was two blocks north and a block west, if it was still open. Several businesses had closed in the last week when their owners left town. The attendant said, “Two left because they had no customers and didn’t expect any. Who is going to buy insurance or investments with a mob of zombies approaching?”
They followed the directions to Marty's Auto Repair. The garage sat by itself on a short block across from a small public park. The area was residential without other businesses nearby. The shop owner was working alone but said he could get to Sam's truck later that
