Both of them released him. “Thanks for coming to our rescue, even if it was only a nasty old rat. I’m sure you’re not afraid of anything like us girls are?”
“Everyone is afraid of something. I just don’t want to share my fears with everyone. Hey, that’s an apple on the floor. Where did you get it?”
Lucy still had hers and offered a bite to Tom. “Here, take a bite. They’re great.”
Tom took a small bite and nodded in approval with his mouth full from a second bite. Lucy said, “Grab a handful of those sacks, and we’ll go get some apples for everyone.”
Tom picked up several bags and flipped them to knock off years of dirt and dust. “Go ahead and start filling the bags. I saw something in the back of the barn that I think we could use” Lucy and Sam went out to the apple tree while Tom stayed in the barn.
Sam and Lucy had each filled a bag when they saw Tom come out of the barn pushing an old wheelbarrow. He stopped beside the tree. “I had to grease the axle to free up the wheel and stop an awful squeaking sound, but it works. I cut the rotten tire off, but it’ll roll just fine on the steel rim. Fill it up.”
Granny B was worried about Sam and Lucy since they had been gone for an hour. She was relieved when she heard them talking through the brush. She smiled when she heard Tom’s voice. “Where did you find the wheelbarrow, and what’s in the sacks?”
“We found an old farm, and Tom saved us from some rats,” Lucy blurted out to all and then added, “He’s a hero.”
Tom blushed and held the rabbits up for all to see.
They were an hour late getting on the road, and Granny B knew there would be more people on Highway 80, so the decision to take the Lincoln Highway had been the right choice. They also had to go around Davis and Woodland before reaching Highway 5. There weren’t many people in the first two hours, but around ten o’clock, the foot traffic picked up, and they saw a steady stream of small groups heading south. They passed a couple of families with small children and gave them some apples for the kids. Everyone had similar stories. They were either heading home or traveling to a relative’s place in the country to be more secure. Riots, looting, and random gunfire scared many people from their homes and set them walking to safety. Some had been on vacation and were stranded at airports and along the roadside when their cars quit running.
Where the traveler’s stories differed was their encounters with looters, thugs, and escaped criminals. Several people had encounters with one of these evil people. Most had just been robbed of food, weapons, and money. One group had a young girl kidnapped while they’d slept on the side of the road.
Sam had stayed close to Tom all morning. “I feel so sorry for those people. I don’t know what I’d do if someone took Lucy.” She paused and smiled at her daughter, who was partaking in Granny B’s wisdom. Lucy smiled back with a puzzled look on her face.
Tom watched another family heading toward them at the top of the next hill. He kept an eye on them and noticed they didn’t even have a backpack or any bags. “Watch out! There’s something strange about that family walking toward us. Hey, there were five of them on top of the hill. There are only three now. Get ready for someone to rush us from the side of the road. Keep your guns handy. I’m heading into the bushes.”
Ten minutes later, the man, woman, and boy were about twenty-five feet away when the man raised both hands in the air. He said, “We don’t mean you no harm, but could you spare some food for my boy. He hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning.”
Granny B faced the man with her gun in hand behind her. “Sorry, we’re looking for food also. Is there any up the road where you came from?”
“What’s in that wagon and suitcases. Please share it with us.”
Granny B sternly said, “I said we don’t have anything for you. Now get gone before I lose my temper.”
The man raised his voice and pulled a knife from his belt. “Don’t make me use this! My friends are behind you and have guns aimed at you. Give us your supplies and guns, and we won’t hurt you.”
The man couldn’t see what Granny B saw. She laughed in the man’s face. “Idiot, never bring a knife to a gunfight.”
The man was about to explode when Granny B grabbed his wrist with her left hand and clocked him on the ear with the butt of her pistol. The man fell like a sack full of hammers. His head bounced off the asphalt, and blood flowed from his wound. Granny B turned to the two strangers approaching her group. “I see you caught the bastards before they could shoot us.”
Tom shook his head. “This is a combination of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight with the over the hill gang. This one had a .22 Auto chambered in .22 Short, and the other had a teargas gun. This asshat is a man dressed up as a woman, and the one we thought was a kid is just a short asshat. What do we do with them? I hate killing, but these guys will probably try to rob the next group that encounters them.”
“I don’t want to kill them either,” she said and then barked orders to the men. “Take your clothes off. Everything! Women, unless you want to laugh at their private parts, you’d better close your eyes or head up the road a bit.”
“We
