Tom drew his knife and stuck the blade into the man’s calf while Jackie held the muzzle of her rifle in the man’s face. Her rifle’s flashlight made the bloodied man have a grotesque grin, even in tremendous pain. He winced but didn’t speak. Tom moved the knife to the man’s knee and shoved the blade between the kneecap and knee joint. Nothing from the man but groans.
Then the man yelled, “Screw you!”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
The man spat in Tom’s face. Tom pushed the knife deep into the knee joint and twisted the knife. The man screamed. “Carlos has a compound east of Grants Pass on the Rogue River.”
“Give me directions, and the pain will stop,” Tom said as he twisted the knife again.
“It’s off Highway 99 at the Jackson County line!”
Tom asked, “How did Carlos know where Sam was located.”
“He told us there was a spy in your group!”
“Who is the spy?” Tom said as his eyes flared at the man.
The man winced in pain. “I don’t know!”
Tom pulled his knife from the thug’s knee and slit the man’s femoral artery. Tom walked away as the man screamed in pain. Jackie was horrified, “Tom, that was …”
“Jackie, I don’t want to hear it. We must catch them before they get to that compound. Let’s go.”
Rick had seen the torture. “Bro, ya did what ya had to do. Shake it off, and let’s go get her back.”
Tom limped and held his side in excruciating pain as they ran to the back of the store. They stepped over Carlos’s dead men and ran out the back door. Tom led the way but suddenly dropped to his knees. Jackie ran to his side and stooped down next to him, crying,” No! No! I just …!”
A woman’s body lay on the concrete in a pool of blood. A shotgun blast to her face made it impossible to recognize Sam. Beside her was a dead man with Sam’s knife in his side. She’d put up a fight and killed at least one man and wounded another. A blood trail ended where the car had peeled rubber, leaving.
Tom stared at the body. “We can’t tell Lucy about this. The bastard shot her in the face with a shotgun. Most of her head is gone. I think she stabbed Carlos, and he went berserk. I’ll hunt him down and …”
Jackie hugged her brother from behind. “Tom, he’s a monster. Don’t let him win by making you become a monster.”
Rick patted Jackie on the back. “Tom, when the time comes, we’ll go up to his compound and wipe the bastards off the face of the earth. We need to go home and regroup.”
Tom looked down at the body. “We have to bury her.”
Jackie balked and turned Tom toward her. “Everyone within a mile heard the shots. We have to leave.”
“No, she was one of us, and we have to bury her.”
Jackie nodded. “Then let’s get our butts in gear. I’ll quickly put a bandage on your wound.”
Tom slung his rifle over one shoulder and then hefted her body over his other shoulder and walked out the front door, trailing blood behind him. The bandage wasn’t applying enough pressure to the wound. Tom ignored the pain but became weak due to blood loss. He walked to a stand of trees behind a large home and set her on the ground. Tom found a shovel and dug until he felt the hole was deep enough, and then carefully placed her in the grave. They said the Lord’s Prayer and then began covering the body. Tom took enough landscaping bricks from the home’s flowerbed to cover the grave. He didn’t want an animal to dig up her body.
Rick and Jackie stood watch for intruders but only saw a few curious people around the store's front. None entered the building and soon disappeared. Jackie shook Tom’s shoulder as he cried over her grave. “Tom, you’re bleeding. I have to treat your wound, and we must leave now. The sun will rise in about an hour.”
Tom turned to Jackie and hugged her. “Do your worst.”
Jackie checked the wound and found it was a deep furrow in his side. The bullet had nicked a rib and had probably broken the rib. The bleeding had stopped, so she applied some antibiotics and bandaged the wound. “Here, take this Fish Mox and these Tylenol tablets.”
Tom grimaced when he shouldered his rifle and picked up his bag full of scavenged items. “Let’s get back to the ranch and tell the others. I’ll tell Lucy. Jackie, can you help me take care of her?”
“Of course. Rick and I will do anything to help the poor girl.”
Jackie said, “I can’t imagine who the spy is in our group?”
“It’s not me,” Rick said.
Tom thought for a minute. “I don’t know who, but their death will be much harder than that thug’s death was. Don’t tell anyone but Granny about the spy. I want to catch them.”
James and Alice met them on the dirt road and challenged them to stop. Rick got out with his hands up. “It’s me, Rick.”
James walked up to Rick. “Hey, I don’t see Sam. Is she sleeping in the bed of the truck?”
“No, she didn’t make it.”
Alice heard Rick. “Oh, no! Poor Lucy! What happened?”
Tom had walked over to them. “We’ll cover what happened when we get the group together. I’ll tell Lucy first.”
Tom didn’t have the patience for the conversation. His mind was in denial and trying to block off the memory of the shootout. “That’s enough talk. Let’s go to the bunker.”
Most of the others were still sleeping as Tom filled Granny B in on Sam’s death. “I know you cared
