Tom was in deep thought about what Granny B and his grandpa had said about the die-off. They’d preached about avoiding the city people as they fled to the country to find food, even if it meant robbing the ranchers and farmers. Jackie tapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll bet you’re thinking about … .”
“Wrong as usual, my dear sis. Us high-level leaders of the apocalypse don’t have time or a need for sex. We just concentrate on keeping our devoted followers safe.”
“Sounds like bull crap and smells like bull crap.”
Tom chuckled. “If you have to know, I was wondering how much trouble these folks are going to be for us. There couldn’t be more than thirty thousand people within a hundred miles of here. We just need to hunker down and wait them out as they flood through or kill each other.”
Rick listened. “But where will they try to go to? There isn’t much farming or ranching around here. I think they’ll be like locusts and swarm down the Rogue River Valley going south before winter settles in on us.”
“I hope you’re right. That would mean they’d miss us by ten miles,” Tom said as he saw a man walking straight at them. Tom cleared his throat and pointed at the man. “Duck and hope he doesn’t see us.”
The man continued walking toward them, and then a woman joined him. She’d been hiding behind a truck. Jackie whispered. “I think they’re carrying crossbows.”
The stranger was exceedingly cautious but didn’t see Tom behind the shrubs. He motioned for the woman to join him. “I know I saw a blonde woman over here. Those freaking mexicans will pay top dollar for her. Don’t hurt her but kill anyone with her.”
Tom felt his heartbeat in his ears as he leveled his AR and aimed at the man when he heard the pop of the bowstrings behind him. The man stood, still looking in Tom’s direction as his crossbow slowly drooped by his side. Only a few inches of the arrow stuck out of his chest. He said, “Ramona, I’m dead. Someone killed …”
Ramona had her own troubles. Jackie’s arrow struck her in the right breast and pierced her lungs. She toppled against a nearby car, and only bloody foam bubbled from her lips. Ramona soon crumpled to the ground a few seconds before her partner.
Tom searched the man while Jackie and Rick stripped the woman of anything useable. They both had 9-mm pistols, the crossbow, and a couple dozen bolts. Tom led them into an empty restaurant and examined the crossbow. “Holy crap, this is a fancy bow and arrow. Is it any better than the compound bows?”
Rick chuckled. “The one there costs about thirty-five-hundred-dollars, and comparing it to a compound bow is like comparing a bicycle to a Corvette. You have a night vision scope, range finder, and wind meter built-in besides all the fancy stuff that makes it about the best made. The one Jackie has in her hands is only a notch better.”
“How do you know so much about this stuff?” Tom asked.
“My best friend Wes had a decent crossbow but always salivated over the fancy crossbows in the hunting magazines like a teenage boy looking at a porn video.”
Jackie poked her boyfriend on the arm. “Gross, that was gross.”
Rick laughed. “You’ve never been a young boy with raging hormones.”
Jackie turned to her brother. “Well, my brother never looked at that porn crap.”
Tom glanced at Rick. “About those crossbows, can you teach us how to shoot them? I can’t hit a barn door with the compound bows.”
Jackie laughed, “He couldn’t hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle. Hey, you changed the topic.”
Rick quickly said, “Of course I can teach you.”
They drove back to the ranch the next night after holding up in the veterinarian’s office all day. Their backpacks and bags were full of medicine and other medical supplies scavenged from the vet’s office. The crossbows were a great addition to the team’s armament, and Tom knew silent but deadly was the way to go if they wanted to stay hidden. He thought, We keep saying we’re trying to avoid killing but end up having to kill to save ourselves or others. When does this crap end?
Tom drove the old Dodge, as usual while Jackie watched the road with the night vision scope. They bounced along at thirty miles per hour with Tom fighting the wheel. The old truck’s steering gears had been worn out many years ago, and the slop in the gears caused him to continually make corrections.
Rick kept them awake by making them play word games and singing. Jackie had a pleasant voice, but Rick’s sounded more like a cat with its tail caught in a slamming screen door. Tom stuck some wadded up paper in his ears. “Darn, you sound like a hog getting its nuts cut off. I feel sorry for my sister if you sing in the shower.”
Tom saw the rutted road and turned north to the ranch. He stopped at the usual place and motioned to his friends on guard duty. James and Alice were standing watch, and Alice greeted them. “Looks like you had a successful trip.”
Tom nodded. “Yep, we found some medicine, two crossbows, and only killed a few people. I think we should start one of those big thermometers on the living room wall that has the red go up every time we kill someone.”
Alice grimaced. “Who pissed in Tom’s Wheaties?”
“Don’t ask,” was all Jackie said.
Tom parked the truck in its hiding spot, and then they carried the medical supplies back to the barn. Jack brushed away any footprints and helped them take the bags down into the below-ground bunker. The multiple hidden doors were a
