As the World Ends (11 page)

“You can’t just shoot him, Rob,” Lauren argued.

“Yeah, I can. I told you whatever it took to survive and protect you I’d do. Remember?”

“Yes, but we can tie him up and take him down with us. Once we reach a town, we’ll turn him over to the police,” she pleaded.

“Who knows what we’ll find when we get off the mountain. There might not be any police down there. Why can’t you understand that?” Rob tried to reason.

“I understand that we know nothing…nothing, Rob, and until we do know something, and you shoot him, we’re breaking the law.”

“Lauren, I don’t care. I’m not going to let him have a go at us again.”

“Oh, Rob…” As Roan began to stir and groan, Rob held his hand up to quiet Lauren.

“Look who decided to come around,” Rob said, raising his gun as he walked closer to Roan using his body as a shield to protect Lauren.

Rob stood over Roan and kicked his leg. Roan had stopped moaning and lay quiet on the ground. Playing possum, Rob thought
. I
should have tied him up when he was unconscious.

“Come on, Roan, I know you can hear me. Open your eyes,” Rob commanded.

Roan moaned and opened his eyes, as much as he could. They were both swollen from the pounding he took. Rob noticed they were already turning black and blue. His face looked like he’d lost the final round in the heavy weight title bout. Rob wondered what his own looked like.

“Sit up, Roan.” Rob kicked him.

“Hold on one God damn minute. I’m having trouble breathing here.”

“No sympathy, Roan. You brought this on yourself,” Rob said, stepping back from Roan to give him room to sit up.

“I know.”

“That’s it. You know?” Rob asked, astonished.

“I heard you say you were leaving the mountain. I had to stop you the only way I knew how. I jumped you.”

Rob eyed Roan, “Where did you hear us talking about leaving?”

He knew but he wanted Roan to say it out loud, so Lauren understood the danger he presented. So she gave him no sympathy.

“At the spring.”

Rob ignored Lauren’s gasp. His own blood boiled at the thought of Roan watching Lauren in a state of undress.
If I wasn’t there, he would have attacked her.

“You had to stop us. Why didn’t you try to speak with us?”

“I don’t know. I overreacted. I didn’t want to be left up here alone.”
Trying to play on our sympathies. Well, I have none left.

“Well, you’re an idiot. What did you think you’d accomplish here?” Rob questioned.
The man’s a buffoon if he thinks I’m buying his explanation.

“I…I need some water...please.” Rob watched Lauren reach into her bag and walked over to her.

“What are you doing?” He took the bottle of water in her hand.

“He’s badly hurt, Rob.”

“Who cares? He jumped me, Lauren. Get with the program. What do you think he had in store for you?”
Has Lauren’s brains checked out here?

“I’m sorry,” Roan said to them.

“Yeah? You think that fixes everything?” Rob inquired.

“No, I don’t. I’d like to start over. What if we are the last three people left on this earth. What then?”

Rob stared Roan directly in the eyes, “Then there’d be two.”

“Oh.”

Rob shot Roan in the leg and grabbed his bag. He flung it over his shoulder then seized Lauren’s hand and pulled her along toward their truck.

“Oh my God, Rob. Why did you shoot him?” She tried to pull away from him.

He gripped her hand tighter. “Because he can’t follow us now, can he?” Rob turned, looked back at Roan to be sure.

Roan was yelling, “You can’t leave me here. I’ll die without treatment.”

“Who’s going to treat you?” Rob questioned.

“Rob, did you leave him with a gun or knife to defend himself?”

He turned away from Lauren to walk back to Roan.
How stupid of me not to check?

“Where are you going?”

“To check for weapons, thanks for reminding me.”

“Rob, you can’t leave him defenseless.”

The look on Lauren’s face changed Rob’s mind. “I’ll check for a gun. If he has one I’m taking it. No argument, Lauren. I’ll leave him a knife.”

Roan watched them disappear into the woods.
Jesus, that bastard’s really going to leave me here. My leg hurts like a bitch
. He tried to stand, pain shot up his leg, knocking him back on his ass, causing his stomach to roll up and down with each movement. Every time he tried to get up, sweat poured off his forehead into his eyes burning them. He’d never sweated so much before. Taking his belt, he tied it around his wound to stop the bleeding. The skin ripped open, started oozing again, but not excessively. Thankfully, Rob missed the artery. Bad news for him, he wasn’t anywhere near the spring or his bag, so he couldn’t clean the wound.

Jesus, they got right up in the damn movies when they were shot. What bullshit! Now I know. The body doesn’t react well to bullets. Well, duh.

He must have passed out again because the sun was setting when he opened his eyes. Roan heard the animals in the woods and knew he had to get up and move if he wanted to live out the night.

With all his strength he pushed to his feet. “Oh shit…fuck…crap…that bastard. When I catch him, I’m going to torture him for this.” Never once in his mind did it occur to him that he brought this on himself.

Picking up a long stick, he used it to lean on. Cursing, he walked over to the bush and he bent down to retrieve his backpack from where he left it. With his leg dragging behind him he made his way to Rob’s cave. Too many predators out this time of night. Roan knew it was useless for him to try to make it back to his cave. He didn’t want to be someone’s supper. Hopefully, they left him some food and water. Maybe there was something he could use to care for his leg. Barely making it inside, he collapsed. The wound was throbbing, but the bleeding had slowed.

Once they were in their SUV heading down the road they had taken up only four days ago though it seemed like a lifetime. Lauren felt safe. Both were silent, lost in their own thoughts. Trying to avoid looking at each other while they tried to process what had just occurred, until Lauren couldn’t take it another minute.

“I don’t know you anymore, Rob.”

“The bastard jumped me. What was I supposed to do?”

“You weren’t supposed to shoot him. You already beat him up. You should’ve tied him up. We could have left when he was unconscious.” She turned in her seat and stared at Rob.

“How would that have been better? It would have been cruel to leave him tied up for the animals. Plus, I needed to know how mobile he was,” Rob muttered.

Oh, she knew that tone. “I’m right you’re wrong tone.”

“I didn’t mean to leave him there. We could have brought him down off the mountain and turned him over to the police and report the incident. What now?” She spoke to him like a mother who had reached the end of the road with a troubled child.

“Don’t be so condescending. If I didn’t shoot him, he’d be raping you right now.”

“I’m not being condescending. The guy was badly hurt, Rob. He couldn’t come after me if he wanted to.” She pulled one of her curls straight, an unconscious act she did when frustrated.

He reached over and placed his right hand on her knee gently caressing it. “Lauren, I told you, I would do whatever was necessary, remember?”

“Yes.”

“This was necessary. You think…Oh crap.”

Something hit hard under the carriage of the truck.
Damn, I hope it wasn’t a rock. Christ, just what we need.
Rob slammed the shifter into park, jumped out, and lowered himself to the ground. Oil poured out of the truck. Not just a rock, but a sharp rock that tore a large hole in the oil line.

“How the hell am I supposed to stop that?” he yelled.

Lauren had gotten out of the car and stood over him, “Stop what?”

“We’re losing oil. There’s a hole the size of New York in the line. This vehicle is useless now,” he said as he pushed up off the ground to stand beside her. Anger filled every pore of his body. In frustration he kicked the tire.

“Useless?”

“Yes, useless. We’re going to have to walk off the mountain. It’s getting dark, so we can’t do it tonight. Son of a bitch!” He pounded his fists on the hood of the truck.

“Where are we going to stay?”

Taking a deep breath to calm down he turned to her. “In the truck tonight, it should be safe. I’m not going back to the cave. We don’t know where Roan is. I think we’re much closer to the town than the cave anyway.” Or so he hoped.

Trying to get his bearing he looked around to see how far down the mountain they had actually gotten. With no landmarks he found it difficult to determine their progress. Though they had driven for over a half hour, Rob thought he was being careful. The rock screwed them good. In his judgment they hadn’t gotten far. They were maybe twenty or thirty miles from the caves. The good news, Roan would have to be superman to catch up with them in his condition. The bad news, it would take days to get off the mountain walking. They had limited supplies and worse, limited ammunition.

“He’s probably right where we left him, Rob,” she said, sarcastically.

“I think he’s stronger than you give him credit for. He’s probably in our cave if he’s smart.” Frustrated, Rob kicked the tire again. “Lauren, I need to know if he shows up here, that you’re prepared to defend yourself. In case anything happens to me.”

“Rob, stop scaring me. Nothing’s going to happen to you. And yes, I won’t let that bastard within feet of me.”

Lauren stood to the side and watched as Rob worked off his frustration and anger. He’d been unusually quiet since he shot Roan. It frightened her. Not for one minute had she believed he would shoot him.
Lord, we left a man to die today. How are we going to live with ourselves? And now this. I really wanted to be in town tonight. Could I shoot the guy if he came after me? I gave Rob the answer he wanted, but in reality…I don’t think I could. Let’s hope Rob is just being Rob and all the worry is for nothing.

“What if he dies, Rob. What then?” she asked for the third time.

“Who’s going to know?” he shrugged. “By the time they find him, the animals should have feasted on him”

No, he wasn’t fooling her. Rob had never been a brute or cruel. This had to be eating at him. He’s a strong, gentle man, who didn’t aggressively flaunt his strength. Lauren didn’t understand his sudden change in attitude. It worried her. Was this his military training kicking in? She stood there and looked deep into his beautiful blue eyes trying to find her Rob. Nothing seemed different from the outside, but what was he thinking. He stared back. The quiet built a wall between them. The minutes ticked by. An eternity passed as she waited him out. She’d forgotten how stubborn he could be.