Mrs. Driscol stood her ground and defended her position,
“Stop this nonsense and fix his broken arm and we will all go together to the lodge.”
But Elaine said something too; she said
“Shoot him.”
Mrs. Driscol turned to her disbelief painted on her face.
“Elaine! You don’t mean that! What would your mother say?”
Elaine sat there with Lucy still on her lap,
“I do mean it, and my mother is dead.” she said.
Mrs. Driscol looked back to Old Man Tucker with fear in her eyes, silently pleading for Chad. Old Man Tucker took a deep breath and then said
“Mrs. Driscol, his arm isn’t broken, it probably isn’t even dislocated, I hit a pressure point, a pinched nerve is all. As for going with us that isn’t a good idea, he is going to want revenge.”
Mrs. Driscol started to say that wasn’t so but Chad’s own retort condemned him.
“Damn straight OId Man, your ass is mine!”
He barked so violently that spit flew from his lips and dribbled down his chin. Old Man Tucker rested his hand on the butt of the Colt on his right hand side then spoke softly but seriously to him
“Chad, I am not going to kill you in front of these kids unless you make me, so here is what is going to happen. One, you are going to stop making threats and cursing. Two, you are going to pick up that bag and walk over to the building. Three we are going to pack up and leave, I will leave your pistol and some extra ammunition for it on the asphalt here for you, and once we leave you can come and get it. Four, if I see you again I will kill you. Do you understand?”
He started to curse and complain but Janey jerked on his arm to get him to calm down. Mr. Tucker asked again
“Do..you..understand?”
He put emphasis on each word. Chad responded with
“Yeah, I understand.”
Mr. Tucker said “good” then stepped back from the fire but kept his eyes on Chad. Chad reached down with his ‘
broken
’ arm and picked up the pack,
“Come on Janey, let’s go”
He started to walk away but Janey didn’t move she just looked at him.
“I said let’s go Janey” Chad reiterated.
“I’m going with them” Janey said.
Chad was furious
“You were with me…” he began but Janey cut him off in midsentence
“I thought we were all going to die and I” she paused for a moment.
“I needed someone.” she finished.
Chad stared at her in disbelief
“Needed someone, you needed someone? You whore!”
He screamed taking a step towards her but froze when the unmistakable sound of Old Man Tucker’s colt revolver being cocked.
“Don’t do it boy” Old Man Tucker said.
Chad was so mad I though he was going to explode but he just cursed once more at Janey and then said to Old Man Tucker
“I won’t forget this old man.”
He started to walk backwards towards the warehouse.
“Neither will I” was all Old Man Tucker said.
I stood there with the world swimming around me, it was all madness, and I could not get my mind around what was going on. Mom was dead, Dad was missing, Lucy wasn’t speaking and Elaine was unpredictable. I shook my head and looked at the ground; Mrs. Driscol stayed with me and rubbed my back. I couldn’t process what she was saying but she gave me comfort. When Chad finally reached the wall of the warehouse he thumped back against it and slowly slid down the wall. Old Man Tucker looked around at the rest of us and said
“Can we figure out what we have? I have been out of it for quite a while and am not too sure of what is going on.”
Mrs. Driscol said that we could do that and she asked Janey to inventory what was in the back of the Humvee and she would do the SUV. Mrs. Driscol asked Elaine to help her but my sister just ignored her. Old Man Tucker was exhausted and still weak and he was trying to keep an eye on Chad as he in turn just sat against the building glaring back at him. Mr. Tucker came over to me and asked me to keep guard for a minute and he walked over to his bag which was sitting on the ground near a stack of pallets. He rummaged around for a moment then walked back to me,
“John, can I see your revolver please?”
I looked at him, not sure what he wanted it for but I took it from my holster and handed it to him. He pulled a rod on the front of the gun and slipped the cylinder from the frame and replaced it with another one. He handed it back to me and said
“I saw you were running low on .22 and figured it was time to upgrade your gun. It now is a .22 mag, more power, and with a hollow point they will do some damage.”
He bent over and removed a few boxes of ammo and much to my surprise, Billy’s revolver.
“I think Billy would want you to have his gun and I have already swapped cylinders on it.”
He slid it into a holster and handed it to me. I looked at him and somehow had trouble reconciling this shy, thoughtful man with the cold hearted killer I have seen him be. I figured that he was only what he had to be and times are hard now, so he was hard. But Old Man Tucker was never mean just to be mean but he wouldn’t mess around either. I reached out and took Billy revolver and said
“Thank you Mr. Tucker.” He nodded and turned away. “I am going to make us all something to eat while the ladies are sorting things out.” As he did the image of him kneeling behind the S.U.V. kept playing over in my head. Something just would not add up.
We sat around the fire eating fried spam and potato chips. Mrs. Driscol and Janey had compiled a list; In addition to our medical kits we had half a dozen M-16s but only about 300 rounds for them. We had 7 Beretta M9s and almost 400 rounds for them. We had dozens of magazines so that wasn’t going to be an issue. We still had about 40 rounds for the Berthiers should things get desperate. We had Mr. Caulfield’s 10 gauge shotgun but only a dozen rounds for it. Elaine still had two full boxes for her Nagant and I had 150 rounds of .22 magnum. Elaine also had the AK-47 she had taken from the gun in the shopping center but only had what was in the clip for it, 18 rounds she said.
As far as ammo went the best we had was a full “sardine can”, 440 rounds of 7.62mm for the Moisan but we had only brought one of the three from Tuckers collection. We had 40 MREs and two boxes of miscellaneous canned goods; we had several boxes of high protein meal bars a case of mixed sodas and two cases of water. Of greatest concern was fuel. We had about a quarter tank in the Humvee and only two 5 gallons cans of diesel for it; the SUV was better off with almost ¾ of a tank but with no back up cans.
We dumped the diesel fuel into the Humvee and tied the empties to the roof of the SUV. Mr. Tucker and Mrs. Driscol got some things together and stacked them near the fire. There was a little medical kit, a dozen MREs, and 10 bottles of water and lastly one of the M9s with two full clips of 9mm for it. Old Man Tucker held it up for Chad to see, Chad responded by raising his middle finger. Old Man Tucker set the pistol on top and then turned to us and asked if we were ready. We all said that we were and Mrs. Driscol and Janey had picked out a route for us and she said that we should be at the lodge by nightfall. Mrs. Driscol, Janey, and the Moreno’s would ride in the SUV. Elaine, Lucy, and I would ride with Old Man Tucker. We all got in our assigned vehicles and I saw Janey, her arms crossed over her chest looking back at Chad, she gave him a little wiggly finger wave goodbye. Chad gave her the same gesture he had given Old Man Tucker.
The miles slipped by, I knew we were close after two detours that had added almost 400 miles to our journey, I wanted the trip to be over but I was worried about the confrontation between Mr. Franks and Old Man Tucker. I suspected that Mr. Tucker was not interested in negotiation. I was halfway dozing and Lucy was asleep in Elaine’s lap when I heard her speak very softly to Old Man Tucker.
“It was my fault” she said.
“What was?” Tucker asked.
“All of it, Mom, Billy, the soldiers, all of them died because of me.”
Mr. Tucker kept driving and all I could do was repeat in my mind
“
It was my fault, it was my fault
”, it was all I could do to not start crying. I felt as if I was going to be sick but I remained silent. After a few moments Old Man Tucker asked her
“Why was it your fault?”
A few more moments then in an icy voice Elaine said
“It was my idea to rescue the others; I thought we could do it, I wanted to save them I wanted to hurt the crazies, if I had said no then we wouldn’t have done it.”
Then her voice cracked and I knew she was on the verge of breaking down. Old Man Tucker waited until he was sure she was done speaking when he asked
“What do you mean ‘if you said no’, did you make the decision?”
Elaine just let her chin sag to her chest she whispered so quietly “we voted.”
There was another awkward pause the Old Man Tucker said
“I see, well, even if it were your idea, enough people voted to take the chance and you know what? If I had been awake I would have voted to try too so you can get that out of your mind Elaine, they all made a decision, we all make decisions, sometimes we are right and sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes we do things that we regret, things that burn a hole in our hearts and keep us from living.”
He took a deep breath, perhaps giving Elaine a chance to speak but she said nothing so he went on to say
“Sometimes we do things that are good, and brave and kind. Things that make us smile in spite of the pain of what may be happening.”
Still Elaine remained silent and so did Old Man Tucker for almost five minutes then he said
“Elaine, I don’t want you to tell the others, but after I killed the monster, your mother was still alive but she was in terrible pain, she was…”
Old Man Tucker’s voice trailed off and Elaine picked up where he left off.
“You shot her?”
I could hear the old man’s breathing it was ragged and I thought he was going to cry, he said in a voice so soft, so quiet I could not believe it was him:
“She asked me to”.
My head was spinning, my mouth was full of dust. He had killed her, Tucker had killed my mom. I thought my head would explode. I bit my lip in silence till I tasted blood.
There was silence again for several moments and I opened one eye just a little. I could see Elaine’s hand resting on Old Man Tucker’s shoulder. Elaine then said
“Mr. Tucker, I saw Mom’s face, she had a smile on it. I had been trying to understand that.”
Old Man Tucker said something that lives with me till today he said
“Everyone dies, everyone, and the greatest gift you can give is to die for those you love. It gives purpose and meaning to your life beyond all doubt. Your mother had just saved Lucy, she had saved me, and she was content.”
They didn’t talk after that, Elaine cried some more but it wasn’t the same, this was grief, this was loss but it was not the agony of the guilty. Elaine would survive this but I held my hurt, my sense of betrayal inside, I was unable to deal with Old Man Tuckers betrayal. I prayed silently for Elaine and for Lucy but even at the tender age of 12 I was beginning to doubt if anyone was listening.
Around two in the afternoon Mrs. Driscol pulled over to the side of the road and got out. She waited until Old Man Tucker pulled over behind her. We all got out, even Lucy who would not leave Elaine’s side. She was the one I was most worried about, she hadn’t spoken and it was her turn to show no emotion. I think that is what the army called ‘the 1,000 yard stare’. Old Man Tucker waited for Mrs. Driscol to speak and she waited until everyone was gathered around her.
“Okay, far as I can tell we are only about 10 miles out from the exit we need and from there only about 3 miles on the service road to the private road that leads to the lodge. So, now what?”
Mrs. Driscol asked. We all looked at Old Man Tucker, this was his show now, he was the one who made this bed, and not it was time to sleep in it. Old Man Tucker look a folded map from his back pocket and laid it out on the hood of the SUV.
“Been thinkin’ bout that Mrs. Driscol.” he began.
“Amy” she corrected.
“Right, well, look at this, there is a visitor center on the service road on the opposite side of the highway. We should go there, clear it if necessary, then you all wait there and I will go talk to the Franks.” he said.
“Kill them, you mean.” Elaine interjected in a cold and steady voice.
Old Man Tucker looked around at each of us,
“I won’t hurt Mrs. Franks unless I have to, but yes, I intend to kill him.”
Janey looked very uncomfortable but seemed as if she had to ask: “Did this Franks guy actually do something that deserves death?”
Old Man Tucker explained briefly Mr. Frank’s sins as he saw them, but in my mind what he had done was far worse, Old Man Tucker had killed my mother and I was going to make him pay for it.
“So what exactly do you have in mind?” Mrs. Driscol asked.
“I thought Elaine could drive me to the private road, she could stay in the SUV. If things go south she just takes off and comes back here, if it goes as I hope it does then I hump it back and send Elaine back to get everyone else.” Old Man Tucker said.