Desperate Times 2 Gun Control Read online

  The bottom line was that the National Guard had come here to party down. Jimmy thought about that and a second later was running toward Julie’s cabin.

  There was no sign of life. Plastic cups and crushed beer cans littered the walkway, and the air stank like the inside of a portable toilet. There would be serious hangovers today, Jimmy thought, and Julie had better not have one. He wasn’t sure why he had the right to think this way, but that didn’t matter. He slowed to a fast walk when he felt the big revolver shift. He nearly tripped over a pair of forgotten shoes and half a bottle of single malt scotch. Jimmy left the shoes but took the bottle.

  The blinds on Julie’s cabin were down, and Jimmy tried the door without knocking. Finding it locked, he began to pound on it.

  “Who is it?” shouted Julie, with a great deal of ferocity.

  “Who do you think it is?” Jimmy barked back.

  Julie flung the door open and stood there staring at him with her teeth bared and crazy-eyed. She was dressed in a pair of his plaid boxers and a white cotton t-shirt. Her hair was wild with sleep. “Where the hell have you been?” she growled at him.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Jimmy, totally thrown by the question.

  “You’ve been gone for twenty-four hours!” she shrieked at him. “And you have the nerve to ask me, what I’m talking about? You son of a bitch! Which one was she, huh? I’ll bet it was that blonde, wasn’t it?”

  Jimmy’s jaw dropped. “I rode with Bill out to Ken’s. I thought he told you.”

  “You liar. I asked Bill and he said he never saw you!”

  “What the hell are you talking about? That’s crazy. Why would he do that?”

  “Oh, was he supposed to be covering for you? I wasn’t born yesterday, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy could hear doubt finally creeping into her voice. “I don’t know why Bill does what he does, but I rode to Ken’s with him, and I can tell you everything he packed on his return trip.”

  Julie grimaced at him, and a tear fell down her cheek. Jimmy rushed inside and shut the door. “You’d better not be lying to me,” she sobbed.

  “I’m not. We saw the choppers and got out here as fast as we could. God, Bill is such an asshole. Patty had a stroke or something; she’s really losing it. She was outside and running around in her underwear.”

  Julie held both hands to her mouth, and her eyes grew wide.

  “It’s not funny,” Jimmy said.

  “I never said it was.”

  They exchanged a quick hug, but he knew the battle was far from over. Jimmy stood at the counter, and Julie sat at the kitchen table. The cabin looked clean. There was no sign of beer cans or plastic cups. No sign of company in the night. Jimmy knew better than to ask. He continued to tell Julie the story of how they had been saved from the two deserters by the hungry wolves. He then told her of his own narrow escape and how they were forced to spend the night up in the trees. He finished with his stashing of Bill in the back of a fishing boat. Jimmy saw that the bedroom door was closed as was the bathroom. He thought to ask her what she had done last night, but thought better of it. She would tell him on her own time.

  Jimmy found that he couldn’t wait. “How was the party?” he asked.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Was I not supposed to have noticed? Aren’t you going to ask me where I found this bottle?” Jimmy set the bottle down hard on the small kitchen counter. “What the hell happened here last night?”

  “That depends on which here you’re talking about. Nothing happened here. Yeah, they had a party out there. A bunch of kids were able to let loose and forget about this shithole we’re all in.”

  “Those soldiers have killed their own citizens,” Jimmy said in total amazement, “and suddenly it’s okay to party with them? Whoa! You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Do you think those girls would be better off in a relocation camp?” Julie asked, staring coldly at him and crossing her arms.

  “I never said that.”

  “We don’t know if those soldiers killed anyone or not.”

  “Let me get this straight,” said Jimmy as he began to pace. “Mars just stumbles into this. He has his own private harem until the National Guard shows up for some R&R. How convenient for him. Can’t you see that he set this all up in advance? He planned it all out.”

  “Give me a break, Jimmy. He did no such thing. Those girls just happened to be up here, and if it wasn’t for Mars, they would all be locked up. Do you want to spoil it for them? I don’t think you want to do that. I think you’re wondering if I thought it was okay to party with them. Well, I was there until midnight, Jimmy. I had a good time, and I came home alone. We would have had a good time together had you not left without saying goodbye. That was totally inconsiderate of you.”

  “Bill told me that all of you voted to stay, whether I liked it or not.”

  Julie spun in her chair and pointed a finger at him. “That’s bullshit and you know it!”

  “That is not bullshit, Julie. That’s exactly what he told me. I felt like you had all found your own little slice of heaven. That’s why I left without saying anything.”

  “You just hated working in the kitchen. I know you, Jimmy.”

  “Will you quit trying to put words into my mouth? I’m telling you the truth.”

  Julie sprang to her feet. She stomped to the bedroom door and threw it open. Jimmy stole a peek inside and saw that it was empty just before she slammed the door shut. Jimmy stood there wondering what to do. He was angry with her for doubting him, still angrier with Bill for lying to the both of them. Bill seemed intent upon splitting them up; but why would he want to do that? The door suddenly opened, and Julie emerged wearing a tired Viking’s jersey over blue jeans and tennis shoes. She had her hair pulled back into her I don’t give a shit, ponytail. “Take me to Bill,” Julie said. “I’m going to kick his ass.”

  “I want you to come back to Ken’s with me,” Jimmy said. “You can come back here if that’s what you really want to do. I just think that with Patty’s condition, it’s important for us to be there. I know it would mean a lot to Ken.”

  “What about Cindy?”

  “Cindy will be fine. Besides, her dad will be here.”

  Julie thought about that for a long moment. She gazed into Jimmy’s eyes and suddenly smiled. “Okay,” she said. “I’m going to write a quick note and then pack a bag. We can be on the road in five minutes.”

  Jimmy took her into his arms, and they exchanged a passionate kiss. He held her against his chest and quietly cursed himself for ever doubting her. “I love you,” he whispered.

  “I love you, too,” she whispered back.

  Jimmy released his grip from the small of her back. “Come on, we’ve got a long walk in front of us.”

  “Who said we were walking?”

  Jimmy stared at Julie as an impish smile spread across her face. “Are you saying that we should steal Bill’s car?”

  “I prefer to think of it as borrowing,” she said. “We can pick the guys up along the way and be there in time for breakfast.”

  “What about Bill?”

  “What about him?”

  Jimmy smiled and shook his head.

  Chapter 9

  Five minutes later they walked out of Julie’s cabin and up the little path that led to the road. Loons called from across the misty lake on what promised to be a gorgeous day. Jimmy reached out and took Julie’s free hand. He laughed to himself as he imagined Bill still hiding from imaginary wolves inside the covered fishing boat. He was going to have a long wait.

  The keys were in the ignition, and with Julie’s hand on his knee, Jimmy drove the Honda out of the compound and out to the main road. He drove slowly, figuring that Burt and Doc couldn’t be too far ahead of them. “Keep an eye out the back,” Jimmy said. “They’ll probably run into the woods when they hear the car.”

  A little more than three miles from the gate, Julie gave Jimmy’s kne
e a squeeze. “There they are,” she said, pointing up ahead and off to their right.

  Jimmy smiled. There was no sign of Burt, but Doc’s attempt at hiding in the thin bushes at the side of the road was almost comical. His red flannel shirt stood out like a sore thumb in the bright green foliage. Jimmy pulled the Honda over to the side of the road and killed the ignition.

  “I can see you,” Julie called out her window.

  Doc untangled himself from the bush, and Burt stood up from the ditch. They mumbled something to each other as they walked up to the car.

  “We thought you were Bill,” Burt said.

  “What if I was?” asked Jimmy. “You’d rather have walked back to Ken’s?”

  “That’s right,” said Doc. “That man drives me crazy.”

  They all got a good chuckle out of that. Jimmy and Julie got out of the car and climbed into the little backseat. Burt walked around to the back of the car and opened the hatchback. He put his M-16 in the open trunk space and closed the hatch. “Where’s your gun?” he asked Jimmy.

  Jimmy sighed. “Oh crap, I forgot all about it. We’re going to have to go back.”

  “For a gun?” asked Doc, rolling his eyes. “I’m just going to keep walking.”

  “Where did you leave it?” asked Julie.

  “Nobody is going to find it,” Jimmy said. “Look, let’s get back to Ken’s, and I can come back for the gun, later. I’d hate to go back and run into Bill.”

  “Okay,” said Burt, as he got in behind the wheel. “Your call. I would have driven you back.”

  “Will you just drive?” Doc asked. “Time could be critical. We have no idea what’s wrong with our friend. For all we know, poor Patty could be dying.”

  If Doc’s intention had been to get the Honda moving, his comment certainly succeeded. The Honda groaned with all the extra weight, but soon they were flying down the long gravel road. The little car shook and shimmied, and dust billowed behind them in an angry red cloud. Julie clutched Jimmy’s hand, and he could see the fear in her eyes. Doc turned in his seat, wild-eyed, and he laughed like an escaped lunatic. Burt didn’t seem to notice and continued to push the twenty-year-old car to the limit. Jimmy thought Patty would outlive them all.

  Jimmy hadn’t given himself the chance to wonder what was wrong with Patty. He did so now, letting his mind wander in a thousand untethered directions. What if it was a stroke he thought; what could they do for her? The same could be said for Alzheimer’s or any form of dementia. He didn’t know of any medications for those conditions, and even if there was, he doubted that Doc would’ve had the foresight to have taken any from the hospital. Maybe she got into some bad beef? Jimmy shuddered at the thought. If Patty had Mad Cow Disease, they could all have it. He imagined people stumbling upon them at Ken’s, with the entire camp in the late throes of the brain-wasting malady. That would be pretty ugly, Jimmy thought.

  The Honda rumbled on the washboard road, and the interior began to fill with dust. Windows were cracked open. Jimmy could feel Julie’s nails biting into the palm of his hand. What if Patty had simply cracked? Jimmy didn’t want to think about that, but he couldn’t help himself. What could Doc do for her? Would Ken allow Doc to dope her up like they did to those crazy people in the movies? What if she wandered off? The log that locked their gate was heavy, but Patty was a big woman with a man’s shoulders and a good deal of lower-body strength. There was nothing stopping her if she wanted to leave the compound. This frightened Jimmy, for he knew if she did get lost that Ken would search for her until he took his last breath.

  The car slid around a familiar corner, and they were suddenly on the opposite side of Ken’s lake. Jimmy could see the house across the water. The freakish log wall made it look imposing, even to him. He wondered what was happening behind those walls. Jimmy’s mind then drifted to the possibility that Patty had suffered a stroke. He had heard that they were sometimes like earthquakes, small and large, with devastating aftershocks. What could Doc do for her, then? How could he even possibly diagnose her condition? Jimmy thought about that and didn’t think Doc could not with any degree of certainty. The crisis, Jimmy thought, had set medicine back one hundred years. He hoped he was wrong in his assumption.

  The road dipped back into the woods and away from the lake where it would around a pair of corners. Burt was driving like a man on fire, and the air inside the car was thick with tension.

  “Slow down. We’ve had our fun for the day.” said Doc. “I can’t operate on myself!”

  “I’ve got it,” said Burt.

  “Slow down!” shrieked Julie. “You’re going to kill us all.”

  “Hang on!” Burt shouted with a teenager’s smile.

  Jimmy’s heart jumped in his throat as Burt took the hairpin corner, and the Honda slid toward the ditch. Burt roared with baritone laughter, twisting the steering wheel with confidence. Doc was shouting something at Burt, and Burt began shouting back at him.

  And Ken was suddenly standing in the middle of the road in front of them. He held his rifle at the ready. “Stop!” screamed Jimmy.

  “You damn fool!” cried Burt, his creamy eyes nearly bulging out of his head. “Get off the damn road!”

  Ken must have heard him and quickly dove headlong into the ditch. Burt had his feet planted on the brakes, and the Honda bucked across the gravel, down into the opposite ditch. Julie screamed, and Jimmy saw what was about to happen. He threw himself into Julie and held her tight. He was familiar with the rock; it was three times the size of Bill’s Honda. There was a sound of crunching metal, and Jimmy was thrown into the back of Doc’s seat. The engine squealed like a stuck pig and suddenly died as the oncoming wave of dust hit them.

  Ken was at the passenger door in what seemed like only a second later. “Are you okay?” he shouted. “Are any of you hurt?”

  Doc held his fist cocked as if he were about to punch Burt in the nose. “I don’t think so,” he shouted back to Ken as he turned in his seat. “Are you two all right?”

  “Yeah,” said Jimmy, who found that for some reason he and Julie had started to kiss.

  “Sorry,” said Burt. “We would’ve been fine if you wouldn’t have been standing in the middle of the road. “This is your fault, Ken. What the hell are you doing out here?”

  Ken walked to the front of the car and put his hand on his chin. Then he slowly shook his head. Steam hissed and coolant gurgled, and Jimmy smelled a foul odor as the doors were forced open. Doc helped Julie out of the car while Burt went to check the damages. Jimmy extracted himself from the backseat and joined the others at the front of the car.

  Ken chuckled. “I was out for a walk. Does Bill know you have his car?”

  “Nope,” muttered Burt.

  The car was ruined. Jimmy could clearly see that it would never move again under its own power. Steaming green antifreeze dripped from the wounded radiator as blood-red transmission fluid gushed from a severed artery.

  “I think we should all pray for Burt,” Ken said. “Bill is really going to be pissed.”

  “You drive like a maniac,” Julie said, pointing her finger at Burt. “You’re lucky you didn’t kill all of us!”

  “I know,” said Burt, sheepishly. “I’d be missing out on all of this.”

  Doc took Ken by the shoulder. “How is Patty?” he asked. “As you can see, I got here as fast as I could.”

  “Stop it!” protested Burt.

  “She’s fine,” said Ken. “She just had a little spell, that’s all. That could happen to anyone. We’re all under a lot of stress out here.”

  Doc nodded. “Right you are,” he said. “Just the same, you won’t mind if I take a look at her, will you?”

  “Fine by me, but you won’t find anything wrong with her. She’s much better now.”

  “I’m sure she is,” said Doc. “I’m sure she is.”

  “You drive like a damned idiot, Burt,” Ken said, quickly changing the subject.

  The hatch on the Honda had sprung in the
crash, and Burt lifted it up and hefted the M-16 up and out of the trunk. Everyone stared at him for a long moment. “That’s right,” he said, holding up the rifle in front of him. “I don’t want to hear any more shit about my driving. I’m sorry, and I know Bill is going to be mad as hell, but that was my first accident in over forty years of driving.”