Small Town Survival -Eighteen

18

Bobby Joe and Big Mac slipped quickly over the freeway and jogged down the incline to Riverside Drive. They had a short walk, much shorter than the others would. On the way they saw a dozen or so people just walking around in a daze, filthy and hungry looking. They kept a tight grip on their weapons and the few that approached them, saw the look in their eyes and walked away.

"Hey, look! What do you think?" asked Big Mac as he looked at a flat bed Dodge truck that looked like it hadn't run since the 70's. They were in the park that came just before the welcome center that one had to go through to get to Mud Island.

"Maybe" replied Bobby Joe.

They both walked over to the truck and gave it a good looking over. Bobby Joe broke a long thin branch off of one of the willows nearby and stuck down in the gas tank. "Looks like more than a half of tank here" he said.

They both started tinkering under the hood and dash and within 20 minutes had the thing running. It wasn't purring like a kitten; but, it stayed running. They drove it up to the welcome center and decided that one of them would stay with the truck and one would go in the center and if necessary, go over to Mud Island looking for Sandra. Bobby Joe stayed and Big Mac went.

Big Mac wasn't gone for 2 minutes before Bobby Joe had him some trouble.

Five big burly men who had an air of authority started up to him. Bobby Joe just cocked his shotgun and made sure they saw his other guns and ammo at his waist.

"Just stop right there and say your piece" he said as he raised his gun.

"We don't want any trouble" said the biggest man "We just want to know what exactly you are doing."

"Ain't really none of your business; but, since you ASKED so nicely, I'll tell you. We are looking for a good friend of ours. Maybe you've seen or heard something about her" said Bobby Joe.

"She's just a tad over five feet with green eyes and blonde hair. Last she was seen was walking with another woman over by Saint Judes on the Day. We believe the woman was no good 'cause her husband beat up our friend's husband pretty bad and dumped him in the river. Hear anything about that?"

The big man took his time answering. Him and his buddies exchanged looks. "Yeah, we know that couple that your friends were with. They were robbing people and kidnapping the pretty females to trade for food and such. They were fast movers; after all they started on that Day. They're dead now. Tried to kidnap the wrong person this morning." He continued "they tried to take my Elizabeth, she's my daughter. I didn't let them get far. I had to get some information from them about Elizabeth's friend who they took last night. You'll find their bodies in there." he said as he nodded over to the welcome center. "But, none of those they took are in there. The last words they said were that they took all the girls and women over to the college. That's were we are headed now." He began to eye the truck even harder.

"Well now, I'll tell you what. Have one of your buddies go in there and get my buddy and we'll all go over there together" said Bobby Joe. "We'll drive".

Meanwhile, Brooke and Sparky headed east on the I 40 towards the center of town and the zoo. They decided to take a short cut and veer over towards the row of used car lots that lined Overton Park Avenue. Their idea was to check and see if any of the older motorcycles there could be fixed to work. It took just about a half hour to get there. Not many people were walking on the I 40, but when they dropped down onto Overton they saw many people wandering around.

“It looks like no one knows what to do around here,” commented Brooke.

Sparky replied “everyone is so spoiled today; I doubt that many will make it through this latest ordeal.”

Just then Brooke noticed the first car lot. There were only a few motorcycles and none of those were the older type. They had electronic ignitions. After going through four different lots, they finally found one lot that was all motorcycles and in the back were a half a dozen trade in bikes. No one was around; so quickly they checked the bikes over and decided that they would take one of the Maaco dirt bikes and one of the Suzeki 90 trail bikes, since they were the easiest ones to fix. It took them only about ten minutes and they had the two bikes going. Before they left the shop, they managed to scrounge up a couple saddle packs and filled them with extra tubes, a couple tube repair kits, and some other odds and ends they thought might come in handy.

They were just fixing to head out the door when they were met with the business end of a Winchester .30/30.