A Distant Eden by Lloyd Tackitt Page B

walls so not to outline themselves. At the end of the alley, they again stopped, waited, watched and listened. Jerry heard faint sounds from up ahead.
    He couldn’t see anything in the dark, but there was just the faintest of stirring noises ahead so he and Karen continued to wait. They both had their guns cocked, loaded and safeties off. The waiting paid off. They heard whispering a dozen feet away. One voice said, “They should have come out by now. Maybe they climbed the back fence.”
    A second whispered voice responded, “Or they’re in the alley waiting for us to come in after them.”
    Jerry put his lips to Karen’s ear and said in an extremely quiet voice, “We have to come out shooting and moving fast to clear the area. When I shoot, you start shooting too. We’re going to fire four shots each from left to right, covering about twenty feet, then we’re going to run for the other side of the street and down it a hundred yards. Then we’ll stop, turn, and listen. Ready?” He felt her head nod yes.
    “OK. I’m going to count to three silently and open up, stay with me on this.” He counted—and then swung, firing. Karen did the same with her shotgun a half second behind. They sprinted as fast as they could across the street.
    After a hundred yards, they stopped, held their breath and listened. Moaning came from the alley—but just one voice. Then a death-rattle-cough, then silence. Then, from the store: “What happened? Where are you guys? Lonnie? Joe?”
    A flashlight winked on, illuminating two bodies on the ground. The light quickly went out and they heard panicky footsteps running away in the opposite direction.
    Jerry took Karen’s hand, felt her trembling. He pulled her to him in a tight bear hug. “It’s alright. We made it. Let’s go home.”
    It was a little after midnight when they at last arrived home. Giving a poor imitation of an owl hooting three times, the prearranged signal, they pulled off their full backpacks and slipped in under the floor. Inside the pit, the candlelight seemed extra bright to them after the hours of straining to see in darkness. Karen was pale and shaking. Jerry, looking tired, sat next to her holding her hand in his lap.
    Everyone stared. They had not heard the distant shooting, but it was obvious that Karen was badly shaken. Finally, Shirley asked, “What happened? You look like a ghost.”
    Jerry replied, “We ran into trouble leaving the store.” He thought about whether to tell the story in front of the children or not. He decided that in this world, they needed to know the full truth; that trouble happens fast. Hiding that from them would be doing them no good deed. “We killed two men who tried to ambush us.” Shirley quickly moved to Karen’s side and hugged her as Jerry gave a detailed description of everything from the time they left the house until he did his bad owl impression.
    “But,” Jerry finished, “we did get almost everything we needed, plus a few bonuses. We couldn’t carry much toilet paper though; too bulky and we needed to keep our hands free the entire time. I don’t know how those men knew we were in the store, unless they had been staking it out and caught a glimpse of us in the darkness. But it’s telling that there are ambushers out there. They could have had anything in the store without waiting for us to gather it up, so I’m guessing that they wanted to torture us for information; where we’re living and how much food we have. That’s my best guess.
    “We knew it would get desperate out there, and this proves it’s getting there fast. We’re going to have to be more careful than ever. Pretty soon there will be gangs roaming the streets, breaking into houses, looking for people holed up with food. They won’t be knocking on doors and asking for handouts; they’ll be kicking in doors and shooting anything that moves.”
    Dave interjected, “That’ll be our time of maximum vulnerability. They could show up at any