Amy prompted, anxious to hear the rest of the story.
“Ruth, those guys trying to run us down were a sideshow, really. They were chasing us without a blocking force in front and didn’t take into account that we’d already killed four of their men and took the truck. Idiots. But I’m worried about approaching that Bentonville Fayetteville corridor ahead. How do we cross over and reach Gentry without getting robbed or killed. Any suggestions?”
“Well,” Stan said finally, “we were planning on taking a dirt road that skirts Hobbs State Park and then shoot through on a side route between Springdale and Lowell. That was the plan on foot and I don’t see why we can’t try in by vehicle.”
I looked at the map closely and agreed. I felt like a fool for not spending more time earlier discussing the route. At the time, I was acting more from instinct that thought when I went along with the internal combustion plan over using our “leather personnel carriers”. Yeah, that was another zinger from my Dad. Then I realized neither Stan nor Ruth had time to think out the best way to go either and were playing it by ear.
“I agree, Stan. How bout we take some time this afternoon and really pour over our options, though. You two guys are our experts on the area, so why don’t we find somewhere to hole up, and get an early start tomorrow?”
From their enthusiastic responses, I figured out Ruth and Stan were as exhausted as I was. I hadn’t gotten all the details of their trip to Harrison yet, but I knew it didn’t involve a lot of mornings spent sleeping in a nice comfy hotel room or lying by the pool.
“Alright, I know a place where we can spend the night, just south of Berryville,” Ruth volunteered, and Amy gave a laugh from the back seat.
“Is it another graveyard, Ruth? And I am only agreeing to stop if Luke promises to finish telling his story.”
“Nope, not a graveyard. But I’ll bet the place is as quiet as a graveyard when we get there.”
CHAPTER TEN
Ruth was right. The location she had in mind was a computer repair center and it looked untouched since the day the lights went out.
The prefab, white metal building looked more like a barn than a computer repair store, but the sign up front on the two lane county road proclaims this to be “Sid’s Computer Stand”. No cars in the gravel lot and iron burglar bars covered the windows in the front. I saw a few buildings nearby but they looked to be farm storage for equipment and such, not homes or other businesses. Corn fields surrounded the store on three sides and I wondered if anybody was lurking out there in the fields. Ruth drove like she knew her way around as she guided the Ford pickup around back and parked in a spot near the metal door. I clocked the metal roll up garage door next to the personnel entryway and started thinking about our security.
“Sid’s my uncle. Well, he’s married to my mom’s sister. Nice guy, anyway,” Ruth explained as she killed the engine. After the near constant rumble of the big diesel engine, my ears seemed stunned by the absence of noise. No car horns, no dogs barking; nothing sounded in the still air. This was the country, but still, the silence of the world sometimes made me wonder if I was going deaf.
Stan’s voice broke the spell.
“Well, let me get the key and we can go inside,” he said, and proceeded to do just that. The hide-a-key box was located under the metal brace of the small canopy shielding the back door. Before he cracked the door, though, he waited for me to complete a circuit around the outside of the structure. When I saw no signs of forced entry, I gave the ‘go ahead’ and Stan proceeded to unlock the heavy deadbolt securing the
“Ruth, those guys trying to run us down were a sideshow, really. They were chasing us without a blocking force in front and didn’t take into account that we’d already killed four of their men and took the truck. Idiots. But I’m worried about approaching that Bentonville Fayetteville corridor ahead. How do we cross over and reach Gentry without getting robbed or killed. Any suggestions?”
“Well,” Stan said finally, “we were planning on taking a dirt road that skirts Hobbs State Park and then shoot through on a side route between Springdale and Lowell. That was the plan on foot and I don’t see why we can’t try in by vehicle.”
I looked at the map closely and agreed. I felt like a fool for not spending more time earlier discussing the route. At the time, I was acting more from instinct that thought when I went along with the internal combustion plan over using our “leather personnel carriers”. Yeah, that was another zinger from my Dad. Then I realized neither Stan nor Ruth had time to think out the best way to go either and were playing it by ear.
“I agree, Stan. How bout we take some time this afternoon and really pour over our options, though. You two guys are our experts on the area, so why don’t we find somewhere to hole up, and get an early start tomorrow?”
From their enthusiastic responses, I figured out Ruth and Stan were as exhausted as I was. I hadn’t gotten all the details of their trip to Harrison yet, but I knew it didn’t involve a lot of mornings spent sleeping in a nice comfy hotel room or lying by the pool.
“Alright, I know a place where we can spend the night, just south of Berryville,” Ruth volunteered, and Amy gave a laugh from the back seat.
“Is it another graveyard, Ruth? And I am only agreeing to stop if Luke promises to finish telling his story.”
“Nope, not a graveyard. But I’ll bet the place is as quiet as a graveyard when we get there.”
CHAPTER TEN
Ruth was right. The location she had in mind was a computer repair center and it looked untouched since the day the lights went out.
The prefab, white metal building looked more like a barn than a computer repair store, but the sign up front on the two lane county road proclaims this to be “Sid’s Computer Stand”. No cars in the gravel lot and iron burglar bars covered the windows in the front. I saw a few buildings nearby but they looked to be farm storage for equipment and such, not homes or other businesses. Corn fields surrounded the store on three sides and I wondered if anybody was lurking out there in the fields. Ruth drove like she knew her way around as she guided the Ford pickup around back and parked in a spot near the metal door. I clocked the metal roll up garage door next to the personnel entryway and started thinking about our security.
“Sid’s my uncle. Well, he’s married to my mom’s sister. Nice guy, anyway,” Ruth explained as she killed the engine. After the near constant rumble of the big diesel engine, my ears seemed stunned by the absence of noise. No car horns, no dogs barking; nothing sounded in the still air. This was the country, but still, the silence of the world sometimes made me wonder if I was going deaf.
Stan’s voice broke the spell.
“Well, let me get the key and we can go inside,” he said, and proceeded to do just that. The hide-a-key box was located under the metal brace of the small canopy shielding the back door. Before he cracked the door, though, he waited for me to complete a circuit around the outside of the structure. When I saw no signs of forced entry, I gave the ‘go ahead’ and Stan proceeded to unlock the heavy deadbolt securing the
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