Chapter 14

 

 

 

Jan obviously heard the honking horn because she wasted no time driving my truck up to the roadblock.  Again she gave me a hug and I pointed at the four women who still just sitting well off to one side.  Jan understood and went over to the women and started to talk to them.

While that was going on I looked in the two pickups blocking the road and both had the keys in the ignition.  I moved both off the road and into the meadow area where the other ‘captured’ vehicles were parked.

Next I gathered all the guns and any other useful items (including their money) from the four men I had shot and put the stuff in the cab of my truck, which I also moved off the road.  Then I drug the four dead men out of sight into the woods.

That done I and seeing Jan still talking with the four seated women I went through everything that was in the two trucks that I assumed belonged to the bad guys.  All guns and ammunition I transferred to my pickup.  Next I removed everything from one pickup and reloaded it with only items that I felt were useful to Jan and I. 

I had not yet decided but thought we might take one of the two pickups.  They were both four wheel drive models with extended cabs.  And being bigger than mine they would be able to haul much larger loads.  That done I just waited for the women.  I was not sure what to do about them.  A quick look in the other vehicles showed dead bodies in each of them.  One car had four dead bodies inside.  I wasn’t sure what to do with all the bodies either.  The bad guys deserved nothing but the others should receive a decent burial at least.  I had no shovel other than the little foxhole shovel and I did not think I was up for digging that many graves with just that tiny shovel.

I looked again at the women and Jan got up and walked toward me. 

“One of the women said she was OK to drive and would drive the others back to Pagosa Springs.  Please clean up one of the cars for them to use.  Do not use one of these (she pointed out four vehicles) because those were the ones the women were in. I better stay with them until you have a car ready.”

She did not wait for an answer but turned and walked back to the others.  Every car was a mess because at least one person had been shot in each rig.  There were even dead kids, two in one car and one in another.  There were nine vehicles total. 

I took the easy way and drove one of the bad guys’ trucks up on the road (not the truck I had picked for us to use) facing in the correct direction.  I went to the four rigs that Jan had pointed out and moved some of the personal items from each one into that pickup.  The pickup had four doors so there would be plenty of room for the four women.  When I was done I went over to all the women. 

“I have the pickup ready for you to use.  I loaded some of your personal items into the pickup for you.  I’m sorry for your loss.”

Two of the women thanked me and one looked at me and nodded.  The last never looked up.  All had been crying.  The three women worked together to help the two that seemed weak to the pickup and soon the four were all seated and belted in and the driver took off driving slow.  Jan came back to me.

“What an awful situation.  The one I could never get to even talk to me.  The driver’s name is Jenny.  She said she will try to get the police to come out here and get the bodies but she was unsure if they would.  If not then she said she had enough friends there that they come out and bury the bodies here.”

When she finished speaking she again came to me and hugged me but this time it was different.  Jan was crying.  I held her until she was all cried out.  I did not mind.  When she backed away I spoke.

“I think we ought to take the other truck the bad guys were using.  It contains some useful things that we might use and the truck itself is much bigger and more powerful than mine.  It could make a difference in our survival. Do you think you could drive it?”

“No but I can drive yours.”

“Good enough.  There are a couple of gas cans that are empty but I will siphon gas from the other rigs to fill the cans and both pickups.”

“OK.”

“Will you be OK?”

“I am OK just very sad that things like this happen.  Some people are such animals.”

“Bad situations like we are now in bring out both the very best and the very worst in people.  I’m sad to say that we will likely see much more of things like what happened here in the days ahead.”

“Thank you for putting a stop to it.  At least no others will be hurt by this bunch.”

“There will be others bad men.”

“Next time we will fight them side by side.”

“I’ll get to work so we can leave this place behind us.”

There was a siphon hose with a squeeze pump on it in the pickup and I used that to get the fuel tanks and gas cans full.  I then checked out the some of the other vehicles for useful items.  I did not look in the four survivors rigs.  There was not much but I did transfer a few things to the pickup I would be driving.  One thing I did take was the two mountain bikes that were on the back rack of one of the cars.  I put the bikes in the back of the bigger pickup.  Next I took my rifle and extra magazines from my truck to the one that I would be driving and then finally we were ready to go.

It was not very far to the town of Pagosa Springs and we just drove on through without stopping.  About twenty five or thirty miles after the little town I pulled onto a small forest road and we drove back a ways to find our campsite for the night.

We set up camp for just a one night stay and Jan was quiet the whole time of setup and after our evening meal.  She went to her tent early but I stayed up for some time thinking and for awhile quietly listening to the radio.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and after clean-up I asked Jan if she wanted to go for a little hike with me.  She nodded (she had been quiet all morning) and we left for a walk after each of us grabbed a loaded fanny pack that we always took with on any walk.

We walked a large loop around our camp and because we were in no hurry and stopped often and we were gone for around four hours.  We listened to the radio a bit then had a light lunch.  After lunch I turned to Jan.

“I am going to try out one of those bikes.  I have not ridden one in a lot of years.”

“Do you want some company?”

“Only if you don’t laugh at my riding abilities.”

“I promise only to laugh if I find your antics amusing.”

“I don’t know if that was the answer I wanted to hear.  But let’s go.”

I lifted out the two bikes and took the time to adjust the seat height on both of them to make riding more comfortable for both of us.  Again we both put on our fanny packs (we had refilled the water bottles that we had used in the morning) before leaving our camp.  We were both armed with our normal carry pistols even though we seemed to have the place to ourselves.

First we rode farther back down the road we had camped on.  It petered out about a couple miles past our camp.  Then we rode just about all the way back to the highway before turning around again toward camp.  There were four houses or cabins on this little dirt track road.  The four places were grouped fairly close together (roughly a hundred yards apart or so).

On the way back to camp I stopped in front of each place and looked them over from the road.  None of them seemed to be currently occupied.  There looked to be quite a disparity of ages of the four homes.  The newest appeared to maybe be only a year or maybe less old.  While the oldest had obviously been there for quite some time.  I did not turn in the driveway and approach any of the houses but looked for a couple minutes at each from the road then continued down the little road. 

Back at camp even though we had not ridden very far my legs were fairly sore.  I thought I was in very good shape but that bike made me use different muscles than I was used to using.  When Jan saw I was hobbling around camp after getting off the bike she spoke.

“You OK there Grandpa?”

“I think I have walk around a bit to work out these cramps.  Other wise I’m fine.  You seemed to have no trouble.”

“I used to ride bike quite a bit until just recently.  It was rather nice getting back on one again.  I had only ridden in the city though.”

“I think I might ride a little just about everyday for awhile to try to build up those certain muscles some.”

“I’m glad you grabbed these two bikes.”

“I think I am too but not right this moment.”

I walked around camp some and the muscle cramps soon went away.  Those bikes might be very handy indeed in the future.  It might be great having a way to travel that was quiet and required no gas.  Who knows what the future will bring with everything so screwed up right now.  Much better to have the bikes available to us even if we never used them.  They were like an ace in the hole.