Burn District 2 by Suzanne Jenkins

Author:Suzanne Jenkins
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-08-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

After midnight, Albert Johnson admitted they were lost in the desert. “I must have taken a wrong turn on our way to Arizona City,” he said, looking at Private Smith in the rearview mirror. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she answered, yawning. “There’s a good chance my parents wouldn’t be there anyway by the looks of Tucson.”

“It was a mess,” Sharon said. “We’ll try again someday. For now, I wonder if we should take the chance to stop.”

“I don’t think so,” Albert said.

They’d driven for hours and seen nothing but miles of desert stretching as far as the eye could see, mountains of perfectly aligned hay bales, ten and twenty bales high, lined up every hundred yards or so. Now, in the dark, even those familiar signs of progress were extinguished.

“There’s nothing to stop for here,” he said.

“Look up ahead,” Private Smith said, leaning over the front seat.

Pointing in the distance, a pinpoint of light in the blackness, it disappeared for a few seconds as they drove by yet another abandoned building and then reappeared again.

“Albert, a house! We need to stop. Even just to see if they have any food they’d give us. Please.”

“It could be occupied by criminals,” he said. “I don’t want to chance it.”

“Albert, I beg of you. We’ve been driving for days. I can’t take it much longer.”

“She’s right, President Johnson,” Private said, feeling stronger than she had in weeks. “It’ll feel good to get out and walk a little bit. We have our guns.”

Slowing down as he approached the driveway, the light disappeared again. “The driveway is blocked,” he said.

Driving up closer, he saw it was a gate, locked with a heavy chain, a pickup parked behind it. A light went on inside the truck. They watched a man speaking into what appeared to be a walkie talkie.

“Maybe we should keep going,” Sharon said, sorry she’d made a fuss about stopping.

“We can’t speed off now. He’ll think we’re up to something.”

Stopping the car, Albert rolled down his window. “We’re lost,” he shouted. “Is there anyway you can assist us?”

“Wait in your car, please,” the man called through a bull horn. “I’ll let you know when you can get out. Pull into the driveway.”

“I don’t know about pulling in,” Albert said, the fear in his voice real. “We’ll never get out if they start attacking.”

Lights flashed on about a half mile down the driveway. “Someone else is coming,” Private Smith said.

The man waited until his back up arrived before he climbed out of the truck. “Let me see your hands,” he called to Albert. “All of you.”

They held their hands up while a flashlight shined in the car. “Keep them up. Get out of the car one at a time, starting with you in the back.”

Albert and Sharon turned to Private Smith.

“Are you okay?” Albert asked. “I’m sorry.”

“Yes, this is standard,” she said, training fresh in her memory.

Opening the door, she swung her legs around, put her feet on the ground and stuck her arms in the air.

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