Free Walking in the Rain: Surviving the Fall by William Allen

or everything around you could prove exhausting.  Walking through the same territory was a much slower process, obviously, but the danger points didn’t rush up and past at forty miles per hour.  Now I finally understood what my father meant when he said foot patrols weren’t as scary as riding around in a Humvee looking for trouble, and I knew I had made the right choice going on foot to start my journey.
    “If driving is so dangerous, why were you in such a hurry to hit the road in this truck, Luke?”  Amy finally asked.  Since we had touched on the subject earlier and the thought was heavy on my thoughts, I was able to respond immediately.
    “I don’t think those four guys were working alone.  I want to be miles away before their buddies come looking.  With that extra diesel you found in those cans, we should have plenty to make it to Ruth’s folks’ place.  Maybe by this evening if everything goes just right. “
    Left unsaid was that with Stan’s bum ankle and Sophia needing to be carried, the Schecters would have been moving at a snail’s pace.  Everybody knew this, and I didn’t want to make our new acquaintances feel like more of a burden.  Driving to Siloam Springs might be a gamble, but if Ruth’s family was still holding out, that would make it a fair deal.  Amy and I could use some time off the road.  Thinking of that made me remember something said earlier.
    “Ruth, who is Dwight?  You asked me earlier if I was with him.  Amy and I don’t know anybody in Harrison, except you guys, now.”
    “Oh, he was running the roadblock when we came into town.  Working with the county sheriff’s office, he said.  They didn’t want to let us through until I shown him the envelope from a Christmas card from Mom and Dad.  It had their address on it, and he convinced the other men to let us travel through town,” Ruth explained, never taking her eyes off the road.  Stan chimed in right after to continue.
    “They are worried about running out of food and can’t take any more refugees, so I can’t really blame them.  Dwight even told us we could use that abandoned house to hole up for a few days while my foot healed.”
    At that, facts started to click together in my head.
    “Will we run into another barricade if we continue this way?  Amy and I came cross country and didn’t see any roadblocks set up.”
    I heard Stan grunt in the back seat.
    “Yeah, there’s another checkpoint I think.  That’s what I heard anyway.  They are covering the road so it makes sense.  You think it was Dwight who set those looters on us?”
    I shrugged before answering.  I didn’t know much for sure these days.
    “Likely so.  Either him or someone at the roadblock who overheard his advice to you guys.  Ruth said she only went out for water at night and ya’ll didn’t seem to be doing anything else at that house to draw raiders.  I think somebody already knew the three of you were there.”
    “So what are we going to do if it was the guys from the Sheriff’s Department?  What about the next road block?”  I could tell Amy was getting nervous from the way her words seemed to run together, the syllables packed together in a tight stream of sound.
    “Well,” I said, letting the single word stretch for a second, “we have a little time so let’s make a plan for getting past the next roadblock and then hauling ass.  Cause if somebody at the roadblock was behind those raiders coming after Stan and Ruth, they’ll darned sure recognize this truck.”
    “What do we do if they ask where we got the truck?” Ruth asked.
    “Found it on the side of the road, doors open, and bodies on the ground,” Stan replied.  “We don’t know anything, but it was abandoned property and we claimed it.”
    That sounded like a pretty good story and I said so.  Stan was proving to be pretty fast on his feet and we all agreed to stick to that tale.  It was partly true, anyway.  The bodies were on the ground and