Free Desperate Times Three - Revolution by Nicholas Antinozzi

muzzle flash of the Trooper’s gun a microsecond before the bullet passed through the windshield. He heard the whiz of the bullet as it ripped past his right ear and slammed into the steel behind his head. The man began to shoot indiscriminately at the Tahoe. Jimmy tromped down on the accelerator, and the Mack sprang to life. He took aim for the man with the gun, Trooper or not. Fire blazed from the semiautomatic weapon as it bucked in the Trooper’s hands.
    “Jimmy, what are you doing?”
    “Hang on!”
    The Trooper quickly realized that his life was in serious danger and swung his gun at Jimmy and squeezed off a round before he took two fast steps and dived for the cover of the ditch. With the taillights of the Tahoe hopelessly smashed, Ken roared ahead of them on the highway. Jimmy swung the Mack back to the right and continued to grab gears as fast as he could. He could hear the popping of the Trooper’s gun and feel the bullets slamming home into the back of the truck.
    And suddenly they were in Ely.
    There was light, but not much of it. The town was still mostly vacant, and Jimmy was happy for that as they roared through downtown in excess of 80 mph. Julie had returned to her seat and quickly buckled her belt. Jimmy watched a man and a woman as they stared back at him. Their expression was clear: they looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.
    “What the hell just happened?” Julie asked, staring out the passenger window into the side mirror. “Did we just kill a cop?”
    “No, but we came close. He was trying to kill us!”
    “Oh, shit, Jimmy. This is so bad.”
    “I know! Goddamn it!”
    Ken continued to cruise at a high speed, and Jimmy stayed close behind, close enough to see the frightened look on Bill and Cindy’s faces as they turned in their seats. Julie was right; this was bad, really bad. Jimmy’s hands shook on the wheel as his heart thumped in his chest. They were in some serious trouble, and they needed to do something. He just didn’t know what that something was, and he continued following Ken, hoping that he had a plan.
    “What are we going to do?” Julie asked, the strength returning to her voice.
    “I don’t know, baby. I don’t know.”
    “I’m so sorry, Jimmy. I love you so much. Can you forgive me for being stupid?”
    “Forgive you for what? I don’t remember what we were talking about.”
    “Good. That’s what I wanted to hear. Oh, my God, look at the back of Ken’s truck. Do you think it’s safe to drive it like that?”
    “I don’t think he has a choice.”
    Jimmy followed the Tahoe as it followed the twisting and turning road that led back to the city of Virginia. There were long-abandoned cars and trucks littering the shoulders, and Ken rode the centerline for much of the way. They met no one on the highway as they hurtled forward into the blackness. Jimmy cracked his window, lit up a cigarette and apologized to Julie.
    “Don’t worry about it, sweetie,” Julie said, reaching over and resting her hand on his knee. “Just concentrate on the road.”
    “No problem. It’s just been a long day.”
    “No shit.”
    Jimmy smoked half of the cigarette, careful to blow the smoke out into the whistling wind of the cracked window. Julie sat with her hand on his knee, occasionally glancing over at the side mirrors. Jimmy stubbed out the stale Camel in the ashtray. He longed for a fresh cigarette, among so many other things. The road slowly straightened out and dipped up and down over rolling hills. Every so often they would see lighted windows in the woods, further proof that man had returned and the crisis had passed.
    They drove in relative silence for roughly half an hour as the road signs counted down the miles to Virginia. Jimmy knew if they were going to run into trouble, that would be likely where they found it.
    “We should pull over and get off the road,” said Julie, saying exactly what Jimmy was thinking.
    “I know. What the hell is he doing?”
    They were