Scott Wittenburg - See Tom Run

“These are really good. It’s refreshing to see a youngster who knows how to cook nowadays. Cooking seems to be going out the door in today’s society-especially with your generation.”

“I wish you wouldn’t lump me into some statistical bullshit, Tom! I mean-you make me feel like I’m five years old. I’m a woman, not some little kid!”

Her outburst left Tom dumbfounded. Her age seemed to be a particularly sensitive issue with Erin Myers.

As did her past.

Tom began to wonder what the real story was with this peculiar young lady. As much as he was dying to find out, he knew it would simply have to wait. The most pressing issue now was to try to get out of the predicament they were in and find out where everybody had gone.

“I’m sorry, Erin. I didn’t mean to offend you. But when you get to be my age, you look at the world differently with regard to some things. I guess that I was stereotyping and I apologize for that. It’s a bad habit of mine, I’m afraid.”

“That’s okay. I’m sorry I lashed out at you. I’m just a little too freaked out by all of this. What are we going to do?”

“I guess we’ll just get into the Jeep and drive around. Look for signs of life somewhere. I figure we can start out downtown and take it from there. There’s the police station, the city building, and so on. Surely, there has to be something. ”

Erin nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

Tom took a gulp of coffee and stood up. “I’ll go start the Jeep so it can be warming up. Thanks for the breakfast.”

She smiled at him. “You’re welcome. I’ll clean up the dishes.”

Tom was intrigued by this young lady’s resourcefulness. She would make somebody a great wife some day.

He went outside and got into the Jeep. After he started it up, he noted the fuel gauge and realized that they would have to get gas soon. He wondered if the gas pumps would work without power, then answered his own question. Of course not-virtually everything needed electricity to work nowadays. He’d have to either siphon out some gas from another car or “Hold it right there!” a voice commanded.

Tom turned to see a gun staring him in the face. A man in his late twenties or early thirties was standing outside the Jeep poking a gun through the open door, glaring at him with malice.

“Who are you?” Tom said, his heart racing.

“Don’t you worry about who I am, motherfucker. You just need to worry about how you’re going to do as I say so I don’t pop you with this piece. Got it?”

Tom had never had a gun in his face before in his life. Nor had he ever been as scared as he was that moment.

“I got it.”

“Now, get out of the car, slowly. Don’t make one false move or I’ll blow you away. I may just blow you away for the fun of it if it moves me. Hell, who knows?”

“I’ll move slowly. Please, don’t shoot me!” Tom cried.

The man roared with laughter. “What a pussy! You sound like an old lady, you know it?”

Tom was not concerned with what this guy thought about him. All he wanted to do was stay alive.

“Turn it off. You’re not going anywhere,” he said as Tom started to get out.

Tom turned off the ignition and stepped out slowly from behind the wheel. The man backed away, keeping the gun pointed at his chest as Tom stood up.

“Now, let’s go see where my Erin girl is. I believe you shacked up with her last night in there, didn’t you? Did she give you a good blowjob? Or maybe she let you bang her from the rear-she really likes that.”

Tom, despite his fear, wanted to punch the bastard’s smug face. What in god’s name was this guy’s problem?

“She didn’t do anything but sleep here.”

“Right! And I’m the president of the United States!” the stranger laughed.

It was then that Tom realized this must be the infamous Kyle.

And he was even worse than Erin had described him.

Much worse.

“Come on, shithead, lead the way. Slowly. And don’t make a sound or I’ll waste you.”

Tom led the way to the door. He considered spinning around and trying to knock the gun out of Kyle’s hand, but knew that only worked in the movies. This was no movie and he was no James Bond.

Tom reached the door.

“Open it-slow and easy. Don’t try to be a hero.”

Tom opened the door and entered, Kyle following closely behind.

They went through the laundry room and into the kitchen. Erin was washing the dishes.

“Well looky there! It’s my little girl-whore playing housewife! How goddamn cozy!”

Erin dropped the plate and spun around, the look of shock, dread and terror on her face.

“ Kyle! What are you doing here?” she cried.

“Why, I’m coming to take what is mine, honey. And you know you’re mine, now don’t you?”

“God, Kyle-let Tom go! He doesn’t have anything to do with this!” Erin pleaded, staring past Tom toward his captor.

“What do you mean, ‘he doesn’t have anything to do with this?’ He has a lot to do with this! He took you in and banged you last night! Now that wasn’t a nice thing to do at all, taking another man’s woman and dissing me like that. No, I’m afraid that Mr. Tom here is gonna have to pay for that.”

“I told you-” Tom said.

“Shut your goddamn mouth! Or I’m gonna make it so you can’t ever talk again!”

“Kyle, please don’t hurt him! I’ll go with you-I’ll do anything you say! Just don’t hurt him!”

“Why, it sounds like you’ve really taken a liking to Tom here. You must have had a real good time screwing him last night. Jesus, girl-don’t you think he’s a little old for you? Not that that has ever stopped you before. But then, that’s a different situation altogether, now isn’t it?”

“Kyle, please don’t-”

Kyle laughed hideously. “I think I got a pretty good idea what’s going on here. I have a feeling that you haven’t quite told this guy everything about our special relationship, have you? I can tell by the look in your eyes.”

Erin started weeping. She convulsed so violently that Tom ran over to her side, forgetting the gun pointed at him.

Suddenly, the gun fired. The sound was so loud that Tom’s ears rang. He saw a hole in the shattered ceramic tile to the right of his sink.

“The next one is for you, asshole. Now go over and sit down at that table before I get tempted to quit wasting any more time on you.”

“Are you all right?” he said to Erin.

“Now, motherfucker!” Kyle roared.

“Go Tom!” Erin pleaded.

Tom went over to one of the chairs at the kitchen table and sat down. He realized that he could be dead now and knew that he was going to have to cool it if he was going to have any chance of getting out of this alive.

“Now, Erin girl, I want you to sit down next to your friend. And if you cry like that one more time, I’m going to kill him. You know what I think about those crocodile tears, don’t you? And I’m not gonna put up with any of that bullshit, I can tell you that right now!”

“I won’t cry, Kyle. I promise.” Erin declared warily as she sat down beside Tom at the table.

“I know you won’t, you ho! Now, you two sit there while I figure out what I’m going to do. I’m so goddamn tired I can hardly think straight. And that’s your fault, you cheating slut! Keeping me out all night trying to find you after you sneaked out on me. I liked to never caught up to you, but luckily there weren’t exactly a helluva lot of tire tracks in the snow out on the roads.”

Kyle kept his gun trained on Tom as he walked over to the refrigerator and opened the door. He pulled out a bottle of Chardonnay, popped off the cork and took a long swig.

“Jesus, I needed that! I don’t suppose you have any decent road food around here, do you old man? Some chips or peanuts-something like that?”