Robert Moore: Hard guys and hostages

The report was loud, and it was unexpected. At first Max thought that it was the twenty-two, that this was what even a small bore rifle sounded like when it was aimed right at your face, but then he saw Bradford standing there, with a look of dumbfounded surprise on his face, and a big, gaping wound in his chest, and then the man fell over backwards.

Max looked at Julie in surprise. She stared back at him dumbly for a moment, and then she thrust the rifle out toward him, offering it.

"I had to do it," she said intensely. "You can see that, can't you, Max? I had to do it. He was going to kill you." Max just stared at her. He took the rifle, finally, and worked the lever. "Max, I love you. I think I've loved you from the first time you took me. You know how to treat a woman. You know how to own her. I just put up with Pete, and I was never happy with Jim, really. I realized that after you showed me what it could be like."

So she was crazy. Neurotic. She liked to be dominated and treated like dirt. And that was the reason she had been so cooperative, not fear, as he had supposed. He wondered whether she had known her own motive before this moment, and the likelihood of her husband killing him, had forced her to.

"Take me with you, Max," she said. "Please. I'll take care of you. I can work while you hide out. I can support us. I'll be useful to you, Max. And I'll be there when you need a woman. I'll always be there for you to use."

"All right." Max heard the words croak out of his mouth. "All right, get the keys to the car. We'll have to get out of here right now. Those kids will have everyone in the county here in a few minutes."

Julie grabbed the keys to the car from the dresser in the bedroom, and took the money she had been saving for Jim's birthday. There was more than fifty dollars, and it would come in handy, she knew. She ran into the living room and got the shotgun shells. They might come in handy, too, in case Max wanted to rob a store or something with the shotgun.

She took it all outside, and threw it in the back of the car. Max was sitting in the right hand seat. "Do you want to take the baby?" she asked. "She could be a hostage if shooting starts. No one will shoot at you."

"Sure," he said. "Bring her." He still seemed a little dazed by her actions. Julie smiled and leaned and kissed him quickly. Then she ran into the house again, and got Diane, and while she was there she grabbed some clothes for herself, and some for Max, too.

"Let's go," she said, when she had thrown the clothes into the back seat. "Oh, do you want me to drive?"

"Yeah. I'll hold the guns."

Julie put the baby in the back seat and started the engine. The car was a little hard to start, but it coughed into life finally. She backed around and pointed it toward the driveway, then put it in drive and started over the rut road.

They were almost to the highway when the three men stood up, coming into sight from behind some bushes, and leveled rifles. They must have been watching the car from hiding, because they all aimed right at Max's face. Max didn't seem to notice them. He was still dazed from the grazing shot Jim had got against him. And he was still confused, she guessed, by her actions.

Julie twisted the wheel to the left to avoid the men's shots, but it was too late. The bullets crashed through the windshield, leaving webs all over it, and Max's head suddenly exploded like a ripe watermelon. Julie screamed and let go of the wheel.

She was gradually aware of someone standing over the door, looking down at her. When she looked up, she recognized Jed Whorely, her nearest neighbor. He had a rifle in his hands, and she recognized it as the one he had used to go hunting with Jim.

"Are there any more of them in there, Julie?" Whorely asked urgently, and she had the feeling that he had asked it more than once.

"No," she said. "They're all dead."

"Too bad, in a way," Whorely said, "I'd like to have got a shot at them. What about…" He paused. "What about your family?"

"My — Diane. She's in the back." Just then Diane started to cry. Julie thought that the child must have been dazed when the car stopped so suddenly.

"No one else?" Whorely asked incredulously.

"No. Everyone else is dead."

Whorely swore and then apologized.

"I wish we could have gotten here sooner," he said. "I wish we could have saved everybody. But we didn't even know anything was wrong until those two kids reached my place. I couldn't believe them, at first, but they were so fussed, I figured they must be telling the truth. Well, at least we saved you, Julie. At least you're still alive."

"Yes," Julie said numbly. "I managed to stay alive, didn't I?"