Anthony Newman - American Survivor

Joe listened to what Jane repeated from the book as he thought about a solution to helping these people when a noise pulled him from his thoughts.

“Joe. Hey Joe,” Jane said twice before Joe turned then added, “The water has been boiling for twenty minutes. The instruments should be clean.”

Joe took them from the boiling water, rinsed them in alcohol before he turned to Dan’s leg, and said, “I need all of you to hold him down. Those pain pills will dull the pain, but this is going to hurt.”

They held him down, and Joe used the needle nose pliers to probe the wound to see how deep the bullet was and was pleasantly surprised that it was only an inch below the surface. He slowly opened the pliers to grab the bullet when Dan woke up and screamed. His wife quickly placed her hand over his mouth, and they all kept him from moving. Joe felt the ends of the pliers around the bullet and pulled it out. Dan shook violently as the pain shot through his leg.

“Hold him still while I put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. I think Jane said to leave it open and apply the antibiotic salve. Your husband will be fine in a couple of weeks. Now I’m tired and need to crash. Wake me up if anyone approaches,” Joe said.

Before Joe went to sleep, he pulled the day’s letter from his Grandma out to read.

Dear Joe:

Joe, I’m very sick today, and my doctor is a pain in my butt. I talked to you earlier today, and your voice made my day. I hope my letters bring some good to your day and perhaps a smile every now and then. Have you started the treasure hunt yet? You are a bright boy and can figure it out.

I’m tired. I think I’ll take a nap after Alfred reads to me. I don’t want to shock you but a couple of years after your Grampa died Alfred and I got close. Real close. Were both too old to do much in bed now but he was the second love of my life.

As the youngsters say these days — make that picture go away.

Bet you’re laughing now!

Joe thought what treasure hunt then remembered their walks and burying small boxes.

Joe slept until just after dark that evening until they heard glass breaking from outside the door. Jane said, “Someone just entered the hallway. Grab your knives. Joe, wake up!”

Joe put his boots on and handed Ginny his .22 pistol then said, “You have ten shots. Use them wisely.”

He took his hunting knife from its sheath, drew his 9mm pistol with his right hand, and walked out the door to confront the invader. He walked out into the hallway and hid in a room waiting inside to see who was intruding on the hideout. He saw a light dash across the wall opposite the room he was in and heard two people whispering.

“I know I hear someone yelling from dis building.”

“You hearing shit.”

“Fuck you. Follow me, and we’ll take hostages back to da boss.”

“Screw dat. We’ll kill them and take their stuff unless it’s some young sweet thing.”

Joe waited behind the door until the two shined their light into the room he was hidden and moved on. He cautiously walked up behind the trailing man and froze in place when the two stopped. His sense of smell had sharpened since living in the woods. He could smell the stench of perspiration and urine coming off the two gangbangers. He wondered if this was normal for the two or if they had lost their desire to stay clean after the missiles fell.

“There, I done told you I hear something. There’s a woman’s voice in the room up ahead. We gonna get some tail tonight.”

The men moved toward Joe’s new friends with guns in hand. Joe ripped his knife across the trailing man’s throat dropping him to the ground. The other man turned around shooting at Joe as Joe slashed his blade into the man’s side. The man tried to kill Joe with his rifle but was too close, and the blade was working deeper into the man’s gut. Joe ripped the blade deep across the man’s stomach and felt the man’s bowels slide across his hand on the way to the floor. The smell of the feces struck Joe hard, as he knew the shit was on his gloves.

As the man died and fell to the floor, the thug squeezed the trigger, fired one shot, which grazed Joe on the side of his hip. Joe took off his gloves and pushed his free hand down hard on his wound to stop the bleeding. The pressure made the wound sting like hell.

Joe searched the men and found two cheap Hi-point 9mm pistols, a Ruger Mini 14, and a Mossberg pump shotgun. He found several extra magazines for the guns and a pocket full of 00-Buck shotgun shells. He took the weapons with him and went back to the room where his new friends were hidden.

Joe’s hands shook as he knocked on the door and said, “It’s me, Joe. The danger is over, but we need to get out of here quickly.”

“You smell like shit,” the dark-haired woman said.

“One of the men had an accident. I need to clean up and change clothes,” Joe responded.

He handed a pistol to Ginny, gave the shotgun to Jane, and said, “Do you know how to use these?

They all said yes, and then Ginny said, “We can’t leave now Dan can’t walk. Besides, where would we go? What happened to the people trying to get in? Did they go away?”

Joe looked at the kids and said, “Something like that. Those two won’t bother anyone anymore. Trust me that gunshot will bring the gang over here in a few minutes. I’ll take you somewhere safe. Ginny, help me support Dan as we walk to my Jeep. I’ll take you to a cabin up in the hills where you will be safe.”

Jane saw Joe holding his hip and pushed his hand away.

“Joe, you got shot,” Jane said as she tended to his wound."

Jane made him drop his pants to the floor, and she flushed the wound with hydrogen peroxide. She then dabbed antibiotic cream on the wound and bandaged it.

“Ginny, Joe is right. We’ve almost been discovered twice before. We need to get out of this horrible town. Bill is dead, and he won’t be coming back. We’ve waited too long for him,” Jane said as she finished tending to Joe.

“Okay let’s do it. Kids grab our bags. Butch, you get the stove, and Dot, grab one of the lanterns,” Ginny said.

Joe washed off the best he could and put on some of Dan’s clothes. He was now ready to travel. They snuck out of their home for the past several weeks and left. Ginny and Joe helped Dan walk using only his good leg. It was just 150 yards to the storage unit where the Jeep was hidden. Joe opened the roll up door and ushered everyone inside. He watched for the gang while he instructed the others to tie their possessions and his bags to the roof and back of the Jeep.

“Look it’s going to be tight, and you will have to sit on each other’s laps for about an hour, but we will get the hell out of here and to a safe place,” Joe told the group.

They quickly finished squeezing everyone into the Jeep and Ginny opened the overhead door. Joe drove away from the storage lot with his lights off and headed across several open fields to Emigrant Creek Road where he took a right turn. He drove a short distance and then drove cross-country up into the hills for a mile before he stopped to look at one of his maps.

Joe had mixed feelings about what to do with the people because he couldn’t leave them behind but didn’t want them in one of his cabins. He looked at one of the maps his Grandma left for him and saw his cabins circled and several others a few miles away. He decided he would take them to one of the other cabins and hope it was unoccupied. He drove through woods and clearings until he found a forest service road and took it for a mile in the direction he needed to travel. He went off the road again for half a mile and arrived at a spot close to the first cabin, which was half a mile southeast of the southwest corner of his property.