Ahern, Jerry - Total War

Rourke glanced back to Rubenstein. "How are we going to carry it? I can use .308, .223, .45 ACP and .357-and that's too much. I've got ample supplies of ammunition back at the retreat once we get there."

"That's still close to fifteen hundred miles, isn't it?" Rubenstein's voice had suddenly lost all its enthusiasm.

Rourke looked at him, saying nothing.

"Hey, John-you want some spare clips-I mean magazines-for your rifle?"

Rourke looked up. Rubenstein held thirty-round AR-15 magazines in his hands-a half dozen. "Are they actual Colt?"

Rubenstein stared at the magazines a moment, Rourke saying, "Look on the bottom-on the floorplate."

"Yeah-they are."

"Take 'em along then," Rourke said, opening a box of baby food in small glass jars, said, "now go and see if you can find something to use as a sack to carry all this stuff. I'm going to take some of this baby food-it's full of protein and sugar and vitamins."

"I have a little-I mean had-a little nephew back in New York that..." and Rubenstein's voice began noticeably tightening, "that stuff tastes terrible."

"But it can keep us alive," Rourke said, with a note of finality.

Rubenstein started to turn and go out of the trailer, then looked back to Rourke, saying, "John-New York is gone, isn't it? My nephew-his parents. I had a girl. We weren't serious but we might have gotten serious. But it's gone."

"Yeah," Rubenstein said, his voice odd sounding to Rourke. "I guess-" Rourke looked up, Rubenstein was already climbing out of the trailer. Rourke searched the remaining boxes quickly. He found some flashlight batteries, bar type shaving soap prepacked in small mugs, and safety razors and blades. He rubbed the stubble on his face, took a safety razor and as many packs of blades as he could cram in the breast pocket of his sweat-stained blue shirt, one of the mugs and several bars of soap. He found another consignment of ammunition-158 grain semi-jacketed soft point .357s and took eight boxes of fifty. With it were some .223 solids and he took several hundred rounds of these as well. He carried what he wanted in two boxes back to the rear of the trailer and helped Rubenstein climb inside with the sack to carry it all. They crammed the sack full and Rourke jumped down to the road, boosting it onto his left shoulder and carrying it toward the bikes. "We're going to have to split up this load," he said.

As Rourke turned toward his bike, he heard Rubenstein's voice and over it the clicking of bolts-from assault rifles. Without moving he looked up, heard Rubenstein repeat, "John!"

Slowly, Rourke raised to his full height, squinting against the glare through his sunglasses. A dozen men-in some sort of uniform-were on the far side of the road. Slowly, he turned around, and behind him, on Rubenstein's side of the road beside the abandoned truck trailer, were at least a half-dozen more.

All the men carried assault rifles of mixed heritages-and all the guns were trained on Rourke and Rubenstein...

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Created 5/24/2000

Last updated 5/24/2000

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