The sound of additional gunfire, closer this time, brought the woman out of her trance. She hopped on her good leg toward the two men and collapsed on the ground at their feet. “I thought you were going to kill us for taking the coal out of the coal cars that are stuck on the tracks. There’s an armed gang that’s hoarding everything. They shoot to kill. I’m lucky to be alive.” Her eyes squinted. “You aren’t one of them?” Emotion overcame her, and she began to cry uncontrollably. “They already killed my husband… his father.”
“An armed gang shooting innocent people? That’s not good,” mumbled Kyle to himself, as he looked back toward the railroad tracks.
Robert knelt down next to the woman and gently put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry about your husband.” He paused. “We need your help. Tell us about this gang.”
“They look just like you, men with guns. Except they wear a red cloth, like a bandana, tied around their upper arm.”
“I need to know where—” Robert started, but Kyle abruptly cut him off.
“We have company. Two headed this way. Red armbands,” said Kyle, peeking around his cover.
“Shhhh… they don’t know we’re here. Keep it together and stay quiet,” whispered Robert to the woman and her son.
The woman nodded and her son sat next to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
Kyle peeked through a gap in the railroad ties and watched the two strangers walking their way. One man had a rifle and the other had a shotgun. The rifle appeared to be a.22 caliber. Kyle knew that a.22 caliber bullet could spin around in the body and leave a nasty wound. The shotgun would be dangerous at close range, accuracy not required. Kyle leaned over to Robert and whispered, “They look too casual. It looks like they are telling each other jokes. What are they doing?”
Robert shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare at the advancing men, his eyes unblinking. The armed gang members were now less than twenty yards away and they heard their sinister voices. They were making fun of the people they had shot. One of the men placed his weapon on the ground and began to imitate one of his victims. He went to the ground on his knees begging for mercy, holding imaginary wounds. The other man laughed hysterically. When the bad actor stood up, leaving his weapon on the ground, he unzipped his pants to relieve himself and the other man did the same, after placing his weapon on the ground, too. Robert saw this and turned toward Kyle. Kyle was already staring at Robert with wide eyes. Robert nodded his head and held up five fingers for a silent countdown. At Robert’s closed fist, both men sprung from behind the pile with their weapons drawn.
“You move and you die!” yelled Robert. “Step this way, we need to have a talk with you.” Robert motioned with his rifle for the two men to walk to the other side of the stack of railroad ties.
Kyle found some twine and plastic rope on the ground and tied their hands behind their backs, then tied their feet together. He sat the men up to face them for questioning.
Robert looked at the injured woman and asked, “Lady, did either of these men hurt you?”
“You can call me Dorothy. I don’t know, my back was turned and I was running. It could have been any of their gang. People see the red armbands and they run. Their pathetic gang has a reputation of murder.”
“Dorothy, please move around to the far end of this pile. Take your son with you. I don’t want him to see this,” said Robert.
“Kyle, take their armbands and hide them in the backpack. We’ll use them later.”
The two captives were sitting on the ground with their backs to the pile of debris. Robert and Kyle stood directly in front of them. Robert withdrew his large knife and Kyle did the same. When Robert began to speak, Kyle slowly paced back and forth behind Robert, tapping the blade of his knife on the palm of his hand in rhythm with his paces. He stared directly at the two men and nodded his head in agreement when Robert spoke.
Robert knelt to the ground and leaned forward toward the captive men. “This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to ask questions and you are going to answer. If I suspect you are lying, we’ll kill you. If I think you are telling me the truth, we won’t kill you. Do you understand?”
The men were obviously terrified and simultaneously agreed to tell them anything. They begged for their lives and explained they did not want to join the gang, but only did so to get food and protection. A man named Cyrus led the gang. He was getting an armed force together to move through the city and confiscate anything of value, and he wanted to get control of the stalled coal cars. People would need to boil water and cook food. In the winter, the people who had not starved to death would also need it for heat. He wanted to trade the coal to get food for his gang, so they had moved into the railroad hub today to take it over. They had also found an Amtrak train and that was where they planned to stay. Cyrus and a few others were planning to take up residence in the sleeper cars.
“How do we avoid your gang? We want to get into the city,” asked Robert, as he prodded the closer man on the head with the blade of his knife.
“Put on the red armbands and stay clear of the railcars. Walk around them. Go straight west. They’re focused on looting the freight cars right now and will be for several days. Just walk around like you’re on a patrol looking for something. People will avoid you if they see the red armbands.”
“Why would people be so quick to avoid you?” asked Kyle.
“We have a reputation.”
The other captive smirked at his accomplice’s reply. Robert immediately drove his tightly clenched fist into the smirking man’s face. The man’s head snapped back and struck the pile of tar-black railroad ties. The humor disappeared from the man’s face as his unconscious body slumped over. A streak of red blood contrasted with the black creosote-stained wood.
“What should I do with you?” Robert asked the other man.
“Let me go! You said you weren’t going to kill us if we told you everything, but you killed him.”
“Him? I didn’t kill him,” Robert replied sarcastically as he rose to his feet. “He’s just taking a little nap.”
“Untie me!”
“No, that wasn’t part of the agreement. I said that I wouldn’t kill you, nothing more. Maybe my new friend Dorothy has other plans for you. That’s up to her. Have a good nap.” Robert drove his fist into the second man’s face, knocking him unconscious.
Robert and Kyle gave Dorothy and her son the.22 caliber rifle and the shotgun taken from the gang members. Kyle let her know that the men were tied and out cold. He did not care what she did to them, but it would not be a good idea to shoot them. The noise might attract attention. Robert explained that they would like to help her back to the city, but they needed to hurry and find Kyle’s wife. It was going to get dark soon and it looked like a storm was approaching. Dorothy and her young son would slow them down, but the new weapons should provide them some protection. She thanked them for what they had done and used the rifle as a support to help her stand before she spoke to Robert and Kyle again.
“Why are you putting on those awful red armbands?” Dorothy asked, with an expression of disgust and curiosity.
Kyle tied a red bandana on Robert’s upper right arm and replied, “It’s camouflage so people will avoid us.”
Dorothy shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that, but good luck,” she said, as the two men turned to leave.
Robert and Kyle made it past the railroad hub. The wind was blowing harder and it was going to storm for sure. There was not much daylight left, but they were on the right road to take them to Kyle’s apartment building, and hopefully to Kyle’s wife.
Both men decided that it was best to walk in the middle of the road. They wanted to keep some distance from the corners of alleys because that would be an easy place to set up an ambush. The few people they saw appeared to be starving and weak, and as predicted, the people on the sidewalk saw the two men and turned aside. The men did not know if it was Robert’s rifle or the red armbands, but they were pleased to have no confrontations, so far, on the road.