Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Resistance

63) Take the Bait

We drive homeward in silence. We almost make it until we have to come to a compete stop because someone has built a small barricade in the middle of the road. Right in the middle of the barricade is that damn refrigerator from before. The door is open slightly, and we can see food. Canned food stacked neatly by color. This is a trap for sure. We could ram it, but who knows if this will make matters worse. There could be nails or glass in that debris.

Steven and I quickly debate what we should do.

"A trap, for sure," he says. "We could get out and walk the rest of the way. Wake the others up."

We both turn to look at our still sleeping passengers in back. Torin has baby Christopher in his arms like he is hugging a pillow. Baby Christopher is sucking his thumb.

Steven shakes his head as he comes to the same conclusion as me - There's no walking left in this crew of worn out, wounded warriors.

Steven and I look at each other and without a word we agree.

We get out of the ice cream truck with our guns drawn. We take the bait.

We get as far as the fridge door and peek inside. All empty cans and empty boxes. Some idiot even put a milk carton in there, like that would fool anybody. Steven looks at me and says, " Well, if I wasn't already on edge, there's some milk."

We both flashback to the milk execution and the even scarier milk massacre. I shudder. We are both on high alert, and fortunately for us, the people who laid this trap are amateurs. We hear them before we see them, and so we don't jump when they step out of the shadows with their guns drawn too.

The awkward silence is soon filled by an idiot. An idiot dressed in camouflage from head to toe. He's with more of his camo friends. He points his gun to the fridge. "More where that came from," he says like we are in a supermarket.

Steven can't resist. "Well, we got all the empty cans and boxes we need. Thanks anyway."

Head idiot doesn't understand at first and then says, "No, I mean food. Real food. A reward. We'll split it with you, if you got any good info for us." He shows us the reward poster with Torin's face on it. The one promising a truckload of food for the capture of a prince.

I take the poster from him and look at it and show it to Steven who shakes his head. These must be the men dad told me about before, the ones looking for Torin. "Haven't seen him. Why you want him? Why they want him?"

"Don't know and don't care," says idiot two. "What'cha got in the back of that there truck?"

"Not ice cream," says Steven, and I see clear disappointment in a couple of the men. "Just some friends. Sleeping."

"Where y'all going?" asks the man in charge.

"Dobson," I say. "Heard there was a camp there."

"Yeah, we heard that too. Heard there was a prince there too."

"We don't know about that," says Steven. "But we did hear that the prince was in Stuart. Captured by the One Nation Army."

Clear disappointment on faces again. They think about this for a minute and discuss their options and then the leader says, "Look, I'm sorry about all this. Our families are starving. We been hunting game, but there's not much left."

Hunger. We know how that feels. Steven say, "Sorry, we don't have any food with us."

"So, you won't mind if we check?"

What can we do? We are outnumbered. I keep my hand on my gun.

One of the men walks to the back of the ice cream truck, but as he places his hand on the door, it opens. Out steps Cindy Lou looking and acting like a mad mama.

"Shh. Good grief, misters. Do you know how long it took me to get my baby to sleep?"

Apparently all these men have encountered a mad mama before because one of them speaks for them all, "Sorry, ma'am."

"And my husband has hurt his hand and needs to rest too, so shh. Be quiet, please."

The door swings open, and we can all see a sleeping daddy with a bandaged, bloody hand cradling a squirmy, soon-to-be fussy baby.

All the men now look at their feet and lower their weapons. Cindy quietly steps back inside as she puts one finger over her mouth and says one last shush.

After the door closes, the men apologize again.

"No problem," says Steven. "We don't have any food, but we got a few medical supplies we can give you. Maybe, you can trade somewhere."

That's Steven. Rule One - help others.

I decide to follow the rules today too. I tell them about the stashed backpack I left on the side of the road days ago. The one I left when I decided to run to Mount Airy to find my dad and rescue my mom. "It's about a mile back, towards home. This side of the road. Look for a tarp. I bundled it up pretty good, so it wouldn't get wet. Not much, but it should help y'all out some."

"Thanks, ma'am," says one of the men. "I don't know what we're gonna do."

"Might want to think about gathering your families and bringing them back to Dobson," says Steven.

I cut my eyes at him. Steven is such a softy. No stopping him now even though just minutes ago these men were going to trade Torin for a truckload of canned vegetables.

"That's where we're going," Steven continues. "But, you'll have to change sides. We heard the camp is an enemy of One Nation. You know, those assholes caused all this. Caused you families to be hungry."

No denying those facts. The men talk amongst themselves and finally one of the younger men who hasn't spoken yet says, "You know we wasn't always bad. We're from Pilot Mountain. Tried to stop them. See what good that done us." He points to a still smoking mountain. 

There is silence as we all stop long enough to acknowledge another atrocity, and the leader says. "Maybe, we need to do that. Get our wives, our girls, our kids. Head out. Find some place better. Make a new home. Maybe, make a stand."

Several of the men nod. They clear the debris out of the road. One of them thanks Steven for the medical supplies, and I remind them of the backpack just ahead.

One of the men, the younger one, waves as they walk away. We wave back.

With the men barely visible in the rear view, I turn to Steven and let out a sigh of relief. "You know, you don't have to invite everyone to our camp?"

"Said the girl who gave them a backpack of food."

"Rule one."

We fist bump and then a whisper from the back.

"Shh, my husband and baby are asleep."

"Sorry," I say and add, "Thanks again, Cindy, you are quite the actress."

"I know. I am for sure. And quite the rescue girl too."

Steven and I smile at that.