Chapter 4

Life around the Worthy compound was tense for the next few days, but nothing happened. We began to wonder if anything was going to happen with either the assassin or the kidnapping. Finally, Arlene could take it no longer. "John, I am going stir crazy sitting cooped up in this place waiting for something to happen. Dammit, I have got to get out and move around and see some different scenery before I blow my top. Let's go back to hunting where the kidnappers might be holed up."

Damned if I didn't agree with her, besides, I figured that the kidnappers would want to capture Arlene before they tried to kill her. After all, she was worth nothing to them if she was already dead. Furthermore, the assassin was hunting Mr. Worthy and not Arlene. We dressed for a ride and went to the garage to check on our weapons and spare ammunition. Both were okay, and we had plenty of gas and oil, so we tooled out onto the paved road. I was letting Arlene lead the way because she was the one who knew the territory.

The first two places we looked at were busts, but we had an interesting experience at the third place. There was a junker of a car parked in front of the house and we could see a couple of kids playing in the yard. This certainly was not the bunch of kidnappers that we expected, but we were curious, so we pulled into the yard.

Our motorcycles immediately attracted the two kids, and they were impressed by the two Tommy Guns mounted on the motorcycles. There was a lot of yelling and screaming between the two kids as we parked, and a woman came out on the veranda. Oh, my God! That woman looked like she had been through hell. Her face was screwed up into an expression that would have frightened a gargoyle, and her hair was all askew upon her head. Her dress was so wrinkled and torn that it looked like it must be 50 years old and that long since it had been washed.

"What do you folks want?" she demanded as if she expected the worst.

Arlene answered, "You aren't the people who used to live here. Have you moved in permanently?"

"Naw, we was just stopping off here while Joe went around looking for a job to be able to buy gas. We are headed for California, but we are having trouble getting there."

"Will that car make the trip?"

"Joe is a good mechanic, and he says that it will, provided we can get enough money for the stuff we need."

"How much money do you need?"

"I don't rightly know. With gas and oil being cheap right now and food about the same way, I guess that $200 would get us all the way to California with a little to spare."

Arlene was obviously touched by the woman's story, so she reached into her saddle bag for her purse. She pulled it out and said, "I know that there are no jobs around her, so Joe is not going to have any luck. Here's $200. Take it and go on to California."

The woman broke down into tears and said, "Ma'am, I can't take your money. There ain't no way that we could pay you back."

"Don't worry about that. Just take the money and go. Your kids deserve the chance for a better life, and you might find one in California. You sure won't find that around here!"

Arlene walked up to the woman and shoved the money into her hand. She walked back to me and said, "Come on, John. There is nothing for us here." She mounted her bike and drove away, forcing me to crank mine and follow her.

I caught up to her and saw that she had her goggles pushed aside and tears were pouring down her face. She looked at me and said, "God damn this Depression!" We rode fairly slowly until she could get her emotions under control and could put her goggles back in place over her eyes. She adjusted the scarf that she was using for a dust filter over her nose and mouth and sped away. I accelerated to catch her, and she pointed to a side road that we should take.

By the time we had gone nearly two miles, and that was not long at the speed we were traveling, she pointed to another abandoned house. We turned in to approach the house, and that was when we got our second surprise of the day. There was a fairly new sedan parked beside the house, and there was a glint of steel at one window. I yelled, "ARLENE, LOOK OUT! THERE IS A GUN POINTED IN OUR DIRECTION FROM THE HOUSE!"

Fortunately, that gun was a shotgun that was fired too soon so that we were out of practical range. Both Arlene and I skidded to a halt and ducked behind some brush. I exclaimed, "What the hell is going on!?" as I checked to be sure that my Tommy Gun was ready to fire.

Arlene did the same as she said, "Those sure aren't the Waltons. They left about eight months ago. I don't know who it is, but they sure don't want us to come around. What should we do?"

"I think that I will ride up to investigate while you stay here to back me up. Let your engine idle because you may not have time to crank it if I run into deep trouble. Remember, I am depending on you for backup, so stay here where you are still in range of your Tommy Gun. Don't approach the house unless I obviously need your help or wave you to me. Are you ready?"

"Yes, John, I won't let you down. You can depend on me."

I winked at her and started toward the house at a slow speed. I didn't want to look too threatening in case this shot was a rash move or just an accident. On the other hand, it could be some crooks, the kidnappers, for example. However, I was treating this as a house full of crooks out to kill me unless I got a different sign as I approached the front of the house.

Uh-oh, as I got closer, I saw more glints of steel through the windows, and I now could see a man standing behind the broken window. He was holding a sawed-off double barrel shotgun, obviously one designed to kill people who got too close. I was about to turn around and scoot back to Arlene when gunfire from shotguns, rifles, and pistols erupted from the house through now broken windows.

I was amazed at how inaccurate the shooting was. I could see where bullets were hitting the dirt around me and could hear others whistling through the air, but none came close enough to me to be frightening. Nevertheless, I was convinced that those people in that house were definitely out to kill me, so I had better retreat while I still had the chance.

I quickly flipped off the restraints on my Tommy Gun and began to fire. Arlene took that as her cue to start shooting too. As I turned to head back toward her, I fired short bursts from the Tommy Gun at each window as I could bring the gun to bear. That was enough to make all of the shooters inside the house duck for cover, and I roared back to Arlene before anybody had more of a chance to shoot at me from the house.

Now we had to decide what to do. Should we attack the house and attempt to kill or capture the people who were shooting at me, or should we back off and ask the deputy sheriff for help. Frankly, I didn't think much of the gumption of that deputy sheriff, and I figured that he would be more trouble than he was worth. In any case, I was sure that the people in the house would be gone before we could get back. No way was I about to let Arlene stay here alone, and I didn't think much of the idea of sending her for dubious help.

Therefore, we either had to fight or to abandon the probable kidnappers that we had found. I had enough confidence in Arlene to believe that she would be an asset in such a fight, so I voted for fighting; however, I had to get her opinion. I gave her my opinion of the options and asked her what she wanted to do. As expected, her answer was, "Dammit, John, I want to fight!"

Okay, that was great with me, so I told her to load her pockets with all of her magazines for her Tommy Gun. I was going to stick with the drum that was already mounted on my gun, but I was going to put stick magazines in my pockets. The drum magazine was too difficult to change during a combat situation.

I outlined a plan of attack, and Arlene agreed to it. We would leave our motorcycles here and travel on foot to the house. We would take the time to destroy the tires on the car so that the bad guys could not escape if they managed to break out of the house. From then on, I would direct her as the situation dictated.

There was a lot of brush between us and the house, so we were going to use that for concealment as we approached the house. If things worked out well, I did not expect us to draw any fire until we began shooting. We made our way toward the house bent over as far as we could manage, and we did not draw any fire. The people in the house may have thought that we had left.

We headed toward the parked car to our right, and we got very close before we were halted by a lack of concealing brush. I said, "You shoot at the front tires and I will shoot at the back ones. Remember, use only short bursts. Wait, better yet, put the fire selector on single shot and move it back after you hit the tires."

Arlene nodded, and we began shooting. It only took three shots from me and four from Arlene to puncture all four tires, and they immediately went flat. Now, for all practical considerations, that car was immobilized until four new tires were installed. Nobody was going anywhere in that car, and I was satisfied.

Our shooting had attracted attention from inside the house, and a couple of shooters appeared at two windows. Both of these people had shotguns, and we were now close enough to be in danger from the buckshot. I reminded Arlene to shift back to fully automatic fire and to take the window on the right. I would take care of the one on the left.

We fired a number of short bursts into the two windows. We never received any return fire, so I didn't know if we had hit anybody or not. Perhaps they were just lying low to try to avoid being hit. That's what I would have done in their position.

We moved back to the front of the house, but we stayed in the brush. There were two large trees close enough to the house for us to hide behind while we shot at the windows. Initially, there was some return fire from the windows, but we heard a few screams of pain at one time or another, so we were sure that some of the people had to be wounded.

I would have to go inside the house to make sure that all of the crooks had been accounted for, and that meant exposing myself to enemy fire while I ran to the door. Now I came to the part of my plan that I was most concerned about. I wanted the two of us to pour fire into the windows for a minute or so in order to make sure that the people inside had no opportunity to shoot at me as I ran across the cleared area in front of the house.

After a minute or so of that kind of fire, I wanted Arlene to keep it up while I ran to the house. Once I was inside, or at least so close that I could not be shot from a window, I wanted her to scurry to the rear of the house to make sure that nobody escaped through the back door. She was to shoot at the door if somebody showed up to try to escape, but she was not to shoot into the house because she might hit me by mistake. Furthermore, she must not enter the house so that there would be no chance of one of us shooting the other by mistake.

Arlene was not happy with my plan, but she had nothing better to offer, so that was what we decided to do. I was trained for that kind of fighting, but I did not tell Arlene that. I knew that she was not trained for that kind of fighting, and I was willing to bet my life that none of the people inside the house were either. Anyway, I was about to prove my assumption in short order.

We opened festivities by firing on full automatic with short bursts at random windows so that the enemy could not tell where the next shots would be aimed. That should help when Arlene was the only one shooting. I gave in after about two minutes and signaled Arlene that I was about to leave for the house.

Arlene seemed to redouble her efforts as I ran the 50-60 feet to the veranda. I was very happy to note that nobody shot at me during that dash. I flattened myself against the door and waved at Arlene to head to the back of the house. I gave her a few minutes to get into position before I opened the door.

Dammit, the door was locked. I hated to waste the bullets, but I fired a short burst that tore the door lock to pieces. I then kicked the door open and poked the barrel of the Tommy Gun through the doorway. That drew a pistol shot that did not surprise me in the least, but it told me where to find one of the crooks. I swung the muzzle a little to the left and fired another short burst. That produced a scream of pain followed by a short gurgle of expelled air. Experience told me that I had added one enemy to the list of the dead.

I yelled, "SURRENDER NOW AND YOU WILL LIVE! DON'T DELAY! MY PATIENCE IS SHORT!" I would have been surprised if anyone had surrendered, but I did want to make the offer. From now on, my conscience was clear. The door was not fully open, and it was making a sight, if not a bullet, shield to my right. I turned to my left and stepped into the room.

At least one person was paying attention, and he was pointing a double-barrel shotgun at me. I was quick enough to jump back through the door to the veranda as he pulled the trigger. All of the buckshot missed, but it sure made a mess of the surface of the door. Okay, I hoped that I had just made my last stupid mistake.

I poked the Tommy Gun through the doorway and swept it about waist high around the left half of the room. I heard his reaction when I hit the guy who had shot at me. Among other things, the shotgun clattered when it hit the floor. I also heard the characteristic noise of a limp body hitting the floor. Now I felt that it was safe to step all the way through the front door. I double checked, and the left side of the room was clear.

Temporarily, I was protected by the front door on my right. That kept anybody on that side of the room from seeing me and vice versa. I kicked the door open the rest of the way and sprayed bullets again at waist height in an arc around that side of the room. This time, I did not hear a body fall or anything else, so I figured that the two I had already shot were the only ones left in the room. However, I did look closely into the shadows to make sure that no one was just waiting for the opportunity to plug me.

That was when I heard a burst of Tommy Gun fire come from the back of the house. Ah, my faith in Arlene was rewarded. At that point, I could not tell if she had hit anyone, but there was a good chance that she had. I figured that there were no more than six people in the gang simply because that was the passenger capacity of the car parked in the yard, including the driver. There might have been only five, but I was positive on the limit of six. Therefore, there could only be four crooks left that I was not sure of, but we may now have them all. I couldn't take that chance, but I was more confident now of getting through this little escapade without being killed.