Chapter 10

Pulling the trailer with the improvised hitch was harder than he had imagined that it would be and he had to re-hitch the trailer twice before they had gone five miles. After the second time he made a few adjustments that made the hookup a bit more secure but he would be happy when they reached the spot that he had picked out for his stand.

"What's your name?" Ann asked in a soft voice.

"He doesn't have a name," Bennie piped in, "I've been trying to find out and all I get is a grunt."

"Carl Partley," he said while looking straight ahead.

"Well now that you're so talky Mr. Partley, where did you learn to use those toys that you have here? Army... Marines... Air Force?"

Carl sat without answering Bennie. He knew that she was acting brave for his sake and the girl's. He also knew that the horror that she had witnessed back at the farm would hit her soon and she would crack. Right now, she was acting as if nothing had happened back at the farm.

"Both of you keep an eye out for trouble," Carl snapped, "I saw the sunlight glint off of a piece of metal. It was up on the side of the mountain. We have to consider everyone that we meet is an enemy until we prove otherwise. Sing out at the slightest thing that you even suspect might be trouble. There's a National Guard Military Police unit just outside of Cumberland that I want to check out. They might have been able to rein in some of the violence in the area."

"That the outfit that was in trouble over Abu Ghraib?" Bennie asked.

Carl didn't answer; he just concentrated on his driving. Sure, those soldiers did it all wrong, big time, but the media kept harping on it and harping on it; making sure that the whole world knew about the soldier's mistakes. There would be many American lives lost just because the newspapers wanted to increase circulation. He scanned the areas all around them, watching for anything that would indicate that there was someone wanting to do them harm.

Both of the women began to scan the mountain side. Although the mountains of Western Maryland were not as heavily populated as the urban areas around Baltimore and Washington they hadn't seen anyone for a long time. Carl wasn't sure if the roving bands of criminals had been out this far or if the people were just trying to stay out of site.

"According to the map there's a state park up ahead," Carl said as he studied the map, "There are usually small access roads in the park for maintenance vehicles, fire equipment and such. We'll try to find one that's a little hard to see from the main tourist areas of the park and we'll pull the Humvee and the trailer out of site and camp out for a couple of days."

"Why don't we keep on going," Bennie asked, "The further we get away from the towns the better off we'll be."

"I need to take stock of the equipment that we've been throwing into the trailer and try to get a feel of what's happening around here. I'm wondering why we haven't seen anyone in a while."

"Everybody's probably hiding," Bennie said.

Carl saw the entrance to the state park and pulled into it; watching for any signs that there were people in the park. He knew that he had to watch out for everybody. Even people that would never even consider doing anything wrong would turn into animals when they were starving or if their family was in danger. The park seemed deserted.

In back of the park's lodge, which had been gutted, he found a road leading off into a remote part of the park. Carl pulled onto the road and slowly drove as far away from the lodge as he could. When he came to a fork in the one-lane dirt road he pulled into a small clearing by the side of the road and stopped his vehicle.

"Get out three tents, sleeping bags and the Sterno stove," Carl snapped at the girls, "We don't want to be making any smoke. We'll stay here for a day or so and then I'll drop you two off in Cumberland."

"Bennie looked shocked, "What the hell do you mean that you'll drop us off? I thought that we were going with you."

"There's no way that I can take you with me," Carl said none too politely, "I don't intend getting killed because someone doesn't know how to survive in the woods. Don't worry; I'll leave both of you a gun."

Bennie jumped up on her feet, "You rotten bastard. We wouldn't last two minutes out there alone. With the three of us together we might stand a chance."

Carl got a small grin on his face but there was no mirth in it, "You think that the two of you know enough about survival to take care of yourself?"