Chapter 4

Even thought the Chief's Special didn't carry much of a cartridge it was still lethal and it was a damned nice little revolver. He even had a shoulder holster for it and with the girl's help I put it on and got it adjusted to fit right. I didn't really think I'd have a big need for it but I'd feel stupid if I did come up needing it and hadn't bothered to put it on. After all, we hadn't had a bit of warning over the dust up today but we'd ended up needing to defend ourselves.

I did some looking around and found a nice washed out streambed to drag the bodies into but just before we did I checked them over closely. Most of the bullets had gone right through their bodies but after stripping them off I saw a bulge under the skin of the older man's back. I pulled out my Case Shark Tooth knife and dug for the evidence. I retrieved the bullet and while I was at it I did some slicing around on the body hoping it would attract the attention of scavengers. What the hell, I did the same for the others after we had them naked too.

I built the campfire up much bigger and after the girls cooked some breakfast we ate and then I piled more wood on and when it was going good again I threw on their clothes, even their shoes and boots.

I still wanted to try and have some fun on this trip and with a little encouragement the girls caught on and we did do a little hunting. We didn't see shit and I thought we probably scared everything away while we were sighting in our weapons. It would have been useless to try hunting before we did and so we took the time to cobble up a small range and give it a whirl.

The only good thing that happened otherwise was some of the forest wildlife had found the bodies and done a little snacking on them. I could tell they'd be completely gone within a day or two.

We built up the fire again and cooked some supper and then retired back into the truck and had another round of hide the weenie, or three rounds.

The next morning we decided it was time to pack it in and head home. We hadn't really done any serious hunting but I felt like I'd reached my bag limit for this trip anyhow. We headed directly back home but made sure to keep the radio tuned to a news station. In fact it seemed all stations had switched to news now.

The picture they were painting wasn't good. Apparently Dallas/Ft Worth airport had been a good secondary location for the new virus to settle. The overload on emergency services had things in pretty much of a mess and they were already warning of roving gangs of thugs which the police just couldn't handle. It seemed like the epicemic which was getting started had been a signal for every thief and crook to get moving on projects of their own. Apparently our uninvited neighbors from down Mexico way had taken the confusion as an all systems go for rape, robbery, and pillage.

We even ran into a little of it on our way back. A carload of men of the Mexican persuasion pulled up along side us waving a pistol our way and encouraging us to pull over and stop. Jayc was driving and so I had her roll her window down as if to talk as we slowed down. When it was out of the way I poked the Browning Automatic 12 gauge business end out of the open window and began sharing buckshot. I made sure the driver got a dose right off the bat and Jacy mashed the gas and we sped away from the wreck. The last we saw of them, in the mirror, showed their car rolling and tumbling across the median with occasional bodies being ejected as they went.

We didn't think anything would come up over it since things were in such a termoil just lately and especially since illegal aliens were getting a lot of the early blame. We were home two hours later and there was a big surprise waiting at the gate of our gated community. There were several armed security men holding down the fort. They asked us who we were and what we wanted but when I told them our names and where we lived they let us pass.

Dad was home and according to him he and mother had been worried sick about us. I gave him the details and my thinking on the shape I'd left things in and he thought I was probably right in my estimation.

"With all the shit hitting the fan now no one is going to worry about a few dead hunters if they ever find them. In normal times it would have been a bitch to ever get straightened out, but we can probably forget it for now." he said.

Mother started telling us about the security men then. Apparently there had been an attempted home invasion just down the block last night. The invaders, six more Mexican illegals, had made the mistake of trying to break in on Calvin Jackson's house.

Calvin was a local character and he had been getting ready for the world to go to shit for the last six years and he was ready, willing, and able to deal with six young outlaws looking for targets of oppurtunity. Hell, this was still Texas and even if it was mostly civilized by his late date there were still plenty of armed home owners.

Mama said when Calvin called 911 he told them not to bother with ambulances and to just send someone out to pick up the bodies. Alas, Texas had six fewer illegals running around now.

I didn't feel so bad about our dust up now and figured this was even more evidence I'd done the right thing down at the deer lease. Maybe it wasn't happening all over, but law and order was sure as hell breaking down around here. I didn't know what we were going to do, but I figured for now we'd have to stay home and keep our powder dry.