I was runnin’ so fast on the gravel shoulder of the road that I almost fell more than once. The truck was right on my ass, just barely pushin’ me along, when a big blue Plymouth came rollin’ up out of the drive about a hundred yards ahead and flashed its lights. Both vehicles stopped and the drivers started gettin’ out.

I ran down into the wooded ravine at the side of the road, fallin’ and slidin’ half the way on my ass. Ran for cover beyond the two big rocks in the middle of the creek. Stayed out in the open most of the way, figurin’ they wouldn’t waste their ammo on me. They didn’t.

One of them followed me between the two big rocks and I heard the snap of the bear trap I set, then his scream. I unslung my .22 and came back around the rocks, placed the barrel to the side of his head.

“You’re gonna die of an infection out here with your foot busted like that” I said. “Best get on back where you came from and get it taken care of. Just let me be. You hold still and I’ll set you loose.” The Hunter was tall and skinny and he grimaced at me with a mouth full of crooked teeth, but nodded he understood.

I could hear his compadre creeping closer behind me as I knelt to unlatch the trap from the skinny one’s left foot and lay my rifle across my knees. “We good?” He nodded, again. His beat up high-top Chuck was crushed in, and blood was seeping through the canvas. Don’t know why, but he suddenly reached behind his back for a weapon. I tipped the barrel of the .22 up and shot him in the throat, just under his chin. He looked at me with shocked eyes, choked for a moment and then slumped over, twitching in the high grass.

“Goddamn it,” I said, “I was pointin’ a goddamned rifle at your head, son! Why did you fuckin’ do that?” I swung the rifle around and pointed it one handed at the other one, a short, stocky fella with big blue eyes that went watery and wide. “You don’t need to die and I don’t need to kill you,” I said. He just held his hands high and shook. “Take your friend’s body with you. And take whatever you need out of his car, too. As soon as you boys leave, the scavengers’ll strip that Plymouth down to nothin’.”

“Y-you killed him,” he said. “You ain’t gonna take anything? Nothin’?”

I said, “I’ve been watching you boys drivin’ patrols on the road up there. Get on back to ‘em. And tell ‘em this is as far west as they go.”