Part 9: May 22 - Escape from South Bend

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Tim and Emily were waiting for Sam and Hank’s group when they arrived. Tim was pacing back and forth. “What took you so long!” he demanded, his fear sharpening the edge of his voice.

“We picked up a few more children along the way,” Sam said as she handed Rusty’s reins to Tim. “I promised the children rides on the horses.” She then noticed the rifle in Tim’s hand. “What’s that for?” she demanded.

“Rats,” Tim stated, looking Sam directly in the eye with a determined stare.

“Do you have another one? I’ve only used tranquilizer rifles in the field. I don’t know if I could shoot someone with a bullet, but I’m afraid you’re right. After all the years it took to get the world to realize that you don’t need a gun in the house to be safe, here we are reduced back to this level of brutality.”

Sam turned to Emily. “Emily, let’s get out of here. We have to meet our ride at noon, and we are way off our planned route,” she ordered.

Emily and Hank started organizing children, and within a couple of minutes the group was huddled together in front of the motel.

Tim and Sam tightened the girths on the saddles and picked four of the youngest children, putting two up on each horse. Sam handed an old kitchen timer she had found in the motel office to Hank and told him, “Time the rides—10 minutes each. We’ll start with the youngest and work up through the group by age.”

The group headed back up the road toward the pickup point to meet Carl.