Deadlocked by A. R. Wise Read Free Book Online Page A

something in the rearview. “Oh shit.”
    “What? What’s wrong?” I asked. I looked back to see what she was concerned about. The thugs had followed us. I saw their truck jump over the edge of the field and onto the road where their flat tire sparked against the blacktop.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said.
    “I can’t drive too fast, Dave,” said Laura. “The girls aren’t buckled in. We can’t drive like crazy. I’m not going to be able to outrun them.”
    “They’ve got a flat,” I said. “It’s not going to be easy for them to follow us. And I’ve got a gun, so if they get too close I can take a few shots at them.”
    “I’m scared,” said Kim as she started to tremble.
    I held her hand and kissed her on the forehead. “Sweetie, don’t worry. Mommy and I aren't going to let anything happen to you. We’re going to get to the boat and all go for a really fun ride out in the bay.”
    “Dave, Dave, Dave,” said Laura. I looked up and saw an accident ahead that a few cars were stuck behind. There was no way for us to get around it. The roadway was limited to one lane and there were houses on either side.
    “Go up on the lawns,” I said.
    “There’re trees, Dave. There’s no room to drive around the accident.” She started to panic.
    “Then stop and let me out,” I said.
    “What? No. No way.”
    “Stop the truck and let me out!” I had to yell to get her to stop now before she got too close to the rest of the stopped traffic or my plan wasn’t going to work. She slowed down and I opened my door before we came to a full stop. “When you hear me start shooting, drive the truck up onto that lawn. Okay?”
    “Why?” she asked. “What are you doing?”
    “Just do it, Laura. Trust me.”
    I slammed the door shut and walked out into the middle of the road. I ran at the truck that bore down on my family. I ran as fast as I could with the gun pointed straight ahead. I could see the two thugs lower themselves down in their seats when they saw me point the gun at them. They were going to ram our truck, just as I expected.
    I took a couple shots at them. I could only hope Laura had enough time to drive onto the lawn. My shots blew through their windshield and caused flowers of cracks to erupt around the bullet holes. My goal wasn’t to hit them, although I wouldn't care if I had. I just needed to force them to look away from the road. I dove to the side as their truck passed, but I fired another shot at the back of the window to keep them bent down.
    The chubby one sped up, intent on ramming our truck as hard as he could, but Laura had done as I asked and pulled onto one of the lawns lining the road. They rammed the car that had been in front of us, a small sedan, and their truck skidded off to the left side.
    Laura backed up and turned around. She drove over to me and I climbed in with a smile. “See, babe. When are you going to learn to trust me?”
    “Since when are you an action hero?” she asked.
    “Since today. About four hours ago.”
    “Well stop it. It’s freaking me out.”
    We took a different route through the neighborhood to avoid the crash, but it didn’t take us long to get down to the street that William’s salvage yard was on. I checked my watch as we pulled up to the gate. It was 1:58; 43 minutes had passed since I'd left. We were cutting it a little too close, but we made it none-the-less.< Fstru>Th/font>
    “Look,” said Laura as she pointed down the street. There was a mob of people halfway down the block, past the entrance to the salvage yard.
    “Are those zombies?” I asked.
    “I think so.”
    “Okay.” I tried to stay calm. “Just pull up to the gate slowly. I’ll get out and see if I can get William's attention without having to honk the horn. We don’t want to draw their attention.”
    She pulled into the gravel driveway and stopped in front of the gate. I got out and climbed onto the hood to scan the yard. William was down by the dock, near the