Willa stopped at once. The men wore work boots and hoodies. The one in the Falcons jacket raised a pistol and pointed it at Louis. The others spread across the lane, cutting off the exit.
“Don’t move,” the gunman said. “Put down the bags. Cash, wallets, jewelry. Everything.”
Willa’s voice shook. “Louis.”
Louis was already drawing the M1911 from beneath his jacket with his free hand. He kept his weight on the cane and aimed at the gunman.
The man stared at the pistol in Louis’s hand. “Shit.”
No one fired yet. The gunman kept his weapon on Louis. One of the other men reached toward his waistband, then stopped when Louis shifted the M1911 toward him.
“Hands where I can see them,” Louis said.
“Drop the gun,” the first man said. “Don’t be dumb.”
Louis held his aim. “Did he tell you who we are?” He pointed his chin toward the security guard.
The gunman kept his eyes on Louis’s M1911. “Don’t care.”
“Then you should,” Louis said. “Because you have no idea what kind of money you’re missing.”
The man’s mouth tightened. Willa stood motionless beside Louis. He kept his eyes on the gunman. He could not risk looking at her.
One of the other men said, “What he talking about?”
“Shut up.” The gunman shifted his weight onto his front foot. “I’ll shoot both of y’all and take it anyway. Don’t make me do more than I gotta.”
“You can.” Louis kept the M1911 trained on him. “And then you will be hunted down, your entire family, your entire neighborhood, everyone you know. And they will die.”
The gunman glanced toward the van behind him, then back at Louis. “Bullshit.”
Louis said, “Fuck around and find out.”
The gunman’s eyes moved from Louis to Willa and back again. Behind him, the guard looked from Louis to the gunman.
Louis continued before anyone else could speak.
“Who’s your leader?” he said.
“What?”
“Who do you take orders from? Who told you to come here?”
“You ain’t in no position to be asking shit.”
“Am I?” Louis kept the pistol steady. “Because it looks to me like you’re trying to rob the wrong people.”
The gunman looked over his shoulder at the others, then back at Louis. His pistol moved, then steadied.
“Put it on the ground,” he said. “Now.”
Louis did not lower the pistol. “You drop yours. First.”
“That ain’t happening.”
“Then we stand here until one of us gets bored enough to make a mistake.”
The gunman looked Louis over. “You ain’t from around here.”
“Does it matter?” Louis asked.
“Yeah, it does.” The gunman edged forward. “You don’t know how shit work down here.”
“How shit work down here, then?” Louis asked, copying his cadence.
“We survive. And you’re about to stop doing that.”
“Did you watch the news today?” Louis asked. “The church that got bombed?”
“Yeah.”
“You kill me today. I will make sure the next bomb drops on your mother’s house.”
The gunman gave a short laugh. “You don’t scare me, boy.”
“You don’t believe that?” Louis smiled. “Then why haven’t you shot me yet?”
The gunman watched Louis for several seconds. His eyes moved to Willa, then to the M1911. He looked toward the road behind Louis. A truck passed. The gunman lowered his pistol slightly.
“Man, I ain’t got time for this shit today.”
“Who’s your leader?” Louis asked again.
The gunman glanced down, then back at Louis. “You think I’m giving you a name? You crazy.”
“Tell him we can do business,” Louis said. “You got me?”
The gunman waited before answering. “You paying?”
“Maybe. Depends on whether I like the deal.” Louis kept looking at him and spoke more slowly. “You go back. Tell your boss there’s a situation here. A big one. Tell him Louis Collins wants to talk. He’ll know what to do. Understand?”
The gunman nodded once.
“Good. Now let’s all step back slowly. Nice and easy. No one does anything stupid.” Louis lowered the M1911 without holstering it.
Both sides backed away. The gunman moved toward the van without turning away from Louis. The others followed. The security guard glanced at the bags in Willa’s hands, then went with them. They climbed into the van one by one. The engine started, and the van backed out of the lane.
“That was intense,” Louis said.
Willa turned on him. “Are you insane?”
“Probably.”
She stared at him, furious. “I thought we were going to die.”
“Me too. For a minute there.” He slipped the M1911 back beneath his jacket. “But it worked.”
“Maybe.” Her hand still shook when she adjusted her glasses. “Or maybe they’re coming back with more guns.”
“Then we’ll deal with that too. Come on, I could use some fried chicken.”
Willa nodded, but the color had not returned to her face. They walked the rest of the way to the chicken place without speaking.
Before Louis opened the door, she caught his sleeve. “Don’t use euros in there.”
“I know.”
They joined the line at the counter. The man ahead of them was still ordering.
“I’ll have two number nines, a number six with extra dip, two number sevens, a number four with cheese, and a diet cola.”
The cashier stared at him. “Anything else?”
The man studied the menu again. Louis rolled his eyes.
Willa leaned closer. “Why did you tell them your real name?”
“Because they weren’t going to believe threats from Jack Wilson.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” Louis kept his voice low. “If they work for someone important, the name gets passed up. We need a phone, weapons, and a way out of Dixie. People like that might know where to get all three.”
“What if they sell you to Hargrove?”
“Then we’ll know I made a bad call.”
Willa stared at him. “That’s your answer?”
“Do you have a better idea? Give them everything we had?” He raised his voice slightly.
Willa raised her voice too. “No, but you didn’t have to tell them your name. They were about to leave!”
Louis met her eyes. “If I hadn’t been willing to take a chance, I’d still be Hargrove’s hostage.”
Willa held his gaze for a moment, then looked away. “Maybe. That doesn’t mean every chance is worth taking.”
The man ahead of them finally finished ordering and stepped away from the counter.
Louis and Willa moved forward. She looked up at the menu. “Every meal on there has more than a thousand calories.”
“Five number nines.” Louis ignored her.
The cashier tapped the order into the register.
“For here or to go?”
“To go.”
“Name?”
“Mary,” Willa said before Louis could answer. She took out the Dixie dollars and paid.
They moved to the pickup area. A moment later, the man who had been ahead of them collected a tray piled with boxes of chicken, fries, and drinks. The food rose from it like a small hill.
Louis watched the man carry the overloaded tray away. “So much for international sanctions.”
“Georgia inherited plenty of chicken farms, processing plants, and soda factories from the old United States,” Willa said. “Most of them survived. Keeping this stuff running isn’t that hard.”
“Glad they’ve got their priorities straight.” Louis sighed. “Hard to believe we used to be part of the same country.”
“I’m glad New England got out,” Willa said. “I’ve never felt like I had anything in common with people down here.”
Louis looked at her. “What do New Englanders think of the Dominion?”
Willa glanced at him. “A high-tech police state with free healthcare, good drugs, and endless entertainment.”
Louis smiled. “At least we’re fun.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s how you get people to put up with the police state.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with the police state?”
She looked him up and down. “Nothing, I guess, when your last name is Collins.”
“Right.” He shrugged. “I forgot to check my privilege.”
She nodded solemnly. “Your positionality as the hereditary beneficiary of a militarized techno-state has clearly impaired your ability to interrogate the structural violence that sustains your lifestyle.”
Louis thought of the New England broadcast after his dance with Angelique, all that talk about inherited power. He laughed. “Do all New Englanders talk like that?”
Willa answered in a slow Southern drawl. “Why, I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talkin’ about, darlin’.”
“Mary!” the cashier called.
Willa raised a hand. “That’d be me.”
“God bless.”
“Thank you.”
They collected the order. Willa took the drink carrier, while Louis kept his cane in one hand and carried the bulging takeout bags in the other. When they stepped outside, Louis spotted the same white work van at the far end of the parking lot. It pulled away the moment they came through the door and accelerated toward the road.
“I have a bad feeling about this.” Willa watched the van disappear onto the road.
“So do I. Let’s get back.”
They walked back to the motel without speaking. Louis rapped twice on the motel door with the curved handle of his cane. The lock clicked back at once. Angelique opened the door a few inches and looked past them into the lot. Her hair was still damp at the ends, leaving dark patches on the shoulders of her T-shirt.
“Everything alright?”
“Alive,” Louis said as he came through the door. “We got what we needed.”
They went in. Gladice looked up from the bed nearest the door. Donya straightened in her chair. Willa set the clothing bags by the wall and placed the drink carrier on the table.
“Food,” Louis said, setting the takeout bags on the table. “Fried chicken, fries and coke. Let’s eat before it turns cold.”
Angelique closed and locked the door behind them. She slid the chain into place.
Louis kept one hand on the back of the chair for a moment. Willa adjusted her glasses and closed her eyes.
Gladice glanced at Willa’s glasses. “Those look good on you.”
Willa looked at Gladice. “You’re a lot sweeter-looking than the blur I had before.”
“Don’t let the face fool you.” Gladice snorted. She turned to Louis. “You look like you’ve seen things.”
“I have,” Louis said. “I’ll tell you after I eat.”
“Yes! I am starving.” Donya came over and opened one of the bags. “Thank you. Thank you. I prayed for you.”
“Good, it worked.” Louis sat down at the table and pulled a box of fried chicken from one of the bags. The box was still hot. It smelled of grease, pepper, and fried breading. Only then did he realize how hungry he was.
Willa sat on the edge of the far bed. Her shoulders were still raised. Gladice took the chair opposite Louis. Angelique listened at the door once more, then came to the table.
“What happened?”
“We got robbed.” Louis began pulling meat from a chicken leg. “And then I talked them down.”
Donya paused with a half-eaten fry between her fingers. “You got robbed? Are you okay?”
“We are okay.” He looked at Angelique. “It was four guys and a security guard. I convinced them to take a message to their boss.”
Angelique sat down. “What message?”
“That I want to talk.” He took a bite of chicken. The skin crunched under his teeth. Hot grease burned the roof of his mouth. “That I have money. And that I would rather do business than leave more bodies.”
Willa opened a box. “It was smarter than it sounds.”
“I believe you.” Angelique took a piece of chicken and ate quickly, barely looking up.
“Maybe they’ll come back,” Donya said. “Maybe they will bring more guns.”
“Then we will be ready.” Louis took a sip of Coke. It was sweet. And he liked it. “Now eat. Everyone.”
Gladice nodded and began taking food from another box. For several minutes, no one spoke. Paper crinkled as they ate, and grease stained the napkins. They dropped the bones into an empty chicken box. Within minutes, most of the food was gone. Gladice leaned back in the chair and wiped her hands with a napkin.
“What now?” she asked.
“I need to let you know something first,” Willa said.
They all looked at her.
“Donya and I are compromised,” she said. “Our faces are on the news. The church bombing. So we have to make the worst assumptions. That anyone in this town could recognize us if we go out again.”
Donya frowned. “I do not like the sound of that.”
“I guess the two of us have to stay inside for now.” Willa looked at Louis and Angelique, then at Gladice. “You three are less likely to be recognized immediately, given those Dixies couldn’t watch international news even if they wanted to. But still, you should avoid cameras.”
“Alright.” Angelique glanced at Louis. “So what’s the plan?”
“First we need a phone.” Louis took a sip of Coke. “Like I said. I have to contact my father. He needs to know we are alive and where we are. And then he can send help.”
“Can he send help?” Donya asked.
“He will,” Louis said. “Another thing we need is a new car. The van has church stickers. I think we should get rid of it.”
Gladice nodded. “Good idea. How?”
“We can either destroy it or repaint it.” Louis shrugged.
“We can also just leave it at a mall and walk away,” said Angelique.
“Fine. Whatever works.”
“We need a laptop too,” Willa said.
Louis looked at her. “Why? A phone should be enough to call my father.”
“A phone is enough to tell him we’re alive. It’s not enough to authenticate you, send our location securely, or make sure the person answering is really one of his people.” She folded her arms. “I need a machine I can actually work with.”
“A Dominion model?”
“If we can find one. Then I can connect directly to the satellite network instead of trusting anything Dixie controls.”
Louis looked around the table. “Where are we supposed to find one here?”
Willa folded her arms and leaned back. “We need to find someone who imports foreign stuff.”
Gladice frowned. “You think that will be easy?”
“I don’t think anything is easy here.” Willa glanced at the others. “But we don’t have much of a choice.”
“Okay.” Angelique looked at Louis. “So we need three things.”
“A phone, a car, and a laptop.” He nodded. “We also need more guns. We only have one pistol and one knife. And we need fake IDs if we’re going to move through any checkpoints.”
Donya pressed both hands to her cheeks. “That’s a lot.”
“It is. So one at a time. Let’s start with the van. I don’t want anyone tracing it to the motel.”
“Where can we dump it?” Gladice asked.
“The old downtown,” Louis said. “I heard it’s a city of its own built inside the crater. There could be a black market there too.”
“Okay. Let me do that.” Gladice stood up. “I will drive it there and then take a cab back.”
“I am going with you, Gladie.” Louis said.
“I should come too,” Angelique said.
Louis looked at her. “No. Stay here with Willa and Donya. They can’t risk going outside. I want someone here who can protect them.”
Angelique held his gaze for a moment, then nodded.
Louis looked at Willa and Donya. “Take some rest.” He stood up from the chair. His knee gave a dull ache as soon as he put weight on it. “I will also keep an eye out for phones or laptops on the way.”
“Alright,” Willa said. “But be careful.”
“I will be.”
“Let’s go.” Gladice walked toward the door.
“Thank you, ladies.” Louis picked up the cane. “We will try to be back before dark.”
“Please be safe,” Donya said.
Louis picked up one of the shopping bags, and tipped the clothes onto the mattress. He dropped several thick bundles of euros into the empty bag. Gladice opened the door. He followed her out and closed it behind them.
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