The Switch by John Sullins Page B

back knocking them both to the ground.
     
    He shouted, “The Lord will
not forgive you for what you have done. You have killed those young men!”
     
    John struggled to get out
from under him but his right arm was pinned under his back. David ran to Samuel
and grabbed him by the neck and pulled him off.  The fat man struggled and
broke free of David’s grasp and lunged at John again. John was better prepared
this time and swung the butt of the rifle into the side of Samuel’s head dropping
him to his knees.
     
    By this time almost everyone
was screaming in fear. John took two steps back and sat on the ground. He
looked around at his grandkids, his daughters, and then to Barbara and Sandra
who were standing to his right with their arms around each other and a look of
horror on their faces.
     
    He then turned and looked at
the men lying in the field. His heart was pounding and his hands shaking. He
was struggling to regain his senses so he could think straight. His mind was
racing. He could not think clearly enough to evaluate the situation.
     
    He mumbled, “Options,
options, options, think John, think. This is serious.”
     
    David could see the bewildered
look on his father-in-law’s face. He helped John to his feet, looked him
directly in the face.
     
    “I believe we will be better
off if we separated from that family.”
     
    When John did not respond, David
said it again, “We need to get away from these people, we need to get moving
quickly, we need to get out of here now!”
     
    The first sensation John felt
was the blood flowing again from the cut on his face.
     
    He looked at Samuel and said,
“God forgive him for he knows not what he does.” He then turned to Barbara who
was now holding Samuel’s arm.
     
    “Good luck, I hope you make
it to Atlanta safely.” He picked up his bike to leave.
     
    Renee shouted at him, “You
can’t just leave these people here, they are helpless.”
     
    John turned around and calmly
walked back to Barbara, Sandra and Samuel.
     
    “Do you want to travel with
us or go it alone?”
     
    Samuel spoke with a broken
but angry tone, “You are a sinner. We won’t go anywhere with you.”
     
    With that, Lynn began cursing
at Samuel. Her words were almost unrecognizable, but they conveyed a message
that Samuel was an idiot, that John had saved their lives for the second time, and
that he did not appreciate what had been done for him.
     
    Renee stepped between Lynn
and Samuel and told her to calm down.
     
    John asked Barbara and Sandra,
“Do you agree with him, to go it alone?”
     
    Sandra looked to her mother
for an answer, Sandra said, “The Lord will provide for us, we will go on alone.”
     
    That was the last the
families saw of each other. As John’s family rode off, the Thomas family stood
by their bikes with their heads bowed, praying.
     
    David looked back, “They need
to pray, they are going to need help from someone.”

 
    Chapter 12
     
    They rode on until about noon
and stopped for lunch at an exit where there was another gas station to rummage
for whatever food they could find. As they sat on the sidewalk in front of the
store, resting their backs against the wall eating peanut butter and jelly on
stale bread, chips, jerky and warm soda, Lynn asked her dad, “What do you think
those guys would have done if you had not shot them?”
     
    John shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know for sure, but they were not running at us as members of the
Nashville welcome wagon.”
     
    David laughed, “I think they
were coming to invite us to the mall weenie roast.”
     
    “Lynn added. “That will be
the last weenie roast for at least three of em.”
     
    Renee was visibly upset by
the shootings and could not add to the jokes. “What is the world coming to?”
     
    John chewed the chips in his
mouth and swallowed, “Now it is getting clearer why we need to get to the lake.
We need to get away from people we don’t know. We need to get where we can