A heavy blow to his back beat Lamar into the road and popped the bones in his back with the unaccustomed weight. For a second, he could not remember who he was and where he was, yet the knowledge returned fast enough for him to place a restraining hand on the man he suspected of the abduction of Sylvia.
Looking past the still form of the man, he searched for the cars that had been on their way to the house. Their lights scattered across the road roughly half a mile away from the driveway. He could tell a few of the cars had run into the ditch and hit a tree. There was nothing else he could see.
“We have to leave now.”
Lamar looked at the smaller of the two prisoners who had faced the sheriff and talked with a note of hysteria. He rose to his knees while keeping a hand on the prisoner to make him remain lying on the road.
“A minute ago, you were trying to get the women to walk to the house,” Lamar observed neutrally. “Now you want to run away.”
“Makes a man think he knows what’s going on,” Parker said as he stood and trained his gun on the driver.
“We’re lucky,” the smaller man persisted. “If we stay here any longer, they will come to us and I promise you they will not be nice.”
The man sounded like a coward. “I meet people like you all the time.” Lamar pulled the man to his feet. “They commit a crime then cry like a baby when caught, say they did not mean to do it. Most of them are lying like a pack of dogs, just the same old whine over and over.”
“I say we make them walk to the house,” Parker suggested, with a malicious tone in his voice.
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Lamar looked at the UFO and saw small bodies moving around the base of the ship. What would happen if they went to the house? From the state of the young woman, he suspected the people in the house had endured hell and were about to endure a lot more trouble. He had to help them out of human allegiance, if for no other reason. He could not stand by and watch the aliens do what they will with the people.
“What will the aliens do to them?” Lamar gestured at the house with his gun.
“Take them,” the man answered without looking at the house.
“You son of a bitch,” Parker exclaimed. “You were going to let them take Sylvia and this girl.”
The man said nothing, watching Lamar with his hands to his side.
“Send him to the house,” Parker repeated, this time emphasizing his point by prodding the driver with his gun.
“We should get out of here,” Sylvia spoke as she looked at the alien ship. She could see aliens making their way across the lawn in their direction.
If they left in the truck, then Lamar could not tolerate the type of self-loathing he would feel. He could not face himself or any other person in town. “Sylvia. Take the girl and use the truck. Get the hell out of here. Hide her so these people cannot find her.” He glanced quickly at Parker, then returned his stare to the prisoner. “You can go too, if that is what you want. My two new friends and I are going to stay for a while. Maybe they can repair the damage they have caused here.”
“You can’t make us stay,” the smaller man stepped towards Lamar threateningly.
Lamar remembered the body of his deputy and acted without remorse. As quickly as the small man had moved, he still fell faster to the ground, clutching his leg when Lamar shot him in the knee. He turned to the bigger man and fired a similar shot.
“Aw Christ,” Parker moaned.
“Get out of here now, Sylvia,” Lamar barked in his official voice, knowing he had stepped beyond the law, he suspected the two men writhing on the ground had lost all respect for any law other than their own a long time ago. “You too Parker.”
He watched them run to the truck and climb into the cab. As the truck made a tight turn on the road, then sped away, Lamar looked at the men lying on the ground. Considering what he would do with them.
With a nod of satisfaction, he walked to the woods and took cover behind a tree, wondering how long it would take the aliens to get to the wounded men.