Read Online 299 Days VIII: The War by Glen Tate - Free Book Online

even come close to complying with the law
     for a deed, but he wanted to do it so that he and Chloe would, symbolically at least,
     make it official that they had given the house away. Todd and the officer quickly
     scribbled a two-sentence deed and Todd took it to Chloe in the Range Rover to sign.
     She was surprised, too, but signed it anyway. The house was no longer hers in her
     mind.
    Todd read the deed to see the officer’s name hand printed above the signature. “Christopher
     Willden” it said.
    “Christopher or Chris?” Todd asked him. “I might as well know the name of the guy
     who’s getting everything I own.”
    “Chris,” Willden said. He felt bad that he was stripping this guy of everything that
     he owned, but he had to take care of his family and his fellow officers guarding the
     subdivision. It was just business, he thought.
    “Heading back,” Willden said into his radio, and then said to Todd, “Let’s start getting
     you guys where you need to go.” Those words sounded so sweet to Todd’s ears that he
     almost began to cry.
    Willden got back on the Range Rover’s rear bumper and they drove back to the guard
     station.
    “How many of you guys are coming with us?” Todd asked two of the other officers. They
     pointed to Willden who pointed at himself and said, “Just me.”
    “Oh,” Todd said disappointedly. Then he realized that the other two needed to stay
     at the subdivision to guard it.
    “What car are you going to take?” he asked Willden.
    “I’m not,” Willden said. “Waste of gas.”
    “So how are you getting back here?” Todd asked.
    Willden pulled out his badge and said, “I can get rides pretty easily.”
    They discussed the logistics. Willden would drive the Range Rover and Todd would be
     in the front seat. Chloe would sit in the back with the girls; she was very slender
     so she could fit back there much better than Todd, who was fit, but an average sized
     man. Willden sitting in the driver’s seat would allow him to flash his badge at the
     roadblocks.
    Todd was still nervous about the AK-47 being in the Range Rover. He asked Willden,
     “How do I handle the gun you got me?”
    “I’ll show you how to shoot it,” Willden said.
    “No,” Todd said, “I mean how do we announce to Chloe and the girls that it’s in the
     car?”
    Willden was puzzled. He felt sorry for Todd for being such a wuss.
    “I dunno,” Willden said, trying to stay polite. “You have it in the passenger seat
     so you can use it for threats on that side of the vehicle.”
    “What?” Todd said, “Me? Shoot a gun?”
    “Yes,” Willden said, this time unable to hide his displeasure for Todd. “That’s what
     you do when people are shooting at you. You shoot back.”
    “I don’t think I should be doing that,” Todd said. “It seems dangerous.”
    Willden called over for Chloe who got out of the Range Rover and came over.
    “You okay with riding in the front and shooting that thing?” he asked, pointing toward
     the AK-47.
    “Sure,” she said. “Why isn’t Todd doing it?”
    “I will do it,” Todd said, horrified that his wife was being more of a man than he
     was. “I’ll ride shotgun, or ‘AK’ if that’s what you call these things.”
    “Problem solved,” Willden said, somewhat sarcastically. Rich people are so high maintenance,
     he thought.
    They went over the plan one more time, but they had it down by now.
    “We’ll go at sunrise,” Willden said. “That’ll be in an hour or so. You didn’t want
     to be out in this stuff in the dark,” he said, wondering why these nice, but naïve
     rich people had been planning to leave before light.
    “Stretch your legs while you can,” Willden said. The girls were getting restless being
     in the Range Rover for so long, thinking they were going on a big trip to a cabin,
     and then not going.
    “Hey, girls,” one of the other officers said, “you want to see all about being a real
     police officer?” The