I duck-walked to Karen and Peter and knelt close to them. Their faces were white and their eyes were squinty and drawn. “We’re going to have to split up. Pike and I will go out to the flanks. You guys move straight back across the field and try to get to the farm road. Do you understand that?”

They both said, “Yes.”

“Stay low and run as fast as you can just like you’ve seen people do on television. Try to keep the car between you and the four guys coming across the field. They’re coming slow because they know we have guns, so you’ll have time. Work your way to the feed shed and get behind it, and then work your way to the woods using the shed as cover.”

Peter nodded and Karen said, “Yes.”

“Don’t stop until you get to people. Then call the police.”

Karen wasn’t looking into my eyes. She was watching my mouth, getting every word. Hanging on by her fingernails.

Peter said, “I don’t want to run off. I want to do something.”

“You are doing something. You’re helping this woman and your son get to a safe place. That’s your job.”

Peter glanced down at the woman that he used to be married to and their son, and he nodded. “Sure. Okay.”

I turned to Toby. “Tobe, you think you can find the road through the woods?”

“Sure. You just keep going south.”

“Okay. You get to the road, which way to the airfield?”

“East.”

I looked back at Karen and then at Peter. “Do it.”

Karen said, “They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?”

“They’re going to try. But Joe and I won’t let them.”

Her eyes were big and darting. She held tight to Toby’s arm. “How can you stop them? There’re eight of them and we’re trapped here in the middle of nowhere with them.”

Pike chambered a round into his shotgun. “No,” he said. “They’re trapped with us.”

I gave Karen a little nod and then she crabbed away, holding on to Toby’s shirt with her right hand, crouched low and stumbling through the frozen weeds and the pumpkins. Peter followed close after them.

Pike said, “How many rounds you got?”

“Just what’s in the gun.”

He gave me disapproval.

“I know,” I said. “You can’t take me anywhere.”

He handed me the .357, butt first, then gave me a little leather pouch with three speed-loaders. Be prepared.

“You ready?”

“I’m ready.”

“Let’s do it.”

We fired six quick rounds at the four men coming across the field, then Joe broke left and I broke right, moving low and fast, and then he was behind me and gone.