Gary ‘Gearhead’'s Arc

Chapter 3 of 15

Gary spent the morning reinforcing the trailer door with scrap metal from the shed. The stranger still hadn't woken up, and the locked case sat exactly where he'd left it. He worked quietly, listening for engines. The Cadillac crew would come back eventually, but Gary didn't know when. The militia truck arrived just after noon, rolling through the open gate with six armed figures standing in the back. They wore matching vests and moved like they'd worked together a long time. The driver stayed behind the wheel while the others jumped down and formed a loose perimeter around the vehicle. One of them carried a wooden post with brass plates bolted to it and drove it into the ground near the fence line. Gary walked out to meet them, wrench still in his hand. The woman at the front pulled a folded cloth from her vest and shook it open. A symbol stitched in faded thread—the same one stamped on the locked case. She said the case belonged to Sherrie's people, and they wanted it back before the Cadillac crew returned. Gary asked what happened if he refused. She looked at the unfortified scrapyard, at the bare fence line and open gate, and said he'd find out when the Cadillac crew showed up with more than two men and a leather suitcase. Her people could wait here until then, or Gary could hand over the case and they'd be gone before anyone else arrived. Gary weighed it. The case had already brought armed strangers to his property twice, and neither group was going to stop coming. But giving it up to Sherrie's people meant the Cadillac crew would blame him for the loss, and keeping it meant fighting off whoever showed up next with no walls and no backup. He walked back to the trailer and pulled the case from under the tarp. When he handed it over, the woman nodded once and signaled her people back to the truck. They left the post standing in his yard—a marker that said Sherrie's organization had been here first. Gary watched the dust settle and realized he'd just chosen a side without meaning to. The next time someone came looking, they'd see that post and know exactly who to hold responsible.