food.
The soldier shined his light behind Jim’s seat and saw the long duffle bag along with his backpack. “Do you have any weapons on you, sir?”
“No.”
“It looks like you’ve got a rifle bag in there.”
“We’re on our way to Phoenix to visit my sister and stay there ‘till this thing gets sorted out. Why is the road blocked?”
The soldier pulled his radio up. “We’ll need the canine unit out here.”
The guy behind them laid on the horn again with a few short bursts. He leaned out his window. “Hey, what’s the hold up?”
The lead soldier motioned to his partner. “Take care of that, will you?”
He nodded and walked over to the car. “Sir, I’m gonna need you to calm down and remain in your vehicle.”
The man was getting upset. “We’re trying to get through here, what’s going on?”
The soldier kept his rifle in his hands and again told him to remain calm and stay in his vehicle. The man finally pulled himself back through the window inside the car.
Jim saw the canine unit heading towards him about ten cars ahead of them. Coyle had beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. The closer the dogs moved to the truck, the more restless Tigs became.
The dogs passed the green Mazda ahead, and they stopped abruptly and started barking at the car. The soldier handling him had to pull him back. The dog kept running towards the trunk. The lead soldier around Jim’s truck moved towards the canine’s barks.
A soldier had his rifle aimed at the driver of the Mazda and the man had his hands up in the air. The Mazda was surrounded now, with the soldiers pointing their rifles at the car and the dog going insane. Jim could hear shouts of, “What’s in the trunk? What’s in the trunk?”
The man in the driver seat kept screaming, “I don’t know! I don’t know! I haven’t done anything.”
Jim glanced in the rearview mirror and saw some cars trying to turn around, but with all of them being funneled into one lane, there was too much congestion for them to move anywhere.
The soldiers pulled the man out of the car and slammed him on the ground. They cuffed his arms behind his hands and pushed his face into the asphalt. One of the soldiers slowly approached the back of the truck. He kept his rifle up. He motioned for the soldier over by the driver’s door to pop the hatch.
A click signaled the trunk’s lock popping open. The soldier reached out his gloved hand just above the California license plate and slowly lifted it up. There were four packs of C-4 explosives lining the insides of the trunk.
The soldier took off at a sprint, waving his arms for everyone to get back. A few of the people in their cars got out and ran while others threw their cars in reverse. The Cadillac in front of Jim peeled out backwards and slammed right into his truck grill. The hood folded upwards and bits of glass from the smashed headlights scattered on the pavement.
The airbags went off, and Tigs’ cage rolled onto the floorboard. Jim’s head flew back onto the headrest and Coyle’s arm flew back and hit the rear window with a loud crack.
A woman jumped out of her car and ran screaming past them, right into the chaos of the traffic behind them. A van slammed into her, and blood sprayed a parked car’s windshield. Car horns were honked in between the shouts of, “BOMB! BOMB! BOMB!”
Jim glanced over to the median, which had a wall four feet high. Getting over that thing was their best chance. Jim unbuckled his seatbelt and did the same for Coyle, who was still clutching his left arm. “Grab what you can and follow me.”
Jim grabbed Tigs’ cage, the duffel bag, and his pack. The shouts from soldiers trying to organize the chaos ended with gunfire being sprayed into the air.
The commanding officer rushed out of the security post and headed over to the barricade.
“Sergeant, what do we have?”