The Schrödinger Enigma by Greg Krojac

Author:Greg Krojac [Krojac, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

DAY SIXTEEN

9 May

The roar of the motorcycles cut through the silence of the night, heralding their arrival at the Amish farm like a fanfare for the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Jacob leaped out of bed and grabbed his hunting shotgun, which was stashed away in the kitchen. Visitors were normally welcomed, but nobody who comes calling unannounced at two o’clock in the morning has good intentions. Not these days.

He opened the door to find four Harley Davidson motorcycles lined up facing the door of the house, their exhausts belching smoke like war-horses exhaling warm breath on a cold winter’s day. Astride the bikes, which had been stolen from a showroom in Indianapolis the previous day, sat four figures, all dressed black leather motorcycle gear. They looked fearsome, and the pump action shotguns they held increased that emotion. Jacob stood his ground.

“What do you gentlemen want at this time of the morning?”

The group’s leader answered.

“Amish ain’t ya? A man of religion?”

Jacob responded, not taking his eye off the man, his hunting rifle pointing at the motorcyclist’s chest.

“That I am, praise the Lord. What about it?”

“Well, me and my friends, we’re mighty pissed at your god[a25]. We wanna know why he saw fit to send this mighty plague to kill our families. You have a family, Mister Amish man? I had a family, I had a wife, Carol. I had a daughter, Lynette. I had my best friend, Nolan. Now I ain’t got nothing. ‘Cept my boy and my new friends here, ‘course.”

Triggs failed to mention that Nolan hadn’t died from the plague but that he himself had killed him. And Nolan would never have called Triggs his best friend – as far as he had been concerned, they were just two guys doing a shitty job that nobody else wanted to do. Jacob wasn’t interested in Triggs’s sob story.

“We’ve all lost families and friends, sir. And I’ll thank you kindly to get off my land and go back to whence you came.”

The biker mimicked the farmer.

“Go back to whence I came? Well ain’t you the fancy Dan, Mister Amish man.”

Jacob repeated his demand.

“Get off my land.”

“Or what old man?”

“Or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

The commotion outside had woken Jason, Enak and Sitara, who had been sleeping in the barn. They peeked through a gap in the wood cladding and saw Jacob facing off against four bikers. Jason whispered to Enak,

“Fetch the guns from the car. Old man Jacob’s got unwanted company.”

Enak took the shotgun and the semi-automatic rifle from the back seat of the vehicle and joined Jason.

Nobody noticed as one of the motorcyclists slipped around the back of the house and entered by the back door. All eyes were on the motorbike group’s leader and the Amish farmer. Triggs laughed.

“You’re a man of God, old man. You’re Amish. It’s against your religion to hurt another human being. Y’all ain’t gonna hurt me.”

The man was right. Jacob used his gun for hunting. He didn’t know if he could shoot another human being.

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