When the cupboard door was opened, Ranny noticed a few basic tools like screwdrivers and a hammer on the shelf below where the handgun was kept. There was also an open box with an assortment of nails and screws of various lengths. After he pocketed the big gun, Ranny picked through the nails and took 3 or 4 of the longest, then took the hammer.
"Alright, let's get you two lovebirds settled so I can think without having to watch you. Head for that back bedroom," Ranny ordered, and they returned once again to that end of the house. Once inside, he ordered Monty at the point of the gun to hammer a nail through the side of the old-style wooden window sash, securing it to the window frame so it couldn't be opened.
"That's going to damage the window, and it isn't necessary. We won't try to get away," Monty protested.
'Sure you won't. You really do think I'm stupid,' Ranny snorted. "Now, drive that nail in until the head is sunk into the wood so you can't dig it out. And don't let that hammer slip and break the glass, either - I can tell what you're thinking. You two are going to stay in this room."
So Monty carefully hammered the long nail in as ordered, knowing that there was no way he could dig it back out easily. It would probably mean chiseling away some of he wood around it, and then repairing the wooden frame. Maybe, he thought, this would be an excuse to actually replace all the old windows with more efficient modern ones, as he had been planning to do for years. As he was thinking that, he put out of his mind the possibility that his future might be totally under the control of this stranger instead.
The windows secured, Ranny scooped up the portable phone on one of the bedside tables, and backed to the doorway, the gun still pointing at the pair in the room.
"Now, get into bed and stay right there. I'm going to tie the door handle to something out in the hall, and if I hear the slightest sound, you'll see what an M-16 can do through a wood door. I'm going to the kitchen to get something to eat and make me some coffee. Then I'm going to look at the map and figure out the best way south, and how I can get out of this godforsaken place."
He waved the gun at them, indicating that they get into bed, and they complied. Somewhat stiffly, they lowered their bodies onto the bed on top of the comforter cover, Monty on one side and Laura on the other, neither looking at the other and with a lot of space between them. Both had thought fleetingly at various times since meeting about being in bed together, but this had never been the scene they had pictured.