by Steven Smith
"Morning guys. I hope you all got your beauty sleep, 'cause a few of you could sure use it."
"That means you, Riley," said a voice in the back, which brought a few quiet chuckles and an expletive from Riley.
"While you were dreaming of sugarplums, Christian and a couple of your compadres went out and had a chat with some of the customers on their way home. I'll let him tell you about it."
Christian stepped to the front. "We grabbed three different guys after they left the school and asked them why they went there. We were as persuasive as we needed to be to get truthful answers fast. The first one went to drink and look at the girls. The second one is in love with one of the girls there, who he dated before LO. The third is the father of one of the girls there, who was snatched when she was walking to visit a friend. Evidently, the women there are a combination of locals and travelers who have been grabbed by Elvin to staff his little den of desires. The local girls' fathers, brothers and boyfriends bring Elvin stuff every night in order to be able to see them and ensure their so-called safety. So, this puts a little different spin on things.
“Remember, we want to be careful not to hurt or endanger the girls if at all possible. We also want to take as many of the assholes alive as possible, without endangering ourselves or the mission. For this reason, Jim and I will each be leading an entry team, one going in each direction and meeting in the middle since the school seems to be designed in a square. As we clear each room, we will secure each bad guy by knocking them out if possible, zip tying their wrists and taping their mouths. As you watch us do it, you'll notice we strike the side or back of the head. That's the quickest way. If we don't get a clean shot or if they start to fight, we'll punch their ticket right there. We will secure any girls we find and move them to the gym until we're done and can sort out who's who. Tracy and Emily will be in the gym to help with them. Questions?"
Nobody spoke, so Jim stepped back to the front. "Alright everybody, time to go. Radio check, in order."
Each scout whispered his alpha designation in order.
"Any problems with night vision?" asked Jim.
No one spoke.
"Alright, guys, move out and let's do it right."
The scouts slipped quietly away toward their assigned positions, and within a couple of minutes started reporting they were on their spots. Within ten minutes, all had reported.
The next half hour moved slowly as each scout acquired and watched their assigned target. Jim, Christian and Mike watched from the hill and saw that most of the sentries seemed to be asleep. Such was the danger of many quiet nights and the feeling that one was the big dog on the block.
At the five-minute point, Christian began giving the scouts one-minute marks. As the designated time approached, he talked them down to the mark, finally announcing "Three, two, one, fire."
The shots, though nowhere close to sounding like one, were sufficiently compressed to please Jim, and Christian was about to count the follow-up shot when a single, flat report sounded, obvious in its singularity. Christian continued. "Follow-up, three, two, one, fire."
This time, the shots were more compressed and there was no lone report after the main group.
"Advise of any problems," said Christian into his mic. Getting no response, he said "Advance to your positions."
Jim, Christian and Mike walked slowly down the hill accompanied by Tracy and Emily. As they approached the bottom, Jim stopped them. "Wait a minute." Then he keyed his mic. "Slight change of plans, everybody. Main entry group position at basement door. Everybody else continue as planned."
Christian and Mike looked their question, which Jim answered. "I should have thought of this before. Where's the nicest place in a grade school?"
Both Christian and Mike shrugged.
"The office," said Tracy,
"And where is the office?"
"Right inside the main door."
Jim nodded. "Yep, and that's where Elvin will probably be. So, those doors will be locked and opening them could get loud. We'll go in through the basement and see if we can come up and take Elvin first."
He led them around the side of the building and down the terraced flower beds to the basement door, where the basement and main entry teams awaited them.
"Got the key," one of the scouts said, holding up a key on a ring.
"Good," Jim whispered into his mic. "New plan. Everybody hear me?"
All thumbs up told him they could.
"You," he pointed at the scout with the key, "open the door. Christian and I will take the entry team in and upstairs. Mike, stay at this door to interface inside and outside. Tracy and Emily, follow us in to keep the girls settled down if they wake up, but leave them in the cages till we get things secure. I don't want any of them to go crazy and start running around before it's safe. Door team, your job stays the same. Everybody got it?"
More thumbs up told him they did.
"Okay folks," he said, nodding to the scout with the key, "let's go."
The scout unlocked the door and pulled it open far enough for Jim and Christian to slip quickly and quietly through it and into the room, Jim going to the right and Christian to the left. Both squatted with their backs to the wall and surveyed the room. There were five cages, three to the right and two to the left. Each contained several girls, though they didn't take time to count how many. All of the girls appeared to be asleep.
Jim nodded to Christian and moved quickly to the base of the stairs. He had wondered about the resilience of the newer soft tactical boots he was wearing, but they sure were quieter, and a hell of a lot more comfortable that the old hard leather boots he had trained in forty years earlier. Moving into the stairwell so he could watch the stairs to the upper level, he saw Christian move to the door of the stairwell where he could cover both Jim and the scouts who were about to enter.
"Scout team move," whispered Christian, who watched the team quietly enter the room and form up behind him. Tracy, Emily and Brin followed, but knelt silently next to the cages, watching the girls inside. Christian gave Jim a thumbs-up and Jim advanced up the stairs to the main level.
The door to the gymnasium was at the top of the stairs to the left and two hallways ran away from the lobby at right angles, just as Brin had said. Both hallways had boxes stacked along the walls, making the passages narrow. The office was across the lobby to the right, and the metal framed glass doors and windows allowed him to see that no one was in the main area and no light was coming from the offices behind it. Feeling Christian's touch on his shoulder, he crossed the lobby and crouched by one of the doors to the office. Christian came up behind him and crouched beside him while the other scouts fanned out across the lobby, some training their rifles on the office and some covering the hallways and gym door. Jim motioned to two of the scouts covering the office, indicating that they should follow him and Christian. Both nodded.
Jim pulled on the door gently. It opened freely, making no sound, and Jim went through it followed by Christian and the two scouts, the second one controlling the closing of the door.
There were three doors down the short hallway behind the main counter, one on each side of the hall, which were open, and one at the end which was closed. Jim slowly approached the one on the right and found it to be a bathroom. Crossing to the opposite door, he looked in and saw two men sleeping, one on a couch and one on the floor. Motioning the two scouts to watch the men, he approached the door at the end of the hall.
Putting his hand on the door handle, he was surprised to find it give way to the slight pressure he put on it. Turning the lever till it stopped, he slowly pushed the door open, pausing at a squeak, then continuing until the door was wide enough for him to step through with Christian following him.
A man and a woman lay on a mattress on the floor, the woman laying on her side facing away from the man who lay on his back snoring loudly. Both were naked.
Christian moved to the side to cover them while Jim moved forward, picking up an AR-15
from the floor beside the man and handing it to Christian, who slung it over his shoulder.
Jim slung his own rifle and drew his .45. Kneeling down next to the mattress, he looked at the tattoo on the man's arm that said 'Elvin' on the blade of a bloody knife, then tapped the man three times on the forehead with the barrel of the heavy pistol. "Hey Elvin, wake up. There are people here to see you."
The man snorted and jerked. As he tried to raise himself off the mattress, Jim struck him full force under the chin with a palm heel strike, making his head snap back and knocking him out cold.
Christian stepped closer and looked down at the man. "Damn, Jim, you might have killed him."
Jim took off his assault pack and opened a side pocket. "I haven't hit anybody in a long time. Guess I was saving up." Pulling a coil of wire out of the pocket, he turned back toward the man.
Christian watched as Jim turned the man onto his stomach and zip tied his wrists behind his back.
Next, he turned the man over on his back. "Glad I have gloves on for this part," he said under his breath.
Unrolling the spool of wire, he wrapped one end tightly around Elvin's genitals, then rolled the man back onto his stomach. Pulling the wire between his legs, he pulled the length up Elvin's back and around his neck, winding it around itself to secure it. He then took a length of rope and tied one end around the wire at Elvin's waist level. A tug would make the wire bite into both of its points of attachment. Then he picked up the man's shirt and tore off a piece, wadded it up and stuffed it in Elvin's mouth, securing it with a piece of wire wrapped tightly around his head.
"I always meant to ask you where you picked up all this stuff," said Christian, lowering the muzzle of his rifle and walking over to look at the girl.
Jim stood up, holding the coil of wire in his hand. "A combination of Uncle Sam and a fertile mind, buddy."
He looked at Christian and thought for a moment. Christian would need to understand what he was doing, both for now and when he took over as leader of Stonemont. "We could just execute him for what he's done here, and that would solve the immediate problem. But there are more like him out there, and more who are thinking about being like him. They are a danger to us and every decent person out there. What we do here needs to send a message. It needs to be a story that will be told over and over, and will spread and grow with time."
He looked down at the man, then back at his nephew. "He's going to suffer, but it won't be anything like the suffering those girls and their families have gone through, or what others will go through if we don't deal harshly enough with this now."
Christian looked at his uncle and nodded. "I agree." He looked at the girl. "You want me to wake her up?"
Jim shook his head. "Let her sleep. She probably needs it. Wake up those two in the next room, tie them and gag them. Leave one scout here to guard them, then take the rest with you to clear the rest of the building. Tie and gag them and bring them back here as you go. Wait a minute."
Elvin was starting to stir and his eyes were opening. Jim knelt down, putting his face a couple of feet to the side of Elvin's and shining a flashlight under his chin, which he knew would look disorienting to his slowly wakening prisoner.
"Morning, sunshine," Jim said to the suddenly awake and frightened man. "You hear me? Good."
Barnes’ eyes were bulging with a mixture of anger and terror, and he started to try to get up until the zip ties and wire bit into him.
“Oh, I wouldn't do that." said Jim, "It could leave a mark. Just buck a little bit and you'll be able to feel what the wire's attached to."
He stood up, making Elvin strain to look up at him.
"It's going to be a big day for you, Elvin, so I knew you'd want to get an early start." He looked at Christian. "Get those other two up and we'll take them into the gym." He looked at the woman. “Wake her up and secure her, too. We'll figure out who she is as we go along.”
Christian woke the woman and secured her while she was still groggy. She didn't resist, making him think she might be used to this treatment. He led her into the next room and Jim leaned over and grabbed a handful of Elvin's hair. "Come on, princess, up you go. We're going to your throne room. You know, where everybody has so much fun. It will be the perfect place for you to receive your subjects."
Barnes struggled to get to his feet while trying to keep the wire from cutting into him. Seeing that Christian and the scouts had the two guards tied, gagged and ready to go, Jim gave a light tug on the wire. "Okay princess, let's walk real nice like you're a little debutant. If you try to resist, I'll give this wire a good pull and you really might become a princess. Let's go."
Christian and the scouts led off and Jim followed with Barnes. As they opened the gym door and entered, the stench from hours of housing minimally washed bodies hit them. They looked at each other, thinking the same thing, then Jim pushed Barnes toward the stage.
"I heard about these cool rings you have nailed to the stage, Elvin. What a great idea. It lets a person know right where they're supposed to be, doesn't it? Saves all that confusion of ‘should I be here, or should I be there?'" He walked a shaking Barnes to the ring at the middle of the stage. "Well, tonight, I'm the decider, as one of our former presidents once said, and I decide you will be right here."
He pulled Barnes backward against the stage and started to tie his wrists to the ring when he saw a pair of handcuffs on the stage. Picking them up, he saw the insides of the cuffs had been sawed a number of times to create sharp edges that would cut into a prisoner's wrists if they moved around, causing increasingly agonizing pain. "Gator cuffs, Elvin? You really are one sadistic bastard, aren't you? Well, let's see how they fit."
Barnes tried to pull away when he saw the cuffs, but a tug on the rope held him trembling but motionless and Jim soon had the cuffs on him and fastened to the iron ring.
Jim moved in front of Barnes, looking him in the eyes and patting him on the cheek. "How ya doin', Elvin? Not so good? You want to dance for us? No? Well, maybe later." He turned to Christian. "Okay, go get the rest of them."
Christian motioned for the scouts to follow him and led them back to the lobby from which the two hallways ran. Signaling for two scouts to remain and watch the hallway on the left, he led the rest of the squad down the hallway on the right.
Advancing slowly down the hall, they passed the boxes stacked head high bearing labels and logos for everything from food to toilet paper to sporting equipment. Obviously, Elvin and his crew had done some salvaging too, though much had probably been brought in by customers.
They found the first two rooms stacked with more boxes and bags of supplies. In the third room, two men were asleep on a gym mat with a woman between them. Christian motioned for three scouts to enter the room with him while the rest remained on guard in the hallway. Stun strikes were administered to each man's head, their hands were zip tied behind their backs and tape was placed over their mouths. When both had regained enough consciousness to follow the order to put their knees and foreheads on the ground, Christian shook the woman awake. She woke up slow and groggy, and it took her a minute before she understood that Christian was asking her if she wanted to get out of there. She nodded, found her shorts and halter-top on the floor and put them on, then went with the scouts taking the men back to the gym.
Jim was waiting when the scouts brought the first prisoners and the woman in, instructing them to place the men on their knees in front of Elvin and having the woman sit at a table off to the side. He had one scout stay to help him guard the prisoners and sent the other back to rejoin Christian and the squad. Every ten to fifteen minutes, scouts would bring another man or two in, sometimes accompanied by a woman.
A couple of hours passed, and over twenty men had been brought into the gymnasium, along with a slightly smaller number of women. The men were all positioned on their knees in front of Barnes and the women were clustered around tables at the back of the room. As Jim was expecting the next group to come in, he heard
a shot, followed by several shots in close succession. The scout went to the door and quickly ducked through it, returning a couple of minutes later with Christian and the rest of the scouts leading two bound men and dragging a third. They put the bound men on their knees with others and dragged the third one in front of the group while Christian walked over to Jim.
"All clear, boss. We might want to bring Max in after the sun comes up but I think we got them all."
"Good." Jim nodded toward the man they had dragged in. "Anybody but him hurt?"
"He's dead," replied Christian. "As to whether anybody is hurt, let me check." He lifted his shirt to reveal a dark wet stain on the side of his tan t-shirt just above the belt.
Jim lifted the t-shirt to check the wound. "Did I forget to tell you not to get shot?"
"Yeah, so it's your fault. Wait till aunt Kelly finds out you got me shot."
Jim examined the wound and found clean entry and exit wounds just a few inches apart. "It barely grazed you. Does this hurt?" Jim asked, poking the entry wound.
"Shit!" yelled Christian.
"Guess so. Have Mike take a look at it."
Christian pulled his shirt back down. "Man, you old timers are mean."
Jim gave Christian a pat on the back and a shake on his neck. "That wasn't mean, that was funny. It'll give you a funny story to tell your kids." He looked around the room. "Have Brin bring the girls upstairs and let them help guard these punks. That will do wonders for them. Have Emily get the girls' sizes, then send her back with a few scouts to get clothes and shoes for them. Then have Mike patch up your scratch, and have Tracy find some food in all those boxes and get the girls and the scouts something to eat. Don't worry about them," he nodded toward the prisoners. "They won't be hungry for very long."
By sundown, all the women had been clothed and fed, and Mike had treated several injuries among them. Brin had maintained a guard on the prisoners using the women who had been held there, and the clothes, food and dominion over the guards had brought about some of the mental and emotional resurrection Jim had hoped for. The women had dealt out a bit of retaliatory punishment to the prisoners, which he had not stopped.