“What’s that?” Bradley asked eagerly before he could finish.
“They put the zip ties on in the front. When the time comes, it’ll be a piece of cake gettin’ out of these.” It wasn’t much of a pep talk, but Ben hoped it gave them all some degree of optimism, and it was the only thing he could think of that might boost morale. Now all they had to do was wait for their captors to screw up again. They were bound to make a mistake that Ben could capitalize on. At least he hoped so.
“We’ll do whatever we need to,” Joel said.
“Yeah,” Sandy chimed in, followed by the others. Ben was glad to see they were all keeping level heads. He’d seen worse from grown men who found themselves in bad situations. As bad as things were at the moment, he felt confident about everyone’s state of mind. When this first went down, he was most concerned about Bradley and Emma, but they were stronger than he gave them credit for. Among the many emotions running through him, there was no denying the pride he felt for the kids and Sandy right now.
Before putting the bag over his head, Ben made sure to check his watch. When they reached their destination, he would check it again. He knew how fast they could travel over the trail, and it sounded like they were maintaining a consistent speed. He wouldn’t know the route, but he would have a rough idea of how far they’d traveled. It wasn’t much, but every little bit of information helped—anything that would give them an edge up.
The truck came to an abrupt stop, and then Ben heard the engine cut off. They had reached their destination, wherever that was. He was anxious to get the mask off and see what they were dealing with.
“Stay strong, and stay calm,” Ben whispered just before he heard vehicle doors squeak open and footsteps advance. Without warning, the tailgate dropped, making a loud metallic bang. Suddenly, the bag was unceremoniously pulled from his head, and he had to squint while his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. One by one, the others had theirs removed in the same manner. Some of the gang members headed off like they had better things to do, but a handful stuck around to oversee the unloading.
“Everybody out,” one of the guys shouted louder than necessary. Ben did his best to scoot to the edge of the truck bed and slid off the tailgate. He turned to help the kids unload and land on their feet. The zip ties made it tough, but they were the least of his concerns. He glanced around and was relieved to see the Blazer and the Jeep. Not that he thought they would leave them behind, but it was good to know they were close by.
As soon as he felt that no one was looking directly at him, he peeked at his watch. Only fifteen minutes had passed since they’d been put into the back of the truck. They hadn’t gone very far, maybe a few miles at most. That was also good news, because when they made their escape, they wouldn’t have to go far before reaching the trail that hopefully led to the highway.
Ben didn’t recognize their surroundings, but they were still in the woods, and judging by the higher elevation and the position of the sun, he guessed that they were off the main trail. They had most likely taken the fork leading east, like he suspected they would.
Their camp was straight ahead, and to his surprise, it looked somewhat well-organized. He checked back on the others and especially Joel. He wanted to make sure Joel was keeping his promise to keep his emotions in check for the time being.
“All right, single file, big to little,” the old man instructed. Ben didn’t like that Bradley and Emma would be taking the rear of the line; he wouldn’t be able to see them. Not that he could do anything for them, but he would feel better if he could’ve kept an eye on them.
“Follow him.” The old man pointed at one of his men standing by the gate that led into camp. Gunner and Sam whined as Ben and the others were marched by the truck with the cages. He was worried about what would become of the dogs, but he had to pay attention right now and needed to get the lay of the camp as much as possible.
A few hundred feet of chain-link fence formed a large square. Ben couldn’t see the back section of fence, but he could see the sides and of course the front as they walked through. There was a half-circle of sandbags stacked waist-high to the right of the entrance, which had a large closable gate section on wheels. He assumed they kept that closed and locked at night or whenever they needed to.
All the vehicles except the Blazer and the Jeep remained parked outside the fence. They had probably pulled them inside the compound to make unloading the supplies easier. The rest of the area inside the fence was sparingly filled with clusters of commercial shipping containers that appeared to be joined together in clusters of three or four.
Some of the structures had containers that formed a second level, and all of them had windows and doors cut into their sides. The containers were painted dark earth-tone colors and were draped with old camouflage netting to help disguise them from the air. He also noticed heavy-gauge electrical wire running between the makeshift homes. The wires were overhead and strung through the trees where extra support was needed. They all joined together and ran to the back of the compound. There, in the back, was the biggest structure of all, made of no fewer than five or six containers. Ben assumed that was the old man’s place.
Under better circumstances, Ben might have been impressed, but he couldn’t care less about their accomplishments. He knew that this compound had been here for quite some time and that they had been planning for this. The fact that all this was premeditated made it that much worse in his mind. These weren’t people doing bad things because they were trying to survive; these were people preying on the innocent by choice.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eventually, they were led to a small cluster of single storage containers at the back corner of the compound. These containers were different than the others in both size and the fact that Ben didn’t see any doors or windows in them, only the occasional small opening or series of holes drilled into the sides. There was no mistaking them for what they were: jail cells.
There were also several vehicles parked along the fence line in the farthest reaches of the compound. All of them had out-of-state tags. He swallowed hard as his suspicions were confirmed; they weren’t the first victims to fall into this trap. The vehicles were all he needed to erase any doubt that they had done this to many others. He wondered if some of them were still here. Seeing as how they were headed for the shipping containers that had been turned into jail cells, he figured he would find out soon enough.
Ben was filled with a renewed sense of rage about the situation they were in and the evil things these people were doing. As far as he was concerned, the old man and his gang were the bottom of the food chain, and if he could take them all out and burn this place to the ground, it wouldn’t be enough to right the wrong that was happening here.
As they neared the containers, Ben risked having one more look around before being locked away for God knew how long. In the center of the compound was a larger fire pit surrounded by chairs and logs for sitting. He took a quick count of the chairs. If the number of seats was any indication of the number of people living in this compound, then there weren’t many more than what had come out to take them hostage. Maybe ten, but no more than a dozen. That was what he hoped anyway. He wasn’t sure how much he trusted the chair-count method, but it was all he had to go on.
“In there.” One of their armed escorts threw the locking bar up on the first container and swung the door open. Ben noticed that none of the gang members called each other by name, and he wondered if that was done on purpose to limit what their hostages knew about them. The less the prisoners knew about their captors, the sooner they would break. It was a tactic Ben was familiar with, but he doubted these people were smart enough to utilize it. Still, he didn’t want to make the mistake of underestimating their abilities.
The others joined Ben inside the container. It smelled of mildew and rusted metal, but the most prominent odor was urine. As soon as they entered the dimly lit space, Bradley and Emma covered their faces with their hands. Alli
e pulled her shirt up over her nose to form a mask, and Joel and Sandy followed suit.
Once they were all inside, the man slammed the door with unnecessary force in an attempt to intimidate them further. “Don’t worry, you’ll be begging to come back here after you get done workin’ the food plot tomorrow.” The two escorts laughed as they sauntered off. Ben listened as their footsteps grew faint. As soon as he was sure they were far enough away, he peered out of one of the larger holes cut into the door. He watched as the two made their way back toward the front of the compound.
Among the other worries that occupied his mind, Ben wondered what would happen to the vehicles. There was no questioning the fact that they would be gone through and emptied of all supplies and weapons. The thought of these goons going through their stuff made his blood boil, but there was nothing they could do about that. Right now, they needed to find a way out of here.
“What about Sam and Gunner? What are they going to do with them?” Emma asked.
“I don’t know.” Ben didn’t have the heart to tell her what he was thinking, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie, either.
“I’m sure they’ll be okay, Em,” Allie said. “They’re probably just going to keep them locked up for now. If they were going to hurt them, they would’ve done it already.”
Emma looked satisfied with the answer, and Ben was glad. He was worried about the dogs, too, but at the moment, he was more concerned with Sandy’s and the kids’ safety. Though he agreed with Allie’s assessment of the dogs, he wasn’t sure how long they would be safe. The old man and his crew would soon discover the coolers full of venison, and with any luck, that would buy them a little time.
Based on the comments the two escorts had made, they had plans for Ben and the others tomorrow, and hopefully that meant they would be left alone for the rest of the day. Apparently they would be put to work tomorrow on a food plot unless Ben could figure a way out of here before then. And that was exactly what he planned on doing.
He checked his watch and found it hard to believe that it was almost noon. They’d lost track of time after heading off-road. If it wasn’t for these bandits, they would be well on their way by now, out of the mountains and headed for Ohio. But they weren’t. They were stuck in this dank, smelly cage. It was time to stop thinking about what should’ve been and come up with a plan to escape.
They had come too far to go out like this to a bunch of backwoods outlaws who had no right to interfere with their lives or their journey. One way or another, Ben would get them back to Durango. He made a promise to get them home safely, and he intended to keep that promise, no matter the cost.
* * *
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About the Author
Bruno Miller is the author of the Dark Road series. He’s a military vet who likes to spend his downtime hanging out with his wife and kids, or getting in some range time. He believes in being prepared for any situation.
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The Dark Road series:
Breakdown
Escape
Resistance
Fallout
Extraction
Reckoning
Deception
Cloverdale series:
Impact
Survival
Endurance
Dark Road (Book 7): Deception Page 13