by Glenn Ball
After hanging up with the general Valencia asked the officer sarcastically if it would be alright if he finished looking around.
“Of course, you go right ahead. You know you’re house better….” Adam had already stepped out the back door before the officer finished his sentence.
Following Adam out the back door the officer watched him trace some tracks where two men had approached the house from the woods apparently following the tracks of a third man into the house. Valencia had stopped and glancing toward the house had his attention arrested by something on the roof.
Without a word Adam was rushing past the officer and back into the house. The officer tried to keep up with him as he ran up the stairs to the closet that let into the attic.
By the time he stumbled through the darkness of the closet and caught up with him Adam was already putting the pieces together. There were two backpacks missing along with other survival items.
The attic had a musty damp odor that offended the officer’s nostrils. As he stepped through the door the officer saw Adam looking up through a large hole in the roof that had been left by the removal of the skylight. “My wife escaped, and she was not alone,” he said while still staring through the roof with a studious eye.
“How could you possibly know all that?” His voice cracked as the words of doubt formed on his lips. Feeling inept and juvenile he tried to justify his question. “I mean you’ve only been up here ten seconds and….”
“Yes, but I know my house and I know my wife…. We keep two backpacks up here for extended hikes in the forest and mountain climbing excursions. Both packs are missing. She is a skilled climber and a survival expert. Her natural course of action would be to take to the woods. Apparently, she had been trapped up here in the attic hiding out from whoever these guys were and decided she had better take her chances escaping through the roof. Being a skilled climber, it did not prove too difficult for her, but she would not have taken two backpacks if she were alone.
“Look here; there is just enough dust and grime to make out tracks…two sets.” Although the prints were a jumbled mess there were two distinct pairs of shoeprints: one a lady’s, the other’s that of a man.
Now having a fix on what to look for Adam again charged down the stairs and busted outside. Directly beneath the hole in the roof he found Susanna’s tracks along with those of the man that accompanied her. Following them out to the woods he also discovered three more sets of footprints that appeared to be following Perle’s and her companion’s.
He stopped at the edge of the woods and looked up into the deep dark hills. He at least had some idea of where Susanna had gone. But he knew how enormous the national forest was into which she had escaped. Could there be any hope of finding her in there? And what if her pursuers had already succeeded in finding and capturing her? At least she was not alone; but who was the man with her?
CHAPTER 30
Traps
Her breath came hard, panic driving blood through her flushed face as she ran. Her resolve to escape a life of sexual victimhood grew with each firmly planted step. The Santa Muerte could suck off. She was not a little girl anymore, and she was not a monster. She was going to escape!
Her ankles ached as she charged through the thick woods. Twigs slashed her skin like angry fingernails, branches reached out as if to grab her. Once a low-lying oak branch throttled her causing her legs to fly out from under her; she landed on her back. She got right back up and continued running, hearing the fury of footsteps on her trail. Her throat was bruised, her skin raw.
For an agonizing, seemingly unending stretch of time she fought the trees with their clutchy wooden fingers and their trippy, knobby roots. She kicked the dirt mounds that seemed intent on pulling her down. She strangled on air that refused to enter her lungs. And all the while she tried to ignore the menace that was growing ever closer behind her.
What would Buck do to her if he caught her? It was obvious there was no gentleman in him. He would rape her; but would he stop there? He had given her the creeps from the very first.
The terror she had often felt in Antonio’s presence jumped up on the inside of her. Torture had never been out of the question for him. Even in their most beautiful moments together there had always been an underlying dread of where the “date” might go should she somehow displease him. This Buck somehow reminded her of that aspect of Antonio’s personality. Buck was all the creep and none of the charm.
Cold sweat was pouring off of her as she at length caught sight of the highway. It was not far ahead. But the crashing behind her was getting louder. Buck was not far behind now.
Crossing over a ditch she had to stop to push a branch out of the way. The thumping behind her made her turn her head. Her eyes met Buck’s cold, dark glare. A shiver shot through her entire body. She could almost feel his hot breath he was so close.
More determined than ever she forced her throbbing legs to carry her out into the open along the stretch of highway just as a car was approaching. Buck was only a few strides behind. She waved the car down, nearly running directly in front of it. There was a screech as the tires skidded to a stop.
Buck was following hard, unrelenting. But before he could reach the car, she had jumped into the passenger seat through the door the man had thrown open for her. He had immediately sized up her danger and had decided to rescue first, ask questions later.
As soon as she had cleared the door, he punched the pedal causing the door to slam shut. At the same instant he triggered the electric locks a fraction of a second before Buck had reached the door handle. Through the side mirror Alicia could see Buck holding his hand in pain as he stood glaring after them. His threatening image shrank rapidly in the mirror.
As Alicia swung her eyes to her rescuer to thank him her words caught in her throat. She had caught a glimpse of her nipples protruding through the sheer wet dress and an inch above them the frazzled neckline hanging across the curves of her breasts. Due to the rips in the material her legs were now entirely exposed clear up to her waist. Lifting her eyes, she once again encountered those of a man’s glued to her body. She felt naked.
********
The empty cave swallowed Susanna with lonely desperation and fear. Where had he gone? The horror of being abandoned seemed to stalk her everywhere. How many times had Adam left her to have to fend for herself? Pedro was no Adam, but he was a partner in their flight for safety. She did not want to face the wilderness alone, less so the death squad that was on their trail. The blackness of the cave was magnified by its musty smell and tomb-like silence. Folding her arms, she shivered.
What had happened to him? Had they been discovered already? The awful sensation she’d had of being followed seemed to crawl over her skin like fire ants poised to inject their poison. They had already taken him and at any minute they would bust into the cave and grab her too! It was a hunch that felt like a punch in the gut.
She heard a faint rustle in the bushes outside. She jerked up straight and alert. Turning to face the entrance with a stick in her hand for a club she braced herself for a fight. There was a soft footstep. Someone was definitely approaching.
She held her breath hoping the intruder would go away. Like a flash it crossed her mind: “What if this is a bear returning to its home?” The thought was followed by images of claws ripping into her, the giant jaw of a bear engulfing her cranium to crush it with its fangs. She shuddered realizing the cold hard truth: she was trapped. She could not possibly be in a more vulnerable position.
That morning she had been reveling in her cleverness at suggesting this cave. It served to provide a shelter for them while hiding them at the same time. The comfort it offered by being able to have a fire going without being detected was priceless. But now all its advantages were overshadowed by its one major pitfall: no escape. It was like a monster that held her clenched between its teeth ready to grind her, to pulverize her. And at the entrance to its mouth her death was about to enter. She had realized he
r error only too late. Her pride had been her downfall.
A shadow filled the hole as the man stooped to enter pushing the branches aside. Her fingers tightened around her makeshift club as she lifted it. He stood up just two feet in front of her.
She let the club drop. It was Pedro.
********
“Looks like you’ve really had a rough time of it with that guy. Do you want me to call the cops on him?”
“Me no understand.” Alicia felt helpless. She was nearly naked in a locked car of a man she did not know, having barely escaped being raped by the last two perverts. She was lost in a country where everything was new to her, and once again she was being asked a crucial question in a language she could not speak.
“Cops…Police…Do you want me to call the police?”
“Policia no….” Her gaze was fixed on the road in front of them, the muscles of her neck tense as she kept watch on him with her peripheral vision.
He shrugged. “No police eh…?” His eyes kept going back to her, looking her up and down as if committing every inch of her body to memory. He grunted as if he understood her situation completely. “You must be illegal.”
She was pretty sure she understood his comment, but she said nothing. She was exhausted and tired of being judged and controlled by others. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat feeling as if she were naked under a spotlight being observed by a man whose eyes were burning holes in her. Her lips were pursed tightly.
The minutes went by in uncomfortable silence. Gradually the woods and empty highway gave way to houses and a busy city thoroughfare with feeder roads on both sides.
“This is Denham Springs. I’m guessing you don’t really have a destination in mind.” He looked her in the eyes, but she remained silent. She did not understand the question. “I’m going to bet that you’re Catholic. I’m not religious myself, but the Catholics are good at taking care of their own. They have a church in town that will clothe you and feed you, and maybe they’ll give you shelter too till you can find someplace.” Having stopped at a red light he looked at his watch. “We should be there in about twenty minutes. We’re on the outskirts of Baton Rouge right now.”
She guessed that maybe he was talking about taking her to his place and maybe giving her a place to stay. She tried as best as she could to cover herself, but with so little clothing it proved hopeless. She considered whether or not she should attempt another break for it but was at a loss as to how with so much traffic and almost no clothing to cover her. Better to wait and see if he makes a move on her she decided.
She was surprised that he slowed by a Catholic church. He looked around and seeing an empty parking lot pulled in and parked. Thick bushes and trees encircled the parking area. All was quiet and very private. Alicia felt the prickling of her skin and wished that there would be people in the parking lot. There were not.
He started to make his move on her, leaning toward her and putting his arm around her. She had been desperately hunting the inside of the car for something to use in her defense. Having come up empty she could think of nothing to do but to grab her legs with her arms and put her head down making herself into a ball. With her head down she awaited the dreaded moment.
She felt tired of fighting. For years she had been violated. For years she had been the slave of men whose cravings drove them to treat her like an animal. In the name of love, she had been beaten, tortured, enchained and abused in more ways than she cared to remember. The only man who had proven the exception had been murdered trying to defend her. Then the two who’d tried to rape her just an hour previous, only to be rescued by another man intent on taking advantage of her helplessness.
She wanted to throw up. Every part of her revolted, her skin crawling as she felt him closing in over her, reaching out to embrace her. She was cringing, trying to hold back the puke as she held her eyes tightly shut.
His clothes felt sickeningly soft as they engulfed her. They completely covered her, from her legs to her neck, not only on his side but on the passenger door side as well.
She opened her eyes, realizing to her unspeakable relief he had placed a blanket from the back seat over her.
“I’ll make sure that the door is open back here and that there are nuns available inside to help you. It should be private enough for you back here to get inside without anybody bothering you. Stay here and I’ll be right back.”
She looked at him trying to understand what he said. She understood his hand signal to remain where she was and gathered that he would be back promptly. And for the first time she concluded that he was not out to take advantage of her. Maybe he was enjoying the view excessively, but he had rescued her and now he had covered her with his blanket. It even seemed that he intended for her to be able to keep it.
For a few lonely minutes she sat there in the car waiting to see what would transpire. When he came back it was with a nun, and another nun waited at the door, holding it open. Her days of running were finally over.
********
“Where have you been Pedro? You gave me a scare. I thought maybe they’d found our hideout and had gotten you.” Even in the dark he could see the creases of fear on her face.
“I went, throw some water.” His face was matter of fact.
“You did what? We need our water.” She looked confused.
“Fui para tirar agua. I, how you say…peed.” His voice sounded frustrated.
“Oh.” The tension in her cheeks eased. “How do you feel this morning?”
“I still sore, but better. Yesterday worse.” He slung his arms as if loosening up and stretched for a moment.
“That’s good.” She remained silent for a moment putting her thoughts together. “We may have to leave sooner than we thought. When I was returning from the river, I sensed that I was being followed.” Her eyes were intense; he could see her mind was working something out.
“I was coming back excited at having caught a rabbit and two more fish but began to see movements of something shadowing me. I thought maybe it was a cougar or a wolf that had picked up the scent of the rabbit. But then something about the way it moved made me think it was more likely a man.”
“You see man?”
“No, I saw branches move a couple of times. I saw shadows. I felt eyes watching me. I heard sounds when I walked. When I stopped the sounds stopped too. I think they were following me…maybe wolves…probably men…probably the death squad. It’s not safe here.”
“But here we hide. They not see us.”
“Here we are trapped. If they catch us here, we cannot run; we cannot escape.”
“Maybe we make trap here for them.” Something about the glint in his eye gave her a breath of unexpected hope.
“Okay and how do we do that?” She was open to ideas.
“Hmm… I believe we need fire. You make fire?”
“Alright…. We need to cook our food and boil the water anyway. If we don’t, we won’t have the strength to go very far. But we will have to hurry. Can you set your traps while I take care of the fire?”
“Sí, I set traps.” He immediately began looking through the backpacks while she stirred the fire to get it going again. With the hot coals still glowing lightly and their firewood handy it didn’t take too long. As she worked, she kept an eye on what he was doing. She was curious what kind of traps he had in mind.
He pulled out the ropes and the hammock, and then began looking for something in the side pockets of her backpack. After a couple of frowns his face lit up. He lifted out the Tupperware container that held the snakehead.
She smiled in approval. “I knew that was going to come in handy for some reason.”
“Wait; see what I do with this,” he tittered while he threw some rocks into the edges of the freshly burning fire.
He had her interest excited, but he left the Tupperware and walked out with the rope in hand. “Must be going to set some snares first,” she mumbled to herself.
She got busy boiling their wa
ter and cooking up the rabbit and the two fish. They would need their strength to continue their escape. She only hoped it was not too late.
There was a crack of a branch snapping in two not far outside the cave. In three steps she was at the entrance peering through the branches to see if anyone was out there. Pedro was up in a tree looking down.
“What’s he looking at?” she wondered. Was he hiding from someone passing underneath? Ah, he was tying a rope for a snare and a branch had fallen.
After some time, he reentered the cave stepping lively and with a muffled cackle. His seeming giddiness puzzled her.
“I make three, how you say…” His motions indicated that he’d made snares.
“Snares…?”
“Sí, and no se ve. You come see…I show you where step.”
She followed him to see his snare and truly was impressed. The rope simply did not show; without knowing they were there it was almost a sure thing someone approaching would step into one of them. And once a foot went in the body would go swiftly up feet first leaving the man hanging helplessly from a high sturdy branch.
A flock of birds rattled the trees startling her. She had not realized how jumpy she’d become.
“Now for others….” He rushed back in. He was on a mission. It was obvious the rest had done him good.
She stood for a minute admiring his work. She was glad she had a partner, though a little taken aback by his violent delight. Maybe he was simply happy to contribute, or at the chance at revenge. Whatever the motive his help was priceless. She turned to enter the cave. Somewhere overhead a hawk called.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Pedro was reaching into a pocket of his backpack and pulling out a small bag. From the bag he shook out a bunch of cactus needles. Flattening the bag on the ground he placed the needles overtop of it.