by N A Broadley
“Shit!”
A staring stand-off. She curled her hand into a fist and slowly extended her knuckles toward the dog all the while praying that it wouldn’t chew her throat out.
“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The dog lowered its nose and sniffed lightly at her hand then gently licked it. He looked up at her with soft chocolate eyes.
“There you go…good doggy,” she crooned softly. Boy or girl? She didn’t know yet. She spied a bright red leather collar around its neck and from the collar hung a silver disk about the size of a quarter. She moved a bit closer to read the tiny print.
‘Jessie? Is that your name, girl?’ The dog’s ears perked up, and her tail wagged at the sound of Beth’s voice.
“Okay, Jessie. I guess you kind’a scared me a bit there. But I think we’re gonna be okay? At least I hope we will.”
Moving out into the daylight, she stood up and stretched, she could hear the pop and snap of her joints. She grimaced as she slowly worked the stiffness from her muscles. The air was cold, and light flurries landed softly on her face. It was hard to tell what time it was from the overcast sky. The day was still chilly and gray. She’d felt like she slept most of the day but couldn’t be sure. The light was deceiving.
She rummaged through the side pocket of her backpack and pulled out a bottle of water, raised it to her lips drinking the cool liquid deeply. Hunger roiled in her gut, the crampy kind that told her she’d waited too long between meals. The hunger gripped her and she gazed around to evaluate the area; she thought she’d be safe enough to start a small fire and cook some breakfast.
She had a smokeless camp stove that she pulled from one of the side pockets of her pack. With one flick of her lighter, flames roared up and out of the small circular tube. She filled her camp pot with water then set it to boil. While she waited, she stood and rubbed her arms and legs to pull some heat back into them. The dog watched her curiously.
Oatmeal with dried raisins and cranberries bubbled in the small pot. The aroma made her stomach rumble, she removed it from the stove, extinguishing the flame. Her mouth watered, the smell of the hot food was intoxicating, and her stomach clenched in anticipation. The first bite of the hot cereal burnt her tongue, making tears well up in her eyes. The next spoon full, she pursed her lips and blew to cool it, reminding herself to slow down. Jessie, the dog, sat quietly watching her as she gulped down mouthful after mouthful. She looked up when she heard a soft whine.
“You hungry too, girl?’
She pulled a piece of jerky from a small bag in her backpack and tossed it to the waiting dog. One bite, and it was gone.
“Yeah, I know, it ain’t much.”
She passed the pot with a few remaining spoonsful of oatmeal to the dog after picking out the fruit and eating those morsels herself. Smiling, she watched as Jessie devoured it in seconds, then looked at her for more.
“I’m sorry girl. That’s it.”
She moved to her feet and sighed as she rinsed the pot with water from her bottle and put everything back into her pack. Once done, she took inventory of her water. She had two sixteen-ounce bottles that were full and one partial bottle left. She knew in the small town of Gorham she’d cross the Androscoggin River where she could fill her bottles. The water would have to be treated before she could drink it, but that would only take moments to do. It was as simple as adding a drop of bleach and letting it sit for thirty minutes. Yeah, it would taste something horrible, but it would keep her from getting sick from contaminated water. She’d have to go lightly for the next twelve miles to conserve what water she had.
She slung her pack up over her shoulders and grimaced as the straps rubbed tightly against her. She slowly made her way back up to the highway. Nightfall wasn’t too far off. She grinned as Jessie, of her own accord, walked contentedly beside her.
“Well, I guess you’ll be my Huckleberry,” she said as she looked down at the dog and let her fingers sink into the soft fur behind her ears as she patted her.
She stuck to the frozen embankment on the side of the guard rail as she walked. Darkness and snow enveloped her. The air had taken on a bitter chill as she trudged along mile after mile and her breath came out in puffs of white. Her boots were starting to soak through, and her feet were almost numb. As much as she hated to, she knew she would have to stop, find shelter and get warm, at least for a few hours otherwise she’d be facing frostbite. Shivering, she hugged herself and cut down a soft slope and into the woods with Jessie right by her side.
“Damn girl! I’m freezing!”
She clenched her teeth as she struggled to stop them from chattering. The dog whined softly as if in agreement. Once she entered the tree line, she found the wind had lessened. Pushing in deeper, she found a sheltered spot from the wind and set up her small tent. She didn’t dare start a fire. She knew any light from it would give away her location.
She pulled her sleeping bag from her pack and laid it out then struggled to get out of her wet boots and jacket. Sighing tiredly, she crawled inside. Jessie stretched out beside her, and she snuggled tightly to the dog, gleaning any warmth she could.
“I’m just gonna nap a bit girl,” she whispered as she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
Chapter Two:
Just west of where Beth softly snored, Sarah Terrence, a young girl of sixteen, slipped on the icy path. She worried her lower lip with her teeth and tasted the warmth of salty blood against her tongue. How could her father have done this? Tears, unshed, and stinging her eyes made her headache. All her life she’d bore the brunt of her father. The slaps, the punches, the abuse in so many other ways and now this. This that she couldn’t even wrap her young mind around.
She slipped on the snowy, icy pavement and hit her knees with a jarring thud and pain raced through her legs deep into her hips. She let her head hang forward in despair, and hot tears flowed down over her face. A blow from behind followed by a sharp voice and another blow knocked the breath from her and brought her staggering upward.
“You had better move it, girl!’
Frank Desota, or as his friends had called him, Franky, pulled the girl by her hair and pushed her in front of him. Leroy Chevs snickered behind him.
“Bitch ain’t worth the trouble there Franky…now is she?”
He scowled and thought for a moment. Oh yeah, worth the trouble? Sure. When he sank into her, it was well worth the trouble. Then giving the girl a swift kick, he muttered,
“Your daddy didn’t do me any favors by trading you for my last bottle of Jim Beam.”
Sarah stared straight ahead, not acknowledging either of the men who held her captive. But in her heart, a slow burn of anger raged. It was what it was. No better nor worse than what her father had done to her. In all of her sixteen years, she’d never remembered one kind word, one gentle touch only pain. And the pain was, to her, a minor inconvenience. She was used to the pain.
“My turn tonight, right?” Leroy whined. The sound of his voice grated on Sarah’s nerves, and she wanted nothing more than to silence him with a swift kick to his throat.
Franky had been keeping the girl to himself and not sharing as he’d promised. And for the past two nights, all Leroy had been allowed to do was watch.
“Maybe. I’m in a generous kind’a mood, so just maybe boy,” Franky said then grinned, his teeth stained yellow from the constant wad of chew that was in his mouth. Sarah bowed her head at hearing this. Another night of rough hands, pain, invasion. But then there would be food, or at least that was what she hoped.
They hadn’t been feeding her much. Not enough, anyway. And she was always hungry. With her dad, at least she was not hungry. He let her eat plenty. Maybe that’s why he gave her away. Maybe she had eaten too much? She put one foot in front of the other, following Leroy who was in front of her, being pushed by Franky who was behind her. The snow made her feet tingle with cold, and it felt like little shards of glass as it hit her face. She shivered and went deeper
into that place where she felt nothing. She let her eyes stare straight ahead as she let herself get lost in the numb blankness that took over her mind.
“This storm is getting worse. We need to hunker down,” Leroy whined as he walked into the bitter wind.
Frank nodded. He was sick of the winter and constant cold. He should have headed south last year when he and Leroy had talked about it. Before the event, and before everything had gone to shit.
“Yeah. I’m cold and tired.”
They both moved at a snail’s pace as they made their way to the tree line alongside the highway. He’d hoped to make Gorham by dark, but the storm slowed them so they would have to make camp for the night. That was fine by him. He didn’t mind camping, and as he looked at the girl in front of him, his mind was already playing with what he was gonna do with her later on. Smiling, he gazed hungrily at her long, slender legs and let his gaze wander further up.
“Yup, I’ll be plenty warm tonight,” he mused.
∞
Beth woke to a soft, throaty growl and male voices off in the distance. Alert now, she reached out and placed a gentle hand on Jessie’s snout, held her breath and listened.
“Did I tell you to sit?” A harsh voice snapped through the darkness.
“Set up that tent and do it now! I’m cold as fuck waiting on you, bitch!”
She heard what sounded like flesh meeting flesh in a slap. She waited for the cry to follow, but none did. Scrambling she put her boots on and grabbed her pack and her long gun, getting ready to run. If she had to run, as much as she didn’t want to, she’d sacrifice the tent.
“I said, come here! Now!” another angry voice shouted.
It sounded to Beth like they were a few hundred yards away. Her heart raced in panic as fear set in. Drawing a deep breath, she poked her head out of her tent and took a quick look. She could see nothing in the inky blackness. Grabbing her long gun, she crawled from the tent with Jessie right on her heels.
“No girl. You stay!” she whispered as she crawled toward the voices.
From behind a thick stand of brush, shadows of two men and what looked to be a young girl fell in the weak light of the crescent moon. Her heart leaped into her throat as she realized just what was happening.
“I said, come here!”
She watched as one of the men yanked the girl roughly toward him and her stomach twisted with nausea.
“When I tell you something, you’d better fucking move bitch!” he screamed into her face as he grabbed a handful of her long hair and threw her onto the ground.
Beth watched in horror as the man began unbuttoning his jeans. He was going to rape her. Helplessly Beth bit down on her lip, her teeth drawing blood, to keep from crying out. Fear shot through her as she huddled behind the bush, helplessly watching. Every cell in her body pulsed with anger and screamed for her to help the young girl. The odds were against her. There were two men and only one of her? Gritting her teeth, she felt a moan escape her lips as she watched in horror while the large man crawled on top of the young girl.
Something in her mind snapped, she was filled with rage as she looked on at the brutality happening in front of her. She knew she could not leave this young girl to this fate. Sucking in a deep breath, she brought her long gun up to her shoulder, swallowed hard, trying to control the rage that pulsed inside her. The bile clawed its way up her throat and a hatred so powerful, it was almost consuming; she curled her shaking hands into fists. Never had she walked away from a fight and she’d be damned if she was gonna start now.
∞
As Sarah waited for the pain, waited for the weight of this pig to crush the breath from her as he slammed himself down into her, she stared up at the night sky. His smell, rancid, and cloying filled her nose, and she gagged as she turned her head away. Everything in her screamed to fight, but she knew better. Fighting would only make it worse. Closing her eyes, she let herself drift.
She never saw the bullet that slammed into him. She never saw the way his body jumped then folded as he fell to the ground. She heard Leroy scream in surprise but didn’t see him go down either. She was waiting, waiting, waiting as she forced her mind to travel away from what she expected to come. It never happened. The only thing she felt was the cold ground as it crept through her jacket and onto her skin.
∞
Beth stood from her crouched position and took a deep breath to steady her shaking legs. The dog, who had crept up behind her, stood as well.
“Well, I can see you listen well.”
She scanned the area for other danger. Her eyes wild and searching. Seeing none, she walked over to the group. Her heart cried pitifully for the little thing curled up on the cold ground, eyes closed tight, blood trickling from her nose and the corner of her mouth where her attacker had hit her. Dirt smeared her face, and Beth gently swiped her hand across it to brush it away.
A coldness swept through her as she looked down upon the man she’d just shot. He was no longer a threat. She cast a glance at the other man who lay moaning and writhing on the ground a few feet away. She was in no hurry to deal with him; he wouldn’t be going anywhere. Bending down, her knees popped loudly. She laid a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder and whispered.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe now.”
She was startled when the girl opened her eyes and gazed right into her own. Glass eyes…well, not glass but the color of light blue milky glass, and eerily beautiful.
“What is your name?”
The girl gave her no response.
“Are you hurt? Can you get up?” The girl nodded and shakily pulled her torn clothes around her and stood.
“My name is Beth.”
The girl nodded in response.
“Okay, well, I can see you can stand. I gotta take care of a bit here. Why don’t you go sit over there,” she said as she pointed to a rock, “and give me a few minutes.”
The girl looked to where Beth pointed and shuffled her way over to the rock and sat tiredly, Jessie dogged her heels as he followed closely behind her.
Beth walked over to the wounded man writing on the ground. He squirmed and moaned as his blood stained the freshly fallen snow. Crouching down, she looked straight into his brown eyes. The corner of his mouth turned upward as he grimaced. She felt nothing, and she shook her head sadly.
In her other life, the life before the event, she’d been an EMT. She’d run toward trouble to help save lives never did she think she’d be the one to take a life. But now; now she’d taken three lives in the matter of a few days.
“Help me,” the man whispered through a bloody, gurgling breath.
Beth shook her head and smiled coldly. She bent and whispered into the cup of his ear.
“Oh, it’s way too late for you now, my man!”
Her bullet had hit him to the left side of his chest. As she looked at the hole, she could see that it wouldn’t be long before his lungs filled with blood. Pink, frothy bubbles foamed through the wound as he struggled to breathe in and out. She should let him die in his own time, which wouldn’t be long, and save herself the wasting of a bullet. The fact of the matter was that he deserved to suffer. He deserved so much more pain than what her one bullet inflicted. He would have spared that little girl over there no amount of pain, so why should she take pity and save him from the pain her bullet would cause?
“Don’t do that. Put that miserable excuse for a human being out of his misery,” Dorene Stalter’s voice whispered deep in her mind. Placing the barrel of her long gun between his eyes, she pulled the trigger. Gagging, she turned her head and cried as the burning bile rose in her throat, and she threw up on the ground.
Her eyes focused on the chunky white matter that had splattered on her boots. Bits of the brain, bloody flesh, and bone. Wiping a hand across her mouth, she turned and walked back to the girl.
She was sitting on the rock and visibly shivering from the cold. And it was no wonder. She had only a light spring jacket. Walking over to one
of the dead men, Beth bent down and with a grunt struggled to remove his jacket. With a hand full of snow, she scrubbed the blood from the front of it and then handed it to the young girl.
“Here honey, put this on over your jacket.”
The girl quickly wrapped herself into it. It was far too large for her, but it would keep her from freezing. In the jacket pocket was a pair of warm winter gloves and Beth watched as she slipped those over her hands. She cast a grateful look toward Beth.
“Okay, we need to see what gear and items these two have that we can use,”
She made her way through one of the rucksacks on the ground near the tent. Both of the men had handguns, she took those and shoved them into her backpack. In one of the rucksacks were several items of food, a few cans of soda, a bottle of whiskey, matches, a bottle of water and extra bullets.
The other rucksack contained similar items along with a large buck knife. Beth divided up contents, placing some in her backpack and some into one of the rucksacks that she’d give to the girl to carry. It was a good stash, and it would help her on her journey. She walked back over to the girl, who had been watching her intently, and crouched down in front of her. The miles of walking and the bending sent an explosion of hot, white pain through her knees. She pushed it away.
“Your choice, you can come with me or go on your own with this extra backpack. “
The girl nodded, grabbed the rucksack and slung it over her thin shoulders and stood silently intent on joining her.
Beth smiled. “Okay, well I guess then we’ll be traveling partners.”
The three of them, Beth, Jessie and the girl with no name, made their way quietly through the snowy woods back to where Beth’s tent was set up. It was time to move again. Tiredly Beth pulled her tent down. She didn’t feel quite so lonely anymore.
She led the way while the girl followed silently behind with Jessie bouncing back and forth between them. She hoped to make Gorham by daybreak and then, a quick hike across town to the trail that would lead them to the AT. Up higher on the trail, she would feel much safer than down here on the highway.