“Good, now rest up and be gone by dawn in the morning.”
Early the next morning, Clay and his men were looking for sign near the spot he'd discovered the tracks before. It took him about 30 minutes to find the old print in the soil, but he eventually found it. They moved toward the deeper parts of the National Forest and each man was on guard, knowing the men and woman they were following were fully capable of killing them.
When they stopped for a short break, Clay said, “Lake, I want you on point and Spittler, I want you behind us, eyes open. Stay just barely out of sight in both positions. If either of you see or hear anything, then move closer to us. Lake, if you spot danger on point, stop and we'll run into you. Use the balled fist in the air to warn us silently. Spittler, if our rear is attacked, just fire a few rounds and we'll know you’re in danger. We'll then moved back and recover you if we can. Oh, and keep your eyes open for booby traps. These people are devious with traps and they use everything from sharp stakes in the ground to poisonous snakes.”
When both men were in position, the group began to move toward the deepest spots in the forest. Lake was constantly scanning the countryside as he was moving and as a result about a mile after he started, his right boot struck a length of fishing line, and when three razor sharp barbs were released and struck him mid-chest, they went all the way through the man. He gave a warbling heart breaking scream.
When Matt and Isaac moved to Lake, the man was standing with his body held in place by the tree limb that had the three stakes secured in place. Lake was no longer screaming, but instead was whimpering like an injured animal. His right hand was rubbing and feeling the barbed point on one stake. Blood, crimson and bright, ran down his chest to his belly, where it dripped to his trousers and the ground. His eyes indicated he was scared as well as in deep pain.
“Matt, he'll not survive this and he's making enough noise to wake the dead.” Isaac said.
Pulling his knife Matt neared Lake, gave a dry grin and said, “I'm going to fix your pain, my friend. We cannot allow you to warn our enemies.”
The knife flashed once in the sunlight and then a fountain of blood spurted from the injured man's throat. With each beat of his heart blood would spurt. His eyes were questioning his death as his body shivered and shook as his life's blood flowed freely. Two minutes later, Lake was dead.
“Milton, you take over point for Lake. Mr. Lake is no longer employed by us. Watch for booby traps and ambushes. I'll relieve you in two hours. Go, we need to be moving.” Matt said.
Milton wasn't very brave or even a good man. He was a man who had always had little and all he had in the world today he was packing or carrying in his pockets. Fed by greed, drugs, alcohol, and loose women, he'd joined Matt and Isaac to eat regular. These days people were killing for food or medicine. With this group he had least had access to both on a regular basis. Right now, as he walked a booby trapped trail he was terrified. He knew just one false move and he was dead, like so many others.
“What's that?” he thought as he spotted a slight difference in the dirt color. He slowly moved forward and then without notice his foot fell through the soil and he felt severe pain radiate up his right leg. Looking down he saw his foot had a hardened stake of oak completely through it. It was barbed, much like a fishhook, on the end and that would make removal painful. He gave a loud scream of pain.
Matt and Isaac made their way to him and when Freeman squatted beside the man, he said, “Keep the noise down.” When he saw his words had no affect on the injured man, he slapped him hard in the face and said with more force, “Shut the hell up and do it now.”
Joe Milton was scared he'd lose the foot, but Isaac said, “Let me pull my knife and dig the stake from the soil. He'll have to wait here as we move on. He's in no condition to walk. He'll get an infection too. See the dried brown spots on the tip and barb of the stake, well, that's human waste and it guarantees an infection.”
“Oh, that's nasty using crap to poison the wood like that. We still have some antibiotics at the barn, so he'll live.” Freeman said.
“He may want to die when they start removing the stake from his foot. I'm taking the men and moving ahead. You stay here with Milton until we return on the way back.”
“I can do that. He'll be able to walk, but he'll slow us down, because he'll not be fast at all. I hope you can capture one of them, so we can learn more about them.” Isaac said as he pulled a quart of whiskey from his pack and handed it to the wounded man.
Matt shrugged and said, “We will or we won't take one alive. I'm not real optimistic about taking a prisoner. I just hope we don't get ambushed by them.”
“Yep, I agree with you. It's just getting one would make the killing of the rest that much easier.”
Adjusting his pack, Matt said, “I'm leaving now.”
They were soon gone, leaving Isaac and Milton sitting beside a dense collection of brush and small trees. Isaac began working on the man's foot free of the stake and listened closely for gunshots.
The travel was uneventful for almost a mile, then Matt found a thin length of fishing line ran across the trail to an explosive. The explosive was made out of flour and fertilizer, with what looked like a peck basket of scrap steel, rocks and old nails from the burnt house. Freeman marked the trap and then moved on. Less than a quarter mile later, he heard noises. He stopped the group and watched two men and a boy mount on horses and ride deeper into the woods. Matt had no idea the three were looking for any neighbors or others in the woods with them.
Moving back to his men, he pulled them together and said, “There is a woman alone and we just found our captive. She's in the RV and while the three males were armed, she wasn't. I want all of you to surround the RV and I'll enter through the front door.”
“When?” one of the unknown men asked.
“Right now. If we work this right, some of you will have a new woman to chose from when you want a girlfriend. Let's move and get this over with.”
Chapter 16
June was tired, but not overly so. She'd been sleeping as well as could be expected while living through an emergency situation and with her only daughter dying recently. Compared to most she was in excellent shape, but she'd not had 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep since the Tsunami struck the coast. She had fear at times, but not to the point she was paranoid at every small noise or movement. She was at the stove cooking ham and beans, her .38 on the counter beside her, as she hummed an old song from 1980 that she liked as a young woman.
Suddenly the door opened and she made a move for her pistol, only to see it was out of reach. Seeing a Phillips style screwdriver beside her, she picked it up with her right hand and swung it with all her power at her attacker. The man went down, blocking the only door to the RV. She lost the screwdriver when she struck the man and looking down at him, the whole shaft of the tool was buried in the man’s left eye and probably into his brain. He was screaming and jerking violently as she moved for her weapon.
She grabbed the .38 snub-nose, brought it up and fired twice. Matt felt a .38 slug strike his ear, bringing him pain, and then heard a man behind him scream as the round then struck him in the middle of his chest. June fired again and another man fell on the steps blocking others from entering.
Already in the RV, Matt reached for her gun hand, grabbed the barrel as she fired twice more, sending one bullet through his palm to strike the man on the steps with the screwdriver in his eye, in the back of his head. His head exploded, sending blood, gore and shards of skull around the steps and on some of the men behind him.
Matt yelled, “Drop the gun or I'll kill you.” He pointed his big .45 at her and while she froze in place the gun did not leave her hand.
He cocked his pistol and said in a louder commanding voice, “Drop the gun, now!”
The gun struck the ground with a loud thud and Freeman ordered, “Get the dead man off the steps and I need two of you in here with me. Hurry, the men who just left may have heard the shots.�
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When the men entered, he said, “I want one of you to go through this place quickly and take anything of value to us, including whiskey, guns, or foods. You,” He said looking the biggest of the two, “find something and tie her hands behind her back and get her ready to move.”
“W . . . who are y . . . you?” June asked, as she thought, You'll not find much because the men took anything of value and hid it in the woods. We expected this one day.
“I'm Matt Freeman, and I'm now your owner and you are my slave. If you live or die is my decision and mine alone. What is your name?”
She almost didn't answer him, but she needed to know more information about him, so he would need information about her as well. “I'm June, June Wolf. Mister, if you take me, my husband will follow you to the ends of the earth to kill you.”
“So you like to think, huh?” he placed his pistol in his underarm holster.
Shaking her head, June said, “My husband will come for me and when he gets me, it will be after he has killed you.”
“I'm willing to bet he won't even come for you, much less kill me. Women are cheap these days, as you'll soon discover. I intend to add you to the other women we have that are used to keep my men happy, if you know what I mean. Hurry, men, lets get the dead and dying out of here. Take the man with the screwdriver in his eye to the medics.”
“I'll drag him off because he's dead, boss.” Larry said as he grabbed the dead man's feet.
A few minutes later, he shoved June for the open door and her feet got entangled on the welcome mat and she fell. She struck the ground outside the door hard and it knocked her breath away. As she was attempting to breath, the two men exited with a couple of small caliber guns, food and a quart of whiskey her men had left out in the open.
Matt left the camper, walked to the vehicle gas tanks and using his sheath knife he poked holes in the light metal. As the gas ran on the ground, he threw a lighted rag into the RV and then closed the door.
“Let's move back the way we came. Hurry, because those men may return.” Matt said and they all started back to the barn in a quick step.
When he neared Milton and Isaac on the trail, Matt pulled his .45.
“Isaac, how is Milton? Can he walk?”
“He can walk slowly, because the foot is mangled badly. I just the got the stake out of his foot.”
Matt walked to Milton and asked, “Do you thing you can walk at a fast pace?”
“No, not with the pain I have.”
Without warning or another word, Matt brought his pistol up, placed the barrel about two inches from Milton's head and pulled the trigger. When the bullet exited his head, a long finger of blood spurted from his damaged skull and he died instantly, dropping to the grasses like he'd ran into a clothesline.
“What are you doin'?” Isaac asked, his eyes open wide in shock.
“Move, and move quickly. I have one of the men's woman and he'll soon be on us like a hungry chicken on a lone June bug in a barnyard. We need to almost run and Milton himself said he couldn't move quickly. I killed him because he couldn't keep up with us. Now, enough talk and lets move! Taylor, you're my point man and I want the pace between a walk and run, understand?”
“Yes, sir, I do. You want a slow trot.”
“Okay, move, and let's get out of here and do the job now. I'll be the man on drag, so Isaac, you're in charge of the main group. Keep the pace fast. If we can return with this woman, we'll learn a great deal from her, now move.” Taylor began a light jog and the others followed him.
The return to the barn was uneventful and tiring, with all the men on edge because they expected the men living with the woman would come for her. In the barn, the first words spoken by Matt were, “Double the guard and keep them doubled until I say to stop. Eventually, we will have visitors.”
“I don't see it.” Isaac said.
“Then, you're a dummy. We took the man's wife after we killed his daughter earlier in the barn, so he must avenge her death and come after us to get his wife back, and he'll be angry when he gets here.”
“We'll kill him and the other two with him as well. You scared of this man? Any man can be killed and this one will die, wait and see.”
“Well, this is interesting because one group of us will die, either us or him.”
A man walked in, nodded to the two men and said, “Foy and Finn both report three men moving this way. Foy was near the RV and said one man screamed like an insane man when he discovered the woman was gone. The dead body of one of our men caught more than one kick before they tied a rope around his feet and drug him away from camp. The last word we have is they are both heading this way and should be here near midnight.”
Thinking, Matt suddenly said, “Isaac, fetch the woman and we need to ask her some questions. When we finish, she's yours for the night, but don't kill her, understand?”
“I understand. I'll be right back.” He stood and walked from the tack room.
Minutes later he returned with June. He was leading her like a dog and she even had a collar around her neck and her hands were still tied behind her back. Matt noticed her blouse was gone and her breasts were attractive. Jones jerked her to the center of the room and then said, “Here she is, boss.”
“Well, June, how are you enjoying your stay with me and my men? Some of the men said you'll need breaking like a horse, but all of them desire you. Instead of going to them first, you'll spend the night with my friend here, Isaac Jones, tonight. Then, tomorrow night you'll stay with me. Isaac, see she gets a shirt or blouse as soon as you leave here. But first we have some questions for you.”
“How did you know her name?” Jones asked.
Matt walked to her and grabbing her long hair, he pulled her head up and said, “We exchanged names in the RV or did you forget? June is going to get some special treatment from us. Only I'll not start it until tomorrow night, if any of us are still alive. June, my dear, how are your men armed and tell me the truth.”
“Kiss my a—”
Matt struck her hard in the face, splitting her lips. As she brought her head around he struck her again, but this time his fist contacted her left eye.
“Now, you can play games with us, or I may just beat you to death. See, you mean nothing to me or my men, and I mean nothing at all. I only took you captive so your husband will come to us and to give my men another toy. We can always find another woman. We're the same men who killed your useless daughter.”
June cleared her throat of bloody mucus and spat in Matt's face. Livid now, he began to beat on her face and neck until Isaac physically pulled him off of her and said, “Matt! You'll kill her if you don't stop, Matt!”
Wiping his face off with the back of his left hand, he then cleaned his hand on her pants. Running his hands through his hair, he said, “Get this woman out of here, and do it now. After we kill the men with her, I want to be the one to slit her useless throat. I suspect tonight you'll have to tie her to the bed or something, or she'll kill you.”
As Isaac pulled her away, she resisted him, only he was much stronger than her, and Matt was soon left behind cursing, as Isaac led her to the spot in the barn he called 'his bedroom.' It was a clean stall he'd taken over when they settled in the barn. She'd have a few bruises, but he'd rescued her before any serious damage had been done.
“Don't anger him, because he turns really mean when things go badly.”
*****
“How did she get taken like this? We weren't gone but four hours and during that time this place was attacked and my mom kidnapped?” Dave asked, as he stood by the burning RV.
Dan said, “I never suspected them of being able to hit us this quickly or I would have taken her with us. Lawdy, I've already lost my daughter and now my wife's life is in danger.”
“The dead man was struck with a small caliber round, probably a .22, .32. or 38. I see no weapons, so they cleaned the place well before they left. If I had to guess, about half a dozen cows were taken too, so they
know we have cows and horses. They'll be back, and for the beef if nothing else.” Jonas said as he shook his head.
“What now, dad? Do we go and get mom, or let them keep her a little longer?”
“We'll get her out in a couple of days. Right now I'm too angry to attack and probably would get us all killed in the effort. We will go to town and check them out, so we can see the best ways in and out of their camp.”
“I agree about the anger. Never do anything when angry because 9 out of 10 times, you'll mess it up and if not careful, someone will die.” Jonas said.
“How many men do you think were here, Jonas?”
“The nearest I can tell is close to an even dozen. It looks like at least one was killed and two were seriously, maybe even fatally, injured. They paid dearly to take June, Dan. This is the only body, but with him being head shot, they must have found him too gory to take back. The others left huge puddles of blood.”
“They'll pay even more for keeping her. Right now let’s clean this place up, get some food in us, and then sleep. In the morning we move back to the barn and see if these jokers have made that their base camp.” He pointed to the tree next to them that had a canvas bag with meat in it. It was raised off the ground about 12 feet to keep critters from eating their food.
“Do you think they're there now?” Jonas met Dan's eyes as the older man spoke. He could clearly see concern for his wife, but he knew better than to go off half-cocked. If he just charged in there all of them might be killed, including June.
“Dad, do you think mom is okay with those men?”
“Probably not, but we need food, clean up, and then some rest. In the morning we'll look the farm over, decide on a plan and then act. Right now your mama is on her own and I don't think they'll kill her, or why take her all the way there when they could have killed her here?”
“Well, I guess that makes sense. They may hurt her or rape her.” Dave said.
“It matters little if she's raped or abused a little. No matter what they do, I will kill all that you and Jonas miss. As for our marriage, nothing will change, even if 100 men rape her. I love your mother, so we will get back together and while it may be hard to do, it's the only thing we can do in my eyes. I wouldn't be much of a man if I turned away from her right when she needed me the most, now would I?”
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