Down the Hole

by Sally Six

  As they neared the motorcycles, Reese thought he heard something. “Stop a second. I think I hear something.”

  Now all of them could hear weeping and someone trying to yell for help.

  “Okay everyone be more vigilant than we have been since we left the ranch. We shouldn’t have been taking it for granted that everything was clear and that’s partly my fault. I’m tired and should have known better than to let us let our guard down so soon. David you go around away from us and come in from the left. Bert you do the same from the right and the rest of us will split apart here so we’re not crammed together like sitting ducks walking down this road.”

  Everyone did as Reese instructed. They looked around at each other and realized he was right. They were all walking side by side. David and Bert split off and went around on different sides and came in on the motorcycles. As they got closer, the weeping and yelling got louder. They couldn’t see anyone around the main part of the bikes, but a bit further down the road were two young women laying on the side of the road when a light was shone on them.

  David and Bert held their lanterns over the girls and the weeping and calling stopped. One of the girls was saying. “Oh thank goodness. I thought no one was going to find us for days.” They had both been hog tied and that’s why they couldn’t yell very loud as they both had a rope around their throats that got tighter if they moved too much. Reese reached to his thigh and took out his bowie knife and started to cut the girls bands. It didn’t take him long to get that done and he helped the girls sit up. As the girls turned and sat up, Reese had them rub their legs and arms to help the circulation.

  “William and Tyler, you come here and help these girls back to the ranch house for the women to take care of. Then high tail it back here. Remember to watch and listen for anything out of the ordinary. You got that boys?”

  “Yes we have it.” They were good about saying things in unison.

  Reese just shook his head at the two and smiled. He watched them let both the girls lean on them and walk back down the road to the ranch and into the dark with just the lanterns showing rounds of light in the night. Then Reese, David and Bert started to look the motorcycles over.

  Bert was grumbling as he walked over to a hog. “I can’t believe they just left those girls here tied up on the side of the road. Makes me feel like going back and shooting them again. Grumble, grumble.”

  Reese looked over at his son because he couldn’t quite hear what Bert was saying. Just a word here and there.

  “What in the world are you saying over there Bert?”

  “Nothing Dad, nothing, just grousing.”

  About 25 minutes later the two boys came trotting back.

  “All delivered safe and sound, Mr. Porter.” They said together.

  David just grinned and turned his face. He knew the boys liked to say things together and unnerve people. To the boys it was a big joke.

  David didn’t know much about motorcycles. He had never even been close to this type before. Most of these were were chopped or really had extra stuff added to them or changed depending on what the owner had dreamed up. Quite a few looked as if some of the changes were resent. It would be easier to see tomorrow in the daylight.

  “Hey Reese, I hope you or Greg know something more than I do about these motorcycles. I sure don’t.”

  Reese chuckled. “I sure do. I ran a couple of summers with a group of bikers in my young days before going off to war.”

  Bert stood up quickly. He had been leaning over a hog with shielding built in front of where a person’s legs would be and along the bottom of the windshield.

  “WHAT, I never heard about this Dad. No way. I don’t believe you could be a part of something like this, not you.”

  “It wasn’t the same son. We had hogs and choppers yes, but we didn’t get into trouble and worked ourselves across the country working odd jobs such as baling hay, helping to bring in crops, whatever we could get. It was harder to do that in the 1970’s. There was more automation but it still could be managed. There were and are a lot of biker gangs that weren’t evil. I think now you will find the only ones on the road will mostly be the bad kind. Out to loot and kill and for whatever they can lay their hands on. Everyone else will be busy trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves. There might be a gang or two who were on the road and they will look for a place to join and settle. It will be way too hard to be on the road now for any reason that’s good.”

  “Wow Dad, it’s good to hear you couldn’t be with a group that could do things like this. I don’t know if I could have believed it even if you had said you had been young and dumb and did things you shouldn’t have and hurt others. I don’t think you could have ever been that dumb. I’m not saying you didn’t do anything dumb. You say sometimes that’s how we learn life’s lessons.”

  “Well thank you son, I think.”

  Reese continued to chuckle at his son’s remarks. Reese quietly said to himself. “Me and my mouth will get me in trouble someday.”

  The men conferred about the motorcycles. They found they were in good shape and all had a great deal of work done on them lately.

  Reese continued, “I don’t think we ought to start the hogs and ride them back sorry to say. Who knows who is still about around here? It’s not good to make a whole lot of noise after all the shooting that went on around here. We don’t want to attract anyone else. I am still thinking about those kids we found murdered not far from my place. That sure doesn’t make me feel good. I know it will be hard but let’s just push these back to the ranch. Alright?”

  Both David and Bert went along with it, but they would have rather have tried their hand at riding one of the motorcycles.

  David thought about it and knew Reese was right with being a new rider and being on one of these babies in the dark wasn’t the thing to do. Survive the battle and get hurt or killed awhile latter doing something stupid wasn’t going to help him or anyone else.

  David pushed a hog behind his sons. William and Tyler had to help each other with one hog. They weren’t big enough yet to hold that weight by themselves. There were nine more to bring back. The last ten were sitting right here at the fence line from when the bikers tried to ram through the so-called wooden fence. Apparently some of the women had ridden double with their men. That’s why there were more bikers then hogs. The ranch folks got back with the second batch of four bikes as the wagon rolled in with the bodies. Everyone looked exhausted. It had been a very long day. Theo gathered both work crews together for a moment.

  “Let’s say the rest of us help get those hogs back here along with the ones by the fence if they are not too damaged to be moved. Then hit the sack and do the burials in the morning. I talked to Buck and Red and they have already volunteered to do the first guard duty. Who wants the next one? Or should I rephrase that. Who will do it?”

  Bert spoke up. “I’ll do it.”

  Theo looked at Reese.

  “I don’t want to insult you Bert, but I need to ask your dad something first. “Reese does he have enough experience to do guard duty?”

  Reese looked in his son’s direction as he talked with Theo.

  “He sure does Theo. He won’t let any of us down. I have every confidence in him.”

  Theo glanced over at David and David gave a nod.

  Reese spoke up. “I’ll volunteer also. Might as well. Then after that, I can just sleep.”

  That got a chuckle as it was late and only two guard shifts would be needed until daybreak.

  Reese and Bert had smirks on their faces. Theo noticed and by doggy that boy was gonna grow up to be the spitting image of his dad.

  “Hope I didn’t insult you young man.” Theo told Bert.

  “It’s not an insult Mr. O’Dell. I understand. Dad will tell you.”

  “Bert’s right Mr. O’Dell. He knows how important this is. Bert is well trained and I would stake my life on it.”

  “Ok your word is good as gold Reese.
Another thing please, all of you call me Theo and the younger set can call me Gramps. I can’t take all this Mr. O’Dell stuff. We’re all family now and all of you need to know that. That’s my final word.”

  They all left to get the rest of the hogs down the road and had them back to the ranch in short order. The family found the bikes lying by the fence were a bugger to lift up off the ground. But after some grunting and groaning and lots of help, they had those inside also. Everyone was very happy to go to sleep somewhere. It didn’t matter where.

  Theo said, “Oh yeah, Juan can you go out and take care of our own scumbag before you sack out?”

  Juan didn’t look too happy about it, but said. “Fine, fine I’ll do it, no problem Theo.”

  Juan didn’t like it at all. All he wanted to do is lay down, but he went ahead and fed, watered, out housed and then retied their prisoner before he sacked out for the night. He grumbled, “How did I get to be in charge of the scumbag anyway? Guess I am just tired.”

  Chapter 25

  Settling

  And the ranch goes on:

  Most of the older set found themselves stiff and sore in the morning. The teenagers just bounced out of bed or out of sleeping bags rearing to go. Reese and Bert were allowed to sleep a couple of extra hours. So were the two now non captive women while the others ate some breakfast and the shovels were taken out of the shed, corral lean-to and the barn. Theo liked shovels in different places so they were easy to get to for farm chores such as mucking out the barn stalls and other miscellaneous jobs.

  The morning chores were done. Then the cows were milked which included the new addition of the mini Jersey. Theo just couldn’t get over such a small cow. He just stood there staring amazed at it while Ruth milked it. It made his Brown Swiss seem huge.

  “Darndest thing I have ever seen. Who would have thought they could shrink a cow like that?”

  Tammy was helping with chores and just smiled and watched Gramps walk back out the barn door.

  Reese and Bert were awakened so they could eat. Then guards were picked to be left at the ranch while the rest went to dig and dispose of the bikers in a mass grave. Gramps had Red and Buck threw a couple of bags of lime on top of the bodies to sprinkle over them later when they were deposited in their last resting place. The two new women continued to sleep. Tammy had been left in the house to watch over them. She spied Gramp’s library of how-to books and dove into reading to pass the time.

  About forty-five minutes later, one of the ladies came up from the basement and needed to know where the bathroom was. Tammy showed her out to the nearest outhouse and waited outside for her. As they were coming back in the kitchen from the back door, the other woman was standing in the doorframe of the basement steps.

  Tammy looked up at the first one whose name was Louise and asked her if she would be ok alone in the kitchen while she showed Betty to the outhouse.

  “Sure I will be just fine. Go on ahead.”

  Louise sat down at the table, crossed her arms and laid her head down on her arms. She had just been through a nightmare. She just wanted to soak in the quiet and feel the safety. After a few seconds, she raised her head and began to look around at her surroundings. The kitchen was a nice soft yellow with light yellow flowered and green curtains. It had a homey feel. It was kind of on the big size with lots of cupboards and shelves which were all full and two long counters. Part of the counter was board setting over what looked like a propane stove. It looked like the board had hinges so it could be opened and the stove used. The wood stove was nothing like she had seen before. Of course she hadn’t seen many. Her grandmother had talked about cooking on her own grandmothers. Looks like time had made a spin backwards and she would be telling her grandkids about cooking on wood stoves, how funny. It was a huge black metal thing with chrome and said Monarch at the bottom.

  There weren’t any of the normal things you would see in this modern age on the counters. But if anyone was smart, those things would have been put away by now. Her eyes went back to the sink. There by the sink was an old fashion hand water pump like she had seen in the old western movies. These people were really set up right as far as the kitchen went. Propane with a wood stove backup. There was water and she would bet anyone at this moment they had pigs or chickens or both for getting rid of the scraps. She hadn’t heard any dogs but most ranchers had them to help with the animals. Cattle dogs were normal out here. The door opened startling her and she jumped, her heart going to her throat. Betty and the little teenager Tammy were coming into the kitchen while she had been lost in thought.

  “Here you go Betty. You go sit down by Louise and I will get you both some breakfast. I hope eggs, bread and sausage are ok?”

  Both women said that sounded very good to them. The last three days all they had been eating was oatmeal bars and jerky.

  Louise then noticed there wasn’t anyone else around. “Where is everyone?”

  Betty put in, “Yes, It seems awful quiet around here.”

  “Everyone is out doing chores and burying the dead of the biker gang. They should be back in about an hour or so, I would think.”

  Tammy was talking and warming up the sausage that had been cooked at breakfast for the rest of the family on the propane stove. The next cast iron pan she added a bit of bacon grease and started to crack eggs into it.

  “Hope bread is ok to go with your breakfast too. We have butter and homemade jam to go along with the bread. Oh, do you two want some milk?”

  Louise looked up in unbelief. “You have milk? How?”

  Tammy smiled at the question. “Cows, we have cows. Gramps O’Dell has a Brown Swiss and we brought a mini Jersey with us.”

  “But how do you keep it cold?” This was from Betty this time. It just sounded like a fairy tale. “With no electric for a refrigerator how do you keep it from going sour?”

  “There is a spring house here. The milk is put into milk cans then those are put in the cold spring water which keeps it really nice. Same with the butter and some of the left overs if we’re going to eat those the next day.”

  Now Tammy had just learned this fact this morning when she had gone to the springhouse with Kate. She talked like she was an old hand at it. She also had helped Kate collect the eggs this morning as they had left them yesterday with all the trouble. Most of the chickens were already out of the coop scratching in the dirt around the area by the time they got out there to collect the eggs. Chickens were very early risers.

  Betty hated to see someone work so hard in her behalf. A stranger at that and her just sit around, but she just felt exhausted.

  “If it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience, I would love some milk.” She looked over at Louise who said. “Me too if it’s not too much trouble.”

  “No trouble at all.” Tammy dished up the ladies food and laid the loaf of bread and knife with the butter and a jam on the table. She went out the kitchen door with a half-gallon pitcher in her hands. “I’ll be right back.”

  Tammy was back within a few minutes with the pitcher of milk. The cream had already been skimmed off the milk before she got to the ranch. There was one milk can waiting to be skimmed and another cooling from this morning. Some of the milk in the spring house would be made into cheese. There was more than enough, but with the growing family none would be wasted now. Well the pigs had loved the waste. They hadn’t gotten their full scale cheese making going yet as everyone was learning the ropes. Theo, Buck and Red had been so busy teaching so many things that the cheese making had fallen behind. When Theo had found that he had waited too long to make cheese out of a can of milk, he had given himself a good talking to.

  The two young women had never had fresh milk in their lives. They had only had the watered down stuff that came from the store like most people today.

  Louise and Betty couldn’t believe how good the milk was. They had been all set to not like it because it wasn’t from the store. Louise realized something.

  “You know Betty, I
think I am going to have to start changing my way of thinking about things. I must have been pretty spoiled. Before all this happened, I wouldn’t have touched something that didn’t come from a store with a ten-foot pole. I considered vegetables from a garden as dirty and milk from a cow, forget it. I was pretty ignorant I guess.”

  “I was too Louise. Not that bad but spoiled enough. My mom had a garden, but I turned my nose up at a lot of stuff and the things she was trying to teach me about growing things. I told her. ‘Oh gads Mom none of those things will happen. We will always have stores to go to. Learn to grow my own food. Get a life Mom.’ Now I wish I could apologize to her.” Tears slid down her face when she thought of her mom and how the bikers had killed her when she stood up to them as they tried to take her little girl.

  Louise reached over and squeezed Betty’s left hand slightly. Louise understood. Only it had been her new husband that the bikers had killed. They had been married one year last month. Louise didn’t even look like the same person as last month she had lost thirty pounds and was way too thin for her 5 foot 8 inch frame. Her brown hair was chopped off at the shoulders. She could swear there were white streaks at the sides by her ears. She was twenty-four years old and now felt like she had been through the wringer. The biker, Canker, didn’t know she was twenty-four years old or he wouldn’t have taken her. At that time she looked more like she was 18-19 years old. She didn’t use much makeup to enhance her looks and so that made her look younger.

  Louise had known Betty in High School. They had lived all their lives in the same town. The whole senior class was 150 students the year Louise graduated.

  Betty Brown had blond hair that had been hacked off close to her ears by Whitey. She had green eyes and had graduated fourth in her class two years after Louise. Betty also was now pretty thin. She had been on the solid side and liked it, not too thin not too heavy. She enjoyed working out to keep some muscle and hated dieting. You wouldn’t know that now. Part of the girl’s punishment for not cooperating was to not feed them, but make them watch the others eat. After several times of that in the last month, it had worn them both down. The oatmeal bars and jerky had only staved off that empty feeling when that’s what they were allowed to eat with the rest of the gang.