“We were just gonna have fun with you!” a man’s voice yelled. “But now, we’re just gonna kill you!”
The gruff man, who seemed the calmest and also had the foulest things to say, said, “And after, the two of you are getting us fucked, or fed—and I don’t care which comes first.”
Lauren swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded at Megan. Megan returned to her position with both handguns at the ready. She then nodded back and began to fire each pistol, just as she’d done earlier. Lauren exhaled a deep breath and leaned over to the left of the Polaris, lining up the open sights of the Colt onto the truck’s gas tank. She flipped off the safety and began firing rapidly.
After around the tenth successive round, she noticed a liquid pouring from the underside of the truck, just behind the backseat. Lauren continued firing. At her count, she was near the twentieth expended round, which meant she’d already exhausted half of the ammunition in the magazine. A man holding what appeared to be her AR-15 took off at a sprint from behind the truck, and Lauren adjusted her aim toward him. Leading him slightly to make up for his movement, she let out a breath and fired, hitting him in the shoulder blade. His body twisted and he immediately went down. She then returned to continue firing at the truck. When she saw the first tracer round ignite after leaving the muzzle, Lauren adjusted her aim to the puddle of what she assumed was gasoline beneath the truck. She fired two tracers back to back into the puddle and the surrounding fumes ignited in a broad flash. The truck suddenly detonated, sending pieces of burning debris flying in all directions. The remaining man who’d been hiding behind it was thrown violently into the woods on the other side of the truck, his body engulfed in flames.
“Nice shot!” Megan exclaimed in celebration as she stood up. “Hell yeah!”
Lauren, who was just as surprised but not nearly as elated as her friend, remained discreetly in her position. She snapped her fingers admonishingly at Megan.
“You think there’s more of them?” asked Megan.
“I’m not sure,” replied Lauren. “But I didn’t have a chance to count them.”
Megan handed Lauren back her sidearm. “I never fired a Glock before today,” she said. “It’s not as bad as people make it out to be.”
Lauren smiled. She flipped the safety on Megan’s AR-15, then handed it to her. “Your sights are only slightly off,” Lauren said with a warm smile.
“Sorry about that,” Megan said while looking her rifle over. “I’ll make sure and get it sighted in before next time.”
Lauren smirked and shook her head. She ejected the magazine from her Glock and began filling it with rounds from her last remaining one and then, once full, smacked it back into place.
“I’m going to head up there and check things out, okay? So cover me,” Lauren said. She motioned to Megan’s rifle. “I think there’s about seven rounds left.”
“Okay,” Megan said as she readied herself. “Be careful.”
Lauren walked cautiously in a low stance around the left side of the UTV. As she approached the first man that she’d shot, she got down on one knee and put her fingers on his neck. She couldn’t feel a pulse. As she rose back to her feet, Lauren pointed her pistol in the direction of the second man. She could see that he was still breathing, although he hadn’t moved since the second time that she’d shot him. Lauren stood beside him, turned her head away, and fired a single shot into the base of his skull, ending him. She then continued out of the woods and onto the road while Megan watched her back closely from behind the Polaris. She walked past the burning truck and took aim at the man whose burning body was festering in the woods. He didn’t appear to be moving, so she bypassed him and continued on to the man she’d shot in the shoulder.
The man was lying on his back, with one of his legs tucked awkwardly under the other. It appeared broken. He was breathing heavily while holding his shoulder, and Lauren’s rifle was lying on the ground just feet from him. She took aim on the man with her Glock, carefully picked up her rifle, and wiped off some of the mud. While watching the man’s hands, she glanced over it for damage and was glad to see that everything appeared intact. She then slung it over her shoulder and moved in closer to the man. His eyes went straight to the business end of her sidearm.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m really sorry.”
“What? You’re sorry?” Lauren questioned him indignantly. She paused and looked the man over. “Sorry for what? All the fucked-up things you said? Or sorry for trying to kill us?”
The man sniffled and whimpered. “For everything,” he said. “I didn’t mean what I said. I didn’t mean any harm at all. It was all Terry’s idea. I swear.”
“Terry?” inquired Lauren. She then pointed behind her. “You mean the guy in the woods? The one who’s on fire, right? Is that Terry?”
The man nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.” He paused while trying to catch a glimpse of the man. “Is he dead?”
Lauren peered over. “He definitely looks it.”
“Good. That’s good. You killed him, then. That’s real good,” the man uttered.
“Then we agree on something,” Lauren said firmly. She took a brief look around to see what had become of her backpack. She hoped that it wasn’t attached to the burning man.
“Is everything okay?” Megan asked, her voice coming from behind the Polaris yards away.
“It’s all clear,” Lauren advised, and waved to her. “But keep your head on a swivel, just in case.”
“Please, hon…please just let me go,” the man pled. His body was starting to convulse.
“That’s not my name,” Lauren rebuked.
The man gave Lauren a confused look and she reiterated.
“You called me ‘hon’. My name isn’t hon.”
“I’m sorry,” the man said. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Really,” she huffed. “And when you said, ‘get us fucked or fed’, you didn’t mean anything by that either, right?”
“That wasn’t me—I told you. That was Terry.”
“I don’t care who it was,” said Lauren. “You people are all the same—and I don’t have any sympathy for any of you.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, okay? I don’t want to die. I…I just really don’t want to die,” the man groveled.
“It’s funny you say that,” Lauren quipped. “Me and my friend over there, you know, the ones you and your buddies tried to kill? We really don’t want to die either.”
The man began to weep and shiver concurrently. Blood oozed from his shoulder onto the muddy gravel beneath him. “You have to believe me, I’m not like him,” he pleaded. “Terry is a boss. He gets to do whatever he wants. We either obey people like him or pay consequences. It’s the only way to survive.”
Lauren nodded and grinned slightly. The man’s begging was almost amusing to her. She didn’t like feeling this way, but she just couldn’t help it right now. The nerve of this man—pleading for mercy when not even ten minutes earlier, he would have no doubt defiled and slaughtered her and her friend at the request of his so-called boss.
“What’s your name?” Lauren asked.
“Mike,” the man said under his breath. “My name’s Mike.”
“Well, Mike, my dad used to tell me that every choice we make comes with a set of consequences—some good and some bad. The one you made today came with a multitude of the latter. You should’ve known better.”
As Lauren readied herself to put the man out of his misery she heard footsteps approaching her from behind on the muddy road.
“Lauren, wait—”
Lauren turned curiously to see Megan, but kept her gun trained on the man. “Meg, this has to be done,” she said with a tone of finality. “If we don’t do this, he’ll come back and try to hurt us again or hurt someone else.”
“Oh…I know,” uttered Megan without protest. “I’m not questioning that at all.”
“Then what is it?”
Megan approached Lauren cl
osely, a few bulging tears beginning to build in her eyes. She tucked her hair behind her ear, wiped them away, and then whispered into Lauren’s ear, “I want you to let me do it.”
At first, Lauren was taken aback at her friend’s words, and wondered if Megan truly meant what she was saying. She assumed, though, that her friend had never killed anyone before. Megan wanted to do this because—she felt she needed to, and Lauren couldn’t disagree. This was about their self-preservation. And it was necessary.
Lauren nodded her acceptance and moved aside, keeping her back to her friend as Megan moved to stand over the man, her Sig pointed at his head. Lauren heard the man’s relentless sniveling and yelps for mercy. She then heard Megan’s cries of despair. Then, a few seconds later, she heard the shot.
Chapter 12
Trout Run Valley
Hardy County, West Virginia
Saturday, October 16th (Present day)
Christian started the engine to life on his ATV. “Follow me,” he said, and then turned the wheel, pulling away from the barricade. He waited momentarily for Michelle and Grace to catch up and then tore off down the hill. Once they reached the entrance of the logging road, Christian pointed to the muddy tracks that began in the drainage ditch and continued as far as they all could see into the woods, indicating that a vehicle had travelled through the area recently.
“I saw this on the way to the old man’s house. It has to be them,” Christian determined. “Do either of you know where it goes?”
“It’s the logging road where Bryan said he saw the takers come from the other day,” Michelle said. She paused and sighed, her expression becoming more worried by the second. “I think it leads to Devil’s Hole Mountain.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Grace said as she turned the volume down on the Baofeng radio to quiet Fred’s relentless calls for his daughter. “Did they decide to go looking for them or something?”
“I honestly have no idea,” Michelle said, her voice marked with exhaustion. She reached into her hoodie and nervously pulled out a half-empty pack of cigarettes.
Christian dismounted his ATV and began rummaging through his gear. He put on his plate carrier and began rifling through the pockets of his backpack, pulling out extra rifle magazines. He slid each one into a pouch attached to the carrier. Grace eyeballed him, noting how serious he looked as he prepared, her eyes getting wider by the second. It was as if she were watching a real-life Rambo prepare himself for battle, complete with cheesy background music. She totally expected to see him wrap a torn-fabric headband around his head and pull out a ridiculously large survival knife with a sawtooth edge and tie it to his leg.
“Grace, when you hear a break, call for Fred on the radio and tell him what we found,” Christian said. “Tell him I’m headed up to Devil’s Hole to look for Lauren and Megan.”
Grace nodded nervously. “Fred is going to lose his shit.”
“He’s already losing his shit,” Christian said, his head in motion, gesturing to the radio.
Grace shot him a questioning look. “You’re not planning on going alone, are you?”
Christian didn’t respond. His mind was fixated on the objective at hand. He turned away and headed for his ATV.
Michelle’s worry had gotten the best of her, and she once again was thinking the worst. She looked frozen in place—almost stupefied as she puffed on the cigarette she’d just lit.
Grace tapped her shoulder. “Michelle? You okay?”
Michelle shook her head and sniffled. She exhaled a breath of smoke from her nostrils and looked to the sky. “This is all just too much for me sometimes.”
“Maybe you should head home,” Grace suggested. “Let Christian and Fred handle this.”
Michelle shook her head defensively. “No. I’m going.”
Grace patted her on the back and turned to face Christian, who was preparing to leave. “Okay, it’s settled. I’m going too, then.”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said sternly. “For either of you.”
Grace unstrapped her rifle from the back of Michelle’s ATV and slung it over her shoulder. “Duly noted. And duly written off.”
Christian sighed. “Fine. You two ride together,” he instructed. “I’m running point, so stay a good distance behind me and watch for my hand signals. Be prepared at all times to dismount, find cover, and shoot, okay?” He paused and started the engine on his ATV. “And if you have to shoot, you shoot to kill. Got it?”
Michelle and Grace both nodded as Christian pulled away. Grace put the radio to her ear and, when she heard a few seconds of silence, made contact with Fred and conveyed everything to him.
“I’ll be on the way directly,” Fred’s voice thundered over the radio’s speaker.
Grace hopped onto Michelle’s ATV and slid her rifle from her shoulder, placing it in her lap. Her heart was beating through her chest.
The two-mile ride up the mountain on the logging road was as monotonous as it was muddy. As Christian neared the top of the mountain, the intersection with the gravel road came into view and he slowed his ATV down to a crawl. The scent of something burning hit his nostrils. It was familiar to him, as if he’d recently smelled something similar. He stood on the foot pegs and got a good look around before turning onto the road and pulling to a stop. There, about a hundred feet in front of him, he saw the remnants of a burning pickup truck—its black smoke plume rising hundreds of feet into the air. Just beyond it in the woods lay a wrecked Polaris UTV.
Christian turned and held up a hand when Michelle and Grace came into view, motioning for them to stop. He then dismounted his machine and pulled his rifle into his shoulder. He approached the wreckage in a high crawl from the side of the road nearest the woods with his head in constant movement. As he drew closer, he saw a smoldering body that’d been burned well beyond recognition in the woods. Upon reaching it, he verified the deceased and then stomped out some of the small fires that had been ignited around the body with his boot. When Christian noticed another body lying in the middle of the road just past the charred truck, he took off in a sprint toward it as his mind’s eye filled with the worst possible scenario. As he advanced, getting more worried by the second, he heard a familiar female voice call to him from the woods.
“Christian!”
It was Lauren, and he stopped dead in his tracks, feeling an immense relief flood his body. He turned to see her as she and Megan emerged from the forest. Lauren’s clothes were torn and covered in mud, and her hair was a mess. He saw the cuts and specks of dried blood on Megan’s face. It looked as though they’d been through an encounter, but were otherwise intact—and alive. Thank God they’re alive, he thought.
Lauren ran directly to him and put her arms around him almost before he could move his rifle out of the way.
“Thank God it’s you,” she panted. “We heard engines—we thought more of them were coming, so we ran into the woods.”
“Wait—more of who?” asked Christian while he pulled away from her awkwardly.
Lauren shrugged and glanced at Megan. “Takers, we suppose.”
Christian began taking in the scene around them. The burning truck that appeared to have been blown to pieces somehow. The man’s body lying in the middle of the road with a single gunshot wound to his head. He looked beyond Lauren and Megan toward the Polaris and saw two more bodies, also appearing deceased, lying amongst the undergrowth in the woods.
“You guys did all this?” Christian asked rhetorically.
Lauren’s semi-contented smirk indicated how happy she was to be safe and in the company of her friends. She turned to Megan, who stood silent and shrugged, but offered no reply—just a blank stare.
Christian draped his rifle across his back and cursed under his breath while looking on. “What went down?”
“Some men in a truck were chasing us,” Lauren explained. “I stopped them just before we got ambushed here. They wrecked behind us about a quarter mile down the road
, just over that hill.” She pointed her finger, indicating the direction.
“Are they all dead?” Christian asked, a concerned look befalling him. He reached for his M4.
“We didn’t have a chance to. We’ve been…a little busy—as you can see.”
Christian nodded. “We need to make sure.”
Just then, Michelle and Grace pulled their ATV onto the road, with Fred following just behind them on another machine. All three dismounted and sprinted to where Lauren, Megan, and Christian were standing, their weapons held at the ready.
Christian held a thumb into the air. “It’s all clear here, Fred. There’s another scene just up the road,” he said, and then motioned to the girls. “I know this looks like it’s over, but don’t forget where we are. Stay vigilant.”
Fred grabbed Megan in a tight embrace as she began to cry and apologize while he held her.
“Don’t worry about it, baby,” Fred said. “Don’t worry about anything. Dad’s here now.”
“It was like a nightmare, Dad,” Megan said. “One bad thing after another. I promise I won’t ever do something this stupid again. I promise.”
Fred’s heart melted. If this had been either or both of his sons, he would’ve cursed them and told them how stupid they’d been. He would’ve admonished them for doing something so stupid and probably threatened them with a beating. But Megan was his daughter—his only daughter. He wasn’t going to treat her like that. As Fred continued to console her, he glanced at Lauren and mouthed the words thank you to her.
Grace took in the scene with boggling eyes as she reached for Lauren and gave her a hug. “I was going to ask you if you were okay, but the answer is pretty obvious,” she said. She gestured to Christian. “Where’s he going?”
“This isn’t the only altercation we had today. He wants to make sure all the bad guys are dead,” Lauren replied.
Lauren could see her mother in her peripheral vision and could see that Michelle was fixated on her—fuming and ready to boil over. Michelle broke the silence when Grace ran off to catch up with Christian.
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