by A. American
“Anyone else hurt?” Doc asked.
Thad pointed at me. “Him. He took a round to the chest, magazine stopped it.”
“Were you hit the same time as they were?” Sarge asked as he stepped out of the wagon. Mike, Ted and Doc also got out and walked up and we all shook hands.
“Yeah, I was standing in front of a big smoker. Lit me right up, I imagine,” I said, then reached down and stuck my finger through the hole in the mag pouch.
“Damn, how’s your ribs?” Doc asked.
“Still a little sore, but I’m all right. Can you come up to the house and check out my daughter for me?”
“Sounds good. Mike, you an’ Ted stay here an’ keep an eye on things. We’ll take our friends with us,” Sarge said as he walked around and climbed in behind the wheel of his war wagon.
Doc got in the other one while Thad and I headed for our ATVs. Sarge looked back over his shoulder at his prisoners. “Y’all keep up, now, ya hear?” and started to pull through the barricade. I sat on my Polaris as they came through. The one in the lead, the one I remembered, had a look of disgust on his face. The next two looked resigned to whatever was in store for them. The last one, the chunky guy, looked me in the eyes as he came past. He looked pained, scared maybe.
Thad raced ahead to show Sarge the way, and I brought up the rear. As we eased along, the old boy looked back at me once. Something was there. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was definitely something.
As we came up to the house, Mel, Taylor and Little Bit came out on the porch. Little Girl was barking at all the activity. When the girls saw the four men, they stepped behind Mel. Mel was looking around, first at Sarge and Doc then at the other guys. Sarge was out of his buggy and untying the men from the tag line. They still had on the flex cuffs that bound their wrists.
“All right, ladies, take a seat and behave. Try anything an’ you won’t live to see what happens,” Sarge said. “Doc, grab yer sack of goodies an’ let’s have a look at the little girl.”
Doc reached in to pull his bag out as Sarge headed for the porch. I met him there to introduce him to Mel and the girls, who were still hiding behind her. I’m sure to them he was quite intimidating: camo uniform, all sorts of gear and weapons hanging off him and his personality took up a lot of room.
As he stepped up to the porch he took off his boonie hat and said, “Ma’am.”
“Sarge, this is Mel, my wife, and my daughter Taylor,” I said.
Little Bit had stepped over behind me, hiding behind my legs. Mel greeted each of them. Lee Ann was a little shy, but they were friendly. Little Bit wouldn’t come out.
Sarge knelt down. “An’ who’s this little lady?”
She buried her face in my leg. I reached back and put my hand on her head. “This is Ashley. We call her Little Bit.”
Sarge let out a laugh. “Well, if there ever was a Little Bit, she’s it,” he said with a smile.
She relaxed a bit and came out from behind me. Mel and Taylor relaxed as well. Doc came up with his big pack, and I introduced him. Sarge asked Thad to stay out and watch the men on the ground. Thad nodded and tilted the old shotty over his shoulder. The rest of us went inside to see Lee Ann, who was still lying on the couch.
She looked up as we came in, a little nervous at first with the new people, but Doc had a great bedside manner and was soon checking her over. She got a little nervous again when he asked her to lie back and started pressing on her belly. His diagnosis was that she was okay, but that the wound looked a little red—not infected yet, but it could be heading that way. He was concerned there could be some foreign debris in the wound, maybe a piece of denim from her pants. As a precaution he was going to give her an intravenous antibiotic that he said he had brought just for this.
Lee Ann wasn’t real thrilled with the idea of the needle but she took it like a champ. Doc told her to just rest and let the medicine run in. Then he made himself a hero by pulling three cans of Coke and three Hershey bars out of his pack, distributing them to the girls. They all squealed with delight when he handed them out, each saying thank you before tearing into them.
Thad opened the door and stuck his head in. “Morg, you guys need to come outside.” From behind him we could hear shouts and arguing.
The three of us went out the door. Mel started to follow, but I stopped her, asking her to stay in the house. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on and I didn’t want her or the girls outside. She nodded and said she would keep the girls in the house. Outside I saw that one of the men was sitting off from the others and the other three were yelling at him, telling him to shut up.
Sarge wasted no time, wading into the three men and telling them to shut up. They ignored him, so he had to get their attention.
“Shut up, dammit!” Sarge shouted.
“You keep yer mouth shut, fatass!” the one the fat guy called Marvin shouted.
Sarge kicked the man in the chin. He sprawled out onto his back, unconscious. The other two quickly looked away, not wanting the same. Sarge looked back at Thad and said, “What the hell’s goin’ on?”
“Morg, you need to talk to that one,” Thad said, pointing to Avery.
I looked over at the man who was separated from the others. He looked as though he had been crying. He sat on the ground with his bound hands in his lap. I asked Thad what was up.
“Ask him,” he answered.
Sarge was still standing amidst the other men and Doc was on the porch leaning on the handrail. I walked over to the old boy and nudged him with my foot. “What’s up?”
He looked up at me and his face started to contort. “I didn’t mean to shoot the girl. It was an accident, I’m so sorry,” he blubbered.
It took a minute for it to sink in. “What?” He looked away from me. “You sayin’ you’re the one who shot at us the other day?”
“Yes, sir, I was told to come back and try to scare you folks. If you’da just went to the camp, it wouldn’t uv happened.”
I looked back at Sarge, then over at the other guys, then back to the one on the ground. The man Sarge had kicked was starting to come around. He was moaning a bit and rolling his head.
“Wake up, asshole,” Sarge said as he kicked the man in the thigh.
I stood there thinking. These were the men who had attacked us the other day, and probably the same ones who had been in on the previous attack. I was getting pissed. I hadn’t noticed that Doc had walked off the porch and was standing beside me. I stepped away with my hands on my head. This guy almost killed Lee Ann.
“I was jus’ doing what I was told,” the man whined.
I spun around and started toward him. The carbine was across my chest hanging from its sling, but I didn’t think about it and instead drew my pistol as I approached. The man still had his head down as I started to bring the pistol up. Doc grabbed my hand. He was shaking his head. “Not now. We need to talk with these guys.”
“They almost killed my daughter! There’s no talking now!” I shouted at him.
“Don’t worry, Morgan; they’re going to get what’s coming to ’em, but first I need to talk with ’em a bit,” Sarge said.
The other two men on the ground were suddenly restless. The third man was finally sitting upright, rubbing his chin and spitting blood. He glared up at Sarge. “You dumb sumbitch, you don’ know who yer fuckin’ with.”
Sarge ignored the comment, instead looking at Thad. “We need a place where we can talk with these guys—not around here, not where’s there’s any kids.”
“Let’s take ’em back to Reggie’s place. There’s a barn there we can use,” Thad said.
“I want to move these guys, but I don’t want to parade ’em through town. Morg, that Suburban run?” Sarge asked, and I nodded.
“Thad, go up there an’ get Mike an’ Ted; I’m gonna need their help,” Sarge said. Thad jumped on
his ATV and headed for the barricade. “Get ’em on their feet and load ’em into the truck. Morgan, I know this is personal to you, but trust me, they’ll get what’s coming to them, just let me do what I need to first.”
I didn’t acknowledge his statement. I just turned and kicked the one man in the ass. “Get up,” I said as I holstered my pistol. Sarge told the other men to get to their feet, the man he had kicked wasn’t moving fast enough for him, so he kicked his boots. “Hurry up or I’ll do it for ya.”
While Sarge was wrangling his prisoners, I went over and started the old truck. I hadn’t driven it since I had acquired my Polaris, and it took a few cranks to get it started. I let it sit there and idle for bit and went into the house while Doc and Sarge were loading up the men. Mel was sitting on the couch with Lee Ann. The other girls were lounging on the floor in front of the fire, half dozing. Mel looked up as I came in. “What’s going on out there?”
“It appears those guys are the ones who shot at us at the cookout.”
“They shot Lee Ann? What’s going to happen to them?” she asked, anger rising in her voice.
“Sarge wants to interrogate them, then we’ll see what happens,” I said.
“You better kill them. They tried to kill us; you better not let them get away.”
I leaned over and kissed her. “There’s no way in hell they are getting away, I can promise you that.”
Mike and Ted were standing beside the truck when I came back out. All the guys were loaded into the back of the Suburban and Sarge was talking with Thad. He stopped as I walked up and said, “Let’s take ’em down to Reggie’s place.”
I climbed in and Sarge got in the passenger seat. He looked over and smiled a creepy smile at me, then Mike and Ted got in the back seat. I drove out the gate with Thad and Doc following in the two buggies. Nothing was said as we drove along. In the rearview mirror I could see Mike watching the men in the back. As we approached the corner where the stocks were located, Sarge let out a chuckle.
“What the hell’s that, Morgan?” he asked, looking out the window.
“We built them to have something to do with people that broke the law. Shooting everyone for everything wasn’t working out.”
“I guess not. Good idea, how’d it work out?” Sarge asked.
“We only had one person in there and he probably needed killing.”
Sarge looked over but didn’t say anything. The rest of the trip was silent. Jeff was at the gate when I pulled through it. Thad pulled around me and waved for me to follow him around the house to the barn. I stopped the truck in front of the door into the small room on Reggie’s barn.
As we were getting out, Reggie came out the back door. He stood there for a minute looking at the group as we all emerged from the old Suburban. He walked up to me, looking at Sarge and crew with suspicion.
“Who the hell are they?”
“No worries, man, they’re friends,” I said, but it didn’t do much for his disposition.
I did a quick round of introductions. Reggie shook each of their hands. As he was shaking Sarge’s hand, the old man looked down at Reggie’s.
“Well, looks like all the fingers are on this one; how’s the other one?” Sarge asked.
Reggie held his other hand up, still bandaged up. Sarge looked at it, then called over his shoulder, “Doc, come take a look at his hand, see if he needs anything.” He looked back at Reggie and said, “Let him take a look at it. He’s a pretty good sawbones.”
Reggie nodded and Doc walked over to him. The two of them went into the house. When they walked away, Sarge returned to the truck and opened the back gate. He said, “Okay, ladies, end of the road. Get out,” and waited for the men to climb out. He told Mike to keep an eye on them for a minute and went over and opened the door to the small room in the barn.
Sarge went over and whispered to Mike and Ted and then asked me, “Is there a toolshed or anything like that around here?”
“Yeah, back over there,” I said, pointing behind the barn. “I’m gonna go get another friend of mine I want y’all to meet and later, and if it isn’t too much trouble, I got another guy that Doc needs to look at.”
“Fine,” Sarge replied with a wave as he headed for Reggie’s shop.
I climbed back into the Suburban and drove over to Danny’s house. I wanted him to meet Sarge and the crew. When I got to his house, he wasn’t there. Bobbie said he was over at Miss Janice’s house digging her a grave. Shit, I had forgotten all about her. I drove over to her house and found him working on the soft sand in her front yard. He must have known I was coming. He had two shovels there, so I dropped in beside him and started digging.
Chapter 35
Doc was finishing up the redressing of Reggie’s hand when Sarge got back from taking a few things from the toolshed. Sarge asked how it looked and Doc told him that it looked really good, that someone did a good job. When Reggie told him it was a vet, Sarge let out a laugh and shook his head.
“Lucky you got a good vet, then. Did he give you your shots when you was there?” he asked with a grin.
“Naw, but when I woke up I had one of them damn lampshades around my neck.”
“Oh damn!” Sarge shouted, and Doc laughed.
“I hope he didn’t clip your nuts; I ain’t checkin’ on them,” Doc said, and Reggie and Sarge both laughed.
“Hey, Reggie, you got any water?” Sarge asked.
“Yeah, they’s a drum out back there. I fill it at Morgan’s house—well, he fills it and brings it down here.”
Sarge stood there for a moment studying the man. “Ole Morgan’s a good man, huh?”
“Yeah, he is. He does a lot to help people. A few of us around here stick together, we look out for each other.”
Sarge nodded his head. “I know: people worth a shit seem to be drawn together. I’m gonna get some water.”
“Help yourself,” Reggie said.
Sarge found the drum. There was a piece of hose sticking out of the top, and it didn’t take long to get water flowing out into an empty bucket that was sitting there. Sarge filled the bucket, carried it over to the door in the barn and set it down.
Inside the small room, there were four men standing on their tiptoes with their hands tied to trusses over their heads. Sarge told Mike to go find something to blindfold them with. Ted had one foot in the seat of the chair and was resting his elbows on his knee. Sarge looked at the men and smiled. He was met with blank stares for the most part.
“You boys sure are quiet,” Sarge said.
“We ain’t got shit ta say ta you,” Marvin told him.
“You will, you will,” Sarge said, nodding his head, then looked at Ted. “Help me take him down.”
Ted and Sarge took Marvin down from where he was hanging. He tried to struggle once, just as Sarge had hoped. They cut him down, but his hands were still bound. Marv tried to hit Ted, more of a push so he could make a run for the door. When he did, Sarge was waiting. He was holding his Taser in his hand. He had removed the cartridge and was all ready for the contact tase he delivered to Marv’s neck. Marv immediately yelped and went rigid. They dragged him over to the chair in the center of the room and without a lot more effort had him seated and tied, hands to the armrests and legs to the chair legs. Sarge then knelt down and cut the laces on his boots, pulled the boots off Marv’s feet and then his socks and tossed them aside.
“What the hell are you doin’?” Marv yelled.
Sarge stood up and looked down at him. Reaching out and tousling Marv’s hair, he said, “Don’t worry, you’ll see soon enough.”
Mike came back into the room with an old sheet and an old towel. Sarge told him to save the towel and cut up the sheet. Mike and Ted went to work making blindfolds, and the ripping and tearing of fabric unsettled the men a bit. Sarge took one from Mike and hung it on a nail, tossing the towel over his sho
ulder. Mike and Ted covered the eyes of the other three men. With the blindfolds on, there was a very noticeable change in the breathing of all the men, an obvious increase in the rate and volume of air they were sucking in and blowing out.
Sarge motioned for Ted and Mike to follow him and they stepped out the door.
Marv started fighting against his bonds as soon as they left, rocking the chair and straining with everything he had to try and break free.
“Marv, did they leave?” Goat asked.
“Yeah, see if you guys can get loose. We need to get the hell out of here.”
When the door opened again, though, their hopes sank. Without saying anything, Ted and Mike grabbed Marv on either side and tipped him back, laying him on the floor.
“What’re you doin’?” Marv shouted.
Sarge was standing over the man, looking down at him. There was no smile this time.
“When I was a boy, I had a dog,” Sarge said.
“Who gives a shit?” Marv shouted.
“It was my dog, but I wasn’t allowed to feed it. Worst beatin’ I ever got was for givin’ my dog a hot dog.” Sarge paused for moment, then continued, “You know why I wasn’t allowed to feed that dog?” He looked down at Marv.
After a moment Marv realized the old man wouldn’t continue until he answered. “Why? Like I give a shit what they fuck—” Sarge planted a boot on his chest and pressed the air out of him.
“I wasn’t allowed to feed the dog ’cause my old man fed the dog, an’ he was a mean sumbitch. He fed the dog ’cause he pissed in the dog’s food ever’ time.” Sarge paused for a moment, looking at Marv. “Know why he did that?”
Marv shook his head. He was relieved when the old man took his boot off his chest. He took a deep breath, and Sarge straddled him.
“He said he did it so the dog would know who the boss was.” As Sarge said this, he reached for his fly and started to undo it.
Suddenly Marv had a terrifying realization and started to cuss, but a towel was quickly pulled tight over his face, so tight he couldn’t even turn his head, though he continued to scream through the towel.