BB1: What do you mean a life that is our own?
We plan to go back north in the spring and if you want to go with us you're welcome but if you want to stay here that's also up to you. We can teach you how to grow your own food, hunt and work the security systems. All you have to do is live. You might want to make a decision soon though, we need to get back.
Mason nudged me so I opened my eyes and smiled at him. "We're negotiating. I think I almost have them talked into helping us. Be another minute."
He caressed my arm as I looked at Bad Boy One again who finally smiled and nodded. We were in. The boys sent me mental images of the warehouse layout that I relayed to Mason who was busy drawing it out on a paper sack. BB1 tried to make a run for our trucks but gunfire sent him back. I asked if anyone else inside was telepathic and he said several. He became silent for several minutes before he finally let me know that they'd agreed to help.
We spent the next hour planning how to break into a Sams Warehouse. As much as I hate to shop, this was almost laughable...almost.
CHAPTER 16
The warehouse was a long rectangular building with eight docks in the rear. A large parking lot was surrounded by a ten foot fence with barbed wire running along the top. The rear parking lot held twelve street lights with cameras attached to each one. The building itself had five cameras on the roof. A steel stairway, landing and door were situated between the fourth and fifth docks. So far their security looked pretty good.
The front of the building housed offices on one side of the entrance and a reception area on the other with one large office and a dual restroom. We'd noticed when we pulled around the back of the building the windows in the front were broken out so the door leading to the warehouse proper would be boarded shut providing safety for the interior but no light.
There was a fire exit at each end of the building and the west end of the warehouse area held an employee break room with lockers lining one wall and two restrooms at the opposite side. According to our little snitches, the security for the building is housed in the employee break room.
The biggest room was designated for the head of the group referred to as Burly with the rest of the group consisting of eight children, and four adults, two of which were female. Burly held them in the break room only allowing them out of bed (yuk!) to cook. The other children took care of themselves and policed the area.
I'd gotten a picture of Burly once from digging around in BB1's head and avoided that again. It's why I don't go drifting willy nilly through people's heads, the repercussions could be brutal and the following nightmares terrifying. I finally found out BB1's name is Andy and he is 14 years old. He'd been with the group for almost a year and tried to take care of the other kids. Burly was abusive and Andy had taken beatings for some of the smaller kids knowing they wouldn't survive them. My assessment of Andy went up a bunch of notches when I found that out.
The weather had turned cloudy and a slight chill in the wind made us want to roll up the windows. We'd finally gotten Andy inside the truck so we could plan the best way to enter the building. The sniper, according to Andy, was firing blind through a slit in the rubber bumpers surrounding each dock. When a trailer backed up to the dock, the bumpers helped it to 'snug' into the dock and kept the weather out in the process of loading or unloading.
Riley and Flynn popped up on the side of the truck scaring the hell out of us. "I've secured the east fire exit and Flynn took care of the other one. Slipped a steel fence post through the grate of the stair landing right in front of the door. No one is getting out."
Not to be outdone, Flynn said, "I slid my post down on the inside of the steel railing in front of the door. Secured." They both looked so happy I almost wanted to pat them on the cheek.
"OK Andy, how are we now?"
"Tell me why you want to do this first. You could just drive away and find another warehouse. Why do you want to risk your lives for this one?"
"There are children in there. I'm sure I can speak for the rest when I say you don't leave children to be abused. Whatever we can get in the way of supplies later is cream...children come first."
He stared at me until I got uncomfortable, then he nodded, tilted his head and closed his eyes, communicating with the others, I hoped. He was quiet so long I was getting worried. He finally sighed, and said "they're ready to do this, just give them some kind of signal to let them know. They'll wait for my word, but you have to kill Burly. They won't let you in the building at all until you promise to kill Burly."
I looked at Mason who shrugged. Great. So I looked to the rest of the crew and finally Clint said, "If it means that much to them to kill this guy so they can be safe, I say why not?" We all agreed, as heartless as it was, but then we didn't know what kind of person he was, yet.
We quietly got out of the trucks. I convinced Andy to tell the kids when we would start. The steel door was open and when we got inside, a small voice near the floor said, "He's in the bathroom puking again." I figured the he in question was Burly and said to the floor, "Stay down low to the floor or go outside. If you get cold climb into one of the big trucks." I heard the door close behind us. That left eleven not counting Burly.
Andy led the way to the right and when we saw the doorway, we split up and stopped on either side of it. He closed his eyes and thought to the other kids and I began to hear scurrying, like the sounds of mice running. The steel door opened and closed and soon Andy held up his hand with five fingers up and then two fingers up. Okay, that meant four adults were left and with our luck, which so far had held, we could get them out without a shot fired.
The smell coming out of the room told us that the people inside didn't wash much. In fact, the whole warehouse stunk to high heaven. I wrinkled my nose but held my ground and waited while Andy 'spoke' to someone in the other room. Soon I heard talking and then a young man of around 18 came running out the door. Flynn grabbed him from behind and clamped a hand over his mouth. The young man's eyes were huge as he halfheartedly struggled against the hold. Soon his eyes slid up and he crumpled as the sleeper hold Flynn had on him worked it's magic and the young man fell unconscious. Flynn picked him up and carried him over to the corner where he gently lay him down.
OK, that left three and two were women. I hoped Burly continued to stay in the bathroom while Mason quickly looked around the corner then thought back at me. One of the young men is screwing a woman so get ready. The bathroom is to the left.
I nodded, tensed up the old back muscles and followed the rest of the crew inside. Burly could be heard puking in the bathroom, while the other sounds were that of sex being performed rather vigorously in the bed near the bathroom. One of the women sat on the bed facing away from us, drinking from a booze bottle. I would imagine I'd need to be drunk to put up with what was going on too.
We stood at the foot of the bed, so far unnoticed by, well, everyone and just when I was starting to feel like I should have paid for this performance, the bathroom door opened. We immediately swung our weapons toward the sound, with one eye on the couple in the bed. Burly didn't disappoint us. He was about six feet tall and 400 pounds. He had a receding hairline, and facial hair so complete I had trouble making out other facial features. His beard hung over his belly which was covered with hair too. He belched loudly as he waddled into the room.
He was playing with himself and making other noises I can't describe. Behind him I could see a very small, naked body lying very still on the floor in the bathroom. Suddenly he looked up, saw us and reached back into the bathroom. Several guns went off at the same time making small red holes appear in the front of his body. The one that crumpled him was the one between his eyes. He slid down the doorway, crapping all over himself as his muscles loosened, taking a very surprised look off his face at the same time. The sound of screaming over rode the sound of sexual satisfaction as the young man on the bed still had not realized what had happened in the room. When he did he reached for the gun lying on the bedside table an
d he was killed too.
The smell in the room had just ramped up tenfold. I was swallowing repeatedly as I left the room to the rest of our group while I stepped over the dead man in the doorway and went to the child lying so still. There was a lot of blood surrounding him as I reached for a pulse. He opened his eyes, and frowned a bit then tried to talk.
Bending low I was just able to make out, "Run."
I whispered in his ear, " Burly is dead. He won't hurt anyone ever again."
He smiled just a bit and closed his eyes. After several more breaths he lay still, holding my hand. I sat down hard on the floor next to him, still holding his hand, and cried. I heard a noise and looked up to see Mason and when I shook my head at him, he grabbed a towel and draped it over the small body, patting my leg before he left.
I don't know how long I sat on that bathroom floor surrounded by odors I didn't want to recognize but soon other children sat beside me and little voices cried along with me as we sat a vigil for the child. Time jumped around after that, all of a sudden the huge mass of fat was gone, then the floor was cleaned. Next thing I knew I was sitting outside on the steel landing, my hands clean and a child on either side of me.
Randy sat on the step in front of me and Clint stood in front of him talking softly. I finally honed in on his words..."take them back with us. The women don't want to stay and the kids can't stay by themselves but they don't want to leave."
I looked at the two dirty little munchkins beside me, then picked up the bottle of water in front of me and drank half of it. I offered it to the kids but they declined. Clearing my throat I asked, "Where's Mason?"
Clint looked at me and said, "Inside, with the other man."
"Dean," one of the kids said.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm Sid and that's Nevada. The mean guy is Dean. He was on Burly's side and helped him hurt us. He's really mean."
"Good to know. Would you stay out here with these two nice men and wait for me?" Sid nodded and said, "I don't ever want to go back in there again." Then he put his arm around Nevada. I stood up slowly, somewhat surprised at the wobbling of my legs, and went back inside the building, getting hugs from every child that saw me. I couldn't remember all their names but it didn't seem to matter.
"You ok?" Mason asked, standing next to Andy. I nodded my head and peeked around him into the other room. The women were cleaned, dressed and sitting at the table in the kitchen area. I hadn't noticed it was there when I first entered, but then I was a bit distracted at the time.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I'm trying to talk them into coming back to the cabin with us but there's a problem. They don't trust us and would rather take their chances here. We're still discussing it. Why don't you talk to the, ah, women."
I looked at the women in question, sighed and went to the table sitting as far from them as I could get. Not because of what they may be but from the way they smelled. Lord. Clasping my hands on the tabletop I looked first at one then the other. They just sat there and stared at me. I sighed again.
"Hi," I said to start things off. When neither one replied, I decided to be hardcore about it. I simply didn't have the time or energy to waste right then. "We're trying to talk the little ones into leaving with us. We have a nice place in the country where they'll be safe and well cared for. I'd say you're both welcome but since you want to be hard asses, you can stay here." With that statement, I rose and managed to make it to the door before the blonde said, "We aren't whores and I don't appreciate you treating us like it."
Mason gave me 'the look' so I sighed and went back to the table and sat. Looking at both of them I said, "I don't think the word was even mentioned so that's on you. I don't like kids being mistreated so that's why I'm more interested in them than you. But they don't want to leave and we're in discussions about it right now. So what exactly do you want to do?"
Blondie looked at her friend then me. "I've never thought about anything but getting through the next moment so I'd have to have a bit to figure it out."
I got back up and went to the door. "Mason, they want some time to think about it. I say give it to them. I honestly can't think about taking any of the supplies as long as they may be staying. I can't take the smell in there any longer either, so I'll wait outside." With that I went back outside to wait. Sid and Nevada sat down beside me again and together we waited until it was almost dark. I hated the idea of going home in the dark. The headlights attracted walkers like a dinner bell. But if we go back tonight that's the way it was going to be.
A gunshot rang out and Sid and I jumped up and ran back to the area where Dean was being interrogated. Mason and Randy was standing over his body. I didn't care. I raised my eyebrows at Mason who just shrugged and grabbed Deans shoulders while Randy got his feet and they dragged him out the exit door. The women spit on him as he was carried by. OK.
Blondie stepped up to me. "My name is Lucy. I'm a fair cook, and two years ago I got my license to fly planes. I don't know what that can do now but I'm offering if you can forget what you saw earlier." OK, so now I know which one she was.
The other woman put out her hand. "I'm Angie, I have some medical knowledge but mostly I was an animal vet. That isn't much good now, but I can learn to do other things. I want very much to leave this horrible place as soon as possible. The kids though may have other ideas and they won't take much guff. They took it from Burly but he was just plain mean. I wouldn't blame you if you refused to take me with you but I sure wish you'd reconsider." I shook her hand and resisted the urge to wipe it on my pant legs, but just barely.
When Mason came back in, he brought everyone with him. "Seems that Sid and Andy have it in their heads to stay. We can take whoever wants to go to our place because, if anything, we can teach you the security end of things so you can take care of yourselves. Sid and a couple of the others are concerned that if they left, the place would become the property of someone else and they would lose the chance to stay, in case they don't like the cabin. So, Clint, Flynn, Randy and I have decided to spend the night and let them sleep on it. It's not too smart to go back after dark anyway. Riley is topside calling Duke to let him know we'll be back tomorrow sometime."
They all nodded like it was a good idea, then the women started to fix dinner for the children. While they were doing that Nevada took my hand and led me around the warehouse. Each child had made a fort out of cardboard boxes, complete with carton beds, tables and chairs. Each one had personalized their home and I was impressed with the results. Nevada's 'room' had been lined with butcher paper and she had painted landscapes on the walls of mountains and beaches complete with palm trees and crabs on the shore. I was suitably impressed.
She looked up at me with the bluest eyes I've ever seen and said, "We've made a home here and even if it was hell, it's still our home. Now that Burly's gone it'll be better. I don't know but out there is scary, in here is safe. Please don't be mad if we don't want to go with you. You saved us and we'll love you forever, but this is our home and we really want to stay." She then threw herself against me so hard I had to take a step back to keep from going down.
Well, hell.
So we spent the night in the trucks and awoke the next morning to coffee. The place had been scrubbed during the night, and the smell reminded me of bounce dryer sheets. I noticed most of the kids were missing and when I asked, the women smiled and pointed to the roof. I guess they had small plastic swimming pools all over the roof, full of water. The sun heated the water during the day and the kids could bathe in the evening. They were up there doing just that, getting cleaned up for us.
We had a pow wow when we managed to get all the kids together. Shinning red faces looked at us with those huge eyes and it was hard not to make them go with us. A couple of them offered to go just to see if what we was saying was true. Nearly everyone wanted to help load Tommy, the young boy that died, into the trailer and after stopping at Walmart and picking up some supplies, we headed back to
the cabin.
Tommy would be buried in the local cemetery. Sid and Andy came with us to check things out and Randy offered to stay behind to watch the kids. We would return in a few days to see what the others wanted to do. It was a nervous, fear filled couple of days of emotional ups and down.. When we pulled into the parking lot in front of the cabin, I nearly cried from relief.
CHAPTER 17
"I wish we could just load them all up and make them come here." I said to Masons shoulder, "That way I wouldn't have to worry about them."
"We can't and you know it. They feel safe there, it's their home. Besides if we make them come here and they don't like it, they'll just sneak back." He was rubbing a place on my shoulder while we thought of ways to help the kids.
"Where the hell are all these kids coming from? I've seem more dead walking kids than live up to now so to see all these live kids has me stumped. Well, doesn't matter really, we have to figure out a way to help them. With us or without."
"Yeah, I know. I just want to save them all." I watched the curtain move gently in the slight breeze that was with us most of the time. I could hear Bubba barking in the background along with kids laughing and squealing as they played. "If they did come to live here we'd have to make some kind of living arrangements for them. More campers or maybe a mobile home or build another cabin or something. They'd need their own rooms because to a certain extent they've had their own rooms made of cardboard."
"I'll give it some thought. If we could talk them into living here, they could be trained and when we leave we'd know they'd be ok."
"How are we going to talk them into it? We have a few days to convince Sid and Andy that this place is better for them than a warehouse. I don't know if that's enough time."
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