The women, myself included, were there just as a backdrop, the fill-in for the defunct television. They were users and we were to be used. I was willing to play their game though, because they never picked up on the fact that I watched everything. I took it all in. I even managed to peek from behind the curtains at night and watch as the night guards would leave their post if tempted, leaving the door unguarded. Escape would happen and it would happen soon. I knew it was possible. I could do this.
I was never allowed outside. Never once did I step foot out of the grocery store. My world was relegated to the glass office and the back store room.
On the third morning, I was being escorted out of the glass room with the old mean lady at my side as usual, when everything clicked into place. The door to the store room was a normal swinging industrial door. The hinges could easily be taken down using only minimal tools. I could find a piece of metal and take them down and allow the women to get free. Why pick a padlock when you could just unscrew a hinge?
Melinda met me, per our usual routine, at the tub. Her smile was bigger this morning.
“How’s Emma?” I asked.
“She’s actually more stable, her pulse is steady, but she hasn’t regained consciousness. I’m hoping she’ll come out of it soon. We’ve only been able to dribble a bit of water down her throat. But I actually think she has a chance. Her sister hasn’t left her side, even when one of the men came for her…he must be one of the ones with a heart because he left her be.”
“That’s a first.” I rolled my eyes. From what I could tell there was no compassion to be found in any of these men.
“She didn’t even leave when it was her turn to visit with the children.” Melinda shook her head, wringing out the wash rag in the dirty bath water.
Speaking of kids, I hadn’t seen any of them the entire time I was here. Lani had mentioned children, but there was no whisper of them among the women, at least not in front of me.
“Where are the kids, Melinda?”
“There aren’t many, from what I hear. The mothers are allowed to visit with them a few days a week, but most of them are cared for by the men. There’s a gym that had a childcare service. They’re kept there. Their mothers know if they step out of line, the children will be held responsible. It’s one of the main reasons why I can’t get anyone to agree to help. I can’t say I blame them, I don’t have any children, but I can imagine.”
“These men need to pay for what they’re doing here,” I whispered.
“How, Alexis, we would need an army to take them out? Do you have an army?”
“You’d be surprised.”
Thirty-Seven | Waiting
ZACH
“They’re keeping the children in the gym, the women are being held in the big front building,” Baby was saying, pointing to the buildings.
“How did you figure this out?” I asked her. She was saying out loud what I had assumed, but I wanted to know what proof she had.
“About an hour ago, they led two women out of that alley. I’m assuming there is a back entrance, since I didn’t see any movement on the other side of the building. They were escorted to the gym and I caught a glimpse of a few children when the women walked in. They keep them separated, probably to control them better. The women, the men, and the children aren’t allowed to come together. I’m betting a few of the men in the yard have children in that room or wives in the building.”
“Sick fucks,” I cursed and Baby nodded in agreement.
“The good news, since we’ve been here, they’ve let in three men that aren’t from the camp. They went in with goods and left with nothing. I’m betting they are trading for sex and they are not living at the camp. This means we can get someone in.”
“That is good news.” I patted her on the back and went back to my pacing. This waiting was killing me, but the information was coming in handy.
Heather Murphey poked her head into the room. “Ryan’s on the com, I broke the news about the Major and she’s pissed.”
“Fuck,” I cursed. We had set up the radio deeper in the school, in one of the classrooms that had west facing windows.
“James, here.”
“What the fuck is going on there, James?” she shouted and I winced and pulled the radio away from my ear.
“A few upsets, Ryan, we’re hanging in there though.”
“Hanging in there? You call this hanging in there? More like swinging by your balls. Y’all gonna screw up this entire operation. I should march down there and blow your goddamn cover just to get you out of my hair.”
“That might do more damage than good, Ryan.”
“You’re a smug son-of-a-bitch, James.”
“We’ve gotten some good intel that might help for later, but I wouldn’t want to brag.”
“Shut-up,” she huffed. I could hear the exasperation in her voice. I didn’t want to egg her on, but she was being unreasonable and I never reacted well to unreasonable.
“Do you want me to relay the information or sign-off?” I asked.
“Tell me,” she growled. So, I did. I told her about their patterns, that they are using the families against each other, the fact that they hardly ever venture outside of the base. When I got to what Romeo and Alphonso were doing, she all but squealed.
“So, only two are going in and just to get a look around?”
“Yeah, Romeo is going to get eyes on Alexis. If he nails her down, we’ll break her out at night. Covert, go in dark and hot.”
“No, James, why didn’t you say this from the beginning?”
“You didn’t ask, ma’am.”
“I could…fuck…just get back to me when Romeo and Alphonso come out. I want to know before you go in.”
“Roger.”
Thirty-Eight | The Surprise Army
ALEXIS
It didn’t take much to convince Melinda that I did have an army at my beck and call. She agreed to help me if she could get another girl to help her get out of the back room. It sounded easy, but a third woman was going to be hard.
“They’re all drawn into themselves. They don’t want to make friends because they’ll use that against you. Junior has a way of sweet-talking some of the women and getting them to tell him all about what goes on back here. If you step out of line, he’ll use your friends or family against you.”
“Just another reason to hate the Brandons,” I sighed, digging around Melinda’s area, looking for anything I could use as a flat-head screwdriver.
“There isn’t much to like about them,” Melinda added, “even some of the other bikers don’t like them.”
“Some of the bikers talk about them?”
“Well, really only two of them, Rebel and Jinx, and only because they forget I’m there.”
“Those are the two young ones, right?”
“Yeah, I think they’re legacy. Rebel fights back with Junior a lot and I’ve seen them come to blows. They stuck Rebel in the yard, which sucks, because he kept calling dibs on me and he doesn’t expect me to have sex with him. He said I remind him of his sister.”
“That’s kind of fucked up,” I said as I looked at her. Was she actually romanticizing this guy?
“I don’t think he tried to call dibs so he could keep me around. I think he did it so no one else would be able to get to me. He wasn’t going to force me to do anything and didn’t want anyone else to, or so I figured. He would let me hide in his quarters. Sometimes Jinx would come in there and they would talk about getting the hell out, but Jinx had a kid. It’s all one big weird circle and hard to understand what is going on behind the scenes. I’ve only gotten a few pieces of the puzzle.”
“Damn, so they are even holding some of the bikers’ kids? That is messed up.”
“I don’t know if they’re holding them, like hostages, but I know bikers have kids in there. Maybe they’re just like all of us, too scared to leave the safety of the base. And Senior takes advantage of that.”
“Doesn’t look like
the majority of them are opposed to it. Most of them are enjoying themselves with as many drugs as they can snort up their nose and women to screw whenever they get the urge. Every man’s fantasy,” I scoffed.
“Not every man’s. You didn’t have someone before this?” she asked looking at me all doe-eyed and nostalgic.
“I don’t really want to talk about that.” I pushed the warm feeling in my gut away. Not talking about them.
“I had someone, Chris, they killed him. Junior killed him.”
“All the more reason to get the hell out of here and get your revenge.”
“I know,” she whispered and curled up on her pile of dirty linens.
I left her there, alone in her thoughts. I spent the rest of the day searching for a piece of metal that could be used as a flat-head screwdriver. I finally lucked out toward the back of the room. It looked like it was from a piece of shelving and the end was small enough so it could be inserted into a screw, but the body was sturdy enough to give it some momentum.
I ran into Clara during my search and gave us both a surprise. I hadn’t seen her for the last couple of days, but I didn’t socialize much with the other women. I hardly left Melinda’s area. Clara was in the back of the store room and was alone. She looked up when I walked by and visibly cringed when she saw me.
“I’ll scream if you come near me,” she hissed.
“And I’m sure someone will come right to your rescue,” I laughed. It felt good to laugh. Leave it to Clara to lighten my mood.
“So, what, you’ve come to get your revenge?” she blustered.
“As usual, Clara, you assume this is about you. This has nothing to do with you. I’m just looking for something.”
“What are you looking for?” She got to her feet kind of eager-like, which was all kinds of bizarre and I held up my hands in a “stay-back-or-else” move and she stopped in her tracks. I might not have been out for revenge, but I didn’t want her anywhere near me.
“Don’t worry about what I’m doing.” I turned on my heels and headed in the opposite direction. That was enough Clara for one day. I might have put her actions to the backburner of my consciousness, but I hadn’t forgotten that she was the reason I was in this hellhole. She would be the only person I didn’t regret leaving behind when I hightailed it out of this place.
As luck would have it, fleeing from Clara led me right to the little piece of metal that could be used as a screwdriver. I went back to our spot and slipped it to Melinda. It looked like it would be tonight if she could recruit someone.
Before it came time for me to be pulled away, we agreed on a hand signal if she was good to go. We always saw each other at night, either she was being “displayed” for purchase or brought up front to entertain.
Just as we were deciding on a few contingency plans, the door opened and Telly came lumbering into the room, motioning for me and the girl that was Brandon’s current favorite to follow her.
She looked at me suspiciously when I got up quickly, almost eagerly, and I chided myself for being an idiot. Don’t show your hand, dipshit.
Even though I tried to talk myself down, I put a little more swing in my step as I walked out, now more comfortable in the four-inch stilettos than before. They put me at over six feet tall and I towered over all of the women and even some of the men. Senior didn't mind since he was about six-foot-one and seemed to like a tall girl at his side.
I heard a noise, a voice, and my steps faltered. It was a familiar voice coming over the din.
Oh shit. There went my plans.
I walked out into the open area that was used as the meeting area, or what the gang called Church. Brandon Junior was holding court while his father slept off last night’s binge. Before him stood Romeo, with an unknown man at his side. Timothy “Romeo” Voiter, one of my fellow Islanders and my lover’s most trusted soldier. He was here, which meant Zach and Blake had to be close.
When I walked past him, he didn’t even glance in my direction and I tried not to show any hint of recognition. They found me! My entire body was sparking with excitement. This was it, I was getting the fuck out of here, but what was their plan? Would I be able to get Melinda out? Or were they here to do a smash and grab? I couldn’t leave Melinda.
“We’re heading through. Word is they got a big refugee camp in Mobile, but we ran into a couple of guys who said y’all were doing some trading here…it’s been a long time since we partied,” Romeo was saying. He had affected his voice with a bit of twang, not too much to sound conspicuous, but enough so he didn’t sound like a local.
“This is the place to party, but you don’t party for free,” Brandon Junior responded.
I went to my customary spot on the sofa and sat down, glancing at Romeo who met my eyes, but didn’t hold them.
“We got liquor,” the unknown man with Romeo said.
“What type of liquor?” Junior asked.
“Top shelf vodka and a couple bottles of Jack.”
“That’ll get you some party time with one of our girls,” Junior grinned. “One, y’all can share.”
“Girls, like that one?” Romeo asked gesturing to me.
“Nah, that one is more than a few bottles of Jack, aren’t ya, baby?” He reached over and fondled my knee, which I tried to subtly pull away from.
“What’ll it take to get her?” Romeo asked. “I don’t like used up pussy.”
“You don’t get it, buddy, she’s my old man’s property. We’ll get ya another girl. Ain’t all used up. You like brunettes? I got plenty of brunettes. Even a red head. We’ll hook you up. Where ya holding the liquor?”
“We got it stashed,” the unknown guy said. I wondered who he was and where he came from.
“Well, if you want to party, get it un-stashed and we’ll get you a girl. It’s too fucking early anyway. Come back later tonight, the real shit starts after sundown. I’ll let the guard know to let you in.” Junior stood and looked down at me. I didn’t like the look in his eye.
“Escort ‘em out, Hulk,” he said to one of the other bikers that were constantly surrounding him like bodyguards.
Junior grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet and the motion, plus the heels, were a little too much. I lost my balance and fell into him, causing us both to stumble.
“Stupid bitch,” Junior spat and yanked me so hard that I cried out. I looked up in time to see Romeo take a step toward me, but I subtly shook my head once to tell him to leave, don’t interfere. I was grateful to know they were out there. They knew where I was now and if I could get the fuck out of here, I was golden. I hoped my glance conveyed that to him. No need to bust in with guns blazing, I could handle this. Now, I just needed to get out.
“You might be hot, but you’re clumsy as hell,” Junior laughed and pulled me toward his domain, which was a few tarps hung between shelves right next to his father’s office.
“Junior, where ya going with her?” one of the bikers called, he was one of the older ones that seemed to be loyal to Senior.
“We just gonna have a talk, gotta teach her a few things so she can treat my old man right.” He spat on the ground and I grimaced.
He pushed me into his makeshift room and I tried my hardest not to stumble. His area was actually pristine, his cot made up tight. Everything was stacked neatly and his clothes were folded in perfect squares on the shelf. He was former military, I would stake my life on it. This complicated things. Junior was nothing like Senior. I hadn’t seen him touch the meth and he didn’t drink that much, especially not to excess. Add military training to his list and it made him a lot more dangerous than his father. I had found the real brains behind the operation. Too bad he shared the sadistic side of his father.
Live (NOLA Zombie Book 3) Page 14