Surviving

by A J Newman

  Beth’s friend, Bill, apparently had snapped while watching Red abuse his friend. He tried to knock Red off Alice, but was restrained by Jesus and Manny. They kicked Bill and beat him until he could no longer resist. When they finished with Alice, Red moved towards Janet and Karl waved him off.

  “Red, you had had your fun now go back to work. Let’s deal with these campers and get back to our hunt.”

  Karl had Jesus bring Bill to him.

  “I do not want to dirty my hands on this inferior piece of shit, who wants to kill him?”

  Red replied, “Let Maria shoot the bastard as proof of her allegiance.”

  Karl liked the idea and had Jesus bring Maria from the tent to face Karl.

  Maria had heard the conversation and blurted out, “So, I have to prove myself after being a loyal supporter for over a year?”

  Karl glared and said, “Yes. Kill the SOB.”

  Maria took Karl’s Glock, hit Bill across the back and marched him to the edge of the camp, right in front of them. She put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Bill fell to the ground.

  “Does this make me any more loyal to you? Karl, what do I have to do, kill ten more to impress you? I am loyal, but do not like unnecessary killing. I will do whatever it takes to further our goals, but random killing is barbaric and beneath us.”

  Beth again had to be restrained as her friend died. John quietly pulled her back another hundred feet from the camp so they could not hear her cry.

  “I have lost two good friends today and there is no telling what they will do to Alice and Janet,” she sobbed.

  John told her that they would quickly bury Bill and Fred to keep the animals from eating on them until someone could come back for the bodies. Alice was lying on the ground sobbing and pounding her fists onto the ground. They finally heard Karl command the others to dress Alice and to bring her and Janet along. They then left.

  Beth and John quickly went into the campsite and buried Fred with rocks and what dirt they could scrape up with a frying pan. While John finished burying Fred, Beth went to start on Bill’s grave. Suddenly John heard her gasp and saw her back away from the body.

  Then she said, “He’s alive.”

  John checked his pulse and she was right. John then checked his wound and found it to be a deep graze to his right forehead. This would hurt like hell for several days, but would not kill him. Beth got a canteen and splashed water in his face. He woke, but was very groggy and was speaking nonsense. She cleaned the wound, applied a bandage from a FA kit and gave him some painkillers. John took a smelling salts vial from the kit, broke it and placed it under his nose. He sat straight up and began thanking god he was alive.

  Bill asked about Janet and the others and Beth filled him in on what had happened to his friends. He was distraught about Janet and kept blubbering that he prayed she had not been raped like Alice. Meanwhile John grabbed some food, a butcher knife, three sleeping bags, some food and a few supplies from their gear. They stuffed all they could get in three small bags. They also grabbed jackets and Beth put a pair of pants on over her shorts.

  John told them that their best chance was to catch up to his party and to then try to get the ladies away from these killers. They agreed and then set off at a fast pace toward where he thought his friends would be. He told them that they could take a short cut to them since he knew where his friends would be and did not have to follow the trail that cut back to the north. They both supported Bill and moved as quickly as they could push him. The brush and small trees were thick, but they still made good time. Bill was soon recovered enough to walk by himself. They finished filling him in as they walked.

  They had traveled for about an hour when John heard his name called out by Scott. “Dad, are you okay and who are these people?”

  At the same time, John saw the rest of his friends spring out from their cover in the brush.

  John said,” let’s move on out of here; the bad guys are only a few minutes behind us. We can fill you in as we go.”

  “This is Beth Fox and Bill James. They were camping about five miles back when the bad guys overran their camp,” John told his friends and Roger.

  Beth noticed that Roger had his hands tied and started to ask about it, but John poked her in the ribs and waived off the questions for later. John then proceeded to fill them in on his surveillance of the GAO group and the killing at the camp.

  John conveniently left out how he actually met Beth. She later thanked him and said that he might be a gentleman after all. He got her off to the side and told her about Roger being part of this gang of dope smugglers.

  ✼

  Chapter 11

  One Step Ahead

  The Iowa/Montana Woods

  May 17, 2020

  They marched through the woods without stopping to rest with Gus constantly telling all, "Keep moving, they are on our tail.”

  “We must be about a half-hour ahead of them would be my best guess,” John mentioned as they started across an open area of about two hundred yards.

  Gus told them to move as fast as they could while crossing. He also had them split into three groups with the fastest two of the three taking a looping course that would meet back up about a quarter mile into the next woods.

  “It may not slow them down much, but this ground is harder and we won’t leave as much of a trail,” Gus explained.

  Beth, Bill and John were taking the shortest line across the open area. Beth was filling John in on herself and her friends and John did the same. She was surprised that Scott was John’s son even though she noticed the resemblance after thinking a while.

  “That Steve thinks he’s a lady killer, doesn’t he?” she asked.

  “Well not like our friends chasing us, but he does have a way with the ladies back in LA,” John replied.

  Beth had a puzzled look on her face. “LA, I thought that y’all were from Mobile,” she stated.

  “Yes, we are from Mobile and LA, Lower Alabama, to you Northern types.”

  She fussed and reminded him that she was from Tennessee.

  As they were just about to enter the woods, John took a last look over his shoulder and caught a glint of light from the far side. He barely got the word “duck” out of his mouth when Bill was grazed on the left arm and blood flew. They ran the last few feet into the woods and ducked behind a large log. Several rounds hit the log then, the firing stopped. While Beth tended to Bill’s wound, John peeked around the end of the log and saw the GAO group.

  Karl had the rifle leveled and aiming at them, John dropped and a round hit beside where his head had been. John leveled the KEL-TEC, took careful aim and squeezed off a shot. The shot was high and about a foot wide of the tall blonde guy. It struck a tree and showered him in bark. All of the GAO thugs scattered and ducked. John thought that would slow the bastards down.

  John told Beth and Bill that they all had to start thinking smarter or they would all be killed; they had been very lucky so far and luck always runs out. They had to make sure that they were not caught in the open again.

  They scrambled to catch up to the others and found them in only a few minutes. Bill was okay; only a flesh wound as they say in the movies.

  “That was an honest miss however. I don’t see how Maria could have missed killing him back at the camp,” John told the others.

  They continued to march south for about an hour and Gus and John trotted side by side trying to come up with a plan to get them out of this mess. The sun was going down soon and it would be getting dark quick because the dense forest blocked out much of the sun. They debated waiting until midnight and raiding their camp versus an ambush when Scott came up with a brilliant idea.

  “Dad, you told us that these guys are traveling with a point guy and a tail guy protecting their rear end didn’t you?” Scott asked.

  As John said yes, it struck him; they could pick one or two off without confronting the others.

  Scott said, “Yes, we can split into three
groups, one shoots the point man, takes his weapons and makes a hell of a racket to draw the main body forward and away from the prisoners. When group three hears the shot, they slip up on the rear guard and slit his throat and take his guns.”

  “I’ll make a crude bomb out of the powder can and group two, the middle group, can lob it in front of the main bunch when we hear the ruckus up front,” Gus added.

  John said, “We do not want to take a chance on injuring Beth’s friends or I would lob it right in the middle of the assholes. Instead, wait for one minute, and then throw the bomb. I want to make sure that the bad guys have rushed to help the point man and gotten as far away as possible from the girls.”

  Everyone except Beth liked the plan, but even she knew they had to kill or be killed at this point. Her main concern was for the safety of Janet and Alice, who as far as they knew, were still with the others. Beth grabbed John’s hand and pleaded with him to save her best friends. John promised her that they would do their best.

  Roger, who had been quite until now, spoke up, “Even though these guys have killed and injured you and your friends, you can’t take the law into your own hands.”

  “So says their accomplice in this nightmare,” Steve replied.

  John then added, “You are damn lucky that we don’t string you upside down by your balls and start a fire under you, you bastard.”

  Gus stuck the 9mm under Roger’s chin and said, “As the guy says, just make my day asshole.”

  Gus then clubbed Roger on the side of the head with the 9mm, not hard, but enough to smart like hell.

  Roger then said, “Stop walking for a minute and take my left shoe off and look inside under the inner sole. Oh, there is a .38 strapped to my leg.”

  Gus shoved him down and pulled Roger’s left pant leg up and took the pistol, then asked, “If you had this gun, why didn’t you use it to kill us or escape?”

  “Look in the shoe,” he exclaimed.

  Gus took Roger’s shoe and dug into it, then brought out what appeared to be a driver’s license.

  “What the hell is this? It looks like an ID for the FBI with Roger’s face and a different name,”

  Gus growled. Roger was clearly getting impatient with Gus.

  “You idiot, do you think that I would go under cover using my own name? I could have killed all of you if I was one of them.”

  John examined the ID and told Steve to cut the rope tying Roger’s hands.

  “He had plenty of opportunity to escape or kill all of us; I think he’s telling the truth. Let him loose,” John exclaimed.

  All agreed except Gus and he finally agreed and cut Roger’s bindings. John took Roger’s gun from Gus and said that he would keep it until he trusted Roger a bit more than he did now.

  “Roger, you’ve got some explaining to do. Give us the 15 second drill now!”

  Roger told them that he had spent over a year working into the GAO’s organization as a bush pilot delivering campers and drugs. He had been given a contact in the organization that had been working for the FBI for years. He only communicated through notes so Roger said that he did not know who it was. He must have been at the GAO office this morning because he passed him a note. It said that the money was being used to buy a rather impressive arsenal and that there was some connection to a right wing skinhead group in Idaho. He thought that the skinheads handled the GAO’s dirty work and charged with eliminating competitors who would not join in with the GAO.

  Roger also told them that the GAO was just the US branch; they were known as the Chupacabras south of the border. They were ruthless, would cut tongues and heads off just to make a point. They would not only kill you, they would kill your whole family and your dog.

  Quite a bit to digest in 15 seconds, John thought. John thanked Roger and told the group, “We’ve got an ambush to execute.”

  Roger angrily replied, “That’s what I’m trying to stop. As I said earlier, what you are about to do is against the law, it would be cold-blooded murder. We can outrun them and go get help.”

  Gus jumped between them and punched Roger in the stomach, hard enough to knock the breath out of him.

  John pulled Gus off Roger and said, “Look you ignorant bastard, these guys have killed one of us and they won’t stop until we are all dead. We are going through with the plan, with you or without you. You can leave now, but if you warn them, I will kill you myself.”

  Roger gave in and said that he would not stop them, but he would not take any part in killing any of the GAO. He also wanted to try to get the two girls away from the bad guys when they attacked them. He said that he thought that they had a good plan and that when the bomb exploded, that he and another volunteer could get the girls and run with them in the confusion. Bill and Beth volunteered to help Roger free the girls.

  John tried to talk some sense into Beth and Bill, but they wanted to help their friends.

  “Okay,” he told them, “but, I will go with Beth and Roger to free the girls. I don’t want Roger out of my sight. Scott, you and Jim take the rear guard. Can y’all kill him? You know that you will have to slip up on him and slit his throat, or the rest will come running if they hear any commotion.”

  Both Scott and Jim swore that they could do it, but John was worried. They were big fearless guys, but killing does not come easy.

  “Steve, you and Gus are with Bill. Y’all hit the point man, Gus will shoot him and Steve and Bill will grab his guns. Then you must quickly put up a short stand to attract the others. You will continue after them long enough to give us a chance to get the girls,” John added.

  They all agreed. John thought 'Murders Are Us', no task too big or small for the boys from Mobile. John rationalized that it was them or us and that made ordering his son to kill a man a little easier to take.

  It was now about 7:00 p.m. and the sun was going down behind the trees. It would be dark in about an hour.

  Gus and Scott chose the place for the ambush. It was not the perfect place like you would see in the old time western movies with the Indians up high in rocks shooting arrows down on the Calvary, but it would have to do.

  The ambush site was down in the dry creek bed that they had already been following. This helped make it less obvious that there was a set up. The creek bed was about three feet below the adjacent ground level and was about twenty feet wide at the starting point where the rear guard would be ambushed. The creek bed started downhill towards a pile of boulders, cut through them and made a narrow tight right hand turn about a hundred feet from the spot that they had chosen to ambush the rear guard. It was only about five feet wide at this point, stayed narrow for about fifty feet and was about eight feet below ground level. There were dense trees and undergrowth on the east side, the one that they would attack from. John wanted to hit them just as the main group started into the narrow section, but before the girls entered.

  The trail was going downhill at a steep grade over rocks and small boulders. This would make the going slow for the main body. This was where they wanted the larger group to be when they attacked because they could not go forward quickly to help the point man. The point man would be about twenty yards ahead of the group, which placed him out of the narrow channel and out into a much wider section with a smooth surface when they hit them.

  At about seven thirty, it started to rain. John thought that this was in their favor since the rain would muffle their steps as they started the attack. The rain made him think back to the summer showers down on the coast in Mobile. Gus and he had to take cover on many occasions while fishing on the Spanish River north of Mobile. As in Mobile, even though it was still quite warm the rain sent a chill down his back. He had given the jacket that he had acquired at Beth’s camp to Bill and the rain chilled him through and through. His clothes were quickly getting soaked and clinging to his body. At least Beth had a jacket with a hoodie. She looked cute crouched behind the boulder with Roger and him. Damn, that girl would be cute doing anything. He hadn’t thought about
women for over two years, but every bone in his body ached for her. As if she read his mind, she turned and saw him watching her. She smiled, then blushed and turned away.

  The others were in place waiting on the GAO to arrive at the ambush point. They must have been farther behind them than John had thought for they should have been here by now.

  Just at that time, they heard the thugs talking as they slowly came down the creek bed. John was about one hundred feet from them and could not quite hear what they were saying, but they were only a few feet from Scott and Jim.

  They stopped about halfway between Scott and John and appeared to be ready to camp for the night. John could now hear them talking, but could not tell who was saying what.

  They continued discussing the women as if they weren’t there. On several occasions John heard the women struggle and moan from being grabbed and pinched.

  John hoped that none of their people overreacted and moved before the GAO people were in the right spot. He just prayed that they would move on before they lost their nerve. If the others had half as many butterflies in their stomach as he did, they were up the creek without the proverbial paddle. Knowing that you were about to slit a guy’s throat was not like waiting in the locker room for the big game to start. John knew that Gus would come through and he knew that he could kill if he had to, but was still concerned about Scott and Jim. After all, Gus and he had killed while on missions in the military. He crossed his fingers.

  Beth leaned against John and buried her head into his chest and sobbed as she heard the abuse that her friends were taking. She said that she was thankful that Janet’s husband, Bill, was too far away to hear the discussion. Damn, John had forgotten the connection. Bill must be going through hell knowing that his wife was in the hands of these bastards. She moved so that she was sitting in John’s lap to help them both stay warm. He placed his arms around Beth and hugged her; he whispered to her that they would get them free and make the bastards pay for what they had done to the girls. She hugged him back and he thought that he wanted this over so he could get up enough courage to ask her out. He kissed her on the head and continued to console her, the best that he could. She continued to cry as the rain kept pouring down. She was dry from her waist up thanks to the jacket that they took from the camp.