Psycho stretched her hands up over her head and kept them there.
~
They had her out of the overturned truck in about ten minutes. Katie leaned her up against the truck and patted her down, as Aaron and Jeff watched the highway and the girl.
“Ain't got nothing,” Psycho told her.
Katie continued methodically, her hands tripping over the safety pins in the girls upper body and stomach. She found a knife wedged down into her right boot.
“What are you, a Dyke?” Psycho asked.
Katie held up the knife and smiled.
“I forgot about that,” Psycho said.
“Is there any place you didn't stick a safety pin in?” Katie asked.
Psycho blushed deep red and a frown spread across her face. “I... I didn't,” she stopped, near tears.
“They did?” Katie asked.
“All of us,” she said.
Katie stepped back. “Are you gonna do anything stupid?” she asked.
“Are you gonna kill me?” Psycho asked back.
“Why would we do that?” Aaron asked.
Psycho said nothing, then, “No, I just don't want to be hurt anymore... be scared anymore,” she told them.
“What your name?” Katie asked.
“Psy... Cindy, they named me Psycho,” she told them.
“Cindy sounds better to me than Psycho. I'm Katie,” Katie said. “And nobody here will hurt you. You can stay with us if you want to... or you can go... after. When this is over, you can go if you want to,” she told her.
“After?” she asked.
“After this part is over... whatever they have in mind,” Katie said.
“They're gonna try to kill you. Death, that's all he wants... wanted.” She said.
Katie looked at her.
“You killed him. He's dead,” Psycho looked over at the body sprawled not far from the truck. She looked down towards the other truck, another body sprawled there.
“Who's the other one?” Katie asked.
“Other one? I only see that one and Death here,” she indicated with her eyes. She walked towards the second truck.
“Murder,” she said. “It's Murder. Where's the other one?” She asked Katie.
“On the floorboards in the back,” Jeff said.
Cindy leaned through the shattered back window and popped her head right back out. The top of her head was gone but it was... “Cassie,” she said aloud. “She was Murder's woman.”
“And who's woman were you?” Aaron asked.
“Shitty's... Well, Death's. I mean, Shitty's up until last night, and then Death took me away from him. So, I guess I was Death's woman,” She squinted her eyes, clamped one hand to her mouth, and hurried to the side of the truck and threw up. A mental snapshot of Shitty's first woman, Bitch, struggling to breath... the horrible clicking sound she had made, jumped into her head, and then she leaned over and threw up again. She dry heaved after that, but there was nothing left to come up. She sat down and began to cry. Staring at her vomit speckled boots.
War Two
Katie had left with Cindy and walked back into the camp from the hillside. They had talked along the way, and the things the girl had told her had infuriated her.
“This is my man, Conner,” she said, making introductions. “James, Jake and David,” she continued. “This is Cindy. She was forced to be with them.”
Conner looked from the safety pins jutting out from her shirt to her belly button, her upper lip and nose. The Safety pins made the largest impression. He looked to Katie, his eyes asking if she was sure. Katie nodded.
Conner looked back at the young woman. She looked so young and pale in the moonlight, washed out, dressed as though she were playing a part. “If Katie is sure you're okay, then you're okay with me,” Conner said. He offered his hand and she touched it with a closed fist. He tapped her fist with his own.
“We're going down to the creek; we'll be back. First aid kit in one of these trucks?” Katie asked.
A look of concern came into Conner's eyes.
“Not me,” Katie said. “We'll be back,” she leaned forward and kissed Conner.
~
Katie rummaged around in the closest pickup truck and came up with a first aid kit and a tube of antibiotic cream. In the back seat of the second truck she came up with some clean clothes and a pair of boots that were close to the right size.
Cindy walked the dirt path down to the creek, staying behind Katie. Up ahead, the moonlight reflected off the water, rippling across the surface with the current's flow.
Katie turned, “Okay,” she said, “let's see.”
Cindy pulled her shirt off over her head and Katie gasped. She had told her that both men had beaten and abused her, but she had no idea it would be so bad. Healing scabs that looked suspiciously like bite marks graced one shoulder and part of one of her breasts, rusting safety pins in each nipple, and on her stomach Shitty's name had been carved into the flesh. Murder had x-ed it out and carved his own name below it.
Cindy began to cry, shaking with the sobs. Katie took her in her arms and held her. When she was able, Katie helped her with the cuts and bruises, removing the rusty safety pins as she went.
~
“So, they're down to six?” Conner asked. He looked at Cindy. She looked like an ordinary young woman now without the excessively short baby T and too tight jeans, piercings and boots. Her eyes showed a different story though. Puffy, bloodshot, and careful. Much more careful than someone her age should ever have to be.
“Six,” Cindy repeated, “But maybe some others got hurt. I heard Murder saying they hit somebody else. He might have been talking about Murder's truck though. And Chloe, she ran after Murder, and I didn't hear no... any shots, so I don't know about her,” she told him.
Katie had gone back up the hill with Aaron and Jeff. Conner picked up the V.H.F. radio and called. “Did you see someone else running away from the first truck?” he asked.
“None of us stayed,” Aaron said. “That other girl must have made it back to one of the other trucks though. She's not around here, unless she's well hidden. Seems we would have seen her though,” Aaron finished.
“Okay. Just keep an eye out,” Conner said.
“Oh yeah,” Aaron said.
But it was three hours before they came again...
~
“Conner,” Katie's voice came through, not much more than a whisper, “We hear the trucks, but we don't see them... Too dark...” She had the volume down, and held the radio to one ear in order to hear his reply.
“I hear them too. Just be ready for anything,” he told them.
“Got them,” Aaron said. He had been looking through the night scope, like all the rest of them, and he had spotted some movement on the side of the highway about three hundred yards away. Two trucks were slowly idling along the edge of the tree line.
The skies had clouded over again, and there was little moonlight. It was hard to see the two trucks against the backdrop of the dark trees. The sound was all they had to go by, and that was deceptive, sounding as if it came from everywhere... and nowhere.
“Yeah... We got them,” Katie said now. “They're moving right next to the tree line... idling along... real slow. Unsure Jeff and I can get them from here.”
The radio stayed silent for a beat or two longer than she thought that it should. “You hear me, Conner?” she asked.
“Yeah, better do it... Better do it, only make it count. I don't want to get into a war with these guys with those machine pistols, you know?” Conner asked.
Katie cursed herself “Damn it, Conner. There's a whole gym bag full of clips and rifles down by the first truck. Damn it,” she said.
“Yeah, Cindy just told me. We have several, but more would be nice. I'm sending David. You cover him; he'll go down and get them,” Conner said.
“They're really close,” Katie said, but just as she said that, both trucks stopped. They simply sat idling by the tree line.<
br />
Minutes later David slipped by them and over the hill. He worked his way down to the truck in the ditch. Aaron and Jeff tracked him with their night scopes, while Katie kept her scope focused on the trucks. They appeared to be doing nothing, just sitting there.
David was back a few minutes later with a large duffel bag full of rifles. He stopped as Katie and the others opened it, each taking a machine pistol and extra clips, then David moved off with the bag back to the camp. The trucks continued to sit idling by the tree line.
~
“I don't like it,” Katie said ten minutes later. She kept popping her scope up to her eye, but like the other two, she found little to see. She could only glimpse a vague outline of someone in the interior of the first truck, what looked like the driver, sitting... waiting. For what? She wondered.
“They're still sitting,” she whispered to Conner over the radio.
“You think you can hit them from there?” Conner asked.
“Yeah,” Katie answered, “but, hit what? The front truck is blocking the other truck, and I really can't see into the interiors,” she finished.
Just as she finished, she saw a shadow move at the edge of the woods down by the road that went into the encampment. She swung the scope quickly down just in time to see four shapes come from the woods and run quietly down the road. She squeezed off three fast shots, glad to see the trailing runner fall. She snatched up the radio.
“They fooled us! They're sneaking up the road, coming at you now!” Katie yelled.
She turned back to the vehicles and opened up on the front vehicle blowing the windshield inward. But what had looked like a driver was just the raised head rest on the back of the seat.
“Come on,” she said as she jumped to her feet, “We'll come up the row behind them.”
Aaron and Jeff jumped up and scrambled after her, running down the hillside for the park road entrance.
She was nearly at the road when two new shadows stepped from the trees into the road. She dove for the ground as their machine pistols barked fire in her direction
~
As she hit the ground, she rolled hard to her left and came up on her elbows, the rifle in her hands. The machine pistol banged against her side on its strap.
Behind her, back towards the camp, the sound of heavy gunfire came to her. She drew a bead on the one remaining shadows - the other one had gone somewhere - squeezed the trigger, and the shadow dropped into the road. She drew a bead on the second shadow lying in the roadway and snapped off two more quick shots. The shadow didn't move. It was either dead already, or she had missed, and this close, she was sure she hadn't missed.
“Aaron,” she called into the darkness.
“Yeah, right here,” Aaron answered.
“Jeff?”
Silence...
She raised her voice, “Jeff?”
But only silence greeted her.
“Fuck it. We got to go, Aaron. Cover me; I'll go first. If nothing happens when I hit the road, I'll turn and cover you,” she told him. Gunfire was still heavy from the direction of the camp.
“Got you. Go,” Aaron said.
Katie took a deep breath, tensed, and came up running. She made the road, encountering no resistance at all. Aaron was up and moving before she even motioned to him. She waited for a second, wondering what had happened to Jeff, and then Aaron was there and they were running off down the road, covering opposite sides of the road and the shadowy trees as they went.
The gunfire began falling off as they closed in on the camp. That only made Katie worry more. Why had both her and Jeff gone to the hilltop? They were the two best, leaving no good shots in the camp. She slowed, and Aaron matched her pace, really only a fast walk now, then a slow walk, and then they split up, taking opposite sides of the road, creeping tree to tree.
A shadow popped up directly ahead of Aaron and fired a burst into the camp. Aaron fired back at point blank range and the shooter collapsed. They both faded back into the trees.
Katie squatted behind the cover of a large pine and whispered into the VHF. “We're coming up behind you, copy?” she asked.
Nothing... Then a quick click of a mic button.
She clicked her own mic button once as well, stood up and began moving tree to tree once more.
Cindy had said there were ten total. That left six or seven depending on what had happened to the one Cindy had called Chloe. They had killed two by the road and one here. She had only seen four come down this way, that left three or four depending on where the girl had gone.
As she was thinking, she nearly walked right into another one of them crouching behind some bushes. She didn't hesitate but walked up and fired a quick burst into their back. Not even realizing it was a young woman her own age, until she fell backwards, and Katie caught a quick glimpse of her face as she went down.
A burst of gunfire came from somewhere up ahead and ripped into the trees next to her. She dove to the ground and rolled several times. She rolled up on to her feet and only realized she'd been either hit by a bullet or something else when she felt blood running from her forehead and into her left eye. She wiped it away and scanned the surrounding trees carefully. Two or three left, she thought to herself.
She took several deep breaths to calm herself and began moving forward once more, moving tree to tree. Across the way she saw a shadow gliding through the trees matching her pace. She didn't know if it was Aaron so she didn't dare shoot.
Another shadow stepped partly from the trees just ahead of the shadow she had been tracking and looked her way. Aaron! She realized as the moonlight painted his face. And even as she had the thought, she tracked back with her rifle and sprayed the trees behind him.
When she looked back, Aaron's face wore a shocked look. She pointed behind him where a young man crashed out into the road holding his chest. Aaron quickly faded back into the trees.
She keyed the mic. “You hit any?” she whispered. The speaker clicked once, paused, then clicked again.
She keyed the mic once more “If you're sure you got two,” she whispered, “then we got...” And that was when the girl stabbed her.
~
The blade bit into her arm, but hit the bone and didn't pass her arm and plunge into her chest as the girl had hoped. Her first thought was, Thank God my arm was there. Her second thought was... she means to kill me.
Katie swung the machine pistol downward with all of her weight, forcing the girl's knife hand away from her body. She looped one foot behind the girls leg and pushed her backward, sending them both to the ground. The girl was like a snake, turning and twisting under her to get away. The machine pistol had slipped from her hand as she fell, and it landed somewhere between the two of them. The girl had held on to the knife though, and Katie felt the point scratch across her throat as she struggled to keep the girls arm away.
She brought her knees up and leveraged them between the girl's thighs, driving them apart, then drove one knee into her crotch. She gasped, but would not let go of the knife.
Katie looked at her face in the sparse moonlight. So much like Cindy's had looked, stress lines, puffy eyes. But this girl's eyes were flat, hard and determined. There was no soft edge to these eyes. She meant to kill Katie if she could.
Katie tried to leverage herself with one knee again, but the girl came up with one of her own, catching Katie in the stomach, driving most of the air from her lungs. The girl took advantage of that by rolling Katie over and straddling her.
Katie struggled to hold the knife back, but it was sinking lower and lower. A face suddenly appeared over the girl's shoulder. Another one, Katie thought. A shot exploded like a thunderclap, something warm splattered her face. Blood, she thought, and then the knife was falling away as the girl slumped onto her side.
Conner's face appeared above her as she struggled to push the girls dead weight off her. Conner grabbed the girl by one arm and flung her off into the brush.
Katie got shakily to her feet.
“Yeah, this shit has got to stop,” Katie joked in a shaky voice. Then she burst into tears.
TEN
Conner and Katie
May 3rd
Morning came slowly, golden light filtering down through the trees painting light and dark shadows on the pine covered floor. A light breeze shifted through the limbs causing the shadows to chase each other.
They searched through the first gray light of dawn, but they had not been able to find Jeff's body. They combed the top of the hill to the highway. All of them had ended up at an area near the top of the hill. A scuffed area of dirt showed something had transpired there, but there was no way to know what or whether it had anything to do with Jeff. A few minutes later Aaron had found a jacket that they were sure was Jeff's near the bottom of the long hill. It had lain crumpled and bloodstained in a ditch that lead up to the road surface. They had gathered around it, staring down. Katie had finally crouched down and studied it. A few minutes later she picked it up to look closer.
Several dozen bullet holes stitched the jacket across the back; two punched through the hood. The jacket was blood drenched. She let it fall from her hands and stood, rubbing her hands against her jeans in an unconscious scrubbing motion, her mouth tight and trembling. “He couldn't have walked away from that,” she said.
Conner lifted his eyes to the trees and then the road. Beside him Aaron did the same. His eyes came back to Katie to find that she also had checked the surrounding area, even though she knew he could not possibly have walked away. He shook his head. “I... We can look back up the hillside...” He trailed off. Looking anywhere after finding the jacket made no real sense at all.
Katie shook her head. “They must have taken his body. But why?” She looked at Conner and Aaron.
Aaron shook his head as well. Conner spoke. “Makes no sense to me. People? Wolves?”
“Could be... Could be either. And what do we tell his woman?” Aaron added.
Earth's Survivors: box set Page 64