by Sy Walker
Drew was still enjoying the afterglow of the hot night with Zebe when he heard a loud knock outside the front door and some shouting. Zebe suddenly shot up in bed and bolted for the bedroom door.
“Don’t move. Don’t say a word. Stay in here,” he told him tersely.
“What? What’s happening?”
“Not now. I will explain later. Just make sure stay quiet until they are gone.”
Drew knew he must look every bit as horrified as he felt as he watched Zebe slip on some pants and rush out the door. He returned a moment later and tossed their discarded clothes from the night before inside the door and shut it again. Drew crept out of bed and hovered near the door, trying to listen to what was happening on the other side.
“Zebe, damn boy. I didn’t think you were ever coming to the door,” someone said. Several more voices joined him in greeting Zebe as their footsteps fell on the hardwood floor.
“What’s up guys? I thought we were meeting at the shop later,” Zebe said.
“We were, but John decided to get an early go of things, so we stopped by to grab you on the way instead,” another voice replied.
“I can’t leave right now. I have some things to take care of first.”
“Like what? Who does the SUV in your driveway belong to?” one of them asked.
“None of your business, that’s who,” Zebe laughed.
“Got some hot little honey bundled up in the bedroom?” the same guy asked. “Let’s go have a look at her.”
“Don’t be crass. Get your asses out of here before I hand them to the lot of you. I’ll catch up with you later like we planned.”
Drew was panicking, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. Something here just didn’t feel right. Quietly, he tiptoed over to where his clothes lay and got dressed, trying not to make a noise as he did so. He was doing okay until he lost his balance slipping into a shoe. Before he could stop it, he stumbled a bit and caught himself on the corner of the nearby dresser, upsetting a glass vase and sending it crashing to the floor.
“What was that?” a voice said. “We best check on the girl.”
Before anything else could be said, Drew heard footsteps rush across the floor and the door opened. He found himself looking out through the doorway at a half dozen guys in biker garb, all of them with a dark scowl on their face. Pushing through the center was Zebe, who put himself in front of him as if to defend him from their prying eyes, but he quickly learned the problem was more serious than that.
“You fucked a guy?” an angry voice said.
“John, just take the guys and go,” Zebe growled.
“You know we can’t do that. Stand aside, Zebe.”
“No. Leave him out of this.”
Drew gasped as one of the guys suddenly lunged forward and hit Zebe with some sort of lead pipe, knocking him out cold. His body slumped to the floor at Drew’s feet as powerful arms reached out and seized him, dragging him out of the bedroom.
“Let me go!” Drew snapped at them, his heart beating wildly in his chest. What were they doing and why?
“Just relax, Goldilocks, and we won’t hurt you,” one of them told him as they dragged him toward the front door and toward his own car. “Give me your keys and get in on the passenger side.”
Drew did as he was told, unlocking the door by remote, handing him the keys and sliding into the passenger seat. He had never been so scared in his life. Had he really thought it was okay to pick up some strange guy in the woods? What was going to happen to him now? He sat staring out the front windshield, wondering why they were taking him but too frightened to ask.
“Don’t try anything funny or you will regret it,” the guy told him as he slid behind the wheel and started the car, turning around and heading down the driveway, with five bikes trailing behind him. They drove for what seemed like an eternity without a word, finally turning off the road and heading down another dirt road that seemed to have no end. Just when he thought they would never stop, they pulled up to what looked like a cabin but was much bigger than one he’d ever seen.
“Come on,” another guy said, opening his door and pulling him out of the car. He stumbled outward and onto his feet, steadying himself and looking them in the eye.
“What do you want from me? Why have you taken me?”
Rather than replying, they all just laughed and pushed him toward the cabin. Once inside, he could see that it was more like a large scale bunkhouse with some common areas for relaxing, cooking and such. Drew could only assume it was some sort of clubhouse for what appeared to be a motorcycle gang. He found himself being shoved into a room and heard the door lock from the outside.
“Don’t worry, Cinderella. I’m sure your Prince Charming will be along any moment now to save you,” a voice chided from the outside.
“Fuck you,” Drew shouted back defiantly. He was glad that the guy couldn’t see him jump at the sound of a heavy hand hitting the door from the other side. What was going on here? He had no clue why they had taken him or what they planned to do. It didn’t seem like they were too keen on telling him either, but he managed to overhear some of their conversation beyond the door.
“What the fuck was Zebe thinking?” one of them said.
“He wasn’t thinking, not with his brain anyway. I’d say the thought center was much lower than that,” another replied.
“He knows damned well that it is forbidden for us to fuck men. He knows what it could lead to and yet, he did it anyway. It’s irresponsible and puts us all at risk,” the first said.
“We’re going to have to deal with him. And what are we going to do with his boy toy in there?” the second replied
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out,” the first said, his voice fading as their footsteps fell further away from the door.
What were they talking about? Their objections didn’t seem to be based in homophobia, but in some other fear of what would happen if not just Zebe, but any of them, were to have a sex with another man. He suspected that if this were to do with some sort of hate crime, he’d be beaten bloody or worse by now and that didn’t seem to be what they had in mind. The question was still what they did have in mind though.
Drew sat on the small bed situated to one side of the room and looked around. The room was set up a bit like a tiny hotel room, with amenities for an overnight stay. He wondered how often it was used and if it was used for visitors or prisoners like himself. Lying down, he stared at the ceiling, waiting to see what was going to become of him. His mind raced with thoughts on how he might get out of here without harm to himself or others.
Morning faded to afternoon and he found that he was starving. Spotting a small cabinet beneath the sink situated in one corner, he opened it to find nothing in the nature of food or something to drink. Were they intent on leaving him in here just to starve to death? For what reason? He lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes, drifting into a listless sleep until he was awakened by the sound of the door being opened.
“Brought you some food,” a gruff voice said.
“How long are you planning to keep me here?” Drew asked.
“Man, I don’t know. I’m not in charge around this place. I was just sent to give you food,” the guy said, sitting down a tray and walking out the door, the lock clicking loudly as he slammed the door behind him.
No one else came after that. Drew beat on the door and yelled for someone to let him out, but there was no answer. He finally gave up and lay back down, not sleeping all night, but lying in bed staring at the walls until it became too dark to see anymore. He was awakened the following morning to a thin beam of light shining through the slatted window and decided that if he was to get out of here, he would have to find a way out himself.
Examining the boards, he looked for weaknesses where he could possibly pull them apart or out of the surrounding frame, but they were solid and nailed shut. It answered the question as to whether this was typically a guest room or meant to keep people inside and having
discerned that it was the latter, he wasn’t sure what to make of it. He went back to the sink in one corner and examined the pipes behind it. They were metal. Perhaps he could use one of them to break open the boards or, failing that, as a weapon against whoever came to the door next.
“What the fuck?” he mumbled to himself as he knelt down in front of the sink. He felt bloated, his belt digging into his middle as he bent forward. Standing back up, he pulled his shirt up and noted just how distended it appeared, but his consideration of this was interrupted by the sound of a key in the lock. Damn, he wasn’t ready.
“Rise and shine, Cinderella! I brought you some breakfast,” he heard from outside the door and then it opened to reveal the one they had called John standing there with a tray of food. Drew looked around him, gauging whether he could make it out the door before he could stop him and if he could get past whoever he might encounter out there. His eyes moved back toward J.3ohn, who was studying him quietly.
“I’m not hungry.”
“No, you’ve got other things on your mind it seems.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Drew said, suddenly overcome by a wave of nausea. It was true that he had other things in mind, but now, he truly did feel quite ill and not at all like he could eat anything. He struggled to maintain his composure as John sat the tray on the small table inside the door and started to reach for the dirty one that had been left over from the night before.
“Yeah, I just be you don . . .,” John started to say, but his words were cut off as Drew lunged forward, not ot try to rush him in an effort to get out the door, but because he suddenly was very ill. John cursed loudly as Drew threw up all over him and the food he had brought in. “Fuck!”
Drew pulled back, regaining control of himself as the waves of nausea subsided a bit. His eyes widened at the mess he had left all over John. No doubt that wasn’t going to go over well, but what he saw on John’s face was something else. He didn’t look particularly angry. Instead, he looked alarmed and his eyes had refocused on Drew’s midriff. His arms shot out and ripped the button down cotton shirt he was wearing open, taking in the pants that had been left unbuttoned to relieve pressure from his rapidly expanding waist.
“Son of a bitch,” the large man muttered, turning and walking out of the room without even shutting the door behind him. He was practically running down the hall as he yelled for someone named Theo to get down there. Even in his weakened state, Drew saw his chance and bolted for the door. He was almost to the front doors when he saw John and a man he assumed was this Theo person coming back toward him from the other direction. They grabbed him by both arms.
“See, Theo, look at him,” John barked.
“Ah. for Christ’s sake. This is a nightmare. We have to get Turk on the phone and talk to him about this. Lock him back up in the room.”
“He threw up all over the place in there, on his food and everything.”
“Get Stan in there to clean it up and take him some more food. Fucking pregnant. This is just fucking great.”
“I’m sorry. What did you say?” Drew said, not believing what he was hearing.
“That’s right, Cinderella. You’re knocked up,” John told him.
“What the hell are you guys on? I’m a guy. I can’t be pregnant.”
“Then why do you think you are sick. Why do you think your stomach is swollen?” Theo asked.
“I figure you bastards poisoned me and it’s a reaction. Makes a lot more fucking sense than me being pregnant.”
“Then you obviously don’t know who you decided to go home with and fuck last night,” Theo growled.
“What do you mean?”
“Get him back in the room, John,” Theo replied without responding. ‘I’ve got to talk to Turk and figure this shit out.”
“Come on,” John barked, yanking him toward the hallway that led back to the room. He tried to struggle, but the other man was much larger and stronger. His slim, athletic build was no match for the much larger man’s strength. He shoved him inside on the bed and slammed the door shut, the lock clanging noisily as he secured him inside.
“It stinks in here!” Drew yelled through the door at him.
“Then you shouldn’t have puked all the place . . . or me!” John yelled back at him.
Drew lay down on the bed. The room was spinning around him. He felt sick to his stomach in a way he had never felt before. After some time, it began to pass and he found that he was ravenous. He wondered how long it would be before whoever Stan was turned up to clean the place and bring him fresh food, but he didn’t have to wonder long as he arrived a short time later.
“Here is your food. I’m going to clean up while you eat it. Don’t do anything stupid, man,” Stan told him.
“Like what?”
“Like try to get out of here. Even if you got out of the lodge in one piece, it is a very long walk to get anywhere that would help you and your condition won’t help that very much.”
“Oh, right. I’m pregnant. You guys must be having some sort of a good laugh trying to convince me that I’m going to have a baby. How stupid do you think that I am?”
“Pretty stupid if you don’t believe it. Do you know who Zebe is?”
“I can’t say that I do really. I just met him yesterday, but no matter who he is, it is simply not possible for a man to get another man pregnant. Maybe you guys don’t get out much way back here in the sticks, but men lack the proper anatomy to conceive and deliver babies.”
“Look, I have no idea how it happens. I just know that it does and that is why we are all forbidden to have sex with other men. Zebe was irresponsible to do it. He knew exactly what could happen and he chose to risk it with you, a complete stranger from the sound of it.”
“This is ridiculous. How long are you people going to keep me here? What do you want? Is Zebe okay? They hit him pretty hard.”
Before Stan could answer, there was a loud boom from outside the lodge. It sounded like an explosion of some sort and Drew could hear voices yelling and running down the halls. Stan jumped up and bolted out the door, leaving it open behind him. Drew put down the food he had been working on and slid out behind him, heading in the opposite direction. Hopefully, there was another exit somewhere he could slip through and somehow get to his car.
He was just about to the end of the hallway, when someone reached out and grabbed him from behind, slapping a hand firmly over his mouth and pulling him around a corner.
“I need you to be quiet, Drew. I’ll get you out of here,” Zebe told him, turning him around to face him.
“Zebe, I don’t understand what is happening!” Drew whispered.
“I know. Let me get you away from here and we will sit down and talk about everything. Okay?”
Drew was anxious to know now, but he knew it was more important to get as far away from here as possible first. He nodded and Zebe kissed him on the cheek before pulling him toward a door that led down a back hallway of the lodge. A few moments later, they were standing on the opposite side of the building from where everyone had rushed out.
“I’m going to go around to the left side of the building and create a diversion. When I do, get to your car and get the hell out of here. I’ll catch up with you down the road,” Zebe told him.
“What? No. There are too many of them. They’ll finish you off.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Now, get ready.”
Before Drew could respond, Zebe took off around the building, heading down the road that led away from the cabin. Drew could hear voices shouting when they saw him and the men in front of the building took off after him.
“There he is! Bastard!”
Drew hurried around the opposite side and made a beeline for his car, pulling his spare key from his wallet in case those in the car were taken by the men. He was surprised to find it unlocked and with his keyring hanging in the ignition. Was it a trap? He’d have to take his chances. Jumping in, he started the car and started it
up, heading down the road behind the men chasing Zebe, the pile of burning bikes that had apparently been the source of the earlier explosion roaring in his rearview mirror.
“Don’t do it,” he said to the men that stopped giving chase to Zebe and turned toward him, though he knew they couldn’t hear him. He was fully prepared to run them over if they came back at him and it looked like he might have to do just that. His foot pressed down on the petal, as disbelief suddenly set in. What was happening in front of him just wasn’t possible. As the men turned and headed back toward him, he saw them begin to shift, change into something else. It took a few moments for his eyes to accept what he was seeing.
The car was suddenly surrounded by wolves, biting at the tires, giving chase to it as he sped down the road toward a larger cluster of the beasts that had been led off to an opening in the trees to one side. They were surrounding a large black wolf that tore at them fiercely, fighting for its life and though Drew had not seen him change, he knew instinctively that it was Zebe. He wanted to help, but knew this was way out of his league. He had no choice but to continue down the road.
The sounds of their howls and growls filled the air seemingly from all sides as he continued down the road with several of the other wolves still giving chase. Others had dropped off, but there were still more than enough of them to do him harm if he stopped. His heart thudded against his chest, both out of fear and pain for what must certainly be happening to Zebe. He had been far outnumbered. The road seemed just as endless as it had when he had been driven here, but he knew he must be getting close to the main highway. The thought had no more than occurred to him than he saw the gray asphalt that met the entrance to this hell just ahead. A glance in the rearview revealed only one wolf still in pursuit and it was at a distance.
Stopping at the end of the road, he gave another quick glance back and saw the wolf was closer and just as he was about to turn his eyes and exit onto the outer highway, he caught a flash of something he had noticed when he had seen it the first time, a silver muzzle he had noted on no other wolf in the pack. Zebe! Slamming on the brakes, he popped the hatch of the SUV and jumped out of the car, terrified that he might be wrong but knowing it was something he had to do.