Alden grabbed Tabitha’s arm and pulled her down. “Keep your eyes peeled and don’t move.” He quickly cut some branches off a bushes and shoved them down the back of her shirt, then cut some more for himself. He looked into her startled eyes, “camouflage,” he whispered.
Colt slid off the horse and tied him off to a tree. Charlie and Ceara were getting down too, Beth and Colt walked over to joined them, Colt looked to Charlie, “Do you guys know what’s up, is the camp around somewhere close?”
Charlie put his hand on his head, “Damn I got a headache. Yeah I would guess so Colt. Damn Tonto can smell trouble a mile away and I’ve come to trust that dog’s nose.”
Charlie knelt down on one knee, and looked at Beth and Ceara, “You guys wouldn’t happen to have any aspirin would you. I got a feeling when the guns start to go off my head will kill me before anything else has a chance.” He shook his head slightly, “Well at least the ringing in my ears has stopped. I think that’s a good sign.”
Ceara wasn’t paying much attention to the group, she was watching Alden and Tabitha to see what they were doing. When Alden pulled Tabitha down, Ceara turned to everyone, in a loud whisper, “Get down!”
Maximus started to run to get with Tonto, Charlie snapped his fingers and Maximus came back and sat beside him. Charlie smiled at Ceara, “I’ve been working with him.” Ceara looked hurt, “Why not teach me to do it too, he is my dog.” Charlie’s smile vanished, “I was planning on surprising you.” Ceara felt bad for being petty, “Well it is pretty good!”
Charlie relaxed a little knowing she wasn’t mad. Ceara grabbed Maximus’ collar to make sure he didn’t decide he wouldn’t have to listen to Charlie and take off. “Okay, so what now? Alden and Tabitha are crouching down up there, we are crouched here but we have no clue what’s going on.”
Colt looked up to Alden; he almost wanted to laugh at Tabitha with the brush stuck down the back of her shirt. Turning back to Charlie, “I can’t help you with any aspirin but we do have it at the cabins, don’t help you now though. To be honest, I don’t think you will even notice your head till all this is over.” Charlie gave Colt a slight smile.
Alden watched and listened as he heard the voices of what sounded like two men and a women trying to catch and coax Tonto. “Come here, puppy,” He heard the women say. The one of the men yelled, “Get him.” The laughter that followed told Alden that Tonto was just playing with them. Tabitha looked to him as he knelt and smiled. “What the hell is he doing Alden?” She asked.
Alden placed a hand on her knee he pointed with his other one, “Just watch, and when faced with superior numbers the best way to win is to divide and conquer.” They sat and watched and listened as the voices which started out in one location suddenly seemed to be coming from two then three different areas. Tabitha looked to Alden, “How the hell did you teach that?”
Alden chuckled, “I didn’t he picked it up on his own. I have no idea how he just started doing it in Iraq. He would sneak into the enemy camp and get them to chase him. Then he would get them separated and have one; just one mind you, to follow him. He’d stay just out of their reach and bring them straight to us. He’s doing the same thing right now. So get ready and don’t jump the gun.”
Beth kept her eyes wide on everything that was going on around them but when she heard Charlie ask Ceara for an aspirin she got a mother like look on her face but let everyone finish talking before she interrupted. Quietly she walked over behind Charlie then place her fingers on the each side of his temples then slowly began massaging them. “Charlie, honey, I know that this doesn’t help much and we are all on edge, but try to stay focused and when this is all said and done we will get back to camp and your Tylenol will be waiting for you. Ceara looked really worried and Beth motioned with her head for her to come over and take her place. “Ceara, would you like to come over here and trade spots with me?” Beth thought that by giving Ceara something to do, it would hopefully calm herself down along with maybe making Charlie feel a bit better too.
Charlie smiled weakly at Beth, “Thank you.” He felt Ceara’s finger on his temples as he kept trying to see what Alden and Tabitha were doing. “I wonder if we should maybe get that big ass gun out of the bag yet.”
Colt looked at him and shook his head, “No I don’t think he’s ready for that yet.” They could all hear Tonto barking and almost seen him running through the bushes. The voices seemed to be getting farther apart as the group was getting more and more spread out. Charlie looked at Colt, “You think he’s bringing them all or just one?”
Colt sneered, “If it were up to me we would be back at camp taking them out as they tried to attack us.”
Ceara came around looking everywhere at once, “Colt don’t be stupid, we couldn’t just wait. What if their whole camp came at once? We would all be killed and not to be rude but me, Beth and Tabitha got more to lose than you do, don’t we? Just what would you do if your wife was still alive and here, wouldn’t you protect her or would you just bury your head in the sand and waiting?”
Colt hadn’t even thought of it like that; no, he would never run the risk of anything happening to Jessica. He knew he would have searched anyone down that even thought about touching her and it wouldn’t matter if it were to kill her or use her like Alden had suggested. “No Ceara, I’m sorry. You’re right; I would never just sit and wait for it. Guess I wasn’t thinking in those terms.”
Ceara nodded, “Glad you can see it from our point.”
Alden watched as a young woman chased Tonto and when she was within ten to fifteen feet of Alden, she spotted the horse. The woman stopped and just stared at the horse for a Moment then turned to yell to her friends. Alden leaped like a lion on its kill and wrapped his hand around the woman’s mouth as the two fell to the ground.
The woman was kicking and thrashing trying to get away when Tabitha put her pistol in the woman’s face. Kneeling down Tabitha then looked at her and placed her finger up to her lips and whispered, “I think it’s in your best interest right now not to make one sound or my friend here that is pointed at your forehead will make an even bigger sound and you won’t have a chance to blink let alone even think about hearing your brains hitting the front of that tree over there!”
The woman’s eyes were as big as saucers and she shook her head quickly in agreeing with what Tabitha was saying. While the woman was still trembling Tabitha held the gun steady and looked up at Alden then gave a quick nod of her head.
Alden sat her up and quickly shoved a bandana into the woman’s mouth. The zip tied her hands behind her back. He turned to Tabitha, “Take her back to the others and then you make her kneel down and zip tie her ankles.” He handed her another zip tie.
Tabitha nodded, “What about the other two?”
Alden looked at her with cold steel eyes, “One belongs to Tonto the other, I’ll take care of.”
Tabitha stood and looked at him. She felt a sense of coldness coming from him she had never felt from any human being before. She knew he slit the one man’s throat and she knew that happened because he had attacked the group, but now she was seeing a part of Alden that almost scared her. He wasn’t mean or cold or ruthless. No, he had been trained all his life for this; this was simply a job to him. His occupation was to kill. She turned and jerked the woman to her feet, “C’mon sweetie let’s move.”
She pushed her in front and prodded her back towards the others. Only turning once to look back over her shoulder, she saw that Alden was still kneeling watching her. He turned and moved silently a little further into the bushes as she heard Tonto’s playful bark once more.
The others watched as Tabitha lead the girl to them. The girl was early twenties with long brown hair that was as dirty as she was; her clothes had not been washed in days. Tabitha shoved her to the ground, “Have a seat! I think we can all have us a little pow wow.”
The girl’s eyes were wide and terrified but they still had a hint of defiance. She kept glancing back toward th
e way she had come. Colt got close to her and softly said, “I would suggest you not yelling once we take the gag off, we nothing to lose by killing you and not a whole hell of a lot by keeping you alive. Your choice, will you yell if I remove it?”
She girl shook her head no and Tabitha laughed, “She may be smarter than I thought.”
The girl swallowed hard as Colt took off the gag, “What’s your name?”
She looked at all of them and simply said, “Stephanie.”
Colt smiled, “See, easy questions Stephanie. Now, is everyone in your camp now or are any out hunting….. or stealing?”
She looked like she didn’t want to answer but a nudge from Tabitha got her talking, “They’re all here except one we sent to look for you guys. We wanted you to join our group!!”
She didn’t know that the guy had been killed, Colt kept smiling “Well that is very nice of your people, just how did you know where we were and why did you not just come to our doors? You want to know what I think? I think you are just trying to save your pretty little skin. The man you sent to invite us…” Colt did quotes in the air as he said it. “is dead, never mess with people that care about each other and will protect the others with their lives.”
Stephanie glared at him, “You killed Tommy?”
Colt confirmed it with a nod, “And will do much worse to you if we are not given truthful answers to our questions.” The girl bit her lip and seemed to understand they weren’t joking. Colt looked to the others, “I ain’t really sure what to ask?”
Beth looked over to Tabitha, then to all of the others and back to Stephanie. “Look Stephanie, let me make this really easy for you. I want to know if your group has an ample supply of fire power.”
Stephanie looked up then over to Tabitha pointing the gun in her face then stubbornly answered, “Not much, just what we got on us.”
Within seconds Tabitha pushed Stephanie onto her side and lifted up the back of her shirt because that was the first place she thought of looking but when she didn’t find anything she then rolled her over on her back and found that her weapon was down the front of her pants. Tabitha pulled out a measly little 9 mm and shoved it down the back of her pants then looked over to Beth and remarked, “Good question there!”
Stephanie began to struggle to get back up when Beth asked, “So is this really all of your group?” as she nodded in the direction of her camp.
Stephanie looked over to them then back to Beth with tears in her eyes, “Yes…. then there is Tommy but…”
Tabitha looked over at Colt then said, “You mean WAS.”
Stephanie started to cry, “We are all just like you all….trying to make it…..trying to survive.”
Beth then stood up and looked in the direction of where Alden was, “Yeah, well sadly this last mistake that Tommy made was a very bad one because that was all on him…..not us!!!”
Ceara leaned close to Stephanie, “Just like us?? You compare yourself to us? Fuck you, you little bitch, we didn’t come attack you, we didn’t try to kill your animals, we didn’t try to steal your supplies and we DAMN sure didn’t try kidnapping one from your camp. We didn’t come here until you did all that to us!!” Ceara glared at the girl then turned and walk to lean on a nearby tree, “We are not going to sit back and let you guys take everything from us.”
Charlie put an arm around Ceara’s shoulders, “Honey, calm down, you have to be able to ask questions and I’m sorry those weren’t very good questions.”
Ceara smirked, “Yeah well…” Colt looked back to Stephanie, “So you can see your people have done a lot to us to force what will happen. To be honest with you Stephanie, I wasn’t for it when I got here but now that I am, hmmmm I am thinking this was just what needed to happen.”
Stephanie lowered her head trying to appear like she was crying, “They made me join them, they found me in my home town and forced me to come with them.” She quickly looked to Beth hoping for sympathy, “They raped me and then told me I had to stay or they would let the killers have me.”
Colt reached out with a finger and pulled the girl’s face back to his, “Do not try to get sympathy from us, we had that the first time we let Tommy boy go and look where that got us?” Colt dropped his hand as if touching her had been too much to handle, “What type of camp do you have, cabins or tents?”
Stephanie gave up on the sympathy; she glared, “Morris will kill all of you; then our camp will be your cabins.”
Colt reached back to slap her but Beth’s hand stayed his arm, “No, Colt, we aren’t like them.” Beth gave Colt the sweetest look and whispered, “Remember Jessica Colt? We are better than that!” Then she looked back at Stephanie, “Much better than that.” Beth looked over at Tabitha and asked, “How’s your trigger finger doing girl?”
Tabitha smiled while looking directly into the scared eyes of Stephanie, “Fucking itchy……why you ask??”
Beth then looked back at Stephanie then continued, “I suggest that you answer the man’s question, because if ya don’t and if by any chance your group does over run us…. well, you won’t be alive to join them!”
Charlie stepped up and squatted in front of her, “You know… Steph, the way you just spouted off about this guy… Morris… It sounds to me like if you were raped it was more of a willing thing of rough sex.” Charlie smirked knowing he got the rise out of her he wanted.
The girl glared at him, “He’s more of a man than you little boy.”
Charlie smiled, “little boy???? Is that the best you got? Honey, I grew up in an orphanage, your petty words mean nothing to me.”
Charlie stood and looked at Colt, “Their after the cabins most of all, I’d almost bet they’re all out in the open in tents or living out of trucks vans and cars.”
Alden and Tonto came walking out of the woods. No one had seemed to notice that Tonto had even quit barking. The young woman watched and the look of fear came upon her face as she noticed bits of blood dripping from Tonto’s lower jaw. She started to scream, “OH MY GOD YOU FED THEM TO YOUR DOG.”
Alden slapped his hand over her mouth. “Yes and I’ll let him eat you next if you don’t shut the fuck up.” Reaching down he stuffed the rag back in her mouth. Standing he took off two rifles he had slung over his shoulder. “They have mostly hunting rifles and shotguns. There are thirty-seven total; twenty-five men and twelve women. Five of the guys are queer as three dollar bills according to her partner. Their leader thought they added flair to their little sexcapades.”
Charlie stood in disbelief, “They told you that?”
“Well one did. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the other guy; he must have pissed Tonto off. There wasn’t much left by the time I got there. They have their camp in the middle of a clearing a half mile or so over there.”
Pointing to the south, “They have tents and vans mostly and there not parked in a circle but rather scattered out between the tents. Their out of gas and ….” Alden looked down and shook his head “Electricity. I guess one of them was driving a Chevy Volt.” He rolled his eyes.
Colt stepped forward and told Alden all they had found out including the girl claiming to be raped. Though Colt didn’t believe her he figured Alden should know. Alden looked at the girl. The reached down and flipped her on her belly. He pulled her low rise jeans down to reveal a tattoo that said…Hit It Hard.. Alden looked to Colt, “I’ll be damned the guy wasn’t lying.” Alden shook his head in disgust, “No Colt she wasn’t raped. It was her job in the little tribe, to provide services to all. In fact that’s what they were about to do before we stumbled across them.”
Alden looked to the girl, “Sorry about breaking up your party though.” Standing up he watched as the girl rolled back over and glared at Alden then started to pout and look innocent. Alden went on with the information he gathered. “They have a lot of booze and drugs, seems smoking pot is an hourly thing there. They do have some speed and cocaine, but they lack food. Fish, rabbits and what they can catch. They’re all too
stoned or tired from fucking to make any attempt to get anything is very little food for all of them.”
He looked down at Stephanie, “Did I miss anything?” Stephanie shook her head and looked down at the ground. She then looked back up at Alden with what she hoped to be a coy sexy little look in her eye and wink.
Ceara and Tabitha both saw it and in unison spoke up, “OH HELL NO BITCH!” Ceara was trying to grab at the girls hair as Tabitha kicked Stephanie in the ribs. Ceara held the hair and looked her in the eyes, “Don’t you think for one fucking second we’re going to let you anywhere near our men.” She shoved Stephanie back hard hitting her head on a rock.
It was Charlie’s turn to step in as he reached down and pulled Ceara up and away from the prisoner, “Honey don’t worry, I don’t think she’ll be around much longer.”
Alden spoke up and motioned them all back towards the horses, “We need to talk.” As they gathered by the horses he looked at them, “okay cupcakes, what do you want to do?” He said quietly.
Colt looked to Alden, “We don’t need what they have but what we do need is to know we are safe or as safe as we can be without worrying about this group. I say we stick to the original plan and we go after them, but I think we should wait till about midnight when they are all drugged and fucked out.” He looked to Beth, “Sorry for the language” he turned back to Alden, “Just how did you find all that out from that one guy, or do I want to know?”
Alden Looked at Colt as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small handful of thorns from one of the trees. “Take one of these put it under a fingernail and push. They’ll tell you everything. And if they stop just unzip their pants and aim for the head of their dick.”
Charlie immediately grabbed his crotch and made a wincing face. Tabitha giggled then suddenly stopped; none of this was a laughing matter. “I’d say that Colt’s idea is the way to go. Let’s just lay low here until these fuckheads are wasted. Then we move in and pick them off one at a time because it will be quicker that way.”
Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins Page 44