“I want the little one,” Slick said reaching for the younger girl. She tried to crouch behind the older woman, afraid of Slick reaching for her. “I like ‘em when they fight.”
“No, dude, she ain’t got no meat on her bones like this one does,” Dog said pulling the older woman closer to him. “Look at her tits. I’m gonna love playing with them,” Dog said to Slick and laughed as the woman tried to pull away.
Chuck was looking around and saw the house had been a safe house for battered and abused women. There were signs on the wall about keeping the place a secret and not letting any strangers in. There were business cards for lawyers who would work for free, posters about women not having to take abuse and pictures of women who had been abused.
These two women had hidden here in hopes of being safe and the worst thing had happened. They’d been seen by a man with no conscience, no morals and was aware there was no law these women could turn to for help. There’d been a time when Chuck just wouldn’t have given a shit. These weren’t women he knew and why should he care what these dirt bags did to them? If he didn’t want to take part in their “fun” he could always get on his bike and leave.
Dog was pulling the black woman closer so he could smell her hair and she started screaming to be left alone. Dog slapped her. “Shut up nigger or I’ll shut you up for good,” he said pointing his gun at her head. Slick laughed at Dog’s statement as he pulled the waif from the black woman’s side. The girl screamed and Slick, who was 6’ 2”, manhandled the younger girl who was probably 5’ 5” and 105 pounds soaking wet.
A memory came back to Chuck. He remembered the look on his step-dad’s face as he was kicking Chuck’s mother and brother. Maybe with the beard, clothes and hat, or just Dog’s stupidity that he hadn’t guessed Chuck might be part black, but when Dog spat his racial epithet he knew he no longer wanted to be associated with scum like him.
Neither did he want to be in any gang with someone like Slick who was ready to rape the young girl who had obviously been abused already. He backed away from where Dog was already grabbing a feel of the black woman’s breasts a Slick was pulling at the younger girl’s clothes. The screaming and the tears grated on his conscience.
Another memory came back to him as well, something about God helping those who help themselves. Chuck pulled his gun out of its holster. He was going to help someone besides himself for the first time in his life.
“Let ’er go, Dog.” Chuck said evenly, raising his voice only slightly to be heard over the crying and screaming women.
Dog turned to look at Chuck and saw the Beretta aimed at him.
Slick saw it too and let go of the younger girl to reach for his gun that he’d stuck in the waistband of his pants. Chuck saw the movement and shot Slick in face. Bone and blood splattered over the younger girl, but the man fell straight to the floor, blood pumping from the hole in his face. The girl screamed a shrill, ear-shattering yell. She used both hands to try and wipe the mess from her face.
Dog who still had his gun in his right hand but pointed at the black woman spun to aim at Chuck, but the black woman was still struggling and ruined his aim when she drove an elbow into his big gut. The shot missed Chuck by two feet. Chuck wasn’t so encumbered and his first shot went into Dog’s side, just below his right arm, the biggest target he could get a clean shot at. The black woman broke free of his grip and Dog stumbled. He tried another shot at Chuck but with the woman clear, Chuck put two more shots into the man’s upper torso.
Dog fell to the floor leaking blood from three wounds. He was conscious, but wouldn’t be for long. One of Chuck’s shots hit an artery or something, the former inmate speculated.
Chuck thought the killing of the two had been just as easy as it was to kill his step dad. There was legal justice, then there was righteous justice and Chuck felt what he did was righteous justice.
“Come with me if you want,” Chuck told the two women in a smooth, calming voice. To the women, it was an anchor of solidity. Slick’s body was still twitching and the younger girl was continuing to scream. “There’s another one of those guys outside.”
Chuck headed down the stairs and out the door. He hated what he’d been forced to do because in his heart, he knew he was a peaceful man. In his mind he rationalized he’d had no choice in what happened. He couldn’t stand to see these helpless women be raped and tortured after what they’d probably had already been though. He hated it but he felt he was right to do it.
Killing Dog and Slick was a reaction. He didn’t have any plans other than get away from this place. He also wondered why he cared. It was not like the man he had been, but something inside was changing the way he looked at other people.
The women followed him out the front door. Chuck saw Taffee’s boy toy still on the third man’s bike. The boy was chewing on his fingernails, not caring about what was going on around him. He heard Taffee call from the side yard. “What’n hell’s going on with you guys?’ he asked coming around front. The younger girl, who had stopped screaming, whimpered at the sound of his voice.
Taffee saw Chuck’s gun aimed at him. “Drop it,” Chuck told him and Taffee immediately dropped his gun. “Back up.” Taffee did and looked over at his boy. The kid wasn’t paying attention to anything but his fingernails.
Chuck retrieved the gun, an older M1911 .45 caliber pistol, and handed it to the black woman without taking his eyes off Taffee.
“Can either of you drive a bike?” The older woman told him no and the younger just shook her head hard enough tears were flung off. “Okay, both of you get on that last bike in line but leave room for me.”
They did as he told them. Chuck walked over to Dog and Slick’s bike and kicked them over. He pulled the keys out of both and tossed them as far as he could. When he got to Taffee’s bike he asked the boy toy if he could drive and wanted to leave. The kid looked at Taffee then back at Chuck. The kid shrugged and climbed forward onto the bike, started it and pulled away from the house without looking back or saying a word of thanks.
Taffee started hollering at the kid until Chuck aimed at him again.
When the kid was long gone, Chuck told the black woman to keep her gun on Taffee until he got his bike started. She nodded.
Chuck put his gun in its shoulder holster and straddled the big bike. It was heavier with two women on it, but Chuck was strong enough to handle the big Harley. He had his head turned and had just started the bike when he heard the black woman fire off two rounds. Startled, he looked back and Taffee was on the ground, clutching his leg. Chuck caught a glimpse of another hand gun on the ground. Taffee must have had a second gun hidden somewhere. Chuck hadn’t thought of that and it might have gotten them killed.
The younger girl started screaming again and the black woman was hollering something at the man on the ground.
“Shut up, woman. Just shut the hell up and let me get us out of here,” he hollered at her over the sound of the Harley.
She continued to holler at the man on the ground as Chuck put the bike into gear and started to accelerate away. She shot again and Chuck almost dumped the bike.
“Dammit woman, put the gun away. He can’t catch us now and he can’t shoot us and you’re going to get us killed,” Chuck said over his shoulder, concentrating on not wrecking the bike. “And make sure the safety is on so you don’t shoot me in the ass.”
“I know how to use a gun, mister. I ain’t a stupid helpless woman who doesn’t know how to defend herself. I know how guns work…”
“For the love of God woman, just shut up. I just killed two men and I’m not in the mood to hear any shit. Just put the gun away and sit still until we are far enough away from here.”
The woman shut up.
Chuck weaved the bike around wrecks and bodies in the road until he hit a clear area. The sun was over the mountains now and it was starting to get dark, but Chuck wanted at least 20 miles between him and where he’d killed two men.
Half a mile from where they’d
left a wounded Taffee and two dead bodies they saw the boy toy again. He must have lost control of the big bike and laid it down. Without a helmet, the boy’s head hadn’t stood a chance against the pavement.
Chuck didn’t stop.
He got on State Road 99 and followed it to I-5. He was trying to outrun the memory and didn’t pull back off the highway until he saw some industrial buildings west of the highway. He slowed the bike and took the off ramp. There were no street lights or building lights and it was getting hard to see beyond the headlights of his bike.
He found a truck stop, pulled into the parking lot and turned off the bike. All three climbed off. The young girl still had blood on her face and Chuck could see tear streaks from the wind.
The black woman was stretching and talking quietly with the girl as Chuck walked around the building.
He walked back to them. “There’s an open door. We can probably find flashlights inside and probably a place to sleep for the night and clean up.”
“Why did you do it?” she asked. “Why kill your friends for us?”
Chuck paused, lost in thought for a long moment. “They weren’t my friends and I did it because if my mom had had the nerve to get away from my step-dad, maybe things would be different for me.” He then cocked his head, “this way.” That was all he was going to say on the matter.
They found flashlights and bottled water with which to clean up. There were some clothes on the first floor and the younger girl found something clean to wear. Chuck located rooms with clean bedding and the two women took one while Chuck took the other. “You want me to wake you up in the morning or what?” he asked before going to his room.
The older woman appraised Chuck and the kindness and nerve he showed today. She didn’t think she owed him anything and she didn’t think he thought she did. He hadn’t put any moves on her and had saved the two from a brutal future. There were worse people to hook up with in this dangerous world.
“Wake us up in the morning, mister. We’ll decide then.”
Chuck nodded in the darkness and the light he was carrying disappeared into the room he’d use for the night. He left the door open a crack so he could hear if anything happened in the hall. He also opened the window in the room so he could hear outside. The sun was fully down now and the darkness outside was near absolute. The stars Chuck could see were brilliant without street lights to obscure them.
Chuck moved a chair beside the window so he could look at the stars until he was tired and ready for bed. He heard animals moving about outside and shined the flashlight down at them. One of the women he’d saved must have had the same idea because he could see a beam from their room doing the same thing. He realized he didn’t know either of their names. He’d never thought to ask and he was sure they didn’t know his name either.
He got up from the window and washed his hands and face with water from the bottles he’d brought to the room with him. He put his gun and holster on the table and pulled off his shirt and pants. The clean sheets felt good and it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.
It was a dreamless sleep and he woke only once in the middle of the night at the sound of wild animals fighting outside the building. Chuck got up and closed the window and went back to sleep.
The sun woke him in the morning. He sat up and felt rested. He got dressed and was halfway through making the bed when he realized how stupid the action was. He needed to use a bathroom before doing anything today.
As he was walking by the women’s room he heard them talking.
“I’m going to go find some breakfast and gas. I’ll be outside,” he told them and walked on before hearing their answer.
Chuck picked up a new toothbrush and toothpaste, toilet paper, some sticks of beef jerky and iced coffee from the freezer on his way outside. He found a secluded spot along side the building between some bushes to take care of personal business first. When he was finished he opened the toothbrush and toothpaste and made his mouth feel cleaner. He put the toiletries in his saddlebag when he was finished, wishing for a shower but knowing he wasn’t getting one.
He drank the coffee and ate the jerky while fueling the bike. The two women came out after a few minutes. Both were cleaned up after the previous day’s hell.
“Morning,” he said to them as he put the siphon back into his saddle bag.
The black woman spoke for both of them. “Mister…”
“Chuck,” he told her.
“Chuck, thank you enough for saving us yesterday. If it’s okay with you we’d like to stick with you for a while.
“I’m Yvonne and this is my friend Danielle,” the younger woman smiled at him, but the sadness and fear in her eyes was still apparent.
Chuck told them of his plan to work his way to San Diego to see if he still had a brother. Yvonne told him she had been living at the woman’s shelter after her husband had tried killing her. When the rest of the world died, she continued to hide in the house.
Danielle, he learned, had been living with her boyfriend when he went on an alcohol-fueled rampage, destroying her car and slapping her around until the cops showed up. He made bail and was stalking her and she had been hiding in several different places when everyone started dying.
She came across Yvonne three days earlier while both were looking for food. They talked and Yvonne told Danielle about the safe house and the importance of staying together.
The only reason Yvonne had come out of the house was to remove the body of another woman who had died days earlier. Chuck recalled seeing a large dumpster out front of the house. That must have been what Dog had seen Yvonne doing.
Chuck nodded but didn’t feel like telling them the entire story of his past. “I was working at a dairy farm. Everyone died and I didn’t think I needed to take care of cows any more so I thought I’d go see if my brother still lived at the navy base.”
“I think we should get on the road and in four or five hours, we can be in San Diego. We’ll find what we can find.”
Yvonne nodded. “I think we’ll find something else to drive. I don’t think my ass would like four hours on your bike.”
“Suit yourself, I like the bike.”
They spent an hour walking around the parking lot looking for a vehicle for Yvonne and Danielle. Many of them wouldn’t start nor had keys. Two of the ones they found had dead bodies in them and no one wanted to drive a car with dead person stink.
Danielle was the one who found the car they’d drive. It was a 2012 Cadillac STS parked by itself behind one of the buildings. It was in like-new condition and the keys were on the visor. When she sat inside and turned the key it started with ease.
She drove it around front where Chuck had parked his bike and got out. Chuck and Yvonne showed up after she honked the horn several times. It’d need gas so Chuck found some gas cans and filled them from other cars around the area. It was near noon before they were ready for the road. Chuck had to fix a few things on his bike and Yvonne wanted to put some extra food and water in the trunk of the Caddy.
When they finally got on the road, Chuck took the lead. He wanted to make it to the north side of Los Angeles before stopping again. The girls were comfortable driving at 65 miles per hour behind him because they had to be more careful of the wrecks on the highway.
Twice before they got to LA, they had to leave the interstate because of blockage. Tractor trailer rigs had wrecked blocking all lanes and the little group had to back track and find a way around.
It was just after 2 p.m. when they stopped north of LA. Chuck pulled off the interstate and wound his way to Dodgers Stadium. When the women got out of the car and asked why, he told them he’d seen the stadium on TV hundreds of times and had always wanted to visit.
They ate a light lunch and took care of some personal needs before getting back on the road. There were more cars littering the highway in this area, but they could still make good time. Chuck re-fueled both his Harley and the Caddy. Yvonne discovered the GPS on the Caddy wa
s still working.
Yvonne showed Chuck and gave him the directions to get back on highway I-5. Chuck started his bike and headed out of the stadium. He got a little turned around with his directions while trying to avoid the wrecked cars. He found himself on an overpass where he had a good view of the Los Angeles skyline. He stopped the bike, intending to check with Yvonne again for directions.
He turned the bike off and put down the kick stand when he felt the first trembler. He’d experienced quakes before and the first shaking didn’t bother him because it was light and short lived.
He walked back to the car and opened the back door so he could look over Yvonne’s shoulder while she zoomed out the GPS so Chuck could get his bearings.
He’d just sat down when the second tremor rocked the car. It was stronger this time and both women looked at Chuck. “Let’s get off this overpass,” he told them when he saw his bike fall over. If the earth was shaking, being on an overpass was one of the worst places to be.
Yvonne dropped the car into drive even before Chuck got his door closed. All three could feel the shaking of the overpass and were glad when they got off the ramp and onto the eight-lane highway.
Yvonne stopped the car and waited for the shaking to stop. They could see the LA skyline in front of them. This late in the afternoon, the fog had burned off and without the exhaust from hundreds of thousands of cars, the factories and people they had a clear view of the city.
The second tremor stopped shaking the car and Yvonne was about to start driving again when they heard the noise and felt the earth start moving. The sound was a low, gut-turning rumble which was felt as much as it was heard. Danielle saw the effects first and pointed at the LA skyline. The buildings, even from this distance, they could tell were moving.
The earthquake then moved into high gear and the car was shaking enough all three felt it move across the highway. Yvonne shut it off and applied the emergency brake, glad they weren’t parked near any other vehicles.
All three watched as the skyscrapers in the city fell in slow motion from the shaking. Both Yvonne and Danielle cried out in horror as two tall building fell together raising a massive dust cloud.
Hell Happened (Book 3): Hell Released Page 8