Suddenly the man stopped and crouched down. He saw Jason. Jason moved cautiously, trying to pinpoint him, but this time he didn’t know quite where the man was. The outlaw could barely see Jason. He waited to get a clearer shot, sensing that Jason didn’t know his position.
Jason waited. Minutes went by. He slowly moved to his left. He was in the cover of bushes and wanted to reach a tree. Catherine saw the man slowly rise to a standing position behind his tree and sight his rifle. She guessed he had Jason in his sights. She rose and aimed at the man.
As she steadied her aim, a twig snapped under her foot. The man turned towards her, trying to bring his rifle around the tree when Catherine fired. The bullet hit him in his chest. His rifle fired in the air as he spun around and fell to the ground, the rifle thrown ten feet away.
“Jason,” Catherine called, “it’s all clear.”
Jason came through the woods to the man. He was almost dead, the bullet having torn through his chest. After disarming him, he ran to Catherine who was standing at the tree.
“You saved my life,” he said to her.
She looked at him. She dropped her rifle and he grabbed her in a huge hug. “Is it over? Did we win?” Then she started shaking and crying.
Jason held her tightly. “I think so. It’s okay now, no more shooting, no more killing.” They kept hugging and both began to sob.
Jason gently stroked her head and patted her back. “It’s safe now,” he said between sobs. “We did it. We all did it.”
“I was so scared, but I kept on shooting. I did what you taught me. And in the woods…I almost panicked. I couldn’t see you. I was alone…so scared…seeing those men up close. They would have killed me if they had seen me. It was just up to me…I had to shoot them…by myself.”
“It’s okay. You did it the way I showed you and we won. It’s over now.”
Catherine looked up at him. “Do you think it’s really over? Can we stop fighting?”
Jason smiled at her. He hoped he was right. “Yes, we can stop fighting now. But we have to get back to the others. We still need to be careful until we’ve secured the battle field.” They picked up their rifles and walked hand in hand back towards Betty and Tom.
When they reached them, Betty told them about the men she thought had gotten past her.
“Stay here with Tom,” Jason told Betty. “I’ll check out the woods down to the road.”
“I’ll go with you,” Catherine said.
“Are you sure?” He asked turning to her.
She took a deep breath and nodded, “I’m all right now. We’ll be careful. We find them before they find us and we’ll be okay.” She said it like a mantra.
They quietly disappeared into the woods. As they neared the road they heard the rustling in front of them. There were two men crouched in cover. They sensed someone approaching and called out, “We surrender! Please don’t shoot.”
They were huddled together, the fight completely gone out of them. Jason raised his rifle. Catherine put her hand on his arm.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“They’re not fighting.”
“They’d kill us if they had a chance.”
“But they don’t. It doesn’t seem right.”
Jason lowered his rifle. They approached the two men who drew back in fear. They stared at Catherine.
“She’s just a girl,” one of them said in wonder.
Without offering an answer, Jason quickly moved to tie the men up with their own belts, making sure they could not get free or move. Just then Billy shouted from across the road. They could barely see him at the wood’s edge.
“Pa’s shot! He’s alive! I need help! Mr. Nolan is dead. They shot him before Pa and I could get there. Help Pa!”
Betty and Tom came down from the ridge. “The rest of the gang ran off. There’s no one left at the bridge but the dead and wounded,” she reported.
“Did you see a huge man, Big Jacks, leave?” Jason asked.
“No. I think I hit him with the machine gun. He may be among the wounded.”
Just then John came down from the west ridge and ran across the road to them.
“It’s over, we did it, I can’t believe it, I shot so many times, I kept missing, but I kept trying, I’m an architect, so I figured it was all about angles and vectors—this aiming, I kept correcting, adjusting, and then I started hitting targets—people—I started shooting people, I think I killed some people, I know I wounded some, I saw them go down but they moved, they’re still alive, what do we do with them—?”
Jason grabbed him by the shoulders, “It’s okay, John. You did what you had to do. We all did. You won’t have to do it again. You saved your family.”
John looked at the rest, as if coming out of a nightmare, and started to sob, great choking sobs. Betty and Catherine both put their arms around him.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I didn’t mean to break down. I don’t know what’s come over me.”
“It’s the shock—the violence,” Tom said. “It gets everyone. You were thrown into the deep end without any training. Hell, John, even those with training sometimes can’t handle this. We’ll all have nightmares for a while.”
Jason said, “John, you and Catherine go up on the west ridge and help bring Billy’s dad back down. Betty, help Tom to the pickup. All of you wait there for me. I have some things that must be done. I’ll join you later.”
Catherine asked, “You’re not going to kill them are you? The ones we tied up?”
Jason looked at her and paused. Finally he said, “No. I’ll figure that out later. But don’t be alarmed if you hear gunshots, some of the wounded are still alive and might try to shoot.”
“Be careful,” Catherine admonished.
There could be no mercy from Jason’s point of view. These were not men he could help medically, nor were these men he could trust. This was not about rehabilitation; this was about preservation, for him, his family and the valley. Part of him was repulsed by what he had to do, but he felt trapped, without an alternative. He would just have to deal with the emotional cost later.
I didn’t start this fight, but I will finish it… for good.
He hoped Big Jacks was down there somewhere. He wanted to make sure he was dead. Without him the remnant of the gang would likely disperse. He would make Big Jacks and this battle a signal not to enter this valley.
He worked his way towards the bridge, executing the wounded he found. He had an approximate idea of where Big Jacks was, but couldn’t be sure. He had to consider the possibility that he could still move, even if injured. He crept down the side of the trucks exposed to the valley, going slowly past the first and the second one. Big Jacks would be on the other side, sheltered from the ridges.
Jason moved slowly and quietly. This was no time to be careless. He kept his breathing calm and quiet as he listened. As he reached the back of the second truck, he stopped. He could hear labored breathing ahead—Big Jacks? He waited.
Suddenly a voice shouted out, “Show yourself, you son of a bitch! I know you’re there!”
Jason did not reply. He worked his way back to the front of the truck until he could sneak a look around it. There was Big Jacks, lying on the sheltered side of the next pickup, staring at the back of the second one. He had a rifle at ready in one hand, wavering in the direction he was looking. Ever so slowly, not making a sound, Jason got into a prone shooting position. Then he sighted on the rifle and fired. Big Jacks shouted in pain as Jason’s shot shattered his arm and sent the rifle flying.
Now, he slowly walked up to the huge man, still an imposing sight, even lying on the ground crippled by his wounds. Big Jacks glared at him, his eyes filled with hate. He had gone from dreams of being bandit chief of a city to lying on the ground, badly wounded, staring at his nemesis.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“Just me, my family and some neighbors,” came the answer.
Big Jacks looke
d at him in scornful disbelief. “You’re a liar.”
“No reason to lie. It’s all over.”
“I don’t believe you,” Big Jacks said with a sneer.
“It doesn’t really matter, now.”
“So you’re gonna to shoot me?” he challenged Jason. “The rest of my gang will be back. They’ll kill you yet.”
“No they won’t. They’ll disappear. They don’t want anything to do with me, or this valley.”
Big Jacks unleashed a torrent of swearing at Jason who just stood there looking at him. Lying wounded on the ground, the anger seemed almost sad. The force of terror was gone from the outlaw.
“You can curse ‘till you’re hoarse; it won’t do any good. Your game is over, big man,” Jason said. He squatted down on the pavement, just out of Jacks’ reach.
Big Jacks glared at Jason, his impotence gnawing away at him. He inched his left hand, still working towards the pistol lying on the pavement.
Jason studied the man. Now that the fight was over, he wondered why Big Jacks would choose such an obviously dead-end course to follow. “Why didn’t you just settle down on a farm and raise some food? You had your gang, they took orders from you. You could have set yourself up like a country squire.”
“Fuck that farming shit!” Big Jacks cursed. Then he let out another round of cursing as he inched his left hand forward. At the last moment, he reached for the gun and Jason shot him in the hand and then the elbow.
“Can’t let you do that,” he said without passion. He realized there would be no sensible answer from this man. He lived outside the law and his instincts were to take, not produce. He was a parasite in the end; a dangerous, deadly parasite.
Suddenly Jason got up. “Where you going?” Big Jacks demanded.
Jason just looked at him and began to clear all the weapons out of his reach. “I may be back, or I may let you bleed out here. The animals will come tonight, the dead will draw them. Maybe you can keep them away from you, but they’ll want your flesh at some point.” Jason then scrounged through one of the trucks and came up with a piece of rope. He tied this around Big Jacks’ neck and then to the side of the bridge. Big Jacks could only crawl, if he could even move, towards the side of the bridge. He could not get to any weapons.
“Don’t you leave me here,” Big Jacks shouted as Jason walked away.
Chapter 10
When Jason returned to the pickup, Ray was lying in the back with the others holding him. Tom was in the cab. Jason jumped into the cab and they drove off. They drove back to Anne and Sarah where they would tend to Ray and Tom before getting everyone back to their farms.
Anne came out to meet them as they drove up. “You are safe. Thank God!” she exclaimed. Then, seeing Tom and Ray, she hurried back into the house to gather what limited bandages she had.
After Jason and the others left that morning, before the shooting began, Anne convinced Sarah to let her suture her deepest cuts. It would be painful but Anne knew that some of the defenders might be wounded when they returned. She and Sarah needed to be ready.
Tom’s wounds were cleaned and disinfected with alcohol. Suturing materials were boiled and ready. With Betty’s help the largest opening was sewn shut. Then clean bandages were wrapped around his upper arm and shoulder. Ray’s wound was more serious. A bullet had gone through his side and exited. They couldn’t tell whether or not any organs had been damaged. There didn’t seem to be too much internal bleeding, so his entry and exit wounds were cleaned and bandaged. He was in pain and had lost blood, so they put him in a bed to rest and hoped for the best. The women insisted he shouldn’t be moved in his weakened state.
When everyone was stabilized, Jason said he was going back out to retrieve Andy’s body. Billy asked if Jason wanted him to go, but he told him to stay with his dad.
“I’ll go back with you,” John said.
“I’ll go also,” Catherine added.
“You don’t have to. John and I can handle it.”
“I’ll go. If nothing else, I can keep watch in case anyone comes back. Plus we have to deal with the two we left tied up.”
The three drove back to the bridge in silence. Catherine shouldered her rifle and kept watch while John and Jason hiked up to the ridge to retrieve Andy’s body.
“Okay, what do we do with our two prisoners?” Catherine asked.
“They’re our prisoners because you didn’t want me to shoot them. What do you suggest?”
“I don’t know, but I still don’t feel right shooting them.”
“I have to agree with Catherine,” John said. “I know you finished off the wounded while we were getting Ray. We heard the shots. But now, it would seem more like murder,” John continued.
“We could let them go. Some others got away and ran back to Clifton Furnace,” Catherine said.
Jason felt trapped by the dilemma presented, but with the rush of the fight past, even he had no more appetite for killing. “I guess we could let them go. The problem is they have a pretty clear idea of how many of us there are. The others who ran off don’t know and probably think we’re a well organized militia ready at all times to do battle. These guys could encourage the rest of the gang to try us again.”
“I think they may be scared enough of us to not want to come back,” Catherine responded.
Jason thought for some time. “Okay, I’ll let them go, but we do it my way. I want them to think I’m a crazy killer. And should they ever come back, they’ll die. Both of you wait in the pickup. I promise I won’t shoot them but before I let them go, they’re going to think I’m a homicidal maniac.”
He went over to the men with a rope. He yanked them to their feet, tied the rope around their necks and walked them to the bridge. They stared at all the dead bodies as they passed them. When they got to Big Jacks he had them sit on the pavement. Big Jacks was still conscious, glaring at him, hating him for destroying his plans.
“Here’s the deal,” Jason said as he squatted down again in front of Big Jacks. “I am the head of this citizen’s militia group that defeated you today. There is no other authority in this area, so I am your judge and jury.”
“You got no authority over me,” Big Jacks snarled.
“I do. I’m the victor so I’m in authority and it is up to me to try you.” Standing, Jason continued, “Big Jacks, you are charged with murder, murder of civilians in Clifton Furnace, murder of a member of my defense group and attempted murder of my family and all the families in this valley. How do you plead?”
Big Jacks let out a string of curses.
“Do you have anything to say in your defense?” Jason asked.
“Go to hell, you’re just a vigilante, no better than me.”
Jason waited until Big Jacks had finished another round of cursing. His cursing was repetitive, unimaginative and now quite futile. There was no art or nimbleness of expression from him. Lying there on the pavement, he was just noisy and profane.
“If you have nothing to say on your behalf, I’ll pronounce sentence,” Jason intoned.
“Go fuck yourself,” was the reply. The two captured men watch in fear, sitting very still. They both wondered if they were to be next.
“On behalf of the people of this valley, who you assaulted when you could have left them alone, on behalf of the people left in Clifton Furnace who you could have spared, on behalf of all the other people who you and your gang killed, I sentence you to death.” Jason turned to the two captives, “You two get up and come here.” He untied their hands but left the rope around their necks in place. “Grab him and pull him over to the side of the bridge.”
The men grabbed their leader and dragged him across the pavement.
“You gonna to hang me?” Big Jacks asked with some fear slipping into his voice.
“I might just stretch that knot around your neck to a part of the bridge and let you choke to death, I might just tie you to the bridge and let the animals eat you, or I might shoot you.”
“You
can’t leave me here for the animals,” Big Jacks voice now betrayed his fear. “Don’t you leave me to be eaten!” He was now shouting, clearly in fear of some animals chewing on his body while he was alive.
“I can. I’m your judge and executioner.” Jason threw the rope tied around Big Jacks’ neck to a cross beam of the bridge and pulled him up tight. Strangling sounds came from his mouth as he twisted his neck to keep breathing.
“No, don’t,” he croaked, hardly able to speak.
Jason stood in front of him and looked at him. He didn’t deserve mercy, but Jason had no desire to torture him, to drop to his level. He was now like a terrified animal, responding in wordless fear. Jason had touched a nerve and brought fear to the man who had brought destruction to so many. Time to end it. He pulled out his 9mm and shot Big Jacks though the forehead, once, and twice through the heart.
Then he turned to his captives, awaiting their fate, “You two are rapists and cannibals.” He had them sit down again and tied their hands and feet. “You deserve to be castrated or executed…or both.”
“No, we didn’t eat anyone. The others did, but not us,” one said.
“How long have you been in the gang?”
“We just joined,” the man said.
“If you lie to me, I’ll kneecap you right here and now and leave you for the animals. I killed the last person who joined your gang—the sniper. I’ll ask again, how long have you been members?”
The other man spoke up, “I’ve been in for about six months and he was here when I joined.”
Jason thought about that. These men could have been part of the gang that killed Sam and raped Judy. His anger began to rise.
“You both deserve to die. But I’m going to set you free, not because I’m merciful, but because you’re going to deliver a message for me. What happens to you is what will happen to anyone who comes back here. You are to get out of Clifton Furnace. I’ll be coming to kill the rest of you very soon if you’re not gone. But first you’ve got to pay for your crimes.”
After the Fall: Jason's Tale Page 20