by Tim Yingling
The bikers didn’t seem to be doing anything of importance. It’s like they were just waiting for us to show up. How they knew we would be going to the ranch is something I needed answered. But I wasn’t going to get it right that moment. What I was going to get was sleep.
I moved back to where Kate was. My rifle laid next to me. As I closed my eyes I said, “I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me if you hear anything.”
Kate didn’t answer me. I threw my arm over my eyes and was out in about a second.
* * * *
Saturday, 2 July 2016 (Morning)
Murrysville, PA
585 Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana (280 Miles to Commerce, WV)
I woke around two in the morning. The night was well upon us. My first instinct was to look around the area to make sure nobody had disappeared in my sleep. Normally I am a light sleeper in the woods. But I was out of it for the night. My fears were proven wrong. Nothing happened to the others. Kate had fallen over sometime in the night. Linny readjusted herself to be more comfortable with the change. Ernie moved into a fetal position.
My second instinct was to look on the bikers. I couldn’t see anything from our spot through the dark. There was only a sliver of moon left. In the next couple of days, it would be completely gone.
It was time for me to do what I needed to do. I left my rifle behind. I wouldn’t need it for this mission. All I planned on doing was checking on the bikers and then snagging four horses. Unfortunately, we would have to go bareback for a bit. It would suck, but we would have to deal. I didn’t know where the saddles were and I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time looking for them. That would only be extra undo exposure we don’t need. The bikers still don’t know we are within a mile of them. And they still think we are going to be coming from the road.
I scaled the fence to enter the field. Honestly, I thought maybe there would be a second fence, an electrified second fence, but I was wrong. I’m glad I was too. The grass for the field wasn’t that high for no one taking care of it for the last two months. The horses must have been out there constantly grazing. That is the only explanation for the fact. I’m not saying that the entire field was short-grassed, there were patches here and there with high grass. But for the most part, the grass was low. There wasn’t anything to offer concealment for me to get to the house.
It was a slow trot across the field, but a trot none-the-less. It took me five minutes to get over to the main building. The horses were all in for the night. The few stragglers left out were asleep. None of them even acknowledged me as I passed them.
I didn’t go to the barns first. The bikers weren’t in the barns. They were in the main building.
The building housed a wrap-around porch. I’m sure if I ran to the other side I would see the porch indeed did wrap around the entire building. The bay windows offered me enough sight in to see the bikers. I counted them off quickly and only came to six. Three were unaccounted for. They had to be somewhere.
Before I would check the main building, I wanted to check the barns. The first barn only had horses in it. But it did show that I had nothing to worry about when it came to the saddles. There had to be at least two hundred saddles in that barn. I moved to the second barn. No people in there either. But that barn had just as many saddles. The third, and last, barn offered the same thing as the first two.
The three missing bikers had to be in the main building somewhere. At least they would be out of my way.
I didn’t bother moving out of the barn I was in. It had a good number of horses inside. So, I went to work on saddling the horses. Getting the saddles on wasn’t the problem. I was still pretty good with doing that. It was getting the reins on the horses. I never had to do that when I was younger. People only had me saddle the horse. It took me a good thirty minutes to get four horses saddled and reined.
I was walking them out when I saw something that stopped me cold. I saw Ernie’s back as he entered the main building.
I tied the horses to the door then sprinted for the building. My pistol wouldn’t be of any use. I could only take out eight people if need be. That still left one. I pulled my knife instead.
The door swung open easily, with little noise. I slinked in, moving to my right first. I tried to stay as low as I could. My silhouette would show too much on the open windows.
There was no sign of Ernie. The first floor was an open floor plan. I could see the distance of it. To my right was a set of stairs leading up. To my left were three doors. I couldn’t make them out, but I’m pretty sure two of them were bathrooms and the third was an office. I know Ernie didn’t go that way.
I moved to the stairs. It was easy to get around the bikers. They were spread out enough to where I wouldn’t have to touch a single person.
Before ascending the stairs, I half turned to look at the sleeping people. It would be easy for me to walk up and kill the four men and two women. I probably should have, but didn’t. I did do one thing first, though. I had to know who was missing out of the men. If the two people who were doing this were missing then it would be bad. There was only one place for them to be. And it’s also the place I think Ernie disappeared to.
None of the males on the floor were Clyde or Terry. I made a beeline for the stairs. I took them two at a silent time. The button hook offered me no coverage as I turned. I didn’t even pay attention to what was in front of me. As I came to the top of the stairs a hand caught me in the gut. I doubled over onto the floor. When I looked to see who hit me, Clyde was already on top of me, pulling the knife from my hand. He grasped the neck of my shirt and dragged me along the floor.
The upstairs was a hotel of some sorts. Rooms were on either side. Only one door was opened. It was the last door in the hallway. Terry stood in the doorway, awaiting us.
As we came closer, Terry said, “Allow him to his feet, Clyde.”
Clyde let go of my shirt. It was digging into my throat as we moved. I had to cough out a few gasp to get my breath back.
When I stood, I could see past Terry into the room. The room was exquisite. Well, it would have been if it wasn’t for the crying, naked woman on the bed.
I finally turned my gaze to Terry. He was still in the doorway with no shirt on, only pants. When I turned to Clyde, I wasn’t surprised to finally notice he was the same way.
“Where’s Ernie?” I asked.
Terry smiled at me. “My grandson is in here with us. What did she tell you about us?”
“She didn’t tell me anything. She mostly just kept everything from me because she thought I wouldn’t help if I knew the truth.” I pointed at Clyde. “One thing she did tell me about was how abusive he was.”
Terry nodded. “She was always ashamed of us. But she loves Ernie and Linny to death. You know that house she burned down a couple of days ago?”
I nodded.
“That was her best friend’s parent’s place. They were more of parents to her than myself and my wife ever were.”
I sighed dramatically. I wanted to hide what I was doing. I don’t think either one noticed I did it. “Well Terry, I don’t really care about what happened in your past. I don’t really care about what is going to happen in your future. What does matter is that I’m going to take Kate and your grandchildren away from this place. She doesn’t feel safe with you all apparently. So, why would you force her to stay here?”
Clyde answered me. “Because this is her home.”
I looked sideways at him. “Did you just rail another woman who didn’t want it to happen with the father of the girl you use to abuse?”
I couldn’t believe it, the sick fuck actually smiled when he nodded. It was like he thought of it as an accomplishment.
Movement caught my eye from the room. Terry was moving closer to us.
“You may have your reservations about us, whatever your name is, but I can assure you that Kate, Ernie, and Linny are going to be safer with us than with you. There are six dangerous men here –”
“I
count only two who think they’re dangerous.”
“We know we’re dangerous and there are four more downstairs.”
“That just means you are stuck in this hallway with me, Terry.”
I looked back at Clyde to see if he was going to make a move. I don’t think he even understood the gravity of the situation we were in.
Terry continued to move down the hall. We were still about ten feet from each other. Clyde was a good three behind me. Just enough room for me to work.
“Not to mention, my wife down there is just as dangerous as we are.”
“She allows you to rape someone else’s old lady?”
Terry laughed. Five feet. “The ladies of this club understand that they can get passed around to whoever they want. And, yes, that does include if they are married to someone else.”
I put my hand up. He stopped at arm’s length, just about three feet. One last thing to say to distract him while I unsnapped my leg holster.
“So, if I got this straight, you will allow any member of your club to have relations with your wife. And on top of that, you will allow a train to be run on your daughter. Am I wrong about that?”
Terry looked at the floor. I honestly think he never thought about it before. And he wasn’t going to get the chance.
I pulled my pistol. I didn’t bring it all the way to shoulder position. Instead, I only pulled to my hip, but turned my wrist to the point of firing toward Terry’s head. The round went through his throat instead. It came out not at the top of his head, but at the curve from the back.
With Clyde being on my right side, I turned to my left instead. It was a good thing I did. The blade of my knife sliced across my left shoulder. If I had turned to my right I probably would have taken that blade to the chest. Or worse, it would have gone to my throat. But all I ended up with from that battle was a flesh wound from my own damn knife.
I reached up with my left hand to take Clyde by the throat so I could shove him into the wall. My body pinned his left arm against his body. I put the pistol to his ribcage just under his armpit.
“This shot to the heart is from Kate, you sick fuck.”
I fired once. I don’t know if the round punctured his heart or not, but it did come out the other side with a trail of blood following. Clyde dropped my knife before he dropped. I didn’t bother wasting another round on him. I picked the knife up and moved down the hall to the room Ernie was in. I could hear the noise of people coming up the stairs. They would be there in no time.
Once I entered the room, I shut the door behind me. The woman who they had their way with was still crying on the bed. She didn’t even notice something was happening. Ernie was in the back corning of the room. That would have been okay if he wasn’t on the wrong side of the bed. He had to be to the left of the door. We were going out that window for obvious reasons.
“Ernie, come on son, let’s go,” I said, motioning with my hand for him to come to me.
He didn’t come right away. He was scared of the people in the building. I don’t know if I was one of the people he was scared of or not, but I had to get him out of there.
His sobs were broken by a noise I heard plenty of times before. The shotgun wasn’t that far away from the door. I ducked to the right of the door (again, in the wrong direction) before the blast of the shotgun put a hole in the door. The hole was big enough for my body to fit through. It was a good thing I moved.
Screw going out the other side of the room, we wouldn’t make it across the bed to get to the window. We had to go out on the side we were on.
I moved across the room to get Ernie. As I neared the bed, the woman jumped up. She stood on the bed with her legs and arms spread in a huntress stances. The primal scream she let out was ear piercing. I didn’t even let her get the scream all the way out before I put my fist into her left knee. She toppled down to the bed as I continued to Ernie.
Before I could get a hold of Ernie, I felt extra weight land on my back. The woman wasn’t going to let up. She was just used by two men much larger than me and yet she still had the energy to attack. How she could was beyond me. But I still needed to get her off my back.
I spun her around to my left. As I spun I looked at the door. The rest of the bikers were moving in closer. They must have stayed back a bit when the woman shrieked. They would be entering the room soon. Mostly because of what I did to her.
As I spun around a second time I managed to get my right arm wrapped around her leg. When I was facing the door, I pulled on her leg as hard as I could, but I didn’t let go. I held tight swinging her into the window. She crashed through, hitting the awning, and finally falling to the ground. I know it wouldn’t kill her, but it would do enough to stop her from continuing her attack on me.
I turned to Ernie. He was still hunkered down in the corner. I took him by the back of his shirt and shoved him toward the window. Ernie scrambled out to the awning, knocking out whatever glass was left in the frame. Before I went out the window, I put two rounds into the door. The shadows on the wall outside the room moved back a couple of feet.
I didn’t wait to see if they would be coming into the room. I moved out the window to find Ernie about to jump from the awning to the ground. He didn’t make it that far. I grabbed his arm and dragged him along the building to our left. It was a shorter run that way. We only had to go fifteen feet before we turned left at the corner.
“Why are we go –”
I turned on the kid quickly, putting my left index finger to my mouth. He took the hint right off the bat and shut his mouth.
When we got to the other side of the building, I didn’t bother turning again. I took two big steps, let go of Ernie’s arm (I didn’t want to take him with me if he didn’t know how to land), and jumped. It was only a fifteen-foot fall to the ground. I landed easily, letting my knees give, falling to my left, and landing on my shoulder. I was back up in a matter of seconds looking up to the awning for Ernie. To my surprise, he didn’t waste any time. He did the same thing I did, albeit a little less gracefully. He landed hard, not letting his legs give way.
I picked him up from the ground and asked, “You okay, kid?”
He nodded. That was all I could get out of him. He lost his breath from the fall.
I tugged him along. We trotted for the third barn. Of course, it was the farthest barn from us. That was okay and the reason. The first barn would allow us cover from the building a bit. Yeah, you can see the front of the third barn from the main building, but we still had cover and concealment.
Once we reached the first barn, I ducked to my left, Ernie followed quickly. I put my back to the wall, and Ernie did the same. I didn’t have to give the kid any more instructions. He seemed to want to follow my lead. That may have been the reason he went into the house. I never asked. Never wanted to.
I waited a good minute. Mostly I wanted Ernie to get his breath back. But there was also the fact that there were seven more dangerous people out there. I only had four more shots in my pistol and all of them had their weapons. Well, only six of them did. I didn’t know if the naked woman got up to get her weapons or not. I wasn’t going to wait around to find out.
“I’m good now,” Ernie said.
No pleasantries from us. I stepped off, and Ernie followed. We didn’t sprint across the field to the horses. It wasn’t even the trot we did to get to the first barn. It was more of just a regular run. I wanted to go that fast so I could listen for any movement. And the bikers didn’t disappoint.
Just as we reached the horses, I heard the door to the main building crash out. Ernie got on the horse more gracefully than he fell. I stopped to look back at the building. I couldn’t tell who was leading the charge, but he was a big man. The three other men were right behind him. Then followed by the women. All three of them. The one who was taken by Clyde and Terry was still naked. But now she was brandishing an assault rifle. An AK-47 by the look of it.
I hopped up on the horse, grabbing the two additional r
eins. Handing one to Ernie, I said, “Let’s ride as fast as these fuckers will take us.”
Ernie did as he was told. He hitched his horse, kicked his heels, and off he went with the additional horse. I looked back at the bikers and fired twice. They dispersed before I fired, but it was effective. It gave me the chance to get my horses going. And going we did.
I followed Ernie. He was the one who knew where he was going. We didn’t go back the way we came. Instead, we went to the north. It was an extra half mile ride, but it was needed. The bikers had no chance of catching us. Once we reached the fence, Ernie hopped off his horse. I didn’t see what he was doing until I got a little closer. He guided us to a gate. The gate was locked though.
Ernie raised the padlock and turned to me. “What do we do now? These things can’t jump over the fence.”
The fence was six feet high, so I was inclined to believe him when he said the horses wouldn’t make it. Even if the two of us weren’t dragging a horse behind us, I kind of figured that as well.
“Drop the lock and get out of the way,” I said. When Ernie was clear, I pulled the pistol and put one round through the lock. The body fell to the ground. The shackle stayed in the hasp. “Now open it.”
Ernie did. Once finished, he got back on his horse and we followed the fence line back to our camp.
The bikers were still following our moves. The man leading the charge didn’t seem to be a runner, but he wasn’t winded. He still charged ahead. And he even seemed to know we left the horse’s field. The bikers turned to cut us off. I couldn’t tell from where I was, but it looked as if they were traveling in a direct line to the camp. They were doing a good job of cutting us off. Their problem would come with trying to get over the fence.
Ernie saw what I saw. He ducked into the wood line. I followed. He led us through the thicket easily. We still had a good quarter mile to go to the camp. Ernie was smart enough to know to get us into the woods so we could mask where we were going.