The bikers’ gunshots were relentless. Kalen knew they’d have to go back and get more ammo soon. They had to reload at some point.
Kalen took the time to reload the magazines she had and made sure the two pistols were loaded as well. A few moments later the gunfire lightened and she jumped up, rifle in hand, and squeezed the trigger. She was able to hit two of the bikers, killing one while the other dragged himself behind a car.
Then, before she could duck back down, she felt the sharp pain of steel and metal slice through her arm. The force of the bullet pushed her back, and the rifle fell from her hand.
Kalen hit the floor, pressing her hand against her arm. The blood was warm, sticking to her fingers and shirt as she tried to stop the bleeding. She tried moving, but each time she did it sent stabbing pain through the left side of her body.
Kalen could see one of the pistols on the ground. She stretched out her good arm, her fingertips almost touching the composite of the handle, when a boot pressed down on her hand.
When she looked up, Frankie had his pistol aimed at her head.
“Game’s up, sweetheart,” Frankie said.
The rest of the bikers converged on them and dragged both girls to the motel. Neither of them screamed or resisted. Kalen simply kept pressure on her arm, trying to staunch the bleeding.
All of the tortures she was about to experience raced through her mind. When she made the decision to do this she knew this could be one of the outcomes.
No matter what happened though, she wouldn’t scream. She wouldn’t cry for help. They wouldn’t get the satisfaction of hearing her beg.
Chapter 4: Day 13 (the Cabin)
Whatever doubts Ken had about Mike in regards to their deal dissipated when he saw the amount of ammo he had stock piled.
There were enough rounds to keep them hunting for the next decade. Mike agreed to give Ken the boxes up front, but he made Ken agree to take them hunting tomorrow.
“I need fresh game and I need it soon,” Mike said.
“Okay. Meet me at the trailhead that leads down to the road in the morning.”
Mike looked at him surprised. He specifically took Ken the way he did to avoid the trailhead entrance at the highway.
“I’ve been hunting this land for more than forty years; you really think I didn’t know about the road entrance to your cabin, did you?” Ken asked.
“I guess not.”
“Six a.m. We’ll need to get started before the sun comes up.”
Before the two men could shake on it, Freddy came running into the basement. He almost tripped over himself coming down the stairs.
“Dad! You have to hear this! Come upstairs!” Freddy said.
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“There’s someone on the radio!”
Upstairs the entire household was gathered in the living room, circled around one of the radios Freddy had found the day before, protected from the EMP by the faraday box Mike made to store them in.
It was a woman’s voice coming over the radio. Mike couldn’t tell if it was a recording. The sound kept breaking in and out.
“We have food, water, shelter, medical attention, and protection. We have our operations up and running and we are restoring power to our area. If you have the ability to arrive, please know that we can help. We can offer assistance. We can keep you safe.”
“She’s not saying where it is. Where is it?” Jung said.
The rest of the group hushed him. The tension cut through the air as the group waited to hear more.
“Cincinnati has been chosen as the starting point for relief efforts in Ohio. Similar cities have been chosen in other states to act as rallying points in bringing power back online along with other basic utilities. Again if you are in the area and can make it to Cincinnati we have food, water, shelter, medical assistance, and protection.”
The signal went dead, and the woman’s voice was replaced by static. It filled the room as everyone looked at each other, letting what they’d just heard sink in.
“What are we waiting for? We need to get there now!” Jung said.
“Jung, we don’t even know who that was. It could be a recording from weeks ago,” Mike said.
“But shouldn’t we at least try? What if it’s true? What if the power is on in Cincinnati? We have the Jeep. We can send a few people,” Tom said.
“The only highway around here that leads to the interstate has to go through Carrollton. That means dealing with the biker gang that’s down there. A gang that’s killed most of the townspeople,” Mike said.
“We have to try something!” Jung screamed.
The group members around Jung separated themselves from him. His body was shaking. His eyes were desperate, pleading to the group. He had the look of a man who was willing to do anything to save his wife.
Mike understood. It was a feeling he had the entire walk from Pittsburgh to here. He was willing to do whatever he needed to get to his family, but just because Mike understood Jung’s pain didn’t mean he could let him take the Jeep.
“We’ll keep the radio on, Jung. See if anything else comes through. Okay?” Mike said.
He placed his hand on Jung’s shoulder, trying to comfort him. Jung jerked Mike’s hand off him and headed back to his room.
“Okay, everyone. Sitting around won’t make the radio magically work again. Back to work,” Ulysses said.
As the crowd dispersed, Ken let out a whistle.
“Looks like not everyone’s happy to have your hospitality,” Ken said.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Mike said.
The two men shook hands, and Ken headed out the door. Once Ken was gone, Anne came and wrapped her arms around Mike.
“I didn’t think you wanted to bring him back here.” Anne said.
“I didn’t, but it was part of his agreement.”
“You think we can trust him?”
“I’m not sure yet, but we’re going to need the food, so I don’t have much of a choice.”
“What are we going to do about the radio? You think it’s real?”
Mike found it hard to believe the power would come back up that fast, especially after what he saw in Pittsburgh. He figured by next spring the country would be in a better position to rebuild, but maybe it was happening faster than he thought.
“We can’t worry about that right now. We have supplies here that will last us a while, and with Ken helping me hunt, we’ll have a fresh supply of food coming in. How’s the garden coming?” Mike asked.
“Good. We’ve got peas, squash, and corn in the ground,” Anne said.
Mike gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“I’m gonna keep the radio in our room. We don’t need it being a distraction for anyone. Where’s Kalen?”
“She went out to the old shooting stand with Mary.”
Mike raised his eyebrows.
“Did she say why?” Mike asked.
“Mary’s been having some trouble dealing with what happened to her mom. Kalen thought that if she showed her how to handle a weapon, it’d make her feel… safer.”
Mike didn’t like that the girls had gone out alone, but he felt a surge of pride about his daughter helping Mary.
“Okay, I’m going to get things ready for the morning. I’ll be in the basement if you need me.”
***
It was getting dark and Kalen and Mary still hadn’t returned. Mike was getting worried. He grabbed his rifle and decided to head out to the hunting stand where the girls said they were going.
Mike kept his ears open, but the closer he moved to the stand, the more concerned he became. He’d been walking for almost fifteen minutes, and he hadn’t heard a single shot go off. He quickened his pace, his boots smashing the forest dirt underneath.
The stand was only forty yards away, and from what he could see, it was empty. He brought his rifle up and flicked the safety off.
“Kalen?” Mike said.
He circled the stand. There
weren’t any shell casings on the ground, no foot tracks in the dirt, no sign the girls were ever here at all.
Mike’s pulse quickened. His breathing accelerated. The irrational panic of his daughter not being here rushed over him.
“Kalen! Mary!”
They’re not here. They never came here, but why? Why would they need rifles if they weren’t-
“The bikers,” Mike said.
Mike sprinted back to the cabin. It was a two-mile hike and usually took close to forty minutes on foot for a one-way trip. He made it back in less than twenty-five minutes.
Ulysses was the first to see Mike burst through the trees into the cabin’s front yard.
“Michael?” Ulysses asked.
“Mary and Kalen? Did I miss them?”
“No, I thought you were going to get them.”
“They never went to the stand.”
Mike could see Ulysses’s eyes make the connection. He was the one who brought Mary and her sisters back to the cabin after he found them in town. Mary’s mother was raped in front of them, and they watched their father die.
Mike gathered Erin and Nancy, Mary’s sisters, in the living room. The rest of the group lingered in the kitchen and hallway, letting Mike speak to them in semiprivacy.
“I just need to know where they went, Nancy. I’m not mad; I just want to know where we can find them. I want to make sure they’re safe,” Mike said.
Nancy looked up at him, her eyes wide and wet.
“I don’t know. She never told me anything,” Nancy said.
Mike lowered his head. He believed her.
“Why did she leave us? She promised me she wouldn’t leave us,” Nancy said.
Nancy broke down crying. Mike scooped her up in his arms. The little girl buried her face into Mike’s shirt, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Anne came over and peeled the girl off of him, rocking her back and forth. The younger sister, Erin, didn’t say anything. She kept her head down, twisting the edge of her shirt. Mike gently rested his hand on the top of her head.
Mike didn’t make eye contact with anyone as he headed for the basement. Ulysses followed. The two of them started gathering as much ammo and weapons as they could carry.
They said nothing to each other as they collected bullets, loaded magazines, attached scopes, and threw holsters around their waist and shoulders. It was an unspoken agreement between a father and grandfather. Their offspring were in trouble, and they were going to get them out.
Fay, Tom, and Clarence crept down the steps. They watched Ulysses and Mike in the glow of the candlelight. Each of them had bullets and guns strapped around their waists and shoulders. They didn’t look like normal men anymore; they were soldiers preparing for war.
“So you’re just going to go in there guns blazing?” Tom asked.
Mike shoved a magazine into his Smith and Wesson .45, holstered it, and looked up at the two of them on the stairway.
“I don’t expect you three to come. It’s going to get bad,” Mike said.
Fay grabbed one of the rifles and started loading shells into one of the empty magazines. She said nothing. She didn’t look at Mike until he put his hand on her shoulder.
“Thank you,” Mike said.
Fay gave a half smile. Clarence was the next to join. He picked up one of the shotguns and found a case of 12-guage shells and started loading.
Tom let out a sigh at the top of the staircase.
“Fine, but I want the biggest guns you have. With my aim, I’ll need all the help I can get,” Tom said.
It took them thirty minutes to gather everything they needed. At least everything Mike thought they would need.
They were loaded to the teeth with weapons and ammo. Mike also thought to pack some medical supplies, which he hoped he wouldn’t need.
Anne didn’t say much. When she walked up to Mike she placed her hands on his shirt, twisting his collar.
“You bring our girl home.”
Mike led Ulysses, Fay, Clarence, and Tom down the trail. Dusk had settled outside, with the night growing darker.
Anne’s words rang through Mike’s mind like a chorus, repeating over and over. He wasn’t going to let his daughter suffer a cruel fate like those he’d seen over the past two weeks. Bring her home.
Chapter 5: Day 13 (Biker Gang)
The cots from the prison cell were removed. It was nothing but concrete and steel. Mary sat in the corner, huddled in a ball, listening to the bikers inside the interrogation room scream at Kalen.
Every once in a while she would hear something hard hit the ground, but she never heard Kalen scream. Mary didn’t know what was happening in there, but she was able to imagine a few scenarios.
She wondered why she chose to come with Kalen? She didn’t want to die. Her mind wandered to her sisters. Their faces were burning in her thoughts.
Mary promised she wouldn’t leave them, let them be alone, and now that promise was broken. She broke it to fulfill the selfish need of revenge.
Frankie recognized her immediately when they finally captured her and Kalen. He didn’t say anything to her as he threw her in the cell. He just smiled and laughed.
The laugh wasn’t human. It was senseless, malicious. It was the same laugh he had when he killed her dad and the same smile when he raped her mother.
What would they do to her? Would she be passed around to the other bikers? Used only for their pleasure at the expense of her suffering?
Stop it.
Mary pushed it out of her mind. She couldn’t go to pieces now. As dire as everything was, she couldn’t let her imagination get the better of her. She had to think about what she could control, and right now the only thing that she could control was how she would react to whatever came next.
The door to the interrogation room flung open. Mary rushed to the front of the cell, grasping her hands around the old flaky iron bars.
Two of the bikers dragged Kalen past her cell. Her head was down, her hair covering her face, but Mary could see the drops of blood falling from her body.
Kalen’s body was limp. The biker’s were carrying her by her arms. Once Kalen was out of sight Mary could hear the thud of Kalen’s body hit the cell floor next to hers, followed by the door slamming shut.
Mary let go of the bars and backed to the rear wall of the cell as Frankie rested his forehead in between the cell bars.
“Your turn, sweetheart,” Frankie said.
When Frankie brought her into the interrogation room, the first thing she noticed was the blood stains on the floor. The next thing she saw was the smeared red on Jake’s knuckles.
There were only two chairs and one small table. Frankie pushed her down into the chair across from Jake. The two of them were only two feet apart. She didn’t like it. The setting felt too intimate.
“Whatever you’re going to do to me, just get it over with,” Mary said.
Jake leaned back, wiping his knuckles clean of Kalen’s blood with a rag, which he tossed to the floor when he was done.
“What do you want us to do to you?” Jake asked.
“I’m not giving you anything,” Mary said.
“You don’t even know what we want,” Jake said.
“You want to hurt us.”
“I do.”
The simple answer frightened her. There was a vicious truth in those words. He didn’t just have the ability to hurt her, but the desire.
“I want to see my mom,” Mary said.
Frankie let out a chuckle, but she kept her eyes on Jake.
“I’m not sure you do,” Jake answered.
“I need to see her.”
“No. You want to see her. You want to see her the way you used to see her. You want to see her before what happened here. Trust me, girl. It’s better that you keep the image of what your mother used to be. It’s much better than the image she is now.”
“The last image I have of my mother was her being raped in front of me. The last image I have of
my father was his blood pouring out of his stomach and him gasping for breath.”
“I’m going to ask you some questions. It will be better if you give me the truth the first time around.”
“I guess Kalen didn’t tell you the truth? That’s why she’s unconscious in her cell right now?”
No Power: EMP Post Apocalyptic Fiction Thriller Super Boxset Page 125