by Eric Vall
“This is that meth house all over again,” Anna groaned.
“You think we’re dealing with meth heads?” Bailey asked with concern.
“It could explain the erratic behavior,” I mused. “But I can’t say for sure.”
“Well, if we’re running into traps we have to be getting close,” Anna said.
“I think you’re right,” I agreed. “Let’s keep moving, stay behind me and watch your step.”
“Okay.” Bailey nodded.
“Lead the way,” Anna said, and I could tell that she was unsettled by the traps. I think we all were.
We continued on, and I was careful with each step I took, the tracks we had been following had been covered with leaves and pine needles, but now and then I bent down to swipe them away and make sure we were headed in the right direction.
We walked for about ten more minutes before I came upon another trap.
“Girls,” I said as I crouched down. “Come here, what do you see?”
“Mud,” Bailey said as she crouched next to me.
“Yeah.” Anna nodded as she crouched too. “But there has to be more if we’ve stopped.”
“There is,” I said. “Look closely.”
“There’s something poking through the top of the mud,” Anna said, and she leaned in close. “But I can barely see it.”
“Those are nails,” I said. “And I’d bet rusty ones.”
“They covered nails in mud so somebody would step on them,” Bailey said with wide eyes.
“Exactly,” I said. “There’s a piece of wood underneath with all the nails stuck into it.”
“I said it before and I’ll say it again,” Anna said with an appalled tone. “What the fuck?”
“This is freaky,” Bailey agreed.
“What could they have that’s so valuable?” my redheaded companion asked.
“And are they trying to keep people out,” Bailey said, and she bit her lip. “Or are they trying to keep someone in.”
“Could be both,” I said. “Either way we need to get to that camp and see what we’re dealing with.”
“Is that something up there?” Anna asked, and she pointed just past the mud trap to a bunch of leaves unnaturally placed on the ground.
“Must be,” I said and I navigated the girls around the mud and to the leaves.
I brushed them off slowly to reveal a pressure plate.
“What is it?” Bailey asked, and she leaned down to inspect the mechanism.
“It’s a pressure plate,” I said.
“What does it do?” Anna asked.
“See the two trees on either side of us,” I said.
“Yeah,” the girls said in unison.
“I’m betting that on the other side of them are guns or some kind of flamethrowers, or a bomb,” I explained.
“So when someone steps on this,” Anna said, and she pointed to the pressure plate. “It ignites the flamethrowers.”
“Right,” I agreed.
“This is insane,” Bailey gasped.
“Shouldn’t we be dismantling these traps?” the redhead asked.
“We don’t want anyone to know we’ve been here,” I said. “At least not until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“Okay,” Anna said. “Well, let’s hurry up and find these assholes.”
I led the girls further into the forest. There were spiderwebs all over, and the musky smell of the earth under our feet was assaulting my nose. I continued for a minute, then I noticed a small path to our right, so I veered left and after a few moments I began to hear voices.
“We’re close,” I whispered as we hid behind the trees.
As we crept forward silently, I saw a junkyard up ahead of us, and there was an incredibly rusty boat turned halfway on its side, and further up was a cabin with metal over its windows and tarps strewn about on the roof.
“We’re going to get to that boat,” I said in hushed tones.
“Is that their house?” Bailey whispered, and she pointed to the shack.
“I think so,” I said.
“Oh my God.” Anna pointed behind me. “There’s Briar.”
I turned to see in the small yard out front there were two men standing over Briar and a third in a makeshift guard tower with a large rifle. The farmer was strapped to an old dining chair it looked like, and he had duct tape over his mouth.
“Let’s go,” I said, and we moved to the boat quickly but quietly.
“What are they doing to him?” Anna asked as we peered through the holes in the bottom of the boat.
“It doesn’t look like they’re doing anything,” Bailey whispered.
“Let’s listen,” I said, and we waited for the men to start talking again.
“You think this is gonna work, Claud?” a younger man asked. He was scrawny as hell and looked almost sickly pale. His stringy blonde hair was down to his shoulders, and from a distance his mouth looked almost black, like he had never been to the dentist in his life.
“Don’t sass me, boy,” the older one snapped, and he hit the younger one in the head. “I’m the one who makes the plans, you just follow orders.”
The older man had greasy dirty blonde hair as well, but his was tied up in a ponytail, and he had a wispy white beard that hung down past his chin. He was a larger fellow, and he wore oversized blue jeans that were barely blue anymore since they were stained with so much filth.
“Well, I think it’s a stupid plan,” the younger one sneered, and the old man hit him over the head again.
As they talked, I noticed that they each were strapped with an AK and a pistol. There was a small shed to the right of the house that was open, and inside I could just make out the shapes of assault rifles.
The man in the tower was thin like the like younger man on the ground, but he had a shaved head and tattoos covering his arms. He scanned the area frequently and paid no attention to the argument happening below him.
“Nobody asked what you thought, damnit!” the man I assumed to be the father yelled.
“Boys!” a large blonde woman yelled, and she came out of the cabin. “Quit your fighting and come in here for dinner!”
“We’re workin’, Ma,” the older man said.
“You ain’t doin shit,” the blonde woman snapped. “You’re just holdin’ this man, you even sent a ransom yet?”
“That’s not part of the plan,” the old man said.
“Well then what is your plan, Daddy?” the woman asked, but I couldn’t tell if that was her father, or a nickname like ‘Ma’.
“I’m tryina take care of all you lazy idiots!” the old man yelled, and the woman came at him.
“You will not talk to me like that, Claud,” she snapped, and each word was punctuated with a hit from her massive arm.
“Alright, alright, woman,” the man gave in. “We’ll come in for dinner.”
“Good,” she snapped. “And bring that man some too, we need him alive.”
All the family went inside except for the man in the guard tower, and I realized that it was getting dark out, I looked over to Briar and felt a terrible pain in my chest.
“This is like The Hills Have Eyes,” Anna whispered.
“We have to save him,” Bailey said with hard determination in her voice.
“Yes,” I said.
“There could be more booby traps,” Anna said. “And it’s getting dark.”
“We need backup,” I said. “And a plan.”
“We can’t just leave him here,” Bailey protested.
“I’m afraid we don’t have a choice at the moment,” I said. “If we try to get up there, we could get ourselves killed. They have someone on guard duty.”
“And they’re strapped as hell,” Anna added.
“I did notice that,” Bailey said with a frown.
“Besides,” Anna added. “They said they needed him alive.”
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “But we have to come back for him.”
“Don’t wo
rry,” I said. “We aren’t going to leave him here for long.”
“Okay.” The blonde frowned, but she nodded her understanding.
We made our way carefully back through the booby traps and to the truck, but by the time we arrived at Briar’s house, it was dark out.
“Let’s get home,” Anna said, then she took a deep breath. “God it feels good to not have to whisper.”
“Load up,” I said. “We have a plan to figure out.”
The girls and I hopped in the truck, and I tore off down Briar’s driveway.
Chapter 8
Anna, Bailey, and I pulled up into the driveway of the campus, and I realized there was dust blowing behind us so I slowed down a bit.
“What’s wrong?” Paige called as soon as we stepped out of the truck.
“Yeah,” Tara hollered. “What’s going on?”
“Hang on,” I called. “We’re coming up.”
I led Anna and Bailey up to the roof where Rolly, Tara, and Paige stood waiting for us, and Winchester whined as we came out of the doorway.
“Everything okay?” Rolly asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You guys pulled up like crazy people,” Tara said.
“Briar’s been taken,” Bailey said in a rushed tone.
“What?” Paige asked with wide eyes.
“It’s true,” I said.
“By who?” Tara asked, and I could hear the concern in her voice.
“By these crazy ass hillbillies,” Anna piped up.
“Yeah.” Bailey nodded fervently. “They’re holding him at their house in the woods.”
“And they have crazy booby traps all over,” Anna added.
I looked to Rolly, Paige, and Tara, and they all looked incredibly confused as they tried to follow the fast talking of my companions.
“Okay,” I said calmly. “Let’s all sit down, and we’ll discuss what happened.”
“Okay,” Paige said. “Because I'm not following.”
“Me neither,” Tara said.
“I’d love to say I understand.” Rolly smiled softly. “But you all were talking quite fast.”
“Everyone have a seat,” I said with a cool tone to try to calm the girls.
Everyone sat down on the chairs on the roof, but I could tell that Anna and Bailey were still wound up, and the others were on edge trying to figure out what we were talking about.
“Okay,” I said once everyone was seated. “Briar has been taken.”
“By who?” Tara asked once more.
“Inbred evil mutant hillbillies,” Anna said with a matter-of-fact tone.
“Um, okay, and ewww,” Tara said as she wrinkled her nose. “Hillbillies where?”
“They live in the woods in the foothills behind Briar’s house,” Bailey explained.
“What exactly do you mean by hillbillies?” Rolly asked.
“Well, they live in a rundown shack for one,” Anna said with a raised brow.
“Yeah.” Bailey nodded. “And they call each other Ma and Daddy.”
“So, it’s a family?” Paige asked.
“I think so,” I said.
“And they have a bunch of booby traps,” Anna continued.
“What kind of booby traps?” Tara asked, and she leaned forward as she listened.
“Wait, wait,” Paige interrupted, and she threw her hands up. “Is Briar okay?”
“Yes,” I said. “He’s alright for now.”
“They said they needed him alive,” Bailey said.
“What do they want with Briar anyway?” Tara asked.
“I’m not sure.” I shook my head. “But I think they’ve been watching us.”
“You think that’s who was creepin’ in the woods?” Rolly asked with a hard look on his face.
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “The footprints we followed looked like they matched.”
“But there were two sets of footprints,” Bailey added.
“Right,” I said.
“So you followed them to their cabin?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” Anna said. “And we saw that they had Briar, and they had a bunch of booby traps around their camp.”
“Plus they had someone on guard,” Bailey added.
“And they’re well stocked on guns and ammo,” I said, and I pursed my lips.
“Damn.” Rolly shook his head. “I thought all those tales about hillbilly preppers living up in the woods were just to scare newbies to the town.”
“Seems like it’s more than that,” I said.
“Did the booby traps seem well made?” Rolly asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “They had a mud trap, an air horn tripwire, and a pressure plate hooked up to some flamethrowers. And that’s just what we saw, there could be a lot more.”
“Damn,” Rolly said, and he whistled low.
“Right!” Anna exclaimed. “They seemed so stupid and crazy, but they managed to put all that together.”
“Never underestimate your opponent,” I said.
“Do you think they’re watching us right now?” Paige whispered.
“They could be,” I said.
“So then, do you think they saw you when you were at their camp?” Tara asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “But they could have.”
“I think they would have attacked if they had seen us,” Anna protested.
“I think so, too,” I agreed. “And I doubt they’re worried about being snuck up on with all the booby traps they have in place.”
“What else did you guys see?” Rolly asked. “How many of them are there?”
“I can’t say for sure,” I answered. “But at least four.”
“So what’s the plan?” Tara asked.
“Yeah.” Paige nodded fervently. “We have to get Briar back.”
“We will,” I said.
“We should ask Betty and the other farmers,” Rolly suggested.
“Ask them about what?” Anna asked confusedly.
“Ask them who lives up on the mountain,” Rolly clarified. “They might know more than I do about what goes on in these parts.”
“Good idea,” I said.
“We should go now,” Bailey pushed.
“Okay,” I agreed.
“I’ll stay on watch,” Anna offered.
“No,” Paige shook her head. “You’re second in command. I’ll stay, you go.”
“Are you sure?” the redhead asked.
“Yeah,” the brunette said. “You all can fill me in once you get back.”
“Both of you will stay,” I said, and I shook my head. “Only one person needs to go with me.”
“Are you sure?” Bailey asked.
“Yes,” I said. “We can’t risk them attacking because we left one person here alone at night.”
“Okay,” Paige agreed.
“Rolly is going to come with me,” I said. “I want you girls each on a corner of the building on lookout.”
“Right,” Anna said with a hard nod, and her eyes were filled with determination.
“Keep Winchester close,” I told them with a serious tone.
“We will,” Bailey agreed. “Be safe and hurry.”
Rolly and I hopped into the truck, and I tore down the driveway once more toward Betty’s house.
“I can’t believe they took him,” Rolly said as we drove.
“We’ll get him back,” I said through clenched teeth.
Enough had already happened to Briar, and I was beyond pissed that yet another bad situation had been put on him. The old man had been through enough, and I couldn’t forgive myself for letting this happen again.
“You okay?” the old man asked.
“I’m alright.” I shook my head. “This whole thing just has me pissed as hell.”
“He was the weakest link,” Rolly said. “You can’t be responsible for everybody.”
“But I am,” I snapped, then I turned to the old man. “I’m sorry Rolly, I’m just so upset that this happened.”
“I know.” Rolly smiled softly at me. “But I don’t want you blaming yourself.”
“It’s hard not to,” I sighed. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t let anything else happen to him.”
“And you won’t,” the old man assured me. “We’re gonna get him back.”
“Yeah,” I said. “We are.”
I pulled into Betty’s driveway and slowed down once I remembered that we had yet to offload the truck or trailer from our run earlier that day. Betty’s house looked dark up ahead, but I saw a small splash of light shining through the curtains, and once we were close enough to be recognized I stuck my hand out the window and hollered that it was us.
“Hey,” Dan greeted us after we parked our truck. “What are you guys doing here so late?”
“We need to talk to your grandmother,” I said very seriously.
“She’s inside,” the young man said, and he pointed to the door. “Is everything okay?”
“Briar’s been taken,” I said in a cold tone as we walked to the front door.
I led us up the stairs and to the door, but I didn’t stop to knock, I walked right into the foyer and looked around for Betty.
“What’s going on?” the older woman asked as she rounded the corner. “I heard your truck in the driveway.”
“Baby,” Rolly said, and he rushed to hug the woman.
“Hey.” Betty smiled softly, and she wrapped her arms around the older gentleman, then she made eye contact with me once more and gently pushed Rolly away from her. “What’s going on?”
“We should sit down,” I said.
Betty frowned, but she led us to the kitchen table, and we all took a seat. The room was lit up by candles, and the warm smell of vanilla filled the air.
“Now.” The older curly haired woman looked around at each of us with a cold expression. “Tell me why you’re here.”
“Briar’s been taken,” I said.
“Taken?” Betty asked, confused. “By who?”
“Some people in the woods,” Rolly said with a frown.
“People in the woods?” Betty asked, and her eyebrows pinched together.
“Yes,” I said.
“That’s why we’re here,” Rolly said. “We wanted to know if you knew anything about people who lived on the mountain?”
“We don’t go up there,” Betty said with a cold look. “Never have.”
