Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “Two people charged out of the darkness with baseball bats. One hit Harry across the back of the head and the other cracked his left knee. When Harry hit the ground, the swings never stopped. Harry wouldn’t stop passing out, but a swing to the jewels always woke him right back up.”

  Throwing his head back laughing, “Rolling his big ass on his back felt like pushing a building,” Ian laughed as Jennifer, in a catatonic state, stared at him.

  Nodding in agreement, “Yeah, but after the third time he passed out, we just left him on his side and then turned our attention to his car,” Lance laughed. “We rolled his ass over one more time and told the dumb fuck if he ever came anywhere near Jason again, he would disappear. When he finally mumbled he understood, we smashed his face in and then we loaded up and pedaled our asses off, going home.”

  “We had extra clothes,” Ian chimed in. “We changed, burned what we wore and the bats in a garbage can. It wasn’t till we got home we realized how much a person bleeds when you beat them with bats. We took showers, bagging the clothes we’d changed into. Before Lance’s dad got up for work, we scrubbed the bathtub and bathroom down and bagged the towels and rags we’d used. After Mr. Johnathan left, we snuck out and hid the bags. When the cops didn’t show up that morning, we took the bag into the woods and burnt it.”

  Shaking his head, “Yeah, and you know Mom knew she was missing towels and rags?” Lance huffed out, throwing up his hands.

  Somewhat guiltily, Ian turned to Lilly. “Yeah, we looked hard, but couldn’t find any that matched. We finally got the ladybugs to tell Momma Sandy they had gotten paint on them from their finger painting set and threw them away, afraid they would get in trouble. Momma Sandy didn’t even bat an eyelash, telling the girls it was okay,” Ian related in awe. “Those two can put the mojo on people.”

  “Yeah, you remember that,” Lance snapped.

  “Lance, you should be immune!” Ian shouted.

  “Harry was in ICU for a month,” Jennifer whispered in shock.

  Nodding, “Full body cast and jaw wired shut for another three months,” Lance nodded, and Jennifer jerked her eyes to him. “My dad operated on Harry taking his spleen out, and Ms. Penny’s daughter took care of Harry in the ICU.”

  “Whoa,” Jennifer stumbled back. “That’s some Pulp Fiction shit right there.”

  “Humph,” Ian scoffed. “Funny you should say that because we wanted to find some ‘hard pipe-hitting motherfuckers’, but we didn’t know what they were at the time. We asked Jason a few weeks later, but didn’t believe him.”

  “So, we asked coach,” Lance chimed in with a shiver. “Just couldn’t believe ‘pipe hitter’ referred to a man raping another man.”

  “Yeah, in Pulp Fiction, Marcus had every right to call some pipe hitters on those guys,” Ian shivered.

  “Wait!” Jennifer shouted, throwing up her hands. “You were the ones who called 911 from the phone booth at the gas station?”

  Not even surprised Jennifer knew that, “I’m sure if Harry would’ve died, the cops would’ve pushed the investigation harder,” Lance popped off. “Besides, we wanted him to know his ass was whooped and who fucking did it.”

  For some reason, Lilly wasn’t shocked that neither showed fear about killing Harry. “But you broke the Prime Directive,” she said in a low voice, and they all looked at her.

  “Yeah, but technically, we didn’t break the Prime Directive because the cops never even questioned us, much less charged us,” Lance challenged.

  “My dad said the video from the gas station showed the caller was well over six foot and huge!” Jennifer shouted.

  “Um, yeah, that was another reason we needed to change,” Lance admitted in a low voice.

  Walking over, Lilly hugged Lance tight, “Thank you, I don’t have stories like that, but I’ll sit down and tell you everything about my life,” Lilly offered.

  Hugging her back Lance stuttered, not knowing what to say and glanced over at Jennifer as she nodded at him with a big smile. “I would like that, Lilly,” Lance finally said, and Jennifer gave him a thumbs up. Feeling Lilly squeeze him tight, Lance mouthed ‘Thank you’ to Jennifer.

  “What do you two need help on?” Lilly asked, letting the hug go. “And I know better than to ask to go with you, so what can we do?”

  For some reason, that made Lance feel nervous. The way Lilly was looking at him, Lance felt she could see right through him. A small part of him liked it, the other part really didn’t. “Get Holly settled in and tell the others they have to help Holly on schoolwork each day,” Lance finally said. “Ian and I will make a run tonight to get the lay of the land and then let you know.”

  Kissing Lance’s cheek, Lilly grabbed her rifle and headed out. Kissing Ian, Jennifer took off after Lilly. “Hold up,” Jennifer said, stopping Lilly outside the shop. “What has you unnerved?”

  Not surprised that Jennifer could tell, “You don’t get it?” Lilly asked. Having no idea what Lilly was referring to, Jennifer just shook her head. “A deed is done from a distance, and I know they have watched some with their own eyes. Someone getting hurt or what happens to the target doesn’t determine what a deed is. They set it up to teach others, but aren’t doing the harm themselves. An exploit, they want to be hands on. They are smart enough to know, going hands on, there was more of a likelihood of getting caught. Then you look at the fact, they want the person to know it was them. Ian and Lance want to see the fear in their eyes. If I didn’t know Lance and Ian like I do, I would be worried both were borderline sociopaths.”

  “Hold on, I’ve heard that on TV before,” Jennifer said, pinching her bottom lip.

  “Personality disorder in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior with a lack of conscience,” Lilly told her, and Jennifer jumped back.

  “That’s not them,” Jennifer snapped.

  Holding up her hands, “Jennifer, like I said, I know them, but they have no conscience for those they hurt and I’m talking about before this happened,” Lilly told her. “Their only concern was violating the Prime Directive, getting in trouble with the law because someone got hurt on what their parents called pranks.”

  “Nobody ever proved it was them,” Jennifer spoke out. “And they are nothing like Dexter,” she added, and Lilly cocked her head to the side. “That’s where I heard sociopath.”

  “The TV show?”

  Nodding, “Yeah, they don’t keep trophies,” Jennifer nodded.

  “Oh, like videos,” Lilly grinned, and Jennifer’s face went white. “No, I believe them. They admitted they had done deeds without recording them, but when someone was blamed for a deed, they changed. That is forethought on their part to protect an innocent, something a sociopath would never do. But it also shows they have a conscience of others outside their family. They went out of their way and risked getting caught to prove that kid was innocent.”

  As Lilly spoke, Jennifer started grinning and was beaming when Lilly finished. “You don’t know how cool you just made them sound.”

  “Yeah, I think you and I have a thing for hidden bad boys,” Lilly grinned.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Three miles outside of the main perimeter, driving parallel to Highway 11, Ian turned left to follow a ridge and a dirt road that turned off the highway and ran at the bottom of the ridge. Standing up through the roof, Lance scanned around under the bright full moon. “Almost tempted to turn the NVGs off,” he shrugged.

  Weaving through the trees, Ian glanced over at Dino, who was sitting in the passenger seat, just looking around with his tongue hanging out. Unlike other times they had gone out, doors were on the buggy this time and heavy wire mesh covered the open windows. With only two guns, they were quite sure they couldn’t fight off a pack of dogs before they swarmed the buggy.

  Seeing the ridge turn south, Ian slowed and keyed his radio. “How close you thinking we should park?”

  “This is good. From what Patrick said and the map, they should be in the house in the draw
ahead,” Lance replied. “It’s only half a mile, we can walk it.”

  Turning off the buggy, “Bitch, I have to climb a tree to get away from dogs, I’m kicking your ass,” Ian warned.

  “Hey, you’re the one who wanted to warn the group,” Lance chuckled, climbing out on the roof and jumping off. When Ian got out with Dino behind him, “We might find that mean pussy.”

  Spinning around, “That’s not funny, ass monkey,” Ian snarled and then turned around, looking. “Don’t forget, you promised.”

  “Brah, pussy shows up, we open a whole case of whoop ass,” Lance huffed, and both turned when Dino let out a low growl. They saw him staring to the west toward the draw they were heading for. “Dino really doesn’t like something that way.”

  “Shit,” Ian moaned. Thinking over their actions for several minutes, Ian turned to Lance as the wind shifted and a putrid stench filled their noses.

  “Stinkers,” they said together.

  Turning west, “Think we should just back out and call no joy?” Ian asked, checking his AR.

  “Not without seeing what’s there,” Lance answered. “We’re a mile off the main road and that draw is pretty secluded.” Nodding, Ian moved to the buggy and lifted out a bulging tote bag. “You’re going to haul all the extra magazines? We are each packing twelve loaded magazines,” Lance whispered hard.

  “Thirteen, counting the one in our rifles, but that smells like a bunch. If we have to start shooting, I don’t want to have to start counting my shots as I subtract.”

  Thinking that was very sound reasoning, “Very good point,” Lance nodded. “I’ll take point, since you have the bullets.”

  Throwing the strap to the tote bag over his shoulder, Ian gave a grunt as the weight hit his legs. When Ian nodded, Lance eased off with Dino moving over and staying right beside him. After moving three hundred yards, Lance stopped and motioned Ian close. “Hear that?” Lance breathed in his ears.

  Ahead and below them in the draw, Ian heard growling, snarls, and could actually hear the movement of bodies. “Maybe we should back out and call no joy,” Ian offered again.

  “At the very least, we need to see how many and what has their interest,” Lance replied, and Ian gave a nodding shrug.

  When Lance tried to move ahead, Dino stepped in front of him. “I know, Dino,” Lance whispered aiming ahead, then patted Dino on the back and Dino stepped out of his way. Moving through the trees and down the slope at a very gentle, quiet pace, Lance saw where the trees ended ahead. Glancing down, Lance saw Dino at his side, stalking much like a cat. Staying in the trees, Lance came to a stop and stared into the draw. The bottom of the draw was about a hundred yards wide and over twice that long, shaped in a wide U, and seemed flatter than it should have been. Lance was having a hard time figuring it out because it was packed shoulder to shoulder with stinkers.

  A nice two-story house sat below them at the back of the U-shaped draw, and trees were cleared back up the slope and down the draw toward the dirt road that led off the highway. “That’s why I don’t like staying on roads outside of our perimeter,” Lance mumbled to himself.

  “Dude, that’s over a thousand stinkers, easy,” Ian huffed.

  Not even going to argue, Lance turned to the house and could see stinkers moving on the first floor through busted out windows. Looking to the upstairs, Lance froze. “What tha,” he mumbled, flipping up his NVG and peering through his scope. Someone had hooked up a small pipe to the rain gutter, running it to one of the upstairs windows.

  Moving his scope Lance paused, seeing a three-inch pipe sticking twenty feet out of the roof. “They made a vent to bring in fresh air,” he mumbled. Seeing a window without curtains, Lance held his scope on it and didn’t see stinkers upstairs. Moving to the next window, Lance gave a jerk to see a solar oven in the window. Lowering his rifle, he leaned back and whispered what he saw to Ian.

  “Look in that bay window. Someone ripped the stairs out inside,” Ian whispered back. “They isolated the upstairs.”

  “Motherfuckers inside can think,” Lance said in awe.

  “We don’t know if they are still alive. There are some dead stinkers over on the west side near the trees that look like they have been down for over a week.”

  Turning to where Ian was pointing, Lance saw the bodies and then turned to look around the house, trying to see any bodies closer to the house, but there were just too many stinkers. Most were just rooted in one spot, looking up at the second floor of the house, but some were moving through the crowd. “You see any dead stinkers close to the house?” Lance asked.

  “Can’t really tell,” Ian confessed. “But I have to agree, these fuckers can think. That window you can see in, I just figured out what I’ve been staring at. They have ten-foot long spears propped up in the window. I bet they were waiting till the stinkers thinned out and were going to use those to make a break for it by stabbing those under the window.”

  “You think they are dead?”

  Shaking his head, “To be honest, no,” Ian answered. “But I don’t think they will be alive much longer.”

  Pointing at the house, “It’s motherfuckers like that we need to rescue,” Lance hissed.

  Nodding as he scanned the crowd, “Yeah, but Lance, that’s a shitload of stinkers,” Ian pointed out. “I know we are bad ass man card holders, but that’s a lot of goober smoochers for just two guns.”

  “How many magazines in the bag?”

  “Sixty,” Ian answered, moving to Lance’s left and taking the tote bag off before setting it between them.

  “We can at least make a dent,” Lance said. “If we use all those we haul ass, and any stinkers left should try to follow us. That should give those inside a chance.”

  “We make sure someone is there before we do shit,” Ian huffed, digging out two magazines from the bag.

  Giving a nod, Lance pressed the laser on his AR. Not seeing the laser, Lance flipped down his NVG and saw the laser. Pressing it again, Lance saw the laser turn brighter and flipped his NVG up to see a green dot on the tree to his front. Flipping his NVG back down, Lance moved the beam to the open window and waved it around. Then he moved to another window, aiming at a small gap he could see between the curtains.

  Moving to another window, Lance continued and then saw the curtains at the last window part and saw a face looking out at him. Lance moved the laser back and waved the laser at the person’s chest and saw it was a woman. She turned over her shoulder and Lance saw three other people join her, another woman and two men.

  Below the window, the snarls picked up and those stinkers that were just standing began to move toward the house. “Okay, we really need these guys. They were staying out of sight to try to make the stinkers move off,” Lance told Ian as Ian passed him two magazines.

  “I don’t even want to know how many were here if some moved off already. As many stinkers that are down there, I’m surprised the house is still standing,” Ian grunted as one of the people opened the window and the growls increased. “I’m ready,” Ian said, turning on his laser.

  “Don’t shoot at us and we’ll try to give you a hand!” Lance shouted out, and all the growls and snarls stopped as the entire group of stinkers turned to look up the steep slope. “Game time,” Lance said, flipping his safety off.

  Muffled shots rang out in a rapid steady tempo as the stinkers started toward the back of the ravine. Mowing down the closest, Lance dropped his empty magazine and slapped in a new one, barely pausing his fire. The group started bunching up as the next row tripped over the bodies of the front ranks taken down.

  The four in the window stood with gaping mouths as the two shadowy figures with skull faces on the slope shot down into the wall of advancing stinkers. The only pause they noticed would be one bending down and then hand something to the other. After the other shadow took whatever was picked up, both shadows would rain down a steady stream of fire.

  Muffled pops continued in a very even tempo and the four in the wi
ndow watched the two turn and widen their fields of fire when all the stinkers behind the house were down. “What did the stinkers do to them?” one of the women asked in awe.

  “I have no idea,” one of the men mumbled.

  “Here,” Ian said, handing Lance more magazines. “I’ve seen over a dozen drop playing dead.”

  “Well, we won’t tell on them right now,” Lance replied, grabbing the magazines and dropping his empty, slamming in a new one. Seeing the smoke pouring off his suppressor and barrel, Lance started to wonder if this was a wise course of action.

  “Gun down,” Ian called out, and Lance swung his laser to another head before pulling the trigger and then got back in tempo. Pulling his aim to the left side of the house, Lance shot ten and then swung his aim back to the right to drop another ten, then kept alternating left and right until Ian could cover his side.

  Yanking the charging handle back, Ian dropped the magazine and saw the bent round drop out. Seeing the chamber was clear, he slapped a new mag in and hit the bolt release. Watching the bolt slam home and tapping the forward assist, Ian pulled the stock to his shoulder. “Up,” he called out as he pulled the trigger in a fast tempo, moving from target to target.

  Swinging back to the right, Lance saw the stinkers were pushing out from the house to the slope on the right side. Too many bodies were down for the entire gaggle to come straight at them, but they still tried. Ranks tripped, falling down and making those behind bunch up tighter. With Lance now shooting those near the steep slope to the right, those trying to swing wide couldn’t and only bunched the group tighter.

  Because they were shooting down the steep slope, the bullets that passed through a stinker head hit the one behind in the abdomen.