The three men were roughly one hundred and fifty meters away before I released my first poisoned arrow. The wind kicked in and sent my arrow into the big man’s lower abdomen. This shot would kill him within ten minutes, so I had to act quickly. The second stun arrow flew straighter than the first, landing straight at the base of the spine of the man who turned to run, thus paralyzing him for further questioning. It’s really a hindrance trying to hold a conversation with someone as they try to crawl away, this way is much more effective to have an attentive audience. The third arrow missed by half a foot and went straight through the neck of the last remaining man, sending him immediately to his death. Oh well, I have one little one and one big one. Surely between the two they are bound to be able to fill in some gaps. We can practice some team work and get some answers.
By the twang of my last arrow being released from my bow, the boys were up and running around trying to figure out what was going on. “Calm down fellows, we were being followed, which is why I holed us up here for the night. I wanted to double check and make sure we weren’t alone, instead of guessing. I double checked and sure enough, we were followed and now they are in a very good position to give us some answers on who is playing ball on both sides of the fence. But we need to hurry because they won’t last much longer. We have maybe five minutes left before they are gone; so let’s go! Put on your angry faces, we have to mean business here; this may be our only chance at seeing who is behind all these shenanigans.”
I gathered up my boys and we walked out to where my fallen enemy lay on the ground. “Hey, I know you know who I am, but I want to know who you are, and who sent you,” I said calmly to the guy I had just shot in the stomach. He just stared at me cursing me up and down. This one had to weigh at least 300 pounds. “I ain’t telling you anything, I guess you’re just going to have to kill me,” he told me in a defying sarcastic tone. I reached in and pulled out my knife. Fine, I’ll kill him then. Before I could even step forward, Gerald jumped up and slammed his knife into the throat of the sarcastic beast of a man, and while twisting the handle, he pulled it out slowly and we watched as the life faded from his eyes.
“Wow, I can honestly say I did not see that one coming.” I said as me and the other boys started laughing. Jerold was already pounding on the normal sized man’s face, beating him to a pulp while yelling at him. “Who sent you here? Why would you do to this to your own people?” The little man just laughed at Jerold and refused to say a word, however I have to say he looked a little bit nervous from the throat cut we had all witnessed just seconds earlier. I can imagine though, all one hundred pounds of Gerald slamming you in the face wasn’t enough to really convince you of anything. So I figured we would turn downright dirty. Why not, right?
I pulled my knife out and shoved it into his top arm…he screamed. So, apparently my test worked and he wasn’t fully paralyzed. This works better in my favor anyways, now I can torture him into talking. I cut a slice out of the sweaty palm on his left hand…and he screamed. “We can do this the hard way, which I prefer… or the easy way until you start talking,” I said. There was still no response from this guy. I’ll give him this much, he is definitely a trooper. I gave Gerald the knife and let him go to town on this guy. Small, slow and deliberate stabs and cuts were administered to various parts of this man’s body.
“Look, this will end when you tell me who sent you. I want to know what the heck is going on here, guy. You’re already caught, your attempts to kill us are already foiled, so it’s pointless to sit here and act like you’re not going to tell us because…you will eventually tell us anyways. One way or another I am going to find out. And if I don’t find out from you…I am going to kill you. Then, I am going to go back to the caves and kill everyone in your family. Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, cousins and I mean everybody. If you don’t have any family, I’ll burn down your house and kill your pets. If you don’t have any pets I’ll find you a gold fish, kill it and pin it to the wall to send a message. One way or another I will get “mine,” rest assured,” I told the dying man in front of me. “Did Q send you or Mason?” The man started laughing hysterically. “You still don’t get it do you! You are a fool, all of you!” he said through his laughter and screams.
Gerald cut off his index finger, right hand. I was bent right over his face; just mere inches were between our eyes when I spoke to him. Gerald touched the blade to the little man’s left index finger. This guy wasn’t going to last much longer, so whatever I do I have to do it fast. “What don’t I get…why don’t you fill me in slick. Let me know what’s going on and who sent you and I will patch you up and send you home alive.” Still no answer from this guy just laughs and screams of pain. Gerald could tell I was beginning to become agitated, so he ripped that finger off which did the trick apparently, because between his squabbled cries, I could hear a ‘Mr. Mason’ in their somewhere, before he passed out.
“Ok, so I am pretty sure it is safe to say that Mason is behind all of this, which makes no sense whatsoever. So we’re going to go home and ask him. I am going to take Boe and head up the road a mile or two, back towards the way we came, and see if there are any others.” I walked off and motioned for Boe to come with me. The walk in the direction we had just passed was a quick one, only two sets of prints, no one else was following us. I can’t figure out why Mason would go through these lengths to sabotage this mission. It was he, after all that came up with the ultimatum of helping them win their freedom or to die. If it was his idea why would he be against it all of a sudden? Why didn’t he just tell me to not worry about it and send me home? Unless he was losing the vote of the people. They said they had become agitated with him due to his failures in attempts to free them or lack thereof. This means he would have to have an ultimatum for keeping them underground. But why would he have so much against me in the first place. This all seems a little much…a little too drastic. I turned to head back to the boys so we could leave.
Unless it was all Cory’s idea, and he spread the word around camp telling everyone that I could free them. And once it was to that point Mason couldn’t just dispose of me because then he would lose the town, because he killed their only shot at freedom. Come to think of it, I never saw Mason but twice, once when I got there and once when I left. He was built a little stockier than the rest of them, meaning he got out and around. He was tan, which meant he spent quite a bit of time in the sun. He couldn’t be going out for diplomatic purposes if none of their people supposedly were even allowed outside of the caves. This would mean that Mason….is Q. He’s running both sides. He keeps the smart ones underground hidden in fear, and the dumb ones up for some reason. I can’t figure the politicking he has going on here, but if he is behind it, I am pretty sure he is actually playing the role of two people.
Cory had mentioned before that Mason was never really around, and was seldom seen when he was. So I am going to assume here that Mason sent me out to die. After a week or two when we don’t show up, he would say we were killed and there was still no hope at a future. But that still kept the whole ordeal of the fuel and the ship in question, unless he was planning on using the ship for his own uses. I wish he would actually show up to America in a rickety old ship and get blown out of this world. That would be funny for sure. So the only thing I can think of is we need to go back and sneak in. We should grab up Cory first and find out what he knows, then sneak our way around and find Mason. Better yet, we will go back and hide out around the caves and wait for Mason to move out. He obviously comes and goes and not from the main entrance.
There are enough of us, we could spread out and just watch until we find out where he is coming from. The boys were already packed up, so we set out. All of these questions, and we still had no solid answers.
Chapter Seventeen
“The long wait”
The path back to the bowling ball was much more difficult than earlier. I wasn’t about to take a chance with our liv
es. We had to go back a different route to stay undetected. Once on the outskirts of the village, I noticed something a little different. There was a smell of smoke in the air…and stale blood. I raised my right hand up and formed a fist, motioning my boys to freeze in place. Slowly, I melted down to my knees and posted up behind a tree. I could barely see the village through the dense forest, but from what I could see, there had been trouble. I could see three bodies in the street stacked up together. I needed to get closer, because they look like big people. They look like upper people, and I didn’t kill anyone in this town. Which means I am either being followed or this is mere coincidence. In my line of work, I don’t believe in coincidence.
Creeping closer to get a better look, I spread my team out to be less noticeable. If we move in as one big gaggle, it’s easier for someone to spot us. We needed to get closer and check out this situation. A few steps forward confirmed my guess. These were definitely three locals that had met their match. “Rebels,” Gerald whispered to me from three tree’s away. He pointed to a mark on the door that had been painted in blood. It appeared to be an A with a diagonal slash through it. I’m assuming this is the mark of the rebel forces Cory had spoke of earlier. As much as I really want to meet these guys, now is not the time or place. I can’t afford to take the chance of making any more enemies here. Not now at least. I motioned for us to gather back up and head out.
Once outside of the village, Gerald spoke up, “I remember hearing something about a tree. I wasn’t ever allowed into the meetings with his scouting parties. Well, any meetings to be quite honest with you. He said I wasn’t quite there yet. But, I admit… I have eavesdropped from time to time. The word tree path has come up quite a few times.” Chuck started whispering with his buddies. “Ok, what are you girls babbling about in your little circle of love?” I asked them.
Chuck spoke up for his group, “Well, we snuck out a few months ago to go check out the lake right. If you go up past the bluff and look towards our mountain, you can see a huge snarled dead tree that covers up an opening to the cave. We ain’t ever been in there you see, but we have seen people come in and out of it. So, I would guess it is safe to say that is where Mason goes in and out unnoticed.” Chuck has definitely proven himself to be an asset to the group.
“Well, looks like that is where we are going, good job boys!” I let Chuck and the boys take the lead, and me and Gerald took the rear, pulling security. With the Bowling Ball behind us, we were following Chuck’s lead to the first snarled tree that he knew of. I figured it was better to take our time and stick together as one, seeing as we had no means of communication whatsoever. Chuck was leading us up to a high point bluff overlooking a side of the mountain that was hiding the caves, which housed those poor people inside. Those guys have never once thought they were being swindled by one of their own. Chuck pointed down the bluff to a well-worn path that led to a snarled tree right on the side of the mountain.
This guy sure wasn’t worried about hiding his tracks. He was pretty arrogant if you ask me. I can’t wait to smoke this dude. These people had to be pretty ignorant to let one man run everything on this planet. I couldn’t help but hope that there is another continent somewhere here, and they go all explorer-mode and take over this land. That would be priceless.
“ Gerald, I want you to go back in and tell everyone that you were the only one that made it, we were cut down a long way away from here. Talk to Cory, but remember no one can be trusted, find out if he is with us, or against us. I want you to gather as much information as you can. See if you can touch base with Mason. I am sure he is dying to know that we finally failed. However, I doubt he is expecting your survival. Make it look good and act like you knew he was dirty the whole time and your fine with it. Like I said, no one can be trusted here. We don’t know who all is involved, but we need to find out. See if you can figure out when Mason is leaving again, but be sneaky about this. I am sure they will kill you if they find out what you know. Speaking of which, we can’t have you walking in there just dirty with a little blood on your hands, you’re going to need to go in there in pretty bad shape, after all…you’re the lone survivor right? So, I am sorry for this.” I stopped mid-sentence and punched Gerald straight in the face, dropping him onto his rear. The rest of the boys caught on quick and we all took turns beating Gerald with every ounce of strength we had left. Boe even got a few snips in. I won’t lie, I kind of feel sorry for him, but this way it would be more believable. We need it to be believable. Gerald’s life depended on it.
Gerald swelled up like a balloon almost instantly and we all laughed, including Gerald, when we were done. I think I accidentally knocked out one of his teeth. “All for a good cause man; go in there and make me proud. Make them believe it. Don’t take forever either, I want you back out here in two days tops, ok?” I gave Gerald a hug and sent him on his way. What can I say, I am still a hugger. We watched as Gerald disappeared into the scenery that led towards the main entrance of the cave, it was maybe only a mile or so. I couldn’t help but hope that he makes it in and out safely.
“Well boys, here comes the boring part. We sit here and wait. We will take turns on shifts at this point, we’re looking for anyone coming out of that pass right there. I am pretty positive that this will be the entry and exit point for Mason and his guys. He is too arrogant to come up with different routes. I am sure he isn’t expecting anyone to question him, but his time will come. In the meantime, while one of you are watching, I’m going to teach the other three how to fish. I have yet to see anyone out here eat fish, and fish is good if fried up right.” Everyone was excited and slightly relieved to the outcome of the events this past week.
This was easier on us; it was just the simple matter of proving it to the people. We would have to put him on display and hope he doesn’t have a secret army of people inside of the caves that would kill us when we walked in with him tied up and beaten. That was going to be our only option, prove to the people that he is the real reason they aren’t allowed outside. Once they realize that they have been swindled, I would have to turn the community over to someone, and hope that they do the right thing.
One of Chuck’s friends, who don’t ever talk much, so I couldn’t even tell you his name, took the first watch. I led Chuck and his two buddies down to the lake which was half a mile behind us, away from the caves. We were going to be a few days out here at least, so I had some time to try and enjoy myself before my trip home. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to get to know the rest of the crew. “What are your names?” I felt really bad not knowing any of their names. “I am John Boy, I was wondering when you were going to ask me that.” We all started laughing as I started to gather up long strips of weeds and shredding them down to thin strings. “And I am Hank, man.” The second boy chimed in. “I like Hank. Back in my world, the best singer in the world is named Hank. That’s a good name,” I replied.
I watched as the three boys did everything I did, making their own lines. I didn’t even know if we were going to catch anything, but it’s always worth a try. There was really no reason for us all to stay up there on watch. I took some bone fragments from my pocket and started handing them out, just little slivers of deer bone that I had planned on carving at one point or another. They should make a fine hook for our cane poles. It took about 10 pieces of bone and five hours, but we finally all had made our perfect hook. I explained the theory behind catching a fish. Come to find out, none of them had ever even tried this before. They didn’t even know that fish were edible. Kind of made me laugh since Native Americans back home, before modern civilization would eat or smoke just about anything. These people had not even tried fish. Hell, one of the first food items on the menu were fish and corn. This place still never ceases to amaze me.
Once we tied off our homemade lines and hooks to the end of the sticks we had found, we set off hunting for bait. “Worms usually make good bait if you don’t have anything else. I don’t reall
y see anything hitting the top of the water, so I am going to assume that there is a bunch of catfish down there eating off the bottom. You can use any type of insect really. But the best bait for fishing like this will be something you can throw on the bottom of the water and wait for something to pick it up… like this,” I explained. I was digging a hole near the water’s edge under a shade tree. It was really a prime time spot because I held up a huge ungodly night crawler for all to see.
I showed them how to bait a hook, and they did. We all spread out and dropped our lines in the water and waited…and then waited some more. We weren’t getting as much as a single bite and I was becoming quite irritated because I wanted to fry up some fish somehow. I have been craving a good catfish fry for a while now. We waited for what seemed like hours, when Chuck’s pole nearly jerked out of his hands. Chuck had no idea what to do. He actually looked scared for once. “Will, what’s going on? Is this supposed to happen?” He screamed at me. I yanked the pole out of his hands and landed a good size fish that looked very similar to a catfish. I felt like I was taking my kids out fishing for the first time. Bright smiling faces when they finally caught something and then boredom when they weren’t biting.
Chapter Eighteen
“Fish in the fry”
We had caught about five good size catfish when I decided to call it quits and figure out exactly how I was going to cook the fish without having a pan. “I can grind out a rock and make it look like a pan, and I bet I can do it in under an hour!” Hank declared as he ran out of sight to go find a good candidate for a pan. I dug through my pack and found a bag of the flour like substance that Cory rarely uses to cook with, and pulled out a few chunks of the fat I trimmed off the hog that the boys had caught. You know it still amazes me that they have this stuff which is basically flour, just not all purified like back home, but it works the same. Yet they don’t have any sugar or sweetener of any kind, which would be all the makings I would need to conjure up some good cookies. Oh well, maybe someday. I didn’t see any sugar cane floating around, so I would be of no help anyways trying to explain to them this simple process of cookie making.
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