“Steady,” Butcher whispered. “No guns. No sound. Zoe?”
“Got it.”
“Hunter?”
“We’ve got this, Butcher. This isn’t our first rodeo.”
Fletcher nodded. “I’ve got second shot.”
Hunter and Zoe nodded and raised their bows.
“Steady,” Fletcher whispered. “Four, three, two…”
When Einstein rounded the corner, hands already in the air, Butcher yelled, “Hold!”
“Butcher?” Einstein stopped just before a bullet ricocheted off a boulder. “Run!” He took off running down the hill toward them, five of JB’s men in hot pursuit.
The first two fell to arrow and bolt. Fletcher shot and killed the next two. The fifth turned and started running away. But Hunter inhaled, slowly released an arrow, and fired it right through the guy’s neck.
Looking behind him, Einstein stood there, staring at the five dead men, his face a mask of white.
“Kid?”
“Butcher!” Running to her, Einstein wrapped his arms around her neck and held tightly. “Oh my god, I can’t believe it’s you! I can’t even—I thought that you guys were—oh never mind. I can’t believe you’re here!”
Butcher pulled away and mussed up his hair, a lump lodging in her throat. “Good seeing you, too, genius. Are you okay? Are you injured at all?”
“No, no. I’m fine physically.” Einstein looked down and, barely above a whisper said, “They…they killed Cassie and Churchill.”
Butcher recoiled as if struck. “What? Why? What happened?”
Fletcher stepped up to the group and jutted his chin out. “We’re not safe here. If those five don’t return soon, they’ll likely send out more. Can we save the story until we can get back to our base camp?”
“Dad’s right,” Hunter interjected. “Let’s get under cover and then you can fill in the blanks. Can you do that?”
Einstein looked at Hunter and nodded. “Sure. Hey, where’s Luke?”
Butcher looked at the others. “We brought the plane. I…I don’t know if Luke is following or not.”
Einstein frowned. “Did you leave Colby with the plane, because these yahoos would love to get their bloody hands on one.”
Butcher lowered her head. “He...he didn’t make it.”
Einstein swallowed hard and sighed. “That sucks. That so sucks. And all because of these fucking hillbillies.”
Butcher stared at him. Einstein seldom swore, let alone dropped F-Bombs.
Einstein looked around at everyone’s faces. “It is so good seeing you all. I’ve been trying to figure out how in the hell I was going to make it back to Angola alone. Then JB sent his goon squad after me.”
“Our place is over that ridge,” Fletcher said. “We can talk once we get there. For now, I’ll feel better if we book it out of here.”
Ten minutes later, they all stood around the map on the ground, and Butcher and Zoe laid their arms across his shoulders.
“We brought Angola to you,” Butcher said, leaning over their map. “We did recon, have adjusted our map, but now, with you here, we can learn a lot more about what we’re up against.”
“What we’re up against?” Einstein shook his head. “Have a seat while I tell you just what it is we’re up against, ‘cause frankly, you’re not going to believe this.”
Half an hour later, amid a stunned audience, Einstein waited for someone to respond to his tale.
“Someone hold my wrists,” Butcher said softly. “Please.”
Hunter took one and Zoe the other.
“Because if you don’t hold me back, I might just do something really foolish.”
“Get a hold of yourself girl,” Fletcher said. “We can’t be goin’ off half-cocked. Besides, sounds like Dallas has everything under control.”
“Under control?” Butcher growled. “Under control? She’s about to get raped and you think she has everything under control?”
Fletcher nodded. “She was smart enough to get Einstein out, right? Clearly, she’s set some sort of plan in motion. It’s not like she’s just gonna lay back and take it.”
Butcher drew in the dirt with a stick. “True.”
“She’s rolling the dice,” Zoe said. “Hoping someone else was out here to get Einstein.”
“And we are,” Hunter said. “See? She knew. So let’s get down to business and get our people out of that fucking nuthouse.”
Zoe held her pink crossbow out. “If we’re going after them, we need more than the weapons we’ve got.”
“We need the Fuchs,” Einstein said softly. “If we can put the tank out of commission and get the Fuchs, we’d be golden, but I’m sure JB has the keys.”
Reaching under her shirt, Butcher pulled out some keys and dangled them in the air. “Yeah, well he’s not the only one, and now, here’s what I think we should do.”
Junior sat nervously on the bed, his hands clasped tightly in his lap. Dallas sat next to him, feeling his apprehension, smelling his testosterone-laden body odor.
“Nervous?”
“No, ma’am. No.”
Dallas set her hand on his thigh. “Honey, have you ever had sex?”
“Sure. Tons of times.”
Dallas hid her grin. “With a woman?”
“Yeah. Uh. Once.”
“Really.”
He nodded, but the nods slowly turned into a head-shake. “So I never have, but I know what to do and all. I seen movies.”
Dallas wondered if any guilt would set in over what she was about to do. “Did you have a girlfriend?”
He nodded. “Yeah. She turned the second week. Her brother bit her.”
“And you never had the chance to have sex?”
“No, ma’am. She was a good Christian girl.” He unclasped his hands long enough to drive one hand through his mop of reddish hair.
Dallas chuckled. “And?”
“And she was saving herself.”
“Yeah, well look where that got her.” Dallas rose. “Mind if I put my boots on? My feet are freezing.”
He shook his head. “I guess so.”
As Dallas pulled on her first boot, she asked, “Junior, why me? Everyone else is either younger or cuter than I am. I am old enough to be…well…I’m old. What gives?”
It took him a minute to answer. “My dad said experience was a must for your first time. You seem experienced and I…well…I think you’re really beautiful. You kinda remind me of my mom.”
Dallas waited to see if he rectified that weird statement, but when he didn’t, she answered, “Thank you. That’s…uh…really nice of you to say.”
“I can do this, you know?”
She grinned softly. “Oh, I have no doubt. So, why don’t you tell me what you want.” Again, a long pause.
“Tell you what. Why don’t I take the lead? Would you like that?”
Nod.
“Perfect. Okay, stand up.”
“Up?”
“Oh yes. Blow jobs are way better if the blood is running down to your feet, but I’m sure you knew that.”
He nodded and rose, placing the taser on the vanity.
Kneeling down, Dallas unbuckled his belt and lowered his pants. He was wearing tighty whities and the bulge strained the fabric. Reaching up, she pulled the tighties down and released a semi-erect penis about eight inches long. It was as foreign to Dallas as eating blood sausage or headcheese, and she knew it would taste as bad. She had one shot at it. One shot only.
“What should I do?” He asked.
Looking up, she smiled softly. He was so young. He reminded her of Einstein—a dumb Einstein—a dumb Einstein who had no idea what his father had consigned him to.
Beat her lover up, will you?
Not without paying dearly, and this boy kid was about to be the first installment of the payment.
“Some guys like to just close their eyes and lean back against the wall.”
“I seen ‘em hold a girl’s head in a porno flick once.”
> “You could, but that would keep me from moving very well.”
He nodded. “How come you bein’ so nice to me?”
“Do I have a choice, Junior? We might as well enjoy ourselves, right?”
He smiled and nodded. “Okay, then g’wan. I’m ready.”
He was, but she wasn’t.
All she could think about was her first and only epic failure. She had been so young and so nervous back then, but her life had not been on the line. Her people’s life hadn’t been at risk.
There was so much more than that now.
Now, she had other lives depending on her to get them out of here—and not just the lives of those stuck here. There were all those at Angola and beyond. Another failure was not an option.
So far, she’d failed Cassie and Churchill. She wasn’t about to lose anyone else.
She had a life to live—a woman to return to, and nothing, not even this baby-faced, barely a man-boy was going to keep her from Roper.
Nothing.
No one.
Now she was ready.
Placing her hands on his hips, Dallas inhaled a deep breath, opened her mouth, and took the rubbery feeling thing in her mouth. She pretended she was sucking on a missile pop she used to have every summer as a kid.
It took everything she had not to gag. She wanted to gag. She wanted to vomit, but Dallas managed to hold it all in. She was getting out of here tonight one way or the other.
“Daddy said no teeth,” Junior said softly.
Dallas looked up at him, dick in her mouth, and waited for him to close his eyes. When he did, she thought of Roper being pummeled, of Cassie and Churchill’s unnecessary deaths. She thought of what would happen to them all if she didn’t do this. She had to do this. Here. Now.
Now.
And with everything she had, she bit down on Junior’s semi-hard dick, surprised by how easily she had bit it nearly clean off. When he cried out, Dallas grabbed her sock and shoved it in his open mouth.
“Shut your mouth, kid. This will be over in a second.”
When he bent over to look at his penis dangling by a thread of skin, Dallas grabbed the bedspring wire she’d straightened, threw it over his head and pulled it tightly against his Adam’s apple. Jamming a knee into his lower back, she pushed him away with her knee as she pulled back on the wire.
His fingers clawed at the wire as she pulled back with all her body weight, landing on the bed with him on top of her, his feet kicking, his hands unsuccessfully reaching for her. The sock remained in his mouth, preventing him from calling out.
His youth and inexperience would cost him his life as he struggled against the wire and not against the woman holding it.
Dallas tightened the wire so much, it began cutting into his neck, blood oozing all over her and the bed. Junior struggled for another thirty seconds before his body went limp and he released his bowels between her legs. Dallas did not release the wire, but kept it so tight it continued digging into his neck. She wasn’t taking any chances on this.
When she smelled the pungent odors of piss and shit, she knew he was dead. Truly dead.
Pushing him off her, she tore the teddy off and held the taser by her thigh as she knocked on the door.
When it opened, she yanked the guard in by his collar and pressed the taser to the only exposed area of his neck. He collapsed on top of Junior.
Dallas grabbed his keys and quickly unlocked her ankle bracelet, put on the guard’s clothes, and then strangled him with the wire still biting into Junior’s neck.
“Fucker,” she whispered, wishing it had been Sarge at the door.
Once she had the riot gear on, which included a combat knife, taser, hand gun and rifle, she hefted the rifle, feeling like herself for the first time in days. Then she put the helmet on and lowered the shield. Checking the rifle out, she swung it over her shoulder and came out of the room as casually as she could.
“Yo,” she said to the guard at Burnett’s door, four doors down.
“The kid having a good time in there?” The other guard chuckled.
Dallas nodded and unlocked Burnett’s door.
“Hey, what the hell are you—”
He was in the process of pulling up his face guard when Dallas yanked him into Burnett’s room, pulled the combat knife from the thigh sheath and jammed it into his exposed neck. He clutched at the knife, but she drove it so hard, it lodged into the wall behind him. He was dead less than a minute later.
Dallas ripped the knife from his neck and tossed Burnett the keys to her leg irons. “Get into his gear. Quickly.” Raising her face shield, she nodded. “Hurry.”
“Dallas? Oh my god! You’re here! You’re here!”
“I told you I was going to get us out of here. I keep my promises. Now get that outfit on and let’s get the hell out of here.”
Dallas pretended to stand guard while she surveyed the layout. There were at least a dozen guards in this area alone. If she got into a shootout with them, she would lose. She would need to take out as many by stealth as possible.
When Burnett joined her, they stood at the door as Dallas outlined her plan. “We have to set the women free, Burnie, but we need to find a way out of here first. It does us no good to free everyone and not be able to get out of here.”
Burnett pushed the black visor of the riot helmet up just enough to see Dallas’s face. “If we have to go down, Dallas, I’d really rather it be like this—fighting side-by-side.”
Dallas nodded. “We’re not going down, Burnie. I just need to find a way to get everyone out. We’re not leaving unless all of us do”
Suddenly, there was a commotion at the front of the warehouse and a guard came running from it. “All hands on deck! Sound the alarm! We are being attacked! Outlaws are in the compound!”
Dallas grinned inside her helmet. “Looks like our taxi has just arrived. Come on.” Dallas and Burnett left their posts and followed the other guards out the door. With the exception of Burnett’s short stature, they fit right it.
The group of guards skidded to a halt and that was when Dallas saw the reason for all the commotion.
The Beast was fired up and running—Hunter was in the turret spraying bullets left and right, killing everyone in sight.
Pulling Burnett back into the warehouse, she tore her riot helmet off. Burnett did the same. “You need to get to the Fuchs.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“And I’m not leaving the others. Go tell them I’m releasing the other women first. Let them know where I am and who’s where so they don’t shoot me.” Dallas tore the face shield off the helmet. “Get going, Burnie. There’s not much—”
“Dallas Barkley,” came Butcher’s voice over the mic. “ Get your ass to the Fuchs if you can. If you can’t, we’ll just fucking tear this place apart one building at a time until you’re safe.”
Dallas and Burnett looked at each other with shocked expressions.
“Butcher?” Burnett asked. “It can’t be.”
Dallas grinned. “That’s her voice all right. Looks like the cavalry has arrived. Go, go, go!”
“You’ll be right behind me?”
“Absolutely. Now go.”
Once Burnett took off, Dallas stepped in behind the guards who were shooting from kneeling positions. She casually pulled out her handgun and shot every single one in the base of the neck before running back to the dorm rooms and releasing Nancy and Ingrid. “Release the other women, then get your asses to the Fuchs. Double time, ladies. Hurry before JB sends guards to keep us in this Hell hole.”
Nancy grabbed the keys Dallas held out to her. “I knew you’d come. I just knew it.”
As Dallas started opening doors, she could hear the Fuchs’s machine gun going to town. Several men ran back in, trying to escape the onslaught of bullets spewing from the turret, but any male out in the open, ate hot lead.
Butcher had come, and Dallas wondered how she had made it so quickly. Einstein hadn’t been gone
long enough to have made it to Angola. Was Roper the one who brought the cavalry?
If she could get to the rest of the women, she’d soon find out.
The next door opened to a young woman Dallas had never seen. When she unlocked her, the woman asked her where she should go.
Dallas replied, “Who gives a shit? Anywhere is better than here.”
“I...I’d rather not.” She backed away from Dallas, hands trembling.
“Fine. Do you know where they keep the kids?”
The woman pointed. “The warehouse behind us. The one with the red door.”
Dallas took off, shooting any man she came across. When she busted out of the warehouse, she took off running across the street, shooting the two very surprised guards standing at the set of red double doors.
Throwing the doors open, Dallas took out a single guard watching the children’s area.
Opening a door to a cordoned off area, she saw a dozen or so kids all under the age of twelve huddled together, wide-eyed and very afraid.
“Which one of you is Hannah?” When no one responded, Dallas took the riot helmet off and said, “I’m one of the good guys and her mommy sent me to bring her home. So, which one of you is Hannah?”
A little Hispanic girl with long, black hair raised her hand. She looked just like her mother. Kneeling down, Dallas reached for the little girl’s hands. “Honey, I’m here to get you out of this icky place. Your mommy knows I’m getting you, but we have to go right now.”
Hannah nodded. “What about the others?”
“Are their daddies here?”
She nodded. She had wizened eyes, like her mother. She’d seen a lot in her few years.
“Then it’s just us. Come on.”
Sounds behind her warned Dallas of impending trouble as the guards started flooding into the warehouse yelling orders and shooting their weapons in the air.
“This way!” Hannah yelled, pulling Dallas through the building and away from the other children.
One guard leapt from a side door, and when Dallas shot him in the face, Hannah didn’t hesitate grabbing his sidearm as she ran by.
“Out this door and then a fence.”
The mic keyed once more. “Dallas, it’s me. Head home. I repeat, head home.”
A big smile spread across Dallas’s face as she heard Einstein’s voice. He’d told her which direction to head by the use of the word home. No wonder they called him Einstein.
Riders of the Apocalypse (Book 3): Eat Asphalt Page 14
