by Davis, James
“I’m fine.” Clay replied.
“No, you’re not Clay. Fine isn’t waking up from a dead sleep screaming.” Clay slammed his fist down on the table, rattling the cup of coffee next to his plate.
“I said I’m fine!” he growled before getting up and storming out of the mess hall. Hank watched his brother and shook his head. He felt terrible for him and wanted to help, but Clay wouldn’t let him. He wasn’t going to let anyone try to help him. Hank stood up and followed his brother outside. He stopped and glanced around, not seeing him anywhere in sight.
He rushed back to their tent but didn’t find him there either. Hank kicked the dirt.
“Damn it, Clay! You’re going to get yourself hurt or killed!” Hank barked. Just then Dub stepped through the entrance. He stopped short and looked at Hank.
“What’s wrong? Where’s your brother?” Dub asked. Jeff and Randy came in next, walking right into Dub’s back.
“Watch where the hell you’re going!” Dub said, turning around to give each man a smack upside the head. Hank laughed.
“Well, you certainly haven’t changed a damn bit.” Dub shook his head and pointed a thumb back to his boys.
“Neither have they. They’re both still as dumb as a box of rocks.” Hank chuckled and shook his head. He looked right at Dub, all hints of humor now gone from his face.
“We have to find Clay before he gets himself killed out there.” Dub gave a curt nod and turned to look at his two sons.
“Hey Frick and Frack, make yourselves useful and go find Clay!” he said with a wave of his hand. Randy started to object, but this time Hank shut him down.
“Randy, man we don’t have time for that. Clay is in real trouble out there by himself. We need to find him as soon as possible.”
“Alright, calm down. We’ll go find him. You and Dad just wait here in case he comes back.” Randy said, holding both hands up.
“Thanks for helping guys.” Hank added as he watched the two leave the tent. Dub stepped over to Hank’s cot and took a seat. He rubbed his palms together as he thought about what to say.
“Karen and the boy miss you Hank, and that poor little girl, she just looks sad all of the time now.” Dub said, as he stared down at the ground.
“Hell, I know that Dub, but what are we supposed to do? We can’t be seen with them here. If we get spotted and it gets back to President Sharp, he’ll send his entire damn army down here after us!” Hank said, getting to his feet and throwing his hands in the air.
“Calm down son, that won’t do anybody any good if you start slippin’ too.” Dub said matter-of-factly. Hank paced back and forth, waiting for Randy and Jeff to come in with Clay. Twenty minutes later, they still hadn’t returned and Hank was starting to get on edge. He looked over at Dub who was now laid out on his cot snoring.
“Screw it!” Hank growled, as he stomped his way toward the exit.
Bear rode behind Johnny as they made their way back to the park. Beams of moonlight glimmered off of the chrome accents on the bikes as they cruised at a steady pace. They pulled into the park and stopped in the same spot they had previously been in earlier that day. Bear rose from the bike as Johnny was getting out of the truck and they both stepped up on the sidewalk to have a look around.
A few moments later they were at the spot where they had met Roger. The camp was gone, confirming Bear's suspicion that it was no permanent residence. Roger was nowhere in sight.
"Bout time you showed back up with my damn bike!" Roger said, stepping out of the woods.
"Shit!" Johnny exclaimed, jumping backwards several feet.
"Now, dammit Roger! What in the hell’s wrong with you? Sneaking around the woods like that." he said, shaking his head.
"Simmer down boy, you gotta have more stomach than that for what you're bout to do. Follow me." Roger said, turning and walking into the woods.
Bear and Johnny followed closely behind in silence. The three men hiked through the woods for three miles, the only sound coming from the dry leaves crunching under Johnny's feet and his heavy breathing. Roger stopped just before the edge of the woods.
"There it is." Roger said, indicating an old looking hunting cabin. It appeared to be a pretty basic log cabin. Bear could see three men sitting on large round logs of wood around a big fire. Two Y-shaped sticks poked out of the ground on either side which held up the carcass of what looked like a hog. One of the men stood up with a long metal pole and poked around in the base of the fire before returning to his seat.
"You sure there's eight of them?" Johnny asked, watching the three men as they talked and passed around a flask.
"Roger!" Johnny hissed, turning to find that he had already disappeared back into the woods. He leaned in close to Bear who was crouched down, studying the men. "Roger's gone."
"We don't need him. Wait here and come when I signal." Bear replied before easing out of the woods. Still crouched, he slowly made his way toward the nearest man. The man sat perched on his log, leaned forward and talking to his buddies. The man said something. Bear couldn't make out what he had said, but, as he neared the man, all three of them suddenly burst out in laughter. Bear eased his knife from its sheath.
He reached up, grabbing the man by his forehead, pulled back hard and drew the blade across his throat. Bear straightened up, letting the man fall backwards from the log as blood poured from the fatal wound.
"What the hell?" One of the men shouted as both men scrambled for their rifles. Bear threw the bloody knife hard, lodging it firmly into the next man's throat. He hit the ground, gasping and choking on his own blood. Bear quickly drew his pistol from its holster, aiming for the third man. He fired two rounds, both bullets hit their mark, exploding the man's face.
"What the hell are you dipshits doin’ out here?" A voice roared as the door swung open and a large man charged out, followed by another smaller man. Two shots rang out from the woods as Johnny fired his rifle, dropping the two men quickly. Bear pointed his pistol at the second man, still choking and gasping for air. He fired a quick round into his forehead before reaching down and retrieving his blade from the man's throat.
The window of the cabin shattered and Bear dove out of the way, barely avoiding the barrage of bullets coming from the shattered window. He rolled, stopping on his belly and raised his rifle, returning fire. His bullets peppered the front of the building. When his firing stopped and the smoke cleared, a skinny man's bullet filled body was hung halfway out the broken window.
He jumped to his feet, replaced his magazine and lifted his rifle, moving towards the front door. A few seconds later, Johnny joined him on the other side of the door. Bear nodded, and Johnny entered the room followed by Bear. The backdoor was wide open as a single man ran for dear life. Johnny aimed his rifle and fired three shots, hitting the man in the head and shoulder, killing him and sending his corpse slamming face first into the ground.
The bedroom door burst open behind Johnny, and one man came out, rifle raised. Bear swiftly grabbed a hatchet from his waist and threw it with all his might. The hatchet hurled through the air, slamming into the man's forehead, knocking him back into the room he had just exited.
"That’s eight, let’s have a quick look around." he said, walking over to retrieve his hatchet from the fallen man's head. He grabbed the handle and pulled. A crunchy wet slurping echoed around the room as the hatchet broke free from the man’s skull. He wiped the blood off on the dead man’s shirt and placed the hatchet back in its holder on his hip. They stepped over to have a look inside the bedroom the man had burst out of only moments before, and stopped in their tracks.
“Holy shit!” Johnny said as they gazed into the room. Every wall was covered from floor to ceiling with gun racks and stacks of ammo cans.
“These assholes must have hit a few gun stores right after the lights went out.” Bear said as he stepped into the room. To his right, sat a long table with a massive rifle that was set up with a bipod and a scope that looked as if it could see i
nto the future. The wall directly in front of them had gun racks stacked two high. AR and AK style rifles seemed to stand in formation from one end of the wall to the other and from the floor to the ceiling.
Bear was the first to dart forward and pick out his new gear. His eyes landed on a gold AK-47. He picked it up and flipped it over in his hands, admiring the craftsmanship of the Russian made rifle.
“It’s awesome, but it’s way too flashy for our purposes.” Bear muttered. Johnny finally stepped up beside him and the two men went to work picking out the very best gear they could find. Bear was looking at a desert tan Smith and Wesson AR-15 that matched a pistol he had taken when suddenly the sound of a throat being cleared came from behind them. Bear spun around, rifle already up and aimed at the intruder’s head.
“I told you they had a bunch of guns, didn’t I?” Roger said, a shit eating grin plastered on his face.
“What the hell do you want?” Bear growled as he lowered his aim. Johnny had finished loading a 1911 he picked out and racked the slide. The action was smooth and it felt good in his hand as he raised it to Roger’s head.
“Don’t think you’re getting any of these guns after you bailed on us! I’ll put a bullet in your head if you touch anything in this room.” Johnny said in a menacing tone.
“I’m the reason you even have the damn guns. It’s only fair that I get to pick one out!” Roger said, as he gazed at the golden AK with wide, lustful eyes.
“I’ll have that one.” he said as he took a step forward, pointing a bony finger at the shiny rifle. Johnny and Bear looked at one another and began to laugh deeply.
“It’s only fair?” Johnny said, all the humor in his voice now gone.
“No, fair would have been you taking the case of scotch that I was going to bring you for the information, but noooo, your greedy old ass wanted his bike too. Well, now you got what you wanted, so get your old ass out of here!” Johnny shouted, pointing a finger toward the way they had come in. Roger didn’t say a word. He glared at Johnny for a moment and then spun on his heels. A few minutes later they heard the bike roar to life and then take off.
“Can you believe that damn guy?” Johnny asked.
“I figured he would be back begging for extra stuff after he watched us take out the trash.” Bear said. Johnny just shook his head in disgust and went back to scanning the room to find his new gear.
“Alright, let’s get this stuff loaded up.” Bear said as he came back into the room. He had gone out to find a trailer for all of the boxes of ammo. Luckily there was already one sitting outside next to an old white truck.
Probably used it to get all of this stuff up here, Bear had thought as he hooked the trailer up to their truck. Over the next couple of hours, the pair walked in and out of the cabin as they loaded the truck and trailer.
“Think this will be enough to handle our blue hat problem?” Johnny asked. Bear shrugged as he sat down an armload of weapons.
“I think we’re good on the guns but we are going to need a lot of ammo for this fight. We got enough here to last a while, but if we have too many prolonged fire fights, or too many people spray and pray, then we’ll run out pretty damn fast.” he replied. Johnny nodded.
“I have a few more friends that can probably help with that. If they can’t we’ll just have to find another worthless group like the ones we just hit. Either way, those blue hats are already dead. They just don't know it yet.
Chapter Fourteen
Clay stomped toward the back of the farm looking for a spot he could go that wasn’t crawling with people. He needed some time to clear his head and there was no way he could do that if he was surrounded by them. He made his way around to the back of the barn and stopped to look around.
Seeing no one there he sighed and put his back against the wall, and slid down to the ground. He gazed up at the tree tops, the brightly colored leaves swaying gently in the autumn breeze. He closed his eyes as the breeze hit his face, the earthy smell of the forest filling his nose as he took in a deep breath.
As he let out the breath, he felt all the tension leave his body. He felt better and he didn’t want to leave this spot for fear of getting sent over the edge again by the smallest thing. His eyelids were getting heavy as he sat there listening to the sounds of the forest, and within minutes he was fast asleep.
“Hey get up! What are you doing back here?” A mean Asian voice said, breaking through the foggy thoughts as Clay opened his eyes. The man kicked Clay’s foot.
“I asked you a question!” Clay, fully awake now glared up at the man.
“Don’t you fucking touch me!’ he growled. The man smiled and brought his foot back to kick him again but Clay was on him in a flash. He grabbed the man's leg and slammed him to the ground. Clay started raining down blow after blow into the man’s face. All of the anger he had been keeping bottled up was coming out right now and nothing short of a bullet to the brain was going to stop him from beating this man to death.
His fist slammed down into the man's throat, crushing his windpipe so he couldn’t scream for help. He rolled off of the man gasping for breath and decided that he hadn’t felt this good since before Ash was killed. He sat up and glanced around the area for other guards but didn’t see any. This was strange. The guards were always in pairs or groups and never did they stray too far on their own for fear of getting exactly what this man had gotten.
The reality of what he had just done finally sank in and panic rose in his chest. He had to hide this body before another guard showed up.
Clay jumped into action. He grabbed the man and pulled him up to a sitting position before squatting down and getting his shoulder under him. Clay heaved and grunted as he rose with the corpse in a fireman's carry and started to walk toward the far edge of the barn. He needed to get the body over the fence and deep into the forest where the guards couldn’t find it. The only problem was that he couldn’t do it alone. He needed help and he needed it right now.
Clay sat the body back on the ground and leaned it up against the barn wall before poking his head out from behind the corner. He had to find Hank before the guards stumbled upon the body. He quickly walked out from behind the barn and headed straight for the tent area.
“Clay! Wait up!” A voice sounded from somewhere to his left. He turned and spotted Randy and Jeff coming toward him. He moved fast, getting in close with the two men.
“I need your help. Where is my brother?” Clay asked in a panicked tone as he nervously glanced around the area.
“He still at the tent with Dad waiting for us to find you. Come on, he wants to talk to you.” Randy said.
“We don’t have time for that. Jeff go get him and bring him to the back of the barn. Do not let anyone see you come back there.” Clay said. Jeff didn’t reply, he just took off in a quick walk.
“What the hell are you talking about Clay?” Randy asked as Clay grabbed his shoulder and guided him toward the barn. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Clay quickly pushed Randy around the corner.
“Are you fucking kidding me Clay! Why would you do that?” Randy all but shouted once he saw the guard’s body propped up against the barn.
“SHHH! Keep your damn voice down. I didn’t mean to do it.” Clay replied.
“Then what happened?” Randy asked, pointing a finger at the dead man. Just then Hank, Jeff, and Dub rounded the corner. Clay moved to look out from the corner to make sure no one had followed them. When he turned back around, he saw Hank standing there with his hands on top of his head as he looked down at the body.
“Clay, what did you do?” Hank said in a harsh whisper. Clay shook his head as he stepped over next to his brother.
“It was an accident. I was sitting back here trying to clear my head and I fell asleep. I woke up to this asshole kicking my foot and I just lost it.” Clay replied. Hank shook his head.
“How in the hell are we going to get rid of the body before the other guards find it? If they find it, they are goin
g to start killing people until someone confesses.” Hank said, as he glared at Clay with a hard look on his face.
“It was an accident!” Clay said almost sounding out the words this time.
“It doesn’t matter. Once they find this guy, they are going to lose their damn minds Clay!” Hank added, scrubbing his hands down his face.
“Would you morons just calm your asses down. I have an idea.” Dub said, cutting in to the discussion. He stepped over to the corpse and grabbed the arms to lay it out flat.
“Well don’t just stand there ya lazy bastards help me!” Dub scolded as he struggled with the body.
“Yeah Jeff, that’s dead weight, go help him!” Randy said, trying to stifle a laugh and failing as he slapped Jeff’s arm. Dub stood up straight and pointed a finger at Randy.
“That’s not funny! I’m dead serious!” he said with a smirk. Randy lost it. Laughing so hard that there was no sound coming out of his mouth and slobber hanging off of his chin.
“I’m glad you assholes think this is a joke!” Clay said, clearly getting annoyed. Hank patted him on the shoulder.
“C’mon man stop being a stiff.” he said, smiling from ear to ear. Clay jerked his arm away.
“This isn’t a damn joke! If they find us back here like this, we’re all dead!” Clay said, no humor at all on his face. When the word dead came out of his mouth, they all lost it.
“Keep your damn voices down!” Clay said as he kept looking around the corner for an audience.
“Clay, those guards are too far away to hear us, and the guard towers can’t see back here. All we have to do is wait for the sun to finish going down and we’ll move the body out of here. Easy peasy.” Dub said, giving Clay’s back a quick pat.
“We’ll handle it Clay. Just go relax and I'll let you know after we're done. Besides you have that meeting with that Bear person in a little bit, don’t you?” Jeff asked. Clay nodded.
“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I came back here in the first place. I was just going to chill out and wait for him to show up, but then dumbass walked back here.” he said, nodding his head toward the tractor.
