Land

by Theresa Shaver

  “Dara, I think he’s dead. I killed him. I broke his neck.” She said in a shocked whisper, staring at the dead man.

  “Alex. Alex, look at me.” she said sharply. When Alex looked up and met her eyes, she continued in a softer tone. “My arms really hurt Alex. Can you help me get down, please?”

  Alex kept her eyes on Dara as she rose, not wanting to see the dead mans’ shocked expression. In a trance, she went to the table and got the step stool and brought it over to Dara to stand on. As soon as she was free she went over to the body and pulled the other gun out of its holster. She then used her boot to flip him over so he was face down. She turned to Alex and put a hand on her shoulder. She could feel Alex shaking and she knew she had to get her back in the game if they were going to get out of this.

  “Alex, I want you to really listen to me. Are you listening?” she gave her a little shake. When some of the shock had left Alex’s eyes and she was focused Dara continued “That man was going to rape and torture us before he killed us in the most painful way. He put a dog collar on a child and beat him. That man was a monster. You killed him and that makes you a hero. Do you understand? By killing him, you saved me. You helped save all of us. You did the right thing and now I need you to put it aside because we need to go in there and save the boys and I’m going to need you for that. Are you with me?”

  Alex took a deep breath and looked down at the gun in her hand. She pulled the slide back and chambered a round. “I’m with you.” she said with stronger voice and a firm nod of her head.

  Dara smiled “Alright! So Rat said that Skull sent the others into some town. I counted nine to start with, so with Popper next door, Skull and the two women that means we only have four more to deal with before the others get back. The music is going to help but I need…” She scanned the room and found what she was looking for on the futon. Dara went over and grabbed a throw pillow and brought it back. “Ok, we’re going through that door and I’m going to shoot Popper right away. I’ll shoot through the pillow to muffle the bang. Between that and the music no one should hear it. You be ready to shoot anyone else in the room. We get the boys free and then we go out to the main room and, well, we’ll play that by ear. Boys free first, Ok?”

  Just as Alex was going to answer, the song that was playing came to an end. They clearly heard Popper in the next room taunting one of the boys. As soon as the next song started Alex put her hand on the door knob and looked to Dara. Dara put the pillow over the end of the gun, took a deep breath and then nodded. Alex turned the knob and shoved. She stayed to the side so Dara could go through and as soon as she had past, followed her into the room with the gun raised, ready for anyone else that might be in the room. There was a muffled bang and then Popper crumpled to the floor. Once he was down, Alex had a clear view of Josh who was tied to a chair. His face was a mess of swelling and blood. Just as she was going to rush to him, he came free of the chair with a bloody knife in his hands.

  “Damnit! If I knew you guys were going to rescue us, I wouldn’t have cut the hell out of my wrists getting free.” he said through mushy lips and collapsed back into the chair. Alex grabbed a wooden crate and slid it under Quinn’s feet. As soon as he was getting free she rushed back to Josh. Grabbing his wrists, she turned them over to check the damage. They were bloody but none of the cuts were very deep. Alex whipped her sweat shirt off and then took her tank top off. She put her sweat shirt back on and reached down into her boots for the Swiss army knife she had put in there earlier. She cut up her tank top and used the strips to bind up Josh’s wrists. She looked up to check his face injuries and saw that he was wide eyed.

  “What?” she asked him in confusion.

  “I just saw your boobs!” he said and grinned, causing him to wince from his split lips.

  Alex couldn’t help but laugh. Captured by bikers, tied up and beaten bloody and Josh was still Josh. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Well, consider it your reward for almost beating us girls to the rescue.” she teased.

  He leaned past her and looked to Popper, who was on the floor in a heap. “Is he dead?” Josh asked. Quinn had helped Cooper down and he went over and gave a hard kick to the man’s ribs. When the man flopped over and made no sound, Cooper took a closer look.

  “Yup, she shot him straight through the heart.” He turned to Dara who had cracked the door and was peeking out into the main room. She eased the door closed and turned to the group.

  Josh gave a wave and told her, “Nice shooting Tex!”

  She gave him a quick grin and turned serious. She looked everyone over and in a determined voice said, “Ok guys, I’m ready to get out of here. Skull and his girlfriend are in there on the couch but I don’t see the other woman. The rest of the gang was sent to town to bring friends for their party so we need to get going before they get back. Alex and I have hand guns and Cooper took the one off Popper. There’s a sawed off shot gun over here in the corner you should grab Quinn. Josh, your eyes look kind of swollen so maybe stick with the knife for now. I say we just go right out with guns aimed and if they go for weapons we shoot them. Quinn, go to the left. That’s where the boy went for beer so maybe the other woman is back there. Everyone agree?” she asked.

  Everyone nodded and once Quinn had his weapon, they rushed out into the main room and spread out. Quinn went left and disappeared into another room. The rest all pointed their guns at the two on the couch. Skull sprang to his feet and the woman was quick to follow. He stood there glaring at the three guns pointing at them. Talk was impossible with the loud pumping music so Josh walked over and shut the stereo off. The silence was intense after the loud music and everyone paused for a moment. Alex saw the abused boy make his way closer to see what was happening.

  Skull looked the group over and laughed “I can’t believe the brat pack got the drop on my guys. What did you do, tie them up back there?” he scoffed.

  “They’re both dead and so will you be if you give us any trouble.” Dara informed him in a cold voice.

  “Yeah right! You kids don’t have it in you to kill anyone. Put those guns down before I slap you silly.” he threatened.

  Skull caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw the child inching closer to the kids. He lashed out with his foot, sending the boy flying and thundered “Get back in your corner Dog!”

  Alex had time to think “You shouldn’t have done that.” when there was a loud gun shot and Skull flew back and crashed down through the glass coffee table, his chest pumping blood. The woman started screeching and went to her knees, trying to pull him back up. When she realized he was dead, she stood with a furious face and turned on Alex.

  “I’m going to mess you up for that bitch.” she screamed, spit flying out of her mouth.

  Alex didn’t know why the woman was yelling at her. She lunged toward Alex and another gunshot sounded, sending the woman to the floor.

  “Wow Dara’s on a rampage.” she thought, turning to look at her friend.

  Dara was looking back at her with surprise on her face. Alex looked to Cooper and Josh. They were all looking at her with surprise. She looked down at the gun in her hand and started to shake. She had shot them. She had killed another two people without even trying. Alex sank to her knees and started to sob.

  Cooper came up and gently took the gun from her hand. He rubbed her back and tried to console her “It’s Ok Alex. You did the right thing. You did good.”

  Alex barely heard him. She was so overcome with everything that happened today she felt lost. It was a small hand that crept into her own that brought her back to herself. She looked into the child’s eyes and he croaked out a hoarse “Thank you.” She remembered the silent vow she had made to him earlier and she had to smile at him because his eyes were no longer empty but filled with hope.

  Chapter 13

  When the shooting had started in the main room, Quinn had been in the kitchen. He had found the biker woman, Sheila making a meal out of food taken from the camper.
With the shot gun pointed at her the woman was a crying, whining mess. She had tried to bargain with Quinn to let her go by offering all kinds of lewd activities. Quinn was disgusted with the woman and he ordered her to shut up. There was a roll of duct tape on the counter so he used it to bind her arms behind her back and had ripped a piece off to cover her mouth when she started to babble about kids and how it wasn’t her fault and they couldn’t blame her.

  He stepped back and asked her “What kids? What are you talking about?”

  She smiled at him, which only made her look more grotesque with her smeared make up and snot hanging from her nose. “If I tell you, will you let me go?” she whined.

  Quinn brought the shot gun up and placed it against her forehead. In a cold voice he offered, “Or you could tell me and I won’t kill you.”

  The woman squeaked and tried to scoot back away from the barrel of the gun. “OK, OK! I’ll tell you! You don’t have to get nasty. They found a bunch of kids on the highway a few days back. They were stranded in their school bus. Skull brought them back here. He was going to ransom them back to the town for supplies. That’s where Dog came from. He’s the sheriff’s son and he mouthed off a lot so Skull was having some fun with him.” She let out a giggle at the boy’s torment that made Quinn want to vomit.

  “Where are they?” he asked menacingly.

  Once she told him where the kids were he turned the gun around and hit her in the head with the stock, knocking her out. Quinn had never hit a woman in his life and was raised to always respect and protect them but he made an exception for this one. She wasn’t a woman to him but an animal.

  Back in the main room, the others had spread out to check all the other areas and make sure they were alone. The boy hadn’t left Alex’s side and clung to her hand. He had told her his name was Luke but that was all Alex could coax out of him. Cooper had taken his shirt off and handed it to Alex, who put it on the boy to cover his damaged body. He seemed to snuggle into it and curled up against her. Everyone came back into the room reporting that the place was empty.

  Just then Quinn came back in. His face was pale and his hands shook. He took in the two bodies on the floor with satisfaction and then looked to his friends.

  “I need some help guys. We need to grab as much water as possible and come out to behind the house. Can someone go out front and keep watch? We don’t want to be taken by surprise if the rest of the gang comes back.” Quinn waved them to follow him.

  Cooper went out front to keep watch and check on the camper and truck. The rest followed Quinn back through the kitchen. They all stepped over the unconscious woman and stopped to grab water bottles from the stack of cases piled in the corner. Quinn told them what Sheila had said to him about the kids and that he had gone out to the shed where they were being kept.

  “When I opened that door, the wave of heat and the stench that rolled out almost knocked me off my feet. I thought they were all dead but the fresh air must have revived them because they started to move and groan. I pulled them all out into the shade. They need water badly.” he finished and raced out the back door, arms filled with water bottles.

  When Alex saw the eight kids leaning against the shed in the shade, she felt the tears start to roll down her face. She couldn’t understand how anyone could do these horrible things to children. The sadness she felt at killing the three bikers left her and her heart hardened on the spot. She wished she had killed them all.

  They were careful to only let the kids have small sips of water between wiping them down with the cool water. They carried them one by one into the house. Josh dragged the two bodies out of the main room and they placed the kids on the couches. Dara found a box of granola bars in the kitchen and once the children started to perk up she passed them out with orders to eat slowly or they would get sick. Other than being dehydrated and overheated, none of the kids seemed to have been abused. Luke had taken the punishment for being the Sheriff’s son and for his feisty attitude. Alex left Luke in charge of monitoring his friends water intake and spread out with the others.

  They took all the supplies they could find and piled them by the front door. Cooper had been told of the children and he was checking the white van out to see if it would run. They didn’t have room in the truck and camper to take everyone with all the supplies. The van turned out to work and had been used by the bikers to bring the children here from their school bus. Cooper backed it up to the front door and they started to quickly load the loot as fast as they could. They knew the rest of the gang could return at any time. As they finished loading and were getting the kids moving, Josh came running in.

  “You guys aren’t going to believe what I just found in the basement!” he said excitedly.

  They all rushed after him except for Dara who stayed to help the kids into the van. She had gathered all the pillows and blankets from the house and used them to pad the hard metal floor they would be traveling on. After their ordeal, she wanted to try and make them as comfortable as possible.

  Luke had told them what town they were from and after checking the map, found it was on the highway they had been traveling on before the bikers stopped them. It was an hour’s drive to get there so Dara put in water and easy to eat food for the children. It had been decided that Dara would drive the truck, Alex the camper and Josh the van. Quinn would ride in the back of the truck, armed and ready if they encountered any of the bike gang. Cooper had ripped the vent from the top of the camper and was to be another armed look out.

  They would not be taken again.

  The sight that greeted, Alex, Quinn and Cooper in the basement, brought them to a standstill. Two of the walls were covered in racks that were filled with what looked like assault rifles and cases of ammunition. The bikers had all been carrying sawed off shot guns or hand guns, so this many rifles was a shock. The other two walls and a few tables in the middle of the room had all kinds of drugs. There were bags filled with the white powder of cocaine, plastic tubs brimming with different coloured pills and tablets, huge bags full of marijuana and other things that they didn’t recognize. After a few minutes of shocked silence while they took in the contents of the room. Quinn sprang into action.

  “Grab as many guns as you can. Stack them in your arms and get them upstairs. Josh, grab that hand cart and let’s load up all the ammo cases we can. We do two trips and then we need to get out of here.” he said as he rushed forward and started to pile guns into Cooper’s arms.

  “What do we do about all that stuff?” Alex asked, waving at the drugs.

  Without looking at her, Quinn replied in a cold determined voice “We burn it. We burn the whole place down.”

  When they brought out the first load, Dara had the children settled in the back of the van with the door still open. She did a double take when Alex walked past her with an armful of guns.

  “Head in and help the guys while I get this stuff loaded up. I’ll keep watch on the kids and the road.” Alex told her over her shoulder.

  They had already packed up the rest of the supplies so it was cramped in all the vehicles. Alex had to shove the guns anywhere she could fit them. The ammo boxes had to go into the van so they covered them with the blankets and pillows for the kids to sit on. After the second load was brought out and packed away, Quinn took two of the gas cans and went back inside. Everyone else loaded into their vehicles and got ready. Before Dara closed the van’s back door she explained to the kids that it would be dark and get hot in there but it would only be for a little while and then they would be home. She told them they could bang on the wall connecting to the driver’s compartment if they needed too and they would stop. The children were either still in shock or very brave because they all just nodded before she rolled the door down.

  Quinn came through the door backwards, leaving a trail of gas. He threw the empty gas can back through the door and turned to check if everyone was ready. He caught site of the motorcycles. One of his friends had trashed them all. They were nothing more
than a pile of chrome and rubber, never to be ridden again. He laughed with pleasure and turned to his waiting friends.

  “Alex, Josh, you guys move out to the road and wait. I’m going to light this up and then Dara and I will take the lead. Josh, keep the van and the kids in the middle. Cooper, be ready. If you see a motorcycle just open fire, don’t wait. We will get these kids home.” he declared and waved them out.

  He pulled a road flare out of his back pocket, lit it and threw it through the open door. He ran over and hopped into the back of the truck and grabbed a shot gun he had placed there. As soon as Dara saw that he was settled she pulled out to the road and got in front of the van. They had only gone half a mile when something in the house exploded and they could clearly see a black column of smoke rising. Dara watched the smoke in her side mirror and had a disturbing thought. She had opened the back sliding window before they left so she could talk to Quinn and she yelled his name through it to get his attention.

  When he came close enough to hear she asked him, “What about that woman, Sheila? Was she still in there?”

  Quinn shook his head. “I threw her into the shed where the kids were with a couple of bottles of water and a knife to cut herself free.” he answered with indifference and turned back to scanning the road.

  Dara gave a sigh of relief. There was a difference between defending themselves and others and flat out murder. She shook her head. She should have known that Quinn wouldn’t have crossed that line.

  She watched the road ahead with apprehension. After looking at the maps they had seen that the only town close to the gang’s base was the one they were headed to so they guessed that it was the town the rest of the bikers had gone to. They had decided that they had a two and a half hour window before the gang made it back and found the destruction they had left. After discussing what to do if they met them on the road, they had all agreed that with the children riding with them and at risk in a shootout, it would be better to try and avoid them.