by Dennis Elder
Finally, Ivan stood alone in the lobby. As the last of the men disappeared into the large dining room, he wondered if all forty two of them would still be around by tomorrow morning.
Chapter 144: Bed
It was nearly dark when the Marauders finally exited off I-15 onto Falcon ridge parkway. They’d made it to Mesquite right on schedule. Slowly the group pulled over and stopped. They were in the middle of the bridge over the I-15 freeway. Mark got off his bike and turned back to the group.
“We’re going to bunk in the motel at the top of this hill,” said Mark as he motioned Northwest up the road. “Frank, you take the group up there and get um settled. Just one guard per rotation tonight.”
Frank nodded.
Randy, Jacob and Sam, you’re with me,” he continued. “There’s a big box store up ahead to the right. We’ll do a supply run and catch up with the rest of you later.”
Mark looked around the group. Road grim and sweat stains covered their tired faces. It was hard to recognize some of them. Maybe it was the lack of sleep
They were all pretty beat. But he admired their effort.
“I’m proud of each of you,” he added, though a dry voice. “Not a word of protest all day. Everyone pulled their weight, and then some. Now let’s get some rest.”
No one moved or said a thing. They were just too tired to respond.
“OK,” said Mark, as he mounted his bike again and the group slowly moved forward.
About a half a mile up the road four of the riders quietly split off from the main group and headed over to the world largest market retailer. The rest of the group worked their way up the final mile to the Holiday Inn on the hill, and with every pedal stroke they longed to collapse into a clean bed.
Chapter 145: Wish I was goin
Surprisingly all forty two of the remaining men in the Vegas Army showed up for breakfast in the morning. Each man was dressed in the clothing Beaver and Harold had picked out for them. They looked well prepared as they lapped up the oatmeal and beans provided by the old cooks. Hot coffee pots were evenly distributed along the tables. Small but quiet conversations could be heard from the men.
Ivan stood at the entrance to the dining room. He’d counted the men earlier as they came in. Now he watched them eat.
“We will catch them now,” he thought to himself. “Maybe Claudio was right,” he considered. “Perhaps I should have listened to him.”
As the men finished up their meal, several began smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. This had become a daily mealtime ritual. Then Ivan stepped forward and stood to address the men. Everyone quieted down and turned to Ivan.
“This mission to capture the women,” began Ivan. “It is critical to our long term survival.”
That comment brought complete silence to the room. Ivan now had their full attention. Even the cooks stopped their work.
“We owe gratitude to Beaver and Harold for good Boy Scout preparations,” said Ivan.
Both Harold and Beaver nodded in appreciation. None of the other men reacted.
“Thanks to them, we are now ready to pursue prize,” added Ivan. “Again,” he emphasized, “These women will ensure the survival of our Army and our way of life!”
The men weren’t so sure what Ivan was getting at. Many of them looked at each other with questioned faces.
“In forty, maybe sixty years, everyone of use here today will most probably be dead,” began Ivan. “If we are not old men already, by then we will be.”
That quieted the men. They grew more attentive.
“Who will replace you, and me?” asked Ivan, already knowing the answer to his questions. “Who will follow behind us and honor our memories?”
Ivan let that last question settle in. He looked around the room, hoping the men would begin to understand.
“When you are older men, who will take care of you?” he asked further. “Who will feed and care for you when you can’t make to toilet without help?”
The mood of the room grew all the more somber. Most of the men had never really thought about somebody taking care of them when they were old. Most figured they’d just die in prison.
Ivan raised his hand and pointed Northward.
“Those women, the ones who passed through here yesterday,” stated Ivan. “They are our future.”
Most of the men still hadn’t made the connection.
“Those women,” continued Ivan, still pointing to the North. “Those women will bear us children.”
Ivan paused again to let his statement sink in.
“They will bear us children and those sons and daughters will grow up to take our places and most importantly care for us when we are in our last days,” added the Russian.
He looked around the room. Slowly the men were beginning to nod a bit. Maybe they were finally getting what he was saying.
“If we do not capture those women and bring them back, one by one each of us will die and leave nothing behind,” said Ivan. “Nothing to replace us. Just a few rats and coyotes to roam the streets of Las Vegas. We will become extinct.”
Ivan looked around again. From the looks on the men’s faces some seemed to finally understand what the thick necked Russian was getting at.
“Is that how you want to be remembered?” asked Ivan of the group. “Do you want to go out this world with no one to remember you? No one to say good things over your grave. To go extinct!”
These men had been repeat offenders and locked up convicts most of their lives. But some had been married. Most could remember at least a mother. Ivan’s words stirred something up deep within them. Something emotional. No one and nothing had spoken to them like Ivan was now for a very long time. This idea, to go after those women and bring them back and raise children with them was almost… inspiring. Someone to come along after them. Something like that mattered.
Ivan could see the rising emotion in the men. Several turned to each other and nodded.
“This mission we are about to take, is a holy mission,” began Ivan again. “It is a holy mission which will ensure our people will live on and those that follow can care for us in old days.”
Most of the men were nodding now. A few stood up in an act of support. Others followed and soon they were all standing and facing their leader.
“So now you understand,” said Ivan, as he grinned like a proud father over his sons. “Now we all understand why the mission is so important and what is at stake.”
Even the cooks felt a sense of loyalty to Ivan’s proposal.
“The ride will be hard,” continued Ivan. “Some of you will struggle to ride bike. It is hard work, yes? We will also have to take the women by force.”
The men knew that already.
“We will have to kill the men who are guarding the women,” said Ivan. “But that does not matter, because these women are our future!”
Ivan took a deep breath.
“So, you must prepare yourself for hard work ahead on the bike and then the harder work of killing, so we can survive.”
Beaver had been enrapt by Ivan motivating speech. He took his coffee mug, drained the remaining liquid in one gulp and then slowly began to bang it on the table in a show of support.
Harold was equally engaged by Ivan’s words. When he saw Beaver bang his cup, Harold quickly grabbed his coffee mug and followed along. One by one more of the men began banging their mugs or fists on the tabletop in one united rhythmic pattern. The noise became substantial. Even the two older cooks started banging their big serving spoons on the walls next to them.
Ivan speech had worked much better than planned. He didn’t expect an emotional reaction from the men. He stood there for a few more moments and let the pounding rise to a climax. Then he raised his hands to quiet the crowd. The men stopped the banging but continued to watch their leader.
“So, it is time to go now, my friends,” said Ivan. “With purpose and with righteous cause we ride!”
Then Ivan spun on his heal and marc
hed boldly out of the dining hall and toward the front of the Bellagio in search of his bike, gun and pack. The rest of the men followed immediately after him. Thin man never moved from his seat. Only the old cooks and Thin man stayed in the dining room. The two cooks kept their eyes riveted on the men as they left and followed them to the edge of the door and watched them leave through the hotel’s front entrance. Neither spoke for a few moments.
“Wish I was goin’ with um,” said the heavier of the two cooks.
“Me too,” offered the taller one.
Back in the dining hall the old cook woman shuffled toward the tables and began to buss the tables, picking up plates and empty coffee mugs. When she got to Thin man, she looked down at him.
“Wish you were goin too?” she quietly asked Thin man.
Thin man didn’t answer right away. He swallowed before spoke.
“Oh,” Thin man began, with reservation in his voice. “Part of me wants to.”
The old woman snorted at his meek response.
“But the other part says don’t,” added Thin man.
The old woman looked over her shoulder to make sure the other two cooks couldn’t hear her. Then she turned back to Thin man.
“Well, I think your other part is the wiser of the two,” said the woman as she moved away from Thin man, continuing to pick up dishes and cups. “Goin out there’s nothing but a fool’s errand,” she said to herself.
Chapter 146: Over here!
The heat from the barbecue coal bed was intense. The four men that visited Wal-Mart the night before brought back ten bags of the stuff, plus two large metal tubs. Each man had moved farther and farther away from the burning coals over the last forty minutes. Mark’s strategy was to get the coals burning in the early morning hours, just before the sun rose. That way the smoke would be hidden. When the sun rose the coal heat would be at its peak.
Jake, Tyrone, Doc, Kevin, Randy, Sam, Frank were all standing buy with large buckets. The water in the tubs was beginning to boil.
In the back ground and all along the back of the motel, the women, girls and Cedric all stood against their individual room windows, staring out at the men and the boiling water. They looked like little kids standing against a candy store window. Their anticipation was palpable. All the women and kids had picked a slip of paper out of a hat about an hour earlier and each had a number. The men would bring them a full bucket of boiling water and add it to a tub. Thankfully there was still good water pressure in the Motel. So, each person could add whatever cold water they wanted to make the temperature just right. Again, everyone was very excited.
Mary Smith had gotten the #1 lottery ticket. But she switched it with Little Sally when nobody was looking. Suddenly little Sally started singing the afternoon delight song she’d invented during yesterday’s long ride.
“Gonna find my baby gonna hold her tight, gonna get my hot bath tonight,” sang Sally.
Pam LaValley and Mary bunked with Little Sally the night before. Pam smiled as the little blonde girl stood at the window and sang. Pam and Mary had figured out a way to put a few plastic bags over her cast. Sally would have to wear the cast for at least two more months. She got the cast after her hip surgery in the Victorville California hospital.
Mark looked into the boiling tub and finally shook his head. That was the signal to start carrying the water to the girl’s tubs. Jake carefully dipped a bucket into the hot water and pulled it out. Then he turned for the hotel with bucket in hand.
Little Sally knew she was first and squealed out loud when Jake started toward the back door of the motel. Several of the other teenage girls also giggled with anticipation.
As each man went into the hotel, the women and girls each held out their handwritten lottery tickets and waved them toward the men has each came into the building holding the next bucket of boiling water. The men would shout out, “whose next, whose next!” and the females would shout their numbers out and say, “over here, over here.” The men would then pour the water into the tub and then leave the room. On the way out each man would fill up their bucket with cold water from the 1st floor utility room and then pour it back into the metal heating tubs. Then the boiling process would start all over again.
The guys didn’t let on, but inside they were just as excited to get a hot bath as the women and kids. After an hour and a half of boiling and moving water, everyone had hot water in their tubs. By the time Mark finally got into his own tub most of the women and kids had finished their scrubbing, washing and soaking. Now they were drying, combing and finally relaxing.
Mark had told everyone that they were going to take the day off. He told them they’d earned a rest.
Jacob was the last guy to get a bath. He had been on the roof of the motel facing South, standing guard and watching the road below. Once Trevor finished his bath, he went up to replace Jacob and told him his hot water was ready. Jacob raced down the stairs and nearly fell down twice from sheer excitement.
Toward the end of the day, teams went out to find replacement water, food and ammo. The nighttime shoot out on the Vegas highway had depleted their ammunition buy 35%. They found the only ammo store in Mesquite at 4 pm, inside a building called Guns and Roses. It was an all in one floral and gun shop.
They’d cleaned out the store’s complete reserve of ammo. It helped, but they were still 10% short.
They didn’t take any of the flowers.
Chapter 147: First night
By dark Ivan and his men had only made it to the Valley of Fire highway turn off, about a third of the way to Mesquite. Two of the older men fell so far behind that they could no longer be seen to the South, even with the binoculars Beaver had brought.
“Too old,” said Beaver, as he lowered the binoculars and turned back to Ivan.
“Guess they just couldn’t keep up,” added Beaver.
Ivan shook his head. He wasn’t two pleased with the distance he and his men had traveled, but he understood it was their first day and no one was in any kind of bike riding shape. He knew it was the best they could do.
“OK,” Ivan shouted to the men standing by their bikes. “We camp here for night.”
The men gratefully dropped their bikes to the side and sat down exhausted. They would spread out under the canopy of the small gas station they’d pulled into. It would give them some shelter from the cold and persistent rains. Ivan tuned to his two Boy Scouts, Harold and Beaver.
“Make sure men get tents up and are ready for sleep,” said Ivan. “And make sure they eat and drink. We leave early in morning.”
Beaver and Harold moved forward among the tired ex-cons. Thy were so tired they needed extra prodding to get their tents set up. The sun was dropping fast in the sky and both Scouts knew it was much easier to set up a tent when there was still some light – especially if it was a first time set up.
The men grumbled at the orders but began pulling out equipment from their backpacks and setting up their tents and sleeping bags. A couple of guys briefly argued about the placement of their tents, but they were much too tired to do more than just complain. Soon, under the direction of Beaver and Harold, the camp stoves began to hiss and sputter, and the men settled in for the night.
“Everyone up at dawn,” said Ivan to himself, as he spread out his sleeping bag inside his own tent. “Tomorrow is new day.”
Chapter 148: A what!
Mark was nearly asleep when a knock sounded on his motel door. It was only 5:30 pm, but he had missed so much sleep over the last two days that going to bed early came easily. He knew he needed it.
There was still a little light coming through the blinds. So, he got up quickly and opened the door, demonstrating his impatience. Sam and Susie stood outside with solemn looks.
“What’s up,” asked Mark, still thinking more about his bed than the two adults standing in his doorway.
“Got a minute,” said Sam.
Mark sensed something bad was coming. He squinted his eyes a bit, took a deep breat
h and then stepped back to let the couple in. Sam and Susan had been an item since right after Victorville. They rarely went anywhere alone.
“Mi casa is su casa,” said Major Harris.
Mark’s motel room had a sitting area with a small couch and chair. The furniture was close to the window and the light was a little brighter there. Sam and Susie sat on the couch. Mark took the chair.
Susie had kept her head down from the time she showed up at Mark’s door. She wouldn’t look Mark in the eyes. Sam was certainly nervous and Mark sensed his apprehension.
