“Any regrets?”
“None,” Kora answered quickly. “Other than not having children. It is what it is though. What about you, Allexa? Any kids back home?”
“I have two sons and two grandchildren, a boy and a girl, and another due this fall.”
“What about you, Jim?” Lee asked.
“No kids and never married. Military life isn’t kind to relationships. I’ve always moved around too much,” Jim answered honestly.
CHAPTER 10
April 20
“Are you sure you won’t stay another day?” Kora pleaded.
“We can’t. Even though they don’t know we’re coming, we’re overdue meeting up with Jim’s unit,” I said while we were packing our things into the Hummer. “I promise, though, that if we get back this direction we will stop to see you!”
“I want to warn you about a group of convicts up the road,” Lee said. “I heard those three talking about them. Seems that there are quite a few of them holed up at a summer camp about twenty-five miles from here. I don’t know exactly where, all I know is they’re a mean bunch, maybe twenty of them, led by some guy with lots of tattoos. Even those three scumbags were trying to get away from him. The smart thing to do would be to get out of the Hiawatha as soon as possible.”
“I’ll take that into consideration, thanks. How much further is it to I-75?” Jim asked, looking at the laminated map from Major Kopley.
Lee looked over Jim’s shoulder at the map. “We’re about here,” he pointed, “and we’re fifty miles from I-75. From there the roads are still fairly good, even after the quake. Once you get to that point, Sault Ste. Marie is a half hour away.”
“I put an ice pack in the cooler for you,” Kora said with a mischievous grin. “So don’t forget to check it tonight.”
*
The drive was uneventful with the exception of a few more small trees across the road, and we made good time.
“We’ve come forty miles, Allex, I think we’re safely past the area Lee warned us about,” Jim said, stopping the Hummer. “Ready for a break?”
“Yes! Sitting for so long has my hip stiffening up.”
“You should have said something, Allex. We could have stopped sooner.”
“No, Jim, I’m fine and I’d rather be away from the danger. I’ve had enough excitement these last couple of days.” I walked a few feet back the way we came, stretching my muscles. I stooped down, brushing aside some leaves. “Morels!”
“Are you sure?”
“Trust me. I know my mushrooms!” I said gleefully. “Now this is the kind of excitement I like.” I felt giddy and started looking around more. I found an overgrown logging trail on the opposite side of the road that held promise. “We’re going to eat well tonight!”
“Don’t go any further until I come back. I’m going to move the Hummer off the road and out of sight first,” Jim said. He backed the big vehicle into another trail. The saplings he backed over sprung back up in front of the Hummer as soon as they cleared the under-carriage as good as a natural camouflage could ever be.
We wandered a hundred yards up the old road, filling a cloth bag with this wonderful spring delicacy.
I heard Jim grunt and turned to see him lying on the ground, a short man standing over him with baseball bat! Suddenly a large sack was slipped over my head and I was picked up over someone’s shoulder. I tried to scream, but who would hear me?
“Don’t waste the bullet on him, Carl. He’s dead!” someone else said as we started to move. Jim is dead?? I felt an emptiness crush my chest at the thought.
CHAPTER 11
I was jostled around for ten or fifteen minutes, and then dropped on the cold, hard ground. The bag was pulled off my head and I saw a dozen or so men staring at me, one of them covered in inky tattoos. Oh, shit!
“Oh, looky what we have here,” the tattooed man said. “A fresh playmate for me!” He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. “Who is the idiot that left her with a gun?” he screamed, pulling my Beretta from the holster. “What’s your name little girl?”
I was silent. I took the moment to observe this… person. The blue and black tattoos started just above his shaved eyebrows and traveled across his equally shaved bald head and down his neck. What skin was visible on his arms was covered in graphic etchings. This had to be the leader Lee had warned us about and the camp we thought we were safely past. We had inadvertently stumbled into a hornet’s nest and it had cost Jim his life.
“I said what’s your name?” he growled.
“Allexa. What’s yours?” I snapped back.
“They call me Tat,” he said proudly, walking around me. “Strip!”
“No.”
He reached out and slapped me across the face. It stung and my first reaction was to retaliate. I slapped him back. The crowd went silent as Tat grinned, and he hit me again, hard. I landed on the ground, the sharp gravel digging into my soft hands. I tasted the coppery tang of blood in my mouth and spat it out. He yanked me to my feet again.
“You’re a feisty one! We’re gonna have some fun!” He dragged me toward one of the cabins that circled the open area.
The two room cabin stank of mildew and unwashed bodies, and something else I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Perhaps it was fear. The one room held a bed, a dresser, and a desk with a chair, with a small bathroom off to the side.
“Now, strip,” Tat leered at me.
“No.” I repeated. He lunged at me, yanking my jacket off and tossing it on the floor. I pushed him back.
“Yeah, fight me, bitch.” Since that was what he wanted, I stopped. I didn’t care what he did with me. With Jim dead, I didn’t care about anything.
*
April 21
Regardless of the face it wears, rape is still an ugly thing.
April 22
There was a great deal of muffled commotion going on outside. Tat put his belt around my neck like a leash. He did that every time we left the room. The only time I was free of him was when I had to join the other two captive women in the cooking cabin. We stepped outside and I came to a halt, my heart pounding. The relief that filled me made me dizzy and I staggered.
Colonel James Andrews was standing in the center of the compound. I don’t know which a better sight: him, or the three dozen armed soldiers that had all of the escaped convicts surrounded.
“I said where is she?” Jim yelled at the man kneeling in the dirt. The man tipped his chin in my direction and Jim spun around. “Allex!” He took several long strides and stopped in front of us. “Take that off her,” he snarled at Tat.
“I got my bitch on a leash, soldier-man,” Tat snickered even as Jim leveled his gun at him.
“Take. It. Off.” Tat dropped his hold on the belt, and I limped forward on my stockinged feet, removing the belt from around my neck and dropping it to the ground. “Now hand me that gun. Butt first.”
Tat complied. “I suppose you want me on my knees too?” he said and dropped to the dirt, crossing his ankles before Jim could answer.
I stood near Jim, afraid to speak. I wanted to hug him to make sure he was really there.
“I believe this is your sidearm, Lieutenant,” he said, handing me the Beretta. I ejected the magazine, checked the loads and slammed it home, chambering a round. I turned to face my captor. My tormentor.
I placed the barrel of the gun to his forehead and saw a flicker of fear in his eyes just before I pulled the trigger. I stuck the gun in the waistband of my tattered and filthy pants and limped back to Jim. “Get me out of here.” My knees buckled. Jim caught me, cradling me in his arms, and marched me back to the Hummer. I felt his heart beating against my cheek as I breathed in his scent. Yes, it was really him and I felt a surge of emotions that I’d neglected for far too long.
“Sergeant, execute every last one of them,” he barked out when he passed his second in command.
Jim set me down on the tailgate of the Hummer. “I’m so sorry it took me this long to get bac
k, Allex.” He brushed a lock of hair away from the fresh bruises on my face. “Are you okay?”
I looked up at him. “No, I’m not okay.” The tears started running down my face. “I’ve been held captive by a violent, sadistic psychopath who tortured and beat me. All the while I had no hope of being rescued because I believed my best friend was dead! When they captured me, I heard them say to not waste a bullet, you were already dead. All my hope was gone in that one statement. I believed you were dead, Jim, and my sorrow was overwhelming. Plus, with you went any possibility of me ever seeing my family again.
“And I just killed that psychopath in cold blood. You know the worst part is? I don’t feel anything, no regret, no sorrow, no remorse in shooting him. So no, I’m not okay!”
Jim pulled me into his arms for a reassuring hug and I clung to him. “It will take more than a conk on the head to kill me,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to get me to smile. “I came to with a serious headache about a half hour after the attack. I followed their trail back here. It wasn’t hard, even a blind man could have followed them. I waited and watched for another half hour. I never did see you. I counted fourteen men; fifteen including Tat.” He took my hand. “Allex, if I thought I had even the remotest chance of getting you out by myself, I would never have left, but fifteen to one is not good odds. I’m sorry.” He sat down next to me. “I got back to the Hummer just as some of them were starting to search for it. It was too well concealed for them to find. As soon as they were gone I hightailed it for the Soo. I had to stop a couple of times to clear my head. I think I had a concussion. Once I got there though, I must say I had more volunteers for the rescue mission than I could use.”
I took a deep breath and winced.
“Ribs still hurt?”
“Tat liked to inflict pain; it’s what he got off on: Pain and fear. When I was indifferent to the fear, he started hitting me, and then he started punching on my existing bruises, adding a few of his own. I think one or two ribs might be cracked now. And when I grew numb to that pain, he started on my feet.”
“I noticed you limping. What did he do?” Jim asked quietly.
“He started breaking my toes,” I bit back a sob. “Rape has many faces, Jim. When he couldn’t rape my body he tried to rape my mind by beating my body. Even when he whipped the soles of my feet with his belt, and then started breaking the toes, I remained indifferent to him.”
“Y-you mean he n-never…?” Jim stammered.
“Tat was impotent. At least with me he was,” I said. “I do think though, that with time, he would have broken me, or killed me trying. Either way, I was still violated and I can barely walk now.”
“I brought the medic with me. Maybe he can help.” Jim stood right as the firing started. This nest of vermin was history.
“I want to take a shower first, and put on clean clothes, if that’s okay.”
“Where are the showers?” he asked.
“This was a summer camp once, and each cabin has a passive solar unit on the roof. There isn’t much pressure, but the water is usually warm.”
He picked me up again, and took me back to Tat’s now empty cabin. I opened all the windows to get the stench out, then hobbled into the bathroom and used up every bit of that warm water.
*
When I came out of the bath, a towel wrapped around me, Jim was sitting patiently, with a pile of clean clothes for me: a khaki shirt, BDU’s, the blouse and hat with my false rank. I looked at him questioningly.
“Please, Allex, I’m asking you as a personal favor to me to wear your uniform. The men need to see you in it. When I got to the Soo and explained what had happened, the men rallied because they believed this was a mission to save one of their own. They would have come anyway, but that belief, that camaraderie for a fellow soldier and officer, has done wonders for their morale. Please don’t take it from them,” Jim pleaded. “I’ll leave you to get dressed while I get the medic in here.”
I found my belt with the holster still attached under the desk, and stoically threaded it onto my clean BDUs and added my Beretta.
*
I sat on the bed with my left shoe and sock still off. My foot was so swollen and painful I couldn’t put that shoe on anyway. Jim sat behind me, my back against his chest, his arms wrapped loose, holding me upright. The medic sat on the single chair facing me, looking at my foot and my bent toes.
“Damn! That must hurt, Lieutenant. You’re one tough lady. I’m sorry I have to inflict even more pain on you, however, it’s the only way I know to maybe fix this. Are you ready?” he asked. I nodded. He pulled and straightened one toe, and I passed out from the pain.
When I came to, my foot was being wrapped. It was over.
“Luckily only one toe was broken. The other three were dislocated and probably more painful. They will heal much faster now that they’re back in place,” the medic said. “It will be painful to walk for a few days, and the sole of your foot is completely black and blue. Can you lift your shirt so I can check your ribs, please, ma’am?” I did, and noticed the sharp intake of breath and the way he glanced over at Jim. He pulled a wide ace bandage from his bag and wound it around under my breasts. The compression initially hurt, and then I felt relief.
“Are there any… other injuries, lieutenant?” the medic asked tactfully.
“No,” I said. I wanted the details kept between Jim and me.
“Let’s see if we can get this shoe on you,” Jim said, holding up my soft walking shoe that he had cut to accommodate the bandages. He slid it on gently. I stood, testing my weight on the foot. “Here, this might help.” He handed me a walking stick.
“Okay, I’m ready. I want out of this room!” I hobbled to the door and we stepped out into the fading afternoon sunlight. Thirty soldiers were lined up at parade rest, waiting for me.
“Atten-tion!” the Sergeant yelled, and everyone stood straight.
I took a few steps forward and stopped. I looked at both sides before I spoke. “Gentlemen, thank you.” My voice hitched on the last two words. I saluted them and limped forward, each of them saluting me as I passed by, Jim following close behind.
*
The bivouac was being set up and the grounds were a flurry of activity. We wouldn’t be staying long, but everyone was tired and hungry. The mess tent was the first to go up and no one questioned when tents went up for Jim and me to be side by side. Only the two other captive women stayed in cabins; no one wanted to go near those buildings, especially me.
“We need to get Andrea and Patsy back to their families, Jim. They’ve been missing for a very long time,” I said.
“Let’s go talk with them and find out where they’re from.” He stood and started walking at his usual fast pace. He stopped, then turned around to find me ten feet behind him and waited. “Sorry.”
I limped to catch up, leaning heavily on the walking stick.
Andrea was a young girl of maybe eighteen, brown hair, brown eyes. Scared eyes. This I understood. Patsy was a bit older, though not by much. She was twenty-two and married, with a baby at home. She had long blonde hair that Andrea was trying to finger-comb the tangles out of when we found them by the food cabin. They had both showered and found cleaner clothes.
As I watched Andrea struggle with Patsy’s hair I had a thought. “Jim, would you get me that trade bucket from the Hummer, please?” After he left, I turned to the girls. “How are you holding up?”
“Much better now, thank you,” Pasty said. Andrea stayed quiet while tears started running down her cheeks. “We thought we would die here, and never see our families again.”
“I know that feeling,” I said mostly to myself.
“I don’t know how to thank you for getting us out of here,” Pasty said.
“It wasn’t me, Patsy, it was the colonel. He drove half the night with a concussion to get to his men and organize our rescue,” I informed them. “That does bring up some things I want to mention before he comes back. He’s going to ask y
ou questions, painful questions, about your abduction and your time here. Please answer him as honestly as you can, it might help someone else.” Jim came within earshot, carrying the bucket that held all those small items I thought would be good for trading, none of which I had used yet. I twisted open the lid and dug to the bottom. I handed each of the girls a comb. Andrea burst into a huge smile, and started combing Pasty’s hair with renewed enthusiasm.
Jim sat beside me. “I think they’re ready to answer your questions,” I said to him. He nodded.
“Who was taken first?” he asked gently.
“I was,” Andrea said. “My home is, or was, in Newberry where the prison is. My dad was a guard there. After the big quake and the power went out, a group showed up at our house, led by Tat. I don’t know how they found out where we lived. They killed my dad, and then my mom. When Tat found me hiding in a closet, he raped me right there. Then they burned down the house.” Her lip quivered. “I have nothing to go back to.”
“What happened next, Andrea?” I prodded.
“They found a motel in Hulbert and we stayed there for a couple weeks while they ransacked the area. I ‘belonged’ to Tat. The men were afraid of him and left me alone, until they found Patsy six weeks later.” She paused for a minute, and I could see the struggle in her eyes. “Tat was mean and slapped me around a lot, until he knocked me out for over an hour once. After that he stopped hitting my face, then the rest of me suffered.” The tears started again as a memory surfaced. “Once I was given to the men, they never let me … at least they didn’t beat me like he did.”
“It was how Tat did things. He got the new girl for himself,” Patsy said. “When you showed up, Allexa, I was given to the men, too, for them to share. Had another girl come along, you would have joined us.” Her tone was bitter, as it should be. “He treated me much the same. The beatings, the terror – every day. There were times I hurt so much I couldn’t get off the floor.”
The Journal: Raging Tide: (The Journal Book 4) Page 9
