Joshua (Book 2): Traveler

by John S. Wilson

  Rob didn’t say another word but continued to march the boy towards their newest home.

  James had another objection as he wiped the last tear from his eye, “I don’t do anything I don’t want to, either!”

  Rob continued to lead him back and although he kept saying he didn’t want to go, the boy never once stopped.

  With less than an hour left of walking from the old church, the boy came to a halt. “I have to pee.”

  “Can’t it wait?”

  “No.”

  “All right, go.”

  James took a good long look around them; it was all open fields except for a large elm about one hundred yards off.

  “I’m going to go behind that tree.”

  “Seriously? You can’t just go right here?”

  “No, I can’t. But I’ll be right back.” The boy took off running.

  At first Rob thought James might be planning an escape, but there was nowhere for the boy to go. There was another three hundred yards of open field behind that tree and with his rifle the problem could be solved with one easy shot. He stood there puzzled, and it was only after he saw James returning that something at last just ‘clicked’ there inside Robert’s mind.

  The boy slowly approached.

  Robert quietly studied him, saying nothing until he got close. “James, I want you to show me your penis.”

  The boy was taken aback and stopped dead in his tracks, “What?”

  “You heard me. Show me your dick. Pull it out and show it to me, right now.”

  “I will not!”

  “I’m not joking, James. Show me your dick! RIGHT NOW!”

  “I won’t!”

  Instantly Rob was on top of him and knocked him to the ground. He struggled but the boy was no match for the stronger man that held him down. With the weight of his body on one arm he pinned him there and began curiously groping the boy’s crotch with his other hand. After a few moments searching all around, finally he realized there was nothing to be found.

  Rob let her go and jumped back to his feet again, “Son of a bitch! You’re a woman ... a girl!”

  She got back up, brushing the snow off, “I’m not ...”

  “Are you going to try and deny it?! Do yourself a favor, BOY, and don’t say a thing!”

  “I ...”

  “SHUT UP! DON’T SAY A WORD!”

  James stood there silent for a long while watching Robert march back and forth in the snow, deep in thought. At last Rob had some things to say. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you fooled all of us, especially me. What’s your real name?”

  “My ...”

  “STOP! Never mind, I don’t want to know your real name. If I know your name I might use it, then the guys would find out about you.”

  “I don’t care if they do. I’m tired of pretending I’m a boy. I want to be myself again.”

  “You should care. This is bad, James. You don’t know how bad this is. Where did you get this silly idea anyway?”

  “My mom.”

  “Your mom?”

  “Yes, when she got shot she didn’t die right away. It took her two days. She made me do this. She made me cut off all my beautiful hair. She made me dress like this, act like this. She said I would be safer in this world as a boy.”

  “I don’t know, your mom was probably right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “James, I’m just going to keep calling you James, all right ... we can’t tell the guys about you. I don’t know what would happen if we did, but I don’t think it would be good.”

  “The guys, they know me, they like me, most of them. I think it will be okay. Besides, sooner or later they’ll figure it out; you did.”

  “No, James, I don’t think it will be ‘okay’ if they find out.” Rob started pacing again, “Let me tell you a story, a very sad and true story. This won’t work out. I know because we already tried it before. You see, a while back we had a couple of women in our camp. It was years ago, before Alton showed up. They were two sisters; their names were Megan and Mary. Megan, she tried to be a soldier, she really tried, but it ended badly. She just wasn’t cut out for that kind of work. She showed some sympathy for a prisoner and it got her killed. He stabbed her in the base of the skull with a screwdriver.”

  Rob stopped again and looked James right in the eye. “And then there was Mary. She never wanted to be a soldier, her idea was to stay at camp and do all those jobs the guys didn’t want to. It worked for a while, we got three hot meals a day, when we had them, our clothes and bedding were clean and we had plenty of water. But then something else started happening. She started having sex with some of the men. Pretty soon she was doing all of them. After a while nothing was getting done, by her or the men either. She became more and more depressed and finally she killed herself, she couldn’t take it anymore. Putting out for every man in the camp, anytime they wanted, which by then was most of the time. That what’s going to happen to you, James, if they find out you’re a woman. They’ll turn you into a prostitute, screwing men for three meals a day. I know you don’t believe this, but I like you, I don’t want to see that happen. I’m trying to help you.”

  “You didn’t seem bothered by it when you thought I was a boy. You said I would have to do THAT, if I wanted to stay.”

  “I wouldn’t have done that to you, James, ever. I needed soldiers and I was desperate. I was trying to make you cooperate. I thought I could scare you into becoming one. Besides, the guys wouldn’t have done that to you, well, except Rudd ...” Rob paused and thought about it another moment, “and maybe D’Cruz. But if they find out you’re really a woman that’s all going to change.”

  Rob started walking again with James following right behind, “Believe me, it’s best this way. If they find out you’re a woman, what happened to Mary will happen to you. I’m sure of it. But you don’t have worry, I’ll keep your secret.”

  But as far as James was concerned, the argument was far from over, “I’m tired of living like this, I can’t stand it anymore. I want to be myself. The guys ... we were friends, they’ll understand.”

  “No they won’t. I told you what’s going to happen when they find out.”

  As they made their way, James would stop every few minutes with another reason why she was right.

  At long last Robert was tired of the fight, “I don’t know why I’m arguing about it anyway. It doesn’t affect me one way or the other. Now that I think about it, it might be better for me if they do know. Then they would have you to occupy their time while we’re in camp. You could help me keep them under control. I was trying to do you a favor, that’s all. I was trying to take care of you.”

  James exploded with an anger Rob had never seen before, “I don’t need your favors! I don’t need your help! I can take care of myself! Nobody’s going to make me doing anything I don’t want to!”

  “Really? You want to put that to the test? I tell you what, you’re going to get what you want. When we get back, I’m going to tell all the guys your little secret. I bet within two hours you’ve had sex with every one of them. But no one makes you do anything you don’t want to, right? So that must mean you’re a little slut who wants to hump every man she sees.”

  She was incensed, “SHUT UP!”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a new job for you when we get back. You’re going to be the camp whore. Well, that’s a little harsh, isn’t it? I know, we’ll say your job title is ... ‘camp morale officer.’ Your job is going to be keeping every one of the guys happy, and after a while I bet you’ll be happy to do it too. I bet you’ll happily spread your legs every time one of them asks.”

  “SHUT UP!”

  “Before that I’m going to give you to Rudd, so he can train you right. He could hardly contain himself when he thought you were a boy ... when he finds out you’re a girl there’ll be no stopping him. He won’t even have to get liquored up first. Oh, the two of you are going to get real close. He’s going to rape you five times
a day, and ten times on Sundays!”

  “SHUT UP!”

  “I think I’m going to have you first, though. I want to be the one that breaks you open. They say you always remember your first, and I want you to remember me, always.”

  “SHUT UP!” James tried to pull Rob’s revolver from its holster but the safety strap held it in place. Rob smacked James in the face with the back of his hand, enough to knock her to the ground but with no serious damage except a welt across the cheek.

  James got right back up and attacked Rob again and the results were exactly the same. She landed right on her rear when shoved to the ground. She got up and charged him once more and Rob stopped her with his hand.

  “You keep doing that I’m really going to have to hurt you. You’re no match for me, James. I can make you do anything I want. What was that you said a while back? Oh yeah, you don’t need a gun. Change your mind? Did you just figure out you might need one after all? I’ve been trying to tell you the whole time you’ve been with us, but you weren’t listening ... and now it’s too late. Look at you, you’re not very strong, you have no fighting skills, you can’t use a gun or even a knife. You know what that means? That means you are at the mercy of anyone stronger than you; people like me, people like all of your ‘friends’ waiting for you back at the church. We’ll make you do anything we want and there’s not a single thing you can do to stop us. If we want to make you cook our food, or scrub our dirty underwear, or screw us all night, you’ll just have to do it. Why? Because you, little girl, have absolutely no say in the matter. This is the real world, and here the strong are in charge.”

  Rob took James by the arm and started pulling her along.

  “Get off me!”

  “Oh no, I want to get you back before dark. So we can see all that you’ve got in broad daylight.”

  “I SAID GET OFF OF ME!”

  Rob continued to pull her along, the girl dragging her feet in the snow. Before long both could see a small church there in the distance.

  Chapter Ten

  Alton ran through the door and into the church, racing across the large single room. As he quickly approached the back door, he saw two rifles there against the wall. He had less than a second to make a decision; he slowed just long enough to grab a scoped rifle and then leapt through the back door.

  Back outside he made a quick survey and was running once more for a patch of trees about a hundred yards north on the side of a shallow slope. Just as he arrived, he heard the sound of gunfire behind him. He could see someone, he thought Martinelli, firing at him from a covered position. Instantly he jumped behind an old walnut tree. He landed in the snow facedown, clumsily picked himself up and was running again in just over a second.

  After a minute of flat out running, he had to stop. His chest was aching and he felt his inner shirt, it was soaked. He gazed down and his blood was randomly scattered in the white snow behind him. The blood, along with his footprints, made sure he would be easy to find.

  Alton knew the first thing he had to do was get the bleeding under control, but he had very little time. Taking cover behind another large tree he took off his jacket and peeled off both of his shirts, then he got his first good look.

  Robert was a good shot. He hit Alton twice in the chest at a distance of ten feet and in the blink of an eye. The first shot hit him square in the sternum; with his fingers he could feel the bullet buried deep in the bone. It hurt like hell but to his surprise there was very little blood. The second round entered to the far right of his chest, just below his armpit, but didn’t pass through. From the amount of bleeding and his shortness of breath he reasoned it must have hit his lung.

  From a pouch on his belt, he unpacked a small trauma kit and found two bandages inside, including a chest sealing one. He took a packet of antiseptic towlettes and wiped both wounds down, then applied the dressings. Hastily he put his clothes back on and was once more up and moving again.

  Alton knew someone would come looking for him. From his two years together with Rob he knew the man couldn’t let him go. But he was weak; he had to find some shelter, somewhere to catch his breath if only for a minute. At a distance he saw a clearing, countless columns of light cutting through the thick patch of forest on the other side. He made his way for it.

  He had to assume they were right behind him, whoever was coming. As he stumbled into the open, he searched around until a plan finally came to mind. Alton staggered down the hill, across a county road and to the other side. He crawled into the ditch and out of view and started taking off his clothes.

  Working as fast as he could, he packed his coat, pants, and gloves with snow. He formed them into a rough shape and placed them on the road next to the ditch along with his boots, where his footprints ended. He did the best he could with the time and strength he had, and it didn’t look half bad.

  At a distance, to someone in a hurry, it looked like he collapsed there by the road.

  Alton grabbed his guns and equipment and crouched down as he made his way along the bottom of the ditch out of view. He looked for someplace to hide, but there was nothing nearby, nothing he could get to without having his tracks and blood seen from the road.

  He took a quick weapon inventory. He had his Beretta with three mags, a Savage rifle with twelve rounds, and his M4 held exactly six rounds. From his pouch he retrieved a small emergency blanket. He unfolded it and wrapped it around his tired body. Alton began digging in the soft snow until he made a deep depression in the side of the ditch. Then he got in, wrapped the blanket around him again, and covered himself over with snow, as much as he could.

  Waiting there in his long underwear, shaking, he knew someone would be coming, but didn’t know who it was or how long it might take. Rudd or D’Cruz could be fooled by his trap; Rob, McCain, or Martinelli, maybe, if they weren’t paying close attention. He only knew he would have to kill whoever it was and hoped he didn’t pass out before the time came.

  After about fifteen minutes fighting to remain conscious, he could hear voices and someone coming out of the trees on top of the hill. He got down and clutched his M4, and steeled himself to kill whoever it was.

  As they got closer he could hear the two arguing, one was McCain, he was sure of that. “Look! There he is! Damn, I hope he’s not dead yet!”

  He could hear them running through the snow and fast approaching, now they were nearly on top of ‘him’ before McCain spoke again, “Wait, that doesn’t look right. Something’s wrong! Rudd, hold on!”

  Alton heard a burst of full auto fire, and he immediately pulled off his blanket and popped up. He squeezed the trigger and unloaded his rifle into the first one he saw.

  Rudd grabbed his belly and immediately collapsed to the ground.

  Alton dropped the carbine and picked up his pistol.

  But now McCain was running and coming right at him as both men were firing. McCain emptied his rifle too and immediately threw it aside and pulled out his knife.

  Alton braced his arm on the shoulder of the road. He shot McCain at least twice but he never even slowed. Suddenly the gun wouldn’t fire, Alton looked and the slide was locked back, the pistol empty. He dropped the mag and searched in the snow for another as McCain rapidly advanced.

  He was blindly grabbing for another mag, or the other rifle, whatever he could find first.

  But by then McCain was on top of him, his knife raised over his head. He jumped and landed on Alton and they both slid back down to the bottom of the ditch.

  As they struggled, Alton grabbed his own knife there on his belt and thrust it in McCain’s belly. While McCain sunk his blade deep into Alton, right through the top of his shoulder.

  Before either knew it, they were both in a clench, each trying to kill the other. Rolling around as they both struggled for control. Alton was able to make a deep slashing cut to McCain’s hand. They broke apart and quickly stood up again at the bottom of the trench.

  The two soldiers stood there staring at each other abou
t six feet apart, both bloodied and cut. After a second to catch their breath, they both charged and hit head on. Alton blocked McCain’s knife with one hand while he sunk his again and again into his adversary’s stomach and chest. At last it ended when McCain dropped his knife and collapsed into Alton’s arms.

  He let him go and McCain dropped to the ground. Alton stood there, bleeding heavily and struggling to breathe. After a second he noticed a movement in the corner of his eye. It was Rudd staggering away holding his belly, his rifle left behind.

  John Alton climbed out of the ditch and started quickly walking in his direction. Rudd saw him and tried to pick up his slowed pace, with no real effect.

  He rapidly closed on Rudd, the knife still in his hand.

  “No, Alton ... NO!”

  Alton wrapped his left hand around Rudd’s face. Then he shoved his knife deep in his back, up under his ribs, where the renal artery should be, making a long, wide cut.

  Rudd feebly grasped at his back, took a few stammering steps and was dead when he hit the ground.

  Alton checked Rudd for magazines and there were none. Rudd’s rifle was covered with blood. It was jammed, an empty casing halfway in the chamber and another loaded round wedged right behind it.

  He inspected McCain’s rifle too, it was empty but he still had one partially loaded mag on a pouch there on his belt. It held thirteen rounds.

  Armed once more, Alton did a quick survey. He was covered with numerous cuts and scrapes, but there were only three wounds that gave him cause for concern. He was shot through is outer bicep, the bullet passed straight through the meat but fortunately did no damage to the bone. There was also a puncture wound on top of his shoulder, and a deep ten-inch gash across his stomach. He was out of bandages so instead bound up the wounds using some clean socks and a lot of duct tape.

  Alton picked up his clothes and started shaking out the snow inside. As he dressed, he knew he had to find shelter soon; he lost a lot of blood and was wet and cold.

  Then he started picking up the weapons that littered the snow covered ground. He retrieved the lever action he never got a chance to use. Alton also found his Beretta and one loaded mag; he never did find the second one. His M4 was fine once he brushed off all of the snow. He also went through Rudd’s and McCain’s gear finding a few items he could use including their food and some dry socks. The radio’s battery was dead and no use to anyone.