by Hunt, James
The boards groaned from Kate’s movement, and the big man turned around. “What the hell, I’m not even done ye—”
The rifle struck the brute’s forehead, eliciting a crack that drew blood and collapsed the piece of scum on top of the woman. Quickly, Kate knocked the man off the bed, and he hit the floor with a heavy thump.
Kate set the rifle down and then reached for the woman’s restraints. When Kate’s fingers grazed the woman’s wrist, she bucked wildly in fear.
“It’s all right, shh,” Kate said, keeping her voice down as she quickly untied the ropes. “I’m here to help. We’re going to—”
A woman’s scream wailed like a siren from the front of the cabin, but it was overpowered by two gunshots, followed by hurried footsteps. Kate reached for the rifle, aiming it at the door, poised to fire.
Rodney appeared, a girl with a mop of purple in her hair draped under his arm. “We need to move!”
Kate turned back to the woman she’d freed, finding her standing and naked from the waist down, quickly trying to dress. Rodney shifted anxiously as Kate tried to help the woman with her shoes. Men shouted next door.
“Hurry!” Rodney said.
The woman finished, and Kate grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the room. Rodney was out the door first, the purple-haired girl limping next to him. Kate followed, pulling the second woman behind her. She landed in the snow, Rodney already making his ascent up the ridge, when the back door to the inn opened.
Kate raised her rifle, ready to fire, when bullets bombarded the back side of the house, forcing the door closed. She glanced up toward the ridge, Mark and Lisa invisible save for the sound of their gunshots.
The foursome churned up the ridge, their retreat frantic amid the gunfire blasting both in front of them and behind. Kate’s muscles burned on the ascent as she pulled the woman, who could barely keep herself upright.
Mark, Lisa, and the security of the ridgeline came into view, and just before they crested the top, the woman yanked her hand from Kate’s grip.
“Stop!” the woman screamed, waving her arms at Mark and Lisa, who lifted their gaze from their scopes. She hyperventilated, gasping deep breaths of air and pointing back toward the cabin. “My son!” She turned her face away then clawed her nails through her knotted and tangled hair.
“Kate, c’mon!” Rodney said, now with the doctor’s niece draped over his shoulder.
Hands were suddenly on Kate, and she turned to find the woman, her eyes wild with fear, her lower lip swollen and crusted with blood. Bruises lined her neck and cheek. “My son. They’ll kill him. They told me they would.” She sank her nails deeper into the sleeve of Kate’s jacket until she felt the pinpoint pressure beneath each finger. “Help me.”
Below, inmates flooded out of the cabin and onto the town’s main street. They circled around a different building, and Kate looked at Rodney and Mark.
“Please!” the woman cried.
Kate stomped toward Lisa, snatching the rifle from her hands, and thrust it into the woman’s chest. “You know how to use one?”
The woman stared at it a second too long, but just when Kate was about to lower the weapon and forgo the rescue, she snatched it from her hands. She spun the rifle around, staring down the sight, handling the weapon deftly. She opened the chamber then ejected the magazine, examining the bullets.
Kate turned toward Mark. “Help Rodney get Lisa and the niece to the cabin.”
“Kate, this is—”
She kissed him hard, longer than she should have, and this time when she peeled her face away, his eyes were still closed. “Have the doctor start working on Luke. I won’t be far behind. I promise.”
Rodney handed the purple-haired girl over to Mark before he could protest, and then Kate, Rodney, and the woman descended the ridge, back into the storm.
Kate fought the urge to look back up the ridge. If she gave in to it, she knew she’d leave. This was a risk that took her away from her family, but she understood a mother’s drive to save her child. That was what cemented her decision to stay. Rodney had helped her, and now she could help another.
“Stay on me!” Rodney said as the snow leveled out at the ridge’s bottom.
Kate kept the butt of her rifle locked into the crook of her arm, and her vision narrowed to the pinpoint accuracy of the weapon’s sight. She placed her gloved finger over the trigger, careful not to squeeze as she brought up the rear of their pack as they entered an alleyway toward Main Street.
Rodney held up a fist, and their movement ended at the alley’s exit. Kate covered their rear, and angry shouts and footsteps circled.
“All right,” Rodney said, still peering through the scope. “We’re four buildings down from the inn. That’s where your son is?”
“Yeah,” the woman answered.
“I’m gonna head for that building across the street. There’s a good sniper window on the second floor.” Rodney turned to the woman. “I’ll make sure no one sneaks up behind you.”
The woman nodded.
“Kate, are you good to go with her?” Rodney asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t move until I’m in position.” Rodney sprinted across the street, his feet crunching quickly over the snow, and Kate took his place at the alley’s exit.
The woman adjusted her aim, providing Rodney cover. Kate joined the cause, but just before Rodney entered the building, a bullet splintered the wood over the woman’s head.
Instinct pushed both women from the alley, Kate turning and firing blindly at the pair of thugs at the alley’s opposite end. They sprinted for the inn on Main Street, Kate stealing glances down the alleys they passed as the men followed on the building’s back side.
Breathless, Kate and the woman crouched on either side of the inn’s front door. Angry shouts rattled inside, followed by the quivering whimpers of those that were trapped.
“Shut up!” a man ordered, hushing the growing dissent of the hostages. “I’ll put a bullet in every single one of you. Now shut—”
In one swift motion, the woman stood, kicked open the door, and stepped into the room, firing before Kate had a chance to stand. A scream erupted in time with the gunshot, and Kate followed, rifle up, but her sights only bore down on a huddled group of women and children.
“Danny!” The woman lowered her rifle and rushed to a small boy wedged between two older women. He lifted his head at his name and then flung his arms around his mother’s neck, and both burst into tears.
For a moment, everything was still, and Kate watched the reunion of the family. But the relief ended with the shattering of glass and the thunder of gunshots behind her.
Kate hit the floor, ducking along with everyone else, the world fading to black with a soundtrack of gunshots, groans, and screams. She waited for the surge of men or hands on her to whisk her away to a dark room to be raped, but as she lingered on the floor, the commotion ended.
Kate lifted her head, turning her neck sharply to see that the windows behind her were devoid of the hulking figures she expected, and saw only shards of broken glass.
Kate scrambled forward on hands and knees. “We need to move! Everyone, get out!” She leaned into the group, her haste triggering action as she spun around, rifle up, waiting for anyone else to come through. But none came.
A hand clapped Kate’s shoulder, and she turned to find the woman. “Let’s go.”
The group stopped at the back door, and Kate hurried past them. A gunshot pulled everyone back to the floor, but Kate opened the door. Snow and trees came into view, and then the quick dart of a body.
Kate kicked the door the rest of the way open and brought the thug in her crosshairs. She fired, the first bullet missing wide, and then steadied her aim. The second sent a geyser of blood out of the man’s back and a spray of crimson across the white snow.
Kate held her position, waiting for another inmate to appear, but none came. The coast was clear. She turned back toward the group, finally getti
ng a sense of their size. Twenty faces looked to her for guidance, a mix of men, women, and children.
“Everyone run up the ridge and wait there.”
“What if they start shooting us?” a woman asked, terror laced in her voice.
“The trees will provide good cover,” Kate answered. “Now go!” She barked the order, and the group trickled out into the snow, most of them ill prepared for the cold, but freezing was better than dying.
Kate swiveled to her left and right, rifle aimed, making sure the coast remained clear as the last few refugees scurried up the hill. Sporadic gunfire echoed from the building’s front side, and when the woman Kate had saved brought up the rear, she lowered her weapon.
“Thank you,” she said, the rifle still clutched in her chest, her eyes watering.
Kate nodded, and the woman joined the retreat with her son. Once she couldn’t see them anymore, Kate turned back into the building, finger over the trigger, her eyes scanning the front of the building for anymore hostiles.
A puddle of blood formed around one of the dead men, and Kate skirted the gore and found two more bodies on the street, littering the snow, their limbs sprawled out at awkward angles, the rifles they’d carried still clutched in their dead hands.
Kate found the second floor of the building where Rodney had left the window open. The front door opened on the first floor, causing her to cast her eyes downward, and Rodney jogged into the street, away from her and toward the east end.
“Two got away from me,” Rodney said, jogging away. “I’m going to finish this.”
“Rodney, wait!”
Kate sprinted after him, following him into the building where the road dead-ended. Some souvenirs and trinkets lay piled on tables and shelves, but most of the store’s merchandise was broken and scattered on the floor. Kate crunched glass beneath her boots, and Rodney fired from somewhere out the back.
Rodney was already aimed, firing at two figures darting up the mountain, feet churning up snow in a hasty retreat. Kate sidled up beside him and took a breath, taking her time to line up her shot. The crosshairs fell against the man’s back. She followed his path for a minute, then squeezed the trigger.
The man ducked, and the bullet disappeared into the snow, and before Kate could readjust, the man vanished behind a cluster of trees.
Rodney followed the second man, his finger gently placed on the trigger. “I’ve got him.” He kept his right eye glued to the scope, his body still as the frozen tundra outside. He exhaled a slow breath and then squeezed the trigger.
A splash of red burst from the convict’s back, and he sprawled forward into the snow. The ring of the gunshot clung to the air as the man lay still, his body firmly planted in the soft, frozen powder.
Rodney raised his rifle to search for the inmate that Kate had missed, but quickly lowered it. “He’s gone.” He spun around, angry. “Shit.”
“We should go,” Kate said.
Rodney nodded. “Yeah, we need to get out of here before he tells the rest of his buddies what happened.”
5
Frozen, stiff, and exhausted, Dennis shuffled into town. The entire trip back, there were only two thoughts that circled his mind. Bed, and laying that woman still chained up in his room.
A mechanical hum echoed from the large diesel generators that Dennis had sent his people to find, and he was glad to find them already hooked up to his house and the sleeping quarters of his men. Billy and Martin appeared from the big hunk of machinery, passing a whiskey bottle between them. They were brothers, and the best trackers that Dennis had ever seen. And while they fell short of finding the bastards who’d killed their men at the hospital, the supplies they sniffed out were even better. Though he knew most of the work was done by the younger sibling, Billy.
Dennis clapped excitedly. “About damn time. I hope you hooked that thing up to the Jacuzzi around back.” He snatched the bottle away, took a few swills of liquor, then handed it to Mulls. “How many houses are hooked up?”
“Three,” Martin said. “And we’re getting ready to haul another one in before nightfall. We have enough fuel to last us a few months, so long as we don’t go overboard with running it day and night.”
“Hell no. Those fuckers are never going off!” Dennis spun around, arms spread wide, a yellow smile on his face. “We’re the pioneers of the new world, boys! There’s an ocean of fuel out there just ready to be taken!” He clapped his hands vigorously. “Let’s get to it!”
The men behind Mulls remained quiet, as he dangled the bottle of booze from his fingertips. “Jimmy still hasn’t come back. It’s been almost two days now.”
Dennis spun around, his good mood disappeared. “What do you want me to do? If the dumbass got lost, then there is nothing we can do about it.” He headed for his house, that little bug in his head starting to stir, but Mulls followed, and so did the others, causing him to stop. He felt an uneasy shift in the pecking order, and he didn’t like it. “Something you want to share with me, Mulls?”
“We’ve been collecting supplies nonstop for the past three days,” Mulls answered. “We’ve got food, we’ve got water, we’ve got enough guns for an army.” He separated himself from the group. “Everybody wants to enjoy what we’ve got for a little while.”
Dennis looked past Mulls, toward the convicts, who lowered their heads, staring at their boots. He stepped past Mulls, confronting the men who’d been whining behind his back. “Is that true? Everyone just wants to have a little fun?” The men retreated, taking steps back every time Dennis stepped forward. “Well, I don’t want you all to be left out! How about this—everyone can take turns screwing the woman I’ve got at my place.” He leaned forward, bouncing his eyebrows, and raised his left hand, which exposed the golden band. “I’ll even let you wear the wedding ring, huh?”
“Dennis, we’ve done everything you’ve asked,” Mulls answered. “We just want a break.”
Dennis spun around, then swiveled his attention between Mulls and the inmates who followed him. “Is that all?” He feigned an expression of empathy. “Well, if that’s all anybody wants—Oh.” He pressed a finger to his lips. “Oh, but there is something else, isn’t there?” He nodded to himself, the group parting for him to pass. “What was it again? It was on the tip of my tongue—Ah!” He smiled, lifting his finger up. “The cops.” He eyed each of the convicts in turn. “You remember? The little highway patrol center that holds the one group of people that can stop us? But hey, if you guys want to take it easy for a while, lay back and relax, I’m sure that station can wait.”
“Dennis, that’s not what we’re—”
“No!” Dennis barked, and the men cowered as he snarled his lips and exposed his teeth. “You want this place to last two months or the rest of our lives?” He hammered his fist angrily. “We take out that station, and we don’t have anyone to oppose us until the spring. Do you know what happens if those pigs find us? We go back in a cell.” He shook his head, wiping the spit that dribbled from his lower lip. “I’m not going back in a cell. Are you?” He shoved the nearest man hard then turned to another. “Are you?”
There was a series of headshakes, and a few muffled nos escaped tight lips.
“Are you?” Dennis roared.
“No!”
He smiled at the echoed war cry and nodded, turning back toward Mulls slowly, deliberately. And to the big bear’s credit, he never looked away. “We take out the station, and then we can start to relax.”
“With what men?” Mulls asked, matching Dennis’s anger. “We’re spread too thin. Jimmy was supposed to fix that problem, but he’s god knows where now.”
“We send out more scouts,” Dennis said.
“And lose even more men?” Mulls shook his head and lowered his voice. “Let’s go back to the other towns, drag the people we want back here, and then torch the places. We need to centralize.”
Dennis leaned close enough for a kiss, and he got a nasty whiff of Mulls’s rotten stench. “No.
” The defiance rolled off his tongue slowly. “I’m not giving up what we’ve taken.”
“All right, Dennis.” Mulls nodded, unsmiling. “All right.” He shook his head and then chuckled. “Christ, you think you would—”
But Mulls stopped, looking past Dennis down Main Street. Dennis frowned and then turned, his expression morphing into a smile.
Covered in snow and ice and looking half dead, Jimmy strutted into town at the helm of a large cluster of snow-covered orange jumpsuits.
“Son of a bitch.” Dennis laughed, performing a slow clap as he walked to meet Jimmy and wrapped him in a bear hug. “You squirrely son of a bitch! Look at you!” He clapped Jimmy on the shoulders, and bits of ice broke away from his clothes. “We thought the storm got you.”
Jimmy chattered his teeth together, and a goofy grin crinkled the left side of his face. “I-I-I t-t-thought-t-t w-e-e, co-co—” He shut his eyes, trying to concentrate. “Could make it through.” He huffed in fatigue and wobbled on both legs.
“Let’s get you warmed up.” Dennis stepped around Jimmy and opened his arms in welcome to the fresh meat for his grinder. “We’ve got heat, women, and booze, gentlemen. Just head on down to the Convict Motel.” Dennis laughed, and the frozen masses shuffled past.
Once they were gone and inside, only Mulls and Dennis remained on the street. The pair of men stared each other down, but it was Mulls who shook his head and backed down first. And when the big man had walked away, Dennis slowly recounted the number of men that Jimmy had just added to his arsenal. Fifty. Fifty to his already robust forty.
Once fed, bathed, and satisfied with a woman, they’d do whatever he told them to do. Because just as Mulls understood, Dennis was the hand that fed them. Those pigs wouldn’t know what hit them.
“Dennis!”
He stopped and turned to find another breathless man wandering into his town. It took a minute for him to recognize him, but the tuft of red hair gave Ken away. That little fire crotch was supposed to be in the valley town.
