Wanted

by Jason Halstead

  * * * *

  Dusty looked up as the door to the trailer opened and Jessie staggered in. She knew she looked rough, rougher than ever before. He had seen her drunk and drugged out every night so far since they’d been captured, but never this bad. On top of the usual, she was limping and her eyes were puffy from the crying she had done.

  “Jess…”

  “Not now, Darin,” she slurred out while heading back to the bathroom. Somehow she was not surprised when he followed her. Not having the energy to do anything else, she let him hear her throwing up. What he didn’t know was that, unlike the prior nights when she just wanted the shit out of her body, this time blood from the beating she had received came with it. She tried, and failed, to hide the sobs of agony that punctuated the retching noises.

  “Jessie, what happened?” he asked softly, kneeling down behind her, resting a hand supportively on her back just above the g-string she was forced to wear. She wondered if he was going to be like every other man and think he could slide it out of the way and have his way with her. She wondered if she had the strength to stop him if he tried.

  “Darin, leave me alone, okay?” she said between gasps for breath. A fit of retching overtook her and left her gasping and crying again.

  “My name’s Dustin,” he said, sounding pissed off.

  “No,” she whispered, getting her breath slowly. She rolled over and winced in pain as she ended up leaning against the shower. Her hair was in disarray and clung to her sweat soaked skin. Equally disturbed was the tiny bikini that had shifted and allowed one of her breasts to pull free of it. “You’re Darin James Banks, my seventeen year old brother.”

  Dustin scowled at her. “This is bullshit, okay? It’s just you and me here, so cut the crap. What’s going on? Are we going to get out of here? Is there anyone that can help us? You don’t tell me shit! You just spend all your time with him!”

  “Don’t go there,” she said tiredly.

  “Don’t go where?” he challenged, hands now on his hips as he knelt over her.

  “Eddie,” she said, “don’t go there.”

  “Why not? Is he your latest conquest? You couldn’t make Carl worship you so you’re working on him now? Maybe Carl was right, maybe you are poison!”

  Jessie, mouth open, stared at him as he stood up and walked away. She was stunned and unable to respond. Even if she hadn’t been struggling for a sober thought, the look of animosity on Dusty’s face would have left her speechless. “Darin… please…. Come back,” she sobbed softly.

  Jessie passed out waiting for him to return. When she did awaken everything hurt. From her head to her toes, she felt agony. Worse was her belly and ribs though. Eddie had personally raped and beaten her, demanding she tell him about Dustin and Tanya. She had resisted, swearing the boy with her was her brother, Darin. She couldn’t explain the resemblance to the picture, but she stuck to the story until he finally gave up and forced himself into her a final time, sodomizing her brutally as punishment.

  The crustiness on her skin made her nauseas. She wondered if it was a reminder of the festivities last night or a reminder of her throwing up on herself. With a gasp for breath, she managed to pick herself up enough to crawl into the shower. It was barely large enough for her to sit in, but she didn’t have the strength to stand. She turned on the water and barely even noticed how cold it was at first.

  Stretching painfully, Jessie pulled the bikini top off and untied the bottoms so they fell flat in the bottom of the tub. That accomplished, she pulled her legs up, wrapped her arms around them and laid her head on her knees to let the water from the showerhead dump onto her and wash away the tears and filth.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Jessie jumped, cringing in pain as she did so. Dustin – no, Darin, she reminded herself, was standing in the open doorway staring at her. He was not looking at her with the lust-filled eyes of a man, but with genuine misery.

  “Sit down,” she told him, wishing she felt better but knowing she didn’t have time to wait until she did.

  Dusty looked around, then shrugged and moved over to the toilet. He scowled when he looked in it, then closed the lid and flushed it before sitting on it. “So who’s Darin James Banks?”

  Jessie smiled in spite of herself. She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it hard in appreciation. “I’m a mess,” she said. “You sure you want to do this?”

  He nodded hesitantly. “I can wait until you’re done… I’m sorry Jessie, I just-“

  She squeezed his hand again, silencing him, and then released it. “Darin James Banks was my brother… is my brother. It’s you, I mean,” she said, then smiled weakly. “Dustin Kurkova is dead… for now, at least. He died in the plane crash. Anybody finds out different and they’re going to take you.”

  “Take me?”

  She nodded, regretting the movement even as it happened. “Take you and make sure you died on that plane crash.”

  “Wait…why? My dad doesn’t want me dead! I’m his only son… he loves me!”

  “Shhh,” Jessie said, straightening out a little so she could turn to face him. It exposed a little more of her body to him, but she figured they both had more important things to worry about. “Darin, I don’t know what he thinks or feels, I just know that the men who are looking for Dustin and Tanya are bringing body bags with them.”

  He stared at her, not understanding and resisting what she was telling him. Jessie sighed sadly and continued. “I don’t know why, really I don’t. Darin was my brother, a long time ago. I’d be honored if you would be him, even for a little while.”

  “What happened to him?” Dustin asked.

  Jessie glanced away for a moment, choosing her words carefully. “He died when he was little, three years old.”

  “How?”

  Jessie stared at him a long minute, trying to decide what to tell him. Even thinking about it brought up a lot of pain and feelings of worthlessness. It made her want to reach for one of Eddie’s bottles of home brewed whiskey to wash it away and make her forget. Jessie shuddered and pushed the thought away. She had come too far to give in. Every day was easier to endure, every night the forced vomiting harder to trigger. Her body welcomed the shit back into it. It remembered how good it felt and it wanted to feel that way again. The drugs helped to cut the pain from the beating Eddie had given to her stomach and ribs as well.

  “I… he drowned,” she said, forcing it out before she let herself talk her into another story. “I was babysitting him and wasn’t paying attention. He was taking a bath and he slipped and fell, then he drowned.”

  “Holy shit,” Dusty said, mouth open in shock. “I’m sorry Jess… I didn’t know. I mean… I…”

  She smiled sadly and shrugged. “It’s okay, shit happens, you know?”

  “No… no it’s not okay,” Dustin said. “Tanya, me, Carl… well mostly Carl and Tanya, they didn’t give you a chance. I guess I started to believe them too.”

  “This doesn’t change anything,” Jessie said with a smile of self-loathing. “I’m still a piece of shit.”

  “No, you just smell like that right now,” Dusty told her with an infectious grin. “Go ahead and finish up, we can talk more when you’re done.”

  Dusty stood up but Jessie reached out and grabbed his leg before he could leave. “No, wait… please. Stay with me?”

  Eyebrow raised in surprise, Dustin nodded and sat back down. Jessie saw his eyes dart to her concealed but obvious feminine parts and she almost laughed at the predictability of the teenage body. She didn’t blame him though, not this time. Dusty was not like Eddie or Captain Garza or anybody else. He was a good kid, the kind of kid she wished she could have raised as her own someday.

  “It’s worse,” she told him. “The reason I wasn’t paying attention to him was because my uncle had come over and I was having sex with him. He’d been molesting me for a couple of years and I had figured out I liked it by then. Or at least he made me think I liked it.”

&
nbsp; The shocked expression on Dustin’s face told her everything she needed to know. Her cheeks flushed in shame. She had not planned on spilling that secret. Nobody knew that, nobody but her uncle and her. “I’m sorry Dusty. I didn’t mean to tell you that, it just slipped out!”

  He shook his head and then reached out and hesitantly put a hand on her wet shoulder. It was meant to be reassuring, but it was so awkward it was more like embarrassing. Jessie smiled in spite of it.

  “It’s okay, Dustin said. “I mean, that’s horrible, but I can handle it if you can. Oh, and my name’s Darin, remember?”

  Jessie grimaced, but stood up quickly and pulled Dustin to his feet as well. She pulled him half into the open shower stall and hugged him, pressing his teenage body up against hers and making him set a new record for just how embarrassed he had ever been.

  Full of ramping testosterone though he was, Dustin realized that the moan that escaped Jessie’s lips when he squeezed back had nothing to do with arousal or sexual interest. “What’s wrong?

  “Eddie got a little carried away last night,” she told him, letting him go so he could get out of the water. It was no use, he was half drenched.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” he muttered, both for himself and for her effect.

  Jessie nodded. “We will, don’t worry. Just give me time to figure it out and please let me know when I start acting like a bitch, okay? We gotta stick together, bud, or we’re both fucked.”

  Dusty nodded in solemn agreement.

  “Good, now get out of here, the water’s going to turn cold in a minute and I have to clean up. You need to change, you’re soaked!”

  Laughing, Dustin looked at his clothes and realized she was right. He shrugged. “I figured I’d spend enough time with a big sister as hot as you and I’d dry right out.”

  Jessie rolled her eyes and waved him off. “Go, pervert! We’ll talk more later.”

  Later never came. Within moments of Jessie finishing her shower one of Eddie’s guards banged on her door, summoning her for the day’s duty as courtroom trophy. She smiled apologetically at Dustin on her way out and he just returned the smile, understanding the private hell she was enduring for both of them a little better now.

  That night was more of the same for the would-be siblings. Jessie was miserable and racked out on the latest profits skimmed off the shipments from the Mexican drug gangs that Eddie channeled through. She vomited up what she could, launching into a fit of hysterical laughter at one point when Dustin-cum-Darin jokingly asked if she was bulimic.

  Her pretend brother helped her into her bed when she had finally gotten over even the dry heaves. Wanting only to find some buoy of security in the sea of madness that was drowning her, Jessie clutched tightly to him and pulled him into bed with her. She wrapped herself up in his arms instead of blankets and was softly snoring before Dustin could even begin to get control of his own rampant emotions. It made for a long night for him, but Jessie slept the best she had since Tanya had comforted her in the middle of the night at Carl’s.

  Chapter 13

  “That’s new,” Carl said to the guard at the southern gate to Edland.

  The guard shrugged. “Taking security more serious. Been a few accidents,” he explained. “You’ll get your piece back when you leave.”

  Carl nodded, then handed over the M16 he had strapped over his shoulder, as well as one of the captured pistols. The rest of his stash lay with Tanya, hidden in an overlook with line of sight to the northern gate of Edland. “Can I keep the knife?”

  The guard nodded, then put Carl’s guns inside a locker. He handed Carl the key, complete with a tag on it that read, “7.” He opened up the small gate beside the large one and let the former soldier walk in.

  “Eddie holding court?” Carl asked, pausing to verify where the man was.

  The guard frowned. “King Eddie’s in the town hall,” he said. “You’d best mind your manners, he don’t take kindly to them that forget.”

  Carl smirked. “Thanks,” he offered, as though he gave a damn about the guard’s advice. It convinced the bored guard, which was good enough for him.

  Carl walked through the town nodding at the occasional person he came close enough to. Edland had grown since he’d first started coming here to trade. It was far and between, but more and more people kept showing up and staking a claim. Some wanted to try out ranching, others farming, others had their own idea of business in mind.

  It was one of those that Carl ran into by accident. He had meant to cross the street first, but soon found himself fending off the solicitous invitations of several scantily clad women that worked at The Oasis. The Oasis was part bar, part restaurant, and eight parts whorehouse. He extricated himself from them carefully, trying not to lash out angrily or draw too much attention to himself. He knew the owner, Tara Redmon, and was hoping to not be identified just yet.

  A few buildings up Carl managed to slip into the Edland General Store, run by another acquaintance of his, a black man named Clarence Mills. Clarence had been a Marine in Iraq who a younger Carl had stricken up an odd friendship with. When they went their separate ways they tried to keep in touch, but contact became less and less frequent.

  “Hey,” Carl said when the former Marine looked up at him and let the toothpick he had been chewing on drop from his mouth. “What’s going on?”

  “Shit!” Clarence swore, hopping up from his stool and moving his considerable bulk around the counter to hurry and look outside. Carl watched him, curious. He looked outside as well, then turned to raise an eyebrow questioningly.

  “Word’s gone out,” Clarence told him. “You’re a wanted man bud. King Eddie says you’ve got some kids you kidnapped.”

  Carl swore. “King Eddie is full of shit,” he grumbled. “That why the guard took my guns at the gate?”

  Clarence shook his head. “Naw, they’s doing that to everybody these days. Safety for the people or something. Horse-shit, if you ask me.”

  Carl nodded. He’d have made a stink about it if it mattered, but he had another pistol tucked in the small of his back and he felt confident he could do more with his knife than any of Eddie’s men could do with a brigade of infantry. “Some other guy’s behind this,” Clarence added. “I didn’t catch who, but he came in on a helicopter that landed over near the stables.”

  The stables were where Eddie’s son, Mickey, kept the horses the town used for patrols and for work. The other barn was set up only a little different – it held the people Eddie was selling as slaves. Seemed to be a growing business too, being a slaver.

  “Eddie’s goons bring in a girl and a kid the other day?” Carl asked, having heard enough.

  Clarence nodded. “Yeah, they showed up. King Eddie’s got her tied to his ankle. Ain’t seen the boy though – might be Eddie tossed him in the stables. Hey… those ain’t the kids they say you took, are they?”

  Carl gave the store owner an expressionless stare. Clarence held up his hands and shrugged. “Okay man, whatever. Look, a man’s gotta make a living. Ain’t much I can do for you but I ain’t gonna sell you out. You know me better than that!”

  Carl smiled. “Yeah, but that don’t mean what you don’t know can’t be used against you. Sounds like I need to go have a talk with Eddie.”

  “You go in there you ain’t coming back out. Not unless it’s feet first, that is,” Clarence warned.

  Carl nodded, staring out the dirty window in the front door. He saw a few men who looked out of place, men with rifles. They were surrounding the store. “Guy with a helicopter, you say?”

  Clarence nodded, eyes widening a little as he looked past Carl and picked out the same thing the ex-commando had seen.

  “See you around, Clarence,” Carl said, pushing open the door and stepping outside. “Take care of yourself, brother.”

  The door slammed shut behind him, pulled by old squeaky springs. Carl turned down the road and kept walking, seeming to ignore the poorly blended in guards that all bu
t scrambled to keep up with him. Finally, as he approached the former legion that now served as city hall, two of the men broke away from the sides of the road and hurried over to step in front of him.

  “Carl Waters?” one asked as a formality.

  “Yep.”

  “Come with us,” the other said.

  “We going in there?” Carl asked, pointing towards the hall.

  “No.”

  “Then don’t get in my way,” Carl said as he pushed between them.

  The two guards, off balance by his surprise movement, recovered and stared at him for a moment. Then they hurried after, one reaching out to put his hand on Carl’s shoulder in an attempt to halt him. Carl sighed, stopped, and then turned and drove his fist into the man jaw, catching his squarely and dropping him to his ass.

  The other guard scrambled to bring his rifle to bear from where it hung on the strap across his shoulder. Instead he found himself staring down the barrel of Carl’s pistol with the rifle only half way up. The other guards were rushing forward, but stopped quickly when they saw the standoff.

  “I’m going to head in there and have a talk with your boss. You want to pick this up when I come back, you stick around,” Carl told him. He glanced behind the guard at the others and added, “Goes for you boys too.”

  The man on the ground groaned and picked himself up slowly. He spit out some broken pieces of a few teeth and wiped the blood from his chin, grimacing in pain as he touched himself. He looked up, stunned by the rapid exchange, and saw Carl glance at him and offer a cold smile.

  “Sorry about the teeth,” Carl said, then released the hammer on his pistol and slipped it beneath his coat while he turned and started to walk again. His back itched anxiously with so many guns behind him, but his hunch paid out and none of them tried to harass him again.