“Yeah, we’ll go that. Do you mind showing me the beef?”
“Come on.”
I took him to the door to the cargo bay, opened the door and pointed to the coolers. He lifted the top of the nearest and leaned to peer into it, and then reached into it to remove a parchment wrapped package.
“Rib-eye.” He dropped the package back in, gave the handle of the cooler a tug to feel the weight, and said, “Yep, you’ve got a deal.”
I closed the door and said, “Good. Find the counters, radios and batteries and bring them here. When you do, we’ll be off-loading the meat here. I’m sure you understand we’re not going any closer to the entrance.”
“No problem, missy.”
“Good to know, Big Head.”
“Huh?”
“If you can call me missy, I can call you Big Head. I prefer Tempest. I told you that the last time I was here.”
With a smile to match the width of his face, he said, “Sorry. I know I have a big head, but call me Walt.”
Billy had a word for people like Walt… affable. He described affable as ‘warm and friendly’. Walt was certainly that.
“Walt, that’s a nice name. Listen, we’re not in a hurry, so take your time. We really want the counters and radios. Don’t forget the batteries… oh, while you’re hunting, make a list of what you need. The place I’m from would like to open regular trade with you.”
“We’ll do that.”
An hour later, we had the ten Geiger Counters, three different brands. Walt said he wasn’t familiar with highfaluting electronics, but that based on how much writing was on the packaging, he’d selected what appeared best. The multiband two-way radios looked and felt expensive.
Leaving the parking lot, from the rear compartment, Ottie said, “Let’s go look at the plane’ see if the batteries charged.”
Annette was all for that. “Yeah, makes sense to start the engines and at least taxi it around on the runway, check the gauges and the controls. We’d feel stupid if we left the ranch and then found out the plane wasn’t worth a crap.”
Responding, I said, “Naw, girl; plane or not, we’re leaving. The Humvee will take us places.”
Ottie said, “Yeah, but it sure would be fun to fly; ‘The Three Muskets’ riding high, Tempest, Annette and Ottie.”
Annette stopped the Humvee. “We have to go back to the Center.”
“Why?” I asked.
“For gunslinger holsters; we can’t be ‘The Three Muskets’ without proper gear.… I bet they have em.”
I liked us being The Three Muskets. “Yeah, but they’d never be able to find em. Besides, they wouldn’t have pistols there, you know, the old style six-shooters.”
Annette shook her head. “No, we wouldn’t want six-shooters, but a couple of years ago, a few months before the nukes flew, I watched a video about a magnetic clip holster made for women. You can use any pistol with it. With practice you can learn to draw very fast.”
I wouldn’t mind having such a holster. “And you say Amazon sells them.”
“Yep, that’s the site I watched the vid on.”
Annette radiated excitement. I brought her back to earth. Okay, here’s the plan. It would be a waste of time to go back to the center now. We don’t have anything with us to trade. We’ll go over the list of items they gave us, figure out what to take; check with Vikas to see if he knows where the holsters are located. We’ll return tomorrow. How’s that suit you?”
Ottie added, “We’re still going to the plane.”
Annette smiled and said, “I’ve never been so excited in my life. Jesus H Christ, we are about to embark on an adventure unlike anything in the last century… well maybe riding in a rocket into space might top it, but not anything less than that.”
Thinking on it, she was dead right. “We’ll get the holsters. I have a feeling that this adventure is going to be one that requires any advantage we can get.” I pointed to the road ahead. “Your plane’s waiting.”
From behind us, Ottie said, “Goody, goody gumdrops.”
Beside me, Annette said to Ottie, “You really do need a smack upside your head. ‘ The Three Muskets’ don’t say ‘goody, goody gumdrops. Try changing that to ‘Hot damn’.”
We went to the hanger. Oh boy did we discover it’s a small world. We parked the Humvee by the entrance, climbed out and walked in as a group without a care in the world.
Five or six feet away, just inside the doors, from beside us… “Stop where you are. If any of you bitches put a hand anywhere near your pistol I’ll shoot you.”
We three turned as a body. Standing by the wall were two people, one holding a pistol and the other a rifle. The one with the pistol was Jack, the brother of Bobby, the Bobby whose brains Annette bashed with an AR.
The other was a grown man in his thirties; hillbilly hick with shoulder length scruffy hair, an unkempt beard, wearing faded, grease stained jeans and a flannel shirt. Not a big man, but thin, wiry, and bigger than either of us.
He said to Jack, “You said there was two of em. Which two killed my brother and Bobby?”
“It was Tempest, the little skinny one and the real pretty one, I don’t know who shot daddy, Zeke, but the pretty one bashed in Bobby’s head.”
Zeke laughed a mean sound. “You keep saying ‘The pretty one’. You want some time with her before I kill em?”
“No. I want time to hurt Tempest before you kill em. I hate that little bitch.”
Zeke did his nasty laugh again. “You’ll trade away pussy for revenge? Boy, you’re plain stupid; how about you get both?”
Zeke’s pistol had never wavered, but he turned his full attention to us. “One at a time I want you girls to loosen your buckles and let your pistols drop to the ground.” He gestured at me with the barrel of his rifle, a fancy job I didn’t recognize. “You first, drop it.”
One at a time, we dropped our holstered pistols to the hard-packed dirt floor of the hanger.
He used his barrel again to indicate me. “You… turn around and walk backward to me, walk slow.”
I hesitated too long to suit him. He fired a round at my feet that came close to hitting one. I felt dirt hit my pants leg.
“Move, girl, this ain’t no game. Jack, if either of the other two moves; shoot em.”
I turned and began backing to him. As soon as I was close, he snaked an arm around my neck and yanked me against his chest. At some point, he must have slung his rifle and drawn a pistol. He pressed the pistol to my temple.
“Jack, find some rope or wire and tie the other two’s wrists. Hurry your ass up about it.” Then to Annette and Ottie, “If either of you move, I’ll blow her brains out.”
Jack wandered off to the shelves and workbenches along one wall of the wide hanger.
It took some effort to speak around the chokehold. Speaking to Zeke, but looking directly at Annette, I said, “You’re getting a kick out of this, aren’t you Zeke. Are you right with the lord? I am. Guess what… because I am right with him, all I have to do is count to three and God will kick your brains out.”
Zeke tightened his chokehold. “Shut the fuck up.”
I managed to choke out ‘one and two’ before he tightened further. Counting on Annette to finish the cadence, my hands went to the gun. As I grasped it, I heard a thud. The weapon fired as I grabbed it, the noise absurdly loud. I felt the bullet burn across the side of my head. The gun came loose from his hands. Zeke and I followed it to the dirt.
I’d seen Annette take a fast step forward and then spin and leap; seen her extended leg swoop around aiming for Zeke’s head. I knew the blow had to stun him because of how hard we fell, but he was on top of me with his arm still tight around my throat.
In the fall, my body had twisted so that my face was against his throat. His body had my arms pinned. I did the first thing I thought of; buried my teeth and chomped onto the meat of his throat.
His position on me made his free hand ineffectual for reaching my head. His punche
s delivered to my side were weak. I ripped flesh and tasted blood, dug my face deeper and bit again.
To the sound of gunshots and Zeke’s screams, I drew more blood. Deeper I bit, breached an artery and suddenly I was choking on a fountain of blood. I felt it squirt deep into my mouth and I began to choke, to drown in blood.
The gunshots stopped. Zeke’s weight lifted from me and hands pulled his locked arm from around my throat. As I twisted from under him, Annette finished rolling him over.
Rising to my knees, I saw Ottie a few feet away holding a pistol on Jack. Blood ran from the fingertips of his right hand. Seeing my blood covered face and upper torso, watching me squirt blood from my mouth freaked them out. They both screamed
I heard Annette retch. “Good Jesus Christ, you chewed right through an artery. Fuck. Let me find something to wipe your face with.”
I struggled to my feet, favoring my left leg from where he kneed me while I was chewing. Facing Ottie and Jack, I asked Ottie, “Why isn’t that bastard dead.”
Still traumatized by my appearance, she said, “He probably is.”
I looked at Zeke. His eyes were open, blood oozed in weak, sporadic spurts from his mangled throat. I kicked his side and said, “He’ll be dead soon enough; I’m talking about the bastard in front of you.”
Ottie gathered her wits… more than gathered them. She lifted her aim and shot Jack in his face. He jerked as if struck by lightning, fell to the dirt and began thrashing with his legs. Ottie stepped closer, bent and shot his temple. Blood spurted from the other side of his head and the legs stopped moving.
I pointed to Zeke whose eyes still blinked. “Finish that one, please.”
She tossed me her pistol. With a sweet tone, she said, “Fair’s, fair. I did mine, you do yours.”
I bent and did mine.
Annette ran up with a handful of cloth shop towels. “God almighty damn, I’m not even going to ask what happened. Ottie, get some bottled water from the truck; three bottles.”
I had to strip my bloody pullover and bra. It took the three bottles of water and all of the rags for them to wipe me reasonably free of Zeke’s blood. I pointed to my blood saturated clothing. “I’m not putting those back on.”
“Then you’ll be topless,” Annette, said. “I don’t have on an extra shirt and I don’t think Ottie does either.”
Ottie said, “We won’t look at you. Are we still going to start the plane?”
That brought a laugh from me. “You sure don’t let the little things distract you.”
Annette said, “What happened wasn’t a little thing. His bullet came close to killing you. You’ll have a scar from it.”
Ottie pointed to Jack’s body. “They’re dead and we’re not… heck, Tempest doesn’t care about another battle scar. Wow, that was one beautiful move you made on Zeke. What a thunk. It’s a wonder you didn’t break his neck.”
Annette cracked her first smile since the incident began. “I tried to. I’m out of practice. You’re a good shot. You caught Jack’s shoulder while he was running.”
“I was off by a foot. I was aiming for his head.”
Annette shrugged away Ottie’s humility. “To get a hit at thirty feet on a lateral moving target’s good enough.”
One track Ottie said, “Well are we?”
I gave Zeke another kick. “Yeah, let’s check the plane.”
The two rigged me a halter-top from a black plastic trash bag. At the plane, feeling the burn of the bullet crease above my temple, feeling the growing pain in my thigh as the abused muscles tightened, Ottie was right, minor injuries don’t count.
At least the blast of Zeke’s pistol didn’t cause permanent deafness, only a residual ringing. Yeah, we’d gotten off light considering our colossal stupidity. I remained on the ground, on guard as Annette, with Ottie an excited passenger, taxied the small plane from the hanger.
She made a couple of runs the length of the runway. On the third run, she left the ground, flew away until she was a dot in the sky, circled back, landed and returned the plane to the hanger.
The air-girls, faces flushed with excitement, joined me on the ground.
From Ottie, “Whoo-wee, you should have went up with us.”
From Annette, “She handles like a dream.”
I felt no jealousy, knew there would come a time when the newness would wear away and become commonplace, but it was joyful to witness their ecstatic moment.
“I’ll get my turn soon enough. Is there anything from here that we need to take with us?”
Annette nodded, pointed to the wall with counters and shelves, “Oils, fluids; the owner stocked spare parts, tune-up stuff.”
“Let’s load it now. You and Ottie take care of it while I stand guard. Your flight may have gained attention from local survivors.”
Ottie said, “When we get back to the ranch, let’s check how they’re doing with my thumb.”
************
Driving into the growing compound that the ranch morphed into, we didn’t need to check on the thumb’s progress. Jeffry saw us arrive and left ranch house porch to greet us.
Eying my odd, plastic top, but not mentioning it, he said, “Glad you’re back in one piece. I take it you had a safe outing. Ottie, we need you at the clinic for a fitting; just you.”
Not bothering to mention our run-in at the hanger, Annette said to Ottie, “Go on; Tempest and I are checking the pavilion for leftovers from lunch. If there’s anything, we’ll save you some.”
The main yard was devoid of anyone, even children. In the fields, including the annexed fields across the road, tractors were moving and a plethora of men, women and children were doing the various things associated with getting a crop in the ground and maintaining that already planted.
Approaching the pavilion, I saw only a few people at one of the many tables. A couple of women were moving around near the grills and ovens. Closer, the people resolved into Vikas, Jules and David at the table. Preeja and Deb, David’s wife saw us coming. Preeja said something and they, along with the men waved to us.
Stepping onto the concrete floor of the Pavilion, Jules called, “Tempest, Annette, please join us.”
Waving back, Annette said, “As soon as we check for leftovers.”
Preeja called from the far end, “Come, there is food.”
The ‘food’ was beef stew thick with vegetables. Preeja filled two large tureens. To me, she said, “Again you return with blood on your skin; not yours I do pray. What is the new fashion you display?” She’d noticed my slight limp. “You have the lean as you walk. Why is it you must always return in injured health?”
“Only a little bit of the blood is mine. As to the why, we met some punks why decided today was a good time to die.”
Surprising me, she chanted, ‘Another one bites the dust’.”
Unable to restrain a laugh, I said, “Make that two that bit the dust.”
Maggie, a nonparticipating observer simply frowned at our repartee.
To Preeja, Annette said, “Jeffry snagged Ottie. She’ll be hungry.”
Preeja said, “Maggie and I learn together the art of bread. We shall be here.”
Maggie finally spoke, “Would you like coffee. I can start a pot.”
Frown if she wanted, but I wasn’t turning down coffee. “That would be wonderful.”
Finally cracking a small smile, she said, “I’ll bring the carafe and cups to the table. I know you take black—,” she glanced at Annette who answered the implied question, “Thanks, I take it black as well.”
We joined the men at their table. Vikas and Jules rose from their chairs. David, a moment confused, remembered his manners and stood with them.
All sat, Jules said, “I’m not even going to ask how you happen to be wearing a plastic bra. I saw Jeffry snag Ottie. He and Doctor Robbins are excited over what they created. I saw the prototype yesterday before they covered it with some sort of rubber skin. It’s a work of art. I won’t say more and spoil their su
rprise.”
I said, “That’s quick work… is the doc in that big of a hurry to be rid of me?”
Jules grimaced. “Be kind, Tempest. In truth, once the two of them started, the challenge of it kept them working until all hours. I sat in on one of their brainstorming sessions and it was over my head, fractional leveraged hydraulics and worse. The prosthetic is battery assisted, they talked about staged pressure-activated circuits; I taught science, but I could take only a few minutes of it.”
I took a pause from gulping lukewarm stew. “That sounds like something if it breaks we can’t fix it.”
Jules shook his head, “No. Jeffry said that the hydraulics is robust and easily repaired. The electronics are for more precision; to give pressure feedback and such; almost a sense of touch, but the operation of the prosthetic doesn’t depend of that.”
Annette, with a warning glance at me said, “It sounds like they approached the project with love.”
I though, more the engineering challenge than love, but let it go.
Annette let her impatience show. I knew that she really, really wanted to fly her plane into the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’.
“I can’t believe they got it finished so fast. We can leave—.” She looked to me. I supplied, “Day after tomorrow.” “Yeah, leave the day after tomorrow if the weather holds.”
Of me, David asked, “Is that blood in your hair?”
Not wanting to deal with killings in front of Jules, I said, “Naw, we got in a catsup fight with squirt bottles.”
None of them believed me, but they didn’t push it. Maggie arrived with the coffee and poured for Annette and me before topping off her husband’s cup.
Setting the carafe on the table, she said, “You all don’t want to miss tonight’s dinner. There is a great possibility of fresh baked bread.”
She left. Jules must have considered the bread and converted the thought to, “You three are going to miss their cooking.”
Meaningful words came from my mouth. “We’ll miss more than that. We have friends here, Vikas and his family, David and Deb, Jeffry; heck, I’ll even miss you a little bit.”
Tempest of Tennessee (Episode 3): Tempest of Tennessee Page 17
