Society Lost- The Complete Series

by Steven Bird

  As he continued visually searching the area, Isaac saw movement in the woods opposite his position. It was a movement that didn’t appear to be coordinated with the activities of the homestead. Holding his scope on the area, Isaac saw a man crouching behind a tree, watching from a distance as if he was trying to remain undetected.

  “What do we have here?” Isaac muttered as he adjusted the focus on the old scope. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he whispered to himself when he recognized the man to be Mike, Shauna’s husband, who they had thought they’d lost during the raid on the Williams farm.

  Smiling, Isaac said to himself, “Good man. Just don’t go gettin’ yourself caught just yet.”

  Lowering the rifle, Isaac slipped into the woods and disappeared once again.

  ~~~~

  “Come on, you old flea-bitten nag!” Richard Warner barked, as he kicked Hank in the sides to urge him forward. “This horse needs to be butchered and eaten. He’s sure not worth a damn for ridin’.”

  “I wouldn’t want your fat ass on my back, either,” his brother, Grant Warner, responded. “Besides, he probably doesn’t know what the hell you want him to do. You ain’t exactly a horseman, you know.”

  “Ain’t? You’re starting to sound like the rest of the hicks around here, brother.”

  “Pfft, whatever,” Grant scoffed.

  The Warner brothers had fled Hope, Arkansas once the attacks began to put a strain on the supply chains the cities relied so heavily on for survival. They, like many others, saw the expanse of farmlands producing food as community property, as if the farmers were there to serve their needs, and not their own. They quickly saw themselves like the famed outlaws of the old west, traveling from one family farm to another, raping and pillaging as they went.

  Once they found themselves on the outskirts of Aly, however, they realized they were small fish in the small pond. The much bigger fish was the McCullough clan. To avoid being killed, they joined the McCulloughs and found themselves to be a perfect fit. Like pigs in slop, they were right at home, raping and thieving alongside a group that, in this environment, seemed unstoppable.

  Turning the horses onto the dirt road while they worked their way around the northern edge of the Hofstadter farm, Richard groaned, “Finally,” when the horse began to pick up the pace. Digging his heels into Hank’s sides a little harder and whipping him with the reins, he scolded, “Come on! Move, horse!”

  Passing Richard on his left, mounted atop Mack, Grant said, “You need to stop worrying so much about that damn horse and start paying attention. We’re out here patrolling for a reason. Now, put your game face on, keep an eye out, and do your job. We’re not supposed to be on a pleasure ride.”

  Hearing a whistle from the woods to their left, Richard felt his horse slide to an abrupt stop, and he went sailing over the horse’s neck. Landing directly on his head, Richard felt and heard something snap while a strange sensation flowed through his body. Looking up at the sky, unable to turn his head or move, Richard shouted, “Grant! Something’s wrong, man! I can’t move! Holy shit, I can’t move! I think I broke my damn neck!”

  Seeing his brother ride up next to him and dismount the sorrel quarter horse he had been riding, Richard heard his brother say, “Hang on, Richard. I’m coming.”

  Looking up and seeing his brother’s face, Richard said, “Shit, man. This is bad. I can’t move. I can’t feel my arms or legs.”

  “Damn that horse!” Grant shouted, as he stood and drew the Glock from his holster, walking toward the dun quarter horse that had just thrown his brother.

  Startled by the sound of a gunshot, Richard shouted, “What the hell, Grant? Did you shoot him? Grant? Grant, where are you?”

  Unable to move his head, Richard’s view was limited to what he could see directly above him. Hearing footsteps working their way toward him, he shrieked again. “Grant! What the hell, man? Grant?”

  When a face came into view directly over him, Richard was horrified to see a man unknown to him.

  “What the… who… who are you?” Richard asked.

  “I’m the owner of the horse you were just beating on,” the man replied. “You see, you get a lot more from an animal when you’re his trusted partner and companion than you do when you beat him. When good ol’ Hank heard my whistle, he made it clear who he preferred. It looks like he saved me a bullet, too. I’ll be taking both him and Mack back now.”

  Looking around, the man glanced back down at Richard and said, “Don’t worry. I’m sure the coyotes won’t come out until sundown. That gives you a few hours to make your peace with God.”

  Turning to walk away, the man paused, looked back down at Richard and said, “Oh, and when you meet Him, tell Him Jessie sent you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Not having the energy to twitch her muscles to scare away the flies covering her body, Shauna simply allowed them to torment her, crawling all over her face and getting in the corners of her eyes and her ears. It was agony to endure, but every movement of her body amplified her pain. She felt the flies were the lesser of two evils.

  When several of the men standing guard around the tree were summoned away, Shauna drifted in and out of consciousness as she heard the call of a wild turkey hen off in the distance.

  While she listened, there was something familiar about the turkey she was hearing. Shauna’s husband Mike, had been a serious turkey hunter for many years. She had often been irritated by his incessant habit of making turkey sounds all throughout the day, nearly every day. He had explained to her he was merely trying to perfect his mouth calls, that is, calling turkeys using his own voice without the aid of a device.

  A sound that had once seemed to her like fingernails on a chalkboard was now the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. While tears welled up around her eyes, she knew she was hearing the sounds of a hen turkey, being made by her dear husband Mike, whom she’d thought she had lost forever.

  The patterns and rhythms of the call were starting to make sense to her, as well. It was a loosely put-together message in Morse code. For the first time in her life, Shauna was glad her husband had convinced her to study HAM radio operation with him. He was telling her he loved her.

  Feeling a new sense of strength and purpose sweep through her naked, battered body, Shauna shook her head, opened her eyes, and looked up to the sky, thanking God for sparing her husband’s life. “Give us strength, Lord,” she prayed, asking God for the strength to see them through this horrific ordeal.

  ~~~~

  Inside the Hofstadter home, Jacob Hofstadter was eating a plate of greens and radishes from the family garden when Stewart McCullough knocked on the door.

  Seeing Stewart standing in the doorway, Jacob gestured for him to enter. Seeing a new, sheepish behavior in his former equal gave Jacob a sense of strength and pride. “What is it?” he asked, with a rude and forceful tone.

  “I thought you’d better see this for yourself,” Stewart said, and he laid a rolled-up towel on the table.

  “What the hell is it?” Jacob once again demanded. “You open it. There’s probably a damned snake in there or something, if it’s from you.”

  Taking his knife and rolling the towel out flat, Stewart revealed what looked to Jacob like a scroll. Realizing what it was, Jacob spit his mouthful of food out onto his plate and shoved the dish off the table, spilling his meal onto the floor.

  “Who was that?” Jacob asked.

  “My cousin,” Stewart replied.

  Taking a closer look at what appeared to be a parchment made of freshly-peeled human skin, Jacob read the words scratched into the skin, “Let the woman and the kids go, or die.”

  Feeling rage flow through his veins like fire, Jacob kicked the table over, knocking the message written into human skin onto the floor, and screamed, “How dare they!” as he marched from the home with Stewart following closely behind.

  Storming out to his horse, Jacob slid his boot into the stirrup and swung his leg across the sadd
le, spurring the bay mare in the sides and riding her hard in the direction of the tree.

  ~~~~

  Taking up a new position of overwatch on a hillside facing the Hofstadter place, Isaac began to scan the area for more signs of Mike’s presence. “C’mon, Mike. Where are you? We could sure use you right now.” Isaac mumbled to himself. Deep down inside, Isaac’s biggest fear was that Mike would act alone, before Isaac found him, setting into motion a chain of events that could not be undone or stopped, and would have dire consequences for all.

  Looking back toward the Tree of Penance with the riflescope, Isaac saw Jacob Hofstadter riding hard toward it with fury. Isaac could see Jacob’s behavior was that of a man who had become unhinged. Did we push the buffalo too far too soon? he thought.

  Watching as Jacob quickly dismounted and stomped his way over to Shauna, Isaac’s heart sank in his chest when he saw Jacob draw his pistol, pointing it directly at Shauna.

  Cocking the hammer on the Pedersoli Sharps, Isaac pulled the set trigger and hovered his finger over the now feather-lite firing trigger. Taking a deep breath, Isaac knew he had little choice. He could sit back and watch her die, or he could attempt to hit Jacob Hofstadter from this distance, hoping a chaotic chain of events would not unfold, resulting in Shauna’s death.

  Adjusting his hold for distance and the steady breeze flowing through the hills, Isaac began moving his trigger finger toward the firing trigger when he saw Jacob’s attention turn to his right, causing him to lower his weapon.

  Removing his finger from the trigger, Isaac watched while Mike was dragged into view by several of the Hofstadter boys, and forced to kneel before Jacob.

  “Damn it to hell,” Isaac muttered.

  Reaching into his pocket, Isaac fished out the small, handheld radio and activated the vibrate alert feature, hoping not to give Jessie’s position away if he was in a precarious situation.

  After transmitting, Isaac paused and waited. Feeling his radio vibrate in his hand, Isaac held the radio to his mouth, and whispered, “The buffalo is rampaging. Mike is alive. They’ve got him. Time to bring in the rest of the wolves. Something is gonna go down soon.”

  Feeling a double-click response through the vibration of his radio, Isaac knew Jessie had received the message. For now, he only hoped backup arrived before he had to act alone.

  When Jacob looked down at Mike, who was being forced to kneel before him, Jacob snarled, “This filthy bitch must be someone special to you.”

  “No!” Shauna screamed from above. “Leave him alone!”

  “She’s my wife,” Mike replied.

  A smile quickly grew on Jacob’s face. He said, “So, have you been harassing and killing my people? You’ve put your wife in a dangerous position by doing so. You see, this is the Tree of Penance. It’s where people have been coming to pay for their sins for many, many years. Each one of those murders you and your friends committed, are sins she will now have to pay for.”

  Confused, Mike said, “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. When I showed up at the McCullough place, those men were already dead.”

  Interrupting from behind Jacob, Stewart cried, “What? Dead? At the McCullough place?”

  “Not now,” Jacob interrupted. “You should have left better men behind to watch the place, if you didn’t want to it be hit.”

  “I brought you my best, just like you asked,” Stewart replied, growing tired of Jacob’s behavior.

  “We can sort that out later,” Jacob said. “After we force this loving husband to watch his wife pay for the sins of the murders of my kin, you can force him to pay for the sins of the murders of yours. They’ll both pay their penance today.”

  “Get me some firewood!” Jacob shouted to several of the men standing around the perimeter of the tree. “We’re gonna cleanse her soul with fire!”

  “Nooooooo!” Mike screamed, and Stewart ran forward, kicking him in the gut. “Shut up!” he shouted, while Mike doubled over in pain with his arms still being held behind his back.

  Shauna began to cry uncontrollably when the men began to stack firewood and kindling below her as she dangled from the tree on the makeshift crucifix.

  “Please, God, no! Please, no!” she pleaded.

  Removing his belt from his pants, Jacob walked over to Shauna and slapped her across the stomach several times, saying, “I told you not to mention the name of God while you’re on the tree, you filthy whore!”

  The two men holding Mike’s arms were forced to wrestle him to the ground, since he could not contain his rage at seeing Jacob strike his wife so mercilessly.

  Once the preparations had been made to Jacob’s satisfaction, another of the men approached him with an old, rusty metal can. Taking the can, Jacob smelled it, then walked over and poured its contents onto the towering pile of wood beneath Shauna.

  To Mike’s horror, it smelled like old, varnished gasoline.

  Yelling to one of the men standing beside the tree, Jacob said, “Raise her a little higher. I don’t want this to be over too soon. I want her to feel her feet and legs burning. I want her husband to smell her cooking flesh. Hell, we may even feed him some of her freshly-cooked, tender meat.”

  When the men pulled on the rope that held her up across the branch of a tree, the crucifix was jerked upward. “That’s perfect,” Jacob said, signaling to the men.

  Stepping off to the side and lighting a long, fireplace match, handed to him by the man who had delivered the can of fuel, Jacob turned to face Shauna and the tree.

  He looked up to her and said, “You will now pay for the sins of your people. With your debt paid in full, maybe God will have mercy on you and take your filthy, wretched soul into the kingdom of Heaven.”

  ~~~~

  Taking aim at Jacob when he saw him strike the match, a tear began to roll down Isaac’s cheek, and he heard Jessie’s voice through the radio. “We’re here,” he said. “We’ve got to make a move. We’re off to the east. We can take out several of them from here. Can you stop the leader?”

  Quickly picking up the radio, Isaac keyed up and said, “I’ll knock his ass to the dirt. Godspeed,” he said, and he placed the radio on the ground beside him before picking up the Sharps to put an end to this madness, once and for all.

  Just as Isaac placed his crosshairs on Jacob Hofstadter and made the required adjustments to his hold, he saw Jacob turn around, facing away from Shauna.

  ~~~~

  “Jacob!” the voice of an elderly man shouted from behind the crowd of McCulloughs and Hofstadters, now gathered around the tree.

  Recognizing the voice, Jacob quickly turned around to see his seventy-seven-year-old father, Ken Hofstadter, working his way slowly toward him, using a homemade walker that utilized the barrels of four old shotguns as legs.

  “Daddy,” Jacob said with a trembling voice.

  Looking to the match in Jacob’s hands and then to the woman hanging naked above what was about to be a large fire, Ken Hofstadter, the patriarch of the family, who had been the first to spill blood, the blood of his own father, on the roots of the Tree of Penance, reached out his left hand and proclaimed, “Give it to me, son. Let me finish this.”

  Being unable to resist the man who had raised him with an iron fist, Jacob nodded and handed old Ken Hofstadter the match. Being careful to position the burning match in the shaky hand of his elderly father, Jacob backed away to watch his father, the man who had sent countless people to meet their maker in this very spot, send this woman to God for judgment.

  To his horror, Jacob saw his father reach underneath his shirt and draw an old, rusty revolver from his belt. Without hesitation, Ken Hofstadter leveled the gun at Jacob and said, “Jacob… The name Jacob in Hebrew means ‘the deceiver’. You deceive these people and yourself, when you speak of God while committing such acts.”

  Before Jacob could reply, Ken pulled the trigger, sending a bullet toward his own son. Jacob’s head whipped back violently when the bullet struck his forehead, dr
opping him to the ground and killing him instantly.

  “It ends here! It ends today!” the old man shouted, while everyone around them stood in silence.

  Fearing for his own life, Stewart McCullough raised his rifle toward Ken Hofstadter when a thundering boom erupted from a nearby hill, hitting him in the shoulder, removing his arm from his body, and sending him crashing to the ground.

  In this instant, the eyes of every Hofstadter and McCullough grew wide when they each went for their weapons, firing upon each other in what quickly turned into a cloud of smoke and dust, with confused and scared men running in all directions and firing wildly.

  After a few chaos-filled moments had passed, the gunshots ceased, and the breeze began to blow away the cloud of dust and smoke to reveal the dead and dying clans of both the McCulloughs and the Hofstadters. Not one of them had escaped the barrage of gunfire unharmed.

  When Jessie, Tina, and Paul stepped from the woods, Isaac ran down the hill toward the tree to find Mike reaching up to his wife, cradling her feet and crying tears of both shock and joy.

  “Let’s get her down from there!” Isaac shouted to Jessie, and the two men ran to the rope. Cutting the rope, they lowered her slowly and carefully into her husband’s loving arms below.

  Walking over to Ken Hofstadter, who now lay on the ground bleeding from a stomach wound, having been struck during the chaotic battle between the clans, Isaac looked down and saw the old man look up at him with recognition in his eyes.

  “Isaac Clanton,” Ken Hofstadter said, and he coughed a mist of blood from his mouth.

  Kneeling next to him, Isaac said, “Yes. Yes, it’s me.”

  The old man looked to each side, then at the tree before turning back to Isaac. Looking Isaac directly in the eye, the old man said, “It’s best it ends this way. My line needed to be extinguished. My family’s blood is tainted. I’ve done a lot of evil things in my life. Somehow, I’d managed to convince myself I was doing the work of God, ridding the world of evil. But when I watched my very own son…”