by A. American
Mike pulled a flex cuff from his cargo pocket and tossed it to her. Jamie rolled the woman over, securing her hands. She rolled her back over and sat on her chest. “Tape.”
Ian looked at Mike, laughing quietly. Mike gestured with his chin in a “you better hurry the fuck up” manner. Ian tore off a piece of tape and laid it in her palm. With the tape in one hand Jamie slapped the woman’s face on both sides. When her eyes began to open, Jamie smiled and slapped the tape over her mouth.
Jamie leaned down close to her. “Take that, bitch!”
Mike laughed and parroted her comment. “Take that, bitch!” Jamie looked up at him. “That’s hawt,” Mike said.
“You want some?” Jamie asked with a sneer.
“The tape, or you sitting on my chest?”
Jamie stood up and stepped toward him. In a seductive voice she said, “I’ll sit on your chest”—her voice quickly changed—“right after I break your fucking nose.” She finished her statement with a coy smile.
“You’re a rough girl,” Mike said and smiled. “I like it.”
Jamie gave him a dismissive wave and turned her attention back to the woman on the ground.
“On your feet.”
Seconds later, Perez arrived. The three prisoners were rapidly loaded up and soon they were off and racing down the trails. With the three prisoners there wasn’t room inside for everyone, so Ian was standing on the rear platform, manning the top-mounted SAW. Ted and Mike were sitting in the back with the prisoners piled between them.
Mike looked over at Ted, grinning. “I can’t believe that worked!”
Ted was smiling from ear to ear, “Me neither. The old man’s gonna piss himself!” They both started laughing.
“You boys are welcome,” Jamie said.
The guys all looked at her, and she briefly made eye contact with each of them. “Now that we’ve established that I can take care of myself, there’ll be no more guarding the camp. Agreed?”
“All right, all right, I think you’ve proved yourself,” Ted said.
“That’s what I thought,” she said with a smirk.
• • •
Aric’s friendship with Kay had blossomed. He looked at her as a motherly figure, and she enjoyed talking to him because he wasn’t like the other officers in the camp. So many others had let their positions become their identity, and consume their lives. Kay was grateful that Aric provided her with some company, as he was this afternoon.
“Doesn’t seem like much food, Kay. You skimping out?” Aric asked, pointing to the trays.
Kay looked over her shoulder. “These are for the people in detainment.”
“Really? Jeez, there’s so little food.”
“I’m just doing what they tell me.”
“Just doesn’t seem like enough food. The girls are over there. How are they supposed to hang on with no more food than this?” Aric asked.
“The food is the least of the problems.” Kay picked up a sixteen-ounce bottle of water. “We only send one of these a day over there. I don’t know if they get any more.”
“Bunch of bastards,” Aric said, shaking his head. “Is someone coming to get these?” he asked, gesturing toward the trays.
“Mmhmm. They should be here soon.”
Aric nodded and plucked a French fry from one of the serving trays. It wasn’t long before two men came into the kitchen.
“Hey, Kay, these for us?” one of them asked.
“Yep, they’re all yours.”
“Hey, Cortez, what’s up?” Aric asked.
“Hey, Vonasek, SOS, how ’bout you?”
“You called it, just waiting for the next mission outside the wire.”
“Dude, you’re so lucky, getting to leave here,” the other man said.
“It ain’t all that much fun, Hamner,” Aric said.
“Yeah, well, it’s better than dealing with that shit over there.”
Aric saw his chance to ask some questions and pounced on it. “How many you got locked up over there?” he asked casually.
“There’s five in there right now, those murdering bitches and a couple of guys they caught with weapons outside.”
“Oh yeah, those girls who killed what’s-his-name?”
“Yep, that’s them.”
He was afraid to ask the next question, but knew he had to. “What are they going to do to them?”
“I don’t know, they haven’t said yet, said there’s some mitigating circumstances. Might just leave them in there to rot for all I know.”
Aric felt his pulse rising, but he knew he had to play it cool.
“Hey, man, can I go with you and check out the place?” Aric asked.
“Sure, we could use the help,” Cortez said, shoving a couple of trays into Aric’s hands and picking up the others. “Follow me.”
• • •
Jess was sitting with her back against the wall. She’d been dreading the moment when Shane woke up, but it was a moot point—it was so dark he couldn’t see her anyway. When he started to come around, she slipped out from under the blankets and put her jumpsuit back on. He reached out to her.
“Hello?”
“Hey, I’m Jess. They put me in here to warm you up. You were pretty close to being hypothermic.”
“Oh. Um, hi. Thanks. Where are my clothes?” he replied.
“I don’t know, they brought you in here without them,” she said.
Shane was embarrassed at the thought of being naked with her. “Oh, sorry about that.”
“No problem. Wasn’t your fault. So . . . why are you and your dad in here, anyway?”
“The DHS jumped us out on the road, shot up our truck. Pretty sure they killed some of my friends and then brought us here.”
“What’d you do wrong? I mean, why’d they start shooting?” Jess asked into the dark.
“Wrong? You don’t have to do anything wrong these days, all you have to do is be seen by DHS. That’s all we’re guilty of.”
“Where did they take you the other day?”
“I got . . . interrogated,” Shane said. He shivered at the thought of what was awaiting him the next time.
“Oh wow, I’m sorry. We haven’t experienced anything like that yet.”
“Pray you don’t. I have a feeling things are going to get worse the next time I see him.” Shane pulled the blankets tighter around himself.
Hearing voices outside, Jess said, “Shhhh.” Shane closed his eyes. Fear swelled in his throat. The door opened and the voices got louder and closer to them. Jess’s stomach dropped as the key slid into their cell door. Jess quickly lowered her eyes to avoid the light that was surely coming. Shane pulled the blankets up over his head.
The door opened and the light poured in. “How’re our lovebirds today?” Cortez asked.
“Is he still alive?” Hamner asked.
Jess kept her head down, but nodded to the affirmative.
“Why are they in here together?” Aric asked.
Cortez pointed to the lump under the blankets. “He had hypothermia, ’bout froze to death. The nurse put her in here to keep him warm, said body heat was the best thing.”
“Yeah, I see she’s got her clothes back on now. Too bad,” Hamner said.
Aric looked at him. “You made her take her clothes off?”
“Yeah, nurse said it was the best way.” He looked in at Jess and grinned, the light illuminating his face like a jack-o-lantern. “Skin-to-skin contact is how she put it.” He laughed, then looked back at Jess. “You get yourself some skin, darlin’?”
Aric set two trays down in the cell, resisting his urge to snap the guy’s neck. Cortez threw two water bottles in and quickly turned off the light. “Have fun finding those,” he said as he slammed the door.
Fred listened to the exchange and knew
there was someone else with them today. Hearing the key slide into her door, she hid her face in her knees. The cell was soon flooded with light.
“This one here is a little firecracker,” Cortez said.
Aric’s heart stopped when he saw Fred. She at least looks okay, he thought. As Cortez and Hamner were talking about getting the nurse back in for Shane, Aric knelt down and slid a tray toward her.
“Hang on, Fred,” he said, barely a whisper.
Fred thought it sounded like Aric, but she wasn’t sure, and she couldn’t risk looking into the light. Trusting it was someone friendly, she gave a quick thumbs-up with her left hand. Aric saw it and smiled to himself. Cortez threw a bottle of water in, bouncing it off Fred’s head.
“There’s some water, sweetheart,” he said with a laugh.
Aric sucked in his breath. They moved on to Mary’s cell. Opening the door they found her lying on the floor in a fetal position.
“This one is a fucking wreck,” Cortez said.
Aric slid a tray in. Mary made no movements. There was no indication that she was even alive.
“Is she dead?” Aric asked when he stood up.
Cortez snorted. “Not yet.”
Calvin didn’t bother to cover his face when they shone the light into his cell.
“How’re them ribs today, Grandpa?” Cortez asked.
Hamner looked at Aric. “Yeah, he wanted to play tough guy. Had to take a beatin’.”
Aric slid a tray toward him. Cortez stepped into the doorway and tossed the water bottle into the far corner of the cell, then slammed the door shut.
“What’s he in here for?” Aric asked as they moved down the hallway.
“I don’t know. He was caught outside the wire somewhere,” Cortez said.
Aric nodded, and they headed for the door. “Well, thanks for the tour. I’ll see you guys later—”
He was cut off by the camp siren going off.
All three men took off running toward their respective assigned posts. Aric ran toward the motor pool where all the vehicles were kept. A Hummer pulled through the gate as he was going through it.
“Vonasek! Get in!” his supervisor shouted, jutting a thumb over his shoulder.
Aric climbed into the still-moving vehicle. “What’s going on?”
“Get up in the turret! Someone’s hit the rear gate!”
Aric got up into the web straps for the turret gunner and checked the weapon. I didn’t hear any shots, he thought to himself as the truck bounced across the camp. It took several minutes for them to get to the gate. Several others were already there when they arrived. It was obvious there wasn’t any kind of a fight, as people were just milling about. Pulling to a stop, they jumped out.
“What the hell happened?” his supervisor asked.
“They’re gone. All the guards on duty. They’ve disappeared,” one of them answered.
“How many were on duty?” another asked.
An agent came up to Aric as he walked around, checking the trail by the gate. “All three of them are just . . . gone.”
“A vehicle must’ve come in here and loaded them up. See all these tracks?” Aric said, pointing at the ground.
Soon there were a number of people in the trail, walking over the only evidence they had of what happened. Aric shook his head and walked back toward his truck. It seemed impossible: someone was able to come in and snatch three of their people and get away, without a shot being fired. How in the hell did they do that?
Chapter 14
Thad, Jeff, and I worked together to get the plastic on for the roof. We’d made two ladders out of cane that may have looked like crap but actually worked very well. After getting the second layer of plastic on, we took a break from the action. The past few days had been filled with projects for making this camp more like home, and man, was it hard work.
“Daddy, can we check the squirrel traps?!” Little Bit shouted as she jumped out of her chair. I sighed, having just sat down after being on my feet all afternoon.
“They were empty yesterday,” I said.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky today,” Danny said. I shot him a look.
“How’re the spots, man?”
He ran a hand over his side. “Not as bad as you’d think. There’s only a couple that actually bother me.”
I looked over and grinned. “The ones Doc picked at?”
He laughed. “Yeah, the ones he made better.”
“You got polka dots!” Little Bit said, giggling.
I rubbed her head. “Maybe we should start calling him Spot, what do you think?”
“Yeah!” she shouted and pointed at Danny. “Your new name is Spot!”
He grabbed her up real quick, swinging her up onto his shoulders. “I got your spots, you little booger!” She squealed with delight as she feigned fighting him off. Seeing her smile melted my heart, especially considering what she had been through the past few days.
“All right, Ashley, we can check the traps.”
“Yay!” she shouted.
The first trap we came to had a squirrel hanging from one of the snares. It was still alive and was doing its best to get free.
“We got one!” Little Bit shouted. She looked at the rodent for a second then asked with wide eyes, “Are you going to shoot it?”
“Naw, shooting it would be a waste,” I said as I looked around for a stick.
Walking over to the set, I grabbed the squirrel quickly by the tail and pulled it tight against the wire, then delivered a swift hard blow to its head.
“Eeww! Poor little squirrel,” Little Bit said, a frown creasing her face.
“It’s the fastest way, dear,” Danny said as he removed it from the snare.
We checked the rest of the snares, finding five more.
“It’s weird, nothing yesterday and six today,” I said.
Danny nodded. “Yeah, kinda strange. Maybe they needed a day to get used to it.”
“Good as any reason. I’ll go with it,” I said with a smile.
Little Bit was skipping along in front of us, holding a squirrel by the tail in each hand. I was shaking my head and smiling at the scene before me. An eight-year-old girl a hundred and fifty years ago would do this. An eight-year-old girl of this generation would run away screaming. Hell, most boys would too. For some reason society has been bent on destroying the idea of anything masculine or self-reliant. The effects were really starting to show before things changed like they did.
I wondered for a moment how the urbanites fared, the ones that never left the city. I mean, during normal times, everything you need is nearby: grocery stores, transportation, all that. But when the world changed, what did they do now? Did they possess the skills to provide for themselves? As hard as this all was on me, I can only imagine what it was like for them.
Back at the camp we cleaned the rats. It was a simple process, but some of us had never done it before, so I took the position as teacher again.
“All right, first you pinch the skin on the back and make a cut across it. Stick a finger in either side and pull. The skin comes off easily. Then it’s like taking off his furry little pants and shirt. Pull the skin down to the feet and cut them off. Then push the skin down the tail and cut it off. See! Now his pants are gone. Push the skin up toward the head and cut the head off behind it, his furry shirt is gone.”
There was very little blood during this. Once they were skinned, we gutted them by making small slits in their bellies and scooping their innards out. We took out the meat and saved the entrails for the dogs, who were happy to get them.
“I’ll cook these in some water. Maybe we can mix ’em with some rice later,” Thad said as he picked up the cleaned carcasses.
Jeff and I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting wood. It was a never-ending process that was now requiring us to v
enture farther and farther into the woods. Keeping a fire burning all the time was nice and convenient, but it was starting to become a chore to make it happen. Taylor, Mel, and Bobbie all helped with the wood. While we needed nice pieces of split wood, we needed smaller stuff as well. This was where Little Bit really helped. She was a pro at finding kindling-sized pieces.
Danny spent his time by the fire—doctor’s orders, of course. I was splitting wood when I noticed Lee Ann had joined us. She had her feet up in the chair and her head resting on her knees. I was getting worried. She wasn’t interacting with any of us. Laying down the maul I was splitting with, I went over to her and knelt down. I put a hand on her head and ran my fingers through her hair.
“Hey, kiddo, are you all right?”
She wouldn’t lift her head. All I got in return was a nod. I tried to raise her head. “Hey, look at me.”
She resisted at first then finally looked up. What I saw scared me more than I could have imagined. Her face was blank, completely devoid of any expression. It was hard to witness. The face I was looking at was not the same beautiful girl I loved. It was truly disturbing.
It was obvious I was surprised, so I tried to play it off. “Hey, what’s the matter? You’ve been acting funny the last few days.”
With that same expressionless face she replied, “Nothing, I’m fine.”
I looked straight into her eyes. “Bullshit,” I said. I knew it would shock her and let her know I was being serious.
She suddenly dissolved into tears. She was trying to say something but I couldn’t make it out. She was completely unintelligible. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered in her ear, “It’s okay, whatever’s wrong, it’s going to be okay.” I leaned back and wiped her face. “Hey, calm down, just try and calm down.”
Finally, through her sobs, she said, “It’s not okay. It’ll never be okay.”
I stood up. “Come on, let’s go to the cabin.” I grabbed her hand and led her back to the cabin and to her bed. She lay down and I lay beside her, rubbing her hair.
“Look, I know you think it’s the end of the world, but it’s not. It’s really not.” She didn’t respond, and she was lying facing away from me so I couldn’t see her expression.
