The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3)

by Scott B. Williams

  It had already changed for him with Tommy getting shot. Benny didn’t know if anyone could survive a wound like that without medical care, and now it probably wouldn’t even matter. Even if the girls got him back to the house, how would they hold off a gang like this until Mitch returned? And even if Mitch was there it might not matter. Benny knew as he stood there watching that they had made some serious mistakes. They had talked about it, but they had not managed to implement more serious security measures. It wasn’t that they didn’t all agree on the need, it was simply that it was hard to secure and defend 600 remote acres with road access on one side and a navigable creek at the back. The patrols were enough to deter random trespassing, and if the cattle rustlers today had indeed been two wanderers as Benny had first thought, that would be one thing. But this was something else all together.

  The men with the horses were taking great precautions, holding back to wait on the other six, but of course they didn’t know they were being watched. The twilight was fading to full dark as he waited, and Benny was growing more anxious by the minute. He kept hoping the men would mount up again and move on, but they didn’t, and he again began to think how he could extricate himself from his position without being detected. He might have a chance to help Tommy if only he could get to him, but the longer he was trapped here the more likely that chance would evaporate. Benny began his escape with a single step away from the road, but was stopped mid-stride by a sudden, unexpected sound. It was someone blowing a cow horn, and it was coming from the east along the road where David and Tommy were, and where the six men on foot had to be by now. Benny didn’t know if it meant they had just found the dead steers and boy, or perhaps David and Tommy as well, but it was clearly the signal the men with the horses were waiting for. He saw the riders mount up and move on, closing to rendezvous with their friends, as he turned and disappeared into the woods.

  * * *

  “I’m sorry about your son, Kenneth,” Drake said as he dismounted and walked up to the other men to get the story.

  “Yeah, me too, Drake. He messed up, but I just want to get ahold of that son of a bitch that shot him.”

  “Do you know where the house is yet?”

  “Yeah, that’s why we gave you the signal. Mosley and Hanberry did some recon. There’s a gravel driveway that turns left off of this road about a quarter mile east of here. It leads straight to a house, and there’s a barn too. They didn’t get too close, but that’s bound to be it. It’s the only turn off on this road anywhere around here, and it’s gated at the entrance and inside this same fence where the cattle are”

  “We don’t really know how many might be living there though, do we?”

  “No. We found the one I shot and I put him out of his misery, but there’s at least one more, probably two, that were with him. Kenny Jr. was killed by a shotgun loaded with buckshot, but I was also under fire from what I’m pretty sure was a semi-auto .22 rifle.”

  “That may be all they have but you never know. We need to be careful. I don’t want to lose anybody else.”

  “I agree. I think we ought to move in and hit the house tonight before they can get prepared if there are more of them. This nasty weather is on our side and hitting them now won’t give them time to regroup or go for help.”

  “That works for me. We’ll secure the house immediately and have it ready when everyone else gets here tomorrow. If there’s anyone to put up a fight we’ll take them out and be done with it tonight. If they run off, they probably won’t be back once they figure out we’re not just a handful of vagrants. This is a good find, Kenneth. It’s remote enough to give us some security, and the cattle are a nice bonus. Let’s hope there are more goods around the farm as well.”

  “Farm girls would be nice,” one of the other men said.

  “Now you’re dreaming, Chuck. I think the only females you’re likely to find out here are in that herd of cattle.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that. Besides, a man can dream, can’t he?”

  “How do you want to do this, Drake?” Kenneth asked.

  “Let’s split up into three groups. We need maybe four guys on foot to go on ahead through the woods on both sides of that driveway, in case anybody’s hiding out there or tries to run out of the house. Let’s get them moving now. We also need a couple guys to stay here with the extra horses and keep an eye out in case they come back looking for their dead buddy. The rest of us will hang out here at the road and wait for the signal that all’s clear at the house, or else move in with everything we’ve got if there’s resistance. We’ll ride down to that gate right now and cut the fence for the horses. But once we’re done at the house, we need to fix it quick. We don’t want to lose any of that herd.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Kenneth said. “But I want to be the first one in that house. I want a shot at that bastard that killed Kenny if he’s home or shows his face. I’ll give you a quick three rounds from my pistol once we’re done to let you know everything’s clear.”

  “You bet, Kenneth. Pick who you want to take with you and get going! The sooner we get this done, the sooner we’ll be carving up steaks and sleeping indoors again, out of the rain!”

  Drake had a good feeling about this place. Most of the land for miles around was uninhabited national forest and houses and farms were few and far between. Anyone living out here before the grid collapsed would have lots of the necessities for self-sufficiency already. Finding a place with cattle still fenced in was a windfall for sure, and Drake was willing to bet there would be other things of use at the house and barn. He wouldn’t be surprised to find running vehicles, or at least a tractor, as well as fuel, tools and firearms and ammunition. It would be nice if the house was a big one, but even if it wasn’t, he was sure that with the barn it would accommodate the rest of his little tribe. He hoped the remoteness of the place would mean they could stay awhile. They were all tired of moving, especially the women and children, and he’d lost too many good men in confrontations along the way. It would be good to regroup, let the wounded heal, and make a new plan for a long-term strategy. Drake considered that setting up here; in a place like this could be their long-term strategy. He knew that Black Creek was nearby, running roughly parallel to the road they were on and winding through the woods somewhere in the back of this farm. It might be the perfect place to call home, but first they had to rid it of any occupying vermin. It would be best if they did resist, so he and his men could quickly kill them all. If they simply ran away, they might come back later with help or may tell others who would come to challenge them in the future. Drake liked doing things right the first time, and in his recent experience, killing most people outside of his little band who got in the way was the right way. He paced his horse back and forth on the road near the entrance to the long lane after cutting a gap next to the gate with the wire cutters he carried in one of his saddlebags. He and the other men were anxious to get moving, and hoping for a brief taste of battle before settling in for a big feast later that night.

  Fifteen

  ONCE THEY’D MOVED THEIR gear deeper within the cover of the woods, April asked Stacy and Samantha to stay there and keep Kimberly quiet and out of the wet, wrapped in a poncho she’d grabbed on the way out. She wanted Kimberly far enough from the house for extra safety while she and Lisa and David crept back to the edge of the yard to watch and see what was going to happen next. She felt they were relatively safe even so close, because after hearing the sound of horses she was sure these thugs would be riding down the driveway when they came. For some reason though, they still had not come any closer, and it was not until Lisa whispered that April knew why.

  “I saw somebody move over there in the woods on the other side of the yard!”

  April stared where she was pointing and at first saw nothing, but then there was a movement. Two figures stepped out of the shadows and quickly crossed the yard to the other side of the house, momentarily disappearing from her view. If it were just one person,
she might have thought it was Benny trying to get back inside undetected, but two working together meant that they had to be with the cattle rustlers.

  “It’s a good thing we’re not in the house,” David whispered.

  “Yes, they’re checking it out to see if anyone’s home.”

  “We could shoot them when they show themselves again,” Lisa said.

  “Not now. We don’t know how many there are out at the road, and all that would do is bring them looking for us. Right now they don’t know if there’s anyone around or not. Maybe they won’t look too hard tonight if they think whoever lives here has left.”

  “Look!” Lisa whispered again.

  April saw the two men come around from the back of the house to the edge of the porch. Seeing them there, pressed up against the wall a hundred yards away, she had to admit it was tempting to shoot them both dead right now. They had killed poor Tommy and it made her sick to think about it. And she knew what was coming next. They would ransack the only place she and her friends had left to call home, taking everything of use unless Mitch and the guys got here in time to stop them.

  She watched with a sinking feeling as the two men stepped up onto the porch and crossed to either side of the door. After what seemed like several minutes but was probably less than one in reality, she heard a crash as one of them kicked the door in and then saw them go inside. April was about to whisper her disgust to Lisa and David when she heard a branch break with a dull snap clearly audible even in the rain. The sound was close—somewhere nearby among the very trees in which they were hiding—somewhere between them and the end of the driveway! Whoever had stepped on that branch was sneaking through the woods on the same side of the yard as they were!

  That Lisa and David heard it too was confirmed when April glanced at them and saw them staring back at her wide-eyed and speechless. She didn’t know if Stacy and Samantha could have heard it from where they were; she just hoped they stayed quiet. The sound was subtle and it was only one pop, but she had little doubt that it was a person. It took something heavy to snap a branch like that. And seeing how those other two men had crept up through the woods from the opposite side of the yard, it made sense that there might be one or two more sneaking up from this side. If so, then they knew what they were doing and were not taking foolish chances. Whoever was in the woods here was probably waiting to see if the two going inside would flush anyone out of the house. Even though she’d been tempted, April was really glad now she’d made the decision not to reveal their presence by firing at those first two. She didn’t dare move now. Would the unseen stalkers step out into the yard now and walk over to the house after their companions? Or would they continue moving inside the wood line and walk practically right into her and Lisa and David? She expected to hear another footstep that would give her a clue, but what she heard instead was far worse: Kimberly! Her child suddenly cried out from deeper in the woods, no doubt catching Stacy and Samantha by surprise before they could react in time to hush her. When they did quiet her just a second or two later, April was sure it was already too late. Whoever was in these woods with them had to have heard it as well as she. She focused on the direction from which the breaking branch sound had come and crouched there ready to shoot as soon as a target presented itself. But the next sound she heard was not the subtle sound of a stealthy footstep, but instead more gunfire, coming from out by the road. It sounded like a shotgun; two blasts in quick succession! Could it be Benny? After those two shots she heard the sound of running horses again as well, but April could not let herself be distracted long by that distant commotion. She had to keep her focus close at hand, because she was certain someone was there in the woods with them—someone who would not go away without investigating the cry her frightened child had made.

  * * *

  Benny had worked his way in close and now he could hear the voices of several men talking where the horsemen had joined the other six. He was close to the place where the steers and the teenaged boy lay dead, and where he’d left David and Tommy hidden behind the cluster of trees. Benny had circle around, and was approaching from the back, as far from the road as possible. He still didn’t know if first six that had gotten there had discovered David and Tommy, or if their signal just meant they’d found the dead boy and animals. Benny figured he would have heard David fire Tommy’s .308 if he’d been discovered, but he didn’t rule out the possibility that he’d lost his nerve and ran.

  It had gotten dark enough that he could hear some of what the men were talking about before he could see them. They were splitting up, and he heard several of them ride down the road in the direction of the driveway on horseback. After waiting and listening for a few more minutes, he was sure all of them were gone except for two that were waiting there with some of the extra horses.

  Benny crawled through the undergrowth until he was within mere feet of the trees behind which he and David had dragged Tommy after he’d been hit. He couldn’t see anything in the dark to indicate David was there, but there was a shape sprawled on the ground that he knew was his boy. Benny whispered softly, calling David’s name in case he was hidden nearby, but there was no response. He could just make out the two men standing over by the horses on the edge of the road, but nothing else moved that he could see. So David had left!

  Disgusted at the thought of a coward who would abandon his friend to save his own skin, Benny slowly crawled the rest of the short distance to where Tommy lay, whispering his name as he took his boy’s hand. When he drew himself closer, to look at Tommy’s face to check that he was still breathing, Benny recoiled in horror at what little he could make out in the faint light. Touching him to confirm that what he was seeing was real, Benny knew immediately that Tommy was gone. His boy’s face was a ruined mess of blood and shattered bone. Benny felt his whole body wracked with rage and sorrow as he knelt there for a moment over Tommy, the tears rolling across his cheeks and into his beard. Then, not caring if he was heard or not, he rose to his feet and walked directly to the men standing there with the horses. Sensing his presence or perhaps catching a glimpse of movement, the two of them turned his way, startled by the sudden appearance of a shadowy apparition with long white hair and beard stepping out of the darkness. Whatever thoughts of surprise may have entered their heads at that moment were the last thoughts either of them ever had. Benny made sure of that with two rounds fired from hip at point blank range.

  The sudden blasts from the 12-gauge sent the horses standing nearby into a panic. As they dashed away down the road to the west, Benny grabbed the rifles the two men had dropped and melted back into the woods. As much as he wanted to wait there to kill as many of the other men as he could to avenge his boy, he had to think about those two teen-aged girls who called him their uncle, as well as Samantha and April with her child back at the house. The only one he didn’t care about was David, who’d run off and let his boy be murdered. But Benny should have known he couldn’t count on a fellow like that who’d been hit upside the head so hard he didn’t even know who he was. And now he knew he should have never gone off and left Tommy there to begin with. He’d foolishly thought he was dealing with just a couple of hungry desperadoes but he’d been terribly wrong and Tommy had paid for his misjudgment with his life. Benny didn’t want to live with himself after that, and if it were just him he would have surely made his stand right then and there, fighting to the death. But even as this thought crossed his mind one more time, the sound of gunfire erupted from the direction of the house and Benny took off, certain he was the only hope those girls had tonight.

  Sixteen

  APRIL’S HEART NEARLY STOPPED when she heard a man’s whisper from just yards away in the dark woods. Her suspicions someone else was out there besides the two already in the house were proven true in an instant and now she knew there were at least two more of them. And from the conversation that ensued, she knew they had heard Kimberly’s cry as clearly as she and Lisa and David. But like the three of them, the unseen s
talker was startled by the two shots from out at the road. That was obvious by what he said to whoever was with him:

  “I wonder what in the hell that was about?”

  “Maybe Drake and them found the one that shot Little Kenny.”

  “Maybe, but whoever did it would have to be dumb to hang around out there in the same spot. I figured he would be around the house by now. We ought to go see what Kenneth and Chuck found inside.”

  “What about what we heard before?”

  “It was probably nothing but a cat or something. In fact, I’ll bet that’s what it was.”

  “It sure sounded more human-like to me. It sounded like a little kid crying.”