The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3)

by Scott B. Williams

  “Here’s your shotgunner! Never would have figured he was such an old codger!” Benny’s captor said. “We caught him right out there at the edge of the yard, sneaking up in the dark planning to do some more shooting. Where’s Kenneth? He’s gonna want to meet this fellow!”

  “Kenneth’s been shot bad, Clint. He’s about dead. Whoever it is that’s got that .22 managed to hit him with three rounds.”

  Benny could barely suppress a smirk at this news. So, Lisa had taken at least one of them out, and from what he gathered, he was the father of the teenaged boy he’d shot right after Tommy had been hit. If that were the case, Benny thought he might be the one who’d shot his boy. If they killed him now too, at least he would go to his grave knowing Tommy had been avenged and that they didn’t know where Lisa was. Maybe April and the others were out there with her. He could only hope it was true.

  The red-bearded one called Drake stepped down off the porch and walked up to Benny to get in his face. The other two that were behind him stepped forward too, and for the first time, Benny got a look at them. The one who had been speaking to him was covering him with an AR-15 suspended from a front sling at his chest. The other one had his arms full with Benny’s shotgun and the two AKs he’d dropped.

  “Who are you?” the leader asked him.

  “I ain’t nobody,” Benny said. “Just a farmer trying to get by.”

  “You killed my best friend’s son. That boy was only 16 years old!”

  “I don’t know who he was and I don’t care. He shot into my herd and killed two of my steers, and whoever was with him shot my boy. Then he pulled a knife on my cowhand and was aiming to gut him with it. So yeah, I shot him. And I’d do it again too.”

  “You don’t look like the kind of fellow that would own a place like this… all this land… this house… and cattle. What did you do, kill the owners when the lights went out and take up here like it was your own? Who’s the other killer out there with the .22? Is that your other boy?”

  Benny kept a stoic face as much as he wanted to breathe an audible sigh of release upon learning that these men apparently didn’t even know there was a girl shooting at them. Maybe they didn’t know about any of the girls… “It ain’t my boy, just my other farm hand. I ain’t got another boy.”

  “Well, you’re lying to me old man. You know how I know you’re lying? I know because this isn’t a farmer’s house. This house belonged to a game warden before the grid went down. His truck’s right out back, with the glass broken out. I guess you did that to steal his issue weapon after you or one of your boys killed him, right?”

  “We ain’t killed anybody! My boy that died out there today was the game warden. He was living here with me and helping me take care of the cows. With times like they are now, he hasn’t been working for the state anymore. Anyone with any sense would know that.”

  “And you’re a lying son of a bitch, old man. I saw the boy of yours that was shot out there today. Even though Kenneth split his face in two with his hawk, I didn’t see any resemblance to the pictures of the man in a game warden uniform that are hanging in the office in back of the house. There are a lot of them too, and framed newspaper articles that say his name was Doug Henley. And there are pictures of his wife and his teenaged boy and girl too. Did you kill them, or did you keep the woman and the daughter alive for a while? That girl in the pictures looks like she’s old enough.”

  Benny said nothing. It wouldn’t do any good to try and keep up the ruse. They were going to do with him what they wanted to do, regardless, but now he knew the one called Kenneth had finished off Tommy with a tomahawk. And he had the satisfaction of knowing that Lisa had mortally wounded that same man with her rifle and that they had no idea where she was. That was good enough for Benny. He could die now if he had to, and the way things looked, he doubted there was another alternative.

  Twenty

  LISA SPENT THE ENTIRE night wide awake, her mind racing with thoughts of Tommy’s death and the possibility that Uncle Benny might be dead as well while the murderous cattle rustlers were ransacking their house. Why of all nights did this have to happen—the one night that Mitch and the guys were away? They had been home every other night but two since she’d been there, and she was convinced that if they hadn’t been away, those men wouldn’t have gotten half as far as they did. She now second-guessed the decisions they made to turn and run to the canoes. They’d already killed two of the men creeping through the woods, and Lisa was sure she’d hit the one that opened the door. Maybe they should have made a stand or waited for the right opportunity to kill the other one too, before their friends on the horses could get there. It would have been dangerous, but maybe they wouldn’t have lost the house? Now, she wondered how they would ever get it back? And she was worried about Mitch and the guys too. What if she was wrong, and they didn’t pass this way on their return from the hunt? What if they simply walked into the yard in the morning, oblivious of the danger that awaited them there? They could all be killed before they knew what happened. And then what would she and April and all the others do?

  These things kept her awake all night as she lay there crowded in the shelter of one of the two canoes with Stacy and April and Kimberly. As soon as it was daylight, she couldn’t take it any longer. She paced back and forth on the sandbar, her .22 in hand, looking and listening for some sign of Mitch. She felt helpless and confined here, cut off from the farm and the route she expected him to take on the way home.

  “I need to cross the creek,” she told Stacy. “Let’s put the canoe in and you can paddle me across and drop me off.”

  “Where are you going?” April asked.

  “I’m gonna make sure we don’t miss Mitch and the guys. I’m worried they’re going to end up at the house unaware of what happened. I just want to get across the creek and sneak over into the woods closer to the farm. I can wait there and watch for them.”

  “That sounds pretty dangerous, Lisa. I’d feel better about it if I could go with you, but I can’t leave Kimberly here.”

  “We can watch her if you want to go, April,” Samantha said.

  “I’ll go with you, Lisa,” David offered.

  “No,” Lisa said, cutting these ideas short before they went any further. “It will be easier for me to keep out of sight alone. I know this land better than any of you. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be careful. All of you can still keep an eye out for the guys from here too, in case they do come home along the creek bank. I just want to be in position closer to the house, to make sure we don’t miss them somehow. I can’t stand the thought of Mitch running into an ambush.”

  Lisa was relieved that April and the others didn’t push their objections further. Even if not for her concerns about Mitch and the guys, she didn’t want to spend the morning sitting on a sandbar doing nothing. If she had to wait on their return, at least she could be doing something… moving around… looking… listening… It would make the time pass faster and make her feel as if she was doing her part to come up with a plan to resolve this awful situation.

  She stepped out onto the opposite bank when Stacy paddled her across, and waved one time to the others before making her way up the slope and disappearing into the forest. She would work her way closer to the house, but as much as she was tempted to sneak all the way back and see what was going on there this morning, she knew that was probably too risky. Maybe, if they were lucky, the men would think the gunfight last night had frightened off whoever was living there and that they’d gone far away and wouldn’t dare return. Lisa knew it was best to let them think that. Then they would be totally unprepared for what she was sure Mitch would unleash upon them when he found out what they’d done. Complete and utter surprise was a good thing. She’d seen its effects time and time again since the collapse.

  She reached the thicket where the rest of the canoes were still hidden and stopped to look and listen. Something was causing her to have an uneasy feeling, but she still couldn’t see or hear anythi
ng out of the ordinary. Now that the rain had stopped, however briefly, the morning woods were alive with chattering squirrels and birds. Lisa knew better than to let that lull her into a false sense of security though. Something was out there. She could feel it, and after several more minutes of watching she saw that she was right.

  Three men on horseback were quietly picking their way through the trees. They were on the national forest land outside of the fence, so April knew the men had either cut the wire or they had used the other gate on the side of the property. It was startling to see them so near and she wouldn’t have thought horses could move so quietly. But rain-soaked ground was on their side, and the riders were guiding their mounts at a slow, deliberate walk as they studied the muddy ground in front of them. Lisa knew they were looking for tracks, and that they’d not thought to try and cover their trail in the dark and the rain last night, and besides, there had been little time. If these men were real hunters like her dad and her brother, they would find this spot where the canoes were stashed, because five people going there on foot just hours before would have left enough of a trail. Lisa knew they were onto it, because the three men were coming right towards her. She figured her best bet would be to move laterally away from the tracks they had made last night carrying the canoes to the water. There was little time to act, so she began stepping from behind one tree trunk to the next each time all of the men were looking at the ground. By the time they’d reached the edge of the bay thicket where the boats were, she was behind a massive magnolia trunk, some 30 feet away. The men dismounted and she saw them communicating with hand signals. They were onto the trail all right, and two of them weaved and ducked into the bay trees on foot while the other waited with the horses.

  Lisa was stuck, unable to move until they left, but that wasn’t long, because the two that had gone in there must have quickly found the canoes. She saw them emerge quickly and then all three men climbed back into their saddles and continued on to the creek. They would see the place where the two canoes had slid into the water, she was sure. But there the trail would end. All they would know is that their quarry had fled into the creek and paddled away. Lisa hoped that would make them turn back, as it would be impossible to follow the creek bend-for-bend on horseback, even if they thought they could catch up.

  * * *

  Mitch was already lying awake as the first hint of daylight filtered through the trees surrounding the tarp. The morning felt colder that it really was, but Mitch knew the temperature was still well above freezing, probably in the mid-forties. With everything around them soaked it was uncomfortable and clammy, but at least the rain had stopped temporarily. He expected more to come though; that was just the way it was here this time of year when frontal systems moved across the area from the west. The rain could last two or three days or even longer, and when dry air moved in behind it, the nights probably would dip to around the freezing point. It was December, after all, and thinking of that, Mitch wondered how Benny and the girls had fared in their search for a Christmas tree. He hoped they found a nice one. It was a pleasant thought, celebrating the holiday as if things were almost normal, but to Mitch it wouldn’t feel like Christmas no matter what they did. The thought of celebrating it without his mom and dad just made him think of them more than ever. Knowing he might never see them again ruined the spirit of it, no matter how much he might have liked to pretend otherwise.

  He sat there thinking of this in silence until there was enough light to resume their search. Then he nudged Jason and Corey awake and strung his bow. When they had stretched and eaten a piece of jerky and prepared their own weapons, Mitch led the way to the area where he had a hunch they would find the deer. The rain-saturated leaves and debris on the forest floor made moving quickly without making noise effortless, even for Jason and Corey. The only disturbance made by their passage was the occasional shower of falling droplets when one of them brushed against a rain-laden branch.

  Mitch wasn’t looking for blood after the full night of rain, choosing instead to rely on his knowledge of the terrain and observations he’d made in the past of the behavior of wounded animals. The stricken deer would likely hole up in the thickest, most inaccessible place it could find, and Mitch knew just such a place they’d not had time to investigate before darkness overtook them the evening before. Motioning Jason and Corey to follow, he twisted his way into the dense stand of bay and palmetto and sure enough, was rewarded by the sight of Jason’s fallen buck. Stone dead and already stiff, it had crawled in there and expired sometime during the long wet night. That it had suffered first, Mitch had little doubt. It was not a clean kill, but at least they’d found it so the meat would not go to waste. The cool weather would help keep it from spoiling, and they’d have it home by midmorning.

  “Your kill, your job to gut him,” Mitch said, looking at Jason.

  “Yeah, I know. No problem. I’m just amazed you found him. I really didn’t think we ever would.”

  “We wouldn’t have given up until we did. I should have slept in and let you and Corey do it, but I didn’t want to stay out here all day today.”

  “Yeah, I wonder why?” Corey asked with a grin.

  “Really, Mitch. Tell us why? You’ve always been the one who never wanted to do anything else but stay in the woods and hunt. What’s changed now?” Jason laughed.

  Mitch didn’t mind a little good-natured ribbing from these two about April. Corey could relate to how he felt because he’d been in a relationship with Samantha for nearly a year. Jason, he was sure, had to feel left out at times. Mitch wished there was someone for him too, but who knew when he’d ever get a chance to meet a suitable girl living out here like this? And then there was Tommy, who told Mitch that he too, wanted to be married and to have a family, but that he’d always been too shy around girls to ever find one. What chance did he have of realizing that dream now, even if he could somehow overcome his inhibitions? And David was alone too, unaware that he’d once had April, the girl of Mitch’s dreams.

  Mitch felt a tinge of concern about Lisa and Stacy when it came to Tommy and David, especially now that both of them had recently turned fourteen and were looking more like women than girls. He had mentioned this to Jason and both agreed Tommy probably wasn’t a threat, but that they should keep an eye on David, considering his mental condition and the fact that he was much closer to teenaged years himself, at only 20. For the time being though, Tommy and David seemed content hanging out with each other, having become best buddies in no time at all. Mitch would watch, but then that was his job—to watch over and protect everyone living on his family’s farm.

  Once Jason had eviscerated the deer, greatly reducing the weight they would have to carry, the two of them cut a small sapling as Mitch had shown them on previous hunts and lashed the animal’s feet to it. They then carried it suspended upside down between them, the ends of the pole resting on their right shoulders as they walked in single-file, Corey in the front and Jason behind. It was a timeless method no doubt in use since the dawn of man. With their simple wooden bows to complete the picture, Mitch had little trouble conjuring an image of Stone Age hunters returning from the forest with sustenance for their village, the women and children awaiting them by the fires.

  Twenty-one

  IT WAS ALL LISA could do to refrain from stalking the three men and attempting to take them out as they sat their horses overlooking the creek and whispered in conversation. The first one would be easy, but the shot might spook the other horses before she could adjust her aim. Two would probably be doable, but three was just one too many. All of them were carrying their weapons ready for action across their saddle horns and in hand with their reins. The one who seemed to be in charge had what looked like a Winchester lever-action, but the others carried modern AR-15s or M4s with their unmistakable collapsing stocks. All three looked like tough customers, but the leader was especially scary, with his dirty-looking red beard twisted into multiple braids that hung several inches below his chin.
Lisa knew that unless she could kill all three before they could react, she would be overwhelmed by their superior firepower, which she had no doubt they would unleash upon her with ruthless efficiency.

  She could have picked from any of the weapons at the house that belonged to the family or among those they’d collected from dead aggressors who’d tried to harm them since the collapse, but Lisa still preferred her familiar little Ruger. She’d fired thousands of rounds through it since that Christmas four years ago when it had appeared under the tree, and it felt like a part of her. To get a sure kill with the .22, she would have to sneak closer and shoot each man in the head or neck. It was simply too much to attempt alone, and the price of failure was too high. Once the men knew they were still facing resistance out here, all of them would be combing the woods. For all she knew, the others already were, and might arrive at any minute. She told herself the best she could do was to try and keep an eye on these three, and if they did decide to proceed downstream where they might see April and her other friends on the sandbar, she would take her chances and engage them then.

  So she watched and waited, staying hidden behind the big magnolia, until at last the three riders turned and rode back past her and back the way they’d come. She was sure they would go back to the house and tell the rest of their gang what they’d seen. Hopefully, they had assumed everyone living here had taken to the two canoes and paddled far away. As soon as the men were out of sight, Lisa hurried back downstream to the place where she’d crossed the creek with Stacy, and called out in a whispered shout to the others waiting there. She told them what she’d seen and urged them to move the canoes into the woods behind the sandbar, so that they would be completely out of sight of anyone coming along on the bank where she was standing. Then she turned to make her way back to where she’d last seen the horsemen. She had to intercept Mitch. It was getting into midmorning now, and starting to rain again already. She couldn’t imagine that he and the guys would stay out much longer in this.