Savage Season cap-1

by Joe R. Lansdale

  "Hey, there we are," Soldier said. "Angel. He's going to give us the money. Hear that?"

  Angel nodded.

  "You're all right, Happy. I could get to like you."

  "I don't want to like you," I said. "I want to get this over with. I give you the money, and you let us go."

  "Have I ever said different?" Soldier said. "This's the deal I been trying to shake all day. Give me the money, I let you go. That's what I been saying, right? That's right, isn't it Angel?"

  "That's right," Angel said.

  "Let's go, Happy," Soldier said, "you and me."

  "All of us," I said.

  "All of us?" Soldier said. "You're telling me, all of us? Everybody's a boss here. I mean, I'm supposed to be the boss, and I got no say."

  "I want Trudy doctored," I said. "I want her with us. I don't want to leave her with Angel. Angel likes what she does too much."

  "We'll leave her with Paco."

  "No."

  "Now you're trying to negotiate. You see where that gets you. A nail in the hand. Lying on the floor."

  "My way, in twenty, thirty minutes, you'll have the money," I said. "Your way could go on all day."

  "If you're tough as she is," Soldier said.

  "I don't think I am," I said. "But I might be tough enough to last for a while. Longer than twenty or thirty minutes."

  The sweat on Soldier's face looked like a thick coating of Vaseline. He wrinkled his brows and nodded.

  "You got a point on the time thing, Happy Man. Not a good one, but a point. But hey, I'm sick of dicking around. I want to ... What is it when you want to speed things up, Angel?"

  "Expedite."

  "Expedite. That'll do. So, deal."

  Soldier squatted behind the overturned table, took the hammer, and hit the point of the nail hard. Trudy let out a yelp and bent at the waist and almost sat up before falling back down. The head of the big nail poked out of the back of her hand, but it was still partially in the table.

  Angel got hold of Trudy's wrist, jerked hard and the nail came out of the table and the head of it caught on the back of Trudy's hand. Angel grabbed the nail from the bottom and shoved it through most of the way, then caught the head of it between two fingers, yanked it free and tossed it on the floor. She let go of Trudy's wrist and put the overturned chair upright and sat Trudy in it. Trudy was as white as plaster.

  "Get the monkey blood, tie a rag around her hand, whatever you want," Soldier said. "Let's get this over with."

  Chapter 26

  Angel brought some alcohol from Leonard's medicine cabinet, tore up a pillowcase, and let me dress Trudy's hand at the kitchen sink. Trudy was still white and a little wobbly and she flinched when I poured the alcohol on her hand, but not much. After being nailed to a table, alcohol was a treat.

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  "I made my own choices," she said. "You don't know where the money is, do you, Hap?"

  I didn't answer.

  "If you do, don't tell them. They're going to kill us anyway. Let's don't give them the satisfaction of the money. Scum like this, they'll buy drugs, sell them to kids if they can make a dime."

  "Hey," Soldier said. "Quit the debate. Happy Man's giving me the money. And I tell you, it's not so bad a kid or two's got some dope, way things are. Little dope's better than some things. Let's roll."

  I wrapped the strips of pillowcase tight around her hand.

  Blood spotted through it in a matter of seconds, but it was the best I could do.

  "Everybody out into the great outdoors," Soldier said. He went over to the couch to prod Howard with the barrel of his automatic, but Howard didn't move. Soldier bent and put his head to Howard's chest.

  "This one's checked out. Shit, I hit guys harder than that before and they didn't die."

  '' You sonofabitch,'' Trudy said. " You sorry sonofabitch.''

  "You hadn't dug up the money and moved it on old Howard, he'd be with us today," Soldier said. "But no, you got to be the smart bitch. Then you got to get a nail through your hand for nothing, cause old Happy Man here is going to lead me to the dough anyway."

  "He doesn't know where it is," Trudy said.

  "Yes I do," I said. "I figured it out."

  "You better have," Soldier said, "or it's going to sound like the Fourth of July around here for about a minute. Let's go."

  Soldier got his umbrella and put his hat on. I put an arm around Trudy, and Soldier waved Leonard in close to us and the three of us led out, Paco, Angel, and Soldier close behind.

  Outside, the blowing rain and sleet had stopped, but it was cold and wet and there was the sound of thunder. I bent over and kissed Trudy next to her ear, whispered, "Just follow my lead."

  "No talking," Soldier said. "You get to talking, I get nervous. I like to do the talking."

  I walked straight to the barn. When we were inside, I let go of Trudy and she wobbled, but Leonard stepped in and held her up. I went over and got the shovel where Soldier had tossed it.

  I started outside again.

  "It's not in here?" Soldier said. "We got to go back out in that shit?"

  I didn't say anything. I went out and Leonard followed, helping Trudy. The armed trio followed us. I went straight to Switch's pen, and when Leonard saw where I was going, he picked up his speed slightly. I stopped in front of the pen, and Switch came out of his house and walked cautiously toward me.

  "You all right now," Leonard said to Trudy.

  "I'm all right," she said. "I can stand just fine."

  Leonard let go of her and came over to the dog pen and said, "Switch, ol' buddy."

  Switch came over and Leonard looked at me out of the corner of his eye. I knew then he understood what I was up to.

  "What's with stopping to pet the mutt?" Soldier said. "You on vacation here?"

  "The money's here," I said. "One of these pens. I don't know which one, but one. When she came back that night, the second time, she had dog shit on her shoes. This is the most likely place for her to get it. I think she buried it in one of these pens."

  "Think?" Soldier said.

  "You can just about count on it," I said.

  "You got to count on it," Soldier said. "Paco, what you think?"

  "Could be," Paco said. "Probably is."

  "Angel?" Soldier said.

  Angel shrugged.

  "What am I asking you for?" Soldier said. "You got your three squares, one of those protein milkshakes, some barbells, you're happy, aren't you?"

  Angel's expression didn't change.

  "You could be one of those things," Soldier said. "What is it I'm trying to say here, Angel? Like a robot kind of."

  "Android," she said.

  "Yeah, one of them. You know, sometimes you give me the willies."

  I opened the dog pen and reached in and got hold of Switch's collar and said, "Good dog." I pulled him out. I could feel his muscles bunching at the smell of all these strangers.

  "Whatda you doing?" Soldier said.

  "Getting him out of the way so I can dig," I said. "Leonard, hold him."

  Leonard reached over and held him and took a step backwards and pulled the dog after him, stuck out his free hand and touched Soldier's shoulder and said, "Ow!"

  It was all Switch needed, thinking Leonard was hurt. He twisted in Leonard's grip and Leonard let go and Switch leapt straight into Soldier and Soldier dropped his umbrella and threw up his arm. The dog hit him hard as a mallet, teeth flashing.

  I had already started toward the group with the shovel cocked, and when Switch hit Soldier and Soldier yelled, Angel and Paco turned their heads, and I brought the shovel around with all my might and caught Angel on the side of the neck with the edge of it and it was like hitting a concrete piling. She went down on one knee and her gun arm dropped to her side and her neck split open and lashed a band of blood into the cold air and rain.

  Leonard stepped behind Soldier and the dog, pivoted on his left foot and spun around, fast, and his right leg went up, and
at the same instant Paco raised his gun and leveled it, Leonard’s foot caught him in the back of the head, low, and Paco snapped forward and the gun went off but didn't hit anyone.

  Next instant Paco was face down on the ground with his butt humping like a worm trying to crawl.

  Leonard's heel kick had broken Paco's neck.

  Switch had Soldier down and his teeth buried in Soldier's arm. He was dragging him backwards on the muddy ground, gnawing as he went, tearing jacket and shirt and meat beneath.

  I brought the shovel around again and hit Angel solidly on top of the head and she dropped her gun and went down on her hands as if to do a push-up. I started to go for her gun but Soldier managed to put his automatic to Switch's head and pull the trigger. Switch jerked, then was on the ground thrashing. Soldier was getting up on one knee now, his hat was gone and his glasses dangled from one ear.

  He gritted his teeth, lifted the .45, and pointed it at Trudy.

  Trudy hadn't moved through all of this, but I was moving. I grabbed her around the waist, jerked her to the side and the bullet went by us. As I turned, I saw Leonard sprint behind the dog pens toward the creek and saw Angel scramble for her gun. I got hold of Trudy like she was a sack of potatoes and ran zigzag toward the creek.

  Trudy was too much for me and I dropped her. There was a sudden sensation as if someone punched me in the right side with the end of a fence post. I went down on one knee and yelled, "Run!" Then I was up again, and Trudy was already moving, long legs flying. She went over the creek-bank and into the water just ahead of me. There was another snap of gunfire, then I was in the creek right behind Trudy, splashing water, running for all I was worth. The brush on the sides of the bank grew thicker as we headed into the greater woods.

  Back toward the house I heard several shots and a dog yelp and Soldier yelling. I was surprised they weren't on us right away, and wondered if they had gone after Leonard.

  As I ran, pain crawled inside me looking for a place to live. I felt as if my very soul were easing out of me, falling into the water, washing away.

  But when I looked down, I saw what was oozing out of me into the water was not my soul.

  It was blood.

  Chapter 27

  I wasn't exactly making the best time in the world, and Trudy wasn't much of a runner to begin with. I could hear Angel and Soldier thrashing through the water behind us. They sounded some distance back, but they were gaining rapidly. Angel had the constitution of a horse and a head like an iron skillet. Soldier had popped poor old Howard half as hard and only once, and he hadn't survived.

  I caught up with Trudy and grabbed her by the elbow and pointed to the bank. We climbed out of the water and crawled into a mess of leafless brambles and through that and into a grove of pines and sweetgums.

  We hadn't gone far, when I had to sit down. I found a sweetgum and put my back against that and eased myself to my ass. Trudy, breathing heavily, squatted beside me and looked at my side. My coat was bloody and I could feel the blood cooling and sticking my shirt to my skin.

  "Oh, Hap," Trudy said.

  I put a finger to my lips. I could hear Soldier and Angel splashing water in the creek. They went past us and kept splashing.

  When I thought they were reasonably out of the way, I spoke softly. "Your hand. How is it?"

  "Numb," she said. "Mostly it's shock. But that's passing some. All things considered, I'm all right."

  "Well, I'm not. Help me up."

  She got her good hand under my arm and I pushed up and leaned on her a minute. "We got to make the Robin Hood Tree."

  "What?"

  "Trust me."

  It wasn't far from where we were, but it felt like a mile. My side had little feeling in it at first, but now it was as if someone had heated up a jack handle and was sticking it into me, stirring it around.

  We went through deeper woods and promptly broke into a clearing, and there in its center was the massive oak that Leonard and I called the Robin Hood Tree. Sitting down, his back against it, was Leonard.

  We walked up to him and he opened his eyes and looked at us. "If you'd been Angel or that other geek, I'd be dead."

  "You're hit?"

  "Caught me in the back, low, to the right. Came out the side of my leg here." He touched his right thigh gently. "Bone turned the slug, I guess. It was Angel shot me. bitch is good. I was well on the run, ahead of you two, going into the woods along the creek. Thought I had it made."

  I squatted down beside him, wiped cold sweat off his forehead with my fingers, rubbed it on my pants. "It'll be all right, Leonard."

  "Damn right it will," he said. "I been worse. . . . Shit, man, you're hit too."

  "High in the side, came out the front here," I said. "I'm scared to look, but—"

  "You been worse," Leonard said.

  "Right."

  "Trudy," Leonard said, "you've had yourself quite a time playing revolutionary, haven't you?"

  "I believe what I believe," she said. "None of this changes anything."

  "This," Leonard said, "isn't over. But I got to hand it to you, had it been me and Soldier had brought out that hammer, I'd have sang like a parakeet."

  A freezing rain came slanting through the trees from the north and hit the clearing, then the oak and us.

  "We stay here, we'll freeze," I said.

  "Can't we go through the woods?" Trudy said. "It's got to stop somewhere."

  "It stops, all right," I said. "Several miles later. As cold and close to dark as it is, I don't think me and Leonard could make it with these wounds."

  "Trudy maybe could make it," Leonard said. "Get some help."

  "I don't know the woods," Trudy said. "I'd be going in circles before I was out of sight of this tree."

  "Doubt we'd survive till you got back anyway," I said. "If Soldier and Angel didn't find us, we'd most likely freeze or bleed to death. We can go wide to the main road, or back to the house. Chance Soldier and Angel being gone right now. Get Leonard's car and haul out."

  "It's got to be that for me," Leonard said. "I go too far in any direction, maybe even back to the house, and I'll be growing grass over me come spring."

  "We might wait them out," Trudy said.

  "We'd be icicles first," Leonard said. "And besides, I got

  a rifle in the trunk of the car, a target pistol in the house. They could be some insurance."

  "Then it's settled," I said.

  "Hap, break me off a limb," Leonard said. "Got to have a crutch."

  I had to go easy, but I walked until I came to a sweetgum at the edge of the clearing, got hold of a two-inch limb and pulled on it. I felt as if my guts were being wrenched out, but I kept at it until I heard it crack, then I swung on it until I got it so I could twist it off. It had a couple of whispy limbs on it, and I managed to break those off underfoot. It wasn't going to make a comfortable crutch, but by hooking it in the crook of his arm, it might do. It had a kind of point on the end too, where I had twisted it off, and I thought that would be good, something he could push into the ground.

  Trudy helped me get Leonard up. He got the stick positioned and tried it and it worked well enough.

  "Don't wait on me," he said. "One of us has got to get back to the house and the car, get some help."

  "It's all or nothing," Trudy said.

  Chapter 28

  We eased forward, wide of the creek, broke through the woods and out into the clearing where the house was visible through the ever-thickening slants of icy rain. To make matters worse, the wind had picked up and was driving the rain against us as if it were frozen needles. I felt feverish, and as if something important had broken inside me. Everything was a little surreal. I was still losing blood.

  We huddled together, me and Trudy on either side of Leonard, helping him along. He looked like something for a pine box and six feet of dirt.

  I thought about Soldier and Angel, realized that if they had come back by the creek, they could already be at the house, waiting. But if we
could get to car and get it started . . . That was thinking too far ahead.

  Keep walking. One foot in front of the other and this fever is the heat of the sun and it's mid-July and the fish are biting and the grass is going brown and the trees are wilting like overworked washerwomen. Yes sir, it's not cold, it's hot, it's hot, gimmea left. Left. Adaleft, left, left, adaleft, left, had a good home but I left, left. Hell, maybe I shouldn't have fought the draft. I had the march down. Then I realized I was talking out loud, and I shut up and zeroed in on the dog pens and made for them, tried not to think about Soldier or Angel or that they might be waiting for us to come into range so they could spray the place with our brains. It would be quicker and better than dying slowly in the woods from the wet cold.

  Next thing I knew we were at the dog pens, and I understood why we had gotten as much of a head start on them as we had, saw what all that shooting we heard was about. Leonard's dogs. In his fury, Soldier had killed them all.

  "That motherfucker," Leonard said. "I ever get the chance, half the chance, he's a dead cocksucker. Dead."

  Paco lay where we had left him. He was face down, on his knees, his head bent under him, as if folded. That had been some kick. His false teeth lay over in the mud near Soldier's open umbrella, mashed porkpie and the shovel. Trudy turned Paco over to see if his gun was still under him, but Soldier, though stupid, wasn't that stupid.

  "I wasn't on this stick," Leonard said, "I'd go over and kick that fucker till he came back to life."

  "Go straight for your car," I said.

  We did. The car was parked at the side of the house, near the front porch, where it had been left when brought out by the Ice Birds, as Leonard called them.

  Leonard worked the keys out of his pants pocket and Trudy opened the car door and Leonard slid in and tried to start it. Nothing. It didn't even click.

  I went around and opened the hood. Doing it made me feel as if my intestines were falling out of me, but when I looked inside, I knew our problem wasn't the weather, and I understood Soldier's and Angel's delay in pursuing us even better.

  They had taken the distributor cap. I limped over to the mini-van and looked under its hood. Same thing. And the Lincoln. And the Volvo. I thought about checking the Volkswagen in the barn, but I couldn't believe they'd leave it undone, not after taking time for the others. Besides, I didn't feel as if I could make it to the barn.