We continued to encircle the site. I saw one body lying beside our truck and another behind the trailer. The second body was the man who'd driven our truck. John Alton tapped my arm and pointed. A tall, thin stranger in military camouflage sneaked along the side of the stone building. The man rose outside a window to peer inside the building. John leaned forward as he aimed and blew two holes in the left side of the sneak's chest. Seven kidnappers left.
The heaviest gunfire toward the stone building came from the pole-barn. Apparently several people had taken shelter inside it when our people started firing from the building. They were learning the thin metal siding on pole-barns is not good protection from hi-powered rifles.
Shooting from multiple guns erupted, and we watched a kidnapper fall as Shane's crew shot him when he changed position outside the middle shed. Another man ran from the metal pole-barn toward the woods as he sprayed a magazine of bullets on full automatic at Shane's crew. He was leveled with a short volley of rifle fire. I gathered three of my crew and sent them to join Shane. His people were spread thin covering the backs of the outbuildings while we had clear shots at anyone attempting to leave the front side. For a while it was a stand off with both sides exchanging occasional gunfire.
A rifle inside the building fired three quick rounds, and a man inside the pole-barn screamed, "I'm hit. Rance, that bitch shot me. Help me. I'm gut shot." A man staggered around the doorway of the pole-barn. He'd bent over holding his stomach and yelled, "Don't shoot, don't shoot." Blood drenched his shirt and ran through his fingers and down his pants. I aimed, but before I could squeeze the trigger the injured man’s head slammed backward and blood splattered the side of the barn.
A lone man yelled, "Surrender, surrender," as he walked from the pole-barn and dropped an assault rifle. A woman's voice from inside the stone building yelled, "Don't shoot him, He's my prisoner." The kidnapper put both hands above his head and knelt. Three kidnappers were still missing. Shane and two others from his crew approached the pole-barn. One stood watch behind the man on his knees while Shane and Andrea Michaels slipped inside the pole-barn.
Minutes later, Shane's voice came over the radio, "Two bodies are in the barn. That accounts for all but one."
At the sight of people they knew, the prisoners threw the main door of the stone building open. Kira helped Albert hobble through the doorway, and Tony struggled to walk using a rifle like a cane. We ran to them, and I asked, "Where's the last kidnapper?"
Without looking at me, Kira said, "He's in the back room. He's dead." I glanced at her and saw remnants of dried blood on her right hand and up her forearm.
A woman and a man from Shane's team advanced and searched the lone kidnapper. When they were satisfied he was unarmed, they pulled his arms behind him and tightened plastic ties on his wrists.
As we relaxed and took time to look closer, it was evident all three of our kidnapped people had been abused and beaten. Kira turned Albert over to his wife, Maria. She opened the door on a truck and helped Albert sit inside. As she and Kira spoke, Maria gave her handgun to Kira. Kira walked to the prisoner, and I met her there.
"Are you okay? You look like you've been through hell."
"This pervert raped me," she said bluntly with deep loathing in her tone. Kira turned on her heel to look directly at me, "And he's going to die slowly for that. He's going to remember the last piece of ass he ever had right up until I blow his perverted brains out." Our guards by the prisoner read the hate in Kira's expression and stepped away. She faced her tormentor. "I told you I'd live to see you pay for raping me, and I meant it. Now it's my time to play with you, you filthy bastard."
The man was tall and heavy. His beard was brown with scatterings of gray, and his brown hair was greasy. He looked over to me. He smirked, but his eyes showed fear. "You ain't gonna let her do anything to me, are you. I'm your prisoner, and I've got rights, man. There's rules of war you gotta follow. Even with this zombie shit, we've gotta stick to what's right when the cards are down, right?"
"Wrong, Rance," Kira said, "and it's not his choice. It's mine. I'm the one you raped and beat, remember?" Everything in the surrounding area went quiet when the .40 caliber shot blasted out.
Rance screamed as blood flowed from his left knee. He keeled over onto his side. "Stop, you bitch. God damn it! You can't do this, I'm tied up and unarmed." He looked to me. "Please make her stop. Man, you all need to stop her."
Another shot rang out and blood flowed from his right knee cap. Rance screamed and cried out louder, but his bravado had vanished. "This bitch is killing me, Make her stop, please, I'm begging you. You can't do this, man"
Kira slowly walked around Rance deciding where to inflict pain next.
I moved closer to the rapist, pulled my Glock and shot him in the forehead. Kira stared; hate billow through her expression in waves. "I can guess what these animals have done to you, but I'm not going to stand here and let you extract vengeance, even on this piece of shit, just so it will make you feel better. It's about justice and who we are. Our group's rules call for justice. But justice that's carried out swiftly and fairly. We're not going to turn into animals like this one. I told the group there would be no prisoners and I mean it."
"Damn you! God Damn you, Tom Jacobs," Kira yelled. Her expression was hard, and her hand quivered as she raised the gun in her hand toward me. She hesitated, lowered her arm, turned, and sullenly handed the gun back to Maria butt first before she stalked off toward the stone building shuddering with tears streaming. As Kira turned, I noticed Shane lowering his sidearm back to his holster. Kira would likely never know how close her temper brought her to being executed.
Several people exhaled sharply after our encounter. Doc Sparrow took advantage of the lull and motioned for help to get Albert and Tony inside the building. He examined all three kidnap victims, stitched multiple cuts, applied bandages, set Albert's broken leg, and gave all three pain pills. They'd all be sore for a while, but the cuts and bruises would heal in a few weeks. He said Kira had bruises all over her body from being punched and pinched. But her mental damage was far more serious. In addition to the physical trauma, the emotional scars would need additional time and probably counseling to heal. He admitted he wasn't trained in psychology and there was little he could offer her in that area.
Behind the barn, we found an open box trailer and an enclosed trailer similar to ours. Ed commandeered one of the kidnapper's trucks and took Junior and three others with him. He was taking Junior to his bike, and would drop the others where our trucks were parked. All four trucks returned, and we hitched the confiscated trailers to our trucks to haul everything we could use from the kidnappers’ buildings. Dusk was imminent. We judged we'd barely be able to reload the supplies that had been unloaded from our truck and trailer before dark.
Most of us loaded the trailer while Andrea and Maria prepared supper with the supplies they'd packed. Two others dragged the ten dead bodies behind a shed. They were given head shots and then left without the honor of a proper burial.
Before the doors on our trailer were closed and locked, we'd agreed to stay the night. The other two trucks and trailers would be loaded in the morning when we were rested. One of our last acts would be to transfer the dead men's fuel to our trucks. At midmorning we'd start the drive back home.
When our plates were full of roast beef, green beans and boiled potatoes, we found places to sit in the main room of the stone building; some sat on chairs, others on the grimy floor with the cool stones against their backs. As we ate, Albert, started on how they'd been captured and then turned the tables on their abductors. I guessed Maria had cleaned him up because his full black hair was shiny and combed.
"We were about an hour from the compound," Albert gestured as he spoke, "when we saw an older model Chevy pickup off the road in the left side ditch. It looked liked the same one that passed us about twenty minutes earlier. Two men stood there, and both walked to the middle of the road when they saw us coming. They
appeared unarmed. It was obvious they weren't zombies, so I stopped to see if we could help. When one was on each side of the cab they pulled handguns. They yelled and two more men got out of their truck and came at us with rifles. We stepped out with our arms up and they cuffed us with cable ties. Me and Tony were thrown in the back of their pickup, and our feet were fastened to the D rings. It was four-wheel drive, and they just backed it up out of the ditch." Albert stopped and looked at Kira with sorrow. "I knew it was going to be bad for Kira when they kept her separated from us and put her in the back seat of the cab. You could read in their expressions what they had in mind to do." Albert shifted uncomfortably at the last revelation. "A fella got in our truck and followed us here. He was here the second day, but then we didn't see him again until this afternoon when the shooting started."
Albert looked at Tony and nodded for him to carry the story. "When we got here they beat the hell out of me and Albert, and a couple of guys knocked Kira around when she tried to stop them. They wanted to know how much ammunition, guns and food was stashed at the compound, but we kept saying just enough to get by. They laughed, and said we were lying because they'd watched us for over a month and saw our trailers going in and out. Then they really kicked the crap out of us. They broke Albert's leg when they stomped on us. We were all three put in that small room over there. They locked chains around our necks. It's set up with a dozen chains secured to the walls to hold twelve captives. From the joking and smart-assed remarks they made, I'm sure they'd held people here before." Sheepishly he said, "Last night they took Kira away for a couple of hours... and you know.... Two guys came in to feed us and one told the other that Rance was getting what he'd been waiting a month for. It sounded as if he'd seen Kira and she was mainly what our kidnapping was about."
Shane wanted to cut to the chase, "If the three of you were chained, how did you get free to attack them?"
In spite of his facial cuts and bruises, Tony grinned at Kira. "You're the hero, so why don't you tell them how you did it?" He added, "This gal is something. If there's trouble, I want her on my side."
Kira had sat quiet and sullen and had eaten little. She pushed her plate aside. Anxiously her hands fidgeted in her lap. "Thank you, Tony, for what I'm sure you intended as a compliment. But I'm no hero. I reacted because I was terrified of what those men were going to do to me. While Rance raped me the final time, he gloated about how the rest of his crew was going to have turns at me, even two and three at a time. He said one of his men liked to hear women scream as he abused them while they were raped. When they were done with me, the three of us were to be striped naked and thrown outside when zombies were close by. He laughed like a maniac as he whispered that in my ear from behind me as he finished with me."
Tears ran down her cheeks as she faced us straight on. "Before today, I never killed a human. I never dreamed there would be a need for that. Now I know differently. I wanted Rance to suffer horribly because of the pain and degradation he inflicted on me. And because the emotional pain will stay with me forever, I suppose. The horror of what he did and intended to do is deep inside my brain like an incurable infection that keeps eating away at me." She turned to me and stared unblinking.
"Tom, I'm sorry for what I said outside, and I apologize. You were right. We can't sink to the level of animals like those men did. I've never experienced that level of anger and hatred, and it's not who I want to be. Thank you for stopping me, or I'd be dealing with what I wanted to do in addition to what Rance did. I'm not sure I could handle all of that at once."
She breathed deeply and blew it out forcefully. "As for how we got free, my husband insisted we be prepared for anything when our society fell apart. He predicted that some people would become vicious animals. I couldn't imagine that. I thought he exaggerated. It seemed reasonable to me that we would pull together, not apart.
"Late this afternoon, I heard raucous celebrating outside our cell and listened intently. I gathered that the truck and trailer were back. The leader of the bunch, Rance, stuck his head in and told us you guys had caved in. He laughed and said their fun with me was going to start as soon as they unloaded the ransom swag. Up to that time, he was the only one who had raped me.
"That's when I took my tools out. Carl cut two five inch pieces of hacksaw blade for each of us. He left one with the teeth on it, and he made the other into a small, thin, knife with three inches sharpened. Both fit inside our belts at the small of our backs. I cut a piece off the tail of my shirt, as Carl said I should, to wrap around the end of the saw or knife for a handle to get a good grip on them."
Kira wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. "The chains securing us were light weight, like what's used in swings sets. It's light but plenty strong to hold anyone by the neck. It took about twenty minutes to saw through both sides of a link in my chain."
She hesitated and looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact with everyone. "I heard Rance tell a man in the other room to stay inside and check on us routinely. But he didn't look in on us at all.
"I'd not heard talking in the other room since the others went outside. I yelled to our guard that Tony was choking and looked like he was dying. I prayed I was right, and the man would be alone. When I heard the padlock on the door being worked, I hid behind the door until it opened fully. The guard, a skinny slimebag they called Snark, stepped inside. I knew by his body movements when he noticed I was missing. Before he could turn or yell for the others, I slammed the door shut and raced forward. I reached over his right shoulder and jabbed the knife into his throat. I dragged him down to his hands and knees and rode his back to the floor. He struggled frantically. I still remember clearly the gurgling sound as he tried to breathe. I continued to cut deeper because I was afraid to stop. Finally, his head dropped forward onto the stone floor and he was dead." She looked up and surveyed the faces before her. We all sat in rapt attention. No one made a sound.
"The keys for the locks on the chains hung outside our cell. I freed Albert and Tony and helped them to the main room. We didn't know if you could find us, and we figured we might die here, but we agreed to die together and die fighting." She pointed across the room. "We each grabbed an AK and extra magazines from that rack against the wall and began shooting at those animals. You know the rest. We're thankful you were able to find us. Thank you for risking your lives to rescue us." Kira's eyes had teared again. Her expression was timid but grim and her lips trembled as she finished her tale of horror, escape, and retribution.
No one spoke as we absorbed the impact of the extreme cruelty she'd been put through and the personal inhibitions she'd had to circumvent to escape further abuse. Then several people stood and clapped softly. The whole group followed. Maria, Andrea, and Shana quickly moved to Kira and hugged her as all four wept. Looking around through blurred vision, I didn't see a dry eye in the bunch.
Several of us stepped outdoors in the dark, careful to stay within several feet of the door. We spoke in subdued tones while engaged in multiple conversations. Everyone stopped when Albert's son, Vince, said, "I wonder why these guys didn't grab a truck with Kira in it on the way in from a scrounging trip instead of when they were going out empty?"
After a few moments of thought, I spoke up. "I can think of three reasons. First, the incoming load could be lawn furniture, fertilizer or cattle feed, which they wouldn't want. Second, with three hostages they could demand a full load of food, weapons, and ammo like they did. And last, judging by the treatment and threats that Rance character inflicted on our people he must have been a cruel, controlling, sadistic bastard. The hostages gave him power over us and he likely thought he could do it again and we'd comply again.”
Our trip back to the compound proceeded with the now routine encounters with several groups of zombies. They attacked our convoy as we drove north though small cities and smaller towns. We gladly obliterated them and then moved on to get home. Our members at the compound would be worried knowing we had confronted a new evil and could have
been captured or killed.
~*~*~*~
Eventually, we all settled back into our routines and our lives returned to what we now considered normalcy. After several fall rains, leaves began to drift to the ground. Winter would soon be blowing in from the north. Morning temperatures often dipped to thirty degrees while sunlit afternoons approached sixty-five. A heavy frost was expected in the next few weeks, and then the landscape would change drastically as it turned from green to orange, yellow and brown.
Connie and I spent more time together and became close. After a few dates—here that's time talking together in private—we were intimate. She moved in with me a week later. She constantly professed her love for me and made it clear she'd not tolerate any form of cheating.
I guess she figured if she was sleeping with the group leader she could slack off even more than she had in the past. Several times I talked with her about doing her share for the group. She'd smile and promise to do better, but I still heard complaints about her attitude and lack of work ethics.
I knew I didn't love her, and I suspect she knew it too. She often attempted to get me to pledge my love to her, but I couldn't because it just wasn't there. For my part the relationship was shallow. It was more about companionship and having someone I liked as a warm body in my bed. She was an extremely good looking woman and friendly. We managed to stay together, but toward the end torrid disagreements became a staple of our relationship.
John Alton, Shane, and I discussed changes we wanted to make to the gun ports on the second floor. They'd been designed to shoot unarmed zombies from, and we hadn't counted on anyone shooting back. We agreed to add half-inch plate steel with shooting slots so marksmen would be protected if we were attacked by other humans. The kidnapping incident had put all of us on high alert, and we decided to maximize our security and ability to defend our positions. John said he was sure several metal fabrication and supply business' he'd dealt with in Cedar Rapids would have the materials we needed. He thought the equipment to haul it should still be there, too. He cautioned us that the quantity required would mean several trips to haul the plate. The fabrication and installation would make a good winter project for our three welders.
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