by E A Lake
I chortled. “You got a boyfriend?”
She grinned and shook her head. “Do I look like the kind of gal who would date a man who goes by Raymond? I don’t think so. He’s Lucy’s man.”
We sat silently waiting for something to happen. But nothing happened all day, and by the looks of things, it would be another day before our targets showed up.
She took my hand and interlocked our fingers. “You’re a decent man, Bob Reiniger. In a different world, we might have been something.” She let the words hang in the still afternoon air.
“But not in this world.” I decided to make it easy for her.
She sighed and leaned in. Placing a soft kiss on my lips, she moved my hands to her body.
And for some reason, I didn’t fight it.
Day 1,106
The songs of the morning birds in the trees above woke me. I opened my eyes to little slits and noticed the first light of morning covering the forest. Not enough to make out colors, but enough to show me I wasn’t alone.
I slid away from Jean carefully so as not to wake her. Stretching a kink from my back, I studied the quiet house across the small opening. Still no one there, I thought. Good, it would have been embarrassing to be caught in the throes of passion by the men I was after.
Pulling a spongy apple from my pack, I dared a peek at my new friend — lover, I guess. I couldn’t figure what had caused my reaction to her advance, but it had happened. And even in the woods, on a bed of pines needles covered with a blanket I shared with Daisy at most times, it felt right.
I knew I should have felt remorse, but I didn’t. I’d cheated on Daisy. Just as I had cheated on Shelly with Daisy. However, in the upside down world we lived in, this was how it was. Tomorrow could be my death day. I enjoyed the moment knowing that another human and I found a connection. And that was special; there were so few connections left to be made in this world.
Our stories were similar. Except Jean knew most of her family, and a lot of friends she later admitted, were already dead. I had no idea. I’d always thought of Shelly still being alive. Same for Mom, Dad, Bud and his family. Now I wondered.
Jean woke a few minutes later, stretching and pulling her opened shirt closed. He face wore no telltale signs of embarrassment as I snuck one last peek at her smallish bare chest. Making eye contact with her, she grinned.
“I don’t suppose you have coffee and a cigarette to offer a girl,” she joked. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she put her brown leather cowboy hat on and adjusted the brim. Man, she was sexy.
I held up my canteen for her. “I got water,” I offered, watching her take it from my hand. I noticed a single finger lingered on my hand for an extra second. “As for smoking, never was one. So I don’t have any idea what I’m missing there.”
She checked the house, nodding at it. “Still nothing?”
I peeked back for another look. “Quiet as can be. Unless they snuck in and didn’t want to disturb us last night.” I wasn’t sure how she’d take the mention of our late day tryst, but her smile grew, so I knew it was okay.
“That was nice,” she said, looking away. “But don’t be thinking we’re going steady now or anything.” That caused me to laugh. “Will you tell Daisy?”
Now that was an interesting question. “Yeah,” I admitted after some thought. “Eventually. She’ll understand. I’m just glad you won’t be hunting me down after this.”
She laughed. “You got enough women in your life, Bob. You don’t need another one.” She became serious and more focused on the house. “They should be back today, tomorrow at the latest. What’s our plan?”
I glanced back at her. What was our plan?
In the warmth of the afternoon sun, I watched Jean sleep. We had agreed earlier to take turns napping. One person would watch while the other slept. We wanted to be rested when Barster and his man showed up. It was as far as we ever got on our plan.
I listened as Jean snored slightly. It made me smile. Violet too had a cute little snore when she was overtired. Not the kind like my grandfather had, a snore that could wake the dead. Just a cute, little, tiny snore.
Before her turn to nap, Jean snuck to a nearby fast-moving creek where she filled our canteens and bathed. She didn’t tell me she had, but she was gone long enough to bathe. That and the wet hair and glisten of water on her clavicle told me she was clean.
I woke her when my eyes began to become heavy. By the sun, I knew it was late afternoon. Maybe this wasn’t the day of redemption. Perhaps it would have to wait until tomorrow.
I would contemplate all of that after my nap.
Day 1,106 — continued
A distant sound stirred me out of my slumber. As I bolted up, a hand covered my mouth, Jean’s gloved hand. As I focused on her, she raised a single finger to her lips.
“Shhh,” she whispered. “They just got here.”
Slowly sitting up, I turned and faced the home in the early evening light. In front of us, three riders dismounted their steeds and stood tightly in a group. Someone was talking, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Jean pointed with a shaking hand. “There’s Lucy,” she said. The girl stood slightly apart from the men, staring at the ground. Where Jean was tall and thin, her sister lacked any height. She was a stolen waif, lost in a forest of madness.
“The taller one is Barster,” Jean continued. “And that short, skinny shit is Jimmy Darling.”
She said the second man’s name with so much disdain that I just had to ask.
“Do you know them both from before?” I asked, staring into her eyes for any sense of recognition. “Or just the short one?”
She remained focused on her sister, moving in small motions to get a better glimpse through the pine boughs.
“Barster, no,” she replied, keeping her voice low so that we remained undetected. “Jimmy I know. I’ve known him for a long time. And I always thought he was as rotten as he’s proven to be.”
There had to be more to the story. I sat back and waited for Jean to speak again. She glanced at me with a half-shrug.
“Jimmy’s from nearby where I grew up…where we grew up.” For a moment, a memory must have invaded her thoughts. She shook at one point and came back around. “He was hot on me for a while. But then I got married and he left me alone.”
“And then Lucy…” I added, knowing only half the tale. But it made sense, at least to me.
“She was always so sweet, so innocent, so pure,” Jean said, sounding sad. “It wasn’t bad enough whatever happened happened. Then people started dying and then Jimmy grabbed her one night when she went out for supplies. I knew it was him.” She stared directly at me. “It was always gonna be him.”
“How old is she?”
Jean sighed almost loud enough for the others to hear her. Luckily, they were too involved with getting the saddles off the horses. “I’m 26, Lucy’s 21.”
“And her boyfriend has no interest in finding her? Or helping out at the very least?” I probably shouldn’t have asked that question. I already knew how Jean felt about her sister’s beau.
“Raymond’s a coward,” she said softly. “I haven’t seen him since before she got taken and not a lick of him since. He knows what’s happened. He’s probably just moved on.”
“Maybe he died,” I added quickly.
Jean laughed. “Oh, the world should be so lucky.” She nodded at the house.
Turning my attention back to my targets, I caught my first glimpse of the chain that held Lucy captive. It looked like an old, steel dog chain. Maybe 10 or 15 feet long, one end wrapped around her neck, the other held tightly by none other than Clyde Barster.
In the low light, I couldn’t recognize the man’s face, but his distinct voice took me back to when they first robbed us at Lettie’s place. A soft ringing in my ears must have meant my blood pressure was on the rise.
“Here ya go, darling,” Barster crowed, tossing a gunnysack at Lucy. “Find us something in there
to cook up for dinner. And if you behave real nice like, I might even let you have a bite to eat.”
I noticed Jean fingering her revolver. “You want to take them now?” I asked.
Her eyes darted left, then right, and finally she looked up. “Too dark, not safe. We’ll have to wait until morning.”
In front of us, Lucy screamed as Jimmy molested her in plain sight. I felt a lump grow in my throat, and a quick glance at Jean told me she felt the same. Her face tightened to the point where I thought her lips might explode.
“Jimmy!” Barster shouted. “You got all night to do as you please with her. Have her get a meal cooked, then you can have your fun.”
I touched Jean’s right shoulder and she flinched. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, watching her wipe away the first tear I’d seen her shed. “I know this is hard.”
She sat back, clenching her fists. “I’ve been here before. Not this place, but another they use. I was so close to getting Lucy back. But they had an extra man then. He spotted me in the brush and I had to run.
“This is the third time I’ve seen my sister since she was taken. And every single time Jimmy Darling has his grubby hands all over her.” She turned and grabbed my forearm. “He’s mine. I want him. I want to cut his balls off and feed them to him while he dies. That’s what I want done with that prick.”
Raising a hand to my mouth, I tried to hide some of my horror. “How about we just kill him instead? Case closed that way. Plus, we won’t have a eunuch chasing after us for the rest of creation.”
She nodded once, her face still drawn and tight. “You can kill him, right after I get done with him.”
I turned and watched as someone lit a lamp or candle inside. The last we saw of the trio was Barster himself hanging a sheet over the window. That meant no night attack; too risky with a young lady inside who was an innocent.
So we waited, and Lucy’s cries haunted our nighttime watch.
Day 1,107
I didn’t sleep except for a few winks here and there. I had to beg Jean to close her eyes for a little bit, which she finally did. Neither of us would be any good without a little rest. That actually felt like a recipe for death to me.
We both were wide awake by first light. That was kind of funny, I thought. The house was finally quiet.
There had been a fair amount of commotion during the evening inside the house. As we watched and listened, swatting to keep the bugs at bay, the two men argued verbosely.
“We don’t need no more supplies right now,” one said in a growling tone. “We got plenty of what it takes to live good for the next week. So drop it.” I assumed that was Barster.
“But we need to keep the pressure on that place to the south of here,” the second man whined. “We need to drive those people off so we can have that place before winter.”
“We’ll kill them all come fall,” the first man responded. That made my blood stop flowing for a moment.
I felt Jean’s hand grip my leg. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered, trying to sound reassured. It better be okay, that was my life and my family Barster so easily cast aside.
Later, we heard Lucy’s screams fill the night air. Occasionally we heard a slapping of skin, followed by wails I knew I’d never get out of my mind. Then that higher pitched voice pierced the night air. “Oh Momma, you’re so good. Just like Daddy likes it.”
“They’ll be dead tomorrow,” I said, trying to reassure Jean in the darkness. “It all ends then.”
Her only response was a sniffle and a single word, “Yeah.”
As the morning wore on, we witnessed Barster walk outside and urinate in the front yard. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but I noticed Jean’s intense glare held on the man.
“Can you hit him from here?” she asked, nodding at him.
I studied the distance but doubted my accuracy. “I could maybe hit the front window from here…maybe.” If nothing else, I was honest.
She checked our surroundings. “We need to get closer, and it’d be best if those two shit heads came outside without Lucy.”
Almost as if prompted by her speech, Jimmy Darling wandered outside to relieve himself. Chained to his wrist was a completely naked Lucy. I heard a sharp breath from my companion.
“Why don’t you look away?” I asked, diverting my eyes from the emaciated and bruised girl. In dawn’s fresh light, she looked tougher than I had expected. Perhaps even tougher than Jean remembered.
“Keep your eye on the prize,” Jean whispered back. “My dad always said that was the only way to win.”
We both watched as Jimmy pushed her against the side of the house and mounted her from the rear. Finally, Jean looked away. Thank God.
Day 1,107 — continued
After sunrise, the group as a whole emerged from the home. Lucy was still in tow, dragged along by the chain around her neck. Thankfully, she had a shirt and shorts on.
They seemed to be discussing water and who should run and get some more. From my point of view, Barster was winning the conversation. Shortly after a shouting match between the two men, Jimmy and Lucy grabbed two pails and headed north for said water supply.
“I say we move now and take Barster while Jimmy’s gone,” I stated, keeping my voice low.
Shaking her head, I noticed Jean’s scowl. “And if anything goes wrong, we run the chance of losing Lucy. I don’t want to take that risk.”
She studied the house closer. “If we can just get them out here with their backs to us, we can do a sneak attack from the rear.” She must have noticed the skeptical look on my face. “At least we can get closer for a chance to shoot, right?”
I nodded, seeing Jimmy leading Lucy back. In her hands were the two buckets. Apparently, their water supply was close by.
The pair disappeared inside, followed by Barster. “Shit,” I muttered.
Bad guys one, good guys zero.
By mid-afternoon, the pair made another appearance to pee in front of us. Watching them from our hiding place, I noticed Lucy and her chain were absent. I nodded at Jean, she nodded back.
“I swear you’re going to kill that girl,” Barster complained, strolling away from us.
Jimmy’s bladder must have held more because it was a good half-minute until he finished his job.
“Daddy needs loving,” he howled. “And she ain’t all used up yet. So when Daddy wants it, Daddy takes it.”
“I’m gonna kill Daddy,” Jean seethed beside me. “Let’s sneak around the edge they’re headed for. That way when they turn their backs to us again we can take them.”
We backtracked a bit and slid through the woods with fox-like stealth. Even I was surprised at how quiet we were, now that our lives depended on it.
When we crept forward, Barster and Jimmy were directly in front of us, but facing sideways. They spoke in low tones so I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Behind them, the three horses ate green and brown late summer weeds, occasionally sticking their heads in a large trough that was most likely full of water.
We waited for our opening…and waited…and waited.
I became frustrated. Right in front of us were the two remaining members of a gang that had harassed my neighbors and me for the past year. I could almost smell the stink emanating off a man like Barster. Just as rotten on the outside as he was on the inside.
Beside him, the weasel-like Jimmy Darling leaned against a tree, picking at his teeth. Either they were ignorant to their surroundings or Jean and I had the drop on them. I wasn’t sure the options weren’t one in the same.
Barster turned slightly towards the horses and I began to rise. Jean’s hand on my thigh stopped me mid-rise. She looked at me and shook her head. Something wasn’t right in her mind. I crouched again and we continued our wait.
“Here’s what I think,” Barster began in an almost civil tone. “That place south of here is good…” He stroked his scraggly beard. “But there’s better.”
Jimmy took a seat on a nearby pine stump. “Like?�
��
Barster grinned and I noticed his missing teeth, like every other one.
“That place at the back end of the swamp,” Barster said, winking at his partner. “The one with the high fence and that bald shit that shoots first and never asks questions.”
Shit, he was talking about Wilson’s place. This pitiful man had big plans.
“Now that,” Barster said, poking at Jimmy, “that would be a hell of a place to spend the winter. Don’t ya think so?”
Jimmy looked deep in thought. “I think we may die trying to take it. I like the place on the main highway. Think they’ve left by now?”
Barster shrugged. “Don’t know. But if we kill that skinny-ass man, we can have it and the two women there. You could replace poor old Lucy if she dies soon.”
“She ain’t gonna die,” Jimmy complained.
“You don’t feed her, pretty soon she will.”
Jimmy grinned. “She had a little food few days back. She just needs enough to keep going. At least going for my purposes.”
Both men laughed and turned their backs to us. I saw Jean rise and did the same.
Go time! I thought.
Day 1,107 — continued
Jean’s gun was at full draw as we dashed out of our hiding spot. Mine would have been as well except it got caught on a pine branch at the last moment. A horse threw its head back and whinnied, giving away our sneak attack. By the time I had my 45 up and ready, Jean fired the first volley of our war.
Though we had tried to be as quiet as possible, Barster saw our approach, aided by the horse’s whining no doubt. “Look out, Jimmy,” he shouted as Jean’s Colt released its bullet with a loud percussion.
I saw his arms go up, flailing as the bullet struck home. The scrawny man fell face forward, struck somewhere in the back by a 230 grain 45-caliber hunk of lead. His legs kicked towards us as I watched Barster hightail it around the corner of the house, disappearing from sight.
