by Steven Smith
“They took me to a table on a raised area up by the stage and made me stand in front of a man they called Elvin. I heard his name was Elvin Barnes. They told me to turn around slowly, and when I didn't they hit me across the back with a strap, almost knocking me down. I must have screamed, because Elvin said he was sure I could scream louder than that. He told me to get up on the stage and dance, and when I refused they hit me with the strap again, then handcuffed me behind my back and fastened the handcuffs to a metal ring that was nailed onto the edge of the stage. There were other rings nailed to the stage, but I was the only one fastened to one, so I got all the attention as they messed with me all night.” She looked at the coffee cup clutched between her hands, staring hard, “At one point, they pulled the halter over my head so I couldn't see and started slapping me all over.” Tears welled in her eyes and one trickled down her cheek. “They did that for a long time.”
Jim watched her closely, then looked at Kelly, who nodded, answering the question she knew he was asking; were there marks on Brin consistent with her story? “You must have been very scared,” he said.
Brin didn't answer immediately. Taking deep breaths and continuing to hold the cup tightly. “At first, I was scared,” she said quietly. “Then I became more worried than scared, as I started to think more clearly. Then I felt sad that my life might end in a place like that.” She looked up at Jim, her eyes still full of tears but with a focused strength. “Then I just got mad. Mad that they were doing this to me, mad that they were doing it to the other girls and mad that I was so helpless. I swore to myself that I would survive and make them pay for what they had done, and were going to do to me.”
Jim held her gaze, watching for any telltale sign of untruthfulness or hidden motive, but her eyes were clear and unwavering and her anger seemed deep and real. “How did you get away?” he asked.
“When it got late and things were starting to slow down, they took me back down to the basement with some of the other girls and put us back in the kennels. They brought another girl down, Stacie, the one who was with me when you found us, made her take off her clothes and tied her to another kennel standing up. She was crying and screaming, because I guess she knew what they were going to do to her,”
She was staring hard at her coffee cup again, as if looking at the scene she was describing, but the tears had been replaced by a cold stare. “Then Elvin came down and told us we were going to see what happens to girls who don't do what he tells them to. He picked up a light chain from a table and started whipping her with it. He whipped her for a long time, all over her back and down the backs of her legs. At first, she screamed, but after a while all she could do was moan and whimper and finally she passed out. Then all we heard then was the sound of the chain hitting her and Elvin breathing hard.”
The table was silent as Brin stared at her cup, but then she continued. “They left her hanging on the kennel by her wrists and left us in the dark. I could hear some of the other girls whispering, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Sometime later a guy came in the outside door and unlocked my cage. I knew what he wanted and I knew I'd only have one chance, so I acted like I was willing because I was scared and he let his guard down a bit. When he shoved my top up, I asked him to protect me from the others and put my hands on his face like I wanted to kiss him. When his hands went to pull down my shorts, I took his left eye out. He jumped back, gasping and wailing, his hands to his eye, and I kicked him in the balls as hard as I could. Then I took his knife and killed him.”
Jim, Christian, Kelly and Tracy stared at her, the women with wide eyes and the men with hidden smiles.
“You took his eye out?” asked Jim.
Brin nodded. “My dad told me a person needs to be able to do three things in order to be able to hurt you - see, breathe and move - and if you take out someone's eye, they'll usually panic. So, I took his eye first, to make him panic and make it harder for him to see, I kicked him in the balls to make it harder for him to move, and I shoved his knife in his throat to make it harder for him to breathe and to kill him.”
Kelly looked at Jim. “I think we've found your long-lost twin brother.”
“How did you do that, take out his eye?” a wide-eyed Tracy asked.
Brin looked at her for a moment. “It's best to go in from the nose side,” she said, crooking her index finger next to her nose. “Then shove it in as hard as you can and pull it out.”
“Where did you learn that?” asked Christian.
“My dad. He had me do it once on a pig head.” She paused, thinking. “I don't think I got this guy's eye all the way out, because he jerked away when I touched his eye. I got it enough, though.”
Tracy looked both fascinated and as if she were going to throw up, Kelly nodded approvingly, and Jim and Christian both smiled. “Go ahead, Brin,” said Jim.
She nodded. “I took his gun and went to a dark corner and waited. I thought somebody was sure to have heard the noise, but nobody came down. Some of the girls in the other cages were whispering to me to let them out. I went back to the guy and got the key he had unlocked my cage with and tried it on the others, but it didn't work. I searched his pockets, but all I found was a pocket knife, a candy bar and a can of chewing tobacco. I told the other girls I would try to find help and started to leave, but I heard the girl Elvin had whipped trying to say something so I went over to her and she was starting to come around. I knew I couldn't get the other girls out, but I thought I ought to try to help her so I used the knife I took off the guard to cut her loose. She collapsed onto the floor, but I was able to get her clothes back on her.”
She took a sip of coffee and continued. “I looked outside the basement door and didn't see anybody. I think the guy I killed might have been the guard for that door. I saw a pack on the ground and grabbed it in case it had anything in it we could use, then waited some more, but I didn't see or hear anybody, so I got Stacie to her feet and out the door. There was nobody at the gate and we just walked out.”
They looked at her for a minute, Jim and Christian mentally reviewing the things she had said and checking them against each other, looking for contradictions or inconsistencies. “That was an exceptional report,” said Jim.
Brin gave a small smile. “My dad taught me to give a complete report, including details that would explain the major actions and allow de-briefers to formulate pertinent follow-up questions to fill it in to the degree they wanted.”
Jim and Christian looked at each other. They hadn't heard anyone talk like that in a long time. “Was your dad police or military?” asked Jim.
Brin shook her head. “He worked with and trained both, and did some stuff years ago in something he called an OGA. He runs a dojo, does survival training and trains dogs.”
Jim and Christian looked at each other again. “A dojo?” asked Jim. “What does he teach?”
“He teaches his own system. He started off in judo and karate, but saw that they didn't work in real life, so he developed his own system.”
Kelly raised her eyebrows at Jim. “Like I said.”
“When did you escape?” asked Jim.
Brin scrunched her eyes in concentration. “The day before yesterday, I think.”
“We didn't find a gun with you,” said Christian. “What happened to it?”
“The first day, Stacie slipped going down a hill and I tried to catch her. I was carrying the gun in my hand and dropped it. It slid down the hill and I couldn't find it.”
“When did Stacie die?”
Brin looked back down at her cup. “A couple of hours before you found us, I think.” She took several deep breaths. “We had slept during the night and she couldn't get up again in the morning.” Her eyes began to well with tears again. “Maybe if I had left her there she would still be alive. I thought I could help her, but maybe by trying to help her I killed her.”
Jim shook his head. “When we checked her wounds, we found older ones. She had been whipped before. This late
st one was either meant to kill her or maim her for good as a lesson to the other women. They didn't mean for her to live much longer, and any more time she had spent there would have been hell for her. You gave her the only chance she would have had.”
He got up from the table and walked over to her, placing his hand on her shoulder. “We're going to bury her this evening if you'd like to be there.” Then he leaned down and gently kissed the top of her head.
22
They had buried Stacie that evening in an area designated for Stonemont internments. Although no one but Brin had known her, they considered her a guest of Stonemont, and she rested now on top of a hill to the west of the compound overlooking the fields and rolling hills of eastern Kansas.
Mike had returned shortly after the funeral, having left a contingent at Churches Crossing and bringing back the guard members and Hispanics, and Jim had sent him right back out with a team of scouts to recon the school Brin had escaped from.
Now, two days later, the Stonemont leaders sat on the couches in Jim's den, leaning forward to look at the drawing Mike had made of the school and listening to him and Brin describe what they knew about the place.
Mike trailed a pencil around the school perimeter. “They're finishing up a second perimeter fence about ten feet outside the first one, but it's no problem because it's just basic chain link. It might make them feel secure, but it won't be a problem.
“I watched them for two nights and their pattern was the same both nights. It starts getting busy around dark and starts to thin out a little after midnight. Apparently, they have a closing time. Once all the customers are gone, it takes about an hour for the place to settle down and another couple of hours before all the guards are asleep. Good for us, sucks for them.
“There are two guards on all four doors now,” he indicated the main door, the basement door and two rear doors, “maybe a reaction to Brin's escape. Customers come in the front door and are patted down before they're allowed in. There are the same sentries on the roof and perimeter as the first time.”
He looked at Brin. “Tell us what's inside this door,” he said, tapping the pencil on the basement door through which she had escaped.
Brin took the pencil from Mike and drew a square inside the door. “This is the room with the cages in it.”
“How many cages?” asked Christian.
Brin thought for a moment, trying to form a picture in her mind. “Four, I think, including the one I was in. No, make that five, including the one Stacie was tied to.”
“How many girls in each one?”
“Four or five. I'm not sure. It was dark, and I think some girls are kept upstairs.”
“Okay,” said Mike. “Show us the steps and the gym.”
Stacie drew steps coming off of the basement room and a larger rectangle at their end. “The steps make two turns,” she said, indicating with the pencil. “The gym is at the top of the stairs. There are hallways going off in these directions,” she drew lines leading away from the gym, “but they never took me down them and it was too dark to see.”
“About how many men would you say are in Elvin's group?” Jim asked.
Brin thought for a moment. “I'd say about a dozen inside. I figure they're with him because they were carrying guns.”
“So call it about thirty guns total,” said Christian, looking at Jim.
Jim nodded. “Sounds like a good night's work. Mike, get the scouts ready, as well as the Latino squad. Tell them to get a little rest and to be ready to leave a couple of hours before dark. We'll hang back until after dark and then take our positions and rotate surveillance and sleep. We'll hit them at about four o'clock. I want Tracy and Emily with us to deal with the women.”
He looked at Brin. “Do you feel like coming with us?”
Brin nodded. “Damn right. Thanks,”
Jim nodded back. “You bet.”
The school had been built to serve the expanding suburbs which had stopped expanding after the housing crash, and was left about a half a mile beyond the nearest neighborhood at an intersection of two major roads which had never become streets. Its rear was toward the intersection, which put it facing the low hill from which Mike had watched it, and behind which Jim now spoke to the Stonemont attack force while Mike watched the school from a bush hide on the hill's crest.
"We're going to hold here until about three o'clock," said Jim. "At that time, scouts will move to their positions and begin watching their individual targets. Sometime around four o'clock, I’ll give the order to take out the sentries. Now, so we don't sound like a bag of popcorn in a microwave, I will answer the age-old question, 'do we go on 'three', or 'one, two, three, go'?"
A few chuckles came from the group, probably from those who had been in previous snafus from such a misunderstanding.
"We will fire on 'fire'," Jim continued. “We will count down, ending with 'three, two, one, fire.' You will fire on 'fire'. We want this to sound as closely as possible to one shot. You will be given sufficient opportunity to watch and acquire your target, and to let us know if there are any problems. In situations where two of you are positioned together to take out target pairs, the one on the right will take the right target and the one on the left will take the left target. Make sure you verify this with each other. Are there any questions so far?"
Silence and shaking heads answered there were no questions.
"Good. After the initial shots, scouts will apply follow-up shots on a second order of 'three, two, one, fire'. If any sentries are observed to still be active after the second shot, scouts will advise us of the situation before firing again. The only exception to this is if a sentry is firing, in which case fire at will until they are inactive. Everybody still on the page?"
Everyone nodded.
"After all sentries have been taken out, an order will be given to advance to your pre-designated positions. Those who were assigned to secondary doors are to secure those doors, including the guards and their weapons. Those assigned to the perimeter sentries are to secure those sentries and their weapons, then join the main entry team."
A scout raised his hand. "When you say to secure the guards, what do you want us to do if we find a live sentry?"
"Good question. First, secure all sentries, whether dead or alive, with wrists zip tied behind their backs. Second, we will not finish off sentries we find to still be alive. They may be executed later, depending on what we find, but we will not kill them if they are already neutralized. This is a fine moral line, but an important one.
“Also, keep your rifle trained on all downed enemies as you approach them. A couple of us have had the pleasure of having someone we thought was out of the fight pop up to take another crack at us. If they move as you approach, give them another round. And if you come upon one whose hands are underneath him and can't be seen, don't roll them over. You don't know what they might have under them. Just give them a round in the head and move on. Everybody still with us?"
The crowd of nods affirmed that they were.
"The team assigned to the basement door to the cage room is a four-man team and will secure that room from both inside and outside. Securing and freeing anyone held against their will is a priority. No one gets in there but us. As far as the main level, we're going to have to play that by ear. We don't know the lay-out, how many people are in there or where they are. That's a recipe for a big mess, but all of you have night vision and they don't. Assume anyone with a gun and no night vision is a bad guy and take them out. We're going in to liberate hostages, not take prisoners, with one exception. We will take Elvin alive, if possible. Listen to your leaders, be as quick and quiet as possible, and we'll get it done. Any questions?"
No one spoke.
"One last thing. I will be leading the entry team. Mike will be my second. We will attempt to locate Elvin and extricate him without waking the others. You will understand the reason if we are successful, but if any others wake up silence them as quickly and quietly as possible,
however you have to do it. Last chance. Any questions?"
No one moved.
"Good. Get some rest."
Jim watched the school as it got dark and customers began arriving. Mike had been right when he said it was Mad Max stuff. Fire barrels were burning at the entrance and sentries patrolled or stood post with weapons ranging from ARs to single shot shotguns. Customers arrived on foot, bikes, horseback, tractors and old trucks. At the door, customers offered a variety of things that would buy them entry, from food to liquor to ammunition, and those that didn't have enough to get in were roughly shown the gate. Occasionally, when a weapon was found during the entry frisk, the weapon was seized and a beating administered before the offender was thrown out into the road.
Jim watched and wondered who the customers were and where they came from. He assumed they had to come from close by, but wondered why they would come here and trade away things they needed when they probably had families to provide for. He had known of plenty of men before LO who had spent their time and money on themselves instead of their families, and, in his opinion, that had been one of the things that had destroyed society. But things were different now, and he couldn't understand how men could do this when their family's very survival was at stake.
As he watched and thought about this, an idea formed in his mind and he walked over to Christian, who was watching the school from another position. "What do you think?"
Christian shook his head. "Well, as they say, if you wanted to give this area an enema…"
Jim nodded. "Pick a few guys to get a little less sleep. I want a few customers interviewed after they leave, and I want to know the reason, the real reason, they go there."
Christian raised an eyebrow. "You mean other than the obvious?"
"Yeah."
At 0300 hours, Mike and Christian rousted the raiding party and formed them up for last minute instructions. Patches of clouds obscured the moon, and without night vision the sentries would have a hard time seeing anyone approach, even if they were awake. To the Stonemont troops, though, the world was bright green and they could see everything. As they watched and waited, Jim stepped up in front of them.
