From what they had all been able to see, they knew that they had them vastly outnumbered, and so, Jeremiah guessed, they were probably hoping to pick them off one by one, rather than take them head on. He had discussed his suspicions with Jessie and Gary, and they had both agreed. Better to hang back, stay away from the front, and wait.
Nevertheless, there were a few hot heads that felt it would be better to rush them, and as the time passed slowly by, it became harder to convince them to stay put.
"There's just the three of them left," Sid Potter, one of the hot heads had pointed out, speaking about Jessie, Gary, and Jeremiah, "Why in hell should we listen to them? They already got a shit-load of us killed, and if we just sit here we're gonna die. Fuck 'em I say, lets’ take 'em. Leave these candy-ass's here if they ain't up to the fight."
That had been earlier, and at that time no one had taken Sid up on his offer. As time slipped by however, Jeremiah noticed that he had gained a respectable following, that had begun to grumble loudly, and a few seconds later, when they had been waiting for a little over an hour, it came to a head.
"I ain't convinced this God of yours," Sid said sarcastically after he had walked boldly up to them, "is coming." Sid was accompanied by about a dozen devoted followers, who stood wide-eyed around him as he spoke. "We're goin'," Sid stated. "Stand aside, for I have to make you stand aside," he waved his rifle under Jeremiah's nose as he spoke.
"Thought he was your God too?" Jeremiah questioned calmly.
"Stand aside!" Sid repeated, as he raised the rifle. "Or I'll put a hole through you, and walk over the top of you. I guaran-fucking-tee-you your God will have a little trouble saving you with a friggin' bullet hole in you."
Jeremiah considered him only briefly. It would do no good to try to talk to him. Reluctantly, he stepped aside.
At first Sid looked taken aback, as if he had not really expected Jeremiah to let him by, but he quickly recovered, and followed by his believers, moved off through the trees. Jeremiah watched him go.
When they reached the edge of the trees they hesitated briefly, and then Sid Potter stepped out into the moonlight alone, his followers hanging back, acting the part of convinced followers, but not actually convinced at all.
No shot rang out, Sid did not fall to the ground, and so after the brief seconds of hesitation the others followed. In fact several who had been undecided joined his small group as well, and they began to move off in the direction of the river.
Gina
Gina was startled when the young man she had left in charge, rapped on the window loudly. Reluctantly she rose from the seat, and turned to the window. "What?" she yelled.
"They're moving," the obviously frightened young man said, as he glanced nervously from Gina, to the dim figure beside her on the seat.
"Watch 'em, I'll be right there," she ordered, and then turned her attention back to Lisa. Just as well, she thought, Lisa had passed out again anyway. She ran one hand lovingly over Lisa's body, and leaving the truck walked to the front.
Gina stretched out onto the hood of one of the trucks and sighted carefully through the scope. Maybe eighteen, she thought, as she shifted the scope slightly to get a better view. "Fire when I do," she whispered, "take 'em all out." She carefully sighted, and then fired.
Frank and Jessie
Jeremiah had begun to wonder if he had been wrong, when the pop of distance gunfire started. Within seconds, the entire Potter group lay dead or dying, and the screams from the dying were quickly silenced with more shots. He was startled when Jessie’s machine gun began to chatter beside him, but quickly tore his eyes from the field, and back in the direction of the trucks.
Jessie had been looking in the direction of the trucks. She expected the gunfire, and was ready when it came. She aimed at the flashes in the distance and began to fire. Several others joined in, including Jeremiah and Gary, and soon the sound of gunfire once again filled the air.
Both groups were zeroing in on the muzzle flashes. After a few seconds they realized it, and quit firing. Jeremiah ordered them all further into the woods, and they fell back, minus four more of their group, and three others, including Jeremiah himself, that were wounded. Jeremiah had taken a direct hit to the leg. The same leg that had already been grazed before back in Fairport when the freak had shot him with his finger. This was no flesh wound though, Jeremiah knew, this looked pretty serious. Jessie made him sit down, and quickly cut away the leg of the jeans to get a better look.
Gina
Gina had not expected any return fire, and had barely been able to scramble off the hood of the truck, before several rounds punched into it. Some others had not been quite so lucky, including the young man who had come to get her.
They had seventeen people, either seriously wounded or dead, including the young man, who wasn't quite dead yet, but would be soon.
He had taken two rounds, one in the left shoulder, and one in the right leg, neither of which would have been life threatening if they had been properly treated. The third shot he took was the one that proved fatal. Gina walked over to him, and stared down into his pain filled eyes, raised the pistol, and coldly shot him. After she had shot him, she quickly moved among the rest of the injured, and similarly dispatched them as well. Her small band looked elsewhere, or tried to pretend that they hadn't seen what she'd done, and stared toward the woods.
She returned to the lead truck, not much more than a pile a chewed scrap metal now, and leaned carefully across the hood once more. The moonlight was bright, much brighter than it had been, but it was not bright enough to pick out individual trees. She lifted the rifle and sighted through the scope. Much clearer, but there were no people hiding among the trees that she could see, and so, she concluded, they must have slipped further into the woods.
"I'm going back to the truck," she said to one of the women nearby, "I don't expect they'll do much for a while." She eyed the mousy-looking young woman as she spoke. "keep your eyes open. If they try to leave come get me, and you better do a better job than he did," she said, looking down at the young man, "or I'll put a bullet between your eyes too. Got it?" The young woman nodded, the fear written across her face, and Gina turned and walked back to the truck.
Frank and Jessie
Jessie closely examined the wound in Jeremiah's leg. They had no other doctor they didn't even have a nurse. The closest they came was Sandy. The wound didn't look good to Jessie, but there wasn't a lot of bleeding. "I don't think," she said, and shook her head, "that it hit an artery. I wish I knew, but I don't."
"It really don't hurt all that much," Jeremiah lied, "honest it doesn't."
Jessie turned away. "Sandy?" she whispered rather loudly, "Bring me some of that stuff." The older woman hurried over, and opened the small duffel bag she had been carrying. Sandy was the only other one among them, that had even a passing acquaintance with medicine, and that was sparse. She had once worked as an assistant at an animal hospital. Although she had never directly repaired any wound, she had been interested, and so had watched closely whenever she assisted the head veterinarian. She looked Jeremiah's leg over, as Jessie had done, and drew the same conclusions. The bullet had passed straight through, and had hit no major blood vessels as it had. The major concern Sandy had was infection, and she disinfected the wound with nearly a full bottle of peroxide, before she squeezed ointment into the wound, and bandaged it.
"Peroxide?" Jeremiah asked, through clenched teeth, "d'you run out of iodine?"
"Might hurt... No, I know it does, but it's all we got, honey," Sandy said. "You'll live, you big baby," she admonished, with a smile. The smile slipped. "You've got to keep it clean though, and I'm gonna be pouring a lot more of that on it, unless you want to lose that leg," she thought for a second. "Are you allergic to penicillin?" she asked.
"Nope," Jeremiah said, "wouldn't mind a couple aspirin if you have 'em too," he said through a strained smile.
Sandy rummaged through the bag, while Jessie held a hooded flas
hlight for her to see with.
The light went out. "Here," she said, putting some pills in one of Jeremiah's hands, and a small metal flask in the other. Jeremiah took the pills and a deep drink from the flask to wash them down.
"Whoa," he wheezed, "what is that, two hundred proof Moonshine?" he took another small sip.
"Tylenol with codeine, penicillin, and rum," she answered with a chuckle, as she took the bottle away from him before he could take another sip. "Strictly medicinal," she put the flask in the bag and closed it. Jeremiah got unsteadily to his feet, with Jessie and Gary supporting him between them, and tested the leg.
"Not so bad," he said through a grimace of pain.
"Take it easy, Jeremiah," Jessie warned, "maybe you should stay off it for a while."
"Better to stay standing," Jeremiah said, turning serious, "No telling what'll happen next."
"Try to keep your weight off it though," Sandy cautioned, "and if it starts to swell too badly, you're gonna have to lie down."
Jeremiah resolved that even if it did swell, he wouldn't lie down, but to keep Sandy happy, he agreed he would. Bess, who had been standing nearby, walked over once Jeremiah was back on his feet. She had stayed out of the way, but she too was worried about him. Jeremiah saw the look in her eyes and spoke before she did.
"Ain't too bad, Bess, don't worry a whole lot," he said. "Jessie and Sandy already fixed it up, I'll be fine." He knew he didn't really convince her entirely, but she did seem to relax somewhat.
"I'm going to go check on Frank again," Jessie said, and moved off through the trees. They silently watched her go, and then Gary asked, "What now?"
"Same old," Jeremiah replied, "we wait 'em out. It's really all we can do, 'less they rush us, and then we fight." Gary nodded, and then turned his attention back in the direction of the trucks.
Gary asked, "How we going to move Frank?"
"A couple of the others are putting together a litter of sorts," Sandy said, "he's still out. Even if he comes to, he can't walk."
Jeremiah nodded grimly. "Lets’ hope he does come to," he said in a low voice, and then turned his attention back to the trucks.
The moon was up higher now, and they could make out the shapes of the trucks in the far distance. It was impossible however to see whether or not anyone was moving around them in the shadows. If they stepped away from them though, Gary thought, they would see them clearly.
Jeremiah said, "If they try to come for us, we'll see 'em when they step out of the shadows."
"I was just thinking the same thing," Gary agreed. "If they do," he hefted the machine gun grimly, "they're dead."
Run Rabbit Run
"Gina," Lisa whispered... No answer..."Gina?" she tried, more urgently this time, allowing a breathless quality to creep into her voice.
"Shut up, bitch," Gina replied, and turned her attention back to Lisa's taunt nipple.
"I didn't want you to stop," Lisa whispered, still breathless, "I like it, but...?"
Gina looked up, "Nice try," she said uncertainly, "sucking up won't help you."
"Sucking up wasn't exactly what I had in mind."
It was dark in the truck, but not so dark that Gina couldn't see the smile on Lisa's face, or the tongue that licked slowly across her lips. She traced one finger slowly across Lisa's flat stomach. "You like it?" she asked.
"I wish I could show you how much," Lisa replied still breathless, "but...?"
"But what?" Gina asked suspiciously.
"Well it's a little hard to show you, to... To do something for you, tied up like this,"
"So that's it," Gina replied sarcastically, "you pretend you like it, I untie you, and you try to get away, right?"
"No," Lisa breathed, "where would I go? Besides you've got the gun, not me," she leaned forward from the seat. Gina had unbuttoned the top of her blouse, and Lisa flicked her tongue across the top of one breast. "I just... Just want you too," she flicked her tongue teasingly again.
Gina drew in a sharp breath. She wore no bra, and even in the sparse light in the truck, Lisa could see her nipples grow erect, poking at the thin material of the blouse. Gina fumbled with the last few remaining buttons and slipped quickly out of the blouse. "You don't need to be untied to do that, Honey," she said huskily as she lowered one breast toward Lisa's mouth and slipped her hand between her legs. Lisa groaned, and quickly drew the erect nipple into her mouth, while she pushed against Lisa's hand.
Lisa edged open her eyes and looked at Gina. Her eyes were closed, her head tilted back. Lisa pulled gently at her nipple, and Gina gasped. "Untie me, let me do more, you've got the gun," Lisa panted as she flicked her tongue across Gina's nipple. Gina's eyes opened, and she looked down at her, face flushed, breathing heavily, her hands moved to Lisa's nipples, and the fingers of both hands pulled and pinched cruelly. She freed one hand, and reaching to the dashboard, retrieved the small pistol she had left there. She traced a line with the cold steel across Lisa's stomach. "Maybe?" she said in a whisper.
"You've got the gun," Lisa reminded her, and flicked her tongue teasingly again.
"If you're screwing with me I'll pull the trigger, honey," Gina said as she continued to trace a cold line downward across Lisa's stomach with the barrel.
"Untie me, baby, and I'll show you, I... I can do things for you, to you," she finished. The cold steel slipped from her stomach, and traveled onward. Downward. She felt the coldness against her inner thighs. Hesitant, indecisive. Brushing coldly against her. She fought to keep the teasing smile on her face, as it slipped lower still, and entered her.
"If you're fucking with me..." The barrel was withdrawn, and Lisa watched with slitted eyes as Gina replaced it on the dashboard, and then roughly turned her over on her stomach.
...Click...
in the silence of the truck, and then she felt cold steel against one wrist as the knife quickly cut through the rope that bound her wrists, and again against one ankle, as the ropes that bound her feet fell away. She rolled back over beneath Gina's legs that straddled her, and traced one finger across the crotch of Gina's jeans, "Take them off," she whispered, "let me show you." Her fingers began to work at the catch, and Gina's fingers soon joined her, the jeans began to slip away.
Lisa realized it was now or never, and lunged for the pistol, while Gina was occupied with the jeans. There was no time to think, no time to second guess. The speed with which she had acted served her well, and there was no real struggle for the pistol. As Lisa swung the pistol from the dashboard, intending at first only to threaten Gina, she caught the glint of cold steel in the sparse light of the truck.
"Give it to me, bitch," Gina hissed, and then suddenly lunged with the knife.
"Don't!" Lisa started, but even as she spoke she squeezed the trigger. The pistol roared in the cab of the truck, the bullet slamming Gina back into the door. Lisa did not stop to look, she levered the door handle on her side, grabbed the rifle that Gina had, had with her, and dropped to the ground.
Frank and Jessie
Gary and Jeremiah both tensed. A single shot had rung out from the direction of the trucks, and they, along with everyone else, had expected to hear the low whine of bullets smashing through the surrounding trees. They had been surprised when that had not happened, and were now focusing their attention on the trucks in an attempt to determine what was going on.
Jessie slipped in beside them. "What?" she asked in a whisper.
Before either of them could reply, several more shots rang out. One of the trucks suddenly broke from the group, and began to cut across the field toward them at full speed. Jessie quickly raised the machine gun, preparing to fire, but Jeremiah stopped her. "Wait," he said, "it's just the one, and the others ain't following... wait."
Lisa
Lisa ran for one of the other trucks, pulled the door handle, and jumped in. It was empty, and the keys had been left with it. She keyed the ignition, side-swiped one of the other trucks pushing it out of the way, and jammed the gas pedal into
the floorboards, heading for the trees. The rest of the small encampment had been taken by surprise, and did not begin to fire in earnest, until she had already started to pull away.
She found herself praying that none of the bullets that were plunking at the metal body of the surrounding truck would hit her. She considered only briefly whether the other group would fire at her. If they did, they did, there was nothing she could do now. She pushed the truck as hard as she could and did not brake until she was within twenty feet of the trees.
When the trees solidly appeared out of the semi-darkness, she locked the brakes, and simultaneously spun the truck sideways. The passenger side slammed solidly against several of the trees as she came to a stop. The glass in the passenger door shattered, she quickly closed her eyes, and then threw herself through the opening, unmindful of her nakedness, or the fragments of glass that scratched at her body as she went through the opening and fell to the ground. The sound of the bullets hitting the truck began to sound like rain on a steel roof, as a strong pair of arms clutched her and dragged her further into the trees. She looked up. "Jessie?" she asked surprised, "I thought you were dead?" She passed out, her body exhausted, before Jessie could answer her.
She came to within a few minutes. Jessie and another woman she didn't know, were bent over her, examining several deep gashes she had received when she had jumped through the window. She tried to sit. "Don't," Jessie said, "just rest for a few minutes, Lisa."
Jessie’s eyes flicked across her body, and took it in. She carefully examined her from top to bottom, visibly upset as her eyes fixed on the deep bite marks that covered her breasts. Some had broken the skin, and she controlled her rising anger as she and Sandy did what they could to disinfect and clean the wounds. Jessie wiped a small amount of blood from Lisa's lips, looking for the source of it. The lip didn't seem to be cut, nor her tongue. Jessie released a deep breath. "Who did this to you, honey?" she asked, her anger barely contained.
"Gina," Lisa answered, her voice beginning to break, "but she won't be hurting anyone else," she finished, and began to cry. Jessie held her as Sandy left to find some clothes. "It's okay now, Lisa, it really is, nobody here will hurt you. It's okay." She smoothed her hair as she spoke, and held her tightly. Sandy returned with the clothes and Jessie and sandy both helped her dress. Bess stood nearby, and once Lisa was dressed she approached slowly, almost timidly, crying uncontrollably. "It's my fault," she sobbed, "I might as well have sent you to them. What in hell was I thinking?" Lisa looked into her eyes, but not with the anger Bess had expected. "It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault but mine. Don't cry Bess, please don't." All of them burst into tears, and came together into a small tight group as they comforted one another.
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