by David Nees
“We can’t just walk up. It be too open. He can just shoot away at us,” Clayton said.
“How about we separate and each come up alongside of the house. His instinct will be to look out the front. If we get to a window, we can try to locate him before we enter.”
“Just don’t shoot each other.”
Jason smiled. “Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. Maybe you go in from the rear. Then we’re not shooting across from each other if we have to fire. The house probably has a kitchen and dining-living room. Those are probably up front. I’m guessing there are two bedrooms in the back. I’ll go for the front side window. See if I can’t locate the target.”
“I’ll try to get in from the back. I can keep him away from the woman.”
“Set your AK for automatic fire.”
Clayton looked at him.
“Just short bursts. It makes it less necessary to take time to aim accurately. You put a short burst down a hallway, if someone’s in it, you’re going to hit them.”
Clayton nodded and flipped the selector on the rifle.
Jason felt a surge of adrenaline as they readied for the attack. Taking out a bad guy, freeing up a captive, energized him.
“You know a robin call?” Clayton said. Jason nodded. “I’ll make one when I’m in place. You go then.”
They both moved to the right. Jason stopped when they were facing the side of the house and Clayton continued on to the rear.
When he heard the chirp of a robin, he took a deep breath and stepped out of the woods. It was against his sniper training, but this was close-quarter fighting. They had to advance on the enemy and take him down before he could harm them or the hostage.
Jason walked over the open area, only twenty yards, to the house. It seemed nineteen yards too long. He looked through the window and saw Hank. The man was large. He must have been over six feet tall and weighed well over two hundred pounds. Hank looked over at the window as Jason raised his rifle. Hank dove for the floor as Jason fired. It looked like Jason’s shot caught him in the shoulder. The man didn’t hesitate but ran down the hall out of Jason’s sight. Jason heard a short burst from the AK. Then all was quiet.
Jason went to the front door and flung it open, rifle at ready. Hank was lying in the hallway near the back door.
“Good suggestion,” Clayton said in a calm voice from the back door.
They went into the bedroom behind the front room where Hank had been sitting. There, on the bed was the woman. She was naked, tied spread eagle with a pillow stuffed under her buttocks raising her pelvis in an obscene manner. Both men quickly looked away.
Jason went back out in the hall. There was a small closet. Opening it, he found some sheets. He grabbed one and took it into the room. He covered the woman. She stared at the men with wild, fearful eyes, turning her head from side to side.
“It’s okay ma’am. We’re here to rescue you. All the men who captured you are dead. You’re safe now.
Chapter 8
___________________________________
J ason cut the woman’s bonds and the two men left the room. They closed the door to give the woman some privacy, to let her get dressed and calm down. While waiting, they dragged Hank outside. Both men were panting with the effort.
“He’s a heavy one,” Clayton said after they got the body into the woods.
“The animals will be around tonight. Could get noisy.”
“Right about that.”
Back inside Jason knocked on the bedroom door. “Can you come out now? We need to talk.”
“No, go away. Don’t hurt me.” The woman sounded nearly hysteric.
Jason looked over at Clayton. He saw a questioning look in Clayton’s eyes.
“Ma’am,” Jason said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go away. At least not until we’ve talked. You’re safe now with us. We’re not here to hurt you. That big guy, Hank is dead. He can’t hurt you.”
“How do you know his name?” Her voice was now beginning to sound calmer, if still suspicious.
“One of his gang members told us.”
“How did you know about this house, to come here?”
Jason felt his frustration rise. “Look I’m not going to talk through this door. We just rescued you at danger to ourselves. We don’t want anything from you, so if you don’t want to come out, we’ll be on our way.”
There was a moment of silence, then the woman said, “No, no. Don’t go, I’ll come out.” The door opened and she stared at Jason.
He took a step back so as to not scare her. “My name is Jason Richards. My companion is Clayton Jessup. We’re from Hillsboro.” The woman looked at him as if he were an alien. She still seemed disoriented to Jason. She was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. She had no shoes on her feet. She was rubbing her wrist which looked chaffed from the ropes that had held her to the bed.
“My name is Helen,” she finally said.
“I’m glad to meet you, Helen. Let’s go into the front room and sit down. Do you want some water or something to eat?”
“Some water…please.”
The men went into the living room. Helen followed. Jason and Clayton sat on a couch, the woman sat in a stuffed chair well out of reach of the men.
“How did you know about this house,” Helen asked again.
Clayton sat quiet, studying the woman. Jason answered. “The gang made a mistake. They tried to ambush us. Now they’re all dead. The young kid, Ronnie, told us about you and asked us to help you out.”
She stared at him as if it were hard to believe what he had just said. “All dead? All of them?”
“Yes, ma’am. Well, to be accurate, Ronnie’s probably not dead yet, but he won’t last long with his wounds. Seems like he got a dose of remorse at the end and wanted to help save you.”
She nodded. “He didn’t do anything to me. He was nicer than the others.” She shuddered at the thoughts that seemed to rise in her mind.
Clayton spoke up. “He took up with bad men and paid for it. Got to know where you stand now days. Good side or bad side.”
“You’re not from Hillsboro,” Helen said as she turned to Clayton.
“No ma’am. From north of there. Way up in the mountains. But we come to Hillsboro to take up on the abandoned farms.”
“I see,” she said. Then she shook her head. “No I don’t see.” Her voice was sharp and angry. “I don’t see what’s happened, why the world has gone to hell, why people are killing each other, raping and killing.” She choked back a sob. “Why did they have to kill Martin? He couldn’t hurt them. Why take everything? We were just trying to survive like them, but we didn’t rob, kill and rape to do it.” She broke down in angry sobs.
They sat in an uncomfortable silence. The men nodded their heads in unspoken agreement, not knowing what more to say.
“You were headed to east? Were you going to Hillsboro?”
The woman nodded.
“Do you still want to get there?” Jason asked.
“Can I go with you two? Where are you going?”
“We’re going into battle, in Knoxville, to rescue two friends.”
“I don’t mind. I won’t be afraid.”
“No, you don’t understand. You can’t come with us. We’re going into great danger and we may not come back.”
“But I won’t slow you down. And I can help. I’m a nurse. Surely that would be useful if there’s a fight.”
Both men shook their heads.
Suddenly Helen stood up. “How can you be so cruel? You rescue me and then leave me here alone? That’s heartless.” She continued ranting and then ended up pleading, “Let me come with you, please.”
Jason waited for her to calm down. She just stood there with a mixture of sadness and anger showing in her face.
“We’re not cruel. We just set you free from a pretty horrible situation. I know you’ve been traumatized but you’re better off now than you were an hour ago.”
“Not if you abandon
me. I’ll just wind up a slave again…or dead.”
“They’s ways to avoid that,” Clayton said.
Helen looked at him. “I’d like to know how.” She looked and sounded skeptical.
“They’s some rifles, here, in this house, and with the men outside. Rifles and ammunition. You take them and defend yourself.”
“I don’t know how to shoot. I don’t think I could shoot anyone.”
Clayton’s face showed disdain but spoke calmly, “If you had the chance could you shoot Hank? If you knew you would kill him and end it, would you shoot him?”
Helen now looked confused. “Maybe…if I knew how to shoot and if I knew it wouldn’t just hurt him and make him mad at me. When he got mad he hurt me. I had to keep him from getting mad…do anything to keep him from…” Jason could see her eyes fill with tears. He guessed her mind was going back to those dark, desperate moments that had made up her life for the past two weeks. The sobs came again. She sat back down.
“Well he can’t hurt you now,” Jason said. “And we can show you how to use a gun so no one else can hurt you as well.”
“I won’t be a burden,” Helen said quietly.
They talked off and on, with long silences in between as Helen began to recover and come to grips with the fact that her nightmare was over.
“Can we go find Martin? Bury him properly?”
Clayton shook his head. “Been two weeks? Best not to go there, animals and all.”
That brought another round of sobbing as Helen absorbed this additional insult.
“We can make up a marker, a cross if you like, at the overpass. We can carve his name on it.” Jason offered.
“That would be nice…thank you.”
Jason stood up. “The bandits are gone. We’ll stay here for the night. I’ll see to some food.” He turned to Clayton, “How about you going back up the road and collect the guns and ammo from the others?”
Clayton nodded and headed for the door.
“You want to help with the food, or ride with Clayton?”
“I’d rather stay here. But I don’t know if I want to spend the night in this house.”
“That’s your call, but we’ll be sleeping here. If you’re not going with Clayton, come help me get some food together.”
“I’m not very hungry.”
Jason caught Clayton’s grin as he stepped out through the front door. Jason turned back to Helen. “I’m not asking if you’re hungry or not. I’m asking, no, let me be clear, I’m telling you to help me get some food together.”
Helen looked startled. Fear began to creep back into her eyes. “Are you going to abuse me now? Make me do things?”
Jason swore in exasperation. “Look, Helen. Can I call you Helen?” She nodded watching him warily. “I’m not going to abuse you. We just saved your life. We just fought a gun battle and have been on the move since morning. We’re tired and hungry. I would think you might just want to pitch in and help me get a meal together. On top of that practical consideration, it might help you to do something normal like prepare a meal. It’s a very human thing to do, prepare food and eat together. It’s almost an antidote to the savagery you’ve seen and experienced.”
He started for the kitchen, then turned back to Helen. “And don’t think you’re the only one who’s been savagely treated. I’ve seen worse done to friends of mine. You’re lucky, you survived.” With that he went into the kitchen.
Chapter 9
___________________________________
A few minutes later Helen walked quietly into the kitchen. Jason was looking through the cabinets.
“Let me do that. I know where the food is. They made me fix meals for them. After…” her voice trailed off, but she kept herself under control. She got a box of pasta out of a cupboard. In another one she grabbed a can of tomato sauce and some canned meat. “We can boil the pasta and heat up this sauce with the meat.”
“That sounds like a winner. Better than army MREs.”
“Why did you ask if we were going to Hillsboro?”
“If you were headed east, that would be the next big town on the way, so I assumed that might be your destination.”
“Well it was. We heard that Hillsboro had resources. And after gangs raided our small town, we headed in that direction. We were two weeks on the road. We were pretty much alone through the Smokey’s. We always hid when we noticed anyone else. Then we got here—”
“And things went bad for you.”
She nodded, unable to speak.
“Can’t I go with you? I won’t be a problem. I’ll cook, I can treat wounds, injuries. I can be really helpful.” She was now looking at Jason, her eyes full of a desperate pleading.
“We’re going back to where you came from.” He shook his head. “You don’t want to be a part of what we’re going to do.”
“It’s cruel to leave me alone, here, like this. I’m scared I’ll get captured again.”
Jason didn’t answer. They concentrated on heating the food in silence. Helen got out bowls and plates.
Clayton returned carrying three AR15 type rifles. He laid them in a corner of the living room. “They’s lots of ammunition in the pickup.”
“Come in the kitchen, we got some food ready,” Jason called out.
“That pump work?” Clayton asked looking through the window at the hand pump in the side yard.
“Yes. The water’s good, everyone drank it,” Helen responded.
“I’m gonna wash up,” Clayton said and went into the hall and grabbed a towel from the closet.
“I’ll join you,” Jason said.
When the two men came back in, Helen had set the food out on the kitchen table. She seemed to Jason to be much calmer.
“Thank you for getting this together,” Jason said.
“Mighty hungry. Thanks,” Clayton added.
Helen sat at the table while the men ate with gusto. Jason didn’t realize how hungry he was. After eating they all went into the living room. Jason could feel a deep fatigue starting to settle in on him.
“I can’t sleep in that bed,” Helen announced. “I don’t know if I can sleep in this house.”
“Can’t blame you,” Clayton said. “You could sleep on the couch. Jason and I can sleep in the two bedrooms.”
“I think I’m afraid to sleep out here…alone.”
“One of us can sleep here, on the floor if that will help,” Jason said.
“I think I’m afraid to have anyone in the room.” She paused and looked around with fearful eyes. “I think I’m afraid to sleep, period.”
“Can’t keep that up for long,” Clayton said.
Jason got up and went into the kitchen. He came back a minute later with a bottle of whiskey and three glasses.
“It’s amazing they had any bottled whiskey left. Here’s dessert.” He held up the bottle.
“Oh no!’ Helen said cowering in her chair. Don’t get drunk. You’ll hurt me.”
“That what they did?” Clayton asked.
She nodded, staring at the bottle, like it was something malignant.
“Don’t worry. We’re not the type to get drunk, and keep reminding yourself it’s us who rescued you.” Jason said. He poured two glasses, one for himself and one for Clayton.
“You might find it helps you sleep. Up to you,” Clayton said with a shrug.
“We need to talk about tomorrow,” Jason said.
“Do we have to?” Helen asked.
“Yes. I know this is hard for you. I know staying here is hard and leaving is hard. You need time to recover from this trauma. But the plain truth is you don’t have the time.”
“We got friends…one of ‘em kin, that we got to get to before they get killed,” Clayton said.
Helen just sat in her chair, looking fearful and confused.
“I’m going to tell you what you need to do. You don’t have to do what I say. You’re free to do whatever you want—”
“Except go with you.”
“Correct. What you can do is take a rifle we’ll choose for you. We’ll show you how to use it. You can practice in the morning. Hillsboro is only about sixty to eighty miles away. At twenty miles an hour you can be there tomorrow. You take the pickup. There’s enough gas in it to get you that far. I’ll write a note that will get you into town. You go see Dr. Morgan at the hospital, she’ll help you get settled in. You’ll be safe there.”
Jason could tell Helen was listening, but she was also shaking.
“You be tough, you get to town. You be soft, you don’t go anywhere. Things only gonna get worse here,” Clayton said.
“I don’t know how—”
“You have to do it,” Jason said, interrupting her. “Steel your mind to it. You’ll have time to grieve and recover when you’re safe in Hillsboro. But now, you have to be strong.”
“And strong-minded,” Clayton said.
Helen nodded and sighed. “I guess I can do it. I don’t know what else to do. You won’t stay with me or let me come with you.” She seemed to gather her courage. “But I want to burn this house down tomorrow before I go.”
“That ain’t a good idea. You catch the woods on fire, it’ll spread over miles. That’s no good,” Clayton said.
“How about we drag the bed out in the morning,” Jason said, “while there’s no breeze, and you light it up. You burn it in the yard. It’ll be a symbol of your victory over those who captured you. Then we all set out. Us for Knoxville, you for Hillsboro.”
“Okay.” Helen looked up at Jason. “Can I drive all the way to Hillsboro?”
“I think so. The interstate was more crowded on the west-bound lanes. You’re going east so it should be easier. Just drive down the side of the road when you come to jam ups. I think you’ll be able to get most of the way there.”
“Will I meet any bad men along the way?”
“That’s what you got the rifle for,” Clayton said.
“We didn’t on our way here. This was the first ambush we encountered. Chances are you’ll be fine.”
Helen nodded. “Would you mind, each of you, sleeping near the living room tonight? Maybe in the hall or kitchen? I’d feel better.”
