Into the Apocalypse

by William Dunaway

  My anger was intense. I finally had this son of a bitch. When we approached the steps to the front porch, I glanced into the house. The sun was at the right angle that I could see inside the house well. I could see Avery moving around in what must have been the kitchen so I pushed Orville in front of me, opened the screen and we walked into the house.

  “Damn, it took you long enough. How long does it take for you to take a shit?” Avery asked with a laugh.

  When we got to the entrance of the kitchen, I shoved Orville in with my foot, causing him to fall onto the floor of the kitchen. Avery jumped and looked up and saw Orville on the floor and me pointing my M-4 at his chest. He stood motionless over the propane range with a spatula in his hand.

  “Sit down!” I ordered. He didn’t say a word, but he walked over to one of the kitchen chairs.

  “Put your hands behind your back!” I commanded and reached into my cargo pocket pulling out another zip cuff.

  He was sitting in a wooden chair, so I had him stick his hands through the wood splines on the back of the chair and applied the cuff to each wrist, with the wood support in between his arms. Not only was he cuffed but attached to the chair itself so the only way he could get up would be to lift the chair with him. I zipped them tight and I know he felt it as he flinched a bit but he didn’t say anything.

  I walked over to Lebowski and kicked him in the butt and told him to get up. He was trying to say something, so I immediately grabbed him by the cuff again and assisted him by lifting his arms straight up. As he got up, he moaned with pain. I then had him sit down in the chair next to Avery. I reached down and ripped the duct tape off of his mouth and face, which caused him to yell as the tape yanked on the beard that had been growing since obviously, he hadn’t shaved in several days.

  ****

  Harold Wesley had been Billy Lebowski’s best friend. They had known each other for a couple of years. Harold was being raised by Tom, and Caroline Ashley, who were foster parents, just like Jake was. They took Harold into their home when his mother and father both were sent to prison for running a meth lab. They owned a home about ½ mile to the east of Pine City. Harold was a very troubled teen. Many times the Ashley’s talked about sending Harold back to the state, as the older he got, the more rebellious he became and it was to the point where the Ashley’s started fearing him a bit, but they felt it was their duty to try and help him. They also had two foster daughters that they had taken in. Beverly who was 12 and Cadence who was 14. They were sisters whose parents were killed by a drunk driver and the only family that they had was their grandmother who was 87 and in a retirement village in Florida. She sent the Ashley’s money every month, but that was the most she could do for them.

  Once the EMP hit and Billy and Thatcher went on one of their raids, they broke into the Ashley home. Tom Ashley pulled a shotgun on them and forced Billy and Thatcher to drop their weapons. He had just told his wife to go get a rope so that he could tie them up when Harold came into the room. Seeing that it was Billy, Harold shot Tom in the back with a shotgun that Tom gave him to hunt dove with. When Caroline came running back into the room to see what happened, Harold then shot her in the chest. The three of them then grabbed all of the food out of the house, plus the two girls and took them to the house Billy and Thatcher claimed was their own hideaway. They kept the girls tied up in the house for their own sexual amusement and the only food they’d allow the girls to eat was from cans of tuna fish.

  When the Pine City battle went down, Harold was here watching over the girls. When Avery and Lebowski showed up, he welcomed them with open arms. Orville let him keep his sex slaves, and he and Avery would even go in with the girls for their own sexual appetite.

  ****

  Harold was awakened by a crashing sound in the kitchen. When he opened the bedroom door, he could hear me ordering Orville to get into the chair. He ran back into the bedroom, not knowing what to do. He didn’t want to take a chance on being shot, so running in to confront me was out of the question. Instead, he climbed out the bedroom window with his Ruger .38 special and had decided to sneak up and shoot me from behind.

  Mike wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t see into the house, so he didn’t have any idea what was going on. He decided to move up to the house, so he called Mo and told him that he was moving up. As Mike was just preparing to get his gear together, a figure walked into sight from the south side of the house. He raised his scope and could see it was a younger man, with shaggy hair and he was only wearing pants. The one thing he did have though, was some type of revolver, and he was sneaking around the house, looking through every window as he went. He then crawled onto the porch and started glancing through the front door. Mike had his crosshairs on the spine of the man. The man didn’t even open the screen door; he just raised up the revolver to fire it. Mike immediately fired. The impact of the shot pushed the man’s body against the screen door, and he slumped to the floor of the porch. Mike kept an eye on him to watch for any movement and since there was none, Mike immediately jumped up and ran towards the house.

  When Mo and the guys heard the shot and then saw Mike take off, Mo yelled, “Let’s go!”

  When Mike approached the fence, he used his .308 to lay on top of the fence and without slowing down, he practically did a cartwheel over the fence.

  I, on the other hand, jumped when I heard the shot and turned to see the body slumping to the floor of the porch. Immediately, though, I realized that the gunshot was the sound of Mike’s .308. I looked at both Orville and Avery and told them not to even think about moving.

  I then moved into the living room and was looking at the body on the porch, when I saw Mike running across the yard. He burst through the door leading with the barrel of his .308. I immediately started yelling, “It’s clear, it’s ok.” He looked around quickly and lowered the rifle.

  “You alright?” I told him yes.

  “I have another question for you. Are you crazy? That son of a bitch was getting ready to blow you away. If I wouldn’t have been in position…..”

  I looked at him, and with a humble tone, I said, “Thank you. The answer to your question is yes. I had no intention of doing it this way, but the minute I saw Lebowski…” and I just shook my head from side to side.

  Mike had a point. The way I did, it was stupid, and if I had seen any of our guys doing it this way, I would have chewed their butts out.

  “Where are they?”

  “Oh, they’re gift wrapped in the kitchen.”

  Just about that time Mo, Red, and Wit were running across the yard and I heard Mo tell Wit to check the perimeter.

  Mike went to the door and yelled, “We’re all right.”

  Mo and Red came in, and Mo asked, “Has anyone cleared the rooms?”

  I shook my head no, so he immediately nodded to Red and Mike to do just that.

  Mo walked up to me, “You stupid son of a bitch. You're lucky you didn’t get yourself killed.”

  “I know. I just got the same from Mike.”

  “Good.” He said and looked into the kitchen and saw Orville and Avery sitting in the chairs.

  “Well, I see you accomplished what you wanted to.”

  “Not quite yet.”

  While checked the perimeter of the house Wit couldn’t help but smell the odor coming from the area of the shed and immediately recognized the smell as well. He walked up to the shed, opened the door and the smell almost knocked him over. He then shut the door, took in a deep breath and held it. Again he opened the door and walked in.

  He saw a tarp laying over what he knew was at least two bodies by the shape of it. He walked over to the tarp, hesitating a moment, and then pulled it back. He immediately started gagging, so he rushed out of the shed and threw up.

  What he saw was gruesome. It looked like an elderly couple that had been shot in the face. They obviously had been there a while as maggots covered the apparent gunshot wounds, and their bodies had bloated as well.

  After clea
ring out his stomach, he walked to the house. When he walked in, he was pale.

  Mo looked at him, “What’s wrong?”

  He started pointing in the direction of the shed with his thumb and just started to talk when Red yelled out, “Vince, Mo, you better come in here.”

  “I have them.” Wit said, meaning he would cover Lebowski and Avery.

  When I walked into the back bedroom, there was a young naked teenage girl tied down to the bed. One rope on each corner of the bed held her arms and legs spread out. She had tape over her mouth, and she laid there with her eyes wide open and with an expression of total fear. Across the room was a younger girl that was obviously nude as well, but had a blanket over her shoulders. She also had tape over her mouth and was tied to what appeared to be an old-style steam wall heater and in a position where she had to remain seated.

  I grabbed a sheet that was laying on the floor and covered the girl that was tied to the bed. As I approached her, she started crying under the tape, and you could tell she was scared to death of me.

  “It’s ok. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to help you.”

  Red at the same time wrapped the blanket around the younger girl but she just stared with a blank look in her eyes. No sound, no reaction.

  I stepped out signaling Mo to follow, and we went back into the kitchen where I told Wit to go in and check them out.

  Orville Lebowski started saying, “Gentlemen, what is all of this about? Surely there has been some kind of misunderstanding. Let’s talk about this.”

  I grabbed another strip of duct tape and put it over his mouth.

  I got on the radio, “Tag, are you there?” He answered immediately.

  “Get Brandy and Kim and head up here with the jeep. Tell Brandy to bring her medical bag and Kim to bring a couple of blankets and hurry. Go up to Pine City and at the curve, keep going straight north down the dirt road. We’re at the first house on the left about a ½ mile or so up. Tell everyone that we’re all fine.”

  “Will do.” He replied, and he ran into the house.

  Everyone in the house had heard my transmission as they had a radio on as well. When Tag walked in, Brandy had the med kit, and Kim was walking out of the hallway with the two blankets.

  While we were waiting, Mo started looking around the kitchen. He started opening cabinet doors, and I heard him say, “I’ll be damned, look at all this shit.”

  I walked over, and they were full of canned goods, boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, all sorts of condiments and stacks of tuna fish cans. All the cabinets were this way.

  “You son of a bitch! All this food is what you stole from other people!”

  Orville started talking again, but with the duct tape on his mouth, it was just a steady rumble of sounds. Mo, thinking about all the people that starved because of him, walked over to him and kicked him in the side, causing him and the chair to fall over against Avery, which caused him to fall over also. Mo then looked over to me with an apologetic look for losing his cool.

  “Don’t worry. They’re going to get a lot worse than that.” I commented.

  About that time, we heard the jeep approaching. When they pulled into the driveway, Tag jumped out with his weapon and told the Kim and Brandy to hang on. Mo stepped out the door and flagged them in. Tag, not knowing what was going on, scanned the area as they walked into the house and then followed them in. When Kim saw me, she ran over to me and gave me a hug and held on for a few moments. I then led Brandy and her back to the bedroom where the girls were.

  Wit had the girls untied and had them both sitting on the edge of the bed sipping some water out of his water bladder that was in his tactical vest. Wit filled Brandy in on what bruises and wounds he found on them, and Brandy started checking out the bruises on both girls, while Kim tried talking to them. When the girls saw Kim and Brandy, the oldest seemed to settle down quite a bit, but the youngest still seemed to be in a complete state of shock. I had Mike stand right outside the door of the bedroom and Wit and Red followed me back into the kitchen.

  I looked at Wit, and he said, “By what I can see, they’ve been being abused for some time. I wasn’t able to check them out the way I should’ve, but I’m willing to bet they have severe bruising on their upper thighs and Vulva area. Brandy will be able to examine them better than I could.” He then paused, “Also, the smell outside is coming from what looks like an elderly couple that were both shot in the head and dragged into the shed. I’d say they’ve been dead for a few weeks or maybe longer; probably the owners of this house.”

  Red glaring at Orville and Avery said, “Let’s just put a bullet in each of their heads now.”

  “No, that’s too merciful for them. What I have in mind is hanging them.”

  Avery, who hadn’t said a word so far, had heard the word hanging and suddenly started trying to talk with panic in his voice. For some reason, I was curious what he had to say, so I walked over and ripped the tape off of his mouth. He groaned when I did but then immediately started begging us not to hang him.

  It turned out that Avery was not scared of death, except for the idea of hanging. He had watched lots of westerns on television when he was growing up and watching people hang really bothered him; it was like a phobia to him.

  “Listen, I know you’re going to kill us, but I’ll give you some information that you’ll want to know if you give me your word that you won’t hang me.”

  All of us laughed, and I replied, “Yeah, that’s one hell of a way to die. But don’t worry, I won’t hang you like they use to, where a horse runs out from beneath you or a trap door comes open and it snaps your neck. If we hang you, we’re going to lift you up slowly and let you choke to death.”

  Total fear came over his face, and he said with a panicked stricken voice, “I promise you’ll want to know this. Just promise me that you won’t kill me that way.”

  “What information would that be?”

  “Will you give me your word?”

  I thought for a moment.

  “I’ll tell you what, if what you have to say is something worthwhile, I give you my word, I won’t hang you.”

  He looked at me and then after a pause; he said, “We have a lot more food than this. There is a storm shelter out back that just looks like a mound of dirt from the back door but on the other side of it, there is an entry to the shelter. There are cases of homemade canned goods, canned fruit and a lot more.” I looked at Red, and he and Wit went out to check it out.

  As they were walking out the back door, I yelled, “Be careful, make sure there are no booby traps.” I looked at Avery, “If there is, I promise you that you will hang.”

  “It’s clean; it’s ok, I promise you.”

  About that time, Brandy came walking out. “We need to get them out of here and check them out. They’ve been through a lot, and the sooner we get them out of here, the better.”

  I nodded my head yes and told Tag, “You and Mike, take them back to the house. Have Mike stay there with them for security, and you grab the trailer and bring it back up here.”

  He nodded his head and went back to the bedroom. Soon Kim and Brandy were helping the girls out to the jeep with Mike and Tag following. When the girls saw Orville and Avery laying on the floor, they stopped in fear.

  “Don’t worry girls, they can’t hurt you, and they’ll never be able to hurt you again,” Kim stated.

  They slowly started walking again and then the oldest girl, Cadence, pulled out of Kim’s arms and ran over to Orville and started kicking him in the head over and over. No one stopped her at first, but Kim eventually walked over after about the fifth kick and put her arms around her and walked her out. Orville started crying like a baby.

  Tag drove, and Mike sat in the front seat, while Kim and Brandy sat in back with their arms around the girls that were wrapped in blankets. Right before they left, Kim asked to use Mike’s radio.

  “Mia, Angela, are one of you there?”

  Mia came over the radio sa
ying “Go ahead.”

  “Listen, we’re going to be coming back with a couple of younger girls. Can you guys have some soup made for them? We’ll be there pretty quickly.”

  “We’ll get on it.”

  Then Tag started driving relatively slow, as the jeep was a rough ride when sitting in the back seat.

  Wit and Red came back in through the back door, “He wasn’t lying,….There are cases of food down there, they had to be stealing food from day one.”

  I looked down at Avery.

  “See, I told you I wasn’t lying.”

  I stood there for a moment thinking about what to do with both of them. I thought once again, how in the past, they would’ve been arrested and then a year later they would’ve had a trial if the case wasn’t plea bargained down by a couple of “good ole boy” attorneys. Then, after every technicality was found and evidence was eliminated by the court for whatever reason, they may spend several years in prison, watching television every night while sitting in the air-conditioned recreation room. They may have received the death penalty but how many years would it have been until they were actually executed, if at all. Special interest groups would file appeal after appeal. Then, if they made it through all of that, a liberal governor could be lobbied to give a stay of execution at the last minute.

  I thought about the hell that the two girls must have gone through. How many times were they raped and abused and went through whatever demonic things they did to them?