Chapter 9

There was at least two men carrying rifles, if any of the others were Armed, I couldn’t tell, but I had seen enough. I chambered a round and the noise, brought a couple of eyes my way. The man looking at me, eye’s got bigger and he reached out an arm to one of those questioning Bill. When he turned an looked my way, his expression went from a man sure of himself and in control, to a man knowing he just stepped into dog crap. That alerted the rest to my presents, and I was ready for them. The two men with rifles made the mistake of trying to bring them to bear on me, so I squeezed off several rounds into both. First one and then the other, who still hadn’t got into firing position. I swung the barrel back at the group and took out another that was reaching for a shoulder holster.

“That’s enough, I can kill every damn one of you. Just stand there and don’t move.” I ordered. It’s hard to tell much by looking at a bearded man, but the fear in their eyes stood out. Three of their number were laying on the concrete floor and probably dying, if they weren’t already dead. I’d shot at the biggest part of them, if it killed them, good. Walking out from behind the overstuffed chair, I kept the rifle leveled at them. One flick of the switch and it would go full auto. At this close range, I could take out everyone of them, and they knew. Backing up, I kicked the door shut. I didn’t want anyone to come through and surprise me. I figured there had to be more than just these men. I was sure they had women, or they wouldn’t have been beating Marla. With the barrel, I motioned for them to step away from the table and my two comrades.

Seeing what they’d done to Marla, I wanted to kill all of them. Her face was swollen and bloody. She was bleeding from her scalp, nose, mouth, and her eyes were almost swollen shut. Bill was even worse. I suspected they worked him over first trying to get what information they were seeking out of him, or Marla. That didn’t work so they started in on her. Both victims were tied to the chairs, and couldn’t move. From their beating it didn’t look like they would be able to walk once they were cut loose.

Looking from my two friends back at the men standing almost against the wall, they could see in my eyes that I wanted to kill them. “Look...” The one that had been alerted to my presents started talking. “Were just trying to survive.” It sounded lame, and he knew it. They all knew it. Some of them fearing what might happen next quietly shifted their bodies so that they were standing behind another.

I shook my head and told them to get back out where I could see them and to keep their hands in plain sight. Then looking at the guy that had spoke up, I nodded my head as if I was understanding. “Tell you what fellas. You point out the man in charge here and I’ll just kill him, and the rest of you can go. How’s that sound.” I saw several of them look towards the man that had been talking. He looked worried, but not fearful. I have to give them all credit, not one of them said a word. I expected they would jump at the chance and all point to him.

Taking a good look at them, I noted they were wearing filthy clothes. Beards, scraggly hair, but something was out of place. They were wearing filthy clothing and scraggly looking, but I could see their faces were clean. I realized that it was only their clothing that was dirty, but under the first layer, it looked like clean shirts. The man that had spoke, was wearing a plaid shirt under the filthy grey coat or whatever it use to be.

I picked out the shortest man there and told him to take out his knife. His face blanched white when I said for him to take it out. He must of figured I was going to do something to him with it. I motioned and told him to go over and cut my friends loose. He nodded, and started over to Marla. I Cautioned him and told him to move slowly. While Shorty was cutting Bill and Marla loose, the rest of us just stood waiting. Neither Marla or Bill moved once their hands were loose, but just remained in their chairs, Marla slumped to the side, the chairs were close enough that she rested against Bill.

Now I had each man one at a time, open his clothing to show me, that he wasn’t carrying a weapon. Those that had one, were instructed to drop it on the floor. Soon as I cleared each one, I had them move across the room and stand against another wall. In all there were six revolvers, and the two rifles beside the dead men. I noted neither of the rifles was Marla’s. Each was scope’d, and looked to be high powered hunting rifles.

I knew that I couldn’t carry both of them back, not in their condition. They were in no shape to walk, and had to be carried. There was no way that I was going to trust these men. My problem as I saw it was do I kill them, or make them help carry my two friends back. I couldn’t set my rifle down to tend to my comrades. They would jump me in a second. I had to think of a way to get Bill and Marla back to the bunker. Right now, they couldn’t even help themselves. The beating they’d taken had done some damage, and they weren’t going to recover any time soon.

Looking at Shorty again, I told him to come next to the table. The rest of the men standing against the wall, I told to sit down. A man sitting couldn’t move against me as fast as one standing. Seeing some hesitation on their part, I told them it was either sit down or I would shoot them. They understood that and sat down. Old Plaid shirt sat first and nodded to the others to do the same. I knew who the leader was for sure then.

To Shorty, I said. “Go Bring your women here.” “gain that bewildered look of fear. So I reminded him, that I held all the aces. AGo bring them here, and make sure you come back. If you don’t come back within ten minutes, I’ll wipe these men all out.”

Shorty still fidgeted and looked to Plaid Shirt, then back at me. “It will take longer. I have to remove the booby traps.”

“Fifteen minutes then.” I relented. “If you come through that door with anything other then women, I’ll cut you down.” Then to him and the rest of the men sitting there, I added. “I’m trying to figure out away to get my partners back to safety. If I can’t move them and we stay here. I can’t let any of you live. That’s the short version.” I looked them each in the eye as I spoke. “I don’t like repeating myself, one step out of line, and I start killing.” That seemed to soak through and Shorty headed out the door to do my bidding.

While we waited for Shorty to return with the women, one of the men I thought was dead, started to groan. I was surprised to see it was the first man I shot. I thought I’d put my group right in his heart. He wasn’t capable of moving, or anything else so I left him there. Plaid shirt grumbled and said the man needed help. I quipped back and said, “I saw the help you gave out. He’s better off there.” Nothing more was said. Only the occasional groans from the wounded man broke the silence.

It was almost fourteen minutes later when Shorty Knocked on the door and announced that he was outside. I said to send in the women one at a time, and to make sure they didn’t try anything. The first woman in the door looked over to Plaid shirt and started to move towards him. A quick shout from me, stopped her in her tracks. I pointed at the opposite wall, and told her to go stand there. Reluctantly she went over and stood as I called for the next one to come in. Each had to be ordered to stand next to the other. I noticed that when they saw the two bodies and the wounded man, they all showed anguish. Some were sobbing at the sight, but I didn’t figure they were crying because of what happened to Marla and Bill.

The women were all dressed in clean clothing and looked well washed themselves. Some were old and others young. I saw that there were no children, and after fifteen of them were lined up along the wall and Shorty said that was all, I had him come in. I fully expected he might come through the door blazing with Marla’s missing rifle. But he didn’t. Looking at Plaid shirts woman, I asked her where the children were.

That brought a defiant look as she told me the children were safe and that was all I needed to know. I just slowly shook my head, “No, you need to tell me who among you are the mothers. And I will decide what I need to know. There is a good chance that the rest of you might get out of this alive. But it won’t happen if I keep getting asshole answers from you. If I need to kill one of you women right now to prove a point, I’ll do it. Do I need to do that?” I glared at her. “ look of defeat came over her and she shook her head no. ASay it. Say it loud so everyone can hear. I want it understood by all of you what the stakes are.”

“No, You don’t need to set an example.” She said loud so that all could hear.

“Okay now. Let’s get started.” I was ready with my plan.

Ordering Shorty to open the door wide, I had the men stand up and leave. Telling them to turn left and go down the hall toward the table at the end. I figured Shorty had removed the trip wire and any other devices they’d set up. There was no disturbances and each man got up and left as I pointed to them. I kept Plaid Shirt as I didn’t want him thinking that he could get something organized against me once he was out of sight. Next I asked which ladies had children that needed them at this moment. Almost all of them raised their hands. I shook my head and told them no way was I going to believe that. Then I asked Plaid Shirts woman for volunteers. Volunteers to help me get my injured friends back to safety. At first she looked at me as if I were crazy. Then looking at Marla and Bill she looked over at her man. I could see that she didn’t approve of what they’d done.

“Okay, I volunteer.” She said. AHow many more do you need?’

“Eight. It will take nine women all together.” was my answer. I looked at the women lined up against the wall. “Do this and everyone walks away alive.”

“What about Don, Fred, and Chester?” one of the women indicated the dead and wounded laying at my feet.

“That’s done, and can’t be undone.” I told them. “From here on out, you can make the difference. My friends came here to help. This is what they got. Why? You got an answer?”

“Girls,” Plaid Shirts woman spoke up. “Lets help him get his friends back. I think we can trust him. He could have killed all our men, but he didn’t” Hearing her say that, gave me some hope that there was some reasoning with these people.

It took a few minutes for everyone to decide, but then I did get my volunteers. Some expressed their unwillingness to be doing anything for a murderer, but I let it slide. I did notice that there were three of the women who had said nothing, not even among themselves. While the other women, spoke behind their hands with each other, there was those three that remained silent.

“Okay, you have your volunteers, now what do you want us to do?” Plaid shirts wife said with her hands on her hips. She was ready to get it done and over with.

Figuring to use the chairs Marla and Bill were sitting in, I up ended the table after handing the lantern to Plaid Shirts wife, and broke the four legs loose. I stuck a leg through the side rungs of each chair, so that a woman on either side could get a good grip on them. Next I Lashed the other two legs through the back of the chair. This way. Four women two on each side of the chair could lift and carry it without tripping over each other. I was thankful the chairs were all high backed. I did all this with my rifle slung over my shoulder, but I made sure the women could see that I still had my holstered magnum at the ready.

It took a few of the ropes used to bind Marla and Bill to again tie them to the chairs to keep from falling or rolling out. I took the other sections of rope scattered about the room and figured to use those to tie the ladies in a line so that we wouldn’t get lost in the dark. It took only a few minutes and we were ready to leave.

The first thing I did was have Plaid Shirts wife, step through the door with me using her as a shield. The hall was empty, and from the lantern that she was carrying, I could see that the figure sitting at the table was a dummy. That answered my question of what it was. It irked me, that I’d been held up by trying to figure out if it posed a threat to me. I might have been able to cut down some of the punishment rendered on Marla. I knew I was too late for Bill.

I saw one head duck back around the corner at the end of the hall, and adjusted my position with Plaid Shirts woman. I know she has a name, but I didn’t want to get friendly enough to give a damn. Plaid Shirt was good enough for now. Once through the door and up the stairs, we stepped out into the black of night. The rain hit us hard, and was soaking the women to the skin. That’s when I tied the ropes to the two stretcher chairs and doused the lantern. With my Night vision back in place, I could lead the way and had no need of the lantern. It would only show our enemies where we were and set us up as a big target.

Now I stuck to the middle of the streets. I hadn’t seen any night vision gear, so I decided to take the chance. Going the back ways and through alleys, would have been too hard. In the middle of the street there was less rubble to deal with and we could walk without stepping over trash. There was a strong wind that blew rain in our faces. I could see that some of the women, really wanted to change their minds about helping, but I bluntly told them, I would shoot the first one that dropped their load and tried to run. In the dark they couldn’t see if I was watching them or not.

Secretly I wanted to ask Plaid shirt a lot of questions. I would have liked to know just how they were managing to survive. I was sure most of the food in the stores had all been ransacked or was spoiled by now. Alas that was something I could forego as my main priority was to get Marla and Bill back to the Bunker and some medical treatment. I had to keep looking back to check on our trail. I just couldn’t see Plaid Shirt letting his woman go like that. I figured they would try something, but I didn’t know where or how. The women, were shuffling along, not trying to remain quiet, and I didn’t waste my time, insisting on it. Even if they tried I knew they couldn’t do it.

The groans and heavy breathing were getting worse. Bill being the heaver of the two, was a strain on his bearers. I had them stop and trade places, taking them each and putting their hands in the right places. They couldn’t see in the dark, but I could. I sure wasn’t going to strike a match. Just as I expected, but not quite like I expected, Plaid Shirt did come after his woman. At first they came trying to follow us with a lantern. I knew they wouldn’t be able to surprise me with that, but I figured they had someone ahead of us, and if they could get me silhouetted against the light ... Well they would have as good a shot as any at me. I cracked off two shots, one on each side of them. Wide enough to miss them, but still close enough they knew the next one would either get the light or one of them. It didn’t matter to me. Shortly the lantern went out, and I studied the area to make sure they were not moving up in the dark to relight it.

I was sure there was someone ahead of us, and I knew they could tell by the noise we were making that we were coming through. There was one thing I was pretty sure of, is that they hadn’t got the code for the lift from either Bill or Marla. If they had, they wouldn’t have continued to beat them. I assumed they knew the location of the Bunker, but I wasn’t about to confirm it with the women. My plan was to stop outside the bank, and turn the women around and head them back towards the direction we come. I figured in the dark and the rain, they wouldn’t know where they’d been. The rain was heavy enough, I was sure it would wipe out our tracks, but to be sure. I was planning on doing that myself after getting my charges safely inside.

I began hearing noises off to my right. It was a long way off and I figured it was the men, trying to flank us on the side streets. Waller Ville wasn’t that big of a town, we didn’t have but a few sidewalks outside of the down town area. The sound of the rain, was drowning out a lot of noise. So it was hard to keep tabs on their location. Another reason was that Bill was starting to groan, and add to the din of the pounding rain.

Sometimes in the dark, a person can think their one place when they’re not. I almost made the mistake of thinking we were in front of the bank, when we were a half a block short. The rain was so hard, that I had to shield my night vision by taking off my coat and holding it over my head. Now I was looking and turning all the time, trying to make sure no one was getting close. The heavy rain was fouling my field of vision, to where I could only see but a few yards ahead. I was sure we were there and trotted off to the side to make sure. It wasn’t the bank, and for a moment I felt lost. Doing my best to keep my head, I went back out and got everyone going again.

Marla wasn’t making any noise at all, and that worried me. I could see the rain pelting her damaged face and she was clearly soaked through. Taking a piece that I ripped from my shirt, I used it to cover her face. Maybe the rain would sooth her injuries, I didn’t know, but it was pelting down so hard it couldn’t have been helping her painful bruises. There wasn’t much else to do, but continue on through the rain.