FORSAKEN: THE SYSTEMIC SERIES (5 page)

“Good…you do that,” Jake nodded.  “Now I want a new plan, a bigger plan when I get back later.  You got it?”

Ava sucked at her teeth and then took a deep drag of her cigarette and exhaled.  “Yeah…I got it,” she said.  “But these things don’t just materialize out of thin air.  There’s a lot of work involved.  It’s not as easy as you think, and it takes time.”

“Then I suggest you get started,” Jake said as he turned and walked away.

Ava already had a plan; far more of a plan than Jake would ever know, but like a huge dam holding back a lake of information, she wasn’t about to open the floodgates.  Rather, she would release a more steady flow a little bit at a time, using it to generate the power necessary to secure her position within their expanding organization.  If she told Jake everything now, he wouldn’t need her.  And with Jake, if you weren’t necessary, you were expendable.  Without information, Ava’s position was tenuous at best, and while she knew that Jake still loved her sex, sex was easily replaceable, especially here in Atlanta.    

While Ava sat there, quietly finishing her cigarette, Jake made a circuit around the room, rousing each of his lounging men often with a smack to the head or a boot to the gut.  Then he stormed out of the room.

Meanwhile, his men moaned, groaned, burped, and farted their way into various states of semi-awareness.  Some lit cigarettes, some fished cans of beans from crates scattered around the room to eat for breakfast, while others rummaged through cereal boxes, fishing out handfuls of cereal for their morning meals.  A couple washed down their food with swigs of whiskey or tequila.

Disgusted by the sights, smells, and sounds, Ava departed the room.  “I’m going for a walk,” she said quietly. 

No one seemed to care or even take notice as she left.

She walked downstairs to the massive steel door that acted as the only way into or out of the pump station.  One of Jake’s men sat slumped, sleeping in a folding chair.  His assault rifle lay across his lap.  He was supposed to be watching the monitor and guarding the entrance.  Ava knew the job was boring as shit, but it was necessary nonetheless.  She awakened him with a swift kick to the shin.

“
Ah…fuck!
” he cried, jolting awake.  “Why’d you do that?” he asked, rubbing his shin sorely.

“Why do you think, dumbshit?” Ava frowned at him.  “Just be thankful it was me and not Jake who found you asleep on the job.”

The henchman frowned, shrinking back from Ava, knowing that he was in the wrong.  A little cowering might just help keep Ava quiet to Jake about what she’d seen.  The man sat, staring at her.

“Well?” Ava said, waiting a moment as the henchman stared at her, oblivious.  “
Open the goddamn door!
” she said, frustrated at his incompetence.  She shook her head as she stood waiting for him to unlatch and then swing the heavy steel door open for her.  These guys might be tough and good at fighting, but they sure as hell weren’t worth much otherwise.

She stepped outside, blinking and squinting from the sun’s rays as she gave her eyes a moment to adjust from the pump station’s dark, dank interior to the blazing Georgia sunlight.  She walked the short distance to the chain-link fence that surrounded the perimeter of their compound, unlocked the chained gate, stepped through, and relocked it behind her.  She looked up at the pump station’s third floor tower.  She could see the head of one of their machine gunners watching her over the rooftop.   She walked on past their fleet of vehicles that was comprised largely of pickup trucks and large SUVs.  She could easily have had her choice of one of them, but she preferred to walk whenever possible.  She spent enough time pent up inside that stinky, claustrophobic pit of a pump station, and it was nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air occasionally.  And while walking these days wasn’t as safe as driving, Ava could take care of herself.

The first few times she’d gone out on her own, Jake had been pissed.  He’d insisted that she take along a bodyguard.  But eventually, and after she’d come back one day carrying the severed penis of a man who’d unsuccessfully tried to rape her, Jake had relented, realizing that Ava was indeed capable of handling herself when out on her own.

He’d passed the severed member proudly among his men both as a trophy to show off just how badass his woman was but also as a warning that she was not one to be fucked with should they have any ideas of their own. 

Ava had shown that her silky smooth skin could easily be shed to reveal the venomous asp concealed within.

Today’s walk wouldn’t be a lengthy one, but she was prepared nonetheless.  A razor-sharp, eight-inch knife strapped to her thigh, and her two “lucky” 9 millimeter handguns fit snugly into holsters that were strapped tight against her body and concealed by her black leather jacket would leave anyone who made an attempt on Ava instantly sorry they’d tried.

This morning, her hike took her to a shabby-looking brick bungalow that most would have thought abandoned.  The front windows of the house were broken out.  The front door stood wide open.  Trash and clothing littered the front lawn. 

Ava walked around to the back of the home where the garage was located.  She peered through one of the grime-covered windows.  She could just make out a vehicle beneath a beige tarp.

It was all she needed to tell her what she wanted to know.

She walked to the back of the house.  Here the door was not only shut, but locked.  Ava had been here before.  This door led directly to the basement of the house where the two individuals for whom she was searching, resided.  She looked around, ensuring that nobody was watching and then knocked softly on the door.  She waited for a moment, and then knocked again, louder this time.  Several seconds later, she heard some rustling behind the door, several locks click, and then the door creak open.

An unshaved, yet handsome face peeked from behind the door.  “We were hoping it might be you,” said a dark-haired man as he opened the door wider and stepped back to allow Ava inside.  “You bring the rest of the stuff?” he asked eagerly.

“We’ll get to that,” Ava said calmly as she entered the home and followed the man downstairs.

They entered into a large, yet musty and sparsely furnished basement with a concrete floor.  The space was dimly lit by a single overhead light.  Just like the last time Ava had been to the home, she caught the hum of a generator concealed somewhere within the basement.  A blonde-haired man sat on a couch before a television.  He was playing a video game.

“While things change, somehow they stay the same,” Ava shook her head, smiling sadly.  “We still have our grown up boys, playing with toys.”

The blonde-haired man paused his video game, turning around.  Seeing Ava, he stood.  His boyish good looks radiated through the poor lighting of the basement.  “Ava,” he grinned, approaching her, arms outstretched, “good to see you.”

“I don’t think so,” Ava said, refusing his hug and pushing him back from her.  He was obviously high.  “Business first…” she paused, smiling at each of the men in turn, “…
then
pleasure.”

“So the other half of our stuff?” the dark-haired man asked her again.

“Yeah, I got it,” said Ava.  “How was the trip down south?”

“Okay,” he said.  “Ran into some tough guys outside Jacksonville, but we took care of them.  Other than that, everything was cool.”

“You get the information I asked for?” Ava said.

“We got it,” the blonde man nodded.  “How’d you know those guys would be down there?” he tilted his head, giving her a quizzical look.

“Call it my female intuition,” Ava said.  “They were pretty badass back in the day, so I figured the flu – if they lived through it – would have them thriving after it passed.”

“Yeah, they seemed to be set up pretty good.  Here,” he handed her an envelope.  “We wrote down everything you wanted in there.”

She took the envelope and handed him a half-full baggy of white powder in exchange. 

“We all good?” the man grinned at her.

“Yeah,” she nodded back. “We’re all good.”

“You want to stay and party with us?” he asked, looking her up and down as he handed the bag over to his buddy who immediately moved to a nearby table, sprinkled some of it out, tasted it, and then divided it into neat, thin, three-inch-long lines.

“I’ve got a little extra time to kill.  Why not?” she shrugged out of her jacket.

“Holy shit,” the blonde guy said, staring wide-eyed at the weapons strapped to Ava’s chest.

“Come prepared or not at all is what I always say,” smiled Ava.

“
I guess
,” he said.

Ava ditched the jacket, but not the guns.  She walked over to the table. 

“Ladies first,” the handsome blonde gestured to the lines of cocaine laid out on the table. 

Ava knelt, sniffing a white line up her nose.  At the end of it, she twitched, shook her head, and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.  “
Damn
that’s good shit,” she said. 

The two men giggled goofily and then eagerly followed suit.

“Time for some tunes!” said the blonde, sauntering over to a stereo and flipping it on.

Soon all three were naked together on the sofa.  Ava let each of the men take his turn with her, then both at the same time.  Being with them made her remember how nice it was to be with men who focused on
her
rather than solely upon themselves during sex.  She had to admit, it’d been such a long time that she’d nearly forgotten what it was like to truly feel pleasure.  She was so used to concentrating on the needs of the other party that she had to remind herself to relax a little bit, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

After they were done, Ava got dressed while the two men lounged in sex and drug-induced ecstasy.  They looked half dead.  Ava felt alive, invigorated.  As she pulled on her pants and laced up her boots again, she looked over at them, “Thanks boys.  Stick around; I might need your services again.” 

And with that she left.

The two men looked at one another, unsure when Ava said “services” exactly what she meant.  Either way, they were fine with it.

* * *

Back at the pump station later that afternoon, after Jake and the boys had returned from their raid and stashed their accumulated loot, the men gradually filtered upstairs to the building’s makeshift lounge.

“Hang tight before you start celebrating,” Jake told the men who had already selected their choice bottles of booze for the evening’s consumption.  “We need to go over some stuff.”

While the men sat, booze in hand, impatiently awaiting their leader’s speech, Ava spent five minutes reviewing their next move with Jake in private before they rejoined the men.

Jake of course started the meeting, talking big and taking all the credit for Ava’s ideas.  Then he turned it over to Ava to handle the specifics.  This had become their usual routine, mainly because Jake either didn’t know or couldn’t remember all the details and intricacies of the plans.  But Jake didn’t care since he figured his men didn’t know any different.  They thought he was calling all the shots, and that’s all that mattered.  Plus, Jake liked having Ava by his side.  That sweet little piece of ass helped remind his men of who he was, what he had, and why he had it.

Ava had noticed something lately though when she was addressing the organization.  When they’d first started having these sorts of gatherings, Jake’s men tended to leer lecherously at her.  They seemed to see her as little more than a sex object, her sole purpose to serve their master and be devoured with their eyes.  Lately however, things seemed to have changed.  Ava could sense a difference in how the men looked at her and how they responded to her presence.  While she could still see the lustful looks in their eyes – that sexual appetite that men had difficulty hiding – she could also see something else, something new, something different, something growing.  She could feel it in the room.  Before, when she talked, the men would often talk over her, make lewd comments, drink or smoke; but now they listened, and listened closely.  While Jake might have been too blind or too ignorant to notice it, Ava wasn’t.  She could feel the men’s respect, her position and her power within the organization slowly and silently growing – and she liked it.

Chapter 5

While there weren’t many homes in Olsten, it took us a good hour to make a sweep of all of them.  We wanted to err on the side of caution to ensure our stay in the town would remain a safe one.

Afterwards, we rejoined the rest of our group and gave them a brief and very general rundown of what we’d seen and found.  After this, we took a vote to decide upon our living location, selecting the general store as the best place for us to settle down.

Our first order of business after this was to unload our supplies and then move the pickup and trailer so they weren’t sitting conspicuously out in the open where potential passers-by might notice them and get suspicious.  While Olsten appeared to be a true ghost town, and was far enough from any major roads or highways not to draw much if any notice from other travelers, after our previous experiences, we weren’t taking any chances.

After getting everything unloaded and inside the store, and the truck and trailer safely stashed behind the building, it was nearly dark out.  Therefore, we ate a bare-bones dinner and crashed out, making ourselves comfortable upon the available beds and sofas scattered throughout the two finished upstairs apartments.  Due to her still-healing burns, we kept Emily resting downstairs in the store area to minimize the pain and discomfort both to her as well as ourselves by trying to maneuver her up the stairs on her stretcher.  She was fine with this though, and we used a bundle of pillows and blankets to make her as comfortable as possible. Dad said he’d stay downstairs with her to keep her company and ensure she had whatever she needed.