Worth Saving (15 page)

I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do next but I knew it had to stop now. I started making my way towards our home
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Chapter Eighteen

Our home, the library was on fire and it’d spread to the warehouse and apartment neighbors. Flames flickered behind windows and leaked through open doors. Black smoke rose from the buildings in huge columns, mixing and twirling, pushed by the yellow flames consuming the buildings.

Everything we’d built, all those beautiful books, our homes, gone, destroyed by these men. Why? Was it some kind of hopeless lashing out after we’d gotten away, or some lame attempt to draw us back? Once again I’d failed. This was another instance of me being unable to protect the ones I loved, First dad, then Mrs. Johnson, all our fancy plans hadn’t stopped Jenny from being shot and Now our home were going up in flames.

I stood in a bell tower and watched. Big wet tears streamed down my face. The sense of loss overwhelmed me and I remembered the pain when I'd lost my father. Would things ever be right again?

There was no sign of the men. My burning hate had been ratcheted up another notch. They were probably out looking for us. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t find the kids, but how was I going to find them? I wondered.

I reluctantly turned away and scanned the city for any signs of the men. I glanced back towards the area of town where I’d left everybody. Things looked quiet. Closer in I caught occasional movements and flickering glimpses of men going in and out of buildings looking for us. Every time I saw one I had to force the bile back down my throat. It took everything I had not run out of the building and chase them down. Anger bubbled up inside of me threatening to erupt like some volcano. It’d been growing since Jenny had been shot. I no longer cared what happened as long as I hurt them as much as they’d hurt us.

I had to kill Big Jake, it was the only way. Without a leader, without a driving force, the men might give up and go away. I think I’d known this since I helped Claire and Ellen escape. Every event from that moment to this had been pushing us towards each other. I thought I knew where he was.

I walked down the six flights of stairs in the bell tower and exited out the park side entrance. Their wagon and horses were in the center of the park. That was where I’d find them. If not now, eventually.

I made my way into the park. I used every piece of cover and structure to hide and disguise my movements. I’d gotten a few hundred yards into the park when I heard a dog bark behind me. Turning I saw the dog pack running towards me at full speed, the big German shepherd at the lead. They’d waited until I was relatively exposed, away from any building.

I flashed back to the killing of his mate, the beautiful red Irish setter. I wondered if he’d been waiting for the perfect time to get me. These thoughts all flashed through my mind in an instance as I turned and began running. It was as if my legs were stuck in quicksand, wet sucking ground holding me back. All the energy had been sapped out of my legs. It felt that way but obviously I was actually running, if not very fast. I desperately searched the area for some kind of escape, any means, a door, window, a fence I could get over; anything that’d allow me put something between me and these evil carnivorous hounds.

The trees were all pine and the branches to far off the ground for me to get at. I twisted and let loose and arrow, hoping to slow them down. A dog yelped but I didn’t look. I was sure the shepherd had not been hit, maybe one of the others. I readied another arrow and twisted again, the dogs were about forty yards away and closing fast.

I reached the street and immediately saw a big fancy house on the other side. It was surrounded by a wrought iron fence that enclosed a very small yard with stone steps leading up to a large brown door. I flung the gate open and slammed it shut as the dogs lunged at me. They started barking and snarling at me through the fence. Their fangs dripped saliva and their eyes were on fire with
denied need as they stuck their snouts through the iron fence rails trying to get at me.

I backed up the steps to the big brown wooden doorway. A yellow bras knocker hung from the middle making me feel like I should use it to knock first. Instead I reached out and twisted the knob only to find it locked. Turning around, the dogs were still yammering. The sound was loud enough to draw the attention of anyone within miles. The shepherd stood back looking at me as his pack mates paced back and forth trying to find some way in.

The windows were too far off the ground for me to get to them. There’d be no entry that way. I foolishly tried the door again, but it was still locked. I had to get away now. The men and their guns would show up any minute. I was sort of surprised they hadn’t arrived already.

I tried to think of any other way into the building and out the back or I had to shut up that incessant barking. My gut clenched as if I were a treed raccoon waiting for the hunters to show up and pick me off. I was getting frantic and ran down the stairs at the dogs and yelled “SHUTUP.” The dogs ignored me of course and kept barking even louder.

This is ridiculous I thought climbing back up the steps; I am supposed to be hunting men. Men who were hunting me and here I was caught in this farce. Reaching behind me to my quiver I counted only three more arrows. I hadn’t been keeping track and let them get too low. My stomach twisted as I realized how trapped I was. Nothing was going to work. Suddenly a shot exploded from down the street and the dogs flinched, all seven of them looked towards the shooter then fled like a bunch of scared cockroaches scampering under the baseboards.

I looked towards the sound of the shot and saw a man dressed in jeans and a denim jacket walking towards me down the center of the road. The bottom of his pants legs were covered in brown goop, an obvious victim of the barrels of sewage. He held a
big black square looking semi-automatic gun in his hands and watched the dogs run away. He glanced my way and smiled, it wasn’t in greeting. More like the kind of smile a cat might have had when he found a mouse nicely trapped in a glass jar. 

“Well, lookie, lookie here,” he said walking to the fence and pointing the gun towards me. The smile disappeared to be replaced by a very serious look. “Drop the bow kid.”

I hesitated, I could fire and I was sure I’d hit him, but not before he fired.  A thought of the kids and of Claire flashed through my mind.  I wanted to see her again. To hold her in my arms and smell her honey-coconut hair.

We stood their facing each other looking for any opening, any sign of doubt. “Please kid, give me an excuse. Jimmy was my best friend, any excuse and I’ll blow your head off.”

I wondered which one was Jimmy. Had he been the man on the zip line, or the one with the arrow in his gut. Maybe one of our other victims. I had no idea and wasn’t really interested in finding out. The thought of the men we’d killed or wounded didn’t bother me the least.

The big round circle of the black gun’s barrel never wavered as he pointed it through the fence. The standoff might have lasted a lot longer but I heard a yell up the street. Neither of us flinched or looked away. It wouldn’t have made any difference if we had.

Two more men joined my antagonist; both of them held a gun pointed in my direction.

“Good job Tommy,” one of the new guys said as he looked me over. “This is what's been holding us up?” he asked dismissively. Reaching over he unlatched the gate. “Come on, drop it, you can only get one of us, the other two will kill you deader than dead.”

They had me. I couldn’t think of any way out and pretty soon someone was going to get tired of me and the problems I’d caused, or someone was going to remember a friend they’d lost and would end up putting a bullet between my eyes.

I slowly released the tension in my bow string and gently placed the weapon on the ground next to my feet and stood with my arms above my head.

Mr. Jean jacket jogged towards me and pulled my knife and machete out of their scabbards before tossing them onto the grass. He turned me around and pushed me into the door face first.

He pulled my arms behind my back tying them up tightly. I tried bending my wrists, hoping to create some play in the line but he’d done a good job. There wasn’t going to be an easy way to slip out of these.

The man grabbed my shoulder and twisted me back around to face them. “Like I said, Jimmy was a good friend,” The man said with an evil gleam in his eye. He stared at me, trying to put the fear of god and Big Jake into me. When he saw that it wasn’t going to work, he hauled back his arm and hit me square in the face.  My nose burst and my head exploded into stars. I felt the punch all the way to my knees as my head snapped back. My shoulders hit the door and I had to fight to stay upright. I tried shaking my head to clear my vision but it didn’t work as everything stayed blurry.

Two of the men each snatched an arm and started pulling me down the steps and out through the black iron gate and into the street.

I didn’t have any idea where they were taking me but tried to keep an eye out for any clues. That feeling of total failure returned. A black cloud of total depression descended over my mind as I tried to stay on my feet. Part of me wanted to say to hell with it and give up. I was tired of trying and failing. It was all way too much.

We walked for several blocks away from the library and park and into town. The men held my arms and both kept their guns drawn and ready. I think they were expecting to be ambushed. We’d really scared them when they attacked the buildings. The four of us walked about a half mile, thankfully away from the kid’s direction when we came to a group of men gathered in the street.

An old man stood with slumped shoulders in the middle of them. His hands tied behind his back and a noose hung loosely around his throat. The rope traveled up over a lamp post and back down where three men held it ready to pull whenever Big Jake instructed. The old man appeared to be scared, his eyes darting around silently pleading to be let go.

I’d seen the man several times around town. He always avoided us, so we did the same. His face was tanned and wrinkled, especially around the eyes. He looked to be about sixty five, a little old man with no idea what he’d gotten himself caught up in.

All of the men turned to watch me marched up the street to the group of them. Big Jake silently looked me over then turned to the men holding the rope and said, “We don’t need him anymore, go ahead.”

The old man screamed “No!” but Big Jake’s men holding the rope tightened the slack and then slowly pulled the rope hand over hand lifting the old man off the ground by the neck. I watched in horror as the he twisted, kicking his feet trying to find some kind of purchase. The men around me watched without expression. No one made any move to stop this abomination. This was not anything new to them, they’d seen a lot worse I’m sure.

The man’s face started to turn purple and the kicking and twisting slowed down as he was lifted all the way to the top of the lamp. Everyone craned their necks to watch him die. When the man stopped moving, Big Jake turned to me. He was like a mountain standing there, towering over everyone. With huge hairy fore arms and a massive black beard beneath a weird looking brow. It jutted out over deep set black eyes that looked like they’d been issued in hell to one of its demons. He looked like some kind of throw back and made me think I was meeting a Neanderthal or something. Eying me from my boots to my busted nose he said, “Your next if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

Chapter Nineteen

My legs began to shake, my thigh muscles twittered like a bird on a live electrical wire. Please god, I prayed, don’t let them see my legs shake. Please don’t let me lose control. I’m sure my face turned red in embarrassment. The thought of these men watching me loose it as they hung me filled me with the deepest despair and fear.

I watched Big Jake watching me. I wanted to smack that sneer right off his face, to kick him in the gut until he crapped his pants. I didn’t know what it felt like to truly hate a person, that deep down sense of loathing, that burning need to erase him from the face of the earth and obliterate any evidence that he ever existed.  Knowing what he’d do if he ever got his hands on Claire or any of the girls sent shivers throughout my body and made me feel desperate.

“Where are they?” Big Jake said.

As simple as that, let him know where the group was and I could live.

Lifting my chin I walked to the lamp post and turned to face the men, daring them to do it. My legs felt like Jell-O standing there trying to stare them down. If this was going to happen, then let’s get it over with I thought, I wasn’t there for their amusement. The men turned towards Big Jake waiting for instructions.  Some of them didn’t look happy about things, shooting glances at each other. The others were smiling, Jimmy’s friend rubbed his hands together as if he couldn’t wait to get his turn on the rope.

Big Jake’s face turned red and he started pacing. “John, hit him a couple of times, but not in the mouth. I want don’t want him mumbling when he starts to talk.”

The rifle man from the night I saved Claire stepped in front of me.  A smile crinkled his eyes as he looked at me. His shoulder twisted as he hit me in the stomach, his fist like a locomotive as it pushed all the air from my lungs. My feet left the ground with the force of the blow and I crumbled into a ball on the ground as the pain radiated everywhere, a sense of panic washed over me when I couldn’t catch my breath. 

Eventually air started to drip back into my lungs as I kept gasping like a carp on the beach. Two men grabbed my arms and pulled me upright. My head hung down and it was hard standing upright but I was beginning to feel semi-normal again, like I might live, then he hit me again. A sickening punch to the kidneys.  A searing burn raced through my body.  And for the first time a new fear joined the others. How long could they keep this up? Could they make me tell them what they wanted? The thought terrified me.

Rifle man hit me four or five more times. When he was done his buddies let me drop to the ground. My body was like a bag of broken glass. Things weren’t put together properly anymore.

Big Jake’s walked towards me and stopped next to my face. I didn’t try to look up at him, it’d have taken too much energy. He nudged my head with his boot then squatted down next to me and pulled my hair shifting my head so he could see my face. “Where are they?” He asked, his breath smelled of garlic and rotten teeth.

This was a serious man and he wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted. My dad always said I was stubborn, that I got it from my mom. All I know was that the more somebody tried to force me to do something, the more I wasn’t going to do it. All I had to do was think about Claire, just keep thinking about her I told myself. I looked him in the eye and shook my head.

Jake released my hair letting my head bounced off the street. “Take him to camp,” he told his men. Two of them picked me up and started dragging me back to the park. “Danny, get a fire going, I’ll be there in a little bit.”

My guts turned over at the mention of a fire. I strained against the ropes binding my wrists but there wasn’t any give at all. These weren’t some idiots. They knew what they were doing and I wasn’t going to get a chance to escape.  The sense of failure hung over me, making me feel useless, at least I hadn’t given away any information. I hugged that little nugget of success close, using it to
restore some sense of accomplishment. I’d have used anything to take my mind off of my aching body.

The camp was located in the middle of the park, the horses tied to a rope with the electric car and wagon parked to the side. Why would they camp outside when they had hundreds of perfectly acceptable buildings available? As if reading my mind the man holding my right arm said, “Big Jake doesn’t like being cooped up, too easy to trap you in a building.” Then he threw me to the ground next to the ring of rocks they used for the fire.

“Kid, you’d make things a lot easier on yourself by giving us what we want, believe me, you don’t want to let Big Jake get started on you. That man knows more ways to make a person hurt than I ever seen. He’s a pure genius at it.”

He watched me but I fought to look as unconcerned as possible. He turned and started to join his companion at the trailer when I called after him “Why do you guys want a little girl anyway? What was worth getting all those guys killed?”

He turned and looked back at me, thinking over my questions, probably deciding whether to say anything or not. I could see him rolling it around in his mind. His companion said, “Tell him, it ain’t no big secret.”

He seemed to decide and said “Babies, it all comes down to babies.”

I was shocked, “She’s only five for Christ sake, what kind of animals are you guys,” I yelled as I tried to squirm out of my bonds again. I couldn’t believe this, I mean I could see them wanting the older girls, they couldn’t all be perverts. I didn’t see a bunch of tough men like this following Big Jake if he was that perverted. It wasn’t natural.

“It ain’t like that … Don’t you know? There ain’t been any babies born since the Plague. Do you know of any?” he asked, a look of pure misery crossing his face. “No? Well neither can we. Big Jake wants an heir, he says there ain’t much use in building a kingdom
unless you can leave it to someone. I guess he has some kind of dream of building dynasty. He figures that maybe women who didn’t start their puberty until after the plague might be OK, if not the last hope he’s got is girls that were born after the plague. You know by mothers that survived long enough to have kids. The only girl we know about is that little one you got. He plans to keep her locked up at his place until she is old enough.”

My god I thought, Ellen locked in a room her whole life until she was old enough to be bred like a brood mare. I couldn’t imagine anything worse for the free spirited little girl. I knew Claire would die before she let that happen, and I knew that I would too. The question was going to be, could I withstand the pain before I died.

The men dragged me to the wagon and plopped me down so that I could lean my back against the wheel. They started making a fire, putting on a pot of beans and using the back of a cast iron skillet to make some tortillas. Neither of them looked at me, I think they were a little embarrassed about what they were doing with Jake. I could see that Danny was particularly bothered. He was about thirty years old, medium build, quite normal looking. He could have been a policeman, or fireman, or maybe a computer guy.  Before the plague that is. He never would have been mixed up in something like this.

“You know, she’s just the right age to have been your daughter,” I said to Danny. He winced and looked off into the distance. The other man, who Danny called Mark, looked at me and shook his head. As if he was worried about me hurting Danny’s feelings. I wasn’t going to let it go. “She’s a sweet kid, never hurt a fly, loves horses. They’re all good kids, they don’t deserve this.”

I kept at it, telling them all about Ellen and what she was like. Always being careful not to give away any details that could be used to find them. I could tell I was really getting to Danny, Mark didn’t look much better. I imagine they wouldn’t have any problem killing a man in cold blood, the idea of hurting little kids was really starting to get to them.

Both men stood as Big Jake walked into camp with his men following a few paces behind. . His face was pinched up like a squashed purse he was so mad. My eyes followed his every movement as he walked to the wagon, reached in and pulled out a long branding iron with a large
S
on it. A smile spread across his face as he carefully laid it in the fire.  “Get him ready,” he told his men then smiled again as they grabbed me and dragged me to the fire. Danny cut the ropes binding me and let me drop to the ground on my back.

“Okay, this is the way it’s going to work, Tell me where the girl is and I’ll let you live. You’ll work the fields, but some day you might move up. Don’t tell me, and I’ll make you wish you were dead. We won’t let you die, you’ll beg us to kill you, to end the pain, but we won’t. Then you’ll finally give in and tell me everything I want to know. At that point we’ll kill you,” he said with a dead pan voice like he was reading the daily weather forecast.

My guts felt like they were going to turn to water as I watched him pull the orange hot branding iron out of the fire. Four different men grabbed an arm or leg and pinned to the ground. I squirmed and twisted but couldn’t break their hold. Big Jake looked down at me and said, “Last chance? Once I get started, it can be hard to stop,” he sneered as he started bring the brand towards me.  The large
S
glowed orange with a small piece of wood still attached that sparked into flame as he waived it in front of my face. The two arm men ripped open my shirt in preparation.  My body looked like a black and blue splattered canvas from the beating Rifle man had given me earlier. Jake brought the glowing brand towards my chest. The heat reached out for me while still a foot away. My few chest hairs start to curl and singe as he moved it closer. He held it about an inch above my skin and looked at me, giving me one more chance.

I looked at him and for a fleeting instance; I am ashamed to say that I considered it. Claire and the kids might have moved by now I rationalized. Like I said, I’m not proud of that moment. What’s more, I think he saw it in my eyes because he smiled a victors’ grin. I gathered myself and shook my head as I watched him slowly lower the burning metal brand onto my chest and leaned into it with all his weight.

The pain shot through me like a bolt of electricity, every muscle locked up in rebellion as I tried to get away from the searing, hissing evil boring into my chest. The smell of burning meat made me gag and I had to swallow the vomit rising in my throat.  I kept twisting and fighting but he leaned on the iron rod, pinning me to the ground. He held it there for a minute, watching my face the entire time. I wanted to scream but something inside of me refused to give him the satisfaction.

Smiling, he lifted the brand, looked at his handy work and nodded with a small satisfied smile peeking through that bushy black beard. Handing the torture instrument to one of his men, he bent down and said, “Where are they?” I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. He growled then stood up. “Tie him to the wagon, we’ll do this another way,” he said as he pulled the whip that hung on his hip.

I knew what that meant, I remembered an old movie I’d seen of sailors getting flogged on sailing ships. They were never too graphic but there was always enough to let your imagination fill in the missing parts. That whip was going to shred my back into hamburger.  I could almost feel the knotted leather straps biting into my flesh.

Danny and another guy picked me up and started walking me towards the wagon. I was disappointed in Danny; I thought I might have made an impression on him.

As we got closer to the wagon, I noticed how dark the night had gotten and a possibility of an idea popped into my head. I fainted, or pretended to anyway, going completely limp, letting my falling weight break their grip. Both men were surprised and reached to pull me back up, but I was ready, I pushed Danny away, and I must say, he fell over backwards quite easily. The other man made a grab for my shoulders but missed and racked his hand across my burnt chest, sending the electric shot of pain back through every muscle. I ignored it for a moment and twisted enough to get a good punch into his jaw and he dropped like a rock. I didn’t wait around to see anyone’s reaction, I jumped into the darkness, three large steps and I had the wagon between me and the fire.

It was a cloudy, moonless night, the kind that looks like the inside of closet. I couldn’t see where I was going and was worried I’d trip as I ran through the grassy park but I was also giving thanks. The men wouldn’t be able to see me either. 

A shot rang out, then three or four more, my shoulders scrunched up and I bent to make myself smaller but I didn’t stop running as fast as I’d ever run. A sharp pain jagged through my lungs with every step as the bruised ribs and busted kidneys screamed in agony. 

My feet slid on some kind of paved path and I ducked to the right, trying to keep quite as I continued to run. My legs started to feel like they had a mind of their own and I felt like I was back in the mountain forest, running through the shadowy pines at sundown. I always knew where to step without having to think about it.

Let me get to a building I kept praying, please, please, let me get away was all I could think about. Hope is a truly amazing emotion. It can give you strength you didn’t know was possible. It can extend your endurance beyond your wildest dreams. The thought of seeing Claire and the kids again, the possibility that I might live, sent a warm felling throughout my beat up body and gave me what I needed to keep going.

"He's over here," Someone yelled behind me. They sounded way off.

The road on the opposite side of the park sprang into focus and I almost tripped on the smooth surface.  I didn’t know this side well but I could tell there where buildings on the other side. Of course there were, I’d studied them from my perch in the bell tower. Glancing over my shoulder as I ran I saw several torches and a couple of flashlights weaving back and forth through the grass. Good I thought, the lights will ruin their night vision.