Chapter 7

Benji waited until it was completely dark before stepping from behind the boulder. He had tried to sleep during the day but kept waking up from the cold.

Stiff and cold he trotted away from the hill. Remembering Cap’s advice, he kept to the wind blown sections so as not to leave footprints in the snow.

After a few minutes, he warmed up, but then his stomach began to growl, letting him know it had been a long time between meals. By the time he reached the rim of the valley they were hiding in, he was sweating.

He did what Cap told him to do if he had to come back alone. Going to some rocks off to the left of the trail, Benji settled down to wait. If followed, the people had to pass by on the trail because it was the only way into the valley.

After an hour, Benji got up and walked down the trail into the valley. Making his way across a log lying over a small stream in the center of the valley, he stopped for a moment. Looking back the way he came, Benji tried to spot any footprints he might have left. Seeing none, he climbed upward toward the caves located half way up the cliff. Going into a small cave, he went through it into another larger cave. He picked up a rock and hit the camouflaged door three times, waited a second, then hit it two more times.

A second later a voice said, “Is that you, Cap?”

“No, it’s me, Benji. Open up; it’s freezing out here.”

He heard a click and felt a part of the wall swing out. In the pitch-black darkness he couldn’t see the opening. He knew Jeff was there with his night glasses on searching the cave for anyone else. Jeff took his arm and led him into the opening and closed the door.

A low watt light came on high in the side of the wall. A tall slim man stood in front of him removing the night vision goggles. Wearing a bulky field jacket, Jeff leaned his rifle against the wall.

“Where’s Cap?”

“A couple of men caught him, but I don’t think he’s in any trouble. I’ll tell you all about it later,”

Benji told him.

Jeff reached to a rock sticking out of the wall and pushed it in. A door slid open exposing a large dimly lit room. Benji walked into the room saying, “It’s me, Mom.”

A small woman rose from behind a stack of boxes with an assault rifle in her hands. She slung the rifle over her shoulder, walked to him and gave him a hug.

“I’ll be back in a little while,” Jeff said. He went out the door closing it behind him. Jeff was going to the mouth of the cave to look back up the valley and make sure no one had followed Benji back to their hiding place. This had become standard procedure when one of them came back from outside.

Benji removed his coat and hung it on a rack beside the door. Taking off his boots, he put on a pair of slippers he took from a shoe rack.

His mom waited patiently for him to finish then said, “We thought something had happened to you when you didn’t return by dark. We were preparing to go out and search for you.”

“Make me a couple of sandwiches, Mom. I’m starved. After I eat and Jeff returns, I’ll tell you what happened. Okay?”

She looked at her gangling son who had grown up in the last three months. Although just an inch or two short of his dad’s six feet three inches, he was as thin as a rail. Narrow of face, his brown hair and piercing gray eyes absorbed everything he saw.

Much older mentally than his twelve years, he had left his youth behind him. For that, Leila felt a deep sorrow. He would not know the joys of being a young man and making the mistakes inherent with being young.

Benji realized that making a mistake now would endanger them all. He took his role of protecting his mother seriously since his father had gone east three months before. Leila knew he missed his dad. Although Jeff and Cap constantly taught him the things he needed to survive, she caught him several times at the mouth of the cave staring eastward.

“Come over to the fire and warm yourself while I fix the sandwiches,” she told him. While he stood at the propane heater, she went to the propane stove and put a can of soup in a pot to heat. Weighing only one hundred five pounds, she had toughened in the last three months. After Ben had died in the plane crash near there, she felt as though her life had ended. A short time later, Ben opened his eyes and told her not to cry. Overcome with emotion, she had fainted. Later she learned something that Ben couldn’t describe had repaired his body so he could go east and protect a woman. Leila was happy to have him with her again although he left shortly after coming back to life.

Ben left the morning after they found this secret chamber. He took Jake, an F.B.I. agent, and Jane, Benji’s nurse, with him. That had happened three months ago.

She took the pan from the stove and put the soup in a bowl. She carried it to the table along with two sandwiches.

Jeff came through the door and took off his coat. He walked to where Benji sat and took a seat at the table across from him. As he ate, Benji filled them in on what had happened that afternoon.

Chapter 8

Tony woke to the sound of a shot. She heard Bill say, “Stalker should be close to the man by now, so watch where your shots go, Ben.”

Someone had placed her in a sleeping bag where she was warm and cozy. Unzipping the bag halfway, she brought her arms out and asked what was happening. Bill came over and squatted next to her saying. “There is a sniper across the valley who is keeping us pinned down. Stalker is circling around the hill to take him out. Ben fires at his position every once in a while to keep his attention focused on us. How’re you feeling?”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Around four hours.”

Struggling out of the sleeping bag, Tony stood up. She walked to the opening in the bunker where Ben sighted over the barrel of his rifle. He fired and stood up turning to her. “Glad to see you up and around again, Tony. After Stalker takes care of the sniper, Joe wants you and Bill to go to Jane’s position.”

“Tammy says they are bunching up on the other side of the hill from her. Take extra rifles with you. Bill already carried a case of grenades for the grenade launcher to Jane’s bunker. Jake has taken up a position above and in back of her with the rocket launcher. Bill will show you where I’ll be when you get there.”

“I hope we can chop them to pieces and give us a little breathing room. Thank God for Tammy in her post high in the tree. They tried two faints while you were asleep and both times Tammy told us where the main attack was coming from.”

Tony looked across the valley and saw a flash of red near the top. A man staggered out of the trees with something large and black riding him to the ground. After a brief struggle, Stalker stood and faded into the woods.

“Time to go. Remember, Bill, only Joe and Stalker will be covering the other positions. Be ready to leave Jane if things heat up in another area,” Ben said.

Handing Tony two rifles, Bill picked up four more and went out the back of the bunker. Tony followed Bill as he worked through the brush on the side of the hill.

Twenty feet from the bottom of the hill, they came to an opening in the ground. Logs were stacked to a height of four feet on top of the bunker.

Bill climbed behind the logs and sat down. He broke open the M-79 grenade launcher and shoved a round into the breech. Bill helped her up beside him and pointed to a spot at the top of a hill three hundred feet to the right. “If you see something up there, don’t shoot. That’s where Ben will be. He’ll wait until they get fully engaged with us then hit them hard from the side.”

Jane stuck her head out of the hole saying, “Tammy says they’re moving our way.” Tony climbed off the bunker and went into the hole leading to the bunker. She busied herself loading half a dozen rifles that she placed next the front opening. Jane stood beside her with a bulky bandage on her cheek. She pulled a cigar out of her jacket, took the cellophane off and stuck it in the side of her mouth.

“Strange group we have,” she said looking Tony up and down.

“If you mean this new ability I have to heal injuries, Jane, I don’t know what to tell you.”

The radio hanging next to the opening crackled and they heard Tammy say, “Jane, get ready. They’ll be coming over the hill any second now.”

Jane stuck her rifle through the opening, and Tony did the same. “See that burnt out old pine at the top of the hill. You take everything to the right of it, and I’ll take the left side,” Jane said. A group of men crossed the ridge four hundred feet from them. Cautiously they made their way down the hill.

“Easy, easy. Let them come on,” Jane said.

Men continued to pour over the hill spreading out, and then converging where the hills narrowed. They both heard a whump from on top of the bunker, and a few moments later there was an explosion among the men. They heard whump, whump, whump, as Bill fired as fast as he could load the grenade launcher.

The men coming down the hill were slaughtered by the grenades going off all around them. One man would go down, and three more would come over the hill to take his place. Still, Jane said to wait, even though the men were only two hundred feet from the bunker.

A group of twenty men broke to the left and hunkered behind a huge fallen pine tree. Another group broke to the right to hide in the boulders there.

Jane reached to the side and picked up a box with a plunger on it. “Duck away from the opening when I push the plunger,” she told Tony.

She connected a set of wires to two connections on the box and twisted the handle a half dozen times. Looking at Tony she nodded okay and pushed the plunger down. Ducking below the opening, they felt a rumble in the ground then a loud explosion.

Dirt and rock struck the back of the bunker. When no more dirt came through the opening, Jane stood up and connected another set of wires to the box. She pushed the plunger and dropped beside Tony. Another tremendous explosion occurred, causing dirt to fall from the roof of the bunker. Standing, Tony looked out the opening. Where the tree had been was a smoking hole in the ground. Of the men who were behind it, nothing could be seen.

Off to the right, Tony saw bodies lying among the boulders. A few weeks ago, Joe had drilled a four-inch hole into a half dozen of the boulders and filled them with dynamite. He had used cement to plug the holes with only a wire that was connected to a detonator showing. In effect, what happened when Jane pushed the plunger was that the dynamite exploded inside the boulders causing them to shatter. Rock from the size of a pea to gravel to large chunks flew out in a circle, killing or maiming anything in its path.

They both opened up as figures staggered out of the swirling smoke and dust. Bodies began to pile up in front of them. Then they heard the rat-tat-tat of Ben opening up with his machine gun from his position.

The right side of the men swayed as men crumpled to the ground. They broke when Bill started pumping grenades into them again.

Tony flinched as her hand hit the barrel of her rifle. She stuck two fingers that were blistered from touching the barrel into her mouth. Picking up another rifle, she waited with Jane to see if anymore people came their way.

Chapter 9

Todd sat in a Winnebago parked on a hill two miles from the battle. At the sound of the two explosions, he turned to Mickey and asked, “What the fuck was that?”

Mickey held up his hand for Todd to wait as he listened to the radio held to his ear. With a worried look on his face, he lowered the radio and said, “The sons of bitches had dynamite planted in the only two positions our men could take cover. We lost a third of our men in the explosions. The rest of them are trying to make it back over the hill. They are being cut to pieces by a machine gun on their flank. Our attack failed, Todd, and it doesn’t look good.”

“How many men do we have left?” Todd asked.

That morning he had started with over three hundred people, but on the last attack he had less than two hundred left. He picked up his radio and said, “How far away are you, Willie?”

“Seventy five miles and coming on fast,” a voice answered from the radio.

“How many people do you have with you?” Todd asked.

“Around four hundred men and women. They haven’t had any of the drugs for three days and are agitated, spoiling for a fight. My men are having a hard time controlling them,” Willie said.

“Okay, get here quick as you can; we will keep them bottled up until then.” Todd told the man. He turned to Mickey and raised his eyebrows asking, “Well?”

“From the reports coming in, we are down to less than a hundred men. Greg is having a fit about your order to bunch all of our men up in the narrow valley. Maybe we should have listened to him, Todd, when he wanted to make a two pronged attack.”

“That’s water over the dam now. Have Greg keep up the pressure. Keep them grounded for the next two hours.”

There was a knock on the door of the camper. Mickey opened the door and Greg came in blowing on his hands. He went to the small stove and filled a cup with coffee. Sipping the hot brew, he turned to face Todd. He just stared for a few minutes without saying a word. Todd couldn’t stand it any longer, he said, “All right, Greg. Get it off your chest before you explode.”

Greg put the cup down and unbuttoned his coat. He shifted his gun, so it would be within easy reach. Shifting his weight to the balls of his feet, he reminded Todd of a mountain lion ready to strike.

“Todd, I hope you won’t be offended when I say that you fucked up royally. We have lost two thirds of our men doing it your way. We didn’t gain anything your way. Are you ready to let me handle this? Because if you’re not, you can color me gone,” Greg said in a dangerously low voice. All five feet ten inches of Greg bristled with energy as he waited for Todd’s reply. Todd looked him up and down. Not tall and on the slim side, Greg’s short blond hair made him appear older than his thirty-six years. His face would have been handsome had his broad nose not been broken by too many punches over the years. Todd knew he had screwed up by trying to take charge of the fighting. He realized it was time to let other men handle the things he knew nothing about. If he didn’t, things were going to continue going wrong. He had the feeling time was running out.

“Sit down, Greg. Relax.” He waited until Greg wearily sat down across the table from him.

“From now on you’ll be in charge of all the fighting we do. Willie will be here in less than two hours with over four hundred people. Take charge of them and make Willie your second in command. With the new people, do you think you can root them out of there by tomorrow?”

“I would say no problem if we had some heavy guns. Since we don’t, the losses are going to be staggering. It would help if we didn’t have to take Ben and Joe alive.” Greg raised his hand to stop Todd’s protest. “Don’t worry, they’ll be alive, but I can’t promise they won’t have a few holes in them.”

“Agreed. Eat something; you won’t have time when the extra people arrive.” Todd turned and left the camper.

“Now we can get something accomplished,” Greg said to Mickey as he put meat on bread making a sandwich.

“You took a big chance just now, Greg. For a minute I thought Todd was going to give me the nod to shoot you,” Mickey said as he put his gun back in his coat.

Startled, Greg realized that Mickey had been standing behind him as he sat at the table with Todd.

“You would have shot, wouldn’t you?” he asked.

“Yes. Todd and I have come a long way together, and I don’t feel like changing horses midstream. Especially after what he did to Ray when they brought him in,” Mickey told him.

“I was out locating a supply of the drug when they caught Ray. I didn’t get the full story on what went down,” Greg said.

“Believe me, be glad you weren’t there.”

“So what happened?” Greg asked.

Mickey settled back in his chair and took a long drink of water before he replied, “You have to remember that Todd was drinking heavily at the time. Well, we were sitting in the office, and Todd was drinking himself into a stupor when people started yelling outside. I went to the window to see what was going on. Down at the end of the street, a man was dragging someone along at the end of a rope. Figuring I had better nip this in the bud before it excited our people, and they started killing each other, I left the office.

“I didn’t realize how big the man holding the rope was until I came up to him. Let me tell you. He stood over six and a half feet tall with shoulders so broad he had to turn sideways to get through a door. He stood there drinking from a bottle of whiskey as I walked up. He looked me up and down then said, ‘Who the hell are you, and where is this fella Todd? I have a present for him.’

“After telling him who I was, he started pulling on the rope hand over hand as though reeling in a large fish. At the time, I didn’t recognize Ray because he was dust covered and had welts and bruises all over him. Ray wore a black patch over his left eye and part of his face was rubbed raw. Really, the only way I could tell it was Ray was by the ugly scar on his face.

“The man reached down and grabbed him by the rope around his neck and lifted him to his feet. He changed grips, grabbing Ray by the front of his torn shirt holding him up because Ray was too weak to stand on his own. ‘I come to collect the bounty on this bastard,’ the man said, taking another drink of whiskey.

“About then, Todd staggered out of the office yelling, ‘what the hell is going on down there?’ He staggered and weaved his way to where we stood.

“‘Well, what do we have here? Is that you, Ray?’ Todd asked.

“Ray just stood there trying to get his breath because the rope around his neck was cutting off his air. Todd reached up and clumsily loosened the rope. Ray gasped in air and would have fallen if the man hadn’t held him by the front of his shirt.

“‘Ray, Ray, Ray! You look worse than the last time I saw you,’ Todd slurred. He squinted at the man holding Ray. Turning to me, Todd asked, ‘Who the hell is this mountain of a man?’

“‘Name’s Adam. Who the hell is this drunken sot?’ the man asked throwing Ray to the ground in disgust.

“I don’t care how many times I see it; it always surprises me how Todd can be dead drunk one minute and stone cold sober the next. Well, Todd straightened up and before I could blink he had his gun pressed under the man’s chin.

“‘A little more respect for your betters will help you live a lot longer, friend Adam,’ Todd told him in a venomous voice.

“I stepped between them to settle things down. Every time Todd shoots someone in front of his people, they go on a rampage of killing, and it takes a few days to settle them down.

“Todd put his gun away saying, ‘Pay the man. Take the rope off Ray. Clean him up; then, bring him to the office.’ With that he turned and walked down the street.

“I took Ray to the motel where my men were staying and let him take a shower. Scrounging around, I come up with a pair of pants and a shirt that fit him. I have to tell you he was a sorry looking sight as I led him to Todd’s office. Todd sat behind his desk looking at some maps as we entered. He looked up and motioned for us to have a seat on the couch across from him. You could smell the fear coming from Ray as we sat there. Todd made us wait for a few minutes as he shuffled papers around.

“‘Get Ray a beer, Mickey,’ Todd told me as he got up and came around the desk to sit down next to Ray.

“‘Ray, old buddy. Looks like you’ve had a rough time of it.’

“Ray had to hawk and spit several times before he could talk. He grabbed the beer from my hand and drank it down in one gulp. Wiping sweat from his face, Ray said, ‘Thanks, Todd. That bastard hasn’t given me anything to drink in two days.’

“‘I’ve missed you, Ray. Tell you what. If you want, I’ll have this Adam shot for treating you so cruelly. How does that sound?’ Todd asked in a soft voice.

“Now I could see hope spring to life in Ray’s eyes as he considered Todd’s words. ‘Let him go, Todd. You would loose too many men trying to take him out. He’s one tough and mean bastard. It would be better to just send him on his way.’

“‘Nice of you to think about us, Ray, since you left in the dead of the night without so much as a goodbye,’ Todd purred.

“‘Listen, Todd. I can explain everything if you will give me the chance,’ Ray said.

“‘No need, Ray. You made a mistake, but you are now back with us where you belong,’” Todd told him, patting him on the shoulder.

“I tell you, Greg. A shiver went up my back when Todd said that. I knew for a fact that Todd was going to do something. Many a night I’d listened to him rant and rave about how it was Ray’s fault everything was falling apart. Yet he sat there telling Ray not to worry that he didn’t have any bad feelings toward him. Mind you, I sat at the back of the room because I didn’t want to be near Todd when he turned on the charm. You’ve seen him when he gets like that. He’s more dangerous than a pit of vipers.

“‘Todd got up and brought Ray another beer from the refrigerator. After three beers, I could see that Ray was a little woozy, probably because he hasn’t eaten in a couple of days. You wouldn’t believe the change in the man. I knew Ray before he left and back then he was as hard as nails. I listened to him sit there and whine about how he shouldn’t have ever left Todd. I tell you it didn’t seem like the same man.

“After a while, the beer got to Ray. His head kept dropping. Todd would shake him and tell him to have another drink. Soon Ray fell fast asleep on the couch.

“Todd told me to come help him. He tied Ray’s hands together and had me help him carry Ray to the wall behind his desk. While I held Ray up, he threaded the rope around Ray’s hands through an eyebolt mounted high up on the wall. He drew Ray up until he was standing on the tips of his toes. Todd went to his desk and took two threaded eye rings out of a drawer. He had me screw them into the wall near the floor about five feet apart. He tied ropes around Ray’s ankles and pulled his legs apart as far as he could, tying them to the eye rings.

“Using a straight razor, he cut Ray’s clothes from him. Todd told me to go get a bottle of grain alcohol and a few sponges. As I left, Todd began slapping Ray’s face to bring him around.

“By the time I got back, Ray had come to and was sobering up rapidly. I sat the alcohol and sponges on the desk then went to the back of the room. Ray was blubbering to Todd about giving him another chance. Todd threw his head back and laughed hysterically. He poured a glass of whiskey and watched Ray as he sipped it.

“‘Did you really think you could get away, Ray?’

“‘Please, Todd. I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t kill me,’ Ray pleaded.

“‘Oh, you are going to die, Ray, but before you do a lot of suffering is called for. Do you realize I would have had Joe a long time ago if you hadn’t left? As it is, we are getting the shit beat out of us although we outnumber him a hundred to one. I blame all the past failures on you. I lay awake at night and think of ways to make you suffer.’ Todd raised the bottle of whiskey and drank almost half of it in one gulp. He shivered and shook his head.

“‘You don’t know how much this is going to hurt me. I thought of you as the big brother I never had, Ray.’

“I swear, Greg. Todd was actually crying with tears running down his cheeks as he said this.

“‘Please, Todd. For the love of God, just shoot me and get it over with,’ Ray pleaded.

“‘Sorry, Ray. If I did it that way other people might get ideas and try to leave. No, I have to make an example out of you. Think of it as your last effort to draw together the people who have joined us.’”

“All in one movement, Todd reached out and pulled Ray’s ear out from his head. His other hand flashed up and down and he held Ray’s right ear in front of him.

“It must have taken several seconds for the pain to hit but when it did, Ray threw his head back and screamed. Todd took the cap off a bottle of alcohol and up ended it into one of the sponges. He took the dripping sponge over and pressed it to the side of Ray’s blood streaked head.

“I didn’t think it possible for Ray to scream any louder. When the alcohol hit the hole where his ear had been, his neck and arms knotted up. It started as a wail and became so high pitched that a few glasses broke. His eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.

“I thought it was over and walked toward the door to get some fresh air. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Todd asked roughly.

“‘Nowhere,’ I said as I went back and sat down.

“Jesus, by the time he finished, I was drenched in sweat, and it was all I could do to keep my dinner down. To make a long story short, he cut off Ray’s other ear. Next he cut off his dick and stuffed it in his mouth. You ask me if I would have shot you. Bet your ass I would have; I don’t want to get on the wrong side of Todd.”

“No hard feelings. You were doing what you had to do,” Greg said, sticking out his hand. They shook hands then Greg left the camper to make preparations for the coming battle. Todd entered the camper shaking snow from his coat. “Mickey, get ready to go back to town. If we don’t get out of here pretty soon, we’ll be snowed in. Christ, it’s coming down by the buckets out there. Do you think Greg can handle things here, Mickey?”

“He can’t do any worse than we have done. I think he’ll be all right,” Mickey answered.

“Tell Greg what we’re doing. Bring back a few of your best men to take with us. Make it quick before we get stuck here,” Todd said. Going to the driver’s seat, he started the camper. It was all the windshield wipers could do to remove the falling snow. After Mickey entered and sat down in the passenger seat, Todd put the camper in reverse. Wheels spinning, he finally turned the camper around and pulled to the edge of the road leading down the mountain.

“When we get to town, Mickey, find all the four wheel drive vehicles you can. Willie will need them to get his people up here. Christ, look how it’s coming down now,” Todd said. Outside the snow came down in sheets, blocking out everything around them. The camper shook as blasts of wind slammed into the side of it. To make matters worse, the temperature was falling rapidly. They saw men dressed in light jackets hiding behind trees, trying to block the blasts of cold air. It wasn’t any use because the wind changed directions every second. Most of the people were in cars or trucks parked in the staging area at the top of the hill.

“Make a note to have Willie bring some heavy winter clothes for the people who are here,” Todd told Mickey.

Todd eased the camper into gear and pulled out onto the road. As he started down, the camper slid sideways a couple of feet. Stepping on the brakes caused the camper to slide forward until it stopped at the edge of the cliff. Wiping sweat from his face, Todd slowly edged backwards in reverse until once again the camper was straight with the road. In first gear, he gave the camper a little gas until they were creeping along. Almost a foot of snow lay on the ground and you could almost see the inches piling up.

“Where in hell did this storm come from? Last report we got was that it was going to clear up,”

Mickey said.

Todd didn’t answer. He was having problems keeping the camper on the road. Every time he touched the brakes, the camper shot sideways toward the cliff side of the road. It was all he could do to keep moving forward and maintain control.

Twenty minutes later the snow decreased. Rounding a turn, they ran out of the snow entirely and clear road lay ahead of them. He stopped the camper and got out staring back up the mountain to the area they had left a short while ago. Up there neither the snow nor the wind had abated. As they watched, it seemed to pick up in intensity and edge toward them. Foot by foot they could see the storm block out everything behind it.

It seemed alive and the hair at the nape of Todd’s neck stood on end as he watched. There was no doubt about it now, the storm was moving toward them as if some primeval force didn’t want them to escape.

“Let’s get the shit out of here,” Todd yelled above the rising wind; he jumped in the camper. Jamming it in gear, he sped down the highway leaving the storm behind.

Chapter 10

Bill lay in the snow beside the road that dipped into the valley. He raised the binoculars to his eyes. A half mile into the valley, where it narrowed into a choke point, stood a man and the scroungiest dog Bill had ever seen. The man looked to be a hundred years old and nothing but skin and bones. His back was bent and twisted which caused him to shuffle as he paced back and forth. Bill studied the dog, which looked to be in worse shape than the man if that were possible. It wobbled as if it were going to fall over as it paced back and forth with the man. Both the dog and the man looked as though they were starved to death. He handed the binoculars back to Joe.

“What do you think? Is it a trap?” Joe asked.

“To tell the truth, I don’t know what to think. If it’s a trap, why put an old man out front like that? Besides I still can’t shake this feeling we are being watched,” Bill answered.

“I know what you mean. Since we stopped, I have felt eyes watching us. If they are there, they are well concealed. I can’t see anything or anyone,” Joe said.

“Well, we can’t sit here all day. When Todd learns we aren’t in the valley, he will be hot on our trail. I would like to be well away from here when he finds out.”

Joe stood and brushed snow from his clothes. “I’ll get on the radio and tell Ben to pull off to the side of the road. They can wait until we see what’s going on down there.” Joe said as he headed for the Jeep parked out of sight down the road.

“Bring your rifle back and keep me covered. I’m going to mosey down and find out what the man wants. If it is a trap, at least, we will know and can backtrack around this valley,” Bill said, getting to his feet.

“Be careful, Bill. At the first sign of trouble, break away and high tail it back here,” Joe told him. Bill waved okay as he walked down the center of the road into the valley. He kept the muzzle of his rifle lowered, but he was alert. His eyes moved left and right trying to spot anything that didn’t look right.

With a slow but steady pace, Bill approached where the man stood watching him. The dog moved to the side of the road. All appearances of being a weak ailing animal disappeared. Now he had the look of a predator ready to strike at a moments notice.

Bill stopped twenty feet from where the man leaned against the steel bar blocking the road. The man appeared to be unarmed which in itself was strange considering the violence occurring all around. Leaning to the side, the old man spat a stream of brown juice to the ground.

“What can I do for you stranger?” the man asked.

“What would it take to get you to raise that bar so I can drive through?” Bill asked.

“I reckon you be one of those from the small house three valleys over. My friends have told me about you,” the old man said in his southern Ozark voice.

“Could be,” Bill hedged.

“My friends tell me your buddy has a long rifle trained on me. For your sake and his, I hope he doesn’t have an itchy trigger finger, friend.”

Bill glanced around trying to spot these friends the man kept mentioning. All he could see was the man and the dog that stood off to the side. This caused Bill to split his attention between the dog and the man. Shifting so he could watch the dog out of the corner of his eye, Bill asked, “How is it that an old fellow like you is out here by himself?”

The man chewed on his cud of tobacco for a few seconds. He leaned to the side and spat out a stream of tobacco juice before answering. “What gives you the idea that I am alone?”

“Unless your friends are invisible, you and the dog are the only living things I see,” Bill said.

“Well, you might say my friends are a mite skittish, young fellow.” He cocked his head to the side as if listening to something. Straightening up, he looked Bill in the eye saying, “The men who are after you know you have left the valley. They tain’t far behind your people who are a few miles back down the road.”

Exasperated, Bill asked, “How do you know that?”

“Time’s awastin’ young man. You better signal your man to get a-holt of them afore they are caught by the men thet are coming.”

Bill turned and motioned for Joe to come forward hoping he wasn’t getting them into a trap. Facing the man again, Bill asked, “Aren’t you afraid to be out here unarmed like this?”

“Do I look senile to you, young man?”

Bill shook his head no.

“I knows all about the people running around killing each other. Believe me, young ‘un. They knows about me too. As long as they pay the toll to pass through here, I leaves them alone and ast no questions.”

Bill looked closer at the man, wondering if he was half as dangerous as he claimed. Joe pulled up in the Jeep and walked to stand beside him.

“Get Ben on the radio and have him get here fast as he can. According to this man, they are right behind us,” Bill said, pointing to the old man. While Joe contacted Ben, Bill walked to stand next to the man.

“You mentioned a toll to pass through here. How much will it cost us to pass?” he asked.

“Let’s see there are seven of you, I figure ten pounds of meat per person should do it.”

Bill’s mouth dropped. He had expected the man to ask for money, and anything else never entered his mind. “We don’t have that much meat. What would you do with it anyway since most of it would spoil before you could eat it?”

“Not for me, young ‘un. I couldn’t chew it anyway,” he said, opening his mouth to show that he didn’t have any teeth. “It’s for my friends. We have an arrangement, I take care of them and they watch out for me.”

“What kind of friends would want only meat?” Joe asked as he came up to them.

“Guess it wouldn’t hurt for you to meet a few of them,” he said. He got the same look on his face as before when Bill thought he was listening to someone.

All around them they heard rustling in the leaves and brush. By the dozens, dogs of all breeds stood up and came forward to surround them. Most of them looked underfed but there was no doubting they could be vicious. Farther out they saw movement in the trees where a lot of bodies were moving around.

“How many damn dogs are out there?” Bill asked.

“Shoot, every time I try counting them, I loose count. Around three hunnert. Here lately, I been noticing a lot of new faces, and Squeeker tells me they have to range farther out for food. “Thet’s why I want the meat, so some of them can hang close to protect me. Without them, I’d been dead long ago.

“About three months ago, a bunch of men picked me up and held me at a house in the next valley. Now Squeeker told me to keep them from killing me for awhile and he would save me. There were eight of them, so I talked crazy like until night fall.”

“A few hours after dark, Squeeker talks inside my head. Now ain’t that funny. I hear my dog talking to me in here,” he said tapping his head. “Well, Squeeker tells me to get a few of them to go outside, and he would take care of them.

“It took me awhile to convince them that if anything happened to me they wouldn’t live out the night. A couple of them sneered and joked about how they weren’t skeered of one old man. I tells them if they are so brave why don’t they go outside and meet a few of my friends. Two of them goes out the door, bragging about what they is going to do to my friends when they catches them. Let me tell you I never heard such screaming. They grabbed a-holt of me and drug me outside with them. I tell you it wasn’t a pretty sight. Parts of the men were missing, and you couldn’t tell who they were because their faces had been eaten away. After thet they let me loose and tain’t bothered me since.”

“I hate to tell you this, chief, but there’s a whole heap of trouble following us down the road. I suggest that you clear out for awhile and take your dogs with you,” Joe said.

“I been figuring on leaving for a while anyway. Would it be all right if we traveled with you for a ways until we find a place where the game is more plentiful?”

“You’re welcome to travel with us far as you want, old timer. By the way, do you have a name?”

Bill asked.

“Just call me Zeb, and this is Squeeker,” he said patting the old hound on the head. “I reckon thems your people coming there,” he pointed to where the road topped over the ridge. Bill turned to see the Jeep pick-up drive down into the valley. “We had better get this gate open so Ben can drive to the other side. Joe, drive the Jeep to the other side and park.”

Zeb struggled with a heavy chain securing the steel bar to a cement pillar. Bill ran to give him a hand.

Although there were only six links in the chain, they were monsters. Each link was six inches long and about the same thickness of a quarter. The padlock used to secure the chain to the post was the largest lock Bill had ever seen.

While he lifted the chain, Zeb put a large key into the bottom of the lock and twisted, springing it open. It took both of them to shove the steel bar to the side on its rusty hinges. Joe drove the old Army Jeep with the fifty-caliber machine gun mounted in the back past them and pulled to the side of the road. Ben pulled up to them and rolled down his window.

“They are only fifteen minutes behind us and coming on fast. Think of some way to delay them and give us a little breathing room,” Ben said.

Bill slapped the side of the truck and yelled, “Quick, Tony. Hand me out a dozen sticks of dynamite.” The window at the back of the truck topper raised and Tony handed out the dynamite.

“Be careful, Bill,” she said and closed the window to keep the cold air out.

“Go on ahead, Ben. We’ll catch up with you.”

Ben drove on down the road passing from sight around a curve. Bill handed the dynamite to Joe saying. “Plant this where it will do the most good while we put the chain back on the bar.”

“Squeeker says they are almost here,” Zeb said.

“Get in the Jeep, Zeb,” Bill yelled as he ran to help Joe.

“Dig me another hole on the other side of the road,” Joe said as he wrapped tape around six sticks of dynamite. He inserted one of the new electronic detonators in the middle of the bundle. He placed the bundle in the hole he had dug. Picking up a large rock, he carefully placed it on top of the dynamite. He raised the antenna on the detonator until it stuck a few inches above ground. Joe shoveled loose dirt and rock into the hole. He scooped up some snow and spread it around. It wouldn’t pass a close inspection, but he didn’t plan on letting them do much looking. Going over to where Bill stood sweating, he wrapped another bundle of dynamite and placed it in the hole. As they filled the hole, they heard Zeb yell, “Here they come, young ‘uns, and they look mad as hornets.”

Snow and rock flew from the hillside a hundred feet down the road from them. Joe grabbed Bill’s arm, saying, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” They ran to the Jeep.

Joe let the clutch out too quickly, and the Jeep fishtailed across the road, slamming into a tree. Zeb flew over the side to land in the middle of the road. Bill was thrown out on the hood; luckily the windshield was lowered. Joe was frantically trying to restart the Jeep. Zeb climbed ungainly to his feet. “God Damn it, young ‘un. The way you drive, we won’t have to wait for them to kill us.” He hobbled to the Jeep and climbed into the back. Bill grabbed his rifle and yelled, “Get the damn thing started. I’ll try to slow them down.” He laid the rifle across the gate bar and aimed ten feet above the approaching vehicles. Flipping the selector to automatic, he fired off a whole magazine. Because of the distance, he saw his rounds land fifty feet in front of the lead truck. The truck slid to the side as the driver slammed on the brakes on the slick road. The vehicles behind slowed but continued to advance. Bill saw men climb out of the trucks and start working their way through the snow along the top of the ridge. A heavy caliber machine gun opened up from the ridge. Bill’s rifle jumped off the bar as the heavy slugs struck to the left of him. He jumped backward as the line of slugs traversed the bar. His ears rang from the heavy slugs hitting the steel bar. It was like someone pounding on an anvil next to his ears. Bill heard the Jeep sputter and roar to life. Jumping up, he ran for the Jeep yelling,

“GO, GO!” Grabbing the back of his seat, he swung his feet over the side as Joe roared down the road. Zeb grabbed his legs to keep him from falling out. Squeeker took a mouth full of Bill’s coat. Squeeker braced his legs against the seat and pulled.

Facing backward with his head hanging out of the Jeep, Bill watched a line of bullets snake their way toward them. As Joe went into the curve, Bill felt the Jeep lurch to the right as the bullets slammed into the right corner chewing away four inches of the back seat. At last Bill drew himself into the Jeep. Patting Squeeker on the head he said, “Thanks, boy.” The dog snarled and looked away.

“Easy, Squeeker, he didn’t know thet you are a bitch,” Zeb said to the dog. Bill reached into the back and scratched Squeeker’s ear saying, “Sorry, girl.” Squeeker held up her paw and licked his hand as if to say all was forgiven.

Joe pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He took a small box from his pocket and got out of the Jeep.

“What in Sam Hill are you stopping for, young ‘un? Thet bar won’t stop them for long, and I would rether be long gone when they get here.”

“I need to be in line of sight to set off the explosives.”

“Show me how to operate thet box,” Zeb said.

Joe showed Zeb how to work the two switches. Zeb took the box and showed Squeeker how it worked. A large German Shepherd with a milky right eye came to the side of the Jeep. Zeb held the box so the Shepherd could see it as Squeeker grunted and whined. The Shepherd reached up and took the box from Zeb’s hand. He angled to the side of the road and went to the top of the hill where he lay down watching what was happening back at the gate.

“What you waiting on, young ‘un? Get us out of here.”

Joe looked at Bill who just shrugged. He turned to Zeb asking, “What about the explosives?”

“Don’t worry, Whitey knows what to do. Now will you quit jabbering and get us on down the road?”

Joe started the Jeep and drove off. Bill watched the strange pair sitting in the rear seat. From the way Zeb talked, he lacked a proper education but what he lacked in schooling, he more than made up for in survival smarts. Bill judged his age to be between seventy and a hundred. He was in pretty good shape. Thin as a rail with a full head of curly gray hair and long bushy eyebrows, he looked like someone’s elderly grandfather.

“Zeb, why are you out here all by yourself? Don’t you have any family to look after you?” Bill asked.

“In the first place, young ‘un, I don’t need anyone ta look after me. I got along fine by myself for the last ninety-two year. Squeeker here is the only family I got, and we get along pretty well on our own. Thet’s why I set up the toll road to feed my new friends,” he said, gesturing toward the tops of the hills.

Bill looked at the ridge tops. Hundreds of dogs trotted along parallel to them. Behind them more dogs followed making better time since they didn’t have to fight the drifting snow. Still they were steadily pulling away from them.

Zeb noticed his look and said, “Don’t worry aboot them; they will ketch up to us afor long. Just keep your eye on him, his driving tain’t the best I’ve seen,” Zeb tapped Joe on the shoulder, which drew an annoyed look.

Smiling, Bill looked at Joe and said, “You heard the man, bwana. Keep your eyes on the road.”

“I would hate to have met this old bastard fifty years ago,” Joe said, still smarting from slamming into the tree.

“I may be old, sonny, but I’m not deef. If you have something to say to me, say it, don’t beat around the bush,” Zeb said in a querulous voice.

It was hard to dislike this crabby old man.

Ahead they saw Ben standing beside the pick-up. Joe stopped to see what was wrong.

“We heard on the radio Todd has another force ahead of us. According to the map we are boxed between them.”

Behind them they heard two explosions. Several miles down valley two pillars of smoke rose into the air.

“Told you Whitey could do the job,” Zeb said smugly.

They spread the maps out and searched for a way around the two groups chasing them. “We might as well face it, they have us,” Ben said.

“Not exactly,” Zeb said.

They turned to stare at Zeb. “Do you know another way out of here, Zeb?”

“Yep.”

“Damn it, old man if there’s another way out of here, can you show us where it is?” Joe shouted. Tony grabbed Joe’s arm and pulled him aside. Bill led Zeb to the rear of the truck. After finding out the route that let them get around Todd’s men, he had him crawl in back and lie down on the mattress. Squeeker jumped in the truck and lay down beside Zeb.

“Take care of him. He won’t admit it, but he’s exhausted. He was slammed around a good bit today,” Bill whispered to Tony.

After Tony and Tammy crawled into the back of the truck, Bill chuckled as he heard Zeb say,

“Lordy, Lordy, if I were fifty year younger, missy, we could have us some fun.”

Tony smiled at him, and Tammy giggled.

Bill closed the back of the truck. He walked to where Ben and Joe stood. “About a mile down the road there is a turn off to the left. We take it. Zeb says it’s rough but we shouldn’t have any problems in four wheel drive.”

Jake ran up the road. “I spotted them three miles back. It’ll take a while to get here; they are cautious after what happened at the gate,” he said.

“That settles it; let’s go. Jake, you ride with Joe and me. Ben, go ahead. We’ll stop and brush away our tracks far enough, so they can’t be spotted from the road,” Bill told them.

Chapter 11

Todd sat drinking a glass of orange juice. He sat the glass down and said, “Has Greg located Joe yet?”

“No, he has disappeared again. Greg said they almost had them. If it hadn’t been for the wild dogs, they would have trapped them in the valley. As it is, he is having a hard time getting men to go out and search for them.” Mickey answered.

“This is getting to be tiresome. Every time we have Joe trapped, someone or something comes along and helps him get away. If my Master wasn’t insisting that Ben be captured, I would say to hell with them,” Todd said.

“The way it’s going we aren’t going to get them anyway. Maybe it’s not in the cards for us to capture them. Look at it this way; we are only a small part of all the changes taking place in this country. I say we go to our headquarters and let Greg handle Joe’s group,” Mickey said. Todd rubbed his eyes and stared at the wall for a few minutes before answering. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard yet. By the time we get there, they should have the new computer my Master wanted fired up and running.”

“Should we leave a few people here to help support Greg if he needs it?” Mickey asked.

“Joe is heading west. I think our best bet would be to have some of our people set up in a town near the Colorado border. That way support for Greg will be getting closer instead of farther away. Have a couple of our best men head for the town of Burlington. It is located on Interstate 70 just across the border. From there, they can quickly go north or south to help Greg. That will also put them less than two hundred miles from our headquarters in case we need them. How long will it take to pack up and be ready to leave?” Todd asked.

“It all depends on whether you want to take all of the equipment we have here or leave most of it behind,” Mickey answered.

“Take only enough food to get us there and leave the rest in the storehouse. We’ll send for it later. Gather all the explosives and weapons; they will go with us. Put the drug in our camper. I know the cooks will bitch, but I would rather have it where we can keep an eye on it. When they set up to cook the meals they can get the amount they need from us. Send everyone, except the men going to the border and the ones going with us, up to Greg. He will be glad to get the extra help. That’s about it. How long will it take?”

“We should be able to leave day after tomorrow if the weather doesn’t turn bad,” Mickey answered.

“Good, get things rolling; I’m going to take a short nap. Wake me in three hours and we will trace the route we’ll take.” Todd got to his feet and walked to the door where he watched Mickey shout orders to the men standing next to the general store. Todd rubbed his forehead to ease the persistent headache that would not go away. When he got to the ranch, he was going to have one of the doctors there check him out. After going to the bedroom, he lay down but couldn’t sleep. Todd thought about the last conversation he had had with his Master. He had tried to get a description of what his master looked like from him. The description he got sounded fine. Six feet two inches tall, brown hair, blue eyes, and two hundred pounds. The longer they talked; however, Todd noticed differences in the description his Master gave him when he referred to himself. What did his Master mean when he said he could travel three thousand miles in one second? A few times he said something about weighing a fraction of what his enemies weighed, but he was more powerful than all of them put together. Another thing, why did his Master get so upset when Todd asked him if he was human? Todd thought he was going to take his head off when he asked. Todd knew his Master was lying to him, but he couldn’t understand why. Although his Master said he was doing a good job, Todd wondered why his master lied to him.

Surely, his Master knew that Todd would do anything for him. He carried out the instructions his Master gave him for finding the giant computer and transferring it to the ranch. Todd had done everything his master asked, but every time he tried to get information about something his master talked about, he cut him off short.

Who was Rita? Several times he referred to how he was going to get the bitch out of his hair. Ross was another name that kept coming up. He would say that if he could get this Ross out of her, then she would be easy to tame. It didn’t make any sense to Todd. Was this Ross screwing a woman named Rita? Did this Rita belong to his Master? He wished he had some answers. Things were bad enough without worrying that his Master was setting him up. He gave up trying to reason it out and lay there holding his head in his hands. Rolling out of bed, he went into the next room and took a bottle of Bourbon out of the cabinet. With shaking hands, Todd poured a glass half full of the amber liquid. Holding his head with one hand, Todd stared at the glass. He wrapped his fingers around the glass and slowly raised it to his lips. His throat burned as he swallowed, and he felt a tearing at his gut when it hit bottom.

“I thought you gave up drinking?” He turned to see his girlfriend standing in the door.

“This may help get rid of the headache I have all the time now. I didn’t get them until I quit drinking,” Todd said, taking a big drink. He grimaced as the Bourbon went down.

“Remember our agreement? I said I’d stay with you if you gave up alcohol. I don’t want to end up dead like your last girl friend,” the pert little redhead said.

“Come here and sit,” Todd said patting his lap.

She stood five feet one inch tall with an eighteen inch waist. At ninety pounds, she could hold her ground with any woman as far as looks and sensuality went. She had it made with Todd and didn’t want to screw things up, so she walked over and sat down on his lap.

“Our agreement still holds. I promise I won’t get drunk. Just enough to see if it helps. Okay?” he said running his hand up her leg.

She trembled as his fingers traced their way around her panties and slid under them. Twisting around, she placed her lips on his and stuck her tongue in his mouth. She broke loose and looked him in the eye. “Promise me, you won’t get drunk and beat up on me,” she said. He scooted her off his lap, reached into his pocket and pulled out a key handing it to her. “Here’s the key to the liquor cabinet. When you think I’ve had enough, lock the whiskey away. Now what could be fairer than that?” Todd said. Reaching up, he pulled her down to his lap again. She tucked the key in the pocket of her skirt. Pouring another drink, she held the glass to his lips. Setting the glass on the table, she reached and started unbuttoning her blouse. Her tongue ran around the inside of his ear. She whispered, “What’s that bulge in your pants lover? Anything I can help you with?”

“Maybe,” Todd said as he slipped off her blouse and lowered his head to her breast. He sucked on the nipple until it stood straight out, stiff and quivering.

With a pop, she pulled his head away and rose from his lap. Grabbing his hand, she said, “Let’s go into the bedroom where we can be comfortable.”

Todd grabbed the bottle of Bourbon off the desk and followed her rear end as it swayed from side to side. It surprised him that his headache was almost gone. He watched her as she did a bump and grind to music only she could hear. Raising the bottle, he took a long pull, shaking his head as it went down.

“Come here, lover.” Debbie motioned with her finger from the bed. She lay with her legs spread apart. One hand snaked down her body and she fingered herself. “Got something you want to put in here?” she said with a mischievous smile.

“You seem to be doing a good job. Go on, you know I like to watch. Besides we have all night,”

Todd said, going to an armchair and taking a seat.

He watched as she fingered herself until she had her first orgasm. He jumped out of the chair and ran to the bed. She spread her legs wide as he fell between them and penetrated her. He only lasted thirty seconds, but it was good for him and he really didn’t give a shit about her. He knew it was the whiskey making him think like this, but he felt so damn good.

“That’s okay, lover. My time will come later,” Debbie told him as she held his head. Todd lifted the empty bottle and stared at it. Where did it go? It was half full when he came into the room. He threw it into the corner where it broke with a crash. Bending over the bed, he lifted her skirt from the floor and searched in the pocket until he found the key.

“Give me the key, Todd,” Debbie said.

“This key,” he said, holding it up for her to see.

“Come on, Todd. You promised.”

“What did I promise?” he said, arching an eyebrow.

“Don’t do this, Todd. If you don’t give me the key, I’m walking out of here and never coming back.” She put her blouse on and grabbed the skirt out of his hand. As she bent over to put the skirt on, he hit her in the head knocking her into the corner. She screamed in pain as her hand came down on a piece of the broken whiskey bottle. Jerking her hand up, he saw a gash on her wrist with blood streaming from it.

“Please. Help me,” she said, pleading for help.

“You dumb bitch. Do you really think I would let you walk out of here? I do want to thank you though. You’ve shown me it isn’t the whiskey that made my headache go away.”

“What do you mean, Todd?” she asked. She held her wrist as a pool of blood formed on the floor.

“It’s the violence,” Todd said with a far away look in his eye. “I know I’ve drunk a lot, but I’m not drunk. What do you know about that?”

“Please, Todd. I need help now,” she said in a weak voice.

“Of course, you do. Hang on I will get something to put on the cut,” Todd said as he headed for the bathroom. He came back with a compress bandage. He had her hold out her hand. He put an ointment on the cut and wrapped the bandage around it.

“Lucky for you it didn’t cut an artery, love,” Todd said, patting her on the cheek. He helped her from the floor to the bed where he had her lie down. Pulling the covers over her, he kissed her on the cheek saying, “Get some rest now, dear. I’ll be back to check on you later.” As he turned to leave, he tossed the key on the bed beside her. “Take care of this for me.” He turned out the light as he left the room.

Sitting at his desk, he thought about what he had discovered. Could it be something as simple as him not taking part in the violence going on around him? Thinking back, he remembered that the headaches started after he gave up drinking and distanced himself from all killing. Todd went in and checked on Debbie every once in a while. By morning, he had another full-blown headache. Deciding to see if his theory was right, he had Mickey bring in one of the men who was causing trouble.

“What’s your name?” Todd asked the man standing before him with his hands tied behind his back.

“Benny, sir,” the man said in a trembling voice.

“Benny, you have stirred up a lot of trouble in the last few weeks. What do you think we should do with you?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Benny said, looking around the room for a way to escape. A sudden pain shot through the front of Todd’s head, he moaned, “Get some more men, Mickey,” he groaned.

Mickey left the room and came back with three men. They stood waiting for Todd to tell them what to do.

“Benny, your crime is that you don’t know when to keep your mouth shut. All this bullshit you are spouting to my people has to stop. Now I don’t want to kill you, but I can’t leave things the way they are. I have come up with something that will work.”

He turned to Mickey and said, “Mickey, spread eagle him on the table. Tie him so he can’t move his head.”

While the men struggled to tie the man on the table, Todd stuck a large butcher knife in the coals of the stove. He went to a drawer across the room and removed a pair of pliers, which he brought back and placed on the desk. He took two small pieces of rope from his desk and formed a loop in both pieces.

Panting, Mickey turned and asked, “What now, Todd?”

Todd handed him the two pieces of rope and said. “Put one around his lower teeth and the other on the upper teeth. Pull his mouth open as wide as you can. Tell me when you’re ready.” He turned to the stove and used a rag to grab the handle of the knife. The knife glowed cherry red. He spit on the end of the blade and watched the spittle sizzle. Sticking the knife back in the fire, he waited for them to get Benny’s mouth open. Todd heard them struggling to put the ropes around Benny’s teeth.

“Tie his goddamn arm down,” Mickey shouted as two men struggled to get the arm to the edge of the table where it could be tied. One of the men hit him in the forearm with his fist, causing the arm to go limp.

“Ok, Todd,” Mickey said.

Todd lifted the pliers from the desk and went to stand beside Benny’s head. Mickey pulled down on the lower jaw while another man pulled on the upper jaw. Benny’s mouth gaped wide open.

“You,” Todd pointed to a beefy man. “Take the pliers and pull his tongue out as far as you can.”

The man grabbed Benny’s tongue and pulled. Benny made gurgling noises and his eyes bugged out in terror.

Todd turned to the stove and lifted out the knife. He had to hold it away from his body because of the heat. Benny stared and made frantic noises as the knife neared his face. The man holding the tongue turned his head aside. Todd slid the knife along Benny’s lips frying them. He slowly sawed the knife back and forth on the tongue savoring the feeling of power. He hardly noticed the smell of burnt flesh while the men around him gagged.

The man holding the tongue pulled so hard that he pulled the tongue out before it was cut half way through. The tongue flew across the room, striking the wall. The man dropped the pliers, fell to his knees and threw up on the floor. Blood spurted out of Benny’s mouth. They had let his jaws close.

“Pull his mouth open, so I can cauterize the wound before he bleeds to death,” Todd yelled. It wasn’t hard to pull Benny’s jaws apart now because he was unconscious. Todd pulled the stub of a tongue up and placed the blade against it.

Flesh and blood sizzled, but the flow of blood stopped. Throwing the pliers and knife in the wastebasket, Todd crossed the room and picked up the bloody tongue. He dropped it in a quart mason jar and put a lid on it. The men stood with pasty looks on their faces.

“Take this pile of garbage over to the doctor. See that he is taken care of,” Todd told them. While the men untied Benny, who was starting to moan, he told Mickey to get the latest report on the hunt for Joe. He knew the men who carried Benny out of the room would spread the word of what had happened. He didn’t think he would have any more trouble from his people for a while. He ordered the man standing guard outside the office to bring him a meal. His headache was gone and he felt great. Too bad Debbie had cut her hand. He felt horny as hell. He didn’t even get mad when Mickey told him that Joe was still on the loose. He went in and lay down beside Debbie. Soon he fell fast asleep.

Chapter 12

Bill parted the curtain on the window. He looked down the lane leading to the house they were in. “What’s taking Joe so long?” he asked as he turned from the window.

“Relax, Bill. He only left a few hours ago. It can’t be easy walking through this snow even with snowshoes on. Joe will be back soon as he can,” Tony said to him.

“Here. Have a cup of coffee.” Jake handed him a cup of the steaming liquid. Bill took the coffee and sat down beside Tony on the couch. He patted her hand saying, “Sorry, Babe. We are all a little edgy; this waiting around is getting to me.”

“I know, it isn’t any easier for us, but we have to know which areas they are searching before we leave.”

“At least Joe has someone with him who knows the area. Zeb might slow him down; after all, he is ninety-one years old. I wonder why Joe is so edgy when they are together.” Jake asked.

“I wondered about that myself?” Ben said.

“Joe has acted strange since we picked up the old man. I can tell a difference in him, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. He seems to be more withdrawn than normal,” Tony spoke up.

“When I’m around the old man, I’m afraid for some reason. It doesn’t make sense, but there is something all wrong about him. Don’t ask me how I know. It’s something I feel inside,” Tammy said from the corner where she sat.

“Do you think Joe knows or senses something about the old man that we don’t know about?” Ben asked.

“I wish I knew. Joe hasn’t said a word to me since the old man joined us,” Tammy said.

“We agree that Joe isn’t acting normally. Tammy says she senses wrongness about Zeb. Where does that leave us?” Bill asked.

“What harm could Zeb poise to us? Christ, he’s an old man,” Tony said.

“Ben, has your guardian told you anything concerning Zeb?” Bill asked.

“I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure, but there is a strange power in Zeb which confuses my guardian. From what she tells me, it’s nothing associated with her. She senses a threat from Zeb, but like Tammy, she doesn’t know the reason. She thinks there might be forces working here that she knows nothing about,” Ben answered.

“Chosen One, I would be careful about what is said,” Tony heard in her head.

“Why is that Stalker?” Tony asked.

“The one you call Squeeker is on the other side of the kitchen door listening to what we say.”

“What harm can that do?” She asked.

“Like the Little One, I sense wrongness. Only I sense it in the dog called Squeeker. I have watched her closely for the last two days. Have you noticed that at no time are we left alone? Either the dog or the man is present when we are together. I have noticed that although the dog lies around acting indifferent, she listens to every word spoken. I only hope she can’t hear what we say to each other with our minds.”

“Interesting! My Guardian is surprised. She did a quick study of the animal and agrees with you Stalker. She says there is something shielding or cloaking both the dog and the man. She is unable to penetrate the shield for more than a second, but what she gets suggests we need to be very careful around both of them. Stalker is right, Tony. From now on we are going to have to watch what we say around them. I think we better warn the others as soon as we can get them alone,” Ben said. Bill and Jake knew Ben and Tony were speaking to each other with their minds. They made small talk to cover the silence.

Tony stood up and grabbed Bill’s hand saying, “Let’s make another pot of coffee and some sandwiches while we wait for Joe to return.” Bill started to say something, but Tony put her finger over her lips and signaled for him not to speak.

“How about you and I checking out the Jeep to make sure it’s running right, Jake? It had a miss I didn’t like just before we pulled in here,” Ben said holding his finger over his lips also. As Ben and Jake went outside, Tony led Bill into the kitchen. Tammy followed and patted Squeeker on the head saying, “Let’s me, you and Stalker go out for a while, girl. It’s getting stuffy in here.”

Tony saw Squeeker look at them then lie back down, reluctant to leave. Talking and coaxing, Tammy finally had to drag the dog out of the house so Bill and Tony could be alone.

“What was that all about?” Bill asked.

Tony quickly gave him the rundown on all that she had learned from Ben and Stalker.

* * * *

Joe lay beside Zeb at the top of a small hill. They watched several men searching the sides of the road runni-ng through the center of the valley. The men were heavily armed and behind them were two trucks with machine guns mounted on the beds of them. Every so often they would fire a burst at the wild dogs along the ridgeline. The men walking ahead of the trucks stayed bunched together never getting more than a hundred feet from the trucks. Two miles down valley, Joe saw what happened when any of the men left the group to search on their own.

A little earlier, Joe and Zeb had taken up positions at the top of a cliff a few miles down the valley as a group of men came down the road. Like the group they now watched, these men were also armed to the teeth. At a small draw only six or seven feet wide, two men broke from the group and cautiously went into it.

From the cliff Joe and Zeb lay on, it was less than two hundred feet to the draw. At a bend fifty feet up the draw, Joe saw over a dozen dogs lying in wait. More dogs waited around another bend a little farther on; they paced back and forth. The men were alert, but Joe saw that they didn’t have a chance.

As the men approached the bend, the dogs hunkered down in the snow. If Joe didn’t know they were there, he would never have spotted them. Only dogs with white fur waited on the men. You could have stood beside them and never known they were there.

One of the men stepped around the bend while the other one stood with the rifle to his shoulder ready to open up on anything that moved. Joe had to give it to the dogs; they were patient. The first man advanced up the draw several feet and motioned the other man forward. The dogs waited until the second man was in front of them before they sprang. The men didn’t have a chance to turn around. Without a sound, half a dozen dogs sprang on each man’s back. One of the men got two shots off and killed one of the dogs. The dogs on the other side of the bend raced to where the two men still struggled. Both men fell to the ground under the pack of dogs.

It took less than a minute to tear the men apart. Each dog ran up the draw with a chunk of meat in its mouth. They even tore the dead dog to pieces. In less than five minutes, the pack had disappeared up the draw.

The men at the mouth of the draw called out to the dead men. A truck with a machine gun on it pulled up to block the draw. The man behind the gun fired up the draw for almost a minute. Half a dozen men ran to the bend and stopped at the sight of all the blood on the ground. One of the men used the barrel of his rifle to lift the few pieces of blood stained cloth left behind. This left only four men with the truck; they acted nervous. They had reason to be skittish for at that moment a large number of dogs sprang out of a gully in back of the truck. Two men fell beneath the onslaught as more dogs climbed out of the gully. The man behind the machine gun finally turned the gun around and opened up. Dogs were flung back into the gully as the heavy slugs struck them. In a few moments, three dozen dogs lay dead or dying around the truck. The man with the machine gun was so scared that he pumped several rounds into one of the men who jumped up to get him to stop firing. The barrel of the machine gun glowed cherry red from the heat of the rounds fired through it.

The men up the draw rushed back and finished off the few remaining dogs. One of the men changed the barrel on the machine gun. He stood guard while the rest of the men dragged the dead dogs into a pile.

Another man poured gasoline on the bodies from a gas can. He poured a stream back from the pile until he thought it safe. Going to one knee, he put a match to the trail of gas. With a whoosh, the fire raced to the pile of bodies and roared into flames. The men stood back and watched the pile of bodies burn.

They laid the three dead men in the back of the truck and backed down the road a half-mile to a wide place in the road. Joe decided this would be a good time to change positions. They backed off the cliff and came to the hill they now lay on.

“Looks like they’re learning, young ‘un,” Zeb said.

“What do you mean?” Joe asked.

“The dogs only attack when there are jest a few of them,” Zeb answered. Zeb was right; two groups had joined the remnants of the group who was attacked. Joe saw the dogs around the men begin slinking away through the brush.

“If they started this search when we left the road, our gooses would have been cooked,” Joe said.

“Yep, lucky for us it snowed last night,” Zeb chuckled.

Joe didn’t know what it was about this old man that had his nerves on edge. Since they first met him, Joe had this crawling feeling along his spine. He never turned his back on Zeb. For some reason, he felt that to do so would be a grave mistake.

Joe watched Zeb out of the corner of his eye. Every so often, Joe saw a smile of delight on Zeb’s face as though he enjoyed what happened to the men. Zeb said he was ninety-one years old, but his movements and actions were those of a much younger man. In a lot of respects, it was like two men possessed one body.

There was the old, ignorant Zeb; then, there was the Zeb who appeared robust and full of energy. All the old man Zeb wanted to do was sleep, while the other Zeb did things that would exhaust a younger man. Until he overcame his suspicion of the man, Joe would be very cautious around him.

Another thing bothering Joe was the dogs behind them. They acted like an escort for Zeb and Joe. Although they never came close, they formed a protective ring around them.

“Come on, old man, let’s go back to the house. They will finish their sweep today, so we should be able to leave tomorrow.”

“That’s the trouble with you young ‘uns, always want’n to rush things,” Zeb mumbled. Joe stayed a half step in back of Zeb all the way to the house. As Joe took the cup of coffee Jake handed him, he felt the undertow of tension in the room. Zeb became the old man he was and went to the bedroom where he fell instantly asleep.

Ben nodded his head toward the door when Joe glanced his way. Joe watched Jake casually wonder over to Zeb’s bedroom and quickly close the door. Almost at once, the old man’s dog started scratching on the door and whining.

Joe stood up and followed Ben outside. They stood next to the door and watched the snow fall.

“What’s up Ben?”

“We got to talking while you were gone and made some surprising discoveries.”

“Such as?”

“Stalker says that Squeeker, Zeb’s dog, is a lot more intelligent than a dog should be. Stalker thinks that the dog has a hold on the old man. He says the dog has Zeb under a spell of some sort. You may have noticed Zeb acts a lot younger than he is while he is awake. After a period of activity, he falls in bed and sleeps like a baby. Tony thinks whatever it is the dog knows how far to push Zeb physically. I guess it’s just another peculiarity of what’s happening in the country today.”

Joe squatted down with his back against the wall and turned the collar of his coat up around his ears. “What would happen if we separated Zeb and Squeeker?”

“Stalker thinks it might be done if Zeb and Squeeker were separated by a long distance,” Ben answered.

“Jesus, what are we talking about? Is this like a demonic possession you read about in those occult books?”

“We don’t know. My guardian can’t penetrate the shield this thing surrounds itself with. I feel sorry for Zeb because we might have to kill him in order for us to go on,” Ben said.

“Whoa, Ben, if it’s not Zeb’s fault, we can’t just gun him down like an animal. Hell, that would make us like the people chasing us,” Joe said shaking his head.

“I know, Joe. Tony said the same thing. You came back before we had a chance to discuss it further.”

“This is another thing entirely, isn’t it? I mean the dog and Zeb have nothing to do with the people chasing us, do they?”

“We don’t believe so. If they were, we figure Todd and his men would already be here. No, this is something different. It is a threat to us, but we don’t know in what way or why. All of us feel the threat in his or her own way, but there are no facts to back up what we feel.”

Tammy stuck her head out the door and said, “Jake told me to tell you he can’t keep Squeeker in the bedroom much longer. Zeb is awake and wanting to know why his door is locked.”

“Tell Jake to let them out, Tammy,” Joe said getting to his feet. “Later tonight, get everyone but Tammy outside. We need to discuss what we are going to do,” Joe said before he went inside. Tony was trying to pacify Zeb while Squeeker stood with her hair raised, growling at everyone.

“What are you raising hell about now, old man?” Joe said in a rough voice.

“Dag nab it, young ‘un. Why were we locked in our room? Squeeker woke me, howling and pawing at the door. This goddamn black man gave me a lot of shit about the door being stuck,” Zeb sputtered.

“Anything we say won’t satisfy you so why don’t you get it out of your system, old man. I need something to eat, so make it short before my stomach eats my tonsils,” Joe told him.

“Well, if you’re going to act like that I’m going to go back to sleep. Don’t lock me or my dog in again,” Zeb said in a threatening voice.

Joe waved his hand at the old man dismissing him and walked into the kitchen. He slammed his fist into the wall and felt a jolt of pain shoot up his arm. “Shit, another complication on our getting you to this place in Colorado,” he said to Tony.

Tony put together a sandwich of cold cuts and handed it to him. Tony looked to the door making sure Squeeker wasn’t there listening. She leaned forward and whispered into his ear, “I feel it best we leave tonight, without Zeb and his dog.”

Joe nodded his understanding and took a can of tomato juice out of the refrigerator. He carried it to the table and sat down with a sigh. Jane came in smoking a cigar and took a seat across from him.

“The old man gets to you, doesn’t he?” she said.

“More than he should now that I know he isn’t entirely to blame,” Joe told her and finished the sandwich.

Jane pulled a small notebook out of the rear pocket of her fatigue pants and wrote on it. She held it up for Joe to read. “Squeeker is lying on the other side of the door so be careful what you say,” Joe read.

Joe took the notebook from her and wrote. “When you get the chance, have Ben and Jake sneak out after it gets dark and pull the trucks down the road a bit.”

For the benefit of Squeeker, Joe said. “I think it would be better if we stuck around here for a few more days and let them think we are out of the area.”

“What about all the dogs out there?” Jane wrote.

“I don’t believe they’ll bother us unless Zeb or Squeeker tells them to. If we do this right, we will be long gone before they discover we’re missing. I’m going to wake the old man in about an hour and have him go back out with me. If I tire him out, perhaps he will sleep right through our leaving. Meanwhile you and Tammy make sure Squeeker doesn’t go to sleep. Okay?” Joe wrote. Jane circled her thumb and forefinger and signaled okay to him and wrote, “You might have Tony tell Stalker to play with him and tire him out.”

Joe held the notebook up for Tony to read what Jane Had written. She took the notebook and wrote. “I don’t know if that will work because Squeeker is bound to know by now that Stalker is not an ordinary wolf.”

“Perhaps not. Stalker has stayed away from her and I don’t remember any of us talking about him. Do you?” She shook her head no. Joe showed Jane what he had written and she shook her head no also. Joe stood up, handed the notebook to Jane, and walked to the living room. Zeb’s soft snoring came from the bedroom. He sat down on the couch beside Jake who was almost asleep. Jake jerked his head up and seeing who it was said, “I feel like an old man. Funny how I can hardly remember what it was like to go home after a job and chill out. I remember thinking that things couldn’t get worse before this happened. Now I wish for the good old days as Ben calls them.”

“I know what you mean. This consistent tension of being chased by these people wears you down. It would be nice to go to the little adobe house of mine and kick back on the porch. In this weather it would be nice to sit in front of the fireplace and down a few beers,” Joe said wistfully.

“I would like to go to a good movie and eat a ton of popcorn. Then go to this bar I used to hang out in. Maybe flirt with a few of the women. Who knows, every now and then I got lucky. Anything beats sleeping alone. Come to think about it I haven’t thought about sex since this started. What about you?”

“To tell the truth, I haven’t had time. Keeping us alive occupies all my time. Anyway, sex was never a big thing with me. I went months without getting any a lot of times. I couldn’t understand why a lot of the men got hung up on it,” Joe answered.

“Really, I used to be horny all the time. Man if I didn’t get me a little bit every other day, I was a basket case. What has happened to us? I hope it’s not permanent; I am only thirty-seven. I don’t consider myself an old man. Although the shit we went through getting here and what we face will undoubtedly make me one,” Jake said.

Tammy who was listening to them talk said, “Come on you guys, I’m sure there is happiness on your horizon. Listening to the both of you talk is depressing.”

“Oh yeah, when did you take up fortune telling?” Joe asked.

“I don’t know about fortune telling but it only makes sense that you will both find someone to take care of you. Lord knows you need someone. Without me and Tony both of you would be in sad shape,” she giggled.

Jake felt uncomfortable talking about sex around the young girl. He had forgotten she was there.

“I don’t believe young ladies should be listening to conversations between two men.”

“After almost being raped, it would be rather prudish of me to say that I didn’t understand what you were talking about. Don’t you think so?” Tammy said with a coy smile.

“Give it up, Jake, you can’t win,” Joe told him.

“I know, but damn it she is just a young girl. She should be in school doing the things young people do, not here with a bunch of grown ups fighting for their lives.”

“As you know, Jake, I was an orphan. Joe and the rest of you have become the only family I have ever known. Personally, I don’t think a girl could have a better family than all of you,” Tammy said with a serious look on her face.

“Watch out, Jake, she wants something,” Joe said.

“I’m serious, Joe. If anything happened to one of you, I would die.”

Joe lifted her chin, saying, “Sorry, Tammy. We know how you feel, but sometimes we forget how young you are. If things were different, I would be proud for you to stay with me as my daughter. When this is finished, we will go to my place and put our lives together again. Okay?” he said, ruffling her hair.

“Okay, Joe,” she softly said.

“You wouldn’t have room at your place for a bummed out black man would you, Joe? There’s nothing for me to go back to.”

“Would be glad to have you, Jake. We can build a couple of more rooms, and we can all stick together,” Joe said, wishing it were true. He walked over and turned on the radio. Fiddling with the dial, he found the radio station they had been listening to when they could. The announcer was saying, “Overseas the situation is getting more chaotic. In the last few hours we learned from sources in England that the English armed forces beat back another attack. The combined forces of France and Spain are trying to take over the British Isles.

“Although France, Spain and Germany lie in nuclear ruin, people continue to join the remnants of France’s army. For those of you who may not know, it was two weeks ago that the French rebel leaders launched their missiles at Germany and England. Lord Snowdon ordered a massive retaliation on France after London and two other cities took direct hits. Between the German and English missiles, every city with a population of more than one hundred thousand was destroyed.

“Lord Snowdon said his country was extremely lucky. He said that over three quarters of the missiles fired at his country went off course and fell harmlessly out in the ocean. Lord Snowdon took over control of the English government after almost every Member of Parliament was vaporized when the first missile hit. Our sources say over ninety percent of the armed forces remain intact.

“The only difficulty may come when their petroleum runs low. They still have their oil wells off the northern Scottish coast, but they are limited on the amount that can be pumped. The government has ordered all major factories shut down to conserve energy. The only establishments operating are those that are defense related.

“In the Soviet Union, the army of the east was completely obliterated when millions of Chinese troops stormed across the radioactive zone separating the two countries. Most of the Chinese troops suffer from radiation sickness but they continue to advance westward.

“There have been so many purges in the Officer Corps over the last two months that a coordinated defense is impossible. We hear the missile forces controlling Soviet nuclear arms are intact. Reports say they have broken with the existing government.

“Colonel Ogloff, leader of these forces, issued a statement yesterday stating that unless the Chinese recalled their troops, he would level every major city in China. He warned the provisional countries to the west not to cross into Soviet territory. He would unleash his nuclear weapons on them if they invaded.

“The Chinese sent over five million troops surging south into Vietnam last week. Spotty reports coming from there say that the Vietnamese are putting up stiff resistance but are steadily being pushed south. Taiwan is said to be flying sorties against the Chinese troops, trying to slow them down. China has tried to get troops to the tiny island nation of Taiwan but has meet with very little success.

“Australian sources report that the Chinese lost over one hundred thousand men aboard troop transports heading for the island nation. Although reports are sketchy, it appears the Taiwanese government found out about the invasion. They stationed all of their submarines at the only approach to the island nation. One reporter is said to have described it as a turkey shoot. It is reported that in this one action the Chinese lost three quarters of their navel forces.

“Closer to home, we are happy to report that Castro has been overthrown and is said to have been hung from a flag pole in the center of Havana. The new Cuban government is trying to form an allegiance with the new government in Washington.

“All of South America is reported to be in turmoil. They fought off this disease for a long time by killing anyone who came near their borders. It is believed that the Mexican and American governments somehow smuggled a few sick people into Colombia. From there the disease spread to the surrounding countries.

“At home, the new president is far from being in full command of the armed forces. The men aboard ships at sea were unaffected when this disease hit. They are refusing the new President’s request to put into port and hand their ships over to the new government. They have set up a government in exile at the tiny country of Iceland.

“Warnings have been sent to the new President. The exiled government warned that if he sends troops to Iceland, the commanders of the nuclear submarines will fire their missiles and take out Washington. So far, this ploy is working. The exiled government has set up a powerful radio transmitter on one of the island peaks. From there they are transmitting into the United States asking people who are not a part of this revolt to resist the new government in any way they can.

“Although there aren’t many, a few groups have sprung up across the country and are fighting these people. I am proud to say that one of those groups works out of the city of Detroit, which is one of the cities retaken from the new government.

“The new President is said to be storming mad because he can’t access the country’s nuclear missiles. They went off line and will not respond to any of his orders. That is a lucky break for us because there is no doubt in my mind that he would have already nuked Detroit.

“The grim death toll over the last ten weeks comes to over one hundred sixty three million and still counting. What it comes down to listeners is that we are going to have to take back our country from these people. After that, there will be a lot of changes made concerning the way we govern ourselves. It will be a struggle to survive for the first decade or so.

“Thanks to the foresight of the previous government we have a chance. The opportunity is there. Now all we have to do is suck in our bellies and go to it.

“This is Rodney Clinger, of the new radio station Free America. With that bit of wisdom, we will be signing off for a few hours. Our next broadcast will be at eight pm eastern daylight time this evening. Until then, keep the home fires burning and God bless all of you.”

Joe switched off the radio and sat down. None of them spoke for several minutes as they digested what they had just heard.

“I wonder if the rumors we heard about Todd’s Master working with this new government are true.” Ben asked.

“It makes sense; they are part of the same affliction striking the country,” Joe answered.

“Let’s hope the new government can’t get things organized. If they do, Todd’s Master is sure to send them after us. With that kind of concentrated effort we will be finished,” Jane said.

Chapter 13

Greg stood in the blowing snow and watched his men drag the bodies out of the snow bank. Shaking his head, Greg walked back to the panel truck he used for a command post. Brushing snow from his coat, he opened the door and went inside. He accepted the cup of steaming coffee handed to him. His shoulders sagged as he sat down in front of the radio. Greg hesitated as he pushed the transmit button. He dreaded the explosion he knew was coming when he told Todd six more of his men were dead.

“Come in, Command Post. Someone talk to me,” Greg heard Todd say over the radio. Greg took a sip of steaming coffee before answering. Keying the mike, he said, “Todd, this is Greg. How do you copy me?”

“Loud and clear, Greg. What’s happening up there? Have you caught them yet?”

“No, Todd, we haven’t. They have disappeared again. I have men searching all the roads for some sign of them, but so far they haven’t found anything. We lost another six men about an hour ago to the wild dogs.”

Greg sat back waiting for Todd’s angry reply to come over the radio. It surprised him when Todd’s only response was to tell him to keep on searching. After assuring Todd they were doing everything possible to find Ben and Joe, Greg signed off.

Someone knocked on the door of the truck and his aide let in a scruffy looking man. He wore a light jacket inappropriate for the bone chilling cold outside.

“Get you a cup of coffee, Norm, then tell me all you know about this old man and his dogs,” Greg said.

Norm warmed his hands under the heater duct a minute before getting the coffee. Sitting down across from Greg, he said, “I was afraid this would happen.”

“What do you mean?” Greg asked.

“As long as we didn’t bother the old man, these wild dogs stayed out of our way. When you came into his valley with your men, you basically declared war on him. Now he is fighting with the only assets available to him: his dogs. Don’t underestimate the damage they can do. Look at the bodies we drug out of the snow bank for example. Those men never had a chance. From what we can piece together, the men were drawn in against the wall of the cliff. As they fought the dogs to the front of them, a dozen or so dogs climbed to a shelf above the men. Without warning, the dogs jumped on the backs of the men riding them to the ground. After that, it was over in no time. You saw what was left of the bodies. Hell, there wasn’t enough left of the six men to put together one whole body.”

“What I don’t understand is why we didn’t find any animal bodies? Surely the men put up enough of a struggle to kill a few of them?” Greg said.

“You didn’t find any bodies because the dogs ate them. Somewhere you might find a pelt or two. These dogs are on the verge of starving and will eat anything.”

“Where did this old man come from?” Greg asked.

“No one knows. We discovered him one day when we came into the valley heading for Bison City. He and his mutt stood beside the gate demanding ten pounds of meat per person to let us through. Needless to say, we got mad. We bundled the old man up, and took him back to our headquarters. The old man kept babbling so we thought he was crazy. A little later after it got dark, he cocked his head to the side, like he was listening to something. He lifted his head and grinned at us saying, ‘If I was you boys, I would make sure nothing happens to me, or you will never get out of here alive.’ Now, that didn’t set well with the men, and some of them wanted to shoot the man on the spot. After settling the men down, I asked the old man what he meant. He sat down in a chair and pulled out this old corncob pipe and stuck it in his mouth. “Well, young ‘un, it’s this way. If you harm me, my friends outside will take care of you,” he said.

“What friends?” I asked.

“Let me go, and you won’t have to find out,” he said.

“Two of the men with me, boys really because they were barely twenty years old, puffed out their chests saying, “We will take care of his friends.”

“The old man looked at them and said, ‘For your own good, don’t go out there until I have left.’

“You know how young men are always trying to prove how brave they are? Well, these boys walked outside bragging about what they were going to do. Nothing happened for several minutes, then all hell broke loose. We heard a lot of screaming and shooting outside the house. Something thumped against the door and the men rushed to open it. I shouted for them to stop and grabbed the old man by the neck marching him to the door. He opened the door and we saw a head lying there. Most of the face was eaten away, so we didn’t know which one of the boys it was. We all backed up a few feet leaving the old man standing there in the door. He turned to us and said ‘I’ll be going now. Remember, if you want to get through my gate, it will cost you ten pounds of meat per person.’ He ups and walks out the door and we didn’t see him again until the next time we had to use the road through his valley. I tell you, Greg, a chill went up my back when he left, and I’m not afraid to admit, he scared the hell out of me. He is not on our side, but I get the feeling that he is not on their side either. I think he has an agenda of his own whatever that may be.”

“Where does he get all these dogs?” Greg asked.

“No one knows. Every so often, we spot dogs crossing the ridge heading for the old man’s valley. The way we figure it, he must have hundreds of them in his valley.”

“What if I paid you and your men to hunt down these dogs? How long would it take?”

“Not for any amount of money could I get my men to go out there after the dogs. You don’t know them like we do. Twenty or thirty of them could be hiding within a few feet of you and you would never know it. If you think of them as just dumb animals, they will tear you and your men new assholes. No, you have to think of them as dangerous predators waiting for you to let your guard down,” Norm said.

“I could threaten you or use force to get you to go after them,” Greg said.

“If that’s the way it is going to be, you might as well shoot now. That will save you a lot of trouble,” Norm told him.

Greg liked this mild mannered man. From his speech, Greg knew Norm was well educated. He wondered how Norm became the leader of the small group of men with him.

“How did you become the leader of these men? With your education, I would think you belonged in one of the big cities helping set up our new government?”

“I was an economics professor at the University of Missouri when the country fell apart. I watched some of my colleagues commit acts so brutal it turned my stomach. Knowing if I protested, they would kill me, I left and headed for the backcountry. One day I wandered into the valley where you found us.

“There were a dozen men sitting on the porch of the hardware store. They were friendly enough and wanted to get a first hand report on what was happening in the outside world. After telling them everything I knew, we got to talking about how people should organize and take control of their lives again.

“None of the men were very good at organizing things what with them being mostly farm hands and laborers. So they asked me if I would stay and whip things into shape again. I’m rather proud of the job I’ve done so far. We have a loose knit police force that takes care of the few problems we have. Since we don’t have to worry about the justice system any more, crime in our area has become almost nonexistent. When a serious offense comes before me, I listen to both sides of the event and make an on-the-spot decision.

“If the offense is serious enough, I pronounce the death sentence. Immediately, we take the prisoner out to the back of the court house and shoot him or her in the back of the head.”

Norm noticed Greg’s eyebrows rise when he said ‘her.’ “That’s right. I have had to have five women executed so far. In the last month, all we have had to deal with are petty crimes for which the penalty is not as severe.

“So far we have reopened the schools and have a banking system that works to our benefit. Over the last few weeks, our population has increased from just under fifty people to over two hundred.”

“Why a backwater place like this?” Greg asked.

“I didn’t want to be a part of what is happening in the cities. Christ, over a third of the people in this country have been killed so far. You have seen what it’s like out there. Small town hoodlums are setting up their own little areas of control everywhere. They are swallowed up by the bigger groups like yours. Many of these groups lack any kind of organization. Most of them roam around the country destroying towns they come across.

“If we are going to survive this, there has to be a strong sense of organization. We need bodies of responsible people to make the tough decisions that need to be made. That’s what I’m trying to do in our community.”

“If we leave you alone, let you run things the way you want, can we count on you for support if we need it?” Greg asked.

“I believe something can be arranged. It works both ways you know. Let me ask you, if we need help would you send it?”

“I would have to ask my boss Todd, but I can’t foresee any reason why we can’t,” Greg answered.

“Good, in the meantime, I think we have done all we can here. With your permission I will take my men and go back to our town. After all, I don’t believe my two dozen men will be any help. With the multitude of people you have, we would more than likely get in the way.”

Greg stood up and extended his hand, which Norm shook. At the door Norm asked, “By the way, Greg, why is your boss set on capturing these people alive? Wouldn’t the best thing be to shoot them and get it over with?”

“It’s a personal thing between Todd and one of the men we are chasing. Also Todd’s boss wants this man Ben in the worst way.”

“If we are to survive, these types of personal clashes will have to be set aside. Then, we can deal with the larger problems facing us,” Norm said as he stepped out of the truck.

“I couldn’t agree with you more, Norm. Until we have more people like you in positions of power, we will have to make do the best we can. Take care of yourself, Norm. I’ll get back to you after I talk to Todd. I’m sure we can get some form of agreement for mutual aid between our two groups.” Greg watched as Norm gathered his men and left the camp headed for home. Getting himself a cup of coffee, he called for Jerry his next in command. A man with large ears and a limp came through the door. “What can I do for you, Greg?”

“I want you to take half dozen men and circle around to a little town called Wemo. We know they haven’t gone across the mountains here or here,” Greg said pointing to roads on the map in front of him. “I was stationed at an army camp near here when I was in the service. I used to do a lot of fishing down this way. If I remember right, there’s an old road going across the mountains from a farm around here. All I can remember is that it led to a small town named Wemo. We will try to locate the farm, but I want you to take your men into that town and watch for them. I find it hard to believe they could make it across the mountain on that road. It really wasn’t more than a path. To be on the safe side, take your men to Wemo and keep out of sight. Call me on the radio if you see them.”

Greg put on his heavy parka and left the truck. He walked over to where his men were placing the last body on the pile.

“Spread kerosene over the bodies,” Greg told them. He watched as the bodies were soaked. He motioned the men back and took a flare out of his pocket.

Backing off twenty feet, he struck the tip of the flare causing flames to spout out the end. Underhanded, he tossed the flare on the pile of bodies. With a whoosh, flames shot into the air causing heat to drive them back farther. In moments, they were all gagging at the smell of burning flesh. Greg had his driver pull the truck down the road around a bend where he gathered his men around him. “John, I want you and a dozen men to go with me. Somewhere around here is a road off to the right that leads to a farmhouse. It’s the only place they could have gone. Jack, you hold the rest of the men here until we contact you. Call back to camp and have them bring up a flame thrower. If the dogs get too close, use it on them. Jack, when I call for you don’t dawdle around; come fast as you can.

“If the old man is with them there are bound to be a lot of dogs around, so be careful. All right, everyone who is going with me, get some waterproof boots on and put enough clothes on to keep warm for awhile. We hoof it from here until we find something.” Greg waited impatiently while the men dressed.

The men lined up before him, and Greg checked each man to be sure all of them were carrying automatic rifles with at least two hundred rounds apiece. Greg had them fall into double file and marched them down the road.

They heard movement on both sides of the road, but when they shined their flashlights that way nothing was seen. Every few minutes a dog would howl causing the men to jump. In less than a half-mile, the men were jammed together in a tight bundle.

Greg called a halt and told them to keep at least three feet between them, or they would end up shooting each other.

A little further on, Greg found what he was looking for, a break in the trees off the right side of the road. He walked off the road a bit and dug through the snow until he found gravel.

“See? I told you there was a road around here somewhere. All we have to do is follow the break in the trees until we come to the farmhouse.”

Chapter 14

Joe put his hand over Jake’s mouth to keep him from crying out. He whispered into Jake’s ear,

“Time to go.”

Jake nodded okay and started getting dressed.

Joe did the same thing at the next bed, and Ben began dressing. Joe waited until they put on the night vision goggles then motioned for them to follow him. Joe put his finger to his lips indicating for them to be quiet. Joe pointed to the bedroom across from theirs. Closing the door, Joe walked to the window by the bed. Pulling the curtains apart, he motioned for them to climb out the window. Outside, Joe slid the window closed gently. Pulling their heads close, he whispered, “Do exactly as I do and follow in my footsteps.”

They watched as Joe stepped into the snow lifting his foot high and setting it down with exaggerated care. Shrugging his shoulders, Jake followed Joe. They walked this way to the end of the barn then Joe broke into a trot, heading for a shed a half-mile away. As they ran, dogs rose from their resting places all around them and watched as they ran by. One of the dog’s ears went back and started forward as they approached. A black streak flew from behind them and grabbed the dog by the throat.

Whimpering, the dog lay down, and Stalker released his grip. A few of the dogs who had stood up laid back down, avoiding the wolf’s eyes. By the time they got to the shed, all of them were gasping for breath. As they rested, Joe told them that everyone else was in a draw at the foot of the mountain.

“Jesus, that’s another mile from here,” Jake gasped.

“I know; it was the only place we could put them. We don’t want to be heard when we start them. At night, sound travels a long way in these hills,” Joe said.

“Looks like we got another foot or so of snow after we went to sleep,” Ben said.

“The more snow we get the better off we are. I wish we had gotten three or four feet of it,” Joe told them.

“Easy enough for you to say; you’re wearing snowshoes. We have to wade through this stuff up to our waist,” Jake muttered.

Joe reached in the shed and pulled out two sets of snow shoes. “Will these pep you up a little, Jake?”

“Damn right they will. I’m just a skinny black man. I don’t have the ass or weight you guys have to push through this stuff. I did tell you that I hate snow?”

“Only every time you’ve had to go outside in the last few weeks,” Ben told him.

“Stalker says to quit talking and start moving; he thinks he hears Squeeker barking at the house,”

Ben said as he fastened the snowshoes to his feet.

“Tell Stalker to stay behind and keep watch in back of us. Just in case these dogs turn mean,” Joe said, indicating the dogs that stood looking at the house.

“Ready?” Jake asked as he stepped into the drifting snow, heading toward the mountain ridge ahead of them.

A full moon stood in the middle of the sky causing it to be like midday as the light reflected off the snow. Even with snowshoes, the going was difficult.

In places where the snow drifted, Joe and Ben beat down a path to make it easier for Jake. Jake struggled to get the hang of walking with the wide snowshoes on.

Around them, the wild dogs got to their feet and headed toward the house. Jake tripped and fell when a large German shepherd suddenly stood up three feet in front of him with its fangs bared. Ben helped him to his feet, and they circled around the dog. It was an eerie sight as hundreds of dogs rose from the ground to stand and watch them.

“I liked it better when I couldn’t see them,” Jake muttered.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Joe said. He grabbed one of Jake’s arms, and Ben grabbed the other one. They hurried along with Jake between them.

All the dogs faced the house now with an intent look in their eyes as though waiting for something. In back of them, Stalker made low growling noises deep in his throat. They felt the tension in the air as they hurried along, expecting the dogs to spring on them any second. As one, the dogs shifted their attention from the house to them. Stalker leaped forward and grabbed a large Doberman that stepped in front of them by the throat. One savage twist of those mighty jaws left the dog kicking in the snow. Without pausing, Stalker rammed into another dog that tried to block the way and left it bleeding with its throat torn out. All around them the dogs edged closer.

“Why aren’t they making any noise?” Jake asked.

“Stalker says the men hunting for us are just over the hill in back of the house. They are being quiet to give Zeb and Squeeker time to get away,” Ben told him.

All at once the dogs turned away from them and started pushing through the snow heading for the house.

“Why are they leaving?” Jake asked.

“They are going back to try and delay the men, so Zeb will have time to find a hiding place. Come on. Let’s get to the trucks while their attention is on something else. Lucky for us the men came along; otherwise, they were about to take us out,” Ben said.

Ten minutes later a white suited figure rose from the snow in front of them. “What kept you so long? We were starting to get worried,” Jane said.

“Where are the trucks?” Joe asked.

“Over there,” Jane pointed at a grove of trees.

They walked into the grove of trees and found the trucks with their engines running. Tony stepped from behind a tree with a rifle and came over to them.

“Does Zeb know we are gone?” she asked.

“He does but he has problems of his own. The men who are after us are almost to the house. Stalker tells me Zeb is hauling ass in the other direction before they get there. Where is Bill?” Ben asked.

“He went on ahead to scout out the best route for the trucks. He said he would mark the route with red ribbons he found in back of the truck,” Tony answered.

“Get everyone in the trucks and let’s get out of here. I want to be well into the mountains before the men discover we are gone,” Joe told them.

Ben drove the four-wheel drive Jeep pickup with Jake and Jane up front while Tammy lay on the mattress in back. Joe and Tony followed them in the old Army Jeep with the fifty-caliber machine gun mounted in the back of it. Every so often, they spotted a red ribbon hanging from a tree limb to mark the way. As they passed the marker, Joe would stop and Tony would remove it. Right after they started, it began to snow. The further they went, the heavier the snow became, wiping out the tracks left by the trucks. In places, they had to use the winch on the front of the pickup to pull it over obstacles in their way.

They were only a mile into the mountains when the wind brought the sound of firing from the valley behind them. In places, the snow had drifted to ten or more feet deep. They found where Bill had beaten a path through the drifts. One of them would pull the winch line to the other side and hook it to a tree and winch the truck through.

Slowly, they made their way to the top of the mountain. Joe stopped them on the opposite side to rest. Joe took his binoculars and went back to the top. He wanted to see if he could spot anything or anyone behind them.

Tony took out the Coleman stove and fired it up. With Jane’s help, she made them a breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs. They caught sight of a campfire every so often at the bottom of the mountain. They knew that Bill was warming himself while waiting for them. Tony handed Joe a plate when he returned and asked what he had seen.

“I couldn’t see all that well because of the snow, but it looks like they torched the house. I saw the bodies of a lot of dogs lying in the snow on the ridge in back of the house. There were several human bodies lying there also. From what I saw, there are less than fifty men down there. They have their hands full keeping the dogs at bay. I thought I caught sight of Zeb across the valley. Funny, whoever it was looked up to where I was and shook his fist. I’m afraid we haven’t seen the last of Zeb and his dogs,” Joe told them.

“I’m happy to be rid of him and his dogs. I always had the feeling they were eyeing me for their next meal,” Jane said with a shudder.

“I didn’t like the way they hid in the snow without making a sound or movement until you were on top of them. Down right spooky the way they could hide,” Jake said as he finished with his meal.

“My Guardian tells me we have made a terrible enemy who will stalk us wherever we go. She says he wants something from us, but she can’t figure out what it is,” Ben told them.

“If I get that little bitch of a dog in my sights, I’ll blow her away,” Jane told them as she lit a cigar.

“Stalker says that neither Zeb nor Squeeker are to blame. Something took control of their bodies and is forcing them to act the way they do. They are almost like the people who are chasing us except there are differences,” Tony said.

“Ask him what the differences are.” Ben asked.

“He says that Zeb and his dog don’t follow the same rules as the other people. To Zeb, it doesn’t make any difference if you are like us or like the people chasing us; he will use you, then give you to his dogs. Although he may look and act human, he is a far worse monster than the people chasing us,”

Tony told them.

“We can add him to the long list of people who are trying to kill us,” Ben said with a grunt. Jake rolled his eyes back in his head and said, “Why me? What did a nice looking black man like me do to be thrown out here with all you white folk. Shit, I have enough trouble being black. I have people trying to kill my skinny ass from every direction, which is bad enough. Now you tell me every stray dog I come across will try to kill me, too. Isn’t there any justice in this world?”

They all grinned at him, having gotten used to him moan about what a black man had to put up with.

Jane handed him a cigar, saying, “Shut your black mouth before you have us in tears because we feel so sorry for you.”

Grinning, Jake said, “I got a cigar out of it.”

Joe chuckled, “Pack up; it’s time to move.”

After loading everything, they made their way down the mountain and found Bill beside a small stream. He lifted a coffee pot from his fire and poured coffee into the cups they held out. After bringing him up to date on what had happened, Bill told them about a small town located on the other side of the next mountain.

“It looks quiet, and I saw a few people drive out of there about an hour ago. There must be people living there because all the streetlights are on. Another thing, the streets aren’t trashed up. Most of the towns we pass through are trashed so bad it would be like living in a pigsty. Not this place, it is so clean it makes me wonder why. I think we had better let Stalker go in and check things out first.”

“Sounds good. Have you seen any dogs?” Joe asked.

“Not a one. I haven’t seen any animals since I left the valley we were staying in.”

Tony handed Bill two sandwiches and a cup of coffee which he ate standing near the fire. Ben and Jake checked the chains on the trucks and tightened them where necessary. Joe filled the gas tanks on the trucks from the gas cans strapped to the back of the Jeep. After strapping the empty cans on the Jeep, Joe walked over to Bill.

“Did you spot a gas station in the town? The cans are empty. The pickup has only half a tank,” Joe said.

“There is one on the other side of town, but I didn’t get a very good look at it. Since the power is still on, it might be operational. I hope so. Pumping gas out of the underground tanks with a hand pump is dangerous. The last time Jake and I did it the gas fumes covered half the town. One spark and it would have been all over.”

“Is there a building or house close to the town we can get into before it gets light? Someplace close, but not close enough that someone might spot us.”

“I thought you might want something like that so I checked out a few houses about a mile from town. There are two places we can use. One house sits on a hill with a winding driveway leading up to it. There is a small five-room house at the top that would be easy to defend. The other one is at the dead end of a hollow. It has eight rooms and a garage large enough to put the trucks in. I checked and the electricity is still on along with the water. We could all use a bath. I know Tony and Jane would appreciate one. The only problem is we need to place a guard at the mouth of the hollow. Once we are in the house, there is only one way out. It could end up trapping us.”

Joe called everyone over and explained about the houses, asking what they thought. Everyone but Ben voted to hold up in the house at the end of the hollow.

Ben argued that if they became trapped this close to town, enough force could be brought to eliminate them. He reluctantly gave in after awhile.

Joe and Bill put out the fire, dragging snow to cover where it had been. Making sure that all traces of their being there were removed, Bill walked to the Jeep and climbed in beside Joe. Bill guided them down the valley to a road that had been cleared of snow recently. Once on the road, they stopped long enough to brush away the tire marks where they entered the road. The snow continued to fall heavily so Joe tied a few large branches behind the truck and Jeep. As they drove along, the branches wiped out their tire tracks.

At the foot of a small hill, Bill turned to the right and drove into a small creek. He explained that the only way to reach the house was to drive up the creek bed for a couple of hundred yards. Joe had Bill stop near where a fifty-foot cliff abutted the creek. He told Bill to take them to the house and send someone to relieve him in two hours.

Joe climbed a crack in the cliff to a large pine tree at the top. Looking down the hollow, he saw the road and the tops of buildings across the hill. Raising his head, he looked to the top of the pine tree, which he judged to be eighty feet high.

Slinging his rifle across his shoulder, Joe reached up and grabbed a low hanging limb and pulled himself up. He climbed to two large limbs sticking out side by side, fifty feet from the ground. They formed a seat, large enough to sit on with his back against the tree.

Taking his binoculars out, Joe raised them to his eyes. From this height, he could see two thirds of the town. Bill was right. The town appeared cleaner than most of the ones they had passed through. Joe saw several vehicles parked along the street. Movement along a side street caught his attention. A half-dozen men eased along the buildings.

The way they sneaked along indicated they did not want to be seen. He watched them enter a church in the middle of town. In a few minutes, he saw movement in the bell tower atop the church. Focusing in, Joe saw a man raise a pair of binoculars to his eyes and make a sweep of the town. As he watched, Joe saw the man raise a radio to his mouth and speak into it. By now it was light enough to see the countryside clearly. Joe hunkered down in his jacket and pulled the top closed while keeping watch on the town.

Hearing a sound below him, Joe saw Jake standing below looking around. Plucking a pinecone from the limb above him, Joe threw it at Jake to get his attention. Jake looked up and Joe put his fingers across his lips, making go away motions with his hands. He pointed down the hollow and made walking motions with his fingers. Jake took the hint and faded into the trees. Must be getting old, Joe thought. He watched the two men walk up the creek. He didn’t know where they came from. Joe hoped they weren’t heading for the house. Both men carried shotguns, which wouldn’t be a match for his rifle if it came to a fight.

Keeping the trunk of the tree between him and the men, Joe peered around the side. He heard one of them laugh at something the other one said. They certainly weren’t quiet leading him to believe they didn’t know Joe was in the area. The men were directly below him now and he caught snatches of their conversation.

“We had better get a rabbit or something today. If we don’t, my old lady will skin me,” one of the men said. The men stopped and pointed to the tracks Jake left in the snow.

“Wonder who else is up here?”

“No one I know of. Looks like the tracks come down the hollow. Wonder if someone’s living in the old Jefferson house?”

“It was empty last week. Me and my boy were up there looking for winter apples and it was deserted.”

“Should we go up and check on who is there?”

Joe held his breath waiting for the man’s answer.

“Naw, don’t matter to me who’s living there. Best to forget we ever saw these tracks. Know what I mean?”

“Yeah, ever since that last bunch of men came through town I learned to see nothing and hear nothing. It’s better for our health to leave and not come back this way for a while.” He looked around as though he knew someone was watching him.

Joe let his breath out slowly as the men passed out of hearing. They walked faster going down the hollow than they did coming in. Joe waited until the men were out of sight then signaled Jake to come out of hiding. Jake climbed the tree to where Joe sat.

“Any idea who they were?” Jake asked.

“I only caught parts of their conversation. From what I heard, they went back to town because they didn’t care to find out who was up this hollow. They mentioned a bunch of men coming into town recently. I got the impression they suppressed their curiosity because of something these men did to them. I don’t know, but I’m going to suggest that we go to the other house tonight to be on the safe side.”

“Go get a bite to eat and take a warm shower. Man I forgot how relaxing it was to stand under hot water. Ben said he would be down to relieve me in four hours.”

Joe told Jake about the men who were in the church bell tower and how they came sneaking into town. He exchanged places with Jake and climbed down the tree. Heading up the hollow, Joe eagerly anticipated getting out of his clothes and under a hot shower.