kingdom of god 10

The naked warrior was on the ground with the corner of his skull blown open then Wade and Sheridan covered their noses and dragged his body out of sight. They hastily covered him with rocks and dirt and Sheridan pulled out his canteen to wash the blood from his hands. “There was a better way to handle that,” he told Wade.

“How so? By stripping naked and getting washed in the blood?”

“That’s preferable to getting hunted down. They surely heard that rifle shot.”

“Probably so. Is there another way around the pass? Perhaps along that ridge?”

Wade pointed to the east and Sheridan looked in that direction. He shook his head and drank from the canteen. “Maybe,” said Sheridan, “but they probably have this entire valley covered.”

Wade stood up from where he knelt and dusted away the dirt from his knees. “Well, then we should move fast. They’re likely moving in the direction of the shot. We should be out of this valley before they figure out what’s going on.”

Sheridan twisted the cap back on his canteen and they grabbed their rifles and trekked up the meager paths carved into the boulders until they were on top of the ridge overlooking the crevice below. Sheridan had the buck knife ready and attached to the end of his rifle as a bayonet while Wade held the Remington to his hip. They made a quick pace along the ridge and kept a heavy eye in all directions but no naked warrior opposed them. None appeared at all.

“Maybe they didn’t hear the shot,” Wade uttered.

Miles in and a faint echo of an ancient chant was heard. “Did you hear that?” asked Sheridan.

“I ain’t worried until I see something.”

As they descended the ridge down to the flatter plain beneath, Sheridan breathed a sigh of relief. “We’re almost out of it,” he said. Then a six foot spear flew from atop and burrowed into Sheridan’s right thigh and as he went to the ground, Wade fired a single round towards the ledge.

“Christ!” Sheridan shouted in agonizing pain.

Wade placed his foot on the spear to break and shorten it and after he did, he threw Sheridan’s arm around his shoulders. “It’s too late!” the wounded man cried. And it was. A dozen blood soaked warriors appeared before them like ghosts from the ether and had them surrounded. Wade dropped the rifle to his side and the leader approached him and looked upon him with pugnacious eyes.

“Ah psh NEE!” the warrior cried in an alien tongue and his breath reeked of a putrid grave. Two more naked warriors flanked the men on both sides and took them by the arms.

TO BE CONTINUED…

kingdom of god 7

Satisfied with the representative’s response, Wade left the Agency’s office and headed back towards the inn. When he arrived he informed the innkeeper to hold his room for a few more days while he went north yet the innkeeper only moaned and protested.

“I took a closer look at that gold ring you gave me and it ain’t worth two rat shits put together. You’ll have to find another form of payment,” the man said.

But Wade spat on the floor and put his hands on the desk. “I’m gonna need the silver. I’ll pay you when I get back,” he told the innkeeper.

“No sir. I need payments up front.”

“And what about you snoopin around rooms while your guests are away? I doubt the Guild would take kindly to what’s going on here.”

“The Guild don’t have no say in how I do business! Now you get your shit and get outta here!”

“Then I want my ring back.”

“Why?”

“If it ain’t worth two shits then what difference does it make?”

“And what about the whore?”

“I’ll settle up with her later.”

The innkeeper gave the ring back and Wade gathered his things with the satchel dangling in front of him and rifle case around his shoulder and he departed towards the river’s edge. There a ferryman stood by and Wade gave him a piece of silver to boat him to the northern shore. As the ferryman cast off, more Nighthawks scrambled overhead and the ferryman chuckled.

“Ya know, they say that the longer you spend on this river that the river will eventually speak to ya,” the ferryman joked. “But I hear nothing from this water. The only thing I hear is that damn screamin from the sky. I found two bodies floating downstream yesterday. Last week I found six! I suppose the creeks from them mountains are washing the bodies down here. Goddamn. I don’t know what kind of fool would want to go up that a way but I imagine if anything is talkin these days it’s the folks up in those hills. The only folks they sendin down this way are their dead and a graveyards ain’t known for being jovial.”

Wade said nothing as he watched the waters glide underneath the boat.

“I can see you ain’t much of a talker neither,” the ferryman said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 51

Welcome to Utah the sign read. I knew exactly where we were headed; it was to the charred remains of the Candyland Brothel where so many of Randy’s victims met their end. It was at the thick of day when the Cadillac and limousine pulled off into an undisclosed dirt road and down through the mountain pass where we braved the threat of Penelope with the late Vic Weathers weeks earlier. It felt like ages ago. Finally we entered the dry lake basin and there in the center was the remains of Randy’s empire in the desert. With his pistol ready, the driver ordered us to exit the limo.

Randy climbed out of the driver’s seat of the Cadillac while gnawing on a Slim Jim. The Madam got out on the passenger’s side and Old Jim from the backseat. Randy offered Dale and me some of his processed jerky.

“Shove it up your ass,” I retorted to his offer. But Dale accepted.

Randy took a deep breath and looked around him. “Such a beautiful country,” he said.

“It’s dead,” I replied. “Just like I will be. And with any luck you will be too.”

He spat and shook his head. “Okay then,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”

“I have something I want to say,” Dale interjected. “Before I die, I’d like to say I feel blessed to have had the time of my life. I never thought that…” But before he could finish, the driver lifted his Ruger to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. The bullet exited his forehead and his body fell limply to the ground.

I turned my eyes.

And when the shock of his death wore off, Randy signaled to the driver to shoot me next. “Just a moment,” Old Jim interrupted. “I’ll handle this.”

“Dad,” Randy pleaded, “just let him do it.”

“No no, it’s fine.”

Jim checked his six shooter and walked over to me. “Sorry James,” he informed me.

“I don’t take it personally,” I said.

Jim relieved the driver and I looked to the shadows on the ground to see his pistol aimed at my head. Then I looked Randy dead in the eye and the seconds felt like eternity.

There was a gun shot. I again looked at the shadows and watched the driver fall to the ground. When I turned around, he had a hole blasted through his temple.

“Dad! What are you doing?” Randy shouted.

“Well I figured I couldn’t shoot my own grandson,” Jim reasoned.

Randy and the Madam were stunned silent. I nodded a thanks to Jim and picked up the Ruger from the driver’s lifeless body. “Well Randy, it looks like you’ll be dead sooner than I expected,” I said.

“James, don’t be stupid,” he pleaded.

I looked at Dale’s corpse. “Don’t feel too bad for him,” I said to Randy. “He knew what was coming. What’s about to happen has nothing to do with that.”

“What’s about to happen?”

I looked to the mountain pass and then up at the lingering sun. “You claim this as your empire,” I said, “but you have a challenger. I suspect that the sun will set behind those mountains in about four hours. It’s possible to reach the pass before then. I would know.”

Then I shot him in the kneecap.

While he pathetically screamed in agony, I came closer. “Unfortunately I think you can still make it to the pass before Penelope can get to you,” I said, “so I’m gonna need an additional handicap.”

So I shot him in the other kneecap.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anadeia 39

Susan approached the bedside where my left wrist was tied to a post. She didn’t look threatening but I was still unsure of her intentions as her arms were crossed and she glared deep into my eyes.

“What do you want with Randy?” I asked her.

“What’s your relationship with him?” she retorted.

“I asked you first.”

“You’re the one tied up.”

My head was pounding. In fact, I probably needed medical attention. So I sucked up my pride and played by her rules. “Okay,” I said, “he’s my father.”

“Your father?”

“Yes. He thought I didn’t know but he’s an idiot. It’s always been obvious.”

“That’s interesting,” Susan said.

“Is it? Why are you after him?”

“Are you protecting him?”

“Protecting him?! He had me locked away in a brothel for two months! I only escaped because I shot up the place! I’m not protecting him! I’m going after him!”

Susan said nothing to this. She nervously paced around the room in deep thought while my patience was growing thin. “Now are you going to tell me why you’re onto him?” I demanded to know.

She took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. It took a moment to find her words. “My mother disappeared when I was very young,” she recalled. “It’s only been within the last six months that I learned Randy sold her into sexual slavery. I tracked him down to Norco and that’s when I began following you.”

“So we’re on the same side,” I said.

“I guess,” she said and then blew out a puff of smoke. “What are you gonna do when you catch him?”

“Kill him,” I shrugged.

“Have you ever killed somebody before?”

“Shiiiiiit,” I said. “I guess you don’t know me. Have you?”

“No.”

“Is that your aim?”

“I don’t know.”

“I word of advice,” I cautioned, “it could be a hard path to get off of once you’re on it.”

“I just want to know if my mother is still alive.”

“I’d love to help you out,” I said. “I just hope Dale survived that horrific car crash.”

Susan dabbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and gathered her things. “Look, I need to get some sleep,” she said. “We need to return to the UPS store tomorrow because that’s our only lead.”

“I agree.”

“I’ll get us more supplies in the morning.”

“Sounds good.”

“Be sure to get plenty of rest tonight.”

“Will do,” I said. “Say Susan, do you mind untying me from this bed? I need to piss and I’m reasonably certain that I have a concussion.”

But she slammed the door without saying a word.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 33

The eyes of the man, our captor, widened in awe at the horrifying and unbridled majesty of Penelope. He was slow to raise arms, not that it would have mattered, and his comrades scrambled to figure a plan of attack. The captor on the right opened fire but the speed of a bullet was no match for Penelope’s supernatural and inhuman powers. She lashed out at her attacker, reaching for his ankles and smashed his body into a bloodied mess on the cavern wall. The captor on the left panicked and attempted to flee but was met with claws burrowing into his belly and bits of stomach and intestines spewed out.

The man was speechless and three of us in the cage were powerless with him. He was alone and Penelope towered over him then hissed and the man fell to his knees to beg forgiveness from a seeming beast that knew no mercy. “Penelope,” he pleaded with tears streaming down his face, “you’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever witnessed! I never meant you no harm! Please! Can you find the humanity within yourself to let me go?! Your blood is my blood! You can have all this land! It’s been in my family for generations! It’s all yours! All I’ve ever wanted was a continuation of your kind!”

I looked deep into her glowing yellow eyes and for my sake and the sake of Dale and Old Jim, I prayed that there was a shred of humanity buried deep within her. But if there was, she wasn’t prepared to share it with the man on his knees. She raised her giant right hand and swatted it at the man’s head, knocking it clean off and it rolled towards the cage. When it stopped, it revealed to us that the last sensation that man ever knew was abject terror.

I looked at the head and then at Penelope. She approached the cage and glared at us intensely and it was the first time I had ever gotten a clean look at her face. She didn’t hiss or growl. She looked at me not with malice but with curiosity and while her alien features were apparent, I also saw the human. Though behind a cage and of no threat, I raised my hands in the air. “Penelope, I don’t know if you can understand me,” I said, “but I want to thank you for freeing us. I have a greater understanding of you now. I beg of you to let us be. We will not pursue you or harm you in any way.”

She studied us for what felt like eternity and then she placed her face close to the cage and I lower my hand. She sniffed at it for a bit before blinking then standing straight up and once again revealing her majesty. She blinked once more indicating her farewell then rushed out of the cavern like a fading dream.

I exhaled a sigh of relief and immediately crawled out from the bottom of the cage towards Vic. He was barely alive. His intestines were splayed out on the ground while his legs laid several feet away. I knelt down by his side to give him a sense of comfort before he died.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” I said as I laid my hand on his chest.

But in his dying daze he looked at me and with his last bit of strength, he reached up and grabbed me by my throat and blood spewed from his mouth he uttered his dying words. “I’m dead because of you!” he gurgled.

I struggled to pry his fingers from my neck and Dale rushed to my side to wrestle away his arm. But his strength slowly gave way and his eyes rolled back in his head and his hand fell flatly to the ground. And when he released me, I fell backwards and coughed uncontrollably to regain my breath.

“Christ!” I spat out.

Dale did a Hail Mary to mourn the passing of Vic then laid his hands on his eyes to close them. “Do we bury him?” he asked.

I look around to the cavern to the other bodies splayed about then I stand up to look at the carcass of the dead Scotsman once more. “Leave him,” I said. “This was what he wanted.”

I unlatched the cage to free Jim and the three of us traversed the narrow chambers of the cave and up to the opening where evening greeted us. On the outside we felt like three fallen angels that had escaped our hellish torment. Then each of us mounted one of the three horses deserted by our captors and proceeded down the trail.

We said nothing to each other.

As night fell and the moon hovered gloriously above the mountain tops, I saw Penelope silhouetted against the sky like a lone specter haunting the valley. She watched us trot away and then she disappeared into the darkness.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 32

Vic wiped the blood of the knife on his faded pant leg. The body of the prisoner whitened as the darkened blood flowed from his body and mixed into the sand beneath our feet. Dale, usually calloused to these sights, growled and moaned. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he told Vic.

“I won’t say it again mate,” he warned, “I had little option.”

“You should’ve stabbed me instead,” said Old Jim.

Vic spat and knelt down in front of the bamboo which caged us in. He began sawing away at the hallowed wood and it didn’t take long to break it free. “You see this?” he asked. “This is all that stands in the way between Penelope and us once we unchain her. Do you want to be the next one in her belly?”

We said nothing as he finished the job. He began bending the sticks back to clear an opening then he placed the knife back in his boot. “Alright,” Vic instructed me, “once I’m out, drag the body through and place it as close as you can to Penelope. I’m gonna start pulling up those spikes. I don’t know how deep they go so I might need your help.”

I nodded reluctantly. “Vic, if we make it out of this,” I said, “you and me are through.”

“Just do as I say,” he spat.

Vic crawled through the opening and once on the other side, he stood up and quietly inched toward Penelope. I picked up the prisoner by the armpits and dragged his body towards the opening. I went through and reached back inside to pull him out. The prisoner, drained of all blood, was light. I finished dragging him as close as I felt comfortable and dropped him limply to the ground.

Meanwhile, Dale and Jim clutched the bamboo bars tightly as they watched the two of us on the outside. Vic was struggling with the spikes so I quietly move towards him and grabbed the top of the spike. While he pulled the chain, I lifted with all my strength. Despite the physical exertion, we tried not to grunt out of fear of disturbing Penelope who continued to rest soundly.

Finally the spike budged. Seconds later it was broken free. “One down, two more to go,” Vic whispered.

“We don’t want to loosen all four of the chains?” I asked.

“We might need a second of resistance,” he suggested.

We broke loose the second spike. Penelope was still undisturbed. But the third and final spike took some doing. With our strength nearly depleted, we started to loudly grunt. When it broke loose, the metal clanged against solid rock which echoed into the cavern. Penelope slightly shifted in her slumber which caused us to stop dead in our tracks. She rolled over and then grunted a loud snore.

“Fuck me, that was close,” Vic whispered.

“What do we do now?”

“We go back into the cage and we wait.”

With only Penelope’s hind leg chained, we tip toe back to Dale and Jim. When we reached the cage, Vic signaled for me to go in first. I bent back the bamboo and crawled inside. Then Vic got on his knees and did the same. When he was halfway through, the bamboo caught on the ass of his pants and broke.

It wasn’t a penetrating sound but it was enough to wake up Penelope. We froze as we watched her stand straight up and glare at us with glowing eyes. “Vic! Hurry the fuck up!” I yell.

But Penelope screamed that ungodly sound then effortlessly broke the last spike and charged toward the cage. Vic attempted to wiggle his way through to no avail. She went right past the prisoner’s body and latched onto Vic’s legs. She bit into his midsection and tossed him to the other side of the cave where he laid there with his torso separated from his lower half and bone and organs were exposed to all.

But Vic, still alive, begged her to eat the corpse of the prisoner. She responded with ear piercing screeches. But before she could finish him, our captors entered the cavern with guns ready.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 31

The torches lit the tavern a burning red; this was literal hell. We were ordered to our feet and then rounded into the bamboo cage with the other prisoner. The captor locked the latch tight behind us and cackled. Then the leader placed his hands on the cage to give us one final warning. “Penelope’s got her belly full, so she’s fat and happy,” he said. “But in a few hours she’ll be up and at it again. So say your prayers and bid each other farewell. Cuz you ain’t got long.”

Penelope was balled up and sound asleep and the captors exited the cavern. Dale nudged the barely cognizant prisoner still shaken by his comrades death. “Hey buddy, are you hangin in there?” he asked.

The prisoner licked his lips and attempted to form words. “Water,” was all he said.

“Nah buddy. We ain’t got none of that.”

Vic was standing at the edge of the cage and looking at Penelope while out of earshot from the others. It wasn’t a mystery as to what he was thinking. “What’s the plan?” I ask.

“In my boot,” he said. “In my boot, I still have the knife. They didn’t think to check there.”

“So we cut ourselves free and then what?”

“All we have is the knife. They got the guns. We’re gonna need an extra set of hands. Specifically Penelope’s.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“We’re gonna have to cut her free.”

“By pulling those spikes out of the ground?”

“You got it.”

I nodded. That seemed like the only sensible option. “How long do you reckon it’ll take to cut through the bamboo?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t take long.”

“It looks like it’ll take some doin to get those spikes loose. What if she wakes up before then?”

“She’ll need a distraction.”

“Like what?”

Vic rubbed his chin. He looked at the diminished prisoner and I knew right then I wouldn’t like what he had to say. “You’re gonna have to give her something else to eat,” he said.

“Vic, for Christ sake that man has gone through enough.”

He lowered his voice. “Look at the man! He ain’t gonna make it anyway.”

“So what do you expect me to do? Toss him at Penelope?!”

“Not if we put him out of his misery first.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Look! We don’t have much time and there’s too many unpredictable variables. We can sacrifice him now so there’s no pushback when the time comes. The timing of this has to be perfect. There is no margin of error.”

“No. Absolutely not. I’m drawing the line here.”

Vic grabbed the back of my head and pulled me closer. “Listen mate,” he menacingly whispered, “I’m gonna do it if you like it or not. You can try to stop me but I’ll only end up using your body instead of his. So what’s it gonna be?”

Vic released me and I stepped back. “You’re a goddamn madman, you know that?” I say.

“Aye.”

Vic reached into his boot to pull out the knife. He sat calmly next to the battered prisoner and wrapped his arm around him. “You know, they used to tell us a story in the highlands when I was a boy. It’s about an old man visited by death. Do you know it?” he ask.

The prisoner did not.

“One day an old man overburdened by a bundle of wood on his back let the sticks fall to the ground. He cursed and called out to death to take him right then and there. To his astonishment, the prince of death appeared and asked the old man why he had called. Through fear and trembling, the old man asked the prince to load the sticks onto his back. But nay mate, it was too late. You see, the old man had unwittingly called for his final hour. So how will you respond when your time comes? By calm resolve or through fear and trembling?”

The prisoner shook his head in confusion.

“Aye mate,” Vic continued, “your prince has come.”

Vic plunged the dagger into the prisoner’s side and the prisoner gasped then fell to the ground. There were no cries; no final grasps for the last straws of life. He bled out and withered away.

The others were silent.

“Goddamn you Vic,” I said. “Goddamn you to hell.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 30

Old Jim lagged behind the group and screeched in agony with each passing hop. He’d stop frequently and begged his overseer to unshackle him. “Please,” he yelped, “I’m just an old sonuva bitch. My knees don’t work good!”

Out of pity, I looked to my captor for an act of clemency. “Untie his ankles!” I begged. “For fuck’s sake, he can’t run very far!”

But the man only jabbed the Uzi into my ribs. “Will you pipe down!” he said. “Just relax. We don’t have much further to go.”

Lo and behold minutes later we arrived at a clearing in the woods with old rusted machinery littering the forest floor and three tied up horses drinking from a troth. One of the men came forth to dust off old crusted leaves and pine needles to reveal a trap door leading underground. The door lifted and the man waved the Uzi to usher us inside. “Go on now,” he ordered.

With guns to our backs, we were pushed into an underground labyrinth. The cave walls were adorned with lighted torches leading the way. In the distance, the echoing screeches of Penelope could be heard. It was clear then that we were cattle driven to slaughter and the only response we could muster was petrified fear.

This dark labyrinth seemingly extended for miles down twisted paths and narrow passageways before we reached the final hellish cavern where the demon that was Penelope was chained on all fours to anchors burrowed into the earth. She screeched and gnashed to no avail while two unfamiliar men sweated and wept behind lines of bamboo that resembled a makeshift prison. We reached the bottom of the cavern where our captors ordered us to our knees.

“Well boys,” the man told us through ear piercing screams, “this is the end of the line. Those two fellers over there, well, they were looking for Penelope too. But we got to her first.”

One of the other captors opened the bamboo cage and threw a prisoner out. Like us, his hands and ankles were tied and he futilely begged for his life. But the man, our captor, continued to lecture us. “You see,” he continued, “city folk have been coming to these hills for years looking for the legend herself. And the crazy thing is the myth is true! She actually exists! But she’s not yours to claim. Yet a girl’s gotta eat.”

“Please, please! No!” the prisoner begged. But the man grabbed him by the collar and pushed him towards Penelope’s reach. He smacked up against her then fell to the ground. Penelope smelt the man while he quietly wept. Then she bit into his legs which was followed by ungodly screams from the prisoner. Blood gurgled from his mouth as she chewed him up and when she reached his torso he let out one final hair raising screech before his head was swallowed whole. When it was over, the other prisoner gave a panicked cry. The captors guffawed and the leader turned back to us. “What do you think about that?” he asked.

“Thank you for giving us a demonstration,” I said. “You can release us now and you’ll never see us again.”

With Penelope subdued, the other captor undid his suspenders and dropped his pants. He approached her from the rear while trying to stiffen his part and then he penetrated her. Penelope laid there seemingly defeated in a pitiful way. The man, the leader, lashed out. “Pull up your pants there mister!” he ordered. “Don’t do that in front of our guests!”

But the humping only increased in intensity before he climaxed. Penelope was unresponsive as her violator wiped sweat from his brow. “Sorry boss,” he said while he pulled up his pants. “I’ll control myself next time.”

“Goddamn,” the man said to the four of us. “They can’t control their little peckers when they see a naked woman.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Why don’t you kill her and be done with it?”

“Well,” the man began with a degree of sincerity as he spat a luggie, “do you boys ever recall hearing about a certain crash that happened in these hills on January 4th, 1952?”

No one responded.

“Well anyway,” he continued, “there were reports of UFO activity in the area following a fiery crash. We had the government investigating out here but they found nuthin. But there was somethin. You see, on January 5th of nineteen hundred and fifty two, my grandpappy was wondering these hills when he found a wounded creature. It was human-like as he described it, if not slightly larger, but he didn’t know what it was. Well, he dragged it home and it turned out that it was female alien. Being a mountain man with the ways of a mountain man, he had his way with her. Now this alien my pappy found wasn’t known to be violent. He described her as being extraordinarily intelligent and of peaceful ways. But a few months later, after continuous unholy and unsanctified copulation, an abomination was born. The child was violent, only satisfied with the flesh of men. That child is Penelope, who is laying right there.”

“So? What are you going to do with her?” I ask.

“Excellent question,” the man said then knelt in front of me. “This land has been in my family for generations. Everyone has tried to tread upon it: the government, corporations, the city folk. There’s only one way to keep y’all grimy hands off it. And that’s to raise a generation more of these monsters. If I must put the fear of god into fellers that wish to come here then by god that’s what I’ll do.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 29

Dale was planked against a tree with knees bent and pants around his ankles as he desperately tried to shit a dry turd. There was no telling how deep into the mountains we were. The temperature was declining rapidly and thick, cotton-like clouds were forming above. If this day was unsuccessful then we decided to double back to the trail in the morning. Meanwhile, Dale was in immense pain.

“Goddamn,” he kept shouting. “Thank god I won’t have to wipe! My asshole is rubbed raw!”

“Let’s pinch it off Dale,” I said. “We need to keep moving.”

“Alright alright,” he said as he leaned forward and buckled his pants.

Vic returned from his reconnaissance with Jim. They were gone for maybe 30 minutes before climbing out of the brush with urgent news. “I found more blood in the clearing below,” Vic stated. “It’s fresh. We can’t be far off.”

We picked up our things and proceeded down the cliff and into a small opening in the forest where beside a fallen and decaying tree was another spot of yellowish blood. Then we looked for more clues. A few feet deeper into the woods was another fresh batch. “She’s near. I know it,” Vic uttered.

“It can only mean one thing,” said Dale as he pulled out his AK.

It was time to press forward quietly with arms ready. We spread out in a diamond shape formation that we had rehearsed earlier and moved inch by inch. Only the sounds of twigs and brush snapping beneath our feet could be heard. Where are you, you son of a bitch?” Vic whispered.

Then from the left flank, Dale stepped into a shallow pit. A lasso tightened around his feet and he was lifted into the air upside down. “Shit!Goddamnit! Mother fucker!” he yelled. Then we broke formation and rushed towards him. Old Jim was next to fall into a trap. “Ah hell,” he said as he dangled from a tree branch.

In a panic, Vic and I attempted to backtrack away from the two. But like bad fortune, we simultaneously stepped into separate pits then a weighted contraption was triggered and the rope tightened around our ankles. The rope pulled and swept our feet from beneath us and knocking us on our asses and before we knew it all four of us were dangling under trees.

“We can’t be this fucking stupid!” Vic said with beet red face.

“Speak for yourself!” I said. “It’s been nice knowing you fellas! We’re now easy prey for Penelope!”

Vic reached his arms out and ab crunched his hands towards his feet using all his strength in an attempt to loosen the rope. “If I could just get to my knife!” he said.

But a faint laughter interrupted his escape plan. The three roughians from the night before appeared from the brush cackling their heads off.

“I should have known,” I said.

Their antagonistic leader knelt down in front of Vic’s face and laughed some more. “It looks like we caught ourselves some city boys!” he laughed to the others.

“Cut us down!” demanded Vic.

“Now I told you boys that this was private property!” the man retorted.

“You’re full of shit!” said Vic.

The man pulled out a Bowie knife, one not all that dissimilar to Vic’s, and held it in front of his face. “You don’t seem to be in a position to make demands,” he said.

“Fine! Cut us down and we’ll leave!”

The man stood up and resheathed the knife. “Nah I don’t think so,” he said. “Besides, I think I could put y’all into good use.”

He signaled to the other two to cut us down. First, they grabbed our hands and tied them behind our backs. Then they reached above our feet to cut the rope. One by one, we plopped to the ground while our ankles remained lassoed. The man then picked up the Uzi that I dropped in the malaise and held it up. “An Uzi?!” he exclaimed. “Goddamn, you boys were aimin to kill something out here.”

The other two confiscated our weapons and aimed them at us. “Alright,” the man announced, “it might take a little bit but I’m gonna need y’all to start hopping in this direction. Don’t worry, we don’t have far to go.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 28

As night fell, a faint hint of snow seeped through the trees. We climbed through the brush as gently as possible so as to not cause alarm. I made it a point to not have the Uzi on full display as we neared the campfire. About 50 yards out we could make out the few men surrounding it. There was only three of them and along with their horses. Vic shouted out before approaching.

“Hello there!” he yelled.

All three of them leapt up with weapons drawn. “Do not be alarmed!” Vic shouted. “We come in peace! I assure you!”

The men, three roughians with long scraggly beards, slowly reholstered their guns as we came near. Vic lead the pack with his hands in the air. “We’re fellow travelers,” he told them standing at the edge of camp, “all we wish is to warm our bones by the fire.”

The larger man looked him up and down then spat a wad of tobacco. “What happened to yer eye there feller?” he asked.

“I seemed to have misplaced it,” Vic joked.

“I’d say so,” the man said.

“Mind if we have a seat?”

The man didn’t object.

The four of us cautiously sit on one side of the fire while the other three dug into their cans of beans and slop with the juices dripping into their beards. The leader continued to stair at us while we rested our hands over the fire. “Boys got any whiskey?” asked Dale.

“No,” said the man.

We silently resumed warming our bodies while the gang of three scarfed down. One threw his can into the fire then belched. “How comes you fellers ain’t go no horses?” the lead man asked us.

“It’s a long story,” said Vic.

“Well you better get to explainin.”

Sensing the tension, Vic shifted in his seat. “What’s it to you, partner?”

“Four fellers wonderin the woods with no horses. There must be sumthin wrong with y’alls.”

“Maybe something is. Does that bother you?”

“You’re goddamn right it does! Sumthin about it don’t smell right.”

I slowly yet stealthily reached into my coat and placed my hand on the Uzi fearing something might go down. Vic meanwhile glared at the man from across the fire. “I’m open to having a cordial conversation with you, mate,” said Vic. “I told you that we’re fellow travelers. There’s not much use in knowing anything more than that.”

“I’ll be the one to determine that!”

“Mate,” Vic calmly said, “there are terrible things in these hills. A man like yourself can easily go missing.”

“What are you insinuating, mate? What’s a one-eyed peckerwood like yourself gonna do?”

“What makes you think I’m talking about me?”

The man laughed and spat into the fire. “You’re going after Penelope! Can you believe that shit?!” he asked his comrades. “A bunch of city boys chasing after an imaginary princess in the woods! I’ll be goddamned!”

“She’s real,” said Vic, “and she ain’t no princess.”

“Yeah, well, I ain’t seen nuthin like that in my lifetime,” the man grunted. “You boys must be on sumthin. You see that trail over yonder?” The man pointed behind him. “In the mornin y’all should go headed that way. There ain’t nuthin in these hills for ya.”

“If you don’t mind me saying so,” said Vic, “I’ll be the one to determine that.”

“Now look here boy,” the man said sternly, “I’ll give you the night to rest up. But if I find you again, I’ll hog tie you and drag your ass back to the city. You hear? This here is private property.”

Vic didn’t reply. He picked up his gatherings and began setting up his own camp several feet away. The rest of us sat silently around the campfire while the three men with horses belched and farted. I actually slept good that night. But in the morning, we awoke to find the men and their horses gone. I walked over to Vic’s spot where he was packing up his things.

“We’re on to something,” he kept saying to me like a raving madman.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Those men were hiding something. This ain’t no private property.”

“How do you figure?”

“It’s just a hunch.”

“Vic, we can’t keep going on hunches. We aren’t going to survive for much longer.”

“Then I reckon you ought to go walkin down that trail!”

“I might do!”

“Well go on!”

“Boys boys boys!” Dale intervened. “I say fuck this shit and let’s go home.”

“So this is it then?” asked Vic. “After all I did for you? I shot up a bar to rescue your ass!”

I instantly regretted my words. I looked to the ground for a bit then looked at Vic. This much I at least owed the man. “Vic, you’re my friend,” I said, “I followed you to the edge of the earth and I’m prepared to go further. But let me be clear: you have one more day.”

TO BE CONTINUED…