Chapter 4: Rape and Rescue

I lost track of time. We continued on in silence. A wind, more a heavy breeze, started. Then we heard faint screams.

I stopped Rachel and reminded her, "Remember, your target is right, mine is left. If there are more than two, full auto spray."

She nodded agreement.

We separated somewhat more and began to jog. My knee registered an immediate protest, but I ignored it.

After about a hundred or so yards, the screams sounded louder, and we began to make out a female's words. "No don't! Help! Help! Rape! Help!" Followed by a deep bass, "Shut up bitch. You bite me, and I'll cut your tits! I swear I will. Lie still!"

Rachel and I increased our speed and ran until we saw a cabin. In the disturbed snow in front lay a naked woman, arms held over her head by a huge man who was threatening her with a large knife. A second man was standing between her legs and pulling down his pants. "It's them!" Rachel gasped.

"They're dead!" I replied as we pulled to a stop and took aim.

I put my selector for automatic and grinned as I saw Rachel do the same.

I reminded her to breathe slowly and heard her mutter something about teaching dogs to suck eggs.

Without further words, we pulled simultaneously, and I saw my three round burst take out my target's throat. Blood fountained, just missing his intended victim.

Rachel was a lot more creative. She had fired single shots after all, and her first took off her target's tallywhacker. Shots two and three removed his gonads, and number four went through his bellybutton. Less blood, more screams. I thought she said she wanted blood...

Four precision shots with an unfamiliar and unsighted weapon. Who and what was this woman?!

We ran forward. I grabbed the screaming rapist's hair and dragged him away from the prone girl. I doubted he could use a weapon, but I made sure he had nothing in his pants, shirt, or on the ground near him.

Rachel was cuddling the sobbing woman. (She certainly was a woman!) When the sobs slowed, Rachel stated matter-of-factly, "I left the bastard alive for you. Do you want to off him, or shall I finish the job, or maybe we can just leave him be to die on his own?!"

The woman looked up at Rachel in shock. Rachel looked back, cold fury in her eyes. "What? Those two just murdered my husband. You were next. One is already dead. We should risk the other will live to kill again? Ain't gonna happen, Sweetie. I just wanted to give you a chance to exorcize your demons like I'm working on mine."

She hugged the woman again and motioned me closer. "See if there are clothes she can wear before she freezes."

I gave Rachel my down coat to use while I looked. Around the corner I found a discarded pair of boots, socks, and jeans that appeared to be in good shape. Useless panties and t-shirt lay where they had been ripped from her, and a flannel shirt was missing most of its buttons. Further away there was a down coat with several slashes. It looked like the lady had put up a pretty good fight. Not enough on her own, but enough delay that we lucked into the fray in time.

She was alive because they wanted to rape her. Had she been a man, she'd already be dead.

I returned to the ladies with the clothes, brushing off snow before handing them to Rachel. Rachel rummaged in her own pack for panties and a camisole, and began the process of helping the shivering woman dress. "What's your name, Honey?" she asked, as much to get the weeping victim focused as to learn. "You know, you didn't answer my first question, don't you?"

"Cathleen, Cathleen Cassidy," she answered while dressing. "And I can't kill him in cold blood, I'm a nurse. I wish I could though!"

Integrity and spunk. I could see that Rachel liked that - so did I.

Rachel looked over at the still moaning rapist. "Doesn't matter. He won't last much longer. Maybe knowing that you had the power over him will slay those demons just as well. Anyway, you're safe now with Michael and me.

"Oh, I'm Rachel, Rachel Smythe, and Michael is Michael James. Michael is a deputy US marshal, deputized to help track these killers down."

I dragged the dead body over to a steel garden shed. It proved to be empty except for a few odds and ends, so I dumped him in. A rattled breath behind me told that the second target had now expired, so I dragged him over as well. Both were bloody and smelled from their bowels loosing. I wasn't about to do more than a cursory search. Two large knives were the only weapons I found, so I was satisfied. No way were their clothes of any use.

Cathleen was soon dressed, but was still cold. It had started to snow again, and shelter was necessary - soon!