Chapter 61

There really isn’t a good way to describe what we found when we got to the northern compound and actually had a look around. We hadn’t gone north blind. We knew that we were going to find the compound in ruins, and that most likely we’d find dead bodies there. The video feed from the drones that Monty had sent north had shown that much to us. Even so, knowing and expecting the worst, hadn’t actually prepared us for it. Thank God I’d sent Dunbar and Burton in first.

The Gateway had dropped us out on the open plain, roughly a thousand yards north of the compound and off to the east of it, towards where the big river flowed out of the plateau and down across the plains. That had taken me by surprise, but as things turned out later, it was an advantageous location. I posted guards, put people to work, and then I’d gathered my team together so we could see how bad a mess Winslow and his goons had left in the compound. I sent Dunbar and Burton ahead to sweep the place for any booby traps, and to make certain that there wasn’t anything or anybody lying in wait for us. I followed on behind them, with Gogra at my side. Olla was trailing me with the man-pack radio, and Carmen bringing up the rear.

It took very little time for Dunbar and Burton to sweep the entry into the compound and then to go from one container to another to check what they could find in them. There were no booby-traps, and there wasn’t anyone waiting in hiding to attack us. There were bodies and from their report, there were more of them than I’d expected. Obviously, Winslow had stayed here more than a few days.

The corpse in the courtyard was gone save for a bone or two that scavengers had gnawed on and left behind when they’d dragged off the rest of the carcass. That made cleaning up that mess easier. The other bodies were in the containers themselves. Winslow had obviously used the command post to torture people. There were half a dozen or more corpses left lying in the bedroom area of the unit. The same went for the bunk container with three bodies in there, tied to the frames of the bed. All the corpses were in a high state of decomposition so they’d been there for a couple of weeks at the very least. There was really no way to tell who was who.

“What kind of men would do such a thing?” Gogra asked, once he’d recovered from having seen the carnage. “I will never forget that sight.”

I didn’t answer Gogra. There really wasn’t anything to say, even though I had thought the very same thing when I’d looked into the room and seen the pile of rotting corpses, illuminated only by the light coming in through the open window. It had been a ghastly sight.

Instead, I looked over to where Burton and Dunbar was standing, back down the corridor and in the control room section of the unit. Both men looked pale.

“We’ll need to do something about this and the other container,” I pointed out soberly. “No one else needs to see this.”

Dunbar simply nodded his head in understanding. Burton on the other hand asked me bluntly what I wanted to do. I told them I wanted to burn the bodies. It was the simplest way of dealing with the dead. Hopefully the others would understand.

It took some work to accomplish the job. I sent Gogra back to where we had appeared with orders to get Gort and Geeta out gathering firewood and anything else that would burn. I wanted a lot of it. While he went off and took care of that; Dunbar, Burton, and I scoured the courtyard of the compound, picking up anything we could find that was flammable. That included the ruined skin tents that had been left there once Winslow had finished wreaking havoc in the place. The discarded tent frames and the skins that had once covered the tents and lean-tos would burn, with a little help.

I’d brought that help along with me. I’d done a little shopping back at the base before packing up and joining the others at the Gateway. Penny had found a mix of hand grenades in the armoury, and she’d pointed them out in one of her many discussions with me about what resources there were at the base. I’d grabbed them all before leaving, putting them in a satchel that currently hung from my saddle. Three of them were AN-M14 TH3 incendiary hand grenades. The white phosphorous in the grenades would ignite anything flammable that we put in with the rotting corpses. Hopefully, they would keep burning until all the bodies were gone.

Not everyone was happy with the decision. Sygor was the most vocal. He argued that the people slain here were Plains People and that they should be returned to the Earth Mother according to the customs of the Plains People and not simply through the most expedient method available. Ruba agreed with him. I just shook my head, ‘no’. They didn’t like it.

“You can be as mad as you want to be, Sygor, but I’ve made a decision,” I told the man bluntly, my voice filled with exasperation at having to argue with him again. “I’ve seen what is left in there. You can’t even tell man from woman. The bastards just left the bodies piled on the floor in a heap. The remains have rotted to the point that there is very little recognizable about them. I am not digging graves and I most certainly am not ordering people to go in there to shift the bodies.”

Sygor just wouldn’t take no for an answer, so when Gort and Geeta showed up with a packhorse loaded down with wood and other flammable material, I sent him in with Dunbar and Burton. He didn’t stay in there long. When he did come out, he came out shaken and pale, and that was the end of that.

The job of torching the remains fell to me. Both Dunbar and Burton volunteered to do it, but I waved them off, pointing out that this was the job of the leader and the shaman of the tribe. Willingly, they surrendered the job to me. Once enough firewood and other materials were in place, stacked about the remains, I sent them off, telling them to pull everyone back except the sentries to beyond where we’d arrived. I didn’t need to tell them twice as they knew how bad the stink would be once everything was aflame. There was a good chance that everything in the container would burn with the bodies and a lot of that stuff would release toxic fumes.

I did the command post first. I walked in once I knew the area was clear and took one of the grenades and pulled the pin. I tossed it in amongst the wood and other flammable material that Dunbar and Burton had piled up around the bodies to make certain that they would burn, and got my ass out of there. I walked swiftly and carefully, closing the hatch behind me as I went. By the time I was heading down the stairs, green smoke was billowing out the upper level windows. Of course, the smoke didn’t stay green for long. It soon billowed out black.

I quickly finished the job by going to the barracks container and doing the same thing. This time I tossed the grenade onto a bunk that had been piled high with wood, then got out of there as well.

I stopped just outside the compound’s walls. By then, not only smoke was visible in the upper level windows of the command post container, flames were visible as well. I paused long enough to make certain that I’d done the job correctly and to bow my head in silent prayer, asking whoever was out there to watch over the dead. Then I turned and walked away, cursing Winslow silently under my breath, and chiding myself for not killing him sooner.

I wasn’t the only one pissed. Dunbar and Burton were as well. Regrettably, the rest of my people were in shock. They just stood and watched me walk down the slope leading from the ridge, upon which the compound stood, and once I got to them they continued to stand there watching as the smoke rose up from the fires into the air.

“Are the sentries still out?” I asked Dunbar when I got to him. He confirmed they were.

Good, I thought to myself. It was mid-morning now and it had taken us almost three full hours, from start to finish, cleaning up Winslow’s mess. If the fires I’d started did their job properly, they would burn for several hours and the sky above this place would be black because of it. If Winslow or any of his goons were about they would see the smoke. We might not even need to put the helicopter in the air. Maybe the bastard would come to me. In the meantime I needed a bath.

I know I hadn’t handled any of the bodies, and my time in the containers with the corpses was far less than what Dunbar and Burton had endured, but I still felt filthy. I mentioned it, and both of them agreed that they definitely needed a bath so I quickly suggested that we go and take one.

It made sense. We weren’t going anywhere for the time being, and if we were lucky, someone would see the smoke and come to investigate it. I told Gogra what we were doing and where we were going. Amazingly that started a fight.

Sygor went from being stunned to being pissed off. He’d been standing by Gogra when I asked him to keep an eye on things while Dunbar, Burton, and I went off to wash in the river. When he heard that, his temper flared.

“What are you going to do?” Sygor snapped startling everyone, including me with his outburst. “These evil men have killed innocent men, women, and children, and you’re going off to take a bath. What kind of a leader are you?”

I looked at the man with surprise clearly on my face. That surprise was reflected on the faces of everyone else, except Sygor. His was strained and filled with rage.

“Enough, Sygor,” I told the young hunter, stating it firmly and with as much authority that I could muster at the moment. “Our people need a moment or two of rest before we talk about doing anything at all, let alone planning to hunt down the men who did this evil. Dunbar, Burton, and I need to purify ourselves after having spent time in close proximity with the dead. When we get back, we can talk about other things.”

Sygor didn’t want to talk reason. I don’t know what I had said right then and there to set him off and perhaps, what I’d said had been nothing at all, but Sygor certainly took offence and in response the young man decided he needed to punch me. He cursed me aloud and he came at me swinging with all his might, but with no thought as to what he was doing. His punch didn’t connect.

Sygor’s punch was well telegraphed and I saw it coming. I sidestepped the blow with ease, stepping around it and into Sygor as I moved. I turned and caught his wrist, and then did what came naturally, I hip threw him to the ground. He landed with a thud.

“Enough of this stupidity, Sygor! Behave yourself!” I snapped aloud, directing the words at Sygor as I released his wrist and stepped away from him. “I don’t want to hurt you, Sygor. Now back off.”

“No,” Sygor shouted back angrily as he rolled over and forced himself to his hand and knees. “I will not behave like a little boy for you any longer. I will beat you and then I will take the others. We will go off and find the bad men while you lie here remembering who defeated you.”

Those were bold words from the younger man. I was taller, stronger, heavier, and I had more expertise at actually fighting someone. All Sygor had going for him was his rage and possibly blind luck. It wasn’t going to do him much good.

Sygor rushed me. He pushed himself up off the ground and charged from the moment he had his feet planted firmly on the ground. I was ready for that kind of attack. The distance wasn’t that great, but I still saw what he intended to do, and at the last moment I sidestepped him again. This time I didn’t even lay a finger upon him. Instead, I simply avoided him while he barrelled past. His momentum carried him on beyond me until he realized what had happened, and he staggered to an abrupt halt.

“Sygor, stop this now,” Ruba shouted at him, as the young hunter pulled himself up short and then turned to face me. “You’re not proving a thing.”

“Our people deserve more respect than this man is giving them,” Sygor snapped back angrily, spitting it out through trembling lips. “He is no better than the dogs that slaughtered them. I am going to make him pay.”

At that Sygor pulled his blade from the sheath at his waist. Then he lunged at me again.

That was the final straw and I stopped playing with Sygor. He came at me again, blindly thrusting his blade at me in an attempt to stab me. I let him stab and slash at me once, jumping aside in response and then as Sygor brought the blade back to slash at me again, I came at him. I caught his wrist while it was still pulled back, stopping his next attack, while at the same time I closed with him. I stepped into him and as I did, I lashed out with my free hand and wrapped my fingers about his throat, tightening my grip as I did. That took Sygor completely by surprise as it did those watching us. What happened next really fucked him up. As Sygor struggled to free himself and grabbed at my arm with his free hand, I kneed him in the balls hard enough to lift him off the ground.

It was a dirty trick, but it was an effective trick. Sygor crumpled up in response to the damage I’d just done to his testicles. His legs began to give out on him and I knew that he was going down very soon. I just made certain it was sooner than expected. With his body beginning to go limp, I released my grip on his throat, and stepped underneath his blade arm. As I did, I twisted his wrist. As I twisted it, I forced it behind his back. Sygor cried out in pain as he crumpled to his knees. At that point he dropped his knife.

I let Sygor go. He flopped forward onto his face and then rolled into a ball, still in pain from getting his balls driven back up into his body. While he lay there wincing in pain, I picked up his knife and then stepped over to Sygor.

“No, Jake, don’t!” Ruba declared as I dropped down with my knee firmly placed in Sygor’s back, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to cry out again.

I ignored Ruba as I grabbed Sygor’s hair in one hand and pulled his head back. I then brought the knife to Sygor’s throat. An audible gasp of surprise suddenly filled the air and then a sigh followed it when I didn’t kill Sygor. Instead, I cut the leather thong, which held the bear claw that I’d given him on his naming day, from his neck. I grabbed the necklace and got up as I let him go.

“Give him his horse, his bow, and his knife,” I told the others, dropping the knife beside him. “Then send him on his way. He’s no longer part of our tribe.”

“No, Jake, please don’t do it,” Ruba begged of me. “He’ll be on his own. Think of his mates.”

“He’s the one who pulled a knife and attacked!” I pointed out angrily. “He made the choice, not me. Now he must face the consequences.”

“Jake,” Gogra exclaimed aloud, a concern look upon his face. “Think what you are doing. Is this for life, or will you allow him to live in exile for a time and return? You cannot just send him away.”

I was going to say I could and that I would, but I didn’t get a chance. Just them Olla started chattering on her handset, speaking to someone over the man-pack radio. As I notice this, I also noted that worry had crossed her face.

“What’s wrong, Olla?” I asked as she lowered the handset and turned to speak to me.

“Gort says that there are people coming towards us,” Olla declared, pointing her arm in the direction of the river and the lower ford where I’d been planning to go to wash up. “He says that there are six men. Four look like Forest People. Two men are dressed like us, but all in black, and both are armed with carbines. He thinks they are bad men.”

The alarm snapped everyone’s attention away from Sygor and me and back on the reason that we were here in the first place. While some hurriedly grabbed up their webbing and weapons, others looked to their squad leaders for directions. That led to the squad leaders looking to me. “Tonko, Ozmat, Ruba, and Ohba, you’re with me,” I started off pointing out the people I wanted to back me up when I went to intercept whoever was coming our way. “Dunbar and Burton, I want you to find a couple nice hides for yourselves and take the heavy artillery. Cover us and make sure that no one gets away when the bullets start flying. Gogra, you’re in charge of protecting the helicopter and the horses. Everyone else answers to you. Olla, you’re to stay here with Gogra and support him. Make sure you relay any messages to Gogra from the sentries. Be ready for trouble coming from a different direction. Carmen, you’re to stay here as well. I want you to see to Sygor, and keep him out of trouble.”

I didn’t wait for any replies. Instead I took my carbine from Tonko, who’d picked it up for me. After chambering a round, I headed off at a jog towards the ford with Tonko and the others falling in behind me.

I pushed everyone as I went. It was roughly a quarter mile of open plain between where we’d arrived and the ford. There were actually very little in the way of obstructions and I was certain that sooner or later the bad guys would spot us coming. My thought was that they would mistake us as friendly troops as all my people were dressed in woodland pattern cammo’s, and all of us were armed with M4 carbines. From a distance the enemy wouldn’t know who we were until it was too late, or at least I hoped so. We were about to find out!

My people and I made it to the crossing first. I called a halt and then ordered everyone to fan out and to pick a target. I claimed the two men in black as mine, since I had special plans for them. I warned the others not to fire unless the Forest People attacked. If they did, I told them to mow them down. I had no intentions of taking any prisoners. By then the bad guys were within spitting distance of the ford; no more than fifty feet away, and they were dropping from a jog to a walk. As they did, the two dressed in black brought up their weapons. I decided to shoot first and ask questions later so I opened fire.

I flicked on my laser range finder and then I put three rounds into the groin of the man leading the advancing pack. A groin shot made sense, since the man and his companion were both decked out in body armour. A chest shot just wasn’t in the picture. The man screamed and crumpled in response, and as he did I swung my carbine onto the man striding right beside him. That man had only brought his weapon up part way when I’d fired. It was now level and ready to be fired, but was still canted to one side and the man wasn’t on target.

“Drop the carbine and live,” I shouted at the man as my range finder lit up his crotch. The man didn’t listen. He froze where he was standing, but he kept on bringing his carbine across in an effort to get a bead on me. In response I quickly put three rounds in his groin as well.

The Forest People hesitated. They looked at the two men writhing in pain on the ground, and then looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do next. The hunters near the rear of the group actually tried to move away. I decided that I didn’t like that.

“Stay where you are, and put your spears on the ground,” I snapped in the Forest People’s language, “or my hunters will kill you all.”

That caused a considerable amount of confusion amongst the Forest People hunters. One or two of them looked at each other as if to say, what in the world should we do next, and one of the hunter’s actually did as I asked. I was impressed with that. I wasn’t impressed with the others. I took a step towards the ford and called out again.

“One of your number will lay with his mate tonight,” I told the hunters bluntly, falling back on what I knew of their culture and making the best use of their language as I spoke to them, “and the rest of you will lie with the Earth Mother, while your mates learn firsthand what a real man is capable of. This is your last chance. Lay down your spears, or die.”

Five men did as I told them. One stepped forward as if to throw his spear. Tonko dropped him. When that happened, another man bolted. Dunbar introduced him to a .50-cal round from a quarter mile away. The round tore the man apart right before the eyes of his companions. Worse, they were splattered with his blood, flesh, and bones. It was a gruesome sight. It was also the clincher in the situation. The last two men put down their spears as well.

“Good,” I told the men still standing, “I won’t have to tire myself satisfying your mates, tonight. Now move over there, away from your weapons. Then kneel on the ground. My hunters will make you secure.”

I pointed to a spot with the barrel of my carbine. The men looked towards it and then with some reluctance they moved over to it. Once there, they all got down on their knees and waited to see what came next.

I sent Ozmat, Ohba, and Ruba across the ford, and the rapidly flowing water, to tie the men’s hands behind their backs while Tonko and I covered them. It didn’t take long and once they were done I moved across myself.

I moved to the two men I’d shot. One had stopped moving and I was pretty certain he was dead. The other was still curled up in a ball and writhing in pain. While Tonko covered me, I stripped the first man of his weapons, tossing them carefully to the side and then I went over and dealt with the other man. Once both were disarmed I went back and checked the first man out. As I’d thought he was dead. That left me only one man to interrogate. Hopefully he would talk.

I took my boot and used it to roll the man over onto his back. The man cried out in pain in response. His face was pale and sweat covered, and he looked like he was going into shock. I knew just by looking at him that there wasn’t much time left; he was dying and there was nothing that would prevent that from happening. I needed to ask my questions now.

“I’ve got a medic across the way,” I told the man. “She’s got morphine. You’re dying and there is nothing I can do to stop that, but if you answer my questions honestly, I’ll let her shoot you up so that your end is painless. Now talk. Where the hell is Winslow?”

The guy whined in pain and agony instead of answering my question. I asked it again.

“Tell me where the bastard is and I’ll end the pain,” I told the guy. “Talk to me, you son of a bitch or I’ll make it hurt worse.”

My threat fell on dead ears as the man convulsed once instead of answering my query and then his body went limp; shock and blood loss had taken his life. There wasn’t a single thing I could do about it. I stepped away from the corpse, shaking my head in disgust and pissed off that I hadn’t gotten the answer that I’d wanted. Then my gaze fell on the group of trussed up Forest People and a thin smile crossed my face. It didn’t bode well for the captured men.

“Which of you pathetic creatures speaks for the others?” I enquired cruelly, glancing coldly from one hunter to another. “I want to speak to him.”

“You killed him,” one of the captured hunters replied a few seconds later, nodding his head towards the man that I’d shot.

“I don’t mean that dog, fool,” I snapped angrily at the man, stepping over to where he was kneeling on the grass. “Which of you hunters lead, or are all the Forest People women who follow the whimpering orders of outsiders who cannot even speak to you as men?”

My words were getting to these men. I could see one or two of them getting red faced as I spewed out my abuse on them. For the moment I didn’t know if their reaction was because they were pissed off at me, or they were embarrassed because they had obviously become what I was calling them, at least according to their cultural beliefs. I kept an eye on them, hoping that one of them would blow. Perhaps in their anger I would learn something. In the meantime I focused on the man I was addressing, waiting for him to reply.

The man glared up at me with anger in his eyes. The muscles in his bare arms flexed, but the restraints holding his wrists held. For a second I thought he’d try and push himself to his feet, but he didn’t. Instead he bit back his rage and turned and nodded his head towards the body of the man Tonko had killed.

“He was hunt leader before the outsiders came to our village,” the man informed me. “Now he is dead and no one speaks for us.”

“You could,” I told the man bluntly. “You could speak for your hunters; if you were a man, and showed to me that you are still a tribe of hunters, and not the lackey of some outsider who pushed you around. Will you speak, or will I go to your village and lay with your wife tonight, comforting her because your body lays here, dead?”

The man glared at me for a second or two, and I could see blood in his eyes, but eventually he agreed to talk.

The man didn’t know who Winslow was, either by name or by description. All he could tell me was that four outsiders had come to his village roughly three weeks ago. The four men, who had included the two men I’d killed earlier, had taken control of the village by force. They had killed the village chief and several of the village elders, as well as the village shaman. They had also killed several of the hunters who’d tried to stand up to them. Now they ruled the village and people did what they said. If they didn’t, they were killed. As for where the party had come from; they had been nearby, hunting a herd of bison out on the plains when they had seen the smoke. The two outsiders had ordered the hunters to come with them to find out what was the cause of it.

I mused on this information for a moment or two, and then I made the man an offer.

“Do you want to free your people?” I asked the man pointedly, gazing down into his angry face as I did. “If you do, and you help me, then I will help you. What do you say?”

The man held my gaze for a moment or two, as his mind took my suggestion and he thought it over. Eventually he just nodded his head in response, acknowledging for me that he did want to free his people, at whatever cost.

“I want only your help, and nothing else,” I told the man coldly. “My hunters and I are here to kill the outsiders for the evil things that they have done. Once they are all dead, and their leader had been punished; we will be leaving these lands, to return to our own. I do not want to lead your people, and I have no desire to lie with your women. We will take the women of the men we have killed ... and their children, if they have any ... but only to spare them banishment from your tribe and death in the wilds. Beyond that, my hunters and men want nothing. Now will you take us to your village so we can kill the other two men, or do you wish me to ask this question of another? If so, I will kill you myself, and then chose someone else to lead your tribe.”

The man didn’t need to be asked twice. He said that he and the other hunters would cooperate. I accepted his word for it. I told my people what I had agreed to, and ordered the men set free. Once they were free, I spoke to them again.

“I do not expect you to like me,” I told the eight men plainly, looking from one to another. “I am not your friend, and I will not pretend that I am. I am Jake. I am the leader of the Bear Tribe, and their shaman. My people live far away from these lands. When we are done, here, we will leave. Even so, I have angered many of you with my words and I know that some of you feel that I have wronged you. I will not apologize for what I said to you, however, I will give you the chance to redeem yourself as hunters and men. You can fight me if you wish, or you can take me to your village and free your people. That is your choice. What do you say?”

There was grumbling and sideways looks shared by a few of the hunters, but after a moment or two of thinking about it, they all declared they would rather return to their village and free it. I nodded when I heard that, and then told them to pick up their weapons and to get ready to go. Then I turned to my people. We had some planning to do, and some unresolved business to attend to. Hopefully it wouldn’t take very long.

Sygor was still there. He was seated on the ground where I’d left him. Carmen was crouched beside him speaking to him in a low, but brusque manner, anger and frustration clearly showing on her face. The rest of our group was avoiding him. Most were spread out in defensive positions about the arrival point and the helicopter with a few tending to the horses. Even so, most had an eye on Sygor and it was clear that they were all interested in what was going to happen next. The only other one standing near him was Gogra. He walked up to me as I strode back into camp.

“We need to talk,” Gogra declared firmly, but with a hint of command in his tone. “You cannot send Sygor away.”

“I can and I will,” I told Gogra coldly, glancing past him to glare at the young man. “He surrendered his rights to stay with us when he pulled his knife and attacked me. I will not abide that.”

“He was stupid,” Gogra sighed willingly in agreement. “We all know that, but your judgment is harsh. Please reconsider it. We are many days from our home and his mates are far away. You are stripping him of everything he knows.”

“My judgment is not harsh,” I told Gogra pointedly. “I have said to give him his horse, his knife, and his bow. When I first met Gort, he had fled his village with his sister to save her from the clutches of an evil man. A man had challenged his father for leadership and had killed him with a knife. Should I now take Sygor’s life, instead of just sending him away? What would you have me do? We are hunting evil men, and he chose to betray our tribe and his leader. Tell me what punishment would fit his crime.”