Chapter 8

Author’s note:[ and ] delineate mind-to-mind dialog.

As soon as I stepped away from my motorcycle, the bandits had a clear view of me. Their boss said, “Who the hell are you? That is a damned stupid looking outfit!”

“I am your worst nightmare. I am here to rescue the girl and to punish the five of you for your crimes. My outfit is to make me easy to remember.” [Replicator, please give the girl a temporary set of body armor.]

[Done, but remember, the energy beam can go through the body armor like it is not there, so be careful not to shoot the girl.]

[Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten.] “Lucy, do not be frightened. I am here to return you to your mother.”

“Shoot the bastard, Boys. That fancy outfit makes him an easy target.” Moments later, I was peppered by bullets which did nothing against my body armor. The energy beam was set for a diameter of about ½-inch, and it cauterized the wound as it burned through flesh. I snapped off four long shots and cut the four gang members into two pieces at chest level. It was actually spectacular the way the two body parts separated as they fell from their horses, and there was no blood.

When he saw this, the gang leader put his gun to Lucy’s head and said, “Try that on me and this girl is dead meat.”

I laughed and said, “I have protected the girl, you cannot possibly hurt her. The bullet will not penetrate her skin.”

The man started to sweat in fear as he half believed me, but he said, “That is bull shit. Nothing can stop a .44 ball at this range.”

“Go ahead and shoot then, if you really believe that. But I warn you that your pistol barrel will probably explode and tear your hand off.”

“Okay, okay, do not kill me. I will turn the girl loose if you promise not to kill me.”

“Very well, I promise not to kill you. I had no intention of killing you. I had something else better in mind for you.”

“You son of a bitch!” With that, he pulled the trigger of his pistol that was pressed against Lucy’s head. The gun fired and partially exploded because the bullet plugged the barrel. The cylinder was blown out and the remaining four loads exploded. This was enough to shred the man’s hand. He screamed in pain and fell from his horse. Thank God, he wasn’t killed by the fall, but he was knocked unconscious. That made it a little easier to execute the rest of my plan.

“Lucy, are you okay?”

“Yes, Sir, I am fine.”

“Good, I will help you off that horse right away.” I cut the ropes holding the girl in place and lifted her from the saddle. “Wait a minute, and we will finish this.” I used my gun to cut the bandit’s arms and legs off close to his body. Again, the cuts were cauterized immediately, so there was no blood to mess things up.

“Lucy, this is the man who murdered your daddy and raped your mama. Would you like to take revenge on him?”

“Oh, yes, Sir. What should I do?”

“The first thing is to strip all of his clothes from him. Let me know if you need help doing that.” Lucy had to work a little bit harder than I expected because of the weight of the man, but she had him stripped in about 15 minutes. “Okay, you see that bag of flesh hanging where his legs used to be. I want you to take this rope and tie it tightly around it up high so that it cannot slip off. Do you know what that sack is for?”

“Yes, Sir, that is what holds his balls.”

“Correct, what I want is for you to tie the rope between his body and his balls so that the rope cannot slip off. Please do that now.” Lucy followed directions. “Now, jerk on the rope to make sure that it is firmly held.”

She gave a mighty jerk to the rope and the bandit woke up real quick with a scream of pain. She laughed, so I told her to do it again. She did, but after the sixth jerk, she was getting tired, so I told her to stop.

I asked Replicator to construct a derrick with the crossbar about 15 feet off the ground. I pitched the loose end of the rope over the crossbar and tied the rope to the saddle horn. “Okay, Lucy, now lead the horse in that direction until I tell you to stop.”

You should have seen the expression on her face when she realized what was going to happen. The man also realized what I had in mind, and be began to scream for mercy. Of course, he was ignored. I stopped Lucy when the man’s balls were about four feet off the ground, and all of his remaining weight was supported by his balls. By now, I was getting tired of his screams and begging to be let down, but I did my best to ignore him, mostly because I could see how much Lucy was enjoying this. He was hanging with his head down, and he could do nothing about that because of his lack of arms and legs.

[Replicator, I goofed. I forgot to make it easy to tie him off. Please hold the rope while I tie the other end off so that we can release the horse. Oh, and please add a sidecar to the motorcycle.] I tied the saddle end of the rope to an eyebolt supplied by Replicator, and that left the man hanging just the way I wanted him. Lucy and I walked back to the motorcycle after stripping the tack from the horse and turning him loose. We did the same for the other horses.

“Lucy, you are now going to get the ride of your life.” I directed her to climb into the sidecar and fasten the seat belt. She was still protected by the body armor, so I did not worry about a helmet. We started out with a ride on the trail I used to get from the road, but I kept the speed down to 30 MPH. That was still faster than Lucy had ever traveled before in her short life, but she was really thrilled when I took the speed up to 50 once we got to the road.

She ran in to see her mother as soon as I braked to a stop. I moved around to the other side of the RV and had Replicator recycle the motorcycle. I went inside and donned my regular clothes. I was not worried that Lucy would recognize me because I had kept my face covered the whole time that I was acting the part of Avenger. I liked that name, so I was going to use it again.

I went to the other wagon to be sure that everything was okay over there, or, at least as okay as it could be with the murder of John Loften, the husband and father. The woman and children were destitute at the moment unless there was someone to take them in. Otherwise, Mary Loften was going to be looking for a job as a prostitute. There was no telling what would happen to the children.

“Mrs. Loften, is there someplace that you can go for help? I do not know what your current situation might be, but you are certainly going to need help within a few weeks. We will help you as much as we can, but there is a limit to what we can do.”

“I understand that, Mr. Culberson, but I guess that you could say that I am lucky under the circumstances. My parents live in a town about 15 miles from here, and they can take us in. That will solve my immediate problem. We were headed to visit them, anyway. My husband had lost his job where we formally lived, so we were headed to Whipple, hopeful that he could find work there. We can get by once we reach my parents’ house.”

Okay, that saved a lot of grief. “We can spend the night here and travel together to Whipple tomorrow. Julia, can you drive the Loften wagon with its one horse while I drive our two mules?” Julia knew my problem with driving, and she caught on fast, so she agreed to that arrangement. We were talking about a trip of only one day to get to Whipple, so this was a viable solution to the transportation problem.

“Lucy, I hear that you collected a lot of money from the bandits, so do not forget to give it to your mother.”

Lucy said, “Oops, I forgot in all of the excitement. Here it is, Mama. It is just over $100.” That was enough money to live for several months, and Mary Loften almost fainted when she heard how much money she suddenly had. Actually, most of that money had come from Replicator, but I was not going to mention that.