Chapter 2

It took about 10 minutes for me to regret giving away the machete. I wasn’t going to turn around and get it back, however. I have no idea why the girls are reacting to me the way they are. I got them the hell out of a pirate attack and got them through a fucking plane crash in the middle of the Caribbean. They should all be bent over the nearest log begging for a chance to show me how appreciative they are. Instead I am getting a ration of shit because I can’t provide them with room service. Fuck them. I continued stewing about this for the next hour or so as I picked my way up the through the island’s dense foliage. I could see what looked like a clearing a few yards ahead of me so I stopped and caught my breath I walked out of the tree line into a field where the grass was almost knee high. I could make out a building at the far end of the field. I got down as low as I could and swore.

I have mentioned that I had done minor smuggling through the islands. The Casey brothers were the guys that ran the operation. I had three checkpoints I would drop cargo off at. They were referred to as drop points Alpha, Beta, and Charlie. For being smugglers the Caseys were an alright bunch. I had hung out with them couple times and we got along well. Not that we were friends. They would have me killed as quickly as they would buy me a drink depending on what served their purpose. I had gathered that they had a warehouse drop point that they referred to as Double Delta. For whatever reason I had never been asked to pick up anything from the double D, it could have been that my plane was too small. Or it could be that I was just a part timer who didn’t warrant knowing where the big load was stashed. This must be it. If they didn’t just shoot us outright, we should be able to get off the island. But how would we approach them without getting killed?

As I crept closer something was bugging me. There was a plane at the end of the grass runway, but it should be pulled closer to the warehouse. Also, there was no movement coming from either the big metal warehouse or the smaller shack that was attached to it. By now I should have been able to hear some shouting or talking but it was eerily silent. It appeared that the runway was showing signs of neglect. Generally, you must keep a grass runway clipped short and this grass was longer than I would have wanted to land on. Also, that wasn’t a cargo plane, it looked like the personal plane the Casey brothers used to do their island hopping. I did notice a few birds huddled up together at the entrance to the shack. I decided honesty was the best policy and straightened my clothes and started to approach.

As I drew closer, I could see signs of a fight. The birds scattered as I approached them leaving behind a human body. The stench was terrible. Looking at the shack I saw another body through the door. This one had a belt wrapped around it’s leg and two bottles of what looked to be rum or whiskey by its side. I gingerly stepped around the corpse outside of the doorway and entered the shack.

The guy leaned up against the wall was not nearly as decayed as the other body. It was dressed in military fatigues with the blue and white striped Nicaraguan flag emblazoned on the arm. Along with the bottles it had an AR15 and a Beretta 9MM laying by its side.

Walking out to the plane I saw two other corpses. I could squint and see the features of the Casey brothers in the bloated faces. The custom-made Kimber 1911’s in their hands also gave it away. Looking over the scene I tried to piece together what happened. The Casey’s had decided to work with the Nicaraguans, and something caused them to get into a gunfight. It looked like the brothers had managed to down the guards but not before they themselves were gunned down. The guy in the shack must have taken a bullet through the leg and tried to apply a tourniquet. He probably drank himself into a stupor while waiting to die. If this was like any other drop point the brothers would have insisted that no phones of any type be brought in. I looked at the plane and was dismayed to see it had even more bullet holes than my old one. We weren’t getting out using that. I held my breath and went through the pockets of the dead men looking for a set of keys. Upon finding them I went over to the large warehouse. Before I did that, however, I grabbed the two handguns and racked the slides. Kimber makes a damn good gun so It was no surprise that the action was smooth even after sitting in the ground for however long they did. Checking the magazines revealed one with two rounds in it and the other with just the one round in the chamber. I consolidated the rounds into one gun and headed for the warehouse.

I unlocked the warehouse with my gun drawn. Not hearing anything in the cavernous warehouse I turned on the lights. I was shocked at how full it was. Going down the shelves I found almost every type of contraband you could ask for neatly stacked and tagged. I gave a whistle of surprise when I saw two boxes labeled RPG sitting alongside a box labeled Claymore. What was more impressive was how many of the boxes were labeled this way. There were several boxes marked AR and even one marked .50 cal. DAMN! The Caseys must have gotten a hold of some stuff that fell off a military convoy or something. This was high stakes shit. I chuckled when the next shelf over held bales of weed wrapped in cellophane. There was also a pallet of American cash. Alongside that were bags of a white powder that I assumed was cocaine and many pills still wrapped in their bulk medical packaging. Even though they were in Spanish, one of the smaller bundles had a name that rang a bell. It sure looked like Keflex and I knew from experience that Keflex was an antibiotic. How did I know this? Remember me saying I liked a feisty Dominican woman with an ass I could grab onto? Let’s just say one of them gave me a gift that kept on giving and leave it at that. Knowing that Jill’s leg was unlikely to get better on it’s own I grabbed a bag of pills and headed back down to the water.

I wasn’t trying to be stealthy on my way back, I was just concentrating on keeping my balance, but the girls must not have heard me. I could hear Jill lighting into them.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t come back the way you all have treated him! My God all he has done is keep us alive through a freaking gunfight and airplane crash. Could any of you had done any better? Hell, we should be lining up to give him blow jobs for the rest of his life instead of insulting him. Can you start a fire Amber? Tiffany, can you open one of those coconut shells? How many times have either of you spent a day on a deserted island? He does this for FUN! So if and when he gets back you all need to thank him politely and keep the caustic comments to yourself.” she was saying.

I gotta admit that line about the blowjobs sounded rather nice but I would go for them dialing down the bitchiness a couple notches. I deliberately stepped on a branch and kicked a rotten coconut to make some noise. Their heads whipped around as I emerged onto the beach.

“Hey ladies, I found something pretty interesting farther inland. Let’s grab a bite to eat and go check it out.” I said as pleasantly as possible.

Suddenly Amber rushed at me and wrapped me in her arms sobbing.

“I’m sorry for being a bitch, thanks so much for all you have done, I am just so scared and I took it out on you and I didn’t mean to it just-” she broke off sobbing.

Tiffany walked up and gave me a hug from the other side.

“Sorry I was being a bitch. Things just got out of control there and me temper got a hold o’ me. Then I didn’t know how to walk it back,” she said with a thick Boston accent. It was the first time I noticed it although thinking back she did use some colorful phrasing when she would get riled up at me.

“Guys it is more than okay, everybody is stressed out. Let’s just concentrate on getting home and maybe even trying to get along with each other,” I said with a smile.

I know I had a pretty quick turnaround but when you have a couple models hugging on you and telling you your great, it is easy to be forgiving. Jill looked relieved and Svetlana just nodded and mouthed the words “Thank you” to me. I nodded back.

“On the bright side I found some antibiotics, Keflex should work shouldn’t it?” I asked Svetlana.

She shrugged.

“I am not sure. I know it is usually given to treat STD’s but it IS an antibiotic. Remember I only had a year of nursing school and that was two years ago,” she replied.

We unwrapped the bandage and saw that the redness around the wound was slightly larger. I got the fire going and started boiling some water in a small stainless mug that was part of my kit. I rinsed the cloth bandage out in the salt water of the lagoon then stuffed it in the boiling cup. It was the best I could do. Svetlana was looking at the wound using another scrap of boiled cloth to wipe away the pus was seeping out.

“It might heal on it’s own now that we have solid ground under us and can take better care of it. And there is always the risk of using the wrong antibiotic to treat a wound that could actually make you sicker. But it might also spread and be too late for anything other than a hospital treatment. The choice is yours,” she was telling Jill.

Jill winced and held out her hand for a pill. She grabbed one and took a swig of water. She gave me a wicked little grin.

“Not the first time I have taken Keflex either,” she smirked.

I could really get to like this girl

I found some more coconuts and breadfruit in the surrounding trees so we were able to get full bellies. As we ate, I told the girls what I found up top and how I figured it affected us. At first, they were excited when I told them about the airplane.

“Can you fly us out of here in it?” Amber asked.

“Lord knows I am going to try but I really doubt it will fly. I don’t know how long it has been sitting out and in this humid weather there is bound to be water in the fuel. That plus the bullet holes makes me worried. I’ll have to give it a good look to see if it is air worthy. The worst thing that could happen is we get in the air and have something go south. If I can’t, hopefully I can salvage the radio and we can get someone to come get us,” I replied.

I saw her start to frown and open her mouth, then she stopped and thought for a second. Wonders never cease.

“The good news is that there looks to be running water at the shop. I didn’t explore extensively but it looks like they have a small barracks behind the warehouse. Hopefully there will be showers and beds we can use. I was hoping we could get Jill up there and explore a little,” I said.

“What about the fire down on the beach?” Tiffany asked. “How can someone find us if we aren’t there keeping it up?”

“Good question, I can keep the fire putting off smoke by banking it with green palm fronds. But I am not sure that a lot of people will be running around this island. The Casey’s will have made sure that no resort boats or charter boats come anywhere near here. Likewise, all of the local pilots will be told to stay clear of the area. This island is gonna as well hidden as anything can be these days. Which is something else to keep in mind, those who know how to get here might not be the type of people we want to meet,” I told them.

It was interesting to see the reactions. Jill nodded, Svetlana grimaced, Tiffany frowned, and Amber burst into tears. I stood up and gave her a hug.

“Don’t worry ladies, we can do this. We got shelter, water, and food on a tropical island. Things could be a lot worse.”

Yeah, I was talking out of my ass again.

We were able to get Jill up the rise and into the clearing. I guess I should have probably taken care of the bodies before I brought the girls up here, but I wasn’t thinking. Oh well, the screams weren’t that loud, and models knew the fastest way to recuperate from barfing. I would take care of them later, I guess.

I pulled a chair out of the office for Jill to sit in and then pulled the guy with the belt out of the way. I searched his pockets and found a couple of nice cigars and a gold plated lighter and cigar cutter. He wasn’t gonna need them.

I finally got all the bodies down to the edge of the runway and came up with a total of two gold watches, 1100 cash, two more Beretta 9mm, and an intricate gold cross. The guns went in my waistband, the watches and cash in my pockets and the cross I decided to leave. I’m not religious by any stretch of the imagination but looting a religious symbol seemed like I was pushing it.

The bathroom was about as filthy as you would expect it to be with just a bunch of smugglers using it. Surprisingly Amber had grabbed paper towels and some old cleaner that was on the shelf and was going to town. I walked up to Jill and gave her a quizzical look.

“She wants to take a shower and decided the bathroom was dirty. I think she focused on this as something she knew how to do and is burning off nervous energy,” Jill said.

“More power to her, I am gonna see what type of water source we have. Hopefully we have a well, but I am afraid it will just be a cistern which means water conservation,” I replied.

I followed the pipes expecting to see them go down into the ground indicating a well or cistern. Instead they ran along the ground into the underbrush. I followed them down a slight grade for what I figured might be a quarter mile before the ended in a beautiful pond. Apparently, there was a spring because there was a small waterfall on the far side. It looked like a path had been worn down to the water’s edge and there was probably 200 feet of a sandy beach. All in all it was breathtaking. The girls were probably gonna love this. I made my way back through the growth to hear the water pump going. There were a couple rows of solar panels that provided juice to the warehouse and bunk house. I hadn’t checked the battery system to see what shape it was in but the sound of laughing females made me think I should calm down a bit. Apparently, a hot shower does wonders for morale. Not that there would be a lot of hot water. The water heater tank looked pretty small. Oh well, they would figure that out soon enough. I decided to reinspect the warehouse and take stock. Something felt off about this.

Returning to the warehouse I walked through the aisles again and couldn’t believe the amount of military hardware that was stored here. It wasn’t just a couple crates of AK’s or AR’s, this was heavy duty, military grade ordinance. The Casey’s were comparatively small-time smugglers, mainly reefer, poppy, and contraband. They must have gotten a major supplier recently and since this stuff had Spanish and English, I had a feeling we were talking the CIA. Not directly, of course, It would have been supplied through a shell company. If it came from Russia it would have been AK’s and the directions would have been in Russian and Arabic. I wasn’t sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, it was likely that this place was known to the Americans. On the other hand, depending which private company was funneling the weapons, they may not want any witnesses. I had never been asked to run clandestine operations, but the rumor was that some of these “off the books” contractors were very cutthroat.

Since we were here and no one else was, I decided to open one of the bundles of weed. There were no rolling papers, but I figured I could find something to make a bong out of. On my way out, I noticed a smaller package that sparkled. I grabbed it and took it with me. A few scrapes in the soft dirt and a decent size rock placed over it made my own little buried treasure.

I wandered over to the plane and confirmed that my initial thoughts were correct. We were not flying out on that thing. I did steal the small toolkit they had and the roll of duct tape. I joined the ladies back at the office and was very pleasantly surprised to see that they had decided to forgo all clothing except panties. I stopped and just stared.

Jill giggled and soon the rest of them were laughing at my response.

“Our clothes were as nasty as our bodies, so we washed them in the shower. They are drying right now, and we figured you wouldn’t mind a little show. Think of it as a thank you for getting us out of that mess,” Jill chuckled.

“My pleasure ladies, and thank you for your thoughtfulness,” I said while taking a bow.

Okay, four topless models and all the weed we can smoke. Things are looking up.

It turns out that wasted models are frisky models. I was able to cobble together a respectable bong from some discarded beer cans and duct tape. I decided a shower would go over pretty well myself, so I left the weed with the ladies and cleaned myself up. I was sporting major wood after the show the girls put on for me. I decided to take care of it and felt a lot better as I shut the water off. I opened the shower door and found a totally naked Amber waiting for me.

“Awww, he looks so sad,” she laughed as she stared at my dick.

“Umm did you lose something?” I asked as I stared at her crotch. She had a very thin line of hair.

“‘Nope I took ‘em off,” she nonchalantly replied. “We would have all washed them and had them drying except that Tiffany couldn’t do it. For being such a prude, she is totally Bogarting the bong.”

I finally tore my eyes away from her body and looked into her eyes. They were totally unfocused, she was lit.