Chapter 9: W Piwnicznej Izbie

The Sa’arm were advancing south from Canada and north from the southern continent, and the North American continent was becoming, had become, nations of refugees. As humanity fled from the advancing Swarm incursions, there was darned little practical distinction on the ground. In the US of A, politicians whose city, county, state, or whatever had been overrun, still postured and acted as if they mattered, and only politicians cared about the US-Canadian border. Fewer refugees crossed from Mexico to the United States and into the path of the Sa’arm advance.

The Swarm acted like a huge snowplow, pushing the fleeing populace to the east and west, and the US had constructed a huge refugee city near Corpus Christi, Texas. It was unknown if the Sa’arm were aware of the concentration of humanity, but if they were, the concentrations of Swarm chow in Texas would have pulled them as surely as the scorched earth in the Dakotas and elsewhere were directing them away.

California? Remember the population shift during the Dust Bowl years? California was getting more refugees than it could easily accommodate, especially with its antipathy to and rejection of Confederacy technology. Adding to the problems was the growing trickle of physicians and other specialists leaving for places where there was a chance for extraction. Many of the ‘doers’ departed to be replaced by rabbits looking for a hole or deniers fleeing even as they rejected the reasons for their flight.

Not all were rabbits. There were areas where survivalist refuges became battle grounds as the Sa’arm advance displaced one group after another. Some groups were overwhelmed by other survivalists, and rather than fight a stronger and growing tide, sometimes the displaced were practical enough to move to easier pickings. California also received its share plus a growing proportion of Earth First types attracted to the Anti-Confederation stance.

Stanislaw Antoni Polanski and Gustav Olaf Dubicki were driving out of Sacramento on US 50 East. They were in Gus’s light olive green, 1972, T-2 Volkswagen bus – a model sometimes referred to as ‘breadloaf’. They were sipping chilled home brewed księżycówka poured from one of the four glass gallon jugs iced in their cooler. They were chasing their moonshine with the last of their carefully hoarded Zywiec lagers, icing in the same cooler. And when their stomachs demanded solid input? Kiełbasa Wędzona, brown bread, Kosciusko Spicy Brown Mustard, and homemade dill pickles.

The two were telling each other dreadful Polack jokes.

Stan, “What do you call a boil on a Polack’s butt?’

Gus, “A brain tumor.”

The jokes got worse, as they always did with this pair. Polack jokes were only a minor reason they were alienated from Sacramento’s Polish community and banned from that city’s Polish American Club. Complete lack of hygiene was a stronger reason. Gus was almost savant level in his ability to restore old vehicles, and Stan was his assistant. When they were done, the engine would purr and the body, inside and out, would be showroom pristine. Had this attention to perfection been applied to themselves, they’d have been covered in women. As it was, even hookers couldn’t stand a second trick with either one, and neither of them had a clue why.

Stan had a plan. Their almost serpentine, up and down route would eventually connect with US 395 South that they would follow until they turned off to get to Mammoth Lakes. Stan’s research told him the town had women, specifically, their favorite camgirl, and they were going there to start their harem.

Stormy Eyes, christened Aleksandra Ewa Wiśniewski, was a twenty-six year old camgirl ‘hiding out’ in Mammoth Lakes. She’d relocated and changed her persona after she managed to dodge two attempted abductions while living in Sacramento. Both attempts had been thwarted purely by chance, and the only thing she and the police knew was that that her attackers spoke Polish.

She was beginning to regret her choice of location because other women were choosing the town for similar reasons. Add the seasonal snow bunnies, and the concentration of attractive women could easily turn Mammoth Lakes into a trap. And there seemed to be more ‘outsiders’ coming into town for supplies.

Stormy liked to ski and so had resisted the attraction of joining the collection of camgirls in ‘their’ resort on Anouilh Island. She was a little jealous of their ‘fighters’, but her nude sessions in the snow, on chairlifts, skiing, and skating had increased her tip flow to where she almost felt that she couldn’t afford to leave.

Many people wouldn’t think it, but like more than a few of her fellow camgirls, Stormy Eyes was a warrior. She had the guts to choose and succeeded in a career that contravened the average person’s idea of an appropriate means of earning a living. She had willingly learned to use and show others how to use technology to fight the Swarm. But letting herself be cornered in a small town with no idea of who the enemy was and minimal resources to fight back, that was stupidity – not bravery.

Now, her growing unease caused her to tell Patti Latarta that she was close to asking for help in relocating. Only the support of her friend and confidant kept her from panicking and bolting south when there was an attempted kidnapping at a house up the road from her condo.

Stan and Gus were putting their plan into action. Their objective was two ‘hot’ women each, and the first pair they identified were Kate and Smokey Novak. They’d spotted Smokey grocery shopping and followed her. When she arrived at Kate’s, they saw a passel of kids, including a cute tween, unload the shopping. Holding the door open was another very attractive woman with a baby in her arms. Both women met the pair’s hot criteria.

Initially, Stan objected to the idea of grabbing the kids, but Gus pointed out that having the kids as hostages would make the women more pliable. He also offered Stan first dibs on the tween pussy. The two were obtuse when it came to understanding human behaviors, and Gus, in particular, was much better at analyzing mechanisms than predicting what a woman would do when her children were threatened.

They found a large, isolated house to rent about an hour south on US 395, near Big Pine. With two day’s work, they figured they’d made the house escape proof – the basement anyway. They returned to Mammoth Lakes to stock up on supplies at High Country Lumber and scout for a panel truck they could steal. While buying the materials needed to ‘secure’ their home, Gus also purchased two one-gallon garden sprayers and a five-gallon gas can.

Then a miracle happened. While replenishing liquids at the Country Liquor and Deli, Stormy walked in. Pay dirt!

Stormy never saw the pair during their two attempts to abduct her, so she didn’t recognize them. But something in the store made her uneasy, and she turned and left without a purchase. Gus paid for their beer while Stan followed her to the door and stood watching her unlock and enter her car. Luckily for the two, she sat thinking, trying to determine what bothered her. Finally, she decided that there was something familiar about the peculiar odor. She shrugged, started the car, and drove off.

By this time, Gus and Stan had reached their VW and followed Stormy until they saw her pull into a condominium complex’s parking lot. If only she had a girlfriend, they’d be set. Then, Patti arrived in her unmarked SUV, wearing civvies and the two entered the building together. Stan and Gus ‘high-fived’ as if they’d won a lottery.

“I don’t know,” Stormy told her friend, “something over at the Country creeped me out. Gave me prickles on the back of my neck. There were two dudes I never saw before buying beer; nothing strange about that, but now that I think of it, there was this smell...”

Patti hugged her and giggled, “Well, I guess we’ll have to make do with Chardonnay instead of Chianti. Horrors, white wine with spaghetti!”

On the way out of town, the smelly pair stopped at the Shell station and topped off the VW and filled the new gas can. Once home, they filled one of the sprayers with gasoline.

Late the following Saturday night, actually early Sunday morning, the first of the kidnappers’ plans went awry with a vengeance. As was typical, their plans were based on assumptions, wishes, hopes, and damned little else. Had they been restoring an antique Tucker, they would have taken time for detailed research.

As a consequence, Stan and Gus had no idea that one of their targets was a cop. They had never heard of the Pussy Pirates and their weapons and weapons training. Nope, their plan stated that bluster, intimidation, and fear were going to overwhelm the helpless cunts. And fire.

Another lack of research left them unaware of the previous kidnapping facilitated by setting the victims’ condo ablaze. So, their brilliant plan was to pull their stolen truck into a visitors’ parking space in front of her entrance and set a fire at the opposite end of Stormy’s building. Once the fire was going, they’d pull a fire alarm, grab Stormy and her cute little blonde friend as they ran out, and with the ‘girls’ stuffed in the panel truck, they’d be gone before firefighters and other first responders could arrive...

Stan dropped Gus two blocks from the targeted panel truck. Gus walked past it twice and determined that it hadn’t moved since they located it. He knew that as long as the battery was okay and it had gas, he could jigger it and get it started. If not, they had identified an alternative vehicle located about a mile away.