Chapter 1

The girl was naked; she looked about 18 years old and had not given up on resisting the four goons. They had slapped her face; punched her belly; ripped her clothes off; choked her almost unconscious, still continuing to fight with every ounce of will power she had. I had moved closer and watched as she knelt next to the leader of the goons while he held her long strawberry blonde hair pulled into a bunch on top of her head in his left hand while she held on to his with both of her hands. Two of the other goons were pounding four metal tent stakes into the ground and the last was tying nylon cord to the stakes. It was very obvious that they were going to spread eagle her on the ground with the stakes and rape her. I was less than 200 yards away looking through my riflescope at the whole scene, the question I asked myself was - did I want to get involved or mind my own business?

When the goons had completed the task of pounding in the stakes and the last cord was tied to them, the leader pulled the girl into the middle of the stakes forcing her to knee walk into place. He reached for her right wrist with his free hand and once he had hold of it, he let go of her hair. The other three each grabbed a free limb too.

Instead of spreading her in an X they pulled her ankles over her shoulders with her on her back and spread her legs wide wrapping the nylon cord several times around the ankle before tying it to the stake. Her wrists were pulled over the top of her spread thighs and down to the other stakes where they too were wrapped several times with nylon cord and bound to the other stakes. She was crying out for them to please untie her promising to let them do whatever they wanted just not like this!

I could hear them laughing as they told her they were going to do whatever they wanted anyway and for her to just do what they told her.

My Remington semi-automatic .270 held five rounds and I had eight clips for it in the ammo pouches on my tactical vest. My Glock .40 cal held 15 round in each clip and I had five in tactical ammo holders on my left thigh and a tactical holster for the Glock on my right thigh. I also had a .22 cal semi-automatic pistol in a shoulder rig under my left arm two of the three 11 round clips were under my right arm. A second Glock .40 was in a paddle back holster in the middle of my back where I could draw it with either hand; generally I drew with my left as I drew the one on my thigh with my right hand. My Bowie knife was sheathed outside my right lower leg.

It had been three months since a mutated type of Bird-Flu wiped out most of civilization. Al-Qaida in an attempt to wipe out the United States mutated Bird Flu and lost containment. It spread across the Middle East, North into Europe, East all the way to China and India. With air travel the way it was Australia, Japan, Great Britain, Greenland and into the Americas. It was something like 1 out of 1000 survived. The United States 300,000,000 was left at just under 300,000. The 5,000,000 population of Denver only about 5,000 were left. Then the craziness set in and people started killing off each other cutting the few remaining to less than a thousand.

I had been in the Army for over 16 years when this started and was home on leave in Colorado. The government just kind of died like the rest of the world. It became a dog eat dog; only the strong survive; kill or be killed! Way of life.

So here I was with a big decision to make; did I get involved or mind my own business? Well the first guy didn't even hear the shot that killed him and the second guy only saw the first guy fall to the ground before he felt his chest explode. The third guy did manage to say something but I was too focused on shooting to hear him. The fourth guy who was about to mount the girl tried to pull his pants up before I shot him in his ass! Well I had to get some fun out of butting in. I could not resist the silliness as I made the shot. Anyhow all four were on the ground dying or dead as I walked down to free the girl. There was never any question about what I was going to do.

When I stood over the girl she began to panic and beg me not to kill her. I said that I was not going to kill her, and to relax while I cut her free. She looked at me and asked why I was not going to rape her? I laughed and asked if she wanted me to rape her. She did not answer, only asked again why I was not going to rape her. I told her that I did not have to bind a girl spread open for me to have sex with her. And cut the cords around her wrists and ankles. I told her to put on a shirt and pants from one of the dead guys and shoes that fit. She asked why and I told her that she could go naked if she wanted but I did not have anything she could wear. She got upset and said that I did not have to be so rude. I laughed again and said she could do, as she liked.

I began to go through the guys' stuff and found nothing of use or value, which was not a surprise. I took the shotgun a Mossberg 12 gauge pump, and offered the two pistols and bolt-action rifle to the girl.

She found clothes that fit and took the two 9MM pistols and the 30-06. I started back up the hillside and she followed. Two hours later we stopped for the first time, I had been pushing hard to see if she would ask to stop and rest. She just kept stepping I only notice her slip and fall twice, she stumbled quite a bit but I think it was my pace that caused that.

I offered her some water from my canteen and asked her name. She took the canteen slowly taking several small sips, then one long drink before handing me the canteen. Rubbing her thighs she answered, "My name is Tia Brown"

I said, "Nice to meet you Tia, my name is Neal Bold." She smiled and offered her hand. As I reached for her hand I saw the rattler coil near her lower leg. I quickly drew my Glock and fired twice hitting the snake both times. Tia screamed and jumped but was not bitten by the snake.

After the panic and fear past Tia began to yell, "You could have warned me before shooting so close to me!"

I laughed and said, "Would you rather have been bitten by the rattler or have me ask for permission to shoot it?" she just stuttered and sputtered.

"Do you know how to shoot?" I asked to change the subject.

"My father was a police sniper with special response unit, I know how to take apart clean and put together just about every military and law enforcement weapon ever made. He also taught me how to reload ammunition and shoot old fashion antique weapons and black powder percussion and flintlock weapons."