Chapter 3

As the new day dawned, John was just finishing his breakfast, having served his guests first. As he loaded the dishwasher, he saw Lisa, Tom, and Andrew out in the yard, starting the loading process. Sarah, Tina, and Connie soon joined them, while Matthew helped John finish the final cleanup. That task accomplished, everyone made a final visit to the bathrooms, and they 'mounted up' for the first stage of their journey.

Before climbing into the 'shotgun' seat next to John, Matthew walked around each truck, touching the windows and muttering under his breath. John's neck itched again while Matthew made his rounds, and John thought he could see a faint trace of light as Matthew's fingers brushed the glass of each window. When his own window was 'treated', he was close enough to be certain; there was no visible light, but there was a distinct Perception of light.

Fortunately for John's peace of mind, Matthew attributed John's look of confusion to his ignorance of Matthew's intentions, not to trying to figure out what he'd seen.

"I've cast a simple distraction spell," Matthew said as he climbed into the front seat of the pickup's crew cab. "It won't prevent anyone truly curious from looking at us, but will deflect the eyes of anyone not actively investigating us."

John nodded, then turned on the CB, tuned it to a less-used channel, and keyed up the mike. "Lisa, are you on the air?"

"Roger that, John. Ready to roll out?" came the reply in Lisa's sexiest 'radio voice.'

"All set. Take the lead, if you wish."

"Thank you kindly, sir, don't mind if I do." And with that, Lisa's truck and the trailer containing her horse and five of the visitor's mounts pulled smoothly out of the yard and onto the driveway, headed for Lisa's ranch, and the highway beyond. John followed her a moment later, avoiding the worst of her dust cloud, and nearly matching the smoothness of her start. He had one less animal aboard, but the weight difference was made up by some additional sacks of grain.

Once they were on the road, John told his passengers that it would be roughly an hour before they hit Helena and started on the main part of their journey. "We'll top off the fuel tanks on the outskirts of town, then be on our way. You can snooze if you want; I'm afraid the view will be pretty boring."

Tom was the quietest of the travelers, but he was the one who laughed out loud, and said, "Boring? I've never moved this fast in my life. If I didn't trust Matthew's judgment, I'd be terrified, but he's said that you are trustworthy, and would not endanger us, despite what it seems like. So I'm not afraid, but I'm certainly not sleepy."

John had ended up with the male travelers, and Lisa with the ladies. While the truck full of ladies was also filled with happy chatter, the guys rode on companionable silence until they came within sight of the tall buildings of Helena. Tom and Andrew expressed surprise at the view. Matthew simply said, "That's what you can do if you use steel to build with instead of to make swords."

John shook his head, and said, "Oh, we use it for both. We've just gotten good enough at making it efficiently that we have enough to do both. Not that swords are used for anything except ceremony any more. You'd be sickened at some of the ways we've invented to take lives. And worse, to damage instead of to kill, so that the other side must spend effort to carry away their wounded instead of fighting. And worst of all, the weapons are still there, waiting to maim, after the battle is over and the soldiers have gone home."

Lisa's truck had a much less distressing topic of conversation, at least to the participants. The guys would have cringed, most likely, though John would have survived without too much distress. "You can't imagine how much easier it is to deal with when you can just throw the soiled one away, instead of having to save it, then clean it, and use it again."

The girl's conversation was interrupted by John's voice over the radio. "Fuel stop coming up," he said, "Gas Watcher said the best price in town is at the Quick Stop at the next exit."

"Roger that, boss," Lisa replied, "Hope they've got clean potties."

"Not a problem over here, sweetheart," John teased. "If they're too bad, I'm sure you can hold it until we get into the wild country and you can find a bush."

Lisa used a word you're not supposed to use on the radio, then laughed. "I'll get you for that, Mister. Someday, when you don't expect it..."

"Promises, promises," John replied. "Here's the exit, see you at the pumps."

They fueled the trucks quickly, while their riders hit the restrooms. As they'd expected, they drew a fair number of stares, but no trouble. Once the drivers had filled the truck tanks, and paid, they drained their personal tanks, then mounted up and rolled out, heading for Michelle and Laura's ranch.

The drive was long, boring, and uneventful, at first, and Tom soon found himself a liar, as he drifted off into sleep. Andrew soon followed, while Matthew remained alert, chatting with John in low tones as they drove down the highway. They ate 'trail rations' on the road, snacking and taking judicious sips of water, just enough to replace the losses to digestion and respiration, and to keep their kidneys from packing up completely, but not enough to invite an over-full bladder.

Eventually, they did stop again, for fuel and a bathroom break, before quickly getting on the road again. Not long after their break, they had their first setback: a massive traffic jam that took a good hour and a half to get through. They covered less than two miles in that interval, before passing the cause; a multi-vehicle wreck that included several tractor-trailer rigs, and a number of smaller vehicles.

They cleared that obstacle, and got back up to speed, but an hour later, they hit another blockage, this time caused by a landslide that blocked all but one lane of the highway. Again, it took nearly a hour to get past the blockage, time they really didn't have.

Fortunately, there weren't any further unexpected delays, but they were still far behind where they wanted to be. At the next fuel stop, Lisa got on the cell phone, and called Michelle.

"We've hit some bottlenecks, so we're going to be far too late for dinner. We'll still stop in to visit, if it's not too late, but don't wait up. Leave the porch light on if you're still up; otherwise we'll visit a bit in the morning. If we don't see you until then, thanks again for letting us crash in your back yard."

Lisa listened for a moment, and said, "No, you do not owe me, and you damn well know it. I owe you, and this just adds to that debt. Neither John nor I will ever forget what you did for us while Beth was sick. And if anything, my debt to Laura is bigger than my debt to you, for all the time she lost with you while you were helping us."

"OK, we'll fight over it later," she said at last, "But not tonight. Have a nice meal, give Laura a hug from me and a kiss from you, and we'll see you when we see you." She flipped the phone closed, turned to John, and the troops, and said, "Mount up. Let's get the show on the road.

They were still about an hour out from Michelle's when they stopped for a final potty break. The rest area proper was well lighted, but it was fully dark in the woods around the buildings. Sarah, Connie, and Lisa headed for the bathroom, while Tina and the boys checked on the stock. While they were thus occupied, a large tour bus pulled in, and the little old ladies on their way back home from the Indian Casinos swarmed the restroom building.

When Tina finished her tasks, she took one look at the line outside the restroom, and shook her head. Civilization was nice, but she had a perfectly good woods, and no problem in using it. She headed off to the picnic area, and the woods beyond it. Things had gone so quietly since they'd arrived here that her guard was down, and she didn't even notice the three guys in leather jackets who watched her, then followed her into the woods.

Lisa walked out of the restroom, glad to be clear of the chatter, and looked around. She saw Tina heading for the woods, and smiled. Her smile vanished and her blood ran cold when she saw the three men following her, and she moved quickly to follow them, hoping she could prevent something unpleasant. She knew she should call the men to help, but she didn't think she had time.

Tina was at her most helpless when the men grabbed her, her pants around her calves, covering the knife in her boot, as she squatted to piss. There were three of them, and she'd never even heard them coming. She was ashamed of herself, relaxing her guard like that.

"We're going to have a real nice time, and if you behave yourself, we'll let you live. If not,..." The man left the threat unvoiced, but she felt cold steel at her neck, and she nodded. She'd half-expected to die on this mission, and being raped first wasn't that much worse. It was a pity it was going to happen here, instead of in battle, but to fight would be to draw attention, and that they couldn't afford. Matthew could only spend so much magic on covering spells if they were going to finish their journey.

So she'd take what was coming, for the team, and for the mission, and just hope she survived. Sex with men disgusted her, and this certainly wasn't going to change that. The man behind her pulled back, and she heard the noises as he dropped his pants and prepared to start her torment.

Suddenly, she heard a grunt of agony from the man behind her, and the grip of the two at her sides loosened enough for her to pull free, push her pants off the tops of her boots, and pull her knife from its sheath. She quickly killed the two men at her sides, thrusting up through the belly, behind the ribs and into the heart, then pulling back and shoving them away before their blood could spurt onto her.

Knife in her teeth, she pulled her pants up, then spun to face her final attacker. He was bent at the waist, hugging his crotch, with a stunned Lisa standing behind him. She'd clearly kicked him where it mattered most, and had been waiting for the inevitable collapse. Now, she was staring at the men Tina had just killed, speechless. Tina stepped up to the surviving attacker, lifted his head by the hair, and shoved her knife up under his chin, though his tongue and into his brain.

As his body fell to the ground, Tina stood aside, and muttered under her breath, before flicking the blood and flesh from her knife's blade, leaving it clean and shiny. She bent over, pulled up her pant leg, and slid the now-clean blade into its scabbard. She straightened, and took a pouch from the small pack at her waist. Reaching inside, she pulled out a pinch of the dust inside, and sprinkled some over each body, once more muttering under her breath.

Finally, she grabbed Lisa's hand, and spoke once more, this time more clearly, in a language that Lisa had never heard. Her task accomplished, whatever it was, she spoke again, this time in English (however that was accomplished.)

"You have saved me from death, or worse, and I am in your debt," Tina said to Lisa. "You will have a Warrior's Thanks, when time permits. Now, we must leave them here, and return to our mission. We should leave the woods some distance from where we went in, in case someone noted their departure."

Lisa was still stunned, too stunned to notice that Tina was still holding her hand. She nodded, and permitted herself to be led on a slightly roundabout journey. About halfway to their goal, Tina suddenly stopped, blushed, and let go of Lisa's hand. "I forgot what I came out here for. Excuse me a moment."

Without further ado, Tina dropped her pants, squatted, and pissed on the ground, then wiped herself with her left hand, before wiping her hand clean on a convenient bush. She covered up, and took Lisa's hand again, with her right. She took off as though nothing outrageous had happened, to Lisa's considerable amusement.

They left the woods, and walked calmly back to the parking lot, and the rest of their party.

John and the men-folks had finished their business quickly (both because men are faster in the bathroom, and because the casino bus passengers included far fewer men than women) and were standing around the trailers with Connie and Sarah, waiting for the rest of their party.

John was casually chatting with Matthew when he got that crawling sensation on his neck again. For whatever reason, it was easier to to detect direction than it had been, and he reflexively glanced over his shoulder at the woods behind him. Matthew and Connie both glanced in the same direction at the same time, and both got frowns on their faces. When Tina and Lisa walked out of the woods, hand in hand, those frowns deepened.

John looked at Sarah curiously, but she only looked concerned, not angry. She walked to meet the two returning women, and when Lisa started and jerked her hand from Tina's grip, Sarah reached out and touched her shoulder, obviously comforting her. The three spoke briefly, then turned and returned to the vehicles.

When they arrived, Lisa said to John. "I need to talk to Matthew. Can I trade you for Sarah, please?" Surprised, John agreed, after glancing at Sarah to get her approval. They got into the vehicles, with Sarah taking the shotgun seat next to John, and moved out.

Once they were on the road and up to speed, John said to Sarah, "I assume you're going to explain what's going on?"

Sarah nodded, and said, "Yes, both what has happened, and what will happen next. Tina didn't want to wait in line, so she entered the woods to do her business. She was followed by three men, intent on raping her. They caught her helpless, and she was planning on letting it happen, to avoid attracting official attention, since she couldn't achieve a clean kill. Then Lisa attacked one of the attackers, diverting the attention of the others, and Tina managed to free her weapon and strike.