Chapter 3

Flint was surprised that the truck that had T-boned the Suburban was still running. Looking into the SUV, he saw that no one was conscious. However, when he checked the girls, they all had a pulse and were breathing.

What to do? Leave them and drive back to the house in the truck or risk moving them to the town or the house. As he pondered the dilemma he heard the squawk of static sounds from Sam's VHF radio.

The radios were used for the herring spotting. Since they were available, Emma liked Sam to carry one in the SUV, while she had the second one for emergencies, or for more mundane things.

Moving back to the Suburban, he wrenched open the door and grabbed for the handheld radio.

"Mayday! Mayday! Car crash! People hurt! Come in, Emma! Over!"

"Flint? Is that you?" came a tremulous woman's voice.

"Yes it is! Over!"

"This is Emma. How bad is it? Over."

"Real bad! Sam is dead, and Kate and Amelia are hurt bad. Send Ed and Siv. We need to deal with this, fast! Over!"

"We'll be right there. Ahh ... ahhh ... ahhh ... over..."

"Bring blankets. I think they're all in shock. Over."

There was no answer to his last transmission. Pausing for just a minute Flint decided not to move anyone from the SUV.

He strode over to the two bound men in a rage that almost caused him to kill them on the spot. Then a plan began to unfold in his mind. He grabbed the two by the collars and dragged them, kicking and screaming epithets, to their truck.

The two brothers were of slight build, and were no more than one hundred and forty pounds each. One at a time, Flint lifted the men over his head, and threw them into the truck bed. Ivan received new injuries of a broken nose and scrapes, as he landed hard on his face. Paul broke his collarbone on impacting the truck's inside-the-bed fender, before he fell onto the bed floor.

Knowing that there was some risk of fire if the two vehicles were left as they were, the old man got into the truck, and backed it away from the Suburban.

Though mortally wounded, the truck was still drivable, if erratic. Just then, Flint heard the screeching of tires as two trucks came racing toward him from a side road.

Even before they had come to a complete stop, the two trucks began disgorging passengers.

The injured people were loaded into one of the truck beds, onto pallets made of blankets with pillows under their knees to help treat the shock. By this time Aya was awake. Ed made her lie down anyway, for the dash to the clinic.

Ed sent Siv and Emma off to the clinic with the girls, and walked to where Flint was standing.

"Yah. Ya know what kinda men these are don't ya?"

Flint just nodded.

"Yah, well what do ya intend ta do wid 'em?"

"Well, I most certainly am not going to give them back to the idiots that lost them in the first place!"

"You hafta turn us in ta the law," growled Ivan.

"Nope! We don't have ta do no such t'ink. The man ya just killt was my brother in law, not to mention that he was the best friend a man could ever have! DEN you tried ta kidnap my daughter. I t'ink that it's time for ya to answer for ya crimes with some 'bush justice'," Ed's accent seemed more pronounced, as his anger grew...

"What's the plan?" asked Flint.

"We put 'em in my truck, and den you go look after that girl of yours. I'll take care o' the garbage."

"OH, NO! I'm sick and tired of people hurting those that I love, without them feeling some of the pain back," said Flint. "There are a few things I want to do to these worthless shits."

Without another word Flint grabbed Ivan and dragged him from the wrecked truck and threw him into Ed's. Paul followed as Ed, a huge man, tossed the small man after his brother.

"What about Sam? We don't want a bear to come for a meal," asked Flint.

"Dis won't take long. Dere's an old pit mine about two miles from here. We shouldn't be gone for more dan half an hour.

The two brothers kept yelling that they had to be turned over to the police, as Ed drove away.

It was a very short drive to the mine.

"Yah so, Flint, what's dis plan a yours?"

Taciturn as ever, Flint just said, "You'll see."

In the bottom of the pit was a standing pool of water and around that pool were the tracks of animals, a lot of animals, many of which were carnivores.

"Pull them out, Ed. I'll take it from there," said Flint as he picked up Ivan's filet knife from the floorboards.

Taking the extra rope from Ed's truck, the old man threaded it through the wrist bindings of Ivan. The man began to struggle and Flint grabbed him by the shirtfront.

He said in a menacing voice, "Look at me, you piece of shit! Look into my eyes!"

Ivan avoided looking at Flint, and continued to struggle. Flint banged the man up against the truck several times, hard. That got Ivan's attention. What he saw in Flint's eyes scared him.

"Now you listen, and you listen good. Keep up the struggles and I will cut off your balls, one at a time! Comply, and you might just live through this."

Ivan blanched but nodded.

Flint led Ivan to an old piece of machinery and then threw the rope over the top. Retrieving the end Flint began to pull the slack out. Since Ivan's hands had been tied behind his back the result was that Ivan was raised nearly off the ground in a doubled over position.

Now Flint showed Ivan the filet knife and said, "You seem to like this thing so much, I thought that you would want me to use it on you."

Flint cut all of his prisoner's clothes off and then went back to the truck for the other man and did the same thing to him.

Once both men were secured on each side of the machine Flint returned to Ed.