Chapter 197

I didn't understand where the women we were hearing scream came from. I'd thought we had removed all the women and had actually been surprised when we found the two sneaking out earlier. I asked Ralph via our new communication.

There are more of these men than you knew about John. They have captured more women on their way here. It seems they have taken it upon themselves to find and capture all the women and kill all men they encounter. I don't think it will serve them well in the long run because they did not try to assimilate any of the men they encountered. They already have more than twice as many women as men and they have resorted to rough treatment to keep them in line. They are actually holding them in near captivity and the leader over there now, this Hackto, plans to capture more women as he goes along. I think the next group he has in his sights are the women with you.

It left me wondering where Hackto had come from and how he had taken over this bunch of men. Things had gotten complicated since I left them tied outside to freeze to death. I knew they had been released, but I hadn't known they had received other men to pad their numbers and I thought I had taken away all the women when I dealt with them.

Now it seemed there were dozens of men with them and even more women. They were holding up in the cave again and it left me and mine out in the cold. It was beginning to get annoying even if most of us did have excellent cold-weather gear.

"How many men did Hackto bring with him, Ralph?"

"He has his own group of nearly thirty men. On their way here he dropped in on several small camps, killed most of the men and captured most of the women. It seems they are just now whipping the women into line and divvying them up amongst the men."

"That's shit. I'm about to start divvying them up amongst me. Let me get my small sandbag-replacement fur and get to it. It doesn't seem this new bunch knows about rifle shots coming in through the opening."

I looked around until I found the very fur I'd rolled up last time for this trick and soon I was prone on a larger spread out fur on the snowy ground about a hundred feet from the entrance hole. When I settled into a proper firing position and took a look with my third eye into the now open entrance I had a much better idea of what was going on inside.

Several young women were involved in cooking over a big fire and there were a few young but fit looking men in among them. Every now and then one of the young men would cuff a woman for no apparent reason.

It got on my last God Damned nerve pretty fast so I picked out one of the antagonizers and put a hole sideways through his forehead as soon as he smacked another young lovely. He fell straight to the floor, with an arm in the fire, and another of the young jackasses sprang up to help him get out. My next shot sprang him back down onto his back with a nice new tracheotomy hole just below his Adams apple. No doubt there was a hole about the size of a quarter out through the back of his neck with appropriate damage to his neck and spinal column since he fell into a loose-limbed heap.

Of course the M1 I was using announced its use and since it was pointed directly at the cave's entrance the loud noise wasn't missed by the bad-asses in the cave or their captives either.

Luckily all the women in the other cave were either squatting near the entrance or standing around cooking. Who says women of this day and age were dumb. All those squatting near the entrance were on their feet and headed out at once. I took time to nail one of the young men supposedly keeping herd on them in the head and even though it exploded nearly like a pumpkin with an equal shot the women weren't deterred and they came streaming out the entrance right away. Amelia and some of the other women with me were quick to get their attention and lure them to join us.

Of course things had gone fast. The bunch of tough guys in the cave had been sitting on their asses drinking warm drinks the girls had been making and had barely had time to look up to see what the loud noise was when it started happening. The exiting pulchritude had caused a mini commotion of its own and the three or four serving girls standing around had stopped standing and made an exit of their own. One enthusiastic young bad ass had made a dive for one of the slower moving girls and caught her by the ankle, dragging her down from behind.

It didn't really help their cause much because it exposed his head and chest to me, and his eyes made lovely targets in my third eye. I dotted them both and the girl was up again and out of the cave as soon as she felt his grip go loose.

This little episode put a real cramp in Hackto's style. He jumped up screaming and came to take a look at what had happened. Unfortunately for Hackto his loud protestations didn't bother me and I soon silenced him with a new ear hole just slightly above his normal one. I must have hit a large artery because blood began squirting out the new hole impressively. If it had kept up for a few more seconds I might have been able to determine his heart rate by careful counting, but since only four major squirts left his head I didn't really think it was a large enough sample.

His spectacular demise did slow the action down a little though. Best I could tell there were only four females left in the cave and showing they weren't completely stupid the younger men had a good grip on each of them. Unfortunately for them they hadn't paid strict attention to the way things were going. I popped two of them right off the bat and the girls they were holding onto made their escapes right away.

The other two took the coward's way out and made sure the girls were between them and the entrance. I wasn't bothered by it in the least. I shot right between one of the young lovelies legs and managed to tear the ball sack off one of the holders. You can probably imagine he lost interest in holding onto the girl at once and when she noticed she was out the entrance too.