Chapter 5

The morning brought two new problems.

None of those problems were related to Judy, however.

Judy woke up in a wonderful mood. When her eyes opened she gave me that smile that women often use to communicate contentment after great sex. Judy looked positively edible and I would have breakfasted had the radio not interfered.

I’d known that we could only stay hidden for so long and that people out looking for food, women, and fuel would start searching farther from the city centers and begin to invade the countryside in search of what they could rob, rape, or steal. That came to us mid-morning on that day. I was working near the cave, cutting wood for our fires when a gunshot sounded way too near.

My shotgun was very nearby and I circled towards the sound, being careful not announce either my presence, or intentions. Well down the hill toward the highway I could see four ugly, dirty, filthy looking men, trying to catch Judy, who kept running around and behind trees to keep them from capturing her.

Whoever fired the shot ruined their plan. Once I understood the game, I moved closer, sat down, took careful aim, and shot at a group of three who were closest to Judy. I hit the one in the center, and his head and neck exploded from the impact of the slug. The debris field filled with his bone splinters, flesh, blood, and brain matter slimed the one to his right and splashed all over the front of one on his left.

From there it was like shooting ducks in a kiddie pool. They kept trying to come to terms with what had already happened, and I kept killing them. Hunger and laziness must have made them stupid. It might have been a mixture of hunger and lust, because it was ... interesting ... to watch the last surviving moron still trying to keep his eye on Judy after I eliminated his posse. Judy is cute, but standing stupidly watching an unarmed woman run away, while someone is shooting at you is simply dumb and it got him killed.

Once the shooting was finished and I was certain there were no other two-legged predators with this group, I sent Judy to keep the girls away from all the gore and had her send Cheryl back with a shovel, so I could bury all the evidence. Cheryl watched me like I might sprout horns and start carving her up, while chanting satanic rituals, but she stuck nearby until I dragged and dumped the last body in the hole and filled it in. I found some flat-ish rocks and piled them on top of the makeshift grave to keep the four legged predators from digging around for a meal. Then I had to drag brush and other debris to hide the evidence of the fight and my work,

When I had finished that project, I took Cheryl with me and searched for evidence of our unwelcome visitors’ transportation ... About a mile up the highway we found their pick-up sitting in the middle of the road, with the keys inside. When I opened the topper in back to see if there was anything worth scrounging, I found two women bound and gagged.

They were obviously mother and daughter. Both looked like they had been through a very hard time, and I was extremely careful to calm and console them as I worked to remove their bonds and gags. Both were naked, and when the older of the two stumbled out of the back, she promptly walked a little way off and vomited, crying, moaning and trying to talk all at the same time.

Cheryl attended her while I freed the younger one. She was somewhere near Tommy’s age, but quite tiny. Instead of taking a chance on her legs giving out, I lifted her out of the truck bed and held her steady while circulation returned to her limbs. Being left tied up for who knew how many hours, really did a job on this one.

It took some time before either of them was willing to speak to us, but the older one finally stopped shaking, vomiting and coughing long enough to ask, “Who are you people? Where did you come from? Where are the ones who hurt us?” Her eyes told of hours of abuse and pain. It was important that Cheryl and I stay calm and keep them calm, or they both might flip out and start babbling.

“I’m Tommy,” I said softly. “This is Cheryl and we are camping up the mountain, away from the road. Your ... your ... captors ... They didn’t have much luck trying to do to us what they seem to have done to you. They won’t be coming back ... ever.

I let the finality of that sink in, and the younger one finally joined the conversation. “Good!” Her eyes burned with anger and hatred. She was going to need lots of therapy soon, to get over whatever was inflicted upon her.

Rather than pretend, I agreed. “You’re right,” I said. “They got exactly what they deserved, and no one will be finding their bodies for a long time, if ever.” I let her see me toss the shotgun over my shoulder, indicating how her tormenters met their fate. Any kind of closure was surely going to help, and knowing that those maggots were now food for maggots, was part of the healing process. It was too bad I couldn’t show her the bodies. That might have helped some.

They were both attempting to cover their naked bodies, with very little success, so I handed over my shirt to cover the older one. It hung down and hid just about everything important. Cheryl stripped off her tee shirt and handed it to the younger one. She seemed to snap out of her trance, just enough to thank her for the shirt.

It was time to try again. “I’m Tommy. This is Cheryl. The rest of our class is up the mountain, in a cave we took over until things are ... better. You are safe with us. We’ll take care of you and see to it that no one else hurts you.” Cheryl smiled at them. She was topless, and looked nice. I smiled back, still trying to help them understand that they were safe.

The older one was about thirty-five, or so. She was thin, but not scrawny, and her figure was, well, as much as I could see around her hands and my shirt, pretty good. For whatever reason, giving over our own clothes seemed to break the ice, and they visibly relaxed as the shock wore off. Cheryl checked them both over and let me know that they could both walk, so I asked her to lead them up the hill and get Judy to help her get them washed, treated for any obvious wounds, fed and settled down somewhere quite to rest.

I drove the truck almost to our turnoff, drained all the gas and oil, took out the battery, and pushed it until it rolled on its own down the road away from our camp site. ‘That should keep any curious wanderers from walking up towards our camp,’ I thought.

When the heavy work was done, and I was back in camp, I went directly to the stream and washed. Cheryl joined me, and several of the girls trailed along. Neither of us bothered with modesty. We were soiled, slimy, and needed to wash off all the yuck. Any audience had to satisfy themselves with getting a good look at our nakedness, because washing was all that was going on, and I wasn’t about to try and maintain modesty with all that gore on me. I did enjoy embarrassing Judy with my rampant erection, which she promised to soothe after dark.

It’s good to be the king.

Freshly washed and clean in the hot spring, we then soaked in the hot water until the overused muscles and bruises stopped hurting. Judy and Carrie spent some time with us, and they kept up a steady of conversation, getting the whole story out of us by the time we were satisfied with our bath.

For two days we stayed close to the cave, giving our newest friends, Yvonne and Becca, time to settle in. We had plenty of food, a good place to hide out, and a warm spring to soothe our bodies. There was no hurry to risk running a gauntlet of sick, freaks, out to kill me and rape the girls, when we were positively safe on the mountain. Our attackers were dead, and their victims were healing from their ordeal. It made perfect sense to stay out of sight for a few days and avoid another crisis.

But...

That was not to be.

We needed firewood and kindling.

That I could do. For hours and hours, I cut, trimmed, split and stacked enough wood to carry us until the end of winter, without telling anyone why I was concerned about having to hide out for almost a year.

The next crisis arrived in the form of a radio address from the White House. Hawk sounded sincerely somber, but something else vibrated just beneath his words. It felt like he was trying with all his might to avoid losing his temper and calling down the wrath of God, or our nuclear arsenal on someone ... somewhere.

If things at the White House were that trying, then America was in a world of hurt.

If America was in a world of hurt, Hawk was going to unleash the hounds of Hell on someone, if he hadn’t already, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Folks – You’ve all heard the news. America was poisoned. We were poisoned by an enemy without the courage to come out into the open and declare themselves. Our military and intelligence agencies tell me that Iran’s ruling mullahs in cooperation with the North Korean regime are behind this and have presented me with proof sufficient to convince me, and now we will take action commensurate with the acts of war perpetrated against us, and bold enough to insure other rogue nations never so much as consider trying such a thing on us again.

“To that end, it is my duty to inform you that Congress declared war on these rouge nations. Our Air Force destroyed approximately ninety-five percent of Iran’s ruling junta, most, if not all, of their navy, their entire elite and Special Forces and every one of their nuclear facilities. Our strikes were non-nuclear, surgical, and terrible. North Korea’s ruling party was simultaneously destroyed by a combination of Chinese and Russian military forces. I am told that there is no surviving military or political leadership inside North Korea and our Ambassadors have invited our South Korean allies to assume that from this day forward there will be only one Korea, where freedom and democracy will rule.

“For all intents and purposes, Iran and North Korea ceased to exist as nations today. That is the price you pay when you attack our country. Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and Jordan joined us and delivered wave after wave of devastation. Our allies in this struggle suffered brutal losses due to North Korea and Iran’s decision to deploy weapons of mass destruction. Their military, just like ours, wasn’t about to take such an act of war without fighting back.

“Syrian attempted to come to Iran’s aid and their Air Force and Army units were destroyed before they could get into action. The destruction of Syria’s military was complete as of a few hours ago, and the few surviving Syrian leaders have called back all forces and begged us to cease hostilities.

“Unfortunately that takes time and many Syrian units pressed the attacks to their eternal sorrow. The joint forces of our coalition employed scorched Earth tactics - at my insistence - insuring that no hostile military units would survive to attack our nation ever again.

“Iranian and North Korean citizens are discovering that their ports, airports, bridges and essential transportation hubs are gone. Their military bases are little more than rubble, and their government buildings are smoking ruins today. Our envoys have communicated with surviving diplomats of both nations and explicitly communicated our intention to turn everything they have into piles of debris should even one tank, a single fighter jet, or a submarine attempt to engage our military.

“In terms of humanitarian aid, along with our allies in South Korea, Japan, and many other nations we promised relief that is already on the way with food, medical supplies and clothing. All of our allies suffered serious losses due to the plague, yet as great nations do, they all pitched in to help. There is much more to tell about our military assault on those that murdered so many of our citizens, but I will save that for another day and focus on things here at home.