Chapter 16

“Good morning, sleepy head,” I heard as I opened my eyes and found Sienna and Jeanette standing over my bed. Their smiles worked wonders on my state of mind and I am sure my smile was just as wide.

“What ... What happened?” The best thing to do, in my current opinion, was to gather some facts before I make any decisions about what I think happened to me.

“Ross, what’s the last thing you remember?” Sienna was looking at me with such devotion. I wanted one of her hugs so badly.

“We were in court last night and everyone was screaming at everyone else...”

Jeanette took over for Sienna. She was dressed in hospital attire. Her gown was much better quality than I was used to, but it was still a hospital gown, which meant she hadn’t been released to go home, after getting shot. “Agent Gottfried told us that you were acting very drowsy on the plane, but you got up and walked to your wheelchair, so he thought you were just tired.

“Apparently you keeled over in the court room, smacked your head on a table and the cut was deep enough to bleed like crazy. When Doctor Halberstadt came in to sew you up, he said that you weren’t waking up like you should have been.

“After a couple of hours they moved you up here and Sienna has been looking after you ever since...” She didn’t say it, but I realized that I must have been out of more than overnight.

“How long have I been asleep?”

Sienna saw the worry on my face, and said, “Ross honey, you’ve been out for almost three days. We were beginning to worry that you had slipped back into that weird coma, since it happened once already to you. But you never went all the way away, like last time, so Doctor Halberstadt refused to allow the hospital to move you anywhere, and I’ve stayed to make sure you were looked after.” I could see the exhaustion in her face. She look so tired that I wanted to move over to make for her to sleep.

Jeanette was sitting on the side of the bed, and spoke up. “Judge Marshall was in and I’m told she peeled the skin off of Gottfried and his bosses, for allowing you to get hurt.” She said that with a bit of satisfaction in her voice. If I had to guess, I’d say that she had a few choice thoughts to share with the FBI herself.

Sondra walked in just as Sienna was quizzing me about my experience in the desert. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about the farmhouse and Calen Arthur’s visit. They didn’t yet know that he had been there, or that he was dead. “Well, I see that sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up and rejoin the human race,” she said that with a great big smile and a laugh. It was good to be around people that I liked and who liked me, for a change.

We chatted like school kids for a little while, but Jeanette brought us back to the topic at hand. “Ross, what all did happen out there? We never got much information from the feds, and Doctor Halberstadt about climbed the walls when he heard you were in danger.”

It was time to share the rest of Ross’ story. Sondra saw the look on my face and realized that it might be painful. She helped Jeanette park herself up on the bed beside me, so she could rest while they got the details. Sienna was already on my right, and Jeanette took the left. That left the foot of the bed for Sondra, which she took, pulling her feet up under her for comfort.

“When the FBI took me away, we didn’t make it all the way to their chosen hideaway. Someone called the plane and told Agent Gottfried that our destination was accidentally given out. Now I realize that when he got that call, it was the people behind all the killing that did it, and they wanted me somewhere that was far away and where there would be no witnesses.

“The man who took me there, his name was Breaker, and he had these three wonderful dogs. They adopted me and kept me safe when the attackers showed up. Breaker gave me a rifle and we had to shoot some of them. The dogs snuck up and killed some more, and Breaker thought we were safe.

“The FBI was supposed to come and get us, but something happened and they never showed up. The first guys who tried to kill us planted a bomb in Breaker’s helicopter, so we couldn’t use it to come back. When the helicopter finally came to get us, it was full of killers and they shot Breaker and tried to kill me.

“I managed to shoot at them and the pilot made a mistake and crashed into the rock mountain. They all got killed.

“When it was safe, I pulled Breaker’s body out of the sun and cleaned him up so his family wouldn’t see him full of bullet holes. It made me really sad, and then REALLY mad, but I was trapped. It was just Breaker and me, with three dogs, and he was dead.

“When I finally started to think right, I searched the pockets of one of the dead guys and found a phone. When I looked in breaker’s wallet, I found some phone numbers, so I called them until I got ahold of Breaker’s brother, Sam. He promised to come and get me, but they killed him too...” All three girls reacted with horror as the story unfolded. I tried to minimize my part in the story, as much as possible, but it was impossible to just make it up as I went along, too.

“Instead of help, another helicopter came and they had a machine gun with them. I was hiding in some rocks against the mountain, and it was hard for them to get close in the copter, so when they started shooting at me, I was able to shoot the guy with the machine gun and then shoot into the fuel tank. It exploded and they all crashed into the mountain and burned up...” I stopped because Doctor Halberstadt walked in. He waved to me and insisted I keep telling my story.

“I thought about how to get some help and decided to call here and try to get you guys on the phone. It worked and you know the rest of that part. Agent Gottfried and Judge Marcus came for me and we went to an Army base where I saw a doctor who said I was fine.

“Then they took me to another airplane and flew us to a farm out in the middle of nowhere...”

I stopped. The rest was going to be really hard. Sienna hugged me. Sondra rubbed my legs and Jeanette kissed my forehead, just below the bandages. Doctor Halberstadt looked me right in the eye, and said, “I know it gets ugly now, Ross. Just take your time and tell us what happened at that farm.”

“We were there for three nights and then the Attorney General, Calen Arthur, showed up and demanded that he be allowed to question me in private. I knew him, Doctor Halberstadt. He used to rape me until I was all bloody, and then he would pee inside me when he was too tired to stay hard...” The tears came unbidden, then. The only four people who actually cared about me were arrayed around me, on a hospital bed, waiting for me to compose myself enough to finish telling about Ross’ abuse at the hands of the Attorney General.