Surviving (6 page)

              They sat down on a log and shot the shit about the good old times down in South America, apparently they had been mercenaries for several countries. They talked a good story about warfare, rape and murder during several of their campaigns. Both then talked about their leader Karl who apparently was the number two guy in a very large South American drug operation based in Paraguay.

              Jesus mentioned that they were a year ahead of plan in taking over the West Coast operations in the US. Apparently, the Colombian Cartel was not well established in the northwestern half of the US and fought some battles for control of the drug trade. They both agreed that they would earn their money as they pushed into the eastern half of the US.

              “It will be a bloody battle all the way,” exclaimed Jesus.

              Red answered with, “The bloodier the better, I hate Colombians more than Americans.”

              He pulled a 9mm auto out of his holster and aimed it right at John. John held his breath and nothing happened. Red re-holstered the gun. John noted that Jesus appeared to have a similar weapon.

              Jesus told Red that their most daunting task was to hire competent Gringos to help run their operations on the east coast; they had Latino’s for Florida, but were still in the planning stage for all parts north.

              Red thought that he could recruit some of the Russian mob, but Jesus warned him that Karl and his boss would not take kindly to this at all.

              Red groaned and said, “I am not into politics, I like the adventure, wine, women and a good fight, but this drug running is not a good thing for a soldier."

              He added, “I will kill anyone needing killing, but the drugs make me feel dirty.”

              Jesus smiled and replied. “It’s all about money my friend; we have to have lots of American dollars to fund our cause. I, also, have worries about smuggling in those Arabs, even though Karl wants bombs going off to keep the Feds busy, I just don’t like it.”

              “The Americans like the white powder and we need their cash; a marriage made in heaven. We must be taking tens of millions of dollars out of the western half of the US. Wait until we get the east coast operation up to speed,” Jesus told Red.

              John had been thinking their cause was selling drugs, however, that comment made him start wondering what they were really up to and what were the Arabs up to and what bombs?

              This was much worse than John thought; these guys weren’t just some local bad guys and they had stumbled into a hornet's nest. Even if they escaped, they have their home addresses and John’s credit card info. Whatever they did to save themselves it must be well planned and go much beyond just saving their sorry asses; their family’s lives were at stake. John had to get back to the others to warn them, he could not be caught, not now!

              They talked for over 10 minutes when John heard another plane landing. John thought that this must have Karl and crew aboard. Red and Manny left him in the brush pile and rejoined their friends in welcoming the newly arrived Karl and his team. John silently watched as the new group unloaded weapons and supplies. One of them was the girl, Maria, from the GAO office back in Utah. Damn, Steve will be surprised to see this sweet young thing with the big gun strapped to her hip. All wore side arms and three had AK 47s. A big blonde man had a hunting rifle with a high-powered scope, the others acted as if he was the big boss. While they gathered around the tall blond haired man, John moved in closer in an attempt to find out their plans.

              The blond guy was Karl and there was no doubt that he was in charge. He spoke very softly, but they hung on every word. His plan was simple. Red was to track them down and Karl got to shoot them like the wild pigs they were. John’s thoughts kept turning to his son and the others; they must survive and warn the authorities. These people must be stopped. John then slipped into the woods and headed back to his friends as quickly as possible so that they could get prepared for the eventual conflict.

              As he slinked away, John couldn’t help wondering if Mac Norman would write a book about this or should John Harris write it as a true story; He finally decided it would be a good yarn regardless of who wrote it.

✼

Chapter 10

Beth

The Iowa/Montana Woods

May 17, 2020

              John saw something ahead in the bushes. Someone was squatting down in the bushes trying to hide or something. Damn! It came to John. She had just peed and was pulling her shorts up. Damn, he was only about twenty feet away when he first spotted her. He could only see her backside, but noticed that she was blond, had great legs, a slim waist and a great tan. He realized that he was misbehaving and was silently embarrassed however, he kept watching. He could not take his eyes off the gorgeous vision.

              He had been in a hurry and just ahead of the GAO thugs as they headed north when he came upon this wondrous vision. She was about 35 and about 5’5" and built like a brick shit house.

              He was deep in thought about this gorgeous woman, when a twig snapped and brought him back to the real world. He surveyed his surroundings and heard one of the GAO coming up to him from the other side of his newly found beauty. He will see her in a minute, he thought! She had turned, now facing to his right; he sprang to his feet and lunged towards her.

              She was in a world of her own and did not react until he grabbed her around the waist and closed his hand over her mouth. She struggled, but he quickly overpowered her and dragged her to the ground. She was laying half in his lap with her head beside his, cheek to cheek. He thought that she must think that she was about to be raped. She was horrified and struggled quite a bit; she even managed to elbow him in the ribs as he overpowered her. The more she struggled the tighter he held her. He held her firmly and prayed for her to be quiet until they passed.

              He finally whispered for her to listen.

              He said, “I’m not going to hurt you, look, see those guys?”

The main body of the group was about twenty yards behind the point man.

              “They are killers. See the guns! We can’t let them find us.”

She stopped struggling.

              He told her, “I’m John Harris and these guys are trying to kill me and my friends. I am not going to hurt you. If I take my hand off your mouth, will you be quiet?”

              He could tell she was watching the thugs and could easily see the assault rifles. She nodded and he took his hand from her mouth.

He asked, “What’s your name?”.

              “Beth,” she replied.

              He asked, “Are you okay? I am sorry that I had to pull you down so hard.”

              He was still holding her with one hand on her bare stomach and the other on her shoulder. They watched as the last guy, who was trailing the main group by another twenty yards, faded from sight. She slowly moved his hand off her stomach and moved away from him.

              Red faced, she asked, “how long were you watching me?”

              He replied, “Oh, only a second before I knocked you down."

              His grin probably gave him away because his face was also bright red.

              She looked at him and gave him the once over, she frowned and said, “I think that you are a pervert and were watching all along.”

              He told her, “You name a man that would not have watched such a beautiful woman standing in the woods.”

              He added, “If I had not been there, the killers would have found you and done horrible things to you.”

              She blushed and said, “A true gentleman would have covered his eyes.

              He replied, “Look, I truly apologize and would never have looked if I hadn’t been keeping an eye out for the bad guys.”

              He then told her about the events so far. She said that they had heard some noise in the distance and heard the plane, but did not think anything of it.

              She thanked him for saving her from the bad guys and slapped the shit out of him while saying, “I’ll bet you think twice about stalking a strange woman in the future.”

              He backed away, rubbed his jaw and said, “I will behave myself in the future.”

              He reintroduced himself and asked for her full name. She said that her name was Elizabeth Fox and that she was a high school teacher from Smyrna, TN. She was 38, divorced and had two kids, Kristie who is 16 and Randy who is 14. She had a small home in Smyrna and taught at the local high school. She liked country music, hiking, kayaking and anything to do with the outdoors. While she talked, he took in the beauty that she radiated as effortlessly as a diamond or a sunset over Mobile Bay.

              She had shoulder length honey blond hair, weighed about 135 pounds and was about 5’6” tall. Her smile warmed him down to his toes; he was lost in her gaze.

              Then he heard her say, “Look, pervert, I can see that you aren’t listening to me, you probably were fantasizing about me with my panties down.”

              He quickly said, “No ma’am, I was just amazed at how pretty you are.”

She smiled and said she did not believe him. “You are a dirty old man and you can’t change my mind,” she exclaimed.

              He asked her how many were in her party and how did they get here. She said that there were four others in their party, Bill James and his wife Janet, Fred Allen and his girlfriend Alice Myers. They were all from the Nashville area and Alice Myers taught History at the high school with Beth. All but Fred taught at the same high school. Fred was the assistant football coach at the middle school in Murfreesboro. They were all outdoors buffs and had planned this trip for over a year.

              They had driven from Nashville to Dillon, Montana in Bill’s rented RV. Their plan was to hike from the south end of the Beaverhead National Forrest in Southeast Montana to the Yellowstone Park in the Northeast corner of Wyoming. The trip was about 70 miles over some pretty rough country. They planned on 10 miles a day through the forest, camping and fishing along the way. Then they would camp in Yellowstone for an additional week before getting a ride back to Dillon.

              John asked, “Where the fuck, are we? I thought we were in Idaho?"

              Beth gave him an icy stare and then told him that they were in Montana, about 45 miles from the tristate corner of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

              He then asked her where their camp was.

              She pointed in the direction that the GAO group had gone, turned white and yelled, “They are headed right to our camp.”

              He told her to keep her voice down and to follow him. They followed a trail that a blind man could have followed. It was apparent that these people were not concerned about covering their tracks or being attacked. The forest was dense and traveling was slow at best. John told Beth that he did not want to go too fast or they could run right into the GAO people. After about 25 minutes, they heard a scream and loud talking.

              John said, “Beth, when we get to the camp it may be a bad scene; we may not be able to help your friends and they may be killed.”

              She was visibly upset, but said, “Let’s go and try to help them if we can.”

              He told her that he only had the Hawking and a .380. While the thugs each had side arms and automatic rifles, they would not stand a chance in a head-to-head fight.

              She replied, “Then let’s be careful when we kick their asses.”

He liked the girl’s spunk.

              They quietly moved closer to the camp and observed from about 25 yards out. One man, John later found out to be Fred, was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. His girlfriend, Alice, was at his side crying and sobbing.

              The tall red haired one was wiping his hunting knife on the grass and laughing. He then grabbed the grieving woman and began to grope her. Maria came out of one of the tents and kicked Red in the ass. He turned and fronted Maria and raised his hand as if to strike her; Manny stepped between them and pushed Red away. The woman, Alice, fell to the ground. While they could not hear everything that was said, it was apparent that Karl was not pleased that Maria had stepped in between Red and Alice.

              Karl called for Manny, “Get your bitch under control or I will take care of her myself.”

              Maria yelled back to Karl, “I don’t need anyone to watch over me; Red is a pig and what he was about to do will not move our cause forward.”

              Karl only laughed and replied, “Jesus, take her to one of the tents and tell her to stay inside; Red needs to have a little fun with this American woman.”

              Jesus grabbed Maria’s arm and pushed her into the farthest tent from Red. Karl then told Red to have fun with the girl. Red knew what he wanted to do, after all, it had been over a month since he had a woman and this one’s last name was Myers, so Karl would watch with pleasure.

              Red ripped Alice’s clothes off and then stripped her of her underwear. She fought, but Red was twice her size and he slapped her around until she complied. He grabbed her and she kicked him. He then shot into the ground yelling, “Bitch, do as I say or the next one is in your head.”

              She stopped struggling and submitted to the bastard. He savagely raped her.

              Beth heard the shot and Karl yelling and reacted violently. John had to grab her and hold a hand over her mouth again. She kicked and tried to scream. John covered her eyes with his chest and told her that there was nothing that they could do since these guys out numbered them and were heavily armed. John then swore to her that they would make them pay for this atrocity.

              John continued to hold Beth while Red, Manny and Jesus took turns raping Alice. This was the worst thing that he had ever had to witness. The feeling of being helpless while someone was being tortured was more than John could endure. John steeled himself and tried to console Beth to keep her calm.

              Beth’s friend, Bill, apparently had snapped while watching Red abuse his friend. He tried to knock Red off Alice, but was restrained by Jesus and Manny. They kicked Bill and beat him until he could no longer resist. When they finished with Alice, Red moved towards Janet and Karl waved him off.

              “Red, you had had your fun now go back to work. Let’s deal with these campers and get back to our hunt.”

              Karl had Jesus bring Bill to him.

              “I do not want to dirty my hands on this inferior piece of shit, who wants to kill him?”

              Red replied, “Let Maria shoot the bastard as proof of her allegiance.”

              Karl liked the idea and had Jesus bring Maria from the tent to face Karl.

              Maria had heard the conversation and blurted out, “So, I have to prove myself after being a loyal supporter for over a year?”

              Karl glared and said, “Yes. Kill the SOB.”

              Maria took Karl’s Glock, hit Bill across the back and marched him to the edge of the camp, right in front of them. She put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Bill fell to the ground.

“Does this make me any more loyal to you? Karl, what do I have to do, kill ten more to impress you? I am loyal, but do not like unnecessary killing. I will do whatever it takes to further our goals, but random killing is barbaric and beneath us.”

              Beth again had to be restrained as her friend died. John quietly pulled her back another hundred feet from the camp so they could not hear her cry.

              “I have lost two good friends today and there is no telling what they will do to Alice and Janet,” she sobbed.

              John told her that they would quickly bury Bill and Fred to keep the animals from eating on them until someone could come back for the bodies. Alice was lying on the ground sobbing and pounding her fists onto the ground. They finally heard Karl command the others to dress Alice and to bring her and Janet along. They then left.

              Beth and John quickly went into the campsite and buried Fred with rocks and what dirt they could scrape up with a frying pan. While John finished burying Fred, Beth went to start on Bill’s grave. Suddenly John heard her gasp and saw her back away from the body.

              Then she said, “He’s alive.”

              John checked his pulse and she was right. John then checked his wound and found it to be a deep graze to his right forehead. This would hurt like hell for several days, but would not kill him. Beth got a canteen and splashed water in his face. He woke, but was very groggy and was speaking nonsense. She cleaned the wound, applied a bandage from a FA kit and gave him some painkillers. John took a smelling salts vial from the kit, broke it and placed it under his nose. He sat straight up and began thanking god he was alive.

              Bill asked about Janet and the others and Beth filled him in on what had happened to his friends. He was distraught about Janet and kept blubbering that he prayed she had not been raped like Alice. Meanwhile John grabbed some food, a butcher knife, three sleeping bags, some food and a few supplies from their gear. They stuffed all they could get in three small bags. They also grabbed jackets and Beth put a pair of pants on over her shorts.