CHAPTER 23
“Well it's about bloody time,” Killian said as he tried to get up from the rock he as leaning against. Lucy rushed right over to him and made him sit back down because his improvised crutch was not working out so well and the bandage on his leg was in desperate need of changing. Lucy went right to complaining about a broken leg but, Jake knew a gunshot would when he saw it. Then Killian tried to shoo away his sister as he said, “you're a bit too late as things are.”
The state of the little camp, that they had, said otherwise. Including Killian, there looked to be only three men and a woman here. All three men had been shot, and two of them looked pretty serious. The girl with them was dressed like a Rennie and trying to take care of the men, all by herself. It was quite obvious they had no more supplies left and, if Jake didn't know any better, he'd say they should probably be thankful it had been so cold because they might have bled out, otherwise. Since they had not been up here long enough to use up everything they must have brought, he had to guess they lost their gear by some other means. Add that to the fact that they obviously picked this spot because it was defensible and all of this added up to one thing.
Jake told the Sheriff, “too late? From the looks of it, I'd say we're in the nick of time. Did those Rennies do this?”
It was the girl, who stood up, from the deputy she was tending too, and then answered, “no, it was not!”
Unimpressed with the hostility, Jake told the girl, “I'm guessing you're Missy. What I'm not getting is, if you're here, where's the rest of your merry little band?”
Now the girl became absolutely livid, “I can't believe this! Mom hired a bounty hunter? Killian! You said...”
“He's not a Bounty Hunter,” Killian groaned as he tried calming down both women. He then tried explaining to Jake, “this all rather embarrassing actually.”
Missy would not be silenced, “I am not going back. Not now, you promised me!”
Jake snorted, “do you mind! Let the man talk already!” He then looked back to Killian, “who shot you up and where are they now?”
“Hopefully gone,” Killian said. After recovering for a moment he said, “I don't know who they were. We haven't detected any movement since yesterday. I don't think they followed us. We were lucky to get to this spot.”
“I'd say,” Jake replied, still agitated, “and in the shape you guys are in, you can't even detect you're own movement.” Jake looked around the mountainous wilderness he was in and rubbed at his chin, “the only good news is, whoever did this obviously made their point already. If they wanted to finish the job I'm pretty sure they would have.”
Lucy blurted out, “it was them damn Germans is who it was.”
Killian was a bit alarmed by that but, Jake waived the notion off, “if it was Horst and his boys, he would have rounded up the survivors and took them back to the Arch and that would be the only reason they came in on foot, to get prisoners. If he had just wanted them dead then he would have dropped some ordinance on them from the gunship he's obviously got circling around out here somewhere.”
Missy exchanged glances with Killian and then she told Jake, “we saw an aircraft.” After Jake only answered with silence she said, “it was after the ambush. We never really heard it. It was pretty high up. I think it actually went into orbit.”
Killian asked, “Germans?”
“Maybe,” Jake said but, he somehow doubted it. “Ok, you obviously found the Rennies. I only see your guys here. Where are they?”
Again Missy was the one who answered and she was almost crying as she did, “they didn't make it.”
Killian was more composed even if he was in pain, “they were at this old mine. I convinced them to come back with us. We had already left their camp when we were jumped on the trail, not far from here.”
Lucy snapped at him, “why the hell didn't you call!?”
“I couldn't,” Killian snapped right back. “I tried. Our phones stopped working before we even reached the mine. Fortunately, they're working now. I've already contacted Barbara and she's on the way with a medivac.”
“I'll be back in a minute,” Jake said as he started walking in the direction that Killian had pointed out. Missy picked up a weapon and began to follow. Jake saw, stopped, was about to say something and then just went back to walking.
Killian watched and then asked Lucy, “how does he think he's going to find it?”
“Don't worry about that honey,” Lucy replied. “Trust me, he will. What pisses me off is, he gave me more shit when I wanted to go with him.”
The ambush site was pretty obvious from the time Jake crawled over the rocks and saw the not too distant trail. When he studied the landscape it was pretty obvious that the survivors only got away because their attackers let them. Missy pointed out exactly where it all happened but, Jake had other ideas. He started by locating the obvious firing positions and, while these guys cleaned up good, nothing like that is ever perfect. Jake found a few empty casings and recognized the caliber. He also knew this meant it was not the Germans. Panzergrenadiers used small arms with caseless ammo. Jake then moved down to the trail where the bodies were.
Dead people mixed with dead horse and, while the temp kept down the smell, it did not eliminate it, nor the insects. It did not appear that scavengers had yet done any serious damage but, close work with modern small arms made enough of a mess as it was. The place looked as ghastly as Jake had ever seen. He noticed that Missy was doing her best to try and not look at any of it as she picked her way through the gore and then collapsed over one particular body.
Jake could guess, “Paul I take it.”
Missy kind of gave an answer as she sobbed, “this is my fault.”
“Yeah,” Jake was bitter, not sorrowful, “that's kind of what I was thinking.”
That earned Jake a most definitive reply from the girl, “go to hell.” After she sobbed some more she told him, “all we wanted to do was get away, from everybody, from everything.”
“Oh I see,” Jake said, still bitter, “so you're trying to tell me your plans didn't include strapping on a corset and moving to Rennie Toons Town?”
“The Barnoy?” Missy looked genuinely disgusted, “hell no. You know I'd heard my dad talking, all my life, about the Arch. I wanted to see it. I wanted to live there. Paul did too. He was sick of all that back stabbing bullshit up in the Barnoy. I kind of was too.”
“Right now I kind of wish they were a cult,” Jake mumbled to himself as he moved from body to body, examining what was left. He quickly detected a pattern and noted a distinct difference between the wounds on the Rennies and those of the Sheriff's men. The Rennies went down first and, it was done by some precision work. The deputies were the ones with the guns, the bigger threat, yet they were almost an afterthought here. It was no wonder Killian was still alive.
Now Jake was starting to wonder about a few other things. He looked to Missy who was, obviously, very much alive and without a scratch on her, “people don't do stuff like this because two kids want to elope. Trust me, I've had some experience with that. Why don't you tell me what's really going on here.”
“I don't know,” Missy said, as the tears began flowing. “It's got to be because of what's going on in the Barony. I... I never thought Howler would do anything like this. He...”
Jake really wanted to shake his head will all these damn names, “who the hell is Howler?”
“Look mister,” Missy tried composing herself, “you got to understand, there's been a lot back biting up there. My Dad he's...”
“Yeah,” Jake replied in an agitated fashion, “I got that part already. Dove and your old man want to start a tourist business and they got the old guard on their ass, cause they think it's selling out. It's an old story Missy. It's also not enough to draw the interest of a professional hit squad. What was your boyfriend into?”
Missy shrugged and then the tears really began flowing, “he was a blacksmith.”
Jake thought about it and then asked, “that make a lot of money?”
How did she manage to cry even harder? Between sobs all she could say was, “I don't know.”
Jake took that to mean that the he did not win this girl over with a hefty bag of gold or, whatever those people used, “you're not getting it. How did you plan on getting to the Arch? Last time I checked, planes and boats cost money.”
“We were going further than the Arch,” Missy said as she tried cleaning herself up, “Paul said..” With the mention of his name she burst out crying again and it took a few minutes before she could speak, “he said were going off world. Maybe even all the way to Earth.”
That took considerably more than a blacksmith could make. Jake was sure of that and, also, he was equally sure he was not going to get much more out of this girl for the time being. He softened his approach and finally got the girl to follow him back up to the camp. As Jake took a knee next to Killian, the first words said to him came from Lucy. She pointed to the phone and in a matter of fact kind of way she told him, “Barbara said to tell you that she was gonna kick your ass.” Jake gave the girl a nasty look and Lucy added, “I did tell her it might not be such a good idea.”
Jake ignored the girl and asked her brother, “tell me about this little split in the Rennie camp? Which side was Paul on?”
Killian wanted to laugh, before trying to do so, made him cringe in pain, “You know about that do you? That's why I was in such a rush to get up here when the fight broke out at the Curtis Ranch. One little incident, up here, and we could very well have a civil war on our hands, or at the least, Dove could be facing a coup. You met him?”
Jake had one word, “annoying.”
“I see he entertained you in his study,” Killian replied, “well as difficult as he is to work with, he's also about the only thing that's kept the peace. It's in his best interests to do so. As for Paul and his friends, I have no idea where they fell in that dispute. I do know I was somewhat surprised they agreed to come back. I had to try to talk them out first, you understand but, they were quite eager to leave as long as...”
“You'd protect them,” Jake said, guessing. “So you think they might have known somebody would try and ambush them?”
“I don't think so,” Killian replied, “they were far more concerned about what might happen to them when they got home.”
“Dove sounded like he wanted them back alive,” Jake remarked, “why would they be concerned about that?”
“Not Dove,” Killian said as he winced in pain.
“This Howler guy?”
Killian shook his head at that, “oh no, Howler is just one of them. The council is what I hear they're being called. I don't know who they all are but, Howler just kind of handles their problems. I don't know how you heard about him Jake but, if his name came up then it is not good.”
Now Jake looked away and mumbled, “goddamn those two.” He then asked Killian and was very frustrated, “why?”
“They're the main ones who have been opposing the vaccinations,” Killian explained. “They're smart enough to stay in the shadows. We can never really pin down any little thing they do to oppose it. It makes it rather hard to deal with them but, I've long suspected that their real goal is to get rid of Dove. The way things are right now, well...”
“The Germans are there for a reason,” Jake mumbled to himself. He then stood up and told the siblings, “tell Barbara to pick us up at the Curtis Ranch. I'm going to get back down there now.”
Lucy was confused, “why? I already done told Barbara that's where the girls are. Ain't they?”
“I need to make sure Lucy,” Jake said and ran off to his horse.
Days as a Schizophrenic (Poem)
Decant
It's Hurting Again
