Not Dead Yet (22 page)

Colleen’s wailing subsided.  She stared blankly off into space.

“Are they gonna that to us?” Lu asked, pale with terror.

Long shadows came over the floor of the barn.  The brothers had returned with a cooler of generic beer and two lawn chairs.  They set up the lawn chairs just out of reach of their captives, sat down and popped open the yellow cans.  Nathan drank an entire beer in one long pull.  He crumpled the can, which he sent sailing back over his shoulder, and let out a massive belch.  A bird flew around up in the rafters.

“Dang, that was impressive!” Donald complimented.  “Your belch can scare the wildlife.”

“Hey Donald,” Nathan asked loudly.  “Does that old wood chipper still work?  You know, the great big one I stole from that tree service company I used to work for?  Man, we would grind up huge oak trees in that sombitch.”

“Do I look like a lumberjack? I ain’t used the damn thing.  Why the hell you want to know if it still works?” Donald asked, downing his second beer.

“I was just thinking,” Nathan opened another beer, “how much fun we could have feeding these suckers into a wood chipper.”

“You’re a genius!” Donald said.  “And they say prison doesn’t do anyone no good. Shit! That’s a great idea. Yeah, first we’ll fuck with them, and then we’ll feed them into the wood chipper.”

“Okay, but I want them still alive when we stuff them in,” Nathan insisted.

Donald said, “Hey, I know what.  Let’s woodchip some of them, and shackle the others in the barn and set the barn on fire. Now that would be fun.”

“Hey, you wanna place bets on which one will scream the loudest?” Nathan said.

“My money’s on Colleen. If you ever tried to watch a football game around her, you’d know how damn loud she can get,” Donald smirked. He saw Theia staring at Rose’s body. “Oh, look! They found Rose. I don’t think they like the makeover we gave her.”

“I’m gonna kill you, Donald,” Colleen said with eerie composure.   

“How you gonna do that, sugar, when you’re about to be dead yourself?” Donald sneered. “Besides, I have yet to see the day when a woman kicks my ass.”

“Oh, you will see that day, I promise,” Colleen assured him.  “You may well kill me, but I’m taking you down with me.”

Nathan looked nervously from Donald to Colleen and back.  “I think she’s serious!” he sputtered and began quietly singing the ABC song in a childlike voice, rubbing an arrowhead he pulled out of his pocket.

Angry and a little spooked by Colleen’s surprising calmness, Donald backhanded Nathan, who stumbled.  “Shut the fuck up, you moron!  I hate it when you do that.  And since when are you afraid of a little whore?”

Nathan went into a tirade.  “Don’t hit me, man.  Don’t ever hit me.  I had to take that shit in prison, but not any more, not from you or no one else.  The next time you fucking touch me, I’ll kill you.”

He came charging at Donald, who drew back his right arm and plowed his fist into Nathan’s face.  Blood gushed from Nathan’s nose.  Donald laughed as Nathan whined and whimpered, crouching and cupping his hands over his nose.

“And you,” Donald strode over to Colleen, jerking her up into standing position.  “You need to learn a lesson.  No bitch talks to me like that.  I’ll teach you some respect.” He reared back and punched Colleen in the face.  Her body snapped back and hovered off balance for a moment. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that for years,” Donald crowed.

Colleen recovered her balance and stood up straight, with dignity, despite the blood trickling out of the side of her mouth. “How do you feel when you hit a woman who’s shackled and can’t even defend herself, much less hit back?” Colleen asked.  “Does this make you feel like a big strong man?”

“Yeah, I feel pretty fucking good,” he replied.  “In fact, that felt so good, I think I’ll do it again.  And again.  Until you learn some respect.”

Looking him in the eye, she said, “You’re a dead man.”

“You’re fucked up,” Donald said and shoved her to the ground.  He glanced over at Theia, who was staring at Rose.

“What’s the matter, lawyer bitch? Feeling guilty? You should, ‘cause this is your fault. If you hadn’t called the cops, poor old Rose just might be alive right now. She’d probably be wishing she was dead,” Donald went on, “but she might be alive.  What, you don’t approve?  Then sue me. Ha!”

Nathan looked at him, angry and restless, not appreciating his humor.  The front of his shirt was soaked with blood and his nose had begun to swell impressively.

“Well, fuck you,” Donald said to Nathan.  “Ok, let’s start with Colleen. I get her first.”  He unshackled her, and grabbing her arm, yanked her along with him in the direction of the house.  Colleen struggled and screamed, which merely earned her a brutal backhand across the face from Nathan.

Lu got to her feet and tried to pull Colleen back.  Nathan kicked Lu’s feet out from under her, and she fell with a hard thud.  The brothers dragged Colleen across the scraggly yard and into the farmhouse.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“What are we going to do, Lu?  You saw what they did to Rose and now they’re going to kill Colleen, and then us.”  Theia’s voice went up in pitch as she fought hysteria.  “We have to do something.  What’re we going to do?”

“We’re not going to have a panic attack,” Lu ordered.  “That’s the first thing.  You can’t think clearly if you’re out of control.”

“True,” Theia agreed, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. 

“Knock off that new age crap and open your eyes,” Lu snapped.  “We have to get ourselves out of this.

Theia glanced at Lu with a hurt expression.

“Sorry,” Lu said.  “I don’t mean to take this out on you.  We’re going to have to work together.  You finally have to accept someone’s help, or die.”

“We’ll probably die anyway,” Theia whimpered.  “All this was for nothing.  We tried to help Rose and look at her - she’s already dead.  And now we’re going to die.”

“Shut up!  That’s no way to talk,” Lu insisted.  “We’re going to get through this. One day soon we’ll be back at Hacienda having margaritas.  My treat.”

Theia blinked back tears.  “I know what you’re trying to do, Lu, and I’m grateful.  Okay, I’ll pull myself together.  How do we get out of here?”

“I don’t know, I guess we look for weakness in the shackles and the post,” Lu suggested.

Theia held up her wrists to examine her bindings, then crawled over to the post.  “I don’t see any way to get through these,” Theia held up her wrists, “without a saw.  And if we topple that,” she pointed at the center post, “The whole damn barn could come down on top of us.  This thing must be a hundred years old.”

“Then I guess we have to find a saw,” Lu replied.

“You don’t think they’d be stupid enough to leave a saw within our reach, do you?” Theia asked.  “What am I thinking?  There’s no limit to the depth of their stupidity.  Let’s look for a saw.” 

Lu and Theia moved straw and filth around, occasionally jumping when they disturbed a spider or rodent.  “Be careful,” Lu warned.  “Snakes love old barns.  Here, poke the straw with one of these instead of using your bare hands,” she said, handing Theia a four foot length of rusted rebar. 

“I don’t even know what most of this stuff is,” Theia said, after searching for about half an hour, “besides useless.”  They had a pile of tattered objects.

Jack stirred and groaned.  Theia and Lu scrambled over to him. His head wounds had nearly stopped bleeding.  Opening his eyes weakly, he winced at the light and closed them again.

“We need something to press against his wounds.  Find something clean so we don’t cause an infection,” Theia said.

“Girlfriend, if we live long enough to be concerned about infection, I’ll kiss my sainted Aunt Edna,” Lu said as she pulled off her dirty outer shirt and removed the snug shirt she had on underneath, putting the outer shirt back on.  She wadded the shirt against her brother’s head, talking softly to him. 

Theia looked at Jack, sick with the knowledge that they were all likely to be killed soon.  Wouldn’t you know it, she thought bitterly, she finally started to care about someone right before they die.  Happily ever after was supposed to last a lot longer than this.

The farmhouse front door slammed and Nathan stomped to the barn.  “If that bastard won’t share, I’ll get one of my own!” he yelled.  He unshackled Lu, who twisted and squirmed. 

Theia grabbed Nathan around the ankles.  Nathan looked down and asked, “You do know I have a gun, don’t you?”

Theia sighed and let go.  Nathan snarled, “One more stupid move like that and I shoot your friend here, got it?”

Theia bent her head in defeat.  “Got it.”

“Go ahead and shoot me, you bastard!”  Lu shrieked.  “I’m not afraid of you.  If you didn’t have a gun, I could kick your ass by myself.  Why don’t you put down the gun and I’ll show you.  If you were a real man, you wouldn’t have to hide behind a gun,” Lu baited Nathan.  “I’m just a woman.  Are you afraid of me?” she jeered.

”Keep up your yelling. The louder you get, the more fun for me, sugar!  I like a chick who puts up a fight,” he taunted and kicked the farmhouse door shut behind them.

Theia crawled over to Jack and pressed the shirt against his head.  She pulled the shirt back, and no more blood came out. 

“Jack,” she whispered. “I’ve heard that sometimes people can to hear you speak even when they’re unconscious. If that’s true, then you better listen, because I’m not going to say this when you are awake.  I made a huge mistake when I pretended to have a fight with you.  I shouldn’t have pushed you away.  That was stupid of me.  You’re a great guy.  I’m sorry.” 

His eyes fluttered opened but he remained silent.  He looked around the barn, then at Theia.  He looked at his shackles with an odd expression.

“Jack, do you know where you are?” 

He looked around, confused.  “Who is that?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“That was Rose.”

“Oh God,” he breathed.  “What happened to her?”

“Everything.  Do you remember anything?  Donald and Nathan trapped us.  We’re in their barn.”

Jack looked a little less confused.

“We have to get out of here so we can get Lu and Colleen,” Theia urged.

“Where are they?” he asked, looking around the barn.    “They’re in the house.  Donald and Nathan said they’re going to put some of us into a wood chipper and burn alive who ever’s left.  They have bets on who will scream the loudest.”

Jack looked furious.  “We have to get them out of there!”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you.  So what are we going to do?”

Jack tried to sit up, but got dizzy and had to lean on one elbow. “I make one hell of a superhero,” he grumbled.  “I can’t even sit up!” He winced and pushed his palm against his head.

“Well then, lie there and think.  Is there anything we can use to pick the locks on our shackles?  Lu and I tried to find a saw to cut through them, but we only found that crap,” she gestured.  “We have to think of something. I’m not just going to sit here and wait to be killed.”

“Too late.  Here they come,” he looked at the brothers walking toward the barn.  “Listen, if I get the chance, I may try to do something, to distract them, confuse them, anything.  Whatever I do, just play along.  I might lie through my teeth.  Don’t let on, and promise me you won’t get mad.  I don’t want them to know you matter to me, because if they know that, they’ll go harder on you.  I might act as if I don’t give a crap about you, but I swear to you that’ll all be an act.  Trust me, Theia,” he whispered in a rush as the brothers released Theia’s shackles and pulled her to the house.

She held her head high as she walked across the yard and into the farmhouse as if she were a queen walking among her subjects.  She refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her cower.  She had to keep her wits about her, in case there was a chance for surviving this.  Hell, she had survived getting shot, hadn’t she? And everything else Foster had done to her.  Besides, if she and Jack found a way to stay alive, maybe they could have a future.  All she had ever wanted was a normal life.  A life without people trying to kill her.  Was that too much to want?

Nathan wrapped an arm around her neck, pressed himself against her from behind, put his mouth at her ear and said,  “You know, I’d fuck you within an inch of your life if he’d let me.” He circled around to face her, with his crooked yellow teeth in her face.  His breath, which reeked of feces and coffee, turned Theia’s stomach almost as much as his words. She stared at a point beyond him and forced herself to be calm.

Theia took careful note of her surroundings, as she had learned when Foster stalked her.  Using things in your environment can be the difference between life and death.  The area between the barn and the farmhouse had once been covered with gravel and used as an area to park vehicles and tractors.  On the side of the farmhouse was a decrepit henhouse that would most likely blow over in the next thunderstorm. Hornets buzzed around the collapsed roof.

Beyond the henhouse was what remained of a low stick fence.  Too low to have kept out a squirrel, the fence must have been merely for decoration.  Discarded tomato cages and beanpole frames littered an area that had been a garden long ago.  Two majestic oak trees stood sentry between the garden and the farmhouse.  A broken glider sat under the trees.