Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (53 page)

Stephanie glared at him, “You killed Tommy?”

Colt confirmed it with a nod, “And will do much worse to you if we are not given truthful answers to our questions.”
The girl bit her lip and seemed to understand they weren’t joking. Colt looked to the others, “I ain’t really sure what to ask?”

Beth looked over to Tabitha
,
then to all of the others
and
back to Stephanie. “Look Stephanie, let me make this really easy for you. I want to know if your group has an ample supply of fire power.”

Stephanie looked up then over to Tabitha pointing the gun in her face then stubbornly answered, “Not much, just what we got on us.”

Within seconds Tabitha pushed Stephanie onto her side and lifted up the back of her shirt because that was the first place she thought of looking but when she didn’t find anything she then rolled her over on her back and found that her weapon was down the front of her pants. Tabitha pulled out a measly little 9 m
m
and shoved it down the back of her pants then looked over to Beth and remarked, “Good question there!”

Stephanie began to struggle to get back up when Beth asked, “So is this really all of your group?” as she nodded in the direction of her camp.

Stephanie looked over to them then back to Beth with tears in her eyes, “Yes…. then there is Tommy but…”

Tabitha looked over at Colt then said, “You mean WAS.”

Stephanie started to cry, “We are all just like you all….trying to make it…..trying to survive.”

Beth then stood up and looked in the direction of where Alden was, “Yeah, well sadly this last mistake that Tommy made was a very
bad
one because
that was all on him…..not us!!!”

Ceara leaned close to Stephanie, “Just like us?? You compare yourself to us? Fuck you, you little bitch, we didn’t come attack you, we didn’t try to kill your animals, we didn’t try to steal your supplies and we DAMN sure didn’t try kidnapping one from your camp.
We didn’t come here
until you did all that to us!!
” Ceara
glared at the girl then turned and walk to lean on a nearby tree, “
We are not going to sit back and let you guys take everything from us.”

Charlie
put an arm around Ceara’s shoulders
, “Honey, calm down, you have to be able to ask questions and I’m sorry those weren’t very good questions.”

Ceara smirked, “Yeah well…” Colt looked back to Stephanie, “So you can see your people have done a lot to us to force what will happen
. T
o be honest
with you Stephanie,
I wasn’t for it
when
I got here but now that I am, hmmmm I am thinking this was just what needed to happen.”

Stephanie lowered her head
trying to appear like she was crying
, “They made me join them, they found me in my home town and forced me to come with them.” She quickly looked to Beth hoping for sympathy, “They raped me and then told me I had to stay or they would let the killers have me.”

Colt reached out with a finger and pulled the girl’s face back to his, “Do not try to get sympathy from us, we had that the first time we let Tommy boy go and look where that got us?
” Colt dropped his hand as if touching her had been too much to handle, “
What type of camp do you have, cabins or tents?”

Stephanie gave up on the sympathy; s
he glared, “Morris will kill all of you
;
then our camp will be your cabins.”

Colt reached back to slap her but Beth’s hand stayed his arm, “No, Colt, we aren’t like them.” Beth gave Colt the sweetest look and whispered, “Remember Jessica Colt? We are better than that!” Then she looked back at Stephanie, “Much better than that.” Beth looked over at Tabitha and asked, “How’s your trigger finger doing girl?”

Tabitha smiled while looking directly into the scared eyes of Stephanie, “Fucking itchy……why you ask??”

Beth then looked back at Stephanie then continued, “I suggest that you answer the man’s question
,
because if ya don’t and if by any chance your group does over run us…. well, you won’t be alive to join them!”

Charlie stepped up and squatted in front of her, “You know… Steph, the way you just spouted off about this guy… Morris… It sounds to me like if you were raped it was more of a willing thing of rough sex.”
Charlie smirked knowing he got the rise out of her he wanted.

The girl glared at him, “He’s more of a man than you little boy.”

Charlie smiled, “little boy???? Is that the best you
got?
Honey
,
I grew up in an orphanage, your petty words mean nothing to me.”

Charlie stood and looked at Colt, “Their after the cabins most of all, I’d almost bet they’re all out in the open in tents or living out of trucks vans and cars.
”

Alden and Tonto came walking out of the woods. No one had seemed to notice that Tonto had even quit barking. The young woman watched and the look of fear came upon her face as she noticed bits of blood dripping from Tonto’s lower jaw. She started to scream, “OH MY GOD YOU FED THEM TO YOUR DOG.”

Alden slapped his hand over her mouth. “Yes and I’ll let him eat you next if you don’t shut the fuck up.” Reaching down he stuffed the rag back in her mouth. Standing he took off two rifles he had slung over his shoulder.
“
They have mostly hunting rifles and shotguns. There are
thirty-seven
total
;
twenty-five
men
and
twelve women.
Five
of the guys are queer as three dollar bill
s according to her partner. Their leader thought they
added
f
lair to their little sexcapades.”

Charlie stood in disbelief, “They told you that?”

“Well one did. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the other
guy;
he must have pissed Tonto off. There wasn’t much left by the time I got there. They have their camp in the middle of a clearing a half mile or so over there.”

Pointing to the south, “They have tents and vans mostly and there not parked in a circle but rather scattered out between the
tents. Their out of gas and ….”
Alden looked down and shook his head “Electricity. I guess one of them was driving a Chevy Volt.” He rolled his eye
s.

Colt stepped forward and told Alden all they had found out including the girl claiming to be raped. Though Colt didn’t believe her he figured Alden should know. Alden looked at the girl. The reached down and flipped her on her belly. He pulled her low rise jeans down
to
reveal a tattoo that said…Hit It
Hard.. Alden looked to Colt, “
I’ll be damned the guy wasn’t lying.
” Alden shook his head in disgust,
“
No Colt she wasn’t raped. It was her job in the little tribe
,
to provide services to all. In fact that’s what they were about to do before we stumbled across them.”

Alden looked to the girl, “Sorry about breaking up your party though.” Standing up he watched as the girl rolled back over and glared at Alden then started to pout and look innocent. Alden went on with the information he gathered. “They have a lot of booze and drugs, seems smoking pot is an hourly thing there. They do have some speed and cocaine, but they lack food. Fish, rabbits and what they can catch
. They’re all too stoned or tired from fucking to make any attempt to get anything
is very little
food for all of them
.”

He looked down at Stephanie, “Did I miss anything?” Stephanie shook her head and looked down at the ground.
She then
looked
back
up at Alden with what she
hoped
to be a coy sexy little look in her eye and wink.

Ceara and Tabitha both saw it and in unison spoke up, “OH HELL NO BITCH!” Ceara was trying to grab at the girls hair as Tabitha kicked Stephanie in the ribs. Ceara held the hair and looked her in the eyes, “Don’t you think for one fucking second we’re going to let you anywhere near our men.” She shoved Stephanie back hard hitting her head on a rock.

It was Charlie’s turn to step in as he reached down and pulled Ceara up and away from the prisoner, “Honey don’t worry
,
I don’t think she’ll be around much longer.”

Alden spoke up and motioned them all back towards the horses, “We need to talk.” As the
y gathered
by the horses he looked at them, “okay cupcakes, what do you want to do?” He said quietly.

Colt looked to Alden, “We don’t need what they have but what we do need is to know we are safe or as safe as we can be without worrying about this group
.
I say we stick to the original plan and we go after them, but
I think we should
wait till about midnight when they are all drugged and fucked out.” He looked to Beth, “Sorry for the language” he turned back to Alden, “Just how did you find all that out from that one guy, or do I want to know?”

Alden Looked at Colt as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small handful of thorns from one of the trees. “Take one of these put it under a fingernail and push. They’ll tell you everything. And if they stop just unzip their pants and aim for the head of their dick.”

Charlie immediately grabbed his crotch and made a wincing face. Tabitha giggled then suddenly
stopped; none of this was a laughing matter
. “I’d say that Colt’s idea is the way to go. Let’s just lay low here until these fuckheads are wasted
.
T
hen we move in and pick them off one at a time
because
it will be quicker that way.”

Beth
listened as
Tabitha
,
when she was finished she looked back to Colt then over to Ceara and Charlie and finally returning back to Alden. “I agree with Tabitha and Colt. These individuals
are
definitely a huge threat to us and our camp. The fact
s speak for themselves. T
hey
have very few supplies
and a small amount of food
.” Beth cocked her head, “That
tells me that they are desperate.”

Beth then paused and looked over to Charlie where she
took a second to admire
her handy work on his wounds then she looked over to Ceara’s throat. “If these people were actually at all caring or wanting to help instead of harm us
,
I would say that would be an entirely different situation but ….”

Just then Beth remembered how
her dad
and her use to watch Rambo when she was younger
,
her dad
loved those movies. “After all it was them that drew first blood and they are now like rabid dogs. We got to put them down or they will try and take us out and I don’t see anyone benefiting from that at all.”

Ceara looked around
trying to read their body language
. They were all tense, that was obvious but Tabitha was blood thirsty. Ceara made a mental note to stay far from her if this did get
too crazy,
“So do we just wait?
” She kicked the girl, “
I don’t like this
…
thing
…
having the chance to get away and warn them. I say
,
at the very least,
we knoc
k her out.
”

Alden smiled at Ceara, “Your suggestion, you do it? If you can’t then we deal with it my way.” Ceara looked f
unny at him, “What’s your way?”

A
lden grabbed Stephanie by the wrist jerking her to her feet, “We may need her before this is over, she gets tied to a tree and gagged till this is over, we deal with her once this is done.” Ceara shrugged, “I don’t really see why we would need her. They don’t care about her and could care less if we kill her.”

Colt spoke up before Alden could, “If she serviced the men of the group
;
one or more may have feelings for her
, and
that we could use
.
T
hat would only be
used
if any of us get in a spot that we would have to use that.
Strictly speaking, I’m hoping we don’t have to come close enough to any of them to get in that kind of a bind
.”

Alden dragged Stephanie to a tree and pushed her face first into the spun her around. “Charlie, reach into the bag
on the horse
, you
will
find a roll of parachute cord wrapped tight bring it here.”

Charlie found the cord and handed it to Alden
, he
unwrapped it quickly. Charlie was surprised at how much was actually there. Alden had the woman wrapped up quickly with cord around her waist then her throat. He tied it off to a branch above her head and walked around so she could see him,
“
You struggle,
and you’ll
choke yourself. You fall asleep you’ll choke yourself. You try to convince one of my guys to let you go, I’ll choke you myself.”