The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3) (13 page)

As he neared the yard, he slowed his pace while slipping through the last trees separating the woods from what had once been a well-trimmed front lawn. He’d just heard some of the horses coming down the lane, and as he picked his way to a point where he could see the house from the shadows, he saw several men dismount in front of the porch. Another stranger already inside stepped out of the house to greet them, and Benny figured they were discussing what had happened there with all the shooting. He saw two of the men head for the woods off to one side of the house and that’s when he noticed something lying in the grass at the edge of the yard. Benny could tell it was a body, but from where he stood he could not discern if it was male or female, friend or foe.
 

He still had no idea if April and Kimberly or any of the other girls were inside or not. Because of this, an outright attack on the men gathered there was out of the question, even aside from the great risk it would involve, going up against so many armed men alone. It was a real dilemma for Benny, because if they
were
inside he had no doubt as to what these men would do to them and there wasn’t much time to act if he were to get them out. But if Lisa had managed to warn April and all of them had escaped to the woods, it would be foolish for him to hang around near the house and risk getting shot. The only way he was going to know was to get closer, and Benny figured the best thing he could do was to work his way to the side yard where he could see that body. Once he knew whether or not it was one of his friends, he would then study the house and barn from that closer position where he might see or hear a clue as to whether or not any of them were still in there.
 

Benny was so focused on the scene before him that the possibly of danger from behind was the farthest thing from his mind. After all, he could see several of the horsemen right there in front of him at the house, and he’d killed the two they’d left behind where Tommy and the boy lay dead. The rainfall that aided him in making a stealthy approach muted any audible warning he might have had too. And so it was that just as Benny was about to take his first step, he was frozen in place by a voice just a few feet behind him:

“Make one move and you’re dead! I want you to drop that shotgun and then slowly unsling those rifles and drop them too. Don’t turn around. Don’t look back. Just do it!”

Nineteen
 

A
PRIL
FELT
A
WAVE
of relief wash over her the moment David pushed the canoe off the sand bar and handed Kimberly back to her. Afloat on the dark waters of the creek, she had the sense she really had escaped, at least temporarily, from the nightmare they were leaving behind on the farm. As she’d learned from her first time to paddle one with Mitch, a canoe would leave no tracks. The creek would take them to a place of safety, and if where they went first didn’t seem far enough, they could continue downstream on the current as long as necessary.
 

David and Samantha paddled the canoe while she sat amidships in it with Kimberly, Lisa and Stacy paddling the other one. They were all in agreement that they should only go as far downstream as the first sandbar on the opposite side of the creek from the Henley land. It was about a quarter mile away, and difficult to reach without a boat. The men wouldn’t find them there in the dark, but they would still be close enough to Mitch’s usual route to and from his hunting grounds to intercept him and the guys in the morning.
 

“It’s going to be all right, Kimberly. You’re being such a good girl! We’re going to have a big adventure camping out tonight, you’ll see.”

April knew Kimberly was confused by this sudden departure into the woods at night and in the rain at that. But she’d been through worse in the months since the collapse and was remaining surprisingly calm and agreeable. Her crying had nearly gotten them killed back in the woods by the house, but April understood how frightened she must have been at first. It was a relief that she was now going along for the ride like this was really all in fun.
 

It was even darker out on the creek tonight than it had been that first night out here with Mitch. With the heavy overcast preventing even starlight from penetrating the gloom, they bumped into logs and were swept by the current into overhanging branches they couldn’t even see until they felt them slap against their faces. After this happened a time or two, Lisa said she was glad it was winter, and relatively cool, or else they would have the additional worry of a snake falling into the boat.
 

“Do you think they’re looking for us now?”
 

“I don’t know, David. It would be hard to find anybody in these woods at night, especially for people who’ve never been here. They probably don’t even know there’s a creek back here. I’ll bet they’ll wait until morning.”

“Yeah, and besides, they’re probably going through everything in the house tonight,” Lisa said, the anger making her voice tremble. “They’ll eat all the food we have left and take everything we own!”

“I know. I don’t even want to think about it. It just makes me sick.”

“Benny might stop them,” David said. “If he found out they killed Tommy, he will kill all of them.”

“Or die trying. That is, if he hasn’t all ready. I’m worried about him.”

“Yeah, me too,” Samantha said. “Even if he’s okay, he’ll never be the same after losing Tommy like that.”
 

April had been so preoccupied with getting Kimberly out of the house and to safety that she had not allowed herself to think too much about the fact that Tommy was actually dead. She knew it would hit her hard, probably starting now, since they were relatively safe for the moment and were still facing several hours of darkness during which she doubted she would sleep. Benny and Tommy had saved her and Kimberly from a fate she did not even want to think about. She had seen nothing but good in either of them. Both had hearts of gold and their presence at the farm had been a blessing in so many ways. Everyone there liked them and both of them were so grateful to have a place to call home after their many months of drifting up and down Black Creek, living off the land. April hoped Benny would survive this—both the risk of getting shot himself and the risk that he would simply die of a broken heart after losing both his wife and his only son in such a short period of time. She wished he were here now, with the rest of them so they could talk to him and comfort him. The reality though, if Benny was even still alive, was that he was out there in the dark rain somewhere too, no doubt looking for them while trying to elude the men who were hunting him.
 

The big sandbar that was their destination was easy enough to find even in the dark. When they reached it, they pulled the two canoes up to the highest level and turned them over, for shelter from the rain. It was cramped, with all five of them and Kimberly lying under the two narrow hulls, but better than sitting out in the weather all night. April just hoped dawn would come soon, and that the rain would stop when it did.
 

“All I wanted to do was find a Christmas tree,” Stacy said. “I should have known that was stupid. We can’t have Christmas again the way things are. And now we don’t even have a house to put a tree in if we’d found one.”
 

“It’s not stupid,” Samantha said. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have Christmas. And we haven’t lost the house yet. Don’t forget that when Mitch and your brother and your cousin come back, they’ll figure something out. We may have that Christmas tree anyway. It’s still almost two weeks until Christmas.”

“Even if we did, it wouldn’t be the same without Tommy and Uncle Benny,” Lisa said.
 

April knew she was right. Just like her dad had been right. The only thing she could count on in this life she now knew was that nothing would
ever
be the same again.

* * *

Benny did exactly as he was ordered. There was no uncertainty in the voice of the man who’d slipped up on him out of the dark, and he had no doubt that he would be dead if he made one wrong move. He opened his hand and let his beloved Remington fall to the ground beside him, and then without turning or looking back, slowly reached up first to his right shoulder and then his left to dump the slung AKs to the ground behind him. He knew there was no use berating himself for his stupidity, but it was entirely his fault. He had been so upset about Tommy and so focused on sneaking up on the house to check on the girls that he’d been careless about his own back trail. These men were more organized and more experienced than he’d given them credit for. Now at least one of them had gotten the drop on him and he had only himself to blame. But when the man spoke again, Benny knew there was more than one:

“I think Kenneth is going to be pretty happy when he sees what we’ve found for him, Clint.”

“Yeah, it will make him feel better, I’m sure. You hear that old man? You’re about to meet the father of that kid you shot in cold blood out there. What do you have to say about that?”

Benny said nothing, nor did he turn to look at his captors. He just stood there in the edge of the woods and waited, until they ordered him to move forward.

“Just keep it nice and slow. We’re going to walk up to the front porch. Pick up his shotgun and those AKs, P.J. And blow that horn to let Langley and Gerald know to come on to the house. They’re probably still out there looking around by the road.”
 

The man sounded the horn and Benny knew it was the one he’d heard earlier that had been a signal to the men on horseback. Benny did as he was told and walked at a deliberate pace ahead of one who was right behind him, prodding him with what he was sure was the muzzle of a rifle. He knew they’d probably kill him anyway, but it would be nice to stay alive at least long enough to learn whether April and the others had gotten out of the house or not.
 

“HEY DRAKE! KENNETH! LOOK WHAT WE GOT!” the man behind him shouted, when they were ten feet from the porch.
 

Half a dozen horses were tied up to the railing, but all the men were apparently inside until the man’s announcement brought them out. Benny recognized the tall leader he’d seen earlier when he’d been watching from the woods while the horsemen waited on their signal. He hadn’t gotten a good look at him then, but now he couldn’t help but notice the man’s wild braided beard that hung down to his upper chest. Benny figured he might have been an outlaw biker or prison inmate in the world before the collapse, or maybe he was just trying to look like a viking warrior. It made him look fierce, no doubt, but at this point Benny wasn’t afraid of him or anybody else.

“Here’s your shotgunner! Never would have figured he was such an old codger!” Benny’s captor said. “We caught him right out there at the edge of the yard, sneaking up in the dark planning to do some more shooting. Where’s Kenneth? He’s gonna want to meet this fellow!”

“Kenneth’s been shot bad, Clint. He’s about dead. Whoever it is that’s got that .22 managed to hit him with three rounds.”

Benny could barely suppress a smirk at this news. So, Lisa had taken at least one of them out, and from what he gathered, he was the father of the teenaged boy he’d shot right after Tommy had been hit. If that were the case, Benny thought he might be the one who’d shot his boy. If they killed him now too, at least he would go to his grave knowing Tommy had been avenged and that they didn’t know where Lisa was. Maybe April and the others were out there with her. He could only hope it was true.

The red-bearded one called Drake stepped down off the porch and walked up to Benny to get in his face. The other two that were behind him stepped forward too, and for the first time, Benny got a look at them. The one who had been speaking to him was covering him with an AR-15 suspended from a front sling at his chest. The other one had his arms full with Benny’s shotgun and the two AKs he’d dropped.

“Who are you?” the leader asked him.

“I ain’t nobody,” Benny said. “Just a farmer trying to get by.”

“You killed my best friend’s son. That boy was only 16 years old!”

“I don’t know who he was and I don’t care. He shot into my herd and killed two of my steers, and whoever was with him shot my boy. Then he pulled a knife on my cowhand and was aiming to gut him with it. So yeah, I shot him. And I’d do it again too.”
 

“You don’t look like the kind of fellow that would own a place like this… all this land… this house… and cattle. What did you do, kill the owners when the lights went out and take up here like it was your own? Who’s the other killer out there with the .22? Is that your other boy?”

Benny kept a stoic face as much as he wanted to breathe an audible sigh of release upon learning that these men apparently didn’t even know there was a girl shooting at them. Maybe they didn’t know about any of the girls… “It ain’t my boy, just my other farm hand. I ain’t got another boy.”

“Well, you’re lying to me old man. You know how I know you’re lying? I know because this isn’t a farmer’s house. This house belonged to a game warden before the grid went down. His truck’s right out back, with the glass broken out. I guess you did that to steal his issue weapon after you or one of your boys killed him, right?”

“We ain’t killed anybody! My boy that died out there today
was
the game warden. He was living here with me and helping me take care of the cows. With times like they are now, he hasn’t been working for the state anymore. Anyone with any sense would know that.”

“And you’re a lying son of a bitch, old man. I saw the boy of yours that was shot out there today. Even though Kenneth split his face in two with his hawk, I didn’t see any resemblance to the pictures of the man in a game warden uniform that are hanging in the office in back of the house. There are a lot of them too, and framed newspaper articles that say his name was Doug Henley. And there are pictures of his wife and his teenaged boy and girl too. Did you kill them, or did you keep the woman and the daughter alive for a while? That girl in the pictures looks like she’s old enough.”