The Independents (21 page)

All of a sudden, it was quiet
, and the Hummer sped
away. Bishop rose up just in time to avoid hitting a tree and jerked the wheel to
point
them back to the center of the road. Without looki
ng, he asked the girl if she were
hurt. The response almost made him laugh. “Yes, I am fine, but I think I wet my pants.”

Bisho
p could only reply with, “That makes
two of us.”

Estebon was furious as he stood in the hotel parking lot. His m
en were
scrambling to
find the keys to the tour busses and other cars they had arrived in, but he knew they were probably in the burning h
otel. Others were trying to bandage
the
wounded and account for their wives and children
.
Estebon
stood
on the edge of the ridge, watching
the Hummer as it wound its way up the side of the mountain road
above
him.
He was joined by his b
r
other-in-law who stood watching in silence as well. As soon as the Hummer was out of sight, the former Special Forces Captain turned to his boss and asked calmly, “What is your plan now? You realize my sister is a dead woman and my beautiful young niece will spend the rest of her days under fat, smelly Mexican men in a whorehouse
,
don’t you? What does your superior intellect have to say about that
,
senor? How will your super brain reconcile that?”

Estebon turned and looked the man up and down and responded with a crisp, “Fuck you,” and walk
ed
away
.

Bishop exited the park
as fast as he thought the Hummer could handle. After checking the rearview mirror several times, he finally decided it was okay for the girl to get up off of the floor. She quickly sat in the seat and looked around outside. Bishop could see her face was dirty and smudged by streaks of tears, but she made eye contact with him in the mirror and smiled.

“You must be Bishop. My name is Samantha,
but everyone calls me Sam.”

“You
’re
correct Samantha;
my name is Bishop. I’m taking you to see your brother and grandfather.”

“Is grandpa okay? I know he was hurt badly.”

Bishop thought before responding, “He was still alive when I left early this morning. My wife, Terri, should be taking him to a doctor by now. We are going to try and meet them there.”

“Do you have any clothes? These stink from when you threw me in the trash. I have junk in my hair
,
and I think I need clean underwear. My smell isn’t bothering you
,
is it? Please don’t let David see me like this. He will tease me forever.”

Bishop laughed and smiled at the girl, “No
,
young lady, I don’t have any clothes
,
and your smell isn’t bothering me at all. You sit back and relax
;
and when we get to town, I am sure Terri will find you some clean clothes and a bath.”

“Mister Bishop, I forgot to thank you for getting me away from those men. I listened to them talking through the door of my room. I think they were going to kill you and then me after you brought back the scary one’s wife and
daughter
.”

“You’re welcome. I would do almost anything for your grandpa. He
’s
a good man
,
and he helped me once when I really needed it.”

“Mister Bishop, shouldn’t you fasten your seatbelt?”

Bishop smiled again at the girl in the mirror.
Little Miss Samantha and I are going to be fast friends, I can just tell.

The
green and white sign said “Meraton  5
,
” and Terri was excited to be coming back.
She slowed the truck and as it crested a small rise, she saw two pickups blocking the road.
What now?

She stopped about 100 yards short of the roadblock, grabbed her
rifle,
and told David to stay put. She got out of the truck and started walking as two men got out and stood in the road.

She hadn’t traveled more than ten feet when the challenge was issued.
“That’s close enough
,
lady.
Meraton
is closed for the night. You are welcome to come back in the morning. We don’t let strangers
pass
after
dusk
.”

Terri answered in her best distressed female voice.
“I have a badly injured man in the back. Please let me pass, he needs medical attention.”

“I’m sorry, but the rules are the rules. We
’ve
had more than our share of trouble at night and everyone voted.
Meraton
closes at dusk to everyone but residents.”

Since that didn’t work, she switched to her best pissed female voice.
“Look buddy, why don’t one of you go into town and tell Pete that Terri is out here waiting.”
Maybe
name-dropping
will work.

The two men looked at each other and Terri could hear them mumbling.
Finally,
one of them said, “No way. We’re not allowed to leave our post. How do you know Pete anyway?”

Terri had to pee again and was exhausted from the ordeal of the last few days. Her voice was angry now, “Look asshole, I don’t have time for this bullshit. If that man in the back of my truck dies while I am arguing with you, my husband will not be a happy man. You
’ll
be lucky if he doesn’t come right down here and kick your sorry ass. Now get in the fucking truck and go tell Pete I
’m
here. That’s Terri.
T, E, R, R, I.”

The men laughed and looked at each other for a second. One of them yelled back, “Lady, I don’t give a shit about your husband. Send him on down. I can’t and won’t let you by until the sun rises, and that’s that.”

Terri took a few steps forward
,
and one of the men chambered a round in his rifle. She froze, but it only made her
madder
. “You stupid shit, when Bishop hears about this, he is
going to be
so
pissed off.
Especially when he hears
you
threatened his pregnant wife with a rifle.
”

“Bishop? Did you say
‘
Bishop?’”

“
Hell
yes
,
I said
‘
Bishop.
’
Who do you think my husband is
,
dipshit? He is going to be here
shortly;
I
’ll
let you take this up with him.”

“You’re
that
Terri? Oh my god, ma
’am
, I didn’t know you were
that
Terri.” The man quickly turned to his partner and said, “
W
ell
,
what are you waiting for? E
scort Miss Terri into town.”

The man who had loaded his rifle took off his hat and tipped it towards
Terri, mumbling something like
, “
Sorry ma
’am
, I didn’t know, really I didn’t know,” as he backed up a few
steps, then turned,
and ran back to his vehicle
.

Terri exhaled deeply and spun around heading back to her truck. She laid her rifle in the passenger seat and slammed the door. David poked his head through the back window and said, “What was up with all that?”

Terri put the truck in gear and looked back at him, “I
guess it pays to have a trigger
happy husband sometimes.”

As the
two-
car
convoy entered
Meraton
, the escort driver pulled
in front of
Pete’s Place
and honked his horn twice.
Pete’s
was the local watering hole and the owner had become good friends
with
Terri and Bishop
during their last pass through town
. Pete had become the Mayor of
Meraton
by default,
even though he never asked for
the job. A few cowboys came out
side to see what all
of
the ruckus was about,
followed closely by Pete toting
his shotgun.

When Terri’s truck pulled up, Pete looked at it and tilted his head. “No, say it ain’t so…is that…” Terri opened the door and hop
p
ed out. Pete smiled and shouted, “Terri! Oh my god, Terri!” The
y
hugged and patted each other for a few moments
,
and then Pete looked around and questioned, “Where’s Bishop? Is he
o
kay?”

Terri smiled, “He’s fine as far as I know.
He should be here soon.
Pete, it’s a long story, but I have a badly injured man in the back. He needs help now.”

Pete didn’t even hesitate and turned to one of the men standing close by, “Go get the doc.”
Pete and the other man hurried to the back of Terri’s truck and were met by David. He jumped out of the bed and helped the men carry his grandpa into the
saloon
. Everyone inside Pe
te’s moved out of the way
while space
was cleared on the bar for the injured man. Several people that she didn’t even know came up and hugged Terri. She felt embarrassed at all the attention.

After he was sure the patient was as comfortable as they could make him, Pete turned to
the
man who had escorted her into town and told him he had better get back to the roadblock. As the man started to
leave, Terri grabbed his arm and said, “Bishop is supposed to meet me here soon. He may be hurt or have another injured person with him. I don’t know if he
’ll
be on foot or what he might
be driving. Please don’t shoot my husband.”

The man nodded, tipped his hat again, and left to warn his partner that Bishop was coming to town.

Bishop and Samantha were making good time he
ading north from Big Bend. They were almost to the crash site
when Bishop saw an odd shape in the mi
ddle of the road. He took his foot off the accelerator
and asked his passenger to please
get down on the floor and not
look out. The Hummer slowed as it passed the remains of Estebon’s man Bishop had left in the plane seat. Bishop pulled up even with the airplane and stopped
.

He grabbed his rifle and scouted around for a bit, making sure no one else had been attracted to the wreckage. Everything seemed to be exactly where he had left it with the exception of the smell of the dead bodies.

Bishop returned
to the Hummer and told Sam she could get out. She open
ed the door and immediately pinched
her nose
between her thumb and forefinger
. Bishop said, “Sam, I know it doesn’t smell very
nice
out here, but there
’s
some water
by the plane in that box. You can wash yourself off with it. If you had a suitcase or bag in the plane, I suggest you go get it. I hav
e a couple of things to
pick up behind those rocks.
I
’ll
be right back.”

“Okay. Thank you
,
sir.”

Bishop watched as the girl hea
ded toward the plane and began
rummaging around. As soon as she pulled up a small suitcase, he g
ave her thumbs up and headed
into the desert. It took him just a few moments to locate the weapons he had collected from the dead men
and retrieve his net
. He hurried back to the wreckage
, only to be stopped by Sam’s voic
e.
“Mister Bishop, I am changing clothes. May I have some privacy
,
please?”

Bishop smiled to himself and turned away to give the lady her space. He opened the back of the Hummer and unloaded the weapons there.
As soon as he had finished, he went to the back of the plane where he had left
the remains of the Colonel’s traveling companion.
He quickly scanned the area and picked a low spot at the base of a large rock formation.

Bishop pulled the tarp c
ontaining the female
body to the gravesite and dug out as mu
ch of the soft earth as his fingers could loosen
. He gently
laid her
in the shallow trench
, and then covered her
with as much soil as
possible. He stacked
the random rocks that dotted the area on top of the thin layer of dirt. After several minutes, he had t
he Colonel’s friend
covered as best he could and hoped to come back later for a more formal burial
and to mark her final resting place
.