The Burnout Chapter Twenty Eight

"Did you hear that? It sound like Brad." said Patty.

"I heard something. I couldn't tell." replied Lamar.

The four, including Catelyn and Candace, were sitting in the shade near the bushes where Brad had gone looking for the road which they needed to take to get back on their way home to Dallas/Fort Worth. Brad had been gone about twenty minutes and Patty was beginning to worry.

Getting to her feet, Patty started towards the bushes when Lamar called out.

"I'll come with you.." he said as he started to get up.

"No you stay with our stuff. Catelyn, you come with me and Candace you help Lamar. Ya'll keep your eyes open for trouble." replied Patty.

Patty checked her Glock and was happy to see that Cately had brought along the shortened twenty gauge shotgun she was given. They both poked around the bushes until they found a suitable, but scratchy, place to cut through. Like Brad, they found that the bushes opened up into a tree covered, but clear area. Brad however, was no where to be seen.

"Maybe we just heard something else?" said Catelyn.

"No, it was Brad and he sounded like he was hurt or in trouble. C'mon, let's go this way but keep your eyes open for anything. Most of all, stay quiet. I want to be able to hear him if he's hurt." ordered Patty.

They walked no more than ten yards when Patty noticed the leaves and ruts in the dirt which suggested something had happened in this area. It was confirmed when Catelyn spoke quietly nearby.

"Look. This is that machete he took with him. And look here, one of his shoes!" Catelyn said.

The machete was laying on the ground, but Catelyn had already picked up the shoe and was holding it out for Patty to see. Patty quickly looked in all four directions looking for anymore clues or signs. She noticed what looked like tracks in the still damp ground going off to the north through the trees. Within seconds, she found what was nothing more than a rabbit trail leading through the densest part of the forest .

"Okay, Brad would not have gone this way being so close to where we were. Something has happened to him. You keep that shotgun pointed at the ground but if you see anything, I want you to fire whatever you have in it and then run back to Lamar, got it?" she hissed.

"Okay." replied Catelyn in a wavering voice.

"I need you to be strong for me, Catelyn. This is Brad's life we are talking about here." said Patty sternly while grasping Catelyn's arm.

"I will." she said quietly.

Patty turned and walked carefully, but determinedly down the trail through the undergrowth and under the dark shadows of the pines and oaks towering overhead. After a few tense moments, she nearly tripped over something which turned out to be Brad's other shoe. "Good, we are on the right trail" she thought to herself.

The trail wound through the undergrowth before splitting into two paths. Patty paused and held up her hand to Catelyn to be still as well. She then listened for a moment before turning to the path to the right and sped up her pace. It was not long before they heard what could be voices close by.

They broke through the bushes where the path disappeared to see a small clearing where sunlight spilled from the opening in the trees above. There was Brad on the ground, but their view was blocked by the back of a large man in overalls who was standing and tugging Brad's pants off the young man's legs.

"Hoo hoo! We can have a party right here my purty little thing!" the big man heaved, clearly out of breath from his dash through the woods or through his obscene excitement. Whatever the case, he did not hear Patty approach from behind as she brought up her pistol.

"Patty!" shouted Brad which caused the big man to drop Brad's pants and spin around. He was incredibly quick as he dropped to the ground and crabbed backwards to his right positing Brad between him and Patty's aim.

"Oooh, lookee here! Who's this, boy? Ya mama? Or you her little play thing? Come to get her boy candy, huh? What ifs I don't want to give you up, purty boy?" the large man taunted.

He then reached into the back of his filthy overalls and produced a large Bowie knife which he placed against Brad's neck after jerking him to his feet.

"How you want him, mama? Sliced, diced or french fried? How about you and that little thing with you come on down here before I cut him open like a pig?" he said pulling Brad closer so that their faces were side by side.

"No. Let him go or you will die." said Patty solidifying her grip on the Glock and planting her feet firmly on the ground.

"Oooh, he is so yummy I could eat him up." the man replied pushing his face against Brad's. "You two put down them guns and come on over here. And take off them clothes, too. I gots time for everyone today!"

Catelyn moved forward towards Brad's all while keeping the shotgun on her shoulder and pointed at Brad and his captor.

"Oh sugar, you wanna use that scatter gun you gonna put purty boy's face all over the bushes. But don't worry, I'll open him up first." he said slowly applying pressure with the knife to Brad's neck causing a tiny thread of blood to spill beneath the blade.

Brad moaned and struggled before his face went white and he went limp against the big man. His attacker tried to pull Brad up with one arm but could not keep the knife applied to Brad's neck at the same time. His body was now no longer covered by Brad's completely and Patty took the shot.

The round struck the big man in his meaty right shoulder but it was enough to get his attention and cause the knife to fall to the ground. With his same speed, the man shoved Brad's limp body towards Patty and ran sideways into the trees, followed by a single gauge shot by Catelyn, albeit went high to avoid hitting Brad.

Patty fired two rounds as well, but they could tell by the crashing in the bushes, he had made it away into the cover of the trees.

"Brad!" Catelyn shouted running up to his body lying face down on the ground. She turned him over and saw that the cut on his neck was superficial and clearly he was only unconscious and not dead.

"We don't have time." said Patty. "Get him up. We'll have to walk him between us back to the bikes. Get his pants, hurry!"

Candace grabbed Brad's jeans and rolled them quickly but carefully so his pockets would not empty onto the ground. Then lifted him off the ground underneath his left arm while Patty did the same on the right. At that moment something flew through the air and crashed on to the ground near their feet.

They both saw it was a fist sized rock and Patty wasted no time in firing two rounds from the hip in the general direction of the missile.

"Let's go now before he finds his target!" said Patty to Candace.

They pulled Brad into the bushes onto the rabbit path and hurried while nearly dragging the still unconscious Brad between them. They soon heard the sound of crashing trees and bushes behind them as their attacker regained his nerve and came after them. Patty took the lead and dragged  Brad her lungs burning and her legs growing shaky by the minute.

"Lamar!" Patty yelled through the darkness and trees.

The crashing continued until they saw the large man, now with blood streaming down his side from the wound to his shoulder and sticks, leaves and dirt hanging from his sweaty hair. His eyes were wild and rolling and he ran at them from the right side only feet away.

Patty barely had time to get her Glock free from its holster when the man struck her and knocked the gun and all three of them to the ground. He rolled off her and sprang to his feet, his eyes darting around for the fallen gun.

Patty reached out and kicked his leg, but it had no effect as he spotted the fallen weapon and went to retrieve it with a huge smile on his big ugly face. He had just reached it when Patty pulled her knife from it's sheath and Catelyn pulled the trigger on the shotgun.

The blast caught the overall clad man in his side and knocked him with a grunt off his feet. The shells were only bird shot and while the distance was minimal, the penetration was as well. He grabbed his side and then reached back for the gun which was still on the ground. Catelyn pulled the trigger again and the only sound was a tiny click. The shotgun was empty.

Patty jabbed out with her knife and caught the man on his arm before he could reach the Glock. He rose his head and growled at her and slapped out with his right hand and running it across the sharpened four inch blade. He howled and pulled the bloody fingers to his body and tried to get the Glock again, but Patty had it by the barrel and drew it away.

The big man screamed and lunged towards Patty this time and she barely was able to crawl backwards by inches from his grasp. She lost her balance as she fell over Brad's unconscious body and prepared herself for the inevitable crush of the disgusting man upon her.

Just then the trees parted and an equally large man barreled through and tackled the bloody attacker. It was Lamar.

 

The Burnout Chapter Twenty Seven

Patty was right. It was a hard slog.

They took the county road north by northeast and followed the winding turns past numerous small homes, trailers and patch work farms interspersed with brush and stands of pine. Along the way, they saw a few of the houses and mobile homes were occupied, but many were not.

Some of the structures had clearly been abandoned for some time. But most of the others bore signs of hasty retreat - front doors and garages left open, children's toys abandoned, personal possessions left casually behind and finally, signs of struggle and destruction. More than one home was partially burned or featured broken windows and kicked in doors.

The homes and buildings which were occupied housed paranoid residents armed and peering from behind shuttered window or impromptu barricades of cars, trash, firewood or other debris pointing long arms their direction as they passed. Nobody, save for a dirty little boy with his chubby finger wedged firmly up his nose, said anything as they hastily rode by.

The county road ended abruptly, and after standing atop a fence and grasping the lower limbs of a tree, Brad pointed that the farm to market road they were looking for was just across the field in front of them. Dismounting and working together, the five heaved their bikes and trailers over and under the fence and then pushed them across the damp ground to the other side and the waiting road.

The day was hot and humid and all stopped for a drink before mounting up and riding due west on the farm road to the next junction. They were fortunate as the map showed two of of the upcoming roads were connected meaning there would be no fence hopping or cross country travel. At least for now. The worse stretch was yet to come.

Patty refused to stop and told the others, namely Candace, that the next meal would be dinner and until then, they were free to root whatever snack food they could find in their bags if they were hungry. Bathroom breaks would be short and hasty. There was no time to waste as long as they were so close to Mineola and off their path home.

A couple of hours later, they came to another dead end, this time, blocked by heavy trees and brush.

"Well?" said Patty looking at Brad. "We know the county road is on the other side of this mess, but how will we get through? Do you want to turn back and find an easier path back the way we came?"

"Let's try this. How about I take a look a ways into the brush and see how far we are from the next road? We'd kick ourselves if the road was only a hundred or so yards away, wouldn't we?" he said.

So Brad took his machete from his pack and found an entrance point and crawled, hacked and pushed his way through the thick brush. He was surprised when he found the thicket only went a few yards in and then opened up to a trees with plenty of space between them to walk or ride the bikes over the leaf covered ground.

It was darker in the trees however, with the shade and lack of sunlight. Brad peered into the gloom and tried to see where the road might be, but had no luck. Rather than turn back, he walked into the glade hoping to find the other side where the road might be. He walked for about ten minutes before he came to another stand of heavy bushes and upon parting them, he immediately saw another clearing and what appeared to be, through a break in the trees, the road.

However, his reverie was broken when he noticed something else in the clearing he had overlooked. The remains of a large campfire with a pile of dirty clothing next to it. He looked more carefully when he noticed a fly covered heap just off to the side when revulsion and then nausea struck him. The remains of a person, a small person judging by the size, laid partially dismembered and covered with insect, dirt and leaves. He realized then what he had stumbled upon and he turned to run back to the others.

Brad did not realize he had become disoriented in his travels through the brush and his obsession with finding the elusive county road. He ran for a few minutes before he realized he was going the wrong way. Pausing to catch his breath, he carefully looked up at the tree cover and tried to determine the position of the sun and hopefully, the direction he was headed.

He walked carefully back in his steps and found the scene of cannibalistic horror and then carefully made his bearings again before heading out in hopefully the wrong direction. He was elated when he noticed several landmarks in front of him which he remembered and knew he was only moments from joining his friends.

He heard the crunching of leaves only seconds before the shout pierced his ears.

"SOO-EY!"

Brad turned and was tackled by a big man with long dirty hair, unshaven and wearing only a pair of stained overalls. The wind knocked out of him, Brad was unable to yell before his attacker tossed him like a rag doll around on the ground and punched him repeatedly in the head and torso.

The man laughed with an insidious giggle and appeared to never tire or lose strength as he pummeled Brad and played with him like a cruel house cat having caught a helpless mouse. Brad struggled to get to his feet but with each move, his legs were kicked out from underneath him and he found himself on the receiving end of even more beatings.

Finally, his attacker stopped and hunched back on his knees and regarded Brad laying there prone and breathless on the ground. He reached out and squeezed Brads calf and then tossed it back to the ground.

"You almos too purty to eat, boy! But fun's fun and we got's to get piggy in the pot. So c'mere and quit fightin' me boy. You aint gonna mind this a lil ole bit when we's all done, now is ya?" he taunted.

Brad was disgusted and overwhelmed at the same time. He was done for and there was nothing he could do about it. Except for one thing. He screamed at the top of his lungs.

"HELP!"