Chapter 4: Over the hills & far away
Jana swore she knew that face, but how could that be him. Surely he died in Texas. The similarities were too great she couldn't help but call the man's name.
"Hey, Mick!" Ian called, stopping his cousin, before he left the room. "How many did you get?" Ian wondered, watching Mick partially shutting the door.
Peeking from the cracked doorway, mick calls "Four."
The door creeks closed, then locks trapping whatever Mick had labeled Four, in the room with him. Approximately eight people sat tied to chairs in a dimmed, soundproofed room. Many of which were the raiders that tried to assault the town's train station, and the other part of the group was two Advent troopers, and one captain.
Samson kept the seven prisoners company, bringing a couple of forty ounces to go along with his glass of Jameson. Beginning to question some of the soldiers, he started with the Advent, eventually making his way to the raiders. He began to lay-into the Raiders' commanding officer.
Stopping to crank up the mixtape Sixto put together for these occasions, Samson accidentally made it blare "We Belong" by Pat Benatar, then laughed heartily at the song's inappropriate timing, then even harder at the fact that Sixto, a guy who listened to things like Children of Bodem and Lamb of God, would see fit to toss that song into the mix.
Unable to explain the previous moment of hilarity, he shook his head saying "P-Pat-fucking-Benatar? Oh…why-fucking-not, right?" Looking back to the raider commander's battered and bruised face, after using it as a speedbag, Samson sucked his teeth, taunting, "Oooh-hoo-hoo. The state of your fuckin dinner wear, mate…" before lightly slapping the guy's face.
It was about this time that Mick entered the room, raising an eyebrow at Samson's drunken antics.
"Okay, my turn." Mick calls, getting Samson to cut off the old-school stereo and telling him to give them some alone time.
"Is this coz of Pat Benatar?" Samson thought, pointing to the radio that had already switched songs.
Jokingly, Mick claimed, "Well partially…" Chuckling a bit, he explained "…it's cuz I need a forty." Pointing at the beer. To which Samson lifted the bottle so that he could share. "No. A fresh one. Be sure that it's one you won't miss." Mick calls watching his friend exit the room, chuckling lightly, before asking "Pat Benatar?"
Mick looked around the room, sighting his wheeled cart holding tons of knives, tools, and surgical equipment. He glanced at the seven people, acknowledging that one of the groups of four was cut short, remarking emotionlessly on his lack of "participants" as he would say, straight-faced.
"We'll start with the obvious…" Mick began, prepping his pistol. "I've got humans, and aliens. Both are very different from the other." Pausing to look at both sides, Mick was sure to stand in the center of the room. "You see the differences, sure. Those are easy, but you fail to see two BIIIG similarities." Picking out a knife from the cart, mick felt the blade with his thumb, checking the sharpness. Walking to an Advent trooper, he slowly cut the soldier's face, holding his head, so it couldn't move. Showing everyone the blood, he cleaned the blade, before doing the same to one of the raiders, before showing everyone his blood. Cleaning the knife a second time, he explained "You'll all bleed…" Disengaging the safety on his pistol, Mick shot the raider commander, then shot the Advent Commander to explain his second point. "You'll all die."
The two parties began to panic until Mick fired a few rounds into the new corpses, shutting everyone up by doing so.
Looking at the worried faces, Mick asks with a straight face "Now…who wants to be my first…'friend'?"
Sitting together, Ian and Maria had some beer and big pretzels, discussing what they might do after Mick got his intel.
"Part of me feels guilty about letting him do 'that'." Maria began to complain, sipping her beer.
Raising an eyebrow, Ian asked "You're still bothered by that?" almost astonished, given how long that practice had been going on. Maria and Ian debated the cruelty of their tactics, despite agreeing and allowing it for so long. "Baby, I do this for you…" Ian began to explain, walking over to Maria's side of the table, draping his arms around her, wrapping her in a hug, continuing "…I do this for us…all of us." Kissing her atop her head, Ian asked that she simply cooperate with him. "You don't hafta have any part in it at all. Just know that we're doing this with good reason."
"You've gotta be cruel to be kind." Kate quotes, interrupting the two. Kate entered through the door before them, as if presented on a stage viewed by millions.
Massaging Maria's shoulders, Ian adds "In the right measure." He uncapped a cold one offering it to her, but she only shook her head in refusal. "Sure is good to see you alive and well again." Ian adds, refilling Maria's cup with the drink meant for Kate. Only partially pleased, Maria greeted Kate by her nickname, Katie. The greeting didn't seem to be a happy one.
"You're doing it again, aren't you, Boss?" Kate asks, angrily folding her arms. Wanting to hit Ian with something, Kate decided to refrain from that, due to her recent recovery. "Where is Mick?" was all she could ask, cutting off Ian's flawed rationalization of their cruelty. Maria quickly answered the question, ratting out her boyfriend and his cousin, while completely ignoring Ian's advice to turn a blind eye to what's been going on.
Shaking her head, Kate left to go find Mick, and try to stop him from hurting anyone else. Watching the woman walk away angrily, Ian grumbled angrily at Maria.
"You don't think that she has the right to be mad?" The dark-haired woman asked, handing Ian another beer. Ian agreed that she had every right to be angry with him for getting Mick to do something that was so cruel. He expected her to be far angrier at him, yet she didn't even raise her voice. "That's not what I mean. I guess I'm the only one that she told."
…
Elsewhere, on the grounds, Mick made a slow progression on one of the Advent soldiers, by prying for questions, and fingernails. He crushed the alien's damaged hand under the forty-ounce bottle. After bleeding the soldier dry of his answers, Mick offered the soldier a bit of the beer, crashing it over his head.
"Now…" Calls Mick, dropping the emptied husk of the crumbling bottle. "…see how easy that was?"
Distracted by a knock on the door, Mick promised to return shortly. A promise that would be unfulfilled, thanks to Kate and Ian who made their way to the hidden torture room. Maria's explanation made Ian hurry after Kate. If anyone was going to get her access to where the interrogation room was, it'd be him.
"I'll go in and call him for you." Ian offered, knocking on the door, before sliding his way into the room. Sealing it behind him, he called for his cousin.
"Boss!" Mick calls back to him, motioning for him over to the human captives. "I think I'm starting to believe in miracles!" Mick jokes with a feigned display of happiness as he undid the wrapping from a woman's mouth. "Give us that fairytale one more time fraulein." He demanded, stepping aside for his cousin, but Ian choose not to address the woman, not before dismissing Mick, giving him brief news of his visitor.
Seeing the woman, who was in her late teens, crying frantically, Ian spoke calmly. Hoping to get intelligible words from her, Ian paced back and forth, reading Mick's notes on the three dead Advent soldiers. Seeming only minorly intrigued. "Please, try to be calm, and tell me what you told the other guy." Ian advised, trying to read Mick's notes. After about several minutes of the girl's incessant crying, Ian taped her mouth. Keeping the same tone, Ian introduced himself to the remaining trio. "Evenin' everyone. You can call me Sir." Shushing the crying woman, Boss proceeds by acknowledging that Mick didn't complete his job, a job that would've been long complete, interruption or not. He also took note of the fact that there wasn't a scratch on either of the women, or the man. Pacing for a while, trying to let the woman calm herself, Ian finally decided to make himself comfortable.
The other female, sporting highlighter blue hair, tried to get Ian's attention, but failed due to her partner's muffled crying, and the loud radio.
"You're really scared, I can tell…" Ian admits grabbing the crying blonde's face. "…but bear one thing in mind…" He ordered, toppling chair on it's back, pointing the tip of a knife at one her eyes, holding her head in a vice like grip. "…the man that left was but a student, and guess who taught him this trade…" The girl sniffled a bit, growing quieter. Ian, retrieving a pair of scissors, cut the lady's blond hair for a bit, after sitting her chair upright. Putting away the scissors, while straight-faced he explained "I can remove your fingers just as easily…or your teeth…eyes…by god you'll cooperate or you'll live on as my macabre jigsaw puzzle."
Smoking a cherry-vanilla cigar, Ian turned up the radio enjoying a slowed rendition of "Hallelujah" by a nameless, acoustic vocalist. Looking at an old picture of Maria and him. Remembering why he could be nothing short of implacable, it was for those he cared for. Cruel to be kind, for there were no alternatives.
Coming to a piano solo, Ian noticed the blue haired woman, trying to get his attention. Lowering the volume, the man removed her gag.
"She told that guy about our loot." The other lady explained with a nervous sigh. "She was kidnapped by that one prick at the end and taken there." The blue haired raider explained, referring to their squad leader.
"It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah!" Ian chuckles, giving the raider his applause, extinguishing his cigar. "So Cybil here knows where y'all hide your stash, is that it?" Covering the lady's mouth. He stopped and thought a moment, thinking about that so-called treasure. What did these people consider treasure? By the look of them, Ian could tell these three were too healthy to look like the typical strung out raiders. Perhaps some sort of annexation occurred and these three couldn't escape, much like the humans whenever the aliens first invaded. "I see why he didn't bother hurting you three. You were cooperative, even whenever enslaved by the raiders." He figured, looking to the blue haired woman for confirmation.
It went without saying that the three slaves were forced to experience a multitude of atrocities. He always feared that something like that would happen to someone he loved.
"I'm sure something far worse than a kidnapping happened to you…" Ian whispers, before dragging her chair into a corner. "Tell me what I want to know, and I will help you. There's tons of men, women and children that go through what you have, maybe even worse. Help me and we will save them."
A thought came to him; Mick didn't hurt these three, because they were not truly guilty. They were forced by the raiders that captured them, forced to kill, pleasure, and serve. The girl was more compliant, after she could talk. Ian even gave her a smoke and untied her.
As it turned out the young lady told Mick what they'd been forced to guard and retrieve, however, when she was enslaved, she was transported with a burlap sack covering her head. Luckily the raiders were sloppy, they set up shop next to an old landmark. A large statue of a zeppelin, cracked and forgotten, in the middle of nowhere. The girl explained that the people guarding the stockpile were also slaves, for rarely would a raider have to fulfill such a meaningless task. Perhaps a band of raiders would come by to deposit or withdraw from the stock, but aside from that there wouldn't be a raider for miles.
"Ma'am, if this works out for my people, I will not only free you and them, but I'll allow you three to fight by our side." Ian pitched, offering to shake the girl's hand.
Later that night, Mick and Ian returned to free the three slaves. After they got medical attention and some food, they would be allowed to rest a while before they got the chance to earn their bandanas. For about a week they rested and trained, while The People searched for any areas marked by a stone zeppelin wrapped in vines. Checking the validity, Samson and four others reported that the girl's instructions were right on the money.
"Very good. We'll prep for operation D'yer Mak'er at 2100 hours." Maria commands, looking at Mick and Ian talking casually in the distance, as if it were just another day.
