The three men got out of the car and pulled hoods or hats onto their heads. The driver looked up at the sky, noticed that the snow tapered off to a just a few flakes here and there. He asked one man, "Bill, where's your pistol?"
The man called Bill smacked his fist into his palm again and did it several more times. "I don't need my pistol, John," he said. "I just want to beat old man Cord to death. Listen to him cry out each time I hit him. I want to make him beg me to stop."
"Have it with you, in case we need it to get in the house," John said. "After we get in, then you can get your jollies beating on Cord or on his daughter, if she's in there." He turned towards the third man. "How about you, Harry? You ready?"
The third man held up an axe and smiled. "I'm ready to get it on," he said and licked his lips.
John shuddered and turned away from him. "Nuts," he whispered and released his pistol's safety. "O.K., Harry, go around to the back door and wait. If they try to run out, stop them. I'll yell for you if we manage to get in the front door." As Harry moved towards the back, John looked at the house and muttered, "Paybacks are a real bitch, Cord." Then he said to Bill, "Let's get the bastard."
oooooooooo
Inside the living room, Jane opened the .10 gauge shotgun's breach and looked down the barrel. "As far as I can tell, it's clean," she said.
"Is there any blockage?" Daria asked.
"No. Why is that important? Wouldn't the shot force anything out the end?"
Daria smiled and shook her head. "When I was 13 in Highland, an older kid used his shotgun as a crutch in the dirt." She shook her head again. "It was some dumb game to him. He kept pushing the barrel in the dirt and thought nothing of it. Until he shot it."
"What happened?"
"The end of the barrel ripped apart and the shotgun backfired into his face."
"Ouch." Jane grimaced at the thought.
"He would've been king of the morons--had he survived. It was strange. Guns were so plentiful and common in Texas, that even the dumb ones knew better than to do that. But he did it anyway."
Jane stood up. "I'll go back to his room and look for a cleaning kit or cleaning supplies."
"Better wait until morning," Daria said and stopped her with her right hand. "The less lights we use tonight, the better off we'll be."
oooooooooo
Harry ran to the front where John and Bill were several yards from the porch. "John! Bill! Wait a minute!"
John stopped and asked, "What is it?"
"I just found Cord's body on the back porch. He's dead!"
There was silence for several seconds, then Bill asked, "Did someone kill him?"
Harry shook his head. "I think he had a heart attack. What if it ain't his daughter inside? I don't think she'd leave his body like that. What if there are strangers in there?"
John blinked and looked at the house. After a few seconds, he said, "Cord had money, guns and a new SUV. We are taking them all. We go in and take what we want anyway."
"I hope there's some girls in there," Bill said and smacked his palm. "I need someone to punch around awhile."
oooooooooo
"Jane!" Daria said quickly and held up her right hand.
"What is it?"
"Someone's outside! I heard a voice. A man's voice."
Jane put a shell in the .10 gauge. "Remember what I said earlier. We have to be tough."
Daria picked up the .357 and both girls moved together to the entryway and stopped. "I don't feel tough," she said.
"Which would you rather be?" Jane asked and looked at her. "Scared, yet tough, or raped and beaten half to death? I'll choose tough and scared any day of the week."
"Point made, Lane."
oooooooooo
"I feel cheated, though," Bill said. "I really wanted to give Cord a long, bad night."
"So did I," John said. "I wanted to shoot his kneecaps out." He looked at Harry. "I don't want to know what you had planned."
Harry kissed the axe blade and laughed.
oooooooooo
"You heard that?" Daria asked in a stage whisper. "They wanted to kill that old man."
"Must have pissed them off sometime before...Saturday," Jane commented. "Let's go outside and try to diffuse this." She cocked the .10 gauge.
"Jane, they just might shoot or kill us."
Jane blinked and looked with determination at the front door. "Not yet they won't."
"How do you know?"
Jane then looked at Daria with a sad expression on her face. "They won't kill us until they either screw us till we're unhinged or...torture us till we're ready to die." She hefted the shotgun in her hands. "This is my way of saying 'No, you won't.' Put on your jacket. Hold the .357 under your jacket, but keep it cocked and ready to shoot. Don't let them see it yet. I have a plan. Let me do the talking and just stand there until I need you."
"How will I know when that is?" Daria asked as she put back on the jacket.
"You'll know. I'll shoot the first one who rushes at us. You go for the second one. We'll work it out from there." She turned on the porch light and stepped out on the porch, followed closely by Daria.
The men froze briefly at the sight of the two teen girls on the porch. John looked at the shotgun in Jane's hands and kept his pistol down. "Ladies, we came to check on Cord, but Harry found his body on the back porch."
"He was dead when we got here," Jane said. "We needed shelter from the snow."
"He was a friend of ours," John added, "and you two are obviously squatters on his property. If you leave now, we won't call the cops on you."
"Are you going to tell the cops why you planned to beat him to death?" Jane asked, a smirk on her face. "Why don't you go ahead and call them? Phone line didn't work the last time we checked it."
"You're a little bit of a smart ass, ain'tcha?" Bill said, smacked his palm with a fist and moved a few feet closer to the porch. "I'll cure you of that."
Jane suddenly lifted the shotgun barrel to aim at Bill's chest and he stopped. "I'd say the same to you, but you aren't smart," she said.
Daria felt her right hand start to shake and held it to her belly to steady it.
John started to speak, but Bill cut him off with a chop of his right arm. "I never knew a bitch who could shoot a gun for shit!" He rushed at Jane.
Jane pulled the trigger and the force of the shot hit Bill in the chest and knocked him back into the yard.
John lifted his pistol and said, "Looks like you're unloaded, dear. Bill was an loudmouthed idiot, but he was still our friend. You two are going to pay dearly for that one. Hands up!"
Daria pushed the pistol barrel out of her coat and aimed it at John. "I think not," she said and fired.
The bullet hit John's belly and he doubled over with a cry of pain. At the same time, he pulled the trigger to his pistol and the bullet hit Jane's right arm just below her elbow. She yelled out, dropped the shotgun and gripped her arm where the bullet hit.
As John collapsed face down in the yard, Daria turned to Harry who still held the axe in his hands and froze his movements. "Normally, I would be merciful," she said as she cocked the pistol again. "This isn't personal."
"NO! Please, don't shoot me!"
"If I said 'please, stop' during my rape, would you stop?" Daria shook her head. "I doubt it." She pulled the trigger and the shot hit him dead center of his chest. Instead of crying out, he stared at the injury as he moaned and fell onto his back. The axe remained in his hands as his head fell back and he closed his eyes.
"Damn!" Jane said and groaned. Blood seeped out between her fingers and dripped onto the porch floor. She wavered on her feet and moved back against the brickwork near the front door.
Daria watched the men's bodies warily as she moved to Jane and asked, "How bad is it?"
"It's bleeding real good," she replied and sat down hard. "I think he only grazed me, but damn, it hurts!"
Daria pulled Jane's hand away, gave it a quick glance and said, "At least there isn't a bullet lodged in your arm. Thank God. Wait a second." She looked briefly at the men's bodies and went back inside. She came back out with a washcloth and pulled Jane's hand off the wound. She folded the cloth quickly, applied it to the wound and wrapped a shoelace around the arm. She tied a knot directly over the wound and tightened it.
"Ow!" Jane said.
"Sorry."
Jane looked at it and said, "It's still bleeding, Daria."
Daria held up a second shoelace. "I'm prepared for that," she said and wrapped it around her arm as well. She tied the know an inch from the other knot and glanced at the men's bodies again. Then she looked at the bandage and said, "Looks like it's working. Let's get you inside."
"What about them?" Jane asked as Daria helped her to her feet and led her in.
"I'll come back out and get their guns and that axe. But we've been outside enough. We need to get you inside where it's warm. But I'll try to move their bodies when I can. I'm not exactly Superwoman here so I may not accomplish much. But I'll try." She sat Jane on the couch and said, "Wait here. I'll be right back."
Daria went back outside and looked at Jane's blood on the porch floor. I'll have to wipe all that up, she thought as she picked up the shotgun. Then she moved out into the yard and was thankful that it had stopped snowing for the time being. She grabbed the weapons and carried them inside the house. As she laid them on the living room floor, she looked at Jane, who looked pained and tired. "How are you holding up?" she asked.
"I've had better days."
Daria gave her a small smile. "I can imagine. I'm going to see if I can move their bodies."
Outside, Daria tried without success to pull the men by their arms. Instead, she settled for rolling their bodies towards a bush where they were at least out of sight of the road. She started to walk off, then as an afterthought, checked their pockets. The leader had extra shells for his pistol in his coat pockets and a wallet and keys, while the one Jane had shot had a small automatic pistol in his pocket and the other had nothing except his wallet on him. She took all of it inside with her and laid it on a coffee table near Jane. "Any problems?" she asked.
Jane gave her a very weak smile. "My arm's numb below the bandage. I can't feel anything."
Daria frowned and moved up to her. "Uh, oh, I must have cut off your circulation." She quickly untied the shoelaces and said, "Hold that there while the circulation comes back. I have a little more to do and we'll see what else I can try."
She grabbed another washcloth, wet it down and went back out onto the porch. As she wiped Jane's blood off the concrete, she saw a snowflake land near her hand and looked up. The snow was back. She sighed, went back inside and locked the door.
Back inside the living room, Daria checked on Jane and removed the washcloth bandage. The wound started bleeding again and Daria pressed down on it, then thought about it. "Outside of a pressure bandage, the only things I know that will help you is sewing you up or cauterizing you."
"O.K., then," Jane said. "Sew me up." Her forehead was now covered with sweat and she shivered slightly.
Daria blinked several times and looked at Jane with her mouth open. She covered her wounded friend with a comforter and said, "I've never done anything like that before. Not only that, but there's nothing here that we can do it with. We don't even have plastic gloves."
"Then, Daria, we'll have to make do with what we have. Set up what you think we'll need and let's get it done."
Daria got up from the couch and moved quickly. She stood a TV tray near Jane, got a soup bowl from the kitchen and hunted through the house for string, sewing needles, a small pair of scissors, tweezers and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Then she moved to Jane and uncovered her arm again.
Jane sighed and closed her eyes in anticipation.
"I...I can't do this," Daria said as she stopped and looked at the wound.
"You have to!" Jane said and looked at her quickly. "Neither of us can hold the washcloth on all the time and tying it off enough to stop the bleeding also makes my arm numb."
"There's no anesthetic, dammit! It's going to hurt like hell!"
Jane gave her a weak laugh and smiled briefly. "It already does, Daria. It already does. Please, remember what I said about us being 'damn tough bad guys'. It's time for us to live up to that statement."
Daria poured some rubbing alcohol in the bowl and laid several cut off pieces of string, two needles, the tweezers and a small pair of scissors in it. "This is the wrong kind of string," she said quickly, her voice shaking. "I don't know how to suture. Shit, I could be infecting you big time here."
Jane still smiled. "I have faith in you. Besides, I'd rather you do this than cauterize me."
Daria turned to Jane and said, "Understand this. Nothing we are using here is sterile. There is no...sterile field to work within, plus the needles and string come from sewing gear that probably hasn't been used for years. You will have a scar from my work. I just don't want to mess you up or kill you."
Jane took her right hand and grabbed Daria by the chin. "I. Have. Faith. In. You. Just do it, please?"
There was several seconds of silence, then Daria cleared her throat, stood up and nodded. "I'm going to do my best imitation of a surgical scrub. Just hold that on for several more minutes. I'll be back to do this."
Slightly more than 10 minutes later, Daria returned, poured alcohol on another washcloth and had Jane bare her arm again. She quickly wiped the wound with the cloth and noticed Jane's grimace of pain. "Sorry about that," she said.
"De nada, mi amiga," Jane said. "De nada." She clenched her teeth tightly.
Daria pulled a needle from the bowl of alcohol, fed a string through the eye and tied it off. She moved her right eye closer to Jane's arm, took a deep breath and started sewing her up. Jane looked away, bit her lower lip and closed her eyes tightly as the needle went into her arm.
For more than two minutes, Daria sewed Jane's wound, careful to pull the skin together, but not too tightly. She made no small talk and tried to keep calm and collected. She still shivered slightly as she worked and her chin quivered occasionally. Finally she took the scissors, cut off the string and worked on tying it off.
"Daria?" Jane asked and sighed loudly after the string was tied off. She glanced at Daria's handiwork. Her face was coated in perspiration and her hair was wet with it.
"What?" Daria said and wiped off the blood carefully and bit her lip when Jane grimaced in pain.
"Don't use my dirty underwear as a bandage, O.K.? I haven't changed since Friday night."
Daria blinked twice, looked at Jane and said, "TMI, Lane, TMI. I did not need to know that." She smiled and added, "I noticed that the guy had a washing machine and since there is still power and running water...maybe we can take care of that problem."
"Since when have you done laundry?"
"Since never. But I can learn and it beats scrubbing them on a rock." Daria inspected the sutured wound and applied a dab of anti-bacterial ointment. "Well, Jane, I have good news. You don't need a diaper, but if you happen to want one anyway while I wash your underwear, well, that's your business."
"Daria, let me know when you say something funny so I can laugh."
Daria smiled and applied a three-inch square bandage and taped it on the wound. She signed in relief and said to Jane in a monotone, "That'll be 300 bucks. Please pay the receptionist on your way out the door."
"You said that you were a painless doctor," Jane played along and complained. "That hurt the whole time you did it."
"It was painless," Daria replied. "I didn't hurt at all when I stitched you." She coughed. "If you want to cover up while I wash your clothes, feel free. I found an old granny gown I'll use while I wash my underwear." She sighed. "Pity we didn't find any panties at the church."
"Maybe we can trade some of that man's medicines for panties. They still have several months until they reach their expiration dates."
"Why don't you take a nap after you give me your clothes?" Daria said. "I'll wash and dry our stuff, then it'll be my turn to get a little rest." She laughed briefly and shook her head. "I should have had you lay down while I sewed you up. You could have fainted."
"I'm made of sturdier stuff than that." Jane stripped off her clothes and grimaced in pain when her shirt hit the bandage. When she was naked, she handed Daria the clothes and laid on the couch.
"I'm not," Daria said and spread a blanket over her. "You were calmer than I was. Go to sleep, Jane. I'm too worked up, so I'll be up awhile. I'll take care of the laundry situation and you just rest."
Jane yawned and snuggled under the blanket. "Daria, one nice thing about a refugee shelter would be the chance for both of us to sleep at the same time."
"Maybe if we can find a secure one, with lockable rooms. Otherwise, another refugee could clean us out in no time. And I really don't want to kill another person if I can help it. It's getting to be a habit that I don't want."
Jane's response was to start snoring.
Daria smiled at her friend and lightly stroked her hair. "Sleep well, amiga," she said and lightly kissed Jane's forehead.
