He pulled his pants back on, fumbling with the zipper and trying to keep one eye on the women that were holding guns on him. His guns. Fucking bitches. Merle thought about lunging at Katie and trying to get his rifle back, but he was fairly sure her sister would shoot him if he did. He would play along and see what they wanted first. Once they got outside, he could yell at some of the guys on watch duty and get some help.
"Where are we going?," he asked them. Katie poked him in the back with his rifle.
"Move," she said. He couldn't help but notice her voice sounded different. It struck him then that these girls had been putting on an act since they got to Woodbury. They never had any intention of settling down and living here. This is what they had planned all along. He should have put it together when he was hunting with Katie. She was too good to be just some random chick that stayed at home cooking and cleaning in normal life like she had been trying to pretend. But he had been more worried about getting her into bed than he had been about whether or not she was telling the truth about her life before the turn.
They walked out the front door of his building. Merle turned, intending to get the attention of the men watching the wall. That's when he saw they were all lying on the wall and on the ground near it. Not knowing about the drugged coffee, Merle assumed they had all been killed. And that's when he started getting scared. The ground was hard under his bare feet. And it didn't take him long to figure out where the girl were taking him. When they rounded the street corner, he saw the bus they came in on was pulled up outside the armory, with the back door open.
They marched him inside, where Milton was sitting on the floor. His back was against the metal cage that was supposed to keep people out of the armory, and his hands were cuffed above his head. He looked scared. The cage door was already open. Merle guessed they must have used Milton's keys. But the gun safes were closed. Milton didn't know the combinations. He almost never came in here.
"Sit down," Mandy ordered, pointing to a spot on the floor near Milton. Merle sat where she told him. Then he saw the tall black woman whip out another pair of handcuffs. Katie held the gun on him, but she saw the panic in his eyes. She didn't know for sure, but she guessed it had something to do with his missing hand. He did not want those cuffs put on.
"We aren't going to hurt you if you do what we tell you to do," she told him.
"Fuck you, you lying whore," Merle spit back at her. He felt the side of his face explode in pain. Mandy had hit him hard across the face with his gun. Then Roberta pinned his arm against the fence above him and Maria hooked the cuff on. He rubbed at his face with the wrist of his bad arm, tasting blood in his mouth. Roberta was leaning over him.
"The combinations to the safes," she asked, "what are they?"
"Fuck you nigger bitch," Merle swore, "I ain't telling your whore ass nothing." She stepped back, putting one hand up on her hip. Then she looked at Mandy and shrugged.
"Cut his fucking dick off then," Roberta told the other woman. Katie knew this was just a threat to scare him, but it made her a little sick anyway. She took a deep breath and held tight to the rifle. Mandy pulled out a wicked looking hunting knife. She spun it around in her hand. Then she started getting closer to him. Merle was pushing at the ground with his feet, trying to get in a good position to kick her.
"For god's sake just tell them what they want to know," Milton cried out. Everyone ignored him. Addy and Cassandra pinned Merle's legs down when he tried to kick at them. And Mandy was getting closer to him with the knife.
"Fuck," he swore, "twenty-four, sixty-two, eleven." He nodded towards the closest safe.
"Check and make sure its the truth," Mandy told Roberta. She spun the little number dial, then pulled the handle. The safe unlocked and pulled open with a satisfying clinking noise. Mandy got off him and the other girls let go of his legs.
"This one now," Roberta said, heading to the next safe.
"Forty-nine, six, eighty-three." The next safe popped open. Then he gave them the combination to the last one. Once they had the doors, open the girls ignored both the captive men and began filling bags, unloading the contents of all three safes and taking everything out to their bus. Merle watched the girls. He was becoming increasingly less scared of them, and more scared of what was going to happen to him when the governor found out what had happened. Katie was taking great pains not to look in his direction, and he noticed that as well.
She took a load of guns out and tossed them on the bus, then came back for more. When he saw her come back in, Merle started hollering at her.
"He is going to kill me when he finds out I gave you the safe combinations," he said, "you know he is going to fucking kill me. Hey! I am fucking talking to you Katie!" She ignored him, but he saw the muscles in her shoulders tense up. Then she turned and ran back outside. He heard some quiet murmured voices, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Roberta came in with a roll of duct tape and leaned over him. She slapped a piece of tape over his mouth, a little harder than was necessary to make it stick. Katie did not come back in again until all the guns and ammo were gone. And Merle couldn't be sure, since he didn't actually see anyone, but he was pretty sure he heard men's voices outside.
When the room was empty, Katie came back in. She dropped the handcuff keys out near Merle's feet. He would be able to scoot them closer and uncuff himself, but it would take him a long time. She pulled the tape off his mouth, wincing as some of the hair on his face came off with it. She held there still for a moment, like she wanted to say something. But then she just got up and walked out of the cage. Katie locked the cage and then stuffed the keys through so they fell on the floor inside. And then she was gone. Merle heard the engine of the bus start up. And then he heard them pull away.
Once they saw that the town had been taken, and that the girls were cleaning out the armory, Joe and his men came down from the spot they had been hiding out in the woods. He knew there was a good chance the girls would take off and not meet him at the arranged spot now that they had what they wanted. And he wasn't going to let that happen. So he and his men came down and started helping them load up the bus. One of the girls rolled her eyes at him, but otherwise they didn't seem to mind his presence.
Katie sat down on the bench behind the driver's seat. She was feeling upset. But everyone else was in good spirits. Most of them were laughing and whooping it up. Cassandra came up from the back of the bus with her pack. She made a big deal about shushing everyone up. Then she dug around inside the bag.
"Not only did we take their guns," she said. Then she whipped out couple full bottles of good liquor. "I stole that asshole's liquor too!" Even Katie laughed at that. Then she got up and snagged one of the bottles, twisting the top off and taking a few good swigs before she handed it back. Cassandra looked over the group of scraggly men. She wrinkled her nose up, trying to decided which one was less repulsive than the others. They all smelled like old baloney and dirty socks.
"You," she said, pointing to one of the men with a dude rag on his head. At least he didn't have any facial hair. Most of them looked like they hadn't shaved since the turn. "You!," she said again, motioning to him, "come here." The man stood up and approached her. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him close to her and kissing him hard and sloppy with a lot of tounge. Then she shoved him back down into his seat.
"What the hell was that?," the man asked. Not that he was complaining, but her kiss had taken him by surprise.
"Just need to get the taste of something out of my mouth," Cassandra told him. The women started laughing and a few of the men laughed along with them. Roberta drove the bus about an hour away. Since the men from Woodury had no idea which way they even went, she decided they were safe enough for the night. Driving at night was something they only did if they had to. She pulled up near an old McDonalds. The bus was tall enough that they could go out the emergency door on the ceiling and climb up on the roof of the building. Just in case anyone was looking for them, they decided not to make a fire.
All the girls were up on the roof, laughing and drinking with the men from Joe's group. But Katie stayed down in the bus. She was glad they got the guns they needed. When they got them back to camp, she would be able to keep her family safe. But she was feeling bad all the same. Bad about stealing, bad about tricking Merle, who she actually kind of liked. And really really bad that the governor might hurt him because of what she did. When he asked her to, she had been ready to uncuff him and let him come with them. But Roberta and Mandy told her no fucking way. There was no doubt in her mind that they were right, but it didn't make her feel any better. She tipped her cup back, letting the last few drops of tequilla slide down her throat. Then she felt the slight vibration of someone coming in through the top door of the bus and landing hard on the metal floor.
When she looked up, she saw it was Joe, the leader of the other group. She gave him a halfhearted smile and leaned her head back against the cool glass of the window, hoping he would go back the way he came from. Instead, he came sauntering over, sliding into the seat next to her. Lifting up his hand, he grazed her arm with the skin of his knuckles. Then he handed her another cup of liquor.
"You are too pretty to be looking so sad," he told her. Katie gave him another soft smile. A fake one. She took the cup and tossed it's contents down her throat in one big gulp.
"Not sad, I'm just tired," she lied. She went to lean her head against the glass again, and bumped her forehead into the window a little too hard. Leaning back against the seat, she rubbed at her head. She pressed her hand against the top of the bus seat, trying to get into a standing position. But the world was suddenly spinning fast around her, swirling into a blur. Her knees were going to give out, and her legs felt like jello. The last thing she rememered before she passed out was the feeling of arms under her legs and behind her back, lifting her into the air.
Penny woke up scared. She had another nightmare. She called loudly for her dad, but no one came. The room was dark, and she remembered that her dad had told her not to come out bothering him unless it was an emergency. She squirmed in her bed. Not only was she scared from her dream, but she also had to pee. Tossing the blankets back, she climbed out of bed, shivering when her bare feet touched the cold floor.
"Dad?," she called. Sometimes her dad went out at night, but he always came right back. And sometimes, he had women that stayed the night with him. And when he did, he didn't like Penny bothering him. "Dad?," she called out again, inching closer to the doorway of his bedroom. She pushed the door open slowly, peeking inside. What she saw confused her. Her dad was lying on the bed, his arms and legs stretched out. And it looked like his limbs were fastened in place with the things he wore around his neck sometimes when he wanted to look fancy.
She crawled up onto the bed, shoving at her dad, trying to wake him up. He did not respond to her at all. And Penny was starting to get scared. She yelled louder, shaking him hard by the shoulders. He still didn't wake up. Penny wasn't sure what to do. Her only thought was that she ought to get some help, maybe find a doctor for her dad. Or at least another grown up. Someone that would know what to do.
The lock on the door was hard for Penny to reach, but she pulled a chair over and stood on it. Then she pulled the chair away and turned the lock on the doorknob. She swung the door open and crept out into the hall. The hall was dark and scary. But she kept going, hugging the little bear she slept with tightly to her chest. She got to the door that led outside the building. Luckily, the lock on that door was much lower. It was easy for her to reach. She flipped it and slid quietly outside.
Penny had never been outside by herself, and she had never been outside at night. Not since they had come to live here. She took a deep breath, her little hands shaking. Then she ran towards the wall. She wasn't supposed to go near it, but she knew there were always people sitting on it, especially at night. The men on the wall kept her and everyone else in town safe. Surely one of them could help her dad.
She ran fast, the pavement hard and scratchy against her feet. When she got close, she saw a man lying on the ground near the wall. Bending down, she saw it was Ceaser, one of her father's friends. She tried to wake him up. Just like her father, he didn't budge, even when she shook him hard and yelled. The other men up on the wall were also asleep. Penny started to cry. She was scared that everyone was dead and gone, and she was all alone.
Penny climbed one of the steep ramps, even though she had been warned many times by her father to never go near the wall, let alone climb the ramp and stand on top of it. All the men were asleep, and none of them would wake up. She looked out over the wall. And she was relieved by what she saw there. A man was walking towards the front gates of the town. He looked a little dirty, but at least he was awake. Maybe he would be willing to help her father, or at least help her find someone that could.
The ramp was steep. Penny sat on her behind and scooted part of the way down. Then she got up and walked the rest of the way down. She went to the gates. The latch was easy to open. She knew it was important to keep the gates shut, so she reached her arm through the little slit and closed the latch behind her. Then she waved at the man, excited that he was already heading in her direction.
** Thanks to everyone that took the time to leave me a review. If you want more of this story its in my companion piece The Lady Claimers. **