Fury - Part 2
(Unleashed)
From her vantage point, which was 30 yards away and about 12 feet higher than their camp, she could see their movements very clearly as they settled in for the night. She paid particular attention to where they placed their weapons. A plan had formed within her mind as she lay hid watching. Not a very good one, maybe, but a plan. Studying the area between them, she picked out the route she would take. Now all there was to do was wait.
The moon rose in the sky in its late summer glory, 3 days past the full. Still she watched and waited. The fire died down to coals and the snores of the men were loud in the stillness. As the moon dipped down towards the far side of the canyon she began to move. Slowly, silently she crept closer to the camp. Two men were on the near side of the fire, which had died down to smoldering embers, and a third on the far side. He would be the problem, she thought. He was a large man and seemed to be the one in charge. Well, she told herself, first things first.
Moving with care she gathered up the weapons of the first two men, a pair of old revolvers and a Winchester 30-30. Moving to the other man, she reached for the spot where she had seen him place his gun. It was gone! “Just one more thing to worry about.” she thought, and took the weapons she had gathered out beyond the campsite and hid them among some boulders. Coming back, she tucked her pistol into her waistband, loosened a coil of rope she had seen on one of the packs and cut it into lengths she could use.
The first went around the ankles of the nearest man, carefully and painfully slowly. Then she repeated the process on the second man. As she was starting to rise from that task she heard a pistol cocking and a low chuckle. She was already moving, so instead of stopping or continuing as she had begun, she let herself drop to her left, away from the bound men. Her right hand found the pistol as she rolled, drew and fired at the looming bulk just as he fired at her. Hot pain flashed through her left shoulder and she fired again. There was another shot from the man, but it hit the ground several feet in front of her. A low moan and a grunt as heavy weight hit ground told her at least one of her bullets had done it’s job.
Rising, she glanced towards the other two. They were sitting up and trying to untie their ankles.
“I would lie back down and be still if I were you. If you want to continue breathing that is.”
They looked at her, then at the gun she held on them.
“What if we don’t, huh? What if we just jump your scrawny ass and … “
“Then you will join your friend in hell sooner that you would otherwise. Lay down and turn over on your stomachs.”
Both men lay back down and rolled over. She approached the nearest of them, the one with the crippled leg, cautiously, still pointing the gun at a spot between them.
“Put your hands behind you.”
Placing the pistol on the ground near to hand, she took another length of rope and tied the man’s wrists. Then she took another length and secured it to the rope around his ankles, keeping an eye on the other man while she worked.
“Don’t try to move.” She told him. “If you did, I think I can shoot you before you get to me, ok?”
“Fuck you ya little bitch!”
Smiling to herself she stretched the piece of rope from the crippled man’s ankles, wrapped a loop around the knotted rope on his wrists. Pulling the rope until his legs were bent back so that his feet were almost touching his hands, she tied the other end around his neck with a slipknot. Then she did the same for the other man. When she was done she told them to roll onto their sides facing each other.
“Now, if you try to get free, the rope will tighten around your necks, do you understand? It will tighten and tighten until it can’t tighten any further, you understand?”
Not waiting for nor caring about an answer from them she moved to the fire and added more wood. The dead man lay off to the side, and she began to pull him laboriously so that he lay between the two bound men. Taking her belt knife, she cut his throat, then made a slit from his groin to his neck.
The crippled man cried out “Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing?”
“Preparing a feast.” She looked at the man. “No, not for me or for you. There are animals in the mountains. I’ve lived among them ever since I can remember. Mountain lions, bears, wolves. They become hungry. You see? I hate to see animals go hungry. But this way, they will smell the blood and entrails of your friend there” she pointed to the body between them “and they will eat. Yes, and if you are very still, perhaps they only will eat your friend. Who knows?”
She walked back to where she had hidden their weapons and gathered them up, along with the dead man’s pistol. She picked up their packs and stuffed the pistols into one of them, then shouldered into the heaviest of the three packs. She slung the rifle across her shoulder and picked up the other two packs. She would go through them once she returned to the cave, and after she had buried her mother. Tomorrow would be a day of grieving. After that …
“It’s time to move on.” She thought to herself as she walked back down the canyon heading for home.
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