EMP 1500 MILES FROM HOME (20 page)

"Anything you need, Yeti," George said, "I just don't know where to look."

Normally George was a solid, stable guy, but with Julie missing, I think he was too worried to think straight. I didn't blame him. I felt the same way, but I forced myself to concentrate; to free my mind of all worry. I had been working on that lately—well, since Wayne disappeared anyway. I knew I felt emotions much more strongly than most people and I knew that my emotions could shut my brain down entirely, just like George's emotions seemed to have done to his brain when Julie went missing. I couldn't afford that. I needed to be able to find Wayne, and now Julie.

I studied the maps carefully. Using plastic wrap overlays and a fine-point marker, I laid out the areas we had already searched. We had not searched as big an area as I would have liked, but I would fix that soon.

I knew we needed to find Julie’s tracks, and Dan would be able to do that. But we didn't have time for Dan to search the entire ranch perimeter. I needed to get some idea of where she might have gone so we could start with smaller searches and, hopefully, leapfrog the search so we would be moving faster than she had been. I spoke to Dan and he agreed to try it my way first.

Ambrose's ranch lay to the southeast. I knew Julie would not return there. At first I thought about many factors and how they might influence Julie's decision. Then I realized that Julie was so worried about Wayne that she probably was not thinking straight either. There was a big opening in the search pattern to the northeast, an obvious direction to try next. I would bet that was where she went.

I found Dan and told him what I thought. He swung onto his horse and said, "you boys meet me five miles to the northeast."

"Yes, Sir," I said as he rode away. I don't think he even heard me.

I got the boys together and we rode out an hour later.

Julie

I watched as Bert and Selena ate my food. They acted like they hadn't eaten in a week, and maybe they hadn't. I hoped their bellies swelled up and burst, but I didn't think that was likely. Finally satiated, they both leaned back in their chairs.

"Not bad, Missy," Selena said, "not bad at all."

I wondered how I was going to get out of this. I knew I would die trying to escape instead of just letting them kill me. I also knew that I had to be smarter than I had been. I had just walked into their trap.

"Can I use this one now, Selena? Can I?"

"Not now Bert. There is plenty of time. Besides, she isn't scared enough right now. You know you like them afraid. Let's see about it in the morning."

"But Selena..."

"Now Bert, you know I get excited thinking about what you are going to do to her. We will talk about it more tomorrow. Tonight I need you to do me. You know how much you like it when I am excited."

Bert smiled, "you always know best, Selena."

"Yes I do Bertie, yes I do." She looked directly at me, "I always know best."

"You won't get away with this," I said. "My husband and my son will find you and kill you for this. They know where I am."

"Don't worry, Dearie. We will eat them too. Oh, goodie, I will get some fun out of them. I can't wait." She smiled at me, took Bert by the hand, and led him from the kitchen. Soon I heard them grunting and squealing like pigs in the bedroom. They were the most disgusting noises I think I have ever heard.

I tried to loosen the ropes that bound me. I had no luck. I was still trying when they came back into the kitchen.

"That was good, Bertie. That was good." Selena walked over to me and raised my chin so I was looking directly into her face. "I hope your man and boy have big ones. Bertie's is kind of small." I spat at her face but missed.

"Now Selena, I ain't that small. You just wait and watch how I can tear that woman a new one. You just watch."

"Oh don't you worry, Bert. I'll watch. You know how I love to watch."

Wayne

A chill passed over me as I lay in the back of the Humvee. I was worried about what might happen to Dave, Max, and myself, but this chill went deeper. It was as if it were alive and I was in its grasp, a grasp that squeezed me ever more tightly with tendrils of ice. The chill grew into a rage, a rage like I never felt before. I forced my arms out against my bonds. I concentrated until nothing else existed for me except my arms and the ropes. After what seemed like only a second, but may have been a lot longer, the ropes broke and my arms were free. Still in a blind rage, I reached for the ropes binding my feet. I felt a blow on my head and the world grew dark.

Yeti

"I found Julie's tracks right where you said they would be. Good job Yeti," Dan said.

"I am glad you found her tracks."

"Listen, you guys make camp here. It is only an hour or so until sunset. In the morning, at first light—no later—you move out toward that butte. I will either be there or I will have left you directions on how to proceed next. I am going to see if I can leapfrog and find her trail again before sunset."

"Yes Sir," I said, but Dan was moving again and didn't hear me this time either. I think he cared about Julie as much as George, Wayne, or I did. After all, he watched her grow up. She was the closest thing to a daughter he had.

The next morning we arrived at the butte. Beside a red blanket draped over a bush was a note on a big rock held down by a smaller rock. It said: Meet me ten miles to the northwest. I found her tracks and I am leapfrogging to find them again. Move smartly now, there is no time to waste.

I instructed the men and left one of the veterans in charge. Then I climbed on Bootsie and took off at a slow run. I caught up with Dan ten miles to the northwest. He was leaving another note. I gave him my blanket to mark the spot.

"What's next, Dan?" I asked.

"I am going to leapfrog ten miles ahead and see if I can pick up her tracks. She seems to be going in a straight line."

I scanned the terrain ahead. "I saw another butte due northwest of us. "How far is that butte, Dan?"

"Maybe thirty-five miles."

"Julie said she was going to travel sixty miles from the ranch and then go west and return to the ranch. How far is that butte from the ranch?"

"About 55 miles, give or take a couple."

"Dan, I am going to ride straight for that butte. You keep leapfrogging her trail in case she changed directions. If I find her, or her trail, I will build three smoky fires and send up three columns of smoke. You do the same for me if she changes direction."

"Yeti, that is a great idea. Are you sure you can do this?"

"I am willing to die trying."

"Yes, I think you are," Dan said. "Move steadily but not at a gallop. You will have to rest the horse for an hour every ten miles. You can judge by his response. You do know you may kill Bootsie doing this? He is a work horse, not a race horse."

"I will try not to, but I will do what I must."

"Yes, you will Boy. I know that." Dan shook my hand and I started northeast at a slow run. Bootsie was loving it right now, but I wasn't sure how he would be doing in 30 or 40 miles.

Julie

I was disgusted, disgusted and afraid. Bert and Selena were the strangest people I ever met. Obviously they were sociopaths. "Is this your ranch?" I asked, hoping conversation might make me seem more human to them and maybe get them to let me go.

"Oh no, Missy. We don't own this ranch. We are just visiting. We do that every now and then."

"Are these people your relatives? Where are they?"

"Why they are right here Dearie." Selena went over to a kitchen counter and picked up a stained brown paper grocery bag. She dumped two human skulls from the bag onto the table. There were still clumps of hair clinging to them. I vomited.

Wayne

The ground came up hard when they rolled me out of the Humvee. Dave landed on top of me, and Max just missed us. A guard untied us one by one while ten others pointed rifles at us.

"In there," the guard pointed. I looked and saw a rusty gate made of iron bars covering the entrance to another mine. It reminded me of a jail cell. I guessed the gate had been installed long ago to keep people out of the mine. I gathered it would now be used to keep us in.

We staggered into the mine. I was stiff and could hardly walk. Max and Dave were also having difficulty. We had been bound very tightly.

Once we were in the mine, the guard closed and locked the gate behind us. "Wait there," the guard said and left. The other ten guards were now talking among themselves but kept their rifles pointed in our direction.

"Do you know any of those guys?" I asked Max.

"No. I think I have seen a couple of them though. They are the Boss's elite guard, at least that is what he calls them."

"Does the asshole think he is a king or something?" I asked.

"Or something for sure. The man is point blank crazy."

Soon the Boss showed up in front of the gate. He stood with his hands behind him like he ruled the world. I noticed he had two single-action sixguns holstered on his belt. Maybe he was emulating Patton?

"You men are a real problem for me. I should just kill you. However, I think it will be more fitting if you are the ones who make me truly rich. So here is your deal. You have 60 days to find gold in this mine. If, at the end of the 60 days, you have found no gold, I will have you killed. And to ensure that you will do no goldbricking, you will deliver to the gate each day three full carts of ore. Only then will you be fed for that day. No carts full of ore, no food. It must be three full carts before you eat, no less." The boss paused and caressed his right hand revolver. "You ungrateful bastards will be the ones to find my gold or you will die." He then turned abruptly on his heel and marched away.

"What a freak," Dave said. "It is only ore if it has gold in it. Otherwise it is just waste rock."

"Well, he may not know mining and he may be crazy as a blind goat in a paper factory, but the son of a bitch has the guns."

"No use standing here like monkeys on display at the zoo," Max said. "We might as well take a look in the mine."

"Dave, do you think there is any gold in this mine?"

Dave shook his head. "No Wayne, this rock is all limestone. It is completely wrong for a gold mine. Besides, no one has ever found gold in this part of New Mexico in more than trace amounts."

"So much for that plan," I said. "Do you think that this nut even realizes gold is worthless right now."

"I doubt it. He seems fairly stupid."

"Yet his men have managed to capture us twice now," Max said.

I shrugged, "maybe we are even stupider."

"Could be," Max said, "but we have to keep trying."

We explored the mine using a couple of kerosene lanterns we found near the entrance. Fortunately there was also a box of matches near the lanterns.

The mine was a single tunnel that ran back into the hill about 150 feet. There was a set of narrow gauge railroad tracks on the tunnel floor. On the track were three mine carts. They looked far too big to me.

We also found a half-dozen picks, shovels, and a single sledge hammer along with a few hand drills. All of the tools were worn and weather-beaten. None of the picks were sharp. The drills looked to be fairly sharp. That surprised me. We chose the best of the lot and loaded them into one of the mine carts.

Dave and Max then went to find the softest spot in the mine to dig. I went back to the entrance and collected the rest of the lanterns and the can of kerosene, as well as the matches.

When I got back to the cart, I put the lanterns and kerosene down and tried the sharpest pick against the mine wall. The pick bounced off as sparks flew. This was some really hard rock. I hoped the guys would find somewhere softer to dig. I figured it would take us 30 days just to fill three mine carts at this spot. I wasn't looking forward to dying from starvation. Maybe Dave knew how to break rock more easily?

I looked around the mine floor. There was a shallow layer of loose rock. I grabbed a shovel and started filling a cart. By the time Dave and Max returned, I almost had the cart full. Without saying a word, they each grabbed shovels and an hour later we had three carts full. Dave estimated that there was enough loose material on the mine floor to get us through four days at most.

Once the carts were full, we found a good place to sit, and Dave filled us in on his evaluation of the mine.

"There is no gold here," he said. "Most of the rock you see is a silicified limestone."

"Silicified?"

"Filled with silica and harder then hell. Who ever dug this tunnel was an idiot...an idiot with dynamite."

"I thought most miners knew what they were doing?"

"Not on some of these small claims. Lots of people out here over the years have dug just on a hunch, and a hunch based on no knowledge of the rocks whatsoever. I once saw some guys dig a vertical shaft in hard rock looking for gold. One was a retired trucker and the other was a retired postal worker. They spent two years digging and didn't find any gold at all. Anyone who knew just a little bit about the geology of gold would have told them not to bother at that spot."

"Did you guys find anywhere soft enough to dig?" I asked.

"Maybe," Dave said, "there is a fault that crosses the mine tunnel."

"A fault?"

"A big crack in the rock where the rock has shifted. That movement grinds up some of the rock into a rock flour called gouge. The gouge zone in this fault is about two feet wide. We should be able to dig that zone fairly well."

"So we might eat longer than four days?" Max asked.

"How much longer?" I asked.

"There is no way to tell. Faults are variable. We may dig a few feet and the gouge zone may widen out, or we may dig a few feet and find nothing but hard rock. There is no way to tell until we dig."

"Fair enough," I said, "all we can to is dig and figure out how to get out of here."

"Well if we dig on the left side of the tunnel, the fault should lead back toward the front of the mine. I estimate it should come out of the hill between fifty and seventy feet from the gate.

"Maybe far enough away to give us the advantage of surprise?" Max asked.

Dave nodded. "I estimate the tunnel will need to be about 50 feet long to reach outside."

"Dave, do you think we could dig that far in 60 days?" I asked.

"If we work hard and are lucky, really lucky," Dave said.

So we dug. For two days we needed the debris on the main tunnel floor to fill three carts each day, but soon we broke through to a softer zone and we dug fairly quickly. We rigged a sheet of tin to an old rope and used that to pull the debris out of the new tunnel. The tunnel was just wide enough to swing a pick with a shortened handle. Max and I worked on our knees because we didn't want to make the tunnel any larger than necessary.

Yeti

I rode for a while and then I dismounted and ran beside Bootsie for as long as I could. I ran until I simply could not run any more and then I struggled back onto Bootsie and off we went again. I wished Wayne were here. I needed him. But I kept going anyway.

After about 15 miles, I collapsed and Bootsie grazed, I woke as the sun was going down and saw there was a bright moon. I got back on Bootsie and we set off at a walk. There wasn't enough light to go any faster. I relied on Bootsie to choose the path and just kept his head pointing northwest. That part was easy. The stars were out.

Julie

"Yes, these people were pretty good eating." Selena sat in a kitchen chair and leaned forward on her elbows. Bert left the room on some errand or another.

"My God, you have done this sort of thing before?"

"Why, of course, Missy. Bert and I have been cannibals for years and years. We have lived all over the country. It helps to move around a lot if you have our hobby."

"You mean you are cannibals and serial killers too?"

"Of course, Dear. How else could we manage? Yes, these people were a little old, a little tough, but I have recipes that tenderize very well."

"You were here when the EMP attack occurred?"

"The what?"

"The electromagnetic pulse that shut down the electric grid and made cars no longer work."

"So that is what happened. We just thought our car broke and the electricity went out. We are just waiting for someone to come along with a car that works. Anyway Dear, don't change the subject. I was saying about these people," she said gesturing at the skulls on the table, "he had a bigger thing than Bertie. I liked it, before and after."

I couldn't help myself, "after?"

"Why yes. That is my favorite part. I always prepare that first, just for me."

I threw up again, even though there wasn't much left to toss.

"Oh, Sweetie," She giggled. "They taste good. They are much better cooked than raw, if you get my drift?"

Yeti

We made another ten miles by daylight. I estimated Bootsie's stride length and counted his paces. We had gone 25 of the 35 miles we needed to go. Bootsie was doing well. He was a strong horse. I had given him all of the water so far. He needed it more than I did. For all I knew Julie was fine. But, if she was fine, why wasn't she home?

Julie

Selena left me alone in the kitchen, still tied to the chair. I tried to get loose but had no luck. Bert came in once and told me in great detail what he was going to do to me. He was disgusting. I tried to ignore him as he felt my breasts.

"Oh, you have great tits, Missy. I will have much fun with them. Part of that you will enjoy. I guarantee it. All the women have. I am a master lover, the best—and last—you will ever have. That makes it better somehow, don't you think? Tits are my favorite, by the way. I just love them with garlic butter."

"Bert, leave that girl alone. I need you again."

"Yes, Dear." Bert leaned over and, with his face just an inch from mine, said, "don't worry Sweetie, your turn is coming. Then he kissed me full on the lips and tried to give me some tongue."

"Bert, I need you." Bert pulled back, smiled at me, and went to the bedroom. I felt filthy and afraid. I tried harder to free myself as another round of grunts and squeals filled the house.

When evening came they untied me and, after a bathroom break, at gunpoint—mine no less—tied me to a bed in one of the bedrooms. "You sleep here, Missy." Selena said. "Tomorrow night Bert will entertain you. The day after that there will be a feast in your honor and you will be the main dish. I can hardly wait." She was licking her lips as she left the room.

I tried again to free myself, but I couldn't. Selena stepped back into the room as I was struggling. "Now, now, Honey, you can't get loose. We have years and years of practice at this. Just lie back and have a good night's sleep."

Four hours later Bert slipped into the room with a kerosene lantern in his hand.

Yeti

This evening Bootsie and I made it to the butte. I stopped there. Come daylight I will look for tracks.

Julie

Bert was climbing on the bed. His pants were off and he was obviously excited. Selena was right. He was small. Although, considering the violence he was capable of, I didn't feel it was necessary to point that out to him. I struggled with the ropes that bound me and shouted, "Get off of me you pervert. Go fuck a cactus!" In an instant Selena was there.

"Now Bertie, what did I tell you? Tomorrow night, not tonight." She winked at me as she led Bert from the room by his member. I gagged as my empty stomach tried to turn inside out. Soon the grunts and squeals started again.

In the morning they took me back to the kitchen and, after a much-needed bathroom break, during which they both watched, they tied me to a chair in the kitchen. Bert and Selena were calmly discussing which recipes they would use to cook which parts of me when the door burst open.

Yeti

I saw the ranch when the light grew strong. I knew Julie would have gone there so I mounted Bootsie and rode hard toward the ranch. I rode Bootsie quietly into the yard and got in position by the door. Julie's saddled horse was tied to the porch rail. I listened. I could hear people talking. Something told me not to knock. I put my shoulder to the door and burst into the room.

Julie was tied to a chair. A man and woman were sitting at the table. They jumped up in surprise as I came through the door. The man reached for a pistol. Without thinking my left hand shot out and grabbed him around the neck. I jerked him into the air before he could reach the pistol.

"Yeti, kill them. They are monsters," Julie shouted. The woman picked up a shotgun from the corner of the room so I shot her. I wasn't sure of my marksmanship so I shot her three times. It turned out that any of the three shots would have done the job.