Joshua (Book 2): Traveler (17 page)

“I’m not going with you, Rob ... remember, I hate you.”

Robert did his best to make that fake charm sound as real as he could, “Listen, James, I came after you for several reasons. First, I wanted to give you back your boots.”

“So you agree they were mine all along?”

“Yes, I also wanted to apologize to you, James. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I treated you like that. I’m also sorry I said those things to you. I had no right. I was upset ... you know, with Nicky and everything.” Rob put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, “I want you to come back, you can take care of the camp for us, and that’s all.”

“Nothing else? Just take care of the camp?”

“Yes, that’s all you will have to do.”

“Nothing else, no ‘services’?”

“No, just take care of the camp for us. That’s all. We all want you to come back.”

James thought about it a moment, broke Rob’s hold, and started heading for the road. “No, I still hate you.”

Rob was right behind him, “Well, you can hate me and take care of the camp at the same time, can’t you? James, if you think about it, we need each other. This is the best thing for all of us.”

Both of them turned as they heard someone behind them. They had already forgotten about the old woman still standing barefoot in the snow. You could hear the honesty as she spoke, “You boys come back to visit any time!”

James started walking down the road.

“Hey James, you’re going in the wrong direction. We’re this way.”

But the boy was resolute, “I told you I’m not going. Besides, John is going to kill all of you, and even though I hate you, Rob, I don’t want to be around to see that.”

“Alton is dead.”

James stopped, turned back, racing towards Robert standing there in the middle of the road. “What did you say?!”

“McCain and Rudd found him about an hour after you left. He froze to death in the night. I don’t think he suffered much. Probably just lost consciousness and died in his sleep. We buried him right next to Nicky. I think he would have wanted that.”

The boy started slapping Robert in the face again and again, and he stood there taking it. “Damn you! If you had let us go everything would have been all right!”

“I couldn’t let you go, kid, I couldn’t let any of you go. To try to split the group in half ... especially in the middle of winter, that would have been suicide. I had to kill Alton to save the rest of the group. If I hadn’t all of us would have been dead long before springtime.”

James still wasn’t convinced and continued to smack Rob in his face as hard as he could. “Damn you! Liar! You don’t know that for sure!”

Robert finally stopped the boy’s hand, “I do know. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m sorry I had to kill Alton, but it had to be done. Breaking up now would have killed us all.”

Depleted, the boy fell to his knees crying.

Rob went on with all of the sincerity he could pretend. “I know you don’t believe me, James, but I am truly sorry I had to kill Alton. He was a good man. I’ll miss him too.” He helped James back to his feet and put his arm around the sobbing boy. “That’s why you have to come back with me. You can’t survive out here all alone, and we need you too. We’re going to have to work together to survive this winter. Come on ...”

He turned the boy in the right direction and they started walking down the highway. James suddenly had something important to exclaim, “I don’t need you! I don’t need any of you! I can make it on my own!”

Rob didn’t say another word but continued to march the boy towards their newest home.

James had another objection as he wiped the last tear from his eye, “I don’t do anything I don’t want to, either!”

Rob continued to lead him back and although he kept saying he didn’t want to go, the boy never once stopped.

With less than an hour left of walking from the old church, the boy came to a halt. “I have to pee.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“No.”

“All right, go.”

James took a good long look around them; it was all open fields except for a large elm about one hundred yards off.

“I’m going to go behind that tree.”

“Seriously? You can’t just go right here?”

“No, I can’t. But I’ll be right back.” The boy took off running.

At first Rob thought James might be planning an escape, but there was nowhere for the boy to go. There was another three hundred yards of open field behind that tree and with his rifle the problem could be solved with one easy shot. He stood there puzzled, and it was only after he saw James returning that something at last just ‘clicked’ there inside Robert’s mind.

The boy slowly approached.

Robert quietly studied him, saying nothing until he got close. “James, I want you to show me your penis.”

The boy was taken aback and stopped dead in his tracks, “What?”

“You heard me. Show me your dick. Pull it out and show it to me, right now.”

“I will not!”

“I’m not joking, James. Show me your dick! RIGHT NOW!”

“I won’t!”

Instantly Rob was on top of him and knocked him to the ground. He struggled but the boy was no match for the stronger man that held him down. With the weight of his body on one arm he pinned him there and began curiously groping the boy’s crotch with his other hand. After a few moments searching all around, finally he realized there was nothing to be found.

Rob let her go and jumped back to his feet again, “Son of a bitch! You’re a woman ... a girl!”

She got back up, brushing the snow off, “I’m not ...”

“Are you going to try and deny it?! Do yourself a favor, BOY, and don’t say a thing!”

“I ...”

“SHUT UP! DON’T SAY A WORD!”

James stood there silent for a long while watching Robert march back and forth in the snow, deep in thought. At last Rob had some things to say. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you fooled all of us, especially me. What’s your real name?”

“My ...”

“STOP! Never mind, I don’t want to know your real name. If I know your name I might use it, then the guys would find out about you.”

“I don’t care if they do. I’m tired of pretending I’m a boy. I want to be myself again.”

“You should care. This is bad, James. You don’t know how bad this is. Where did you get this silly idea anyway?”

“My mom.”

“Your mom?”

“Yes, when she got shot she didn’t die right away. It took her two days. She made me do this. She made me cut off all my beautiful hair. She made me dress like this, act like this. She said I would be safer in this world as a boy.”

“I don’t know, your mom was probably right.”

“What do you mean?”

“James, I’m just going to keep calling you James, all right ... we can’t tell the guys about you. I don’t know what would happen if we did, but I don’t think it would be good.”

“The guys, they know me, they like me, most of them. I think it will be okay. Besides, sooner or later they’ll figure it out; you did.”

“No, James, I don’t think it will be ‘okay’ if they find out.” Rob started pacing again, “Let me tell you a story, a very sad and true story. This won’t work out. I know because we already tried it before. You see, a while back we had a couple of women in our camp. It was years ago, before Alton showed up. They were two sisters; their names were Megan and Mary. Megan, she tried to be a soldier, she really tried, but it ended badly. She just wasn’t cut out for that kind of work. She showed some sympathy for a prisoner and it got her killed. He stabbed her in the base of the skull with a screwdriver.”

Rob stopped again and looked James right in the eye. “And then there was Mary. She never wanted to be a soldier, her idea was to stay at camp and do all those jobs the guys didn’t want to. It worked for a while, we got three hot meals a day, when we had them, our clothes and bedding were clean and we had plenty of water. But then something else started happening. She started having sex with some of the men. Pretty soon she was doing all of them. After a while nothing was getting done, by her or the men either. She became more and more depressed and finally she killed herself, she couldn’t take it anymore. Putting out for every man in the camp, anytime they wanted, which by then was most of the time. That what’s going to happen to you, James, if they find out you’re a woman. They’ll turn you into a prostitute, screwing men for three meals a day. I know you don’t believe this, but I like you, I don’t want to see that happen. I’m trying to help you.”

“You didn’t seem bothered by it when you thought I was a boy. You said I would have to do THAT, if I wanted to stay.”

“I wouldn’t have done that to you, James, ever. I needed soldiers and I was desperate. I was trying to make you cooperate. I thought I could scare you into becoming one. Besides, the guys wouldn’t have done that to you, well, except Rudd ...” Rob paused and thought about it another moment, “and maybe D’Cruz. But if they find out you’re really a woman that’s all going to change.”

Rob started walking again with James following right behind, “Believe me, it’s best this way. If they find out you’re a woman, what happened to Mary will happen to you. I’m sure of it. But you don’t have worry, I’ll keep your secret.”

But as far as James was concerned, the argument was far from over, “I’m tired of living like this, I can’t stand it anymore. I want to be myself. The guys ... we were friends, they’ll understand.”

“No they won’t. I told you what’s going to happen when they find out.”

As they made their way, James would stop every few minutes with another reason why she was right.

At long last Robert was tired of the fight, “I don’t know why I’m arguing about it anyway. It doesn’t affect me one way or the other. Now that I think about it, it might be better for me if they do know. Then they would have you to occupy their time while we’re in camp. You could help me keep them under control. I was trying to do you a favor, that’s all. I was trying to take care of you.”

James exploded with an anger Rob had never seen before, “I don’t need your favors! I don’t need your help! I can take care of myself! Nobody’s going to make me doing anything I don’t want to!”

“Really? You want to put that to the test? I tell you what, you’re going to get what you want. When we get back, I’m going to tell all the guys your little secret. I bet within two hours you’ve had sex with every one of them. But no one makes you do anything you don’t want to, right? So that must mean you’re a little slut who wants to hump every man she sees.”

She was incensed, “SHUT UP!”

“Yeah, I’ve got a new job for you when we get back. You’re going to be the camp whore. Well, that’s a little harsh, isn’t it? I know, we’ll say your job title is ... ‘camp morale officer.’ Your job is going to be keeping every one of the guys happy, and after a while I bet you’ll be happy to do it too. I bet you’ll happily spread your legs every time one of them asks.”

“SHUT UP!”

“Before that I’m going to give you to Rudd, so he can train you right. He could hardly contain himself when he thought you were a boy ... when he finds out you’re a girl there’ll be no stopping him. He won’t even have to get liquored up first. Oh, the two of you are going to get real close. He’s going to rape you five times a day, and ten times on Sundays!”

“SHUT UP!”

“I think I’m going to have you first, though. I want to be the one that breaks you open. They say you always remember your first, and I want you to remember me, always.”

“SHUT UP!” James tried to pull Rob’s revolver from its holster but the safety strap held it in place. Rob smacked James in the face with the back of his hand, enough to knock her to the ground but with no serious damage except a welt across the cheek.

James got right back up and attacked Rob again and the results were exactly the same. She landed right on her rear when shoved to the ground. She got up and charged him once more and Rob stopped her with his hand.

“You keep doing that I’m really going to have to hurt you. You’re no match for me, James. I can make you do anything I want. What was that you said a while back? Oh yeah, you don’t need a gun. Change your mind? Did you just figure out you might need one after all? I’ve been trying to tell you the whole time you’ve been with us, but you weren’t listening ... and now it’s too late. Look at you, you’re not very strong, you have no fighting skills, you can’t use a gun or even a knife. You know what that means? That means you are at the mercy of anyone stronger than you; people like me, people like all of your ‘friends’ waiting for you back at the church. We’ll make you do anything we want and there’s not a single thing you can do to stop us. If we want to make you cook our food, or scrub our dirty underwear, or screw us all night, you’ll just have to do it. Why? Because you, little girl, have absolutely no say in the matter. This is the real world, and here the strong are in charge.”

Rob took James by the arm and started pulling her along.

“Get off me!”

“Oh no, I want to get you back before dark. So we can see all that you’ve got in broad daylight.”

“I SAID GET OFF OF ME!”

Rob continued to pull her along, the girl dragging her feet in the snow. Before long both could see a small church there in the distance.

Chapter Ten

Alton ran through the door and into the church, racing across the large single room. As he quickly approached the back door, he saw two rifles there against the wall. He had less than a second to make a decision; he slowed just long enough to grab a scoped rifle and then leapt through the back door.

Back outside he made a quick survey and was running once more for a patch of trees about a hundred yards north on the side of a shallow slope. Just as he arrived, he heard the sound of gunfire behind him. He could see someone, he thought Martinelli, firing at him from a covered position. Instantly he jumped behind an old walnut tree. He landed in the snow facedown, clumsily picked himself up and was running again in just over a second.

After a minute of flat out running, he had to stop. His chest was aching and he felt his inner shirt, it was soaked. He gazed down and his blood was randomly scattered in the white snow behind him. The blood, along with his footprints, made sure he would be easy to find.