57
ATTICUS
When we made it to the path where other men waited with horses, Thais and I were separated. Thais was forced into a makeshift carriage—a truck bed pulled by two horses—while I was forced to walk alongside Driggs high on his horse.
“Try to run,” Driggs warned, looking down on me, “and I won’t shoot you—I’ll shoot that pretty little woman back there. Understood? Underfuckingstood?”
I wouldn’t run anywhere without her, you fucking idiot.
“Yeah. I fucking understand.”
“Good.” Driggs smiled. “Then we should have no problem.” He dug his heels into the horse’s side and the horse went into motion behind the others.
THAIS
In the back, surrounded by dirty men stuffing their faces with stolen food, smoking stolen cigarettes, reeking of stolen whiskey, I did the opposite of what I would’ve done months ago—I made eye contact with each one of them.
I hated them for killing Jeffrey, but I pitied them, too.
“How did you come to be this way?” I asked no one in particular; my voice implied empathy, and not an ounce of bitterness—this, too, was uncharacteristic of me. Had I grown so much in my time on the run? Had my frightening experiences since being abducted and losing my family made me harder, fearless? Perhaps. But I was not hard. I was not fearless. There simply were no other alternatives. I couldn’t fight them; I couldn’t run; to cry anymore over Jeffrey, or plead with them fruitlessly to let me and Atticus go would only create a headache—reasoning with them, being civil with them, showing them my strengths instead of my weaknesses was all I had.
None of the men answered; most were too busy admiring their loot. The truck bed bumbled unstably on its two wheels down the dirt road.
“Things don’t have to be this way,” I went on in the same gentle voice. “Where are your families? Do they live with you in Paducah?”
A young man probably in his twenties, with white-blonde hair cut short around his ears, looked up from the First-Aid kit that once belonged to me. He sucked on a tooth, his gaze crawled over me.
“We have no families,” he said. “And you’d be better off without one.” He looked back down into the kit, more interested in its contents than anything I had to say.
“Attachments make you weak,” said another young man with brown hair. “Weakness gets you killed.”
I looked at each of them.
“I think you’re wrong,” I said. “I think you’re just angry because you lost your families. But resorting to…this; you don’t have to—”
“Shut the fuck up, will yah?” snapped an older man on my right; he had intense dark eyes and sharp black eyebrows and greasy hair. The knife in his hand moved back and forth over a knife sharpener, the dull blade rasping against the whetstone. “A bit of advice—and I normally don’t give it away for free, so listen closely—drop that do-good bullshit attitude of yours and put on your alligator skin. You’re gonna fuckin’ need it where you’re going.”
I frowned.
“Ah, don’t scare the girl,” said the brown-haired man. He popped the last of my caramel hard candy into his mouth, tossed the bag aside. “Look at her”—he gestured at me with his hand—“there’s no way she’ll be sittin’ on the porch with the big dogs—they’ll put her on duty for sure.”
“Hey, don’t underestimate the little ones,” said the greasy-haired man. “I got bit by a Chihuahua once—booted it like a football afterward—that little fucker sure as hell tore into me though. Took me by surprise.”
The blonde-haired man looked up from the First-Aid kit. “Yeah, but this one”—he nodded at me—“looks more like one of those Teacup Yorkies. My ex-girlfriend had one of those. And when it bit me it tickled.” He pointed at me. “That one’s a Teacup Yorkie.”
The brown-haired man laughed. “You had a Teacup Yorkie?” he ribbed. “You always came off as a Doberman Pincher kind of guy.” His laughter resonated.
The blonde-haired man snarled.
“I said my ex-girlfriend had a Teacup Yorkie, you stupid cocksucker.”
“Fuck you, man,” the brown-haired man came back. “You need to lighten the fuck up. I’m tired of your brooding shit.” He shook his head. “Teacup Yorkie motherfucker—fuckin’ pussy.”
The blonde-haired man set the kit on the metal floor beside him. “What did you say?” he challenged.
My eyes darted back and forth between them.
The brown-haired man shrugged off the challenge and smiled. “Fuck you.” He laughed under his breath.
White-blonde hair blazed across the dark space between them. As I backed my body into the corner of the truck bed, the brown-haired man was shoved against the metal.
“Oomph!”
The truck bed shook and wobbled; the stomping of leather boots, the grunting and heavy breathing of the fighting men filled the space. The other three men watched from the sidelines with excited, bloodthirsty smiles.
The older man with greasy hair pumped his fist. “Kick his fuckin’ ass!” he barked.
“Hell yeah!” shouted another man.
The blonde-haired man locked both hands around his opponent’s head, pressing his thumbs against his tightly-closed eyes. A strident bang! sounded as the brown-haired man’s head struck the metal of the truck bed barrier behind him. Bang! Bang! BAM!
I yelped, and my hand flew over my mouth. I’d slipped my hands from the zip-tie an hour ago, kept them hidden behind my back, but no one noticed right away that my hands were free.
The horse pulling the truck whinnied, and the truck bed jolted heavily and came to a stop. In a second, the blonde-haired man grabbed his bloodied victim and threw him over the side of the truck. He leaped over afterward, and continued to pummel the other man with his fist.
I kept my head low, my body curled up in the corner. I heard Atticus’ voice from somewhere: “Why are you putting her back there with them?!” But I refused to lift my head. I could hear the blood now—actually hear the blood: the wetness of it, like a drenched piece of fabric dropped in mud, repeatedly.
Many men were shouting:
“Yeah! Yeah!”
“Fucking beat his ass!”
“Kill that weak piece of shit! KILL HIM!”
Then they all chanted: “Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!”
The sound of bones crunching under the power of the fist made my head dizzy. I clenched my hands behind my back, gritted my teeth, and screamed at the top of my lungs—I couldn’t take it anymore! All the times I’d seen Atticus do it—I just couldn’t take it anymore!
Then I leapt over the side of the truck and hit the ground.
ATTICUS
“Let her go!” I shouted from the front. That scream, I couldn’t bear it! Are they hurting her?
I bolted.
Driggs dismounted and ran after me.
“Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!” I heard Thais cry out.
When I made it around the side of the truck bed, I saw her standing over a blonde-haired man, kicking him in the back, as he straddled a brown-haired man.
“THAIS!” I ran toward her. “Let me go!” I growled, struggled against Driggs who grabbed me from behind and shoved me to the ground.
Driggs’ boot came soaring toward my face. When I opened my eyes again, I was lying flat on my back, looking up at Driggs standing over me; the barrel of a gun pointed at me.
“The little lady got herself into this,” Driggs taunted. “She’ll have to get herself out.”
“Out of what?” I demanded, tried to roll over and get to my feet, but was stopped by Driggs’ boot pressed against my chest. “OUT OF WHAT?” I repeated, my nostrils flaring.
Driggs reached down, grabbed a fistful of my hair and lifted me into a sitting position so I could see out of what.
The moment Thais was in my line of sight, I saw her feet come out from underneath her and her body fly backward before hitting the ground. She cried out. I drew back my legs and kicked Driggs in the pelvis, knocking him on his ass. I vaulted toward the blonde-haired man with my hands still bound behind me, my back arched, my head lowered, and I dove into the man’s abdomen like a spear, and we went crashing to the ground. I straddled him, and because I couldn’t use my fists, I bashed the blonde-haired man in the head with my own head. Once, twice, three times before I felt my dizzied body being dragged away; the dark-haired bastard was behind me, his hands underneath my arms, heaving me off the man.
“You’ll get your chance!” he said. “But not here—no bets have been placed yet!” He laughed.
“Oh, he’s gonna make me rich!” came Driggs’ excited, gruff voice.
I ignored them.
“Are you all right? Thais?” I was sitting on the ground several feet from her.
Thais raised her head and looked across at me. Blood dripped from her nose. She wiped it away with the back of her hand.
My hands shook; I glared at the blonde-haired man, watching him get to his feet.
“Why did you do that?” I asked Thais. “Why were you hitting him?”
Then realization dawned and threw my mind into violence again. “Did they touch you? Thais, tell me—did they touch you?” My breath came fast and heavy; my fingertips dug into the palms of my clenched hands.
“They didn’t hurt me,” she finally answered. “No one hurt me.” She swiped her hand under her nose again.
I noticed the brown-haired man lying on the ground, unmoving.
“He was killing him,” Thais said as the white-haired man strode past.
I blinked with incomprehension. Why did she attack him? Why did she intervene? Why not just let the bastards kill each other?
“Thais?” I lowered my voice, not wanting the men nearby, distracted by one another, to hear. I wanted to scold her, to tell her how stupid it was to do what she did, and I started to, but at the last second changed my mind. I sighed heavily. “Are you all right? Is anything broken?”
THAIS
I shook my head.
“I’m all right.” I wiped blood from my nose again, and then the tears from my cheeks.
Kade helped me to my feet.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he told me and dusted off my dress. “Women are treated the same as men in our community. If you’re bold enough to hit a man then you should be prepared to get hit in return.”
“Sounds like a wonderful place,” I said, shaking my head. “So, it’s anything goes in Paducah, then?”
Kade smiled, and secured my wrists with another zip-tie. “Pretty much,” he said. “There are no laws, no jails or prisons; there are no fines or punishments”— his index finger shot up—“Well, there are two things we don’t tolerate: cannibalism and child abuse of any kind are instant death sentences. But aside from that, it’s anything goes. Only the strong survive.” He paused, and then added, “Well, sometimes the strong protect the weak, but there aren’t too many with that kind of tolerance.”
“And what about slavery?” The bite was evident in my words, justified by the bonds on my wrists.
Kade walked me around to the back of the truck bed, and out of sight of Atticus.
“It was our decision to take you hostage,” he answered without remorse. “And whatever consequences there are for our actions against you, we’re prepared to face them.” His smile brightened, as if he were thinking of something delightful. “But yes, slavery is allowed. If you want to call it slavery—I wouldn’t go that far.”
I clamped my jaw.
Kade fitted his hands around my waist and hoisted me back into the truck.
“This looks like slavery to me,” I said. “I don’t want to be here; you’re forcing me to do something I don’t want to do, to go somewhere I don’t want to go—the beginnings of slavery, is it not?”
Kade smiled this time with teeth; his fingers slid away from the tailgate.
“Consequences,” he recapped. “I’m prepared to face them.” He patted the tailgate, alerting the man guiding the horse that it’s okay to go into motion again. “If there are any consequences. But you should know that I’ve never taken on anything I couldn’t handle.”
He gave me a chance to respond, retained his smile, which infuriated me, and then he walked away when I had nothing to say.
I sat with the same men as before, minus the one with brown hair who was left, like Jeffrey, on the ground in his final resting place, beat to death by the man across from me. He eyed me with scorn for the briefest of moments, and then with disinterest, as if nothing had ever happened. He looked down into the First-Aid kit again and continued his investigation of its contents.
I looked away from him and thought only of Atticus; my only comfort with these lawless barbarians was knowing that he was there, somewhere, and that he was still alive.
I’m sorry we stayed so long in the cabin.
I’m sorry, Atticus.
I’m so very sorry, Jeffrey.
I looked down at my lap so no one would see me cry.