Apocalypse Slaves Pt. 14

Erin was not amused. She was sure that they had orders to frisk her... and probably strip her naked as well to throw her in the barns. "Yes, I'm armed," she said, opening her duster to reveal the two pistols that she had strapped to her thighs. She'd left her rifle down in Great Falls in a locked box hiding hole that only she had the key to; a payment for one of the jobs she'd done over the winter. "No, you may not frisk me," she told them point blank.

"Sorry, Ma'am," the guard said, "it's our policy."

"Do you do it with your male clients as well?" Erin asked. "No? Then fuck off." She strode between them, heading through the doors to their shocked looks. Erin smirked at them and figured that she had to be the first girl to ever tell them off. At any rate, she walked unaccosted to Ambrose's office with the occasional servant pointing the way.

Ambrose was every bit the businessman when she entered his office, looking exactly as he'd been described: average height, dark hair, glasses, and a suit that looked like it was a bit sun bleached but had been pure white at some point in time. "Welcome, my dear," he said with all sincerity he briefly rose from his side of the desk and they shook hands. He then motioned her to a seat across from him. "It's not often that we get someone of your... caliber... here. Normally I do not entertain clients until the full onset of summer when they can make the journey from abroad but you, I must say, were most... persuasive."

"I tend to be when I'm hunting down a target," Erin said with a sweet smile.

"Am I your target, Miss Hunter?" Ambrose asked with amusement.

"That depends on how the next five minutes go and how much I like your answers," Erin replied. "I'm looking for an older woman that you bought the month before the last bazaar; a Pre-Flare survivor who'd come out of the ice named Melanie."

"Ah, yes, Mel," Ambrose said with a nod. "She was one of our favorites with the guests at parties."

"Was?"

Ambrose sighed. "Just sold her, I'm afraid. So I do apologize that your journey up here was all for naught."

Erin closed her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose. If she had to guess, she was now off by mere fucking minutes. Had that guard not caught her down the mountain, Erin might've been up here in time to interrupt the sale. "Who has her now?" Erin asked evenly.

He gave her a condescending smile. "The clients that I cater to pay me a lot of tabs to keep their names quiet from the likes of bounty hunters like you," Ambrose explained as if talking to a child. "And this client is not the forgiving sort."

"Well what's his price? I'll double it and we can go beat the shit outta him." Erin countered.

"I'm afraid that's completely out of the question," Ambrose said with mock sympathy. "Now, if I could interest you in some of our other girls, I'm sure we can find an older one to suit your tastes," he said as if it were a simple solution. But Erin'd had enough. She pulled her pistol from her right thigh holster to point it right at him across the desk. His eyes widened. "Are you joking? A gun, really?" he asked disdainfully.

Erin just glared at Ambrose down the sights of her pistol, cocking the hammer back for a faster shot. "Do I look like I'm fucking around?" she asked harshly.

"If I divulge the secrets of my clients and colleagues," Ambrose countered, "they will kill me."

"What'd you think I'm gonna do?" Erin snapped, waggling the gun at him. "Focus on me, here, asshole. Who has Melanie?"

Ambrose shook his head. "If I were to tell you then word would get out that I'm weak and then everyone that I do business here will know that I'm ripe for the killing and the pickings. Besides," he said with a smug smile, "I don't think that you'll kill me because if you do then my guards will be on you within minutes and they'll kill you in turn." Erin shifted her aim slightly and pulled the trigger. The sharp report made Ambrose jump and he jerked to his right when the bullet blew apart the lantern just behind him. "ARE YOU INSANE?" he screeched in surprise and outrage.

But Erin was already on her feet, kicking her chair back and drawing her second pistol from her left thigh holster. She spun in place and had it leveled for the door right when the first guard came in. Erin popped off two shots, dropping him in his tracks. She continued her spin move, now bringing her right pistol to bear, shooting the next guard coming in and killing him as well. Then she sidestepped to her left, putting Ambrose and his chair between her and the door. Ambrose tried to get up, but she hit him upside the head with her right pistol, keeping him in the chair, as she then put it up against his temple. At the same time, she put the barrel of her left pistol down into his crotch. "Call them off or you're never fucking a woman ever again," she hissed at him. Then she nudged him in the side of the head with the barrel of her right pistol. "My second shot gives your skull some much needed ventilation." She pressed her left pistol down into his crotch, making him wince. "Get me?"

The moment the next two guards came in, Ambrose was frantically waving them off. "Back off! Back off! It's just a misunderstanding!" he cried out desperately. "Take those two out, close the door, and see to it we're not disturbed!"

The guards looked at them dubiously while Erin glared at them, silently daring them to try something. "Are you sure, boss?" they asked, not backing away in the least little bit.

"I'm sure! The... er... Huntress here..." he said, apparently realizing that Erin never gave him her name, "just misconstrued what I'd said in regard to client privacy." Ambrose said quickly. When they didn't move, Ambrose started sweating. "For the love of Caine, man, if she wanted me dead, she would've killed me with the first shot or just sniped me from afar," he glanced up at her. "Isn't that right, Huntress?"

"Yup," Erin nodded once, never taking her eyes off of the guards. "I wouldn't have wasted my time coming in here... just like how I shot up the Militiamen down in Billings last year."

"That was you?" the guard asked with wide-eyed shock. "We thought that was Caine!"

"I've trained and slept with Caine which is why it looked like him," Erin said with perverse pleasure of name dropping. "So if you want to see what one of his bitches can do, I suggest you leave."

"So you see, everything is under control!" Ambrose said desperately as Erin applied more pressure to his head and groin.

One guard narrowed his eyes. "Take your guns off of him and we'll back off."

"I'll take the one off of his head down," Erin said, lowering her right pistol. She pressed the left one down into his crotch, making Ambrose wince again. "This one stays until you're gone... for insurance purposes."

"Fair enough," the guard gave her a slight bow of the head. Then he and his buddy lowered their weapons before they dragged the other two out.

Erin waited for the door to close before moving. She walked over and locked the door and then, for good measure, sat with her back cocked forty-five degrees away from the door so she could keep an eye on both it and Ambrose. "Alright," she said as she holstered the pistol in her left thigh holster, "you bought yourself some more time. Now, who bought Melanie and where is he?"

"His name is Saul, Saul Powers, and I don't know where his estate is at," Ambrose said, now sweating profusely. Then his hands shot up when Erin brought her other pistol, still in her hand, up to bear. "WAIT! No one knows where he lives at! He's THAT secretive. I only know him when he comes to me with business and any merchandise that I pass to him is always done here. Any slaves that come and go from his place are always either blindfolded or crated up so they can't see where they're at so they can't reveal his location if he ever sells them."

Erin's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Then what the fuck good are you to me then?"

"Is there ANYthing that I can say, do, or give you that won't result in you shooting me?" Ambrose asked, now sweating profusely.

Her eye arched. "I dunno," she half shrugged. "I like to think that I'm a modern, twenty second century woman who's quite the mercenary... what do you have in mind?"

"Weeeeellllll..." Ambrose loosened his tie and collar. "You came here to buy one of my pony girls as a client... I assume... I could give you one of them."

"Where the fuck would I put them at, let alone how would I take them around with me, huh?" Erin snapped.

"There's a nice little town just to the north of my mountain here that I own. You can have your pick of any of the homes there along with seeds to get your own crops going," Ambrose said quickly. "Annnnd..." he continued on at Erin's skeptical look, "I can also provide you with transportation for two. I have a couple of reclaimed motorcycles that I tinker with. I can give you one of them for you to get around in."

"And," Erin now put in, "I want your personal assurance that you will not send any of your goons to kill me after I leave, I want your word that the next time Saul is here that you'll inform me so that I can tail him. AND, I want a list of everyone that you know he's done business with so that I can glean them for information," she said in a curt voice. Then she stood up, holstered her pistol, and strode over to his desk to lean over him in a threatening manner. "Because let me get one thing straight here, mister; you know of Caine but I've personally trained with him and all it takes is one of your guys sniffing around trying to get me off of your back for me to come back up here. Now, you know of Caine's rep. What do you think a hormonal, PMSing bitch like me, who's trained with him, can do to you?" She said, glaring down at him. It was a bit of a bluff, really, she didn't know the Caine of this day and age, but it sounded a lot like the Caine she knew. Besides, how were they going to fact check her? So embellishing a bit on a name drop wouldn't hurt and so far she thought she had enough street cred to pull it off.

Ambrose folded like a pair of deuces staring at a straight flush. "You have my word, I swear it! I have no doubt that you can do everything that Caine does and possibly more, Huntress. Now, shall we go get your things?"

Minutes later, Ambrose and his handlers were opening up the barn that housed his two pony girl teams. The handlers all rushed in, calling out the girls' names to summon them to the gates for their hoods to be removed, while leaving their leather collars on, so that Erin could get a good look at them. She walked up and down the bays, looking at them, pausing at the one that had been her mother's. A small Asian girl now occupied the stall. Upon closer look, Erin realized that she knew the girl. It was Ana from the brothel down in Great Falls. Well that explains where she went to, Erin thought to herself. She looked at Ambrose and pointed to Ana. "I'll take her and all of her barding, bedding, restraints, and toys you got for her," she said without hesitation.

"I'd just paid good tabs for her too to replace Mel..." Ambrose sighed. "But... a deal is a deal. She's yours." He snapped his fingers to his handlers and pointed towards Ana, who leapt into action to pull Ana from her stall and get her into her pony girl gear. As they worked, Ambrose looked at Erin expectantly. "I trust that the terms of our agreement are now settled?" he asked.

"Yup," Erin nodded as she watched Ana get prepped for transport. "And just remember, not one member of your goons comes looking for me, nor do you hire anyone out to kill me," she reminded him. Then she turned to him, cozied up to him, and gave him an evil smile. She turned her head up to whisper into his ear as if they were lovers. "You called me the Huntress, I like that name, so also remember that nothing is more dangerous than a Huntress who is being hunted. Sure, they might get me, but I'll be sure to take you out with me before that happens, burn your entire place down, and then laugh while I piss on your ashes, got it, hon?" She then kissed him lightly on the cheek before pulling away. Ambrose had gone five shades of pale, nodding mutely while looking at her in wide-eyed fright.

The motorcycle ride with Ana now behind her in her harness riding bitch was uneventful. They got to what was once a small mountain town called Highwood that still had a couple of homes still standing, even if they were in some serious need of repair. She found one that she liked; a little two-story place near a river intersection that would be easily accessible. With a motorcycle now, Great Falls and even Billings was within easier reach and didn't require days of walking. After clearing the house to make sure no one was already in it, Erin went back to the bike to get Ana so that they could then unload the huge bedroll and their supplies from the motorbike. Of course, today's version of a motorbike was like an old motorcycle on steroids with a couple of huge ass monster wheels that were so thick that a kickstand was no longer needed. Erin figured that she could easily fit three or four people riding bitch behind her on the thing and still have room to sling bags of supplies over the sides. "I think that this place will do nicely while we work as a northern base while we look around to get my mom back, don't you think?" Erin asked Ana after they reclaimed the master bedroom and got the mattress and covers from the pony girl barn laid out on the old box springs. "I have no intention staying here for any amount of time. I'd rather work out of Billings since I have friends there, I can leave you with while I'm away." She said, taking the harnesses and leathers off of Ana and letting her have a bathroom break before stripping out of her own clothes.

"Yes, Mistress," Ana said once she was done, crawling into bed with her. Clearing out space, parking the bike in an old shed, cleaning up the bedroom and then eating dinner had taken most of the day.

Erin brought Ana into her arms as they got cozy underneath of the covers with their naked bodies pressed close together. "Mmmmm... back in bed with you again," Erin mused happily. "I missed you over the winter."

Ana blushed at that. "I didn't think that you remembered me, Mistress," she admitted.

"Are you kidding? This beautiful face and wonderful body? You're hard to forget, Ana," Erin said with a smile before cupping her face and drawing her into a passionate kiss. "I said that I'd come back for you and here you are in my arms again."

"Hmmmm... thank you, Mistress." Ana hummed with pleasure. "I saw your mother, right before I was put into her stall this morning. I didn't see the man who bought her, though. I'm sorry."

"It's okay as I think I saw him and the ride he has," Erin told her. "And I have his name. It's only a matter of time now." She kissed Ana tenderly. "Let's get some sleep. I want to be out of here early tomorrow."

"You won't take me now, Mistress?" Ana asked, sounding surprised and a little bit hurt.

"There's time for that later once we get to a safe house of mine where we can relax." Erin explained. Ana was soon asleep in her arms and Erin woke up here and there throughout the night, her senses on high alert. Come the dawn, they were both dressed, Erin in her clothes and Ana in her harness and boots, and they were on the bike and gone. The first stop was Great Falls where Erin emptied out her hiding hole. It was only an hour ride as opposed to a couple day hike. Then it was a four-hour ride down to Billings as opposed to the month-long trek it had taken Erin to go the opposite way. Having wheels now was great.

It was just before noon by the time they were pulling up in front of Jesse and Lea's shop in Billings. Erin was happy to see that their craftsman store was doing well for itself over the past few months now that the Militiamen had vacated. It looked like Jessie had been busy fixing the place up, adding on, and even expanding to take over the old storefront next to his original shop. The couple greeted them warmly with open arms. "So good to see you again, dearie!" Lea gushed as they hugged.

"Thanks, I need a place to operate out of for some time for me and my newfound slave, Ana, here," Erin said.

"Couldn't find your mom, huh?" Jesse asked.

"Got close, just missed her, but I have leads," Erin said. "So, do you have room for the two of us?"

Jesse grinned. "We were hoping that you'd come back, so we took over the store and basement next to us to fix up for you," he said, gesturing to the stairs down in the back of their shop. "Come on down, we'll show you the place." He led the way as he talked. "I took the liberty of making a doorway between our basement home and yours," he explained when they got to the bottom of the stairs. They went into his living room and then went through a door immediately to the right that was under the stairs. It was a door that didn't exist back when Erin last stayed with them. The mirror 'apartment' was just in its infancy with the frames of the rooms looking like they'd been erected recently. "It took us a while to clean everything out, break it down for useful scrap, and then get the walls up, but, as you can see, it's coming along fast now. I figure another month or two we can start finding you furniture to put in here. Until we do, you're welcome to our guest room... or our bed," Jesse said suggestively.

"Ohhh... Jesse... it's too much! Thank you!" Erin gushed, hugging him. "There's no way I can repay you for all this."

Jesse snorted in amusement and Lea just gave her a warm smile. "Honey," Lea said, "by getting rid of the Militiamen and giving us all of your gear, we figure that we owe you a debt of gratitude in this form."

"Plus," Jesse added, "If you become the law around here and keep the Militiamen out, we can just call this us paying our debt to society to keep you in room and board."

"Thanks," Erin said, hugging them both. "I will have to leave town quite a bit to look for my mom," she added. "I might even have to look for Caine to help... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. In the meantime, when I am gone, can you look after my girlfriend here?" she asked, indicating Ana.

"Me? Mistress?" Ana blinked. "Girlfriend? But... but... I'm your slave, Mistress, aren't you happy with me?"

"Well, I grew up thinking slavery was wrong," Erin said sheepishly. "And I kinda like to think of you as my lover girlfriend and not my slave, to be honest... that is unless you still want to be my slave or something?" Erin shrugged. "The choice is up to you, but I'd rather not hold you here against your will."

"Oohhhh..." Tears misted in Ana's eyes and now she hugged Erin tightly. "No one ever considered what I wanted, Mistress. Thank you!" She craned her neck up to kiss Erin. "Promise you'll never get rid of me and I'll serve you for the rest of my life, Mistress. I want to be only yours, to fuck only you and whoever you want me to fuck, for as long as I live."

"I guess that's pretty definitive then," Erin smiled, kissing her back. She then took a deep breath and steadied herself. "I guess that I should get up top and get to work, then," she declared. "People need to know that The Huntress is now on the job and that this is her town."

THE END OF ERIN AND MELANIE'S STORY... FOR NOW...