Heavy Traffic Ch. 12

Mickey was about thirty feet from exiting the path into the clearing around Glenn Parker's cabin when she heard the shots. Moving quickly off the path and into deeper cover from the surrounding woods, she tried to be a quiet as she could while moving towards the cabin. The approaching sunset had left the area surrounding the cabin in darkness almost as deep as full nightfall would have provided, so her movements were influenced by touch and sound more than her sight.

Reaching within ten feet of the clearing behind low hanging branches and scrub brush, Mickey finally came to a point where she could see the front of the cabin. She saw another half dozen gang members standing around an SUV while laughing and looking down at a body lying on the porch of the cabin. Mickey couldn't see the face, but recalling what she had seen him wearing the last time they had spoken, she was certain that the body was that of Glenn Parker.

Realizing that this cabin would not provide her the refuge she had been hoping for, Mickey began slowly backing into the cover of the woods once more. As she turned to head back to the path, the ground at her feet suddenly erupted around her as automatic gunfire tore into it. Freezing in place, Mickey drew her own weapon and searched frantically for the source of the gunfire. Spinning to her right at a sound, Mickey felt the blow to her right forearm which knocked the gun from her grip just as she was grabbed from behind by arms that encircled her body and pinned her own against her body. She was lifted off the ground enough where she could get no purchase for her attempted kicks to do any harm to the person holding her, even if any of them happened to connect. The placement of a gun barrel under her chin brought her feeble resistance to an end.

"We got us a white bitch," said the man who was still holding her off the ground. "Ax Minor what he wanna do wif her."

Mickey heard another man talking, and assumed he was using a walkie-talkie or other radio because the cell service was non-existent in the area. She couldn't make out what was being said, due both to the distance and the unintelligible 'gangsta' slang being used. The conversation was short and within less than a minute she saw three additional men approaching her, all armed with automatic weapons and brandishing them boldly in her direction.

The man holding her let her down, but maintained an unbreakable hold on her arms as he spun her around. Facing the man, her eyes came level with his chest, and as she tilted her head to look up at him, she saw a monster of a man that would scare Mt. Rushmore. He stood at least six feet ten inches and Mickey estimated that he weighed at least three hundred and fifty pounds. His dark skinned facial features were difficult to make out in the dim light, but what she saw of them made her stomach roil. He had the smallest eyes she had ever seen on a human being and their size was amplified by the large nostrils on his snout-like nose and his enormous mouth that seemed to stretch from ear to ear.

As he continued to hold her arms while another man maintained the barrel of the gun against her jaw, Mickey felt other hands removing her cell phone, badge, gun holster and hand cuffs from her belt. One of the hand cuffs was placed around her right wrist, and only then did the monster of a man allow enough slack in his hold for her wrists to be brought together behind her back and the other hand cuff was attached to her left wrist. Her pockets were searched and what few items they contained were removed and held by one of her captors. She felt plastic cable ties being placed around each of her ankles, and then these were connected to each other by a third cable tie. Her breath caught involuntarily as a black plastic garbage bag was placed over her head and taped was wrapped around her neck to hold it in place. Before she exhausted the limited oxygen inside the bag, she felt a knife cutting a small slit into the plastic when the point scratched across one of her cheeks. Mickey ignored the blood that she felt trickling down her face as she rejoiced in her ability to breath with the bag covering her head. She had to use her tongue to keep the plastic from being sucked into her mouth or nostrils, but she knew she wouldn't suffocate.

The huge man who had captured her lifted her as if she weighed nothing and roughly flung her over one of his shoulders and began walking. The bag rustling on her head and face made what little conversation that was taking place almost impossible for her to hear, but she got the impression that they were headed back towards the larger group of men at Sean's cabin. She could only pray that the message to Rick Acosta would result in help arriving before she was taken someplace where no one would know of her location.

At seventeen, Minor Ellis had been 'running' the 'Pirates' for the past year since his father; Major Ellis had been sent to Autry State Prison after being convicted of statutory rape of a fifteen year old girl. Major Ellis still gave the orders from his prison cell. Everyone knew that Minor was usually just relaying his father's commands, but even if there was a question of where the orders came from, Minor Ellis was recognized as being more dangerous than his father and no one who knew him would refuse to do exactly what he told them to do.

After the monster of a man, known in the gang as "Rhino" had dropped Mickey at Minor's feet on the drive with Sean Wallace's cabin in flames behind him, Minor made the quick decision to take this bitch to DeMarcus Steele personally. I-Bar's reputation for treatment of white women was something that Minor wanted to witness in person.

"Put da bitch in my ride," he told no one in particular.

The group seemed to assume that Rhino would do Minor's bidding, and they were not disappointed. The huge man reached down and picked Mickey up by grabbing the back of her polo shirt. There was an audible ripping noise as the front of the shirt tore open and two of its buttons flew off into the dirt drive. Carrying her by her shirt with one hand, Rhino walked over to one of the SUV's, opened the back double doors, and unceremoniously threw Mickey behind the last row of seats.

"We be meetin at da Outpost," said Minor to the rest of his gang and everyone started heading for one of the vehicles. Minor got behind the wheel of the SUV with Mickey in the back, started the engine and led his gang back out towards the highway. When he reached the highway, he saw the SUV's that had been at Glenn Parker's cabin parked on the shoulder waiting for him. He turned north on the highway and the four vehicle caravan accelerated away from the burning cabins.