Hunter or Hunted

"What about me?" Joe whined. "Why should I be tied like this and he gets to sit normal?"

Gus pulled his hunting knife, rolled Joe over onto his stomach and cut the zip tie connecting his feet and hands. "That's as much consideration you're gonna get. Don't push you luck."

Turning to Ally he asked, "You okay?" Ally nodded and flinched a little at the pain from where Joe had hit her. "I'm going to bring Barry in, be back in about an hour. If they get froggy, shoot em," Gus ordered. He left through the back door and started up the game trail to the left of the house.

Barry had rolled up against the log he'd been sitting on. He'd lost his hat and his hair was matted down from the wet snow. Gus pushed him over onto this front and cut two of the ties leaving his hands secured behind him. He helped Barry to his feet, showed him the Glock and pointed back down the game trail. "If you do anything but walk down that trail, I'll kill you," Gus said in a flat unemotional voice.

"Where are you taking me?" Barry asked.

"Back to the house to join your friends. The Sheriff should be there by the time we get back." Barry slipped on the muddy game trail and fell down. "Careful now, we wouldn't want you to get hurt," Gus said and helped the man to his feet.

A large white van could be seen parked in front of the house as the two men came down the hill to the back of the house. "Looks like you ride is here," Gus said. He guided Barry into the house and pushed him to the floor next to Jenkins and Joe.

"You didn't bring the body of the fourth man down with you," Sheriff Bradley said. It was a question as well as an observation.

"Nope, he's up on the ridge just off the game trail."

"He should be buried," Bradley suggested.

"If you want him go up the hill and get him; if not....well, the varmints have to eat too." Gus took the cup of coffee Ally offered him. After a few seconds he turned back to Bradley.

"On second thought I don't what his caucus on my property. Loan me a deputy and I'll take the ATV up the hill and bring the body down. But we're gonna need a body bag, he might be getting ripe by now."

"Just give the boys directions and the loan of the ATV and they'll bring him down," Bradley said. "Give me a hand getting these three into the van," he requested.

Freeing their feet, one at a time, but leaving Joe, Jenkins, and Barry's hands secured Gus and Sheriff Bradley took them out to the big Ford cargo van. The only seat was the bench seat across the front of the vehicle. Behind the seat were several tie down points for securing cargo. Bradley handcuffed each man with their hands in front of them and then cut the zip ties. The he secured each man to a different tie down rings with more zip ties, leaving them to sit on the floor of the van the best they could.

"Hey, I can't ride like this," Jenkins complained.

"I could hog tie you again and just toss you in the back if you like," Bradley replied. Jenkins kept quiet after that.

"Where'd you get the van?" Gus asked. "I didn't think Van Buren had more than two or three patrol cars."

"We don't," the Sheriff answered. "After I talked to you I went to the U Haul place and rented this cargo van. Bradley smiled. "It's not like I'm gonna worry about comfort for this bunch."

The two deputies came back down the hill with the body across the front rack of the ATV; it was zipped up in a body bag. They had removed the arrow because they couldn't zip up the bag with it sticking up. They saved the arrow and left it in the bag. Riding the ATV to the back of the van, they opened the two rear doors and lifted their grisly cargo into the freight area. They did take the time and secure the body so it wouldn't move around on the way back to town.

Gus told them that he would take the ATV back to the barn and the deputies climbed into the cab of the van after arguing about who got to ride shotgun. Sheriff Bradley walked over to where Gus was sitting on his ATV.

"Glad you and Ally are okay Gus," Bradley said as he shook Gus' hand. He turned to leave, stopped and turned back to Gus. "Got a question for you though. Gus nodded.

"Those men couldn't have caught you in the woods; you're like a ghost in there. In fact you could have led them around those hills until they walked off their boots." Gus smiled and nodded again. I know you hung around because of Ally and that makes me wonder."

"What do you wonder Sheriff?"

"You stalked those men, walked right up on two of them and they didn't know you were there. Why didn't you kill all of them? I know you've got the stones so why didn't you end it all and kill them?"

Gus draped his right leg across the ATV's tank in front of him and stared across his valley to the woods on the far side for almost 10 seconds. Turning back to Bradley he answered.

"I'm a hunter Sheriff, not an executioner."

The End