Travis's Tale Ch. 03

"Touch either of them and I'll see you in hell!" I spoke up, I'm sure he really didn't care.

"That's big talk for somebody who's staring a rifle in the face. You just keep thinking that way, and watch what I'm going to do to these two little ladies. And if you or anybody else has thoughts of trying to play hero, Gwen's first shot is going to go into the fat lady's belly." It was the first time he had made any reference to Courtney, but I could feel her stiffen at his words. I knew she was angry just as I was but right now the feeling of helplessness was enveloping each of us. I wanted to do something, but I was in a bad position. Courtney was lying between my legs, her back against my chest as I reclined on the lounge. I didn't think I would be able to get either of them in time before they turned their weapons on me, and I was more worried about what might happen to the other three women than I was about myself.

"Like I said to your friend, get them panties off so I can see what I'm going to be fucking!" The man again directed his command to Ellen this time.

Ellen stood up and looked him right in the eye, I could see the contempt and defiance on her face. Without a second of hesitation, she put her thumbs into the waistband and pulled the suit bottoms off, kicking them away and standing there.

"Very nice. Now lay down over there and spread them." He demanded, pointing to the lounge she had been sitting on before. Ellen did as requested, she lay down and spread her legs apart as she stared back at him, the same contemptuous look on her face. I knew she must be scared, but right now she was doing a darn good job of hiding that emotion. My rage was seething, but as Ellen lay down and spread her legs in front of the intruder, I couldn't help but look at her crotch which was bared only feet in front of me. I wasn't the only one, the man was bouncing from foot to foot with excitement as he took in her nakedness. I also saw his girlfriend doing the same, I wondered just how perverted these two really were.

"You stay there just like that honey, Walter is going to take care of you right now." He said with a boast, using his one hand to unbuckle his belt and then unsnap the camo pants he was wearing. He pushed them down and they slowly slid to his knees and then he pushed again, now they were at his feet. He was wearing camouflage boxer shorts underneath, I wondered where someone gets something like that but let that thought go too. I knew if he touched Ellen, there would be hell to pay. He would have me to deal with if I was still around and if not I knew Pete would track him to hell and back if he had to. He would cut him into little pieces and feed them to the vultures out on the range and no one would ever know what happened to him. I also worried about Ellen, I had no idea where his pecker had been and stressed about whatever disease he might give her. Shortly his boxers joined his pants around his ankles, I could see he was uncircumcised and his cock was hard. He gripped it with his left hand, his rifle still in his right and I saw him give it a few strokes. My earlier thought about his hand and his cock being good friends was confirmed, they seemed to have a pretty good relationship. He set his rifle on the ground although not before checking to make certain it wasn't close enough to any of us who might be able to reach it. He then shuffled over toward Ellen, taking short steps with his pants preventing him from moving any faster.

"You keep an eye on him Gwen, remember what I said about the fat lady." He said as he looked over his shoulder before moving his attention back to Ellen. She hadn't moved, she was laying there with her legs spread and I assumed she was preparing herself mentally. I knew in such situations the common wisdom was to let your mind move far away from the present, not allowing the perpetrator to have any more control over you than you would allow.

The first shot took our attention from Ellen and her attacker as we turned to look toward the sound. That first shot was followed in quick succession by five more, before I was able to focus my eyes on Alex, the man was lying on his back and not moving. Without hesitation, Courtney leaned forward as far as she could and I swung my left leg over her back and was on my feet in a second. The female intruder was swinging her rifle toward Alex, but before that could happen I snatched it out of her hand. She grunted in surprise but before she could do anything else, I smashed the butt of the stock against her face and she too was lying on the ground.

Alex came running towards us, her pistol in her hand as she surveyed the situation in front of her. She had put six rounds into the chest of the male intruder from almost 120 feet away. It was a remarkable example of marksmanship, I knew she and Courtney had been practicing at the range regularly ever since we learned we had been targets of a group of crazies.

"Are there any more of them?" She asked, looking around as she got closer to us.

"I don't think so." I answered, also looking around to make certain I was correct.

"Who are they?" Was her next question.

"The guy said something about me shooting his brother. From the way they look, it wouldn't surprise me if they were part of that environmental group of nut jobs. I didn't get to ask them too many questions, but I'll bet that's who they are."

"I'm glad everybody is safe. It's a good thing we put those security cameras around the house, I might have walked right into it." She said as she surveyed the scene, although I think she was starting to tremble from what she had done. I could imagine, I had gone through something similar when I had shot the sniper several months ago. Killing another human being wasn't something most of us were prepared to do. Right now I wasn't too worried about that, I knew if called upon to do it again I could and would.

"How did you know to check the cameras?" Liz asked as Alex slumped into a chair, setting her pistol down on the table.

"I checked it from my phone, I probably shouldn't say this but I wanted to see if you were having fun and starting without me." She answered with a nervous laugh.

"Leave it to you to worry about the party starting before you get here." Ellen joined in the conversation, she was sitting up on her chair and just as naked now as she was several minutes earlier. I'm not sure if she realized the fact or just wasn't going to let it bother her. I had seen her naked on a couple of different occasions, none of these women seemed to have any embarrassment about showing themselves to me.

"Somebody call the police, we need to let them know. I'm going to get changed, I'll be right back." I announced, getting to my feet and heading toward the house.

"What should I tell them?" Liz asked as I was walking away.

"Tell them some guy came around and tried to rob you. Tell them you had to shoot him in self defense. If anybody asks, I wasn't here." I answered as I stopped to respond to her question.

"What about her?" Liz asked, looking back to the two bodies lying on the ground.

"What about who?" I answered.

"That woman." Liz replied, pointing to the woman on the ground.

"What woman?" I answered, turning back toward the house and ending the conversation.

Five minutes later I came out, I had dispensed with the shorts I had been wearing and now had on a work shirt and jeans, and my boots. Not the fancy ones, the everyday boots I would wear when working on the range. I also had a handful of tie wraps with me, I went to the woman still lying on the ground and pulling her hands hard behind her back, I tied them together at her wrists. She was starting to come around, moaning in pain from the blow to her face as well as the rough way I was treating her.

"I called the police Travis. They said they'd be here as quickly as they can." Liz informed me after I had finished with my task.

"You ladies should get dressed, I'm not sure when I'll be back." I let her know. I saw the four of them look at each other as they all realized what they were or rather weren't wearing. Alex was the only one really dressed, she was still wearing a blouse and skirt since she had been the only one at work today. Liz and Courtney were both topless and Ellen was totally naked. I saw them all looking at me, I knew they were wondering what I was thinking but they didn't need to know. Plausible deniability was something I had heard used on TV a number of times and I now realized exactly what it meant.

*****

I picked Gwen up using the tie wraps that had bound her wrists together. She groaned as her shoulders were pulled back, she wasn't totally conscious yet but starting to come out of it. I was pulling her along beside me, there was no love lost between us even though I did not know her. All I knew right now was that she had threatened me and my family and that's not something I would tolerate. If someone had a beef with me, so be it. We could work it out together. However, if somebody decides to threaten my family they would find out very quickly that they had chosen the wrong bear to poke. The two of them had used the pool house to shield their approach from us, since there was little beyond but open range they must have some sort of transportation hidden in that direction. I thought to myself we would have to do something to prevent future intrusions from this direction, but that would have to wait until later. I continued dragging her along beside me, her feet were trying to catch up as she was becoming more aware but couldn't. She was mumbling and groaning although I didn't hear anything understandable coming from her mouth just yet. After about 20 minutes of walking I spied an old pickup hidden behind some low trees. It definitely was old, rusted and from the look I would not have guessed it road worthy. Apparently it was, they had managed to get in here and now it was going to get the two of us out of here. When I reached the truck I opened the passenger door and through the woman in, her torso on the seat and the rest of her on the floor. I looked to the ignition and there was no key, something I hadn't thought about before. I reached over and patted the woman's pockets but no luck there either, just the thought of trying to search her almost turned my stomach. As I had been pulling her along beside me, I realized just how badly she smelled and decided if the two of them had approached us from upwind we certainly would have noticed long before they got close enough to surprise us. It was an old truck and hot wiring it was not difficult to do. I had done this when I was much younger, using some of the ranch trucks to drive around the property and have fun when I was a teenager. I think my father knew, but he never said anything to me and back then I thought I had gotten away with it. The thought of my father brought back some sad memories briefly, but right now I had something more important to worry about so concentrated on my task.

Once started, the truck shook and shuddered and belched enough smoke that I wondered how these people could call themselves environmentalists. The engine didn't sound very good as we started off, I thought I could hear a rod knocking but wasn't too terribly worried as long as the truck would continue to run and get me where I was going. I knew our property and decided we would go somewhere else, in reality I wanted her as far away from here as possible. I drove for more than an hour, she had returned to consciousness but other than giving me hateful looks and moaning with the pain, she hadn't said anything yet. I had been heading south and saw several buildings up ahead, one of them an old gas station. If the gauge was accurate, the truck didn't need any gas but I stopped anyway. I looked at the woman and she looked back at me, hate filling her eyes as she wondered what I was going to do. Right now I wasn't going to do anything other than get out. Her arms were still bound behind her and she was lying uncomfortably in the footwell of the truck. I wouldn't be gone that long, I simply went inside and bought two bottles of Coke before returning back to the truck. It was a hot day and I thought the soda would taste good since I had been sweating profusely as long as I had been driving.

We continued for another half hour until I turned off the road onto a fire trail that hadn't seen wheeled traffic in I don't know how long. It was bumpy and rutted, the old truck bouncing along and jarring each of us with every bump the tires hit. After another 10 minutes whatever semblance of road had been there had disappeared. We were out in the middle of nowhere and I decided this was as good a place as any. I had finished the first soda and just put the other bottle into my back pocket, I wasn't going to drink it now. I got out of the truck and went around to the passenger side, again grabbing the woman by her restraints and pulling her out as she groaned in pain. It didn't really matter to me, I wasn't concerned with her welfare in the least. We started walking across the ground, I knew what I was looking for and it didn't take me long to find it. Shortly I came to a clearing and pulled her to her feet until she was standing before me.

"So now what you gonna do big man? You going to shoot me out here?" She said as I could see her wincing in pain as she spat out her words. I had strapped on my pistol before I left but had no intentions of using it although she really didn't know that.

"You're going to tell me what I want to know." I was putting my plan into action.

"I ain't telling you shit!" She shot back.

"You will, you will."

"There ain't nothing you can do that's going to make me tell you anything." She reiterated her point. I had expected this, I didn't think she would say anything to me voluntarily. That was okay, I had ways.

I walked up to her and although I was still disgusted by her smell, I grabbed the collar of the T-shirt she was wearing and ripped it down the front of her chest, tearing it into pieces and pulling it off. She wasn't wearing a bra and her breasts were wrinkled and saggy although she didn't look to be that old. Didn't matter, I would never have found her attractive under any circumstances.

"I get it now, you aren't man enough to get a woman for yourself so you have to force yourself on her." She said, staring at me with disgust on her face.

"If you say so..." I wasn't going to play her game but I thought I had to say something.

"Are you ready to answer some questions now?" I didn't think she would be, but I decided I would give her the opportunity anyway.

"Fuck you!"

About what I expected, she was really pretty easy to read. I stepped in close again, this time unfastening the snap on her pants, unzipping them and pulling them unceremoniously down around her ankles. Since I was crouched down in front of her, it was almost impossible for me to avoid as I looked at the torn and stained granny panties she was wearing. The site was enough, but the smell was even worse. I can't imagine anyone who might want to get anywhere near this woman but from what she said, the man this morning must've been able to overlook her lack of hygiene.

"I suppose you're going to want to see what a real woman can do for you! Those little kids you were with this morning probably don't even know how to get you up."

I stood up, and moved back a few steps to get some fresh air. She was standing there naked now, her arms tied behind her with her pants and panties around her ankles. She had been wearing camo combat boots, she and her friend must've spent some time in the Army surplus store, no way in hell either of them could have been members of the Armed Forces.

"I'm still waiting..." I offered again, giving her another opportunity to speak to me. I still hadn't told her what I wanted to know, but she must have had some idea.

"Why don't you just fuck me and get it over with. You know you want to." She was baiting me but I wasn't going to take the bait nor was I going to get anywhere near her, even the site of her right now was enough to disgust me.

"I wouldn't get anywhere near you bitch! The look of you is bad enough, but that smell would drive the buzzards away."

"Fuck you!" She repeated.

"I heard that once before, you really don't have a very extensive vocabulary do you? I was starting to enjoy this as I toyed with her, but then I realized I had more important things on my mind. This wasn't a time to be playing games, it was serious and I knew it. She looked at me with more venom in her eyes now than she had before and I wondered how that was possible.

I had given her the opportunity to answer my questions without any coercion but she had refused. Now it was time to get more serious. I took the bottle of Coke out of my back pocket and opened it, taking a long swig. It had gotten quite warm since I had bought it but that really didn't matter.

"Would you like some?" I offered it to her, holding it out but not close enough she could get anywhere near the bottle. I saw some surprise in her eyes and I knew she had to be thirsty at this point,. She hadn't had anything to drink for a while and the sun was now quite hot. I didn't wait for her to answer, simply placing my thumb over the top of the bottle and then shaking it vigorously. I could see a question in her eyes but then I quickly moved my thumb off and then sprayed the liquid all over her.

"What the hell??" I didn't give her a chance to say or do anything else, I put my foot on her abdomen and pushed back hard, she fell onto her back.

"You son of a bitch!" She spat, lying on the ground and staring up at me. It didn't take long though, she soon realized where she was. The slight Hill she was lying on was actually a fire ant nest and the little red insects started to make their displeasure about being disturbed known. It didn't take long before several hundred had swarmed her, biting and stinging and at the same time going after the sugar that was coding the front of her body. She was moaning and trying to roll away but each time she moved off the hill she would get kicked back onto it.

"Now, I'm going to ask you some questions and I expect some answers." She heard my words but right now was more concerned with trying to get away from the stinging insects.

"I want some names. I want names of the people who sent you to come after us. I want to know all of those who are in your group. You're going to tell me and I will wait here as long as it takes."

Gwen continued to try to roll away but I would not allow that. Some of the ants even started climbing up onto my own boots but I ignored them, I had been bitten by fire ants in the past and a few of their bites weren't going to deter me. She was moaning and whimpering vocally now, the ants had swarmed her and I could see them all over her body.

"You tell me what I want to know and I'll let you get away from them." I let her know, I knew she heard what I was saying and I could tell she was weighing her options. I could already see the welts forming on her body from all of the bites, her skin was mottled and red and there was perspiration running off of her.

20 minutes later and she had given me 17 names. I was surprised at some of them, they were names I knew and never would have suspected that they had been part of this conspiracy. Once I was convinced she had told me everything she knew, I made my way close to her and picked her up again by her restraints, dragging her away from the anthill although there were probably several hundred of the little insects still climbing on her. I dragged her a few hundred feet away, many of the ants falling off but some still clung to her body. At this point all she could do was moan, their venom was permeating her body and I could only imagine what she must be feeling like. After dragging her for a couple hundred feet we came to a group of trees, all alive but a large one in the center. It had been dead for some time and the top part of it was broken away with only the remnants of the trunk sticking up 12 or 15 feet into the air. I dropped her underneath the trees, the shade offering her some respite from the hot sun. I don't think she was even aware of what I had done, her body had mostly shut down from the ants that had attacked her. I left her lying there, moving off about 60 feet before I pulled out my pistol. It wasn't a difficult shot at this range, I had practiced for many hours over the past years. I put half a dozen shots into the large tree trunk, I had seen a number of bees flying into and out of it while Gwen had been giving up her information. Now they started flying out and I simply turned around and walked back to the truck. I didn't know, but most of the bees around here had become crossed with the Africanized bees. The truck's engine belched to life and I drove off, driving for another 30 miles before parking it in a dusty old town. The wires hanging from the ignition switch were obvious, I knew the truck wouldn't stay there for long. I got out and walked away, heading for a bar to get a drink before deciding how I would get back home.