Depression by cmsix

Chapter 28

It was fun while it lasted, but when time was up we took our leave. I guess it was just as well. Two men were riding up at a gallop when we pulled out of the gate. I stopped long enough to let Jaycee shoot their horses. We probably should have shot the men but it was a judgment call.

Things had gone much too smoothly to be natural, at least I thought they had. Then again, there was nothing natural about it. I was back here from the best part of four hundred years in the future. Men with swords and muzzleloaders were going to find me hard to deal with, unless they did exactly what I wanted them to.

We were back to the small valley, had the Hum-V parked, and everyone was in the house less than three hours after we'd left that morning.

It was a good worry, but I wondered what we'd do for the rest of the day. I didn't think we should take a sightseeing trip around historical France, and even though the pool had come with us, an afternoon swim didn't feel right.

Meka, Tutsie, Delphine, and Adèle were happy to see us and then they picked up the mood from Cécile and Jaycee. It was a little subdued. We had Fawne with us now, physically at least, but she was not in good shape.

Jaycee led everyone but Meka, Tutsie, and me to the clinic end of the house. I took Meka and Tutsie outside so he could take a leak. Strangely he seemed more relaxed this time and he did quite a bit of sniffing before performing his doggy duties, then he did a little of his stiff legged scratching.

We sat on a couch when we got back inside, Meka in my lap and Tutsie in hers.

"What we now, Daddy?" Meka asked, after a few minutes.

"Whatever we want," I said, and she gave me such a look.

"We've done what we came to do, at least I think we have. We'll have to stay in the house until it leaves. It isn't safe to go exploring, or I don't think it is," I told her.

I'm not sure how much she understood but it seemed to satisfy her. When she spoke up again I was happy that she wasn't moping about being stuck here.

"Tutsie need stool your house too," she said, and she was right.

Tutsie needed a seat at the table here like the one he had at George and Ethel's house. Her announcement made me remember something though. Even sitting in her lap for breakfast, Tutsie had displayed amazing manners.

He hadn't tried to gobble up Meka's food right away. He'd waited patiently for her to feed him. That didn't mean he didn't give her some big sad-eyed looks along the way, but he hadn't been grabby. Of course I wondered if he'd been influenced by They, but even if he had it didn't seem to hurt anything. I was beginning to think that They could do good work when they wanted to.

This trip for instance. Fawne had been pretty much an innocent bystander when greedy bastards hiding under priestly robes had decided they needed her assets, or Alphonse's assets anyway.

One of them who was more perverted than usual wasn't content to just torture and kill her, he decided he'd rape her too. In the long run that probably wasn't much more to add to his list of crimes, but in the short term it had been hard on Fawne, and what had she done to deserve it. Not one damned thing.

My next thought was to get Jaycee, a mortar, and get back in the hummer. We could get in range of the "holy facility" with no trouble and level it without them even knowing what happened. I crossed that thought off my list though.

Some of the people there probably didn't deserve that, either. I'd already settled the hash of the main instigators and there was no sense in trying to start a reverse Crusade. I couldn't kill everyone that was an asshole, there wasn't time.

Meka brought me out of my thoughts then, asking for coffee. I didn't mind if I had a couple of cups myself so we got up to make another pot. While we were at it, I poked around in the freezer and found a frozen coffee cake with a computer label that had instructions for cooking it. God bless Ethel.

The coffee cake took thirty minutes and Meka, Tutsie, and I had just started on our treat when Jaycee came in from the clinic.

"How's she doing," I asked, as she poured a cup of coffee for herself.

"Better than you'd think. In fact, her physical injuries are fairly trivial. I'm sure they weren't fun to come by, but they aren't dangerous. It was fairly gentle as far as rapes go," Jaycee said.

Now there was an odd thought, a gentle rape. No doubt Jaycee was talking in relative terms. Fawne was still breathing and compared to some rapes I guess that was gentle.

"You said she was ok physically, but do you have any idea about her mental state?" I asked.

"Oh, it's bad of course, but she'll probably get over that pretty well too. Remember that rape isn't such a bug-a-boo in this time. Rich men rape poor women and girls with impunity here. Fawne wasn't a poor woman but I'm sure that she isn't shocked out of her wits that it happened to her.

"In fact, I think that your treatment of her abuser went a long way to helping. Fawne seemed to have revenge on her mind more than being completely devastated. Different women have different reactions to rape," Jaycee said.

"Still, even here and now it can't be something she just shrugs off," I said.

"It might be easier than you think for her. They don't know anything about women's rights here. It isn't even a concept. Even rich girls are often traded off by their families as if they were chattel. Fawne is tougher than you might think. She'll be a lot better tomorrow or the next day.

"Right now, she's sleeping it off. Valium can be very powerful when it needs to be. I started an IV for her dehydration and there are three good nurses in training watching her sleep," Jaycee said, and then laughed.

"We're probably set then. All we have to do is wait until night so we can get out of here," I said.

"Have you looked outside, to see if anyone followed us?"

"No, but I guess I could. They can't do anything to the buildings in the length of time they'll have. Still, I don't want them scaring the horses and mules. I'll take a look around I guess."

"Give me a minute to get a launcher and a few grenades and I'll go with you," Jaycee said.

We went to the armory and Jaycee put Big Boy's equivalent of an M203 on her carbine. She took a few minutes looking around in the stack of grenades and then loaded a knapsack with several different types.

"I'm almost hoping we find someone outside. There are some flash bangs for this thing and some of the canister rounds. I'm sure they'll be a big surprise," she said.

"No doubt they will be. You realize that you're holding the most powerful weapon on earth right now don't you?"

"Naw, they've got cannons that are more powerful, even now," she said.

"Maybe, but you could take one out with one grenade," I said.

"That's not because this is more powerful, it's because it's more mobile," she said.

"Ok, ok. I don't want to get into semantics. I do feel a lot safer with you carrying it though, and I don't have to pack the weight," I said.

"What, you didn't know you were going to carry the knapsack?"

What the hell, things can't be perfect every time. I picked up the bag and we went upstairs and outside.

We made a circuit around the house and I'll be damned if we didn't see some mounted men, probably twenty or thirty, coming toward the house from the cart path we'd used earlier. They were still probably five hundred yards away.

"Some people just can't take a hint," I said.

"We did cause quite a commotion and it isn't like they'd have a hard time following our trail. Hummers aren't known for hiding their tracks."

"Well miss military, what are you going to do about it?" I asked.

"I'm going to let them get within three hundred yards and see how their mounts like the flash bangs I found," she said.

While we waited I wished for a lawn chair again. Of course I had some now but we hadn't brought any outside with us. I wished I could remember them, at least a time or two.

Our prey had slowed when they saw us, being careful no doubt. No telling what type of wild tales they'd been told. They kept coming though and soon enough Jaycee gave them a sample.

The mounts did not like the flash bangs at all. I noticed that some of the men who fell off were wearing armor and I wondered if they'd be able to get back up by themselves. Of course that all depended on whether they could catch the horses in the first place. Some of them were still galloping away, riderless.

Strangely the man in the lead maintained his seat. His horse was probably better trained than some of the others. After a few minutes he seemed to have things settled down. He started toward us alone this time and, wonder of wonders; he had a white pennant flying from the tip of his lance.

Wasn't that a hoot? An armored man was approaching me, on horseback, and he had a real live lance. It was a history lesson in the making, that's what it was for sure.

Since he came alone and the others didn't appear to be up to anything sinister, Jaycee didn't fire again. He came up to within twenty feet and then rattled off what must have been his name, and titles too no doubt.

"If you can't speak English, turn around and send someone who can," I said.

He could speak English and he did. He started in with his name and title again but I cut him off right after Pierre.

"I don't care who you are. What do you want?" I said.

"We have come to recapture Fawne and to take the criminals that released her into custody," he said, and he must have thought he sounded important.

"I'm the criminal who released her and I'm not going to let you take her back."

"I have thirty men with me that will take care of that," he said.

"I don't care if you bring a thousand. How many do we need to kill before you understand that there is nothing you can do?" I asked.

"I have come to you under a flag of truce," he said, and he sounded so indignant.

"Yes, you did, but I don't see one waving over the thirty men you were bragging about. Jaycee, let them see what a real one is like," I said.

She did, and I'm sure the ones that lived wished she hadn't done that. I'll have to say that Jaycee was an excellent shot with an M203. The round hit near the center of the group and it took down every horse they had left.

"You should probably go see if you can help any of them. There might be a chance some of them will live," I said.

He was stunned and rightly so. He didn't move for a few seconds.

"Who are you?' he asked, clearly shaken.

I couldn't help myself, I had to do it. I know it's older than the hills and it's a cliché a hundred times over, but I couldn't resist.

"I'm your worst nightmare."

Jaycee sniggered at me but didn't say anything. Pierre turned around and headed back toward his thirty men. Mostly they were just bodies now.

We got a surprise a few minutes later when people on foot started coming into sight. They had been hiding behind a hill near the cart path but they were coming up now.

"Who are they?" Jaycee asked, as if I knew, then I thought I might.

"Camp followers I guess."

"For only thirty men?" she asked.

"Someone has to come along to keep telling you how important you are, even if there are only a few of you," I said.

"You know we're going to have to stay out here and keep an eye out for others, don't you?" Jaycee asked.

"Yeh, I know. I also know I'm going into the house to get us some lawn chairs. I'm not going to stand around all day."

"We'll both go. It'll take a while for them to figure out their next move," she said.

We'd no sooner turned around than I saw Meka, Tutsie in her arms, Adèle, and Delphine headed toward us. We walked toward them.

"Daddy, we come see big boom," Meka said, when we got to them.

"Ok, just don't get too close while the booming is going on."

"What men want?" she asked.

"They wanted Fawne back and they wanted to arrest me," I told her, wondering if she had any idea what I'd meant.

She might have, since she gave me a look and then laughed.

"No can arrest Daddy," she said, and then laughed again.

"What we now?" she asked, when her giggling died down.

"We were going to get some lawn chairs to sit in while we watched," I said.

"We get," Meka said, and the three of them turned around.

With our trip preempted, Jaycee and I turned back around just in time to see good old Pierre coming toward us at a gallop, with his genuine lance lowered.

"Can I have this one too?" Jaycee asked, pulling her Glock.

"Sure, I'll share. Try for another gut shot though. I think a long slow death would look better on him," I said, I was getting a little tired of snooty Frenchmen.

She made an excellent shot. Hitting a man on a galloping horse at a hundred yards with a handgun is no mean feat. Pierre did an excellent imitation of dead as he tumbled off his mount, but when we got to him, he wasn't.

Strangely his horse hadn't run off. I was more interested in it than I was in Pierre. It was an outstanding animal, more impressive since it was from this day and age, and it was obviously well trained. Finally I got done looking it over and went to stand by Jaycee who was holding her Glock on Pierre even though he wasn't going anywhere.

"We should take his horse for our trouble," she said, "and anything else we see that we like too."

I was about to answer when Meka came scampering toward us from the house. I figured that she'd be mad about missing this but the pistol shot wasn't what brought her.

"Daddy, Fawne want come outside too. She say feel much better now," Meka said.

I looked at Jaycee and she shrugged her shoulders. I hadn't wanted to bother Big Boy but I couldn't help myself. This whole thing was to get Fawne in the first place and while I didn't want to seem bossy from the get go, I didn't want her to do something that would set back her recovery.

"I hate to bother you, but I want your opinion on this. Can I have it?" I thought.

"I don't see any harm, the dehydration was her worst problem, and Jaycee has taken care of that. The IV has finished, and even though Jaycee only gave her the mildest Valium, it has done wonders for her nervousness," he thought back.

"Jaycee, would you go take a look at her and help her out here if you think it's ok?" I asked.

"Sure, and it probably is," Jaycee said.

"Meka, you'd better stay with me in case I need to send them word about something. Do you mind?" I asked.

"I not mind, Daddy. I want watch. Come show me dead man," she said.

What the hell, it wasn't the first one she'd seen. We walked over to Pierre and damned if he wasn't groaning and still alive. I was feeling a little sorry for him now and thinking about putting him out of his misery. Meka had other ideas.

"Scalp him, Daddy," she said.

I didn't think I was really the scalping kind but she seemed to want me to do it pretty bad.

"He evil, Daddy. I feel," she said.

As if I didn't have enough trouble, three obviously poor women were approaching. They stopped when they knew I'd noticed them and one of them began speaking to me in French. I asked if they spoke English but none of them admitted it if they did.

Saved by the bell, or at least by Jaycee and company returning. The poor women obviously recognized Fawne, Cécile, Adèle, and Delphine. They tried to curtsy when they saw them.

"It's Pierre, and you've shot him. Maybe there is a God?" Fawne said, clearly surprised to see the man.

"Has he caused you trouble?" I asked.

"He is one of the instigators. He gave testimony before the church claiming I was a witch," Fawne said.

"Then I'm glad we didn't kill him too quickly. We still have a few hours to make him regret his wrong doing," I said.

"Thank you," Fawne said, and then smiled at me.

"Can you find out what these women want?" I asked.

She spoke to them then and it didn't take long.

"They only wanted to see if he was dead. I'm afraid he hasn't been kind to his subjects," Fawne said.

"Maybe they'd like to see what we do to his like in America," I said.

"I feel sure that they would, especially if it is painful," she said.

"Tell me if I make a mistake, Meka," I said, and drew my knife.

Meka was the only one who knew what was going to happen but I feel sure that Jaycee caught on next. Delphine, Cécile, and Adèle must have heard about it too, because they weren't really surprised. The three poor women who came up were very surprised, but they didn't object one bit.

Scalping someone isn't hard. It requires more care - to keep the bleeding to a minimum - if you don't want the subject to die from it right away, but I didn't mind one way or the other and I didn't take many pains. I sliced through the skin and took all I needed to get most of his hair, then yanked on it like hell a few times and it came right off. Pierre had regained enough presence of mind for some lusty screams too, but he passed out again shortly afterward.

"Was he a big landholder or something? I asked.

"He was the Baron here. He has large holdings," Cécile said.

"Sons, daughters, wives?" I asked.

"Two sons and no daughters. He killed the last wife he had," Fawne said.

"Ah, a real sweetheart. What about his sons?"

"More of the same from all I've heard," Fawne said.

"Do you think they'll show up here?" I asked.

Fawne didn't reply to me, she questioned the poor women. I could tell from their reaction that the boys would be here with reinforcements soon.

"They say his sons will be coming with a hundred men soon," Fawne told me.

"I guess we'd better get the reception ready then. Meka, you should take the others back into the house, Jaycee and I will be busy for a while," I said.

"Shouldn't I stay to translate for you?" Cécile asked.

"I'll stay, please. I need to help," Fawne said, and that seemed to be that, except for good old Pierre's hair. Meka held out her hand for it.

"I take scalp, Daddy. I hang it dry," she said, grinning at me, and then they left.

Fawne was a big help. When we got to the men Jaycee had basically slaughtered earlier, Fawne started spitting out orders. A few seconds later I understood that she was asking questions, but I couldn't figure out what they could be. Finally she turned to me.

"None of the followers will speak up for any of these men. I told them you would kill them unless someone did," she said.

"Isn't that unusual, that no one wants to save them?" I asked.

"Yes, but no doubt they were very cruel to their followers," Fawne said.

Jaycee shrugged again, drew her Glock, and went to find men that were still breathing. Every time she found one that was she made him quit. There were only five to be dealt with.

"What will happen to these people?" I asked.

"That depends on what happens when his sons and the other men arrive. If his sons prevail, these people will probably all be killed. If they don't, the crown will have a Barony to award," she said.

"Well, we can always come back and teach the new Baron some manners if we have to," I said, hoping it was the truth.

"What of the bodies?" Fawne asked.

"Have the people strip the dead of everything and take it up near the garage. Every stitch and, every weapon; they will be well rewarded for their efforts," I said.

Fawne spread the happy news and I'll say one thing, the people were not lazy or squeamish. They even caught all the horses that lived.

That was fine, I could deal with thirty horses, and no doubt George could do something with any I didn't want later. It had me thinking about the sons though and the hundred men they were said to be bringing. We'd just have to deal with them.

Fortunately for me, Jaycee had a plan.

"We can get some brush piled near the valley's entrance and have some of these people torch it when the bad guys are all in. I'll flash bang the shit out of them and then we can start picking them off. If it gets dark on us, we won't be bothered. They will though," she said.

The simplest plans are always the best. When you try to orchestrate too many details in advance it just slows down your creative thinking in a situation that is going to be fluid no matter how hard you try to stage manage it.

Jaycee took six healthy and strong looking women with her and they were back in about thirty minutes with three mortars and a lot of rounds. She spent another hour setting the mortars up and then training three of the women to fire them. There's no big trick to firing a mortar once it is set up and aimed. Just drop in a round, and repeat as needed.

We even moved all the now naked bodies up into a pile that would surely draw the new arrivals in. It did an excellent job of that.

We didn't have to wait for dark; they came riding up, with lathered horses, around three o'clock. I didn't think there were over eighty in all, but it didn't matter.

Once they were nearly to the body pile, about six hundred yards from the valley's entrance, the women we'd recruited spread out the brush they'd been gathering and set it afire. The mounted men didn't have time to more than notice because Jaycee gave the signal and the flash bangs began falling.

And a good time was had, by none of them. At least we didn't have to use any lethal rounds this time, not with the mortars anyway. Since the women set off six rounds each, there wasn't a horse with a rider anywhere and all of them ran off this time.

Jaycee and I didn't even wait for a parley, we shot the two obvious leaders dead, and then Fawne began yelling, "Surrender or Die" in French, as per Jaycee's instructions. We only had to shoot about a dozen more before the rest understood that we meant it.

Fawne then ordered them to strip off naked and we had to shoot six more, after that things went smoothly, for us. For the former "Knights" things were not so pleasant.

I didn't do any more shooting or scalping, but by now the first camp followers had spoken to the new larger group. If any of them wanted to speak up for the one they were actually following, I didn't hear about it.

The way it worked out we had two live ones for nearly every dead one. We tied their hands behind their backs and then tied two men to each body so that they could drag them away. We saved the smallest corpse for the largest live one so he wouldn't have much trouble with his load; he was the odd man and had a corpse to drag alone. We didn't even have to do much encouraging to get them to leave.

My next problem was what to do with the camp followers and all the horses. I hadn't decided what I'd give them for a reward for their help, yet. Hell, I didn't even know how we could feed them all. I had a lot of food around, but there were over a hundred of them now.

Just then one of the women came and asked Fawne something, and of course Fawne asked me.

"They would like to butcher the horses that were killed. They don't have much food with them," she told me.

I couldn't agree to it quickly enough. I told her to have them take any horses that were badly hurt too, and it seemed to make the woman very happy. She spoke to Fawne again and then returned to the others.

"She says they will have a wonderful meal for you in about two hours," Fawne said.

"Let's go in the house for a while," Jaycee said then, "I need to make sure Fawne doesn't wear herself out."

I wasn't inside the house for five seconds before I realized that it wasn't going anywhere tonight. I can't say how I knew, I just knew. Jaycee and all the others, even Meka, went back to the clinic so Jaycee could take Fawne's temperature, check her pulse rate, and her blood pressure I guessed. At least Tutsie stayed with me.

I settled onto a couch and he settled into my lap. I expected him to want to fight with my fingers but he just curled up and went to sleep and then damned if I didn't too.

It wasn't really sleep though, or even if it was actual sleeping it was still a conference call from Big Boy.

"We have decided to extend your stay here, unless you object," he thought to me to get the ball rolling.

"You mean I have a choice?" I asked.

"Yes, you have a choice, of course you do."

"Good, that's really all I need, veto power," I said.

"You have veto power then, and even a two thirds majority can't overturn it."

"That's good, but what are we staying for?" I asked.

"We'd rather let you find out for yourself."

"If you say so, I just don't want to foul anything up," I said.

"There can be no right or wrong in this situation, John. What you do, is done, the rest of this world will have to deal with it as best they can."

After that I was alone and then really asleep. I don't know how long I slept but the smell of fresh coffee woke me. Meka was headed my way with my mug, smiling at me. That smile made everything worthwhile, anything else was just a bonus.

"Coffee Daddy?" she asked, as if she had a doubt.

"Thank you. How was Fawne?" I asked.

"Jaycee says that I am fine," Fawne said, from behind me.

I turned to look and saw at once that she was now wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and they'd even found some boots for her. Her natural assets were doing some alarming things to the front of that T-shirt too. It reminded me of how, in Fairy Tales, the handsome young prince was always well rewarded for rescuing the damsel in distress.

I knew I wasn't a handsome young prince, but I had rescued the damsel, and she'd sure as hell been in distress. I was counting on that reward, sooner or later. Right now I was concentrating on two of the reward's swinging and wobbling benefits, and as I did it their peeks began to push against the T-shirt's material, then the damsel blushed prettily.

I took a sip of my coffee and tore my eyes from Fawne's titties. I even resisted the urge to vocalize my agreement with Jaycee. Fawne was fine, in more ways than one.