Snatched by cmsix

Chapter 16

We woke just before sunrise the next morning and Zakat wanted to get moving right away, we chewed on travel food as we left.

About an hour later, Matatu had just finished telling us that we were within half a day of our destination, and we were passing through a meadow the trail had opened onto, headed for the other side.

I guess it was because of the breeze at our backs and helped along because I was walking beside Zakat and Matatu with the other five behind us, but I never smelled the attackers that were hiding down in the meadow's tall grass ahead of us.

They popped up when we were within thirty-five or forty yards. There were nineteen of them and the type of attack they pulled was unheard of on Margata, so far at least. Their leader threw his spear as soon as he showed himself and it took Zakat in the upper chest on his right side, going directly through his pectoral muscle and on in pretty deeply.

The others in our small group were stunned for a second and for some reason none of the attackers threw any more spears. I was shocked but not stunned, and I whipped the M1 off my shoulder and went to work.

Everyone in our group knew what the rifle was capable of, and in this case I wasn't shy about revealing it to our attackers. An M1 only holds eight shots before you have to reload with one of those little chickenshit clips. The action stays open after the last shot and you place the loader clip in the back of the magazine area and push the new rounds down into the magazine to reload.

I didn't even try to fuck with that now though. When I'd fired eight rounds I dropped the M1 and palmed my Glock. The loud reports from the rifle had confused our attackers, and no more spears had come our way. When I started in with the Glock, with its different but even louder thunder, confusion turned to panic.

I had downed one with each of the eight shots in the M1 and three with the Glock before they could even figure out what was doing it. Eleven of the original nineteen were on the ground crying and moaning, or not even able to make a sound. I wondered about Zakat but Matatu would have to take care of him.

The eight left standing dropped their spears when I stopped firing for a second and then they all went to the ground, in a sign of surrender. I knew they must be scared shitless but figured at least one would panic shortly and try to run off.

"Do not move until I tell you you can. I will kill any of you that stand up again," I said, yelling it.

I hadn't made five steps in their direction when one of them couldn't stand it any longer and stood up to run. It wasn't even a difficult shot and he went right back to the ground with most of what might charitably have been called brains pushed out through the big new hole in his face.

"Do not stand up if you want to live any longer," I said, yelling again, while I stood still and waited for a new target. After a few seconds I turned my head to see what was going on behind me.

Matatu and Jagbac were kneeling beside Shaton, tending to his wound I guess. I could see that the spear had been removed but I couldn't tell what kind of shape he was in or even if he was still alive.

It wasn't exactly my place to, but I called to the other men to come help me collect the spears and weapons from those lying in the grass now. They seemed to be glad to do it, no doubt wanting some direction now that our Zakat obviously wasn't up to it.

When we reached them, the ones that weren't wounded were all trembling in fear. In fact, the wounded that could pay attention were doing some trembling of their own, including the big blonde leader. He'd been my first target and in the excitement I'd pulled the shot, taking him about where his spear took our Zakat, in the upper right chest, instead of through his heart like I'd intended.

He would probably live, if I let him, but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to. The others with me spread out at a word and removed all weapons from every one of the captives, dead or alive. I then asked them to tie up any that weren't wounded too badly to move on their own. I stayed right beside the wounded leader.

Men's names meant something on Margata. The only acceptable way to learn someone's name was by them telling it to you. Normally, if names were to be exchanged they were divulged by mutual consent. You were allowed to ask another man for his name, but it wasn't uncommon for him to refuse to tell you. Even refusal wasn't a grave insult, but of course, if someone had made the effort and you refused, the two of you were probably never going to be close.

I wanted to know what to call this big blonde spear-chucker on the ground but I damned sure wasn't going to ask him. I walked to what appeared to be the smallest one of the bunch, he was only a little over six two and probably weighed no more than two-thirty.

"Get up," I said, kicking him in the side, but not viciously.

He did get to his feet but was still trembling. I shoved him back toward his fallen leader, and then pointed at the man on the ground.

"What is this one's name?" I asked, making sure he knew I was actually demanding he tell me.

This was a crude intentional insult to both of them. Even though blondie was wounded, he was still conscious and able to speak. The unwounded one I'd fetched seemed mortified that I would asks him. My asking was an insult to him and to the leader. He didn't answer, and I put my Glock to his stomach.

"I've never felt the sting of the Glock," I said, knowing that he wouldn't know what a Glock was but also knowing that he'd just seen what it did to the one that tried to run, and to many others.

"I've heard that it burns worse than the hottest coal, all the way through your body. It will rip your organs open and let your blood run out onto the ground, but if I shoot your stomach it will also let what's in your stomach run out into you to make you fester inside.

"It takes days of pain and suffering for you to die if the Glock stings your belly. Days of crying for water and then crying more loudly after you drink it. Tell me his name or I will have the Glock sting you," I said, and he pissed himself, but he still wouldn't tell me.

"May I borrow your axe?" I asked, calling to Jastal, one of the men that had come with me.

"Yes. You may borrow it anytime," he said.

"Bring it to me please, I am going to cut off this ones hands and feet before I let the Glock sting him to death. He will have to crawl and beg for food in the next world," I said, and it even shocked the men with me; they winced at the thought. It was more than the one I was asking could bear.

"Kaglao. His name is Kaglao, he is our Zakat," he said, and then collapsed to the ground, moaning, and begging for his life.

I rolled him over with my booted foot.

"Where is your Calak?" I demanded.

"We don't have a Calak. We are our own Calak, we have no women," he said from the ground, still moaning in disgrace.

"If you have no Calak, he is not Zakat, he is nothing but a man and a fool - and the rest of you are nothing but bigger fools for following him.

"He has wounded our Zakat though, a true Zakat, and he will pay for it. If our Zakat dies you will all pay.

"I will not let this fool Kaglao live much longer. Will you watch them please while I go for something from my pack?" I asked Dastar, who was nearby also.

Dastar agreed and I walked back to where Matatu and Jagbac were trying to help Shaton. Matatu did have some wisdom about such and he had already packed Shaton's wound with some of his herbs and put a bandage on it. I saw that they were doing all that could be done, so I walked to my pack and fished out my small Wyoming saw, assembled it, and took it and the pack back to the capture point.

Kaglao had scraped up some courage while I was gone and he was berating his followers, especially the one that had revealed his name. He'd been able to push himself up into a sitting position and with his new courage, he started in on me as I approached.

I didn't say anything, I just kicked him right in the teeth, breaking at least a few of them and canceling his sitting position in favor of one flat on his back again.

"Bring some of those that aren't wounded up here to hold this fool still," I said, toward the men that were watching.

Soon enough all the unwounded attackers, except the one that was still lying on the ground moaning in shame, were gathered around me. I had them take hold of Kaglao and warned them to keep him still. With a stout rawhide thong from my pack, I tied his leg off very tightly above the ankle and then lay it over my pack and had one of the captives sit on it, to hold it still.

Then I took my small bow type meat saw and sawed his foot off. I'll probably be able to remember his screams until I die. It was gruesome and nearly sickening for me, and I was the one doing it. I thought it was necessary though, and when that foot was severed, I tied off his other ankle and cut off that one.

His hands were a little more trouble, since he tried to fight even harder, but he'd lost some serious blood by now and he tired quickly. After he couldn't find any more strength to fight he started crying and begging. It was now pitiful along with being gruesome, and for what he'd done to us it was extreme punishment.

But he hadn't just started today. They had much too large a group for that. There was no telling how many other men they'd killed and who knew what else they'd been up to. They were all too well fed to my way of thinking.

After Kaglao was handless and footless I removed the thongs I'd used to keep him alive for the process and he bled out quickly. I gathered his hands and feet to carry off so his spirit couldn't find them and then we moved all our mobile prisoners by where Matatu and Jagbac were sitting beside Zakat.

"Matatu, I have killed Kaglao, the one that wounded our Zakat, and taken his hands and feet before he died. I will start a small fire and burn them before we leave.

"These fools," I said, pointing to our prisoners, "thought that Kaglao was their Zakat, even though they did not have a Calak, and had no women with them. I believe they are lying about something though, and I think we should at least question them with hot coals before we kill them. Maybe, if they tell us the whole truth, and don't force us to burn them too badly, we can release them after they have carried our Zakat back to our home."

"You have done well, and it is a good plan. What of their others that are wounded?" he asked.

"I go back to kill them now," I said.

I reloaded the Glock on my way back and one head shot each took care of the wounded. They were of no use to us and if they happened to live somehow they represented the possibility of danger later. Better this way.

Margata was a world of plenty, mostly, and it wouldn't have been a big risk to just leave them where they were, but what was the point of being stupid about it. I couldn't see any possibility of any of the wounded ever being helpful, to us anyway, and they were the ones that opened the ball. Hell, I'd felt worse for Kaglao while I was removing his hands and feet.

Once a dog learns to steal eggs from your chickens, you can't teach it not to steal them. If the dog is worth something, or means something to you, your only recourse is to take better care that it can't get to the hen's nests. If the dog is basically useless it is better to just kill it and be done. I considered myself killing useless dogs.

By the time I got back to Matatu and the others there was no need for a fire for anything but burning Kaglao's hands and feet. Matatu told me later that our prisoners were nearly fighting for the chance to spill their guts before I fired the third shot doing away with the wounded. They had begged him to be next to confess.

It turned out that there had been a Calak, of sorts anyway. At least they did have a few women hidden out. They had fourteen adult women, five near adults, and one girl child of six years. None of them were there by choice; they had all been kidnapped. Four more men were watching over the captive women while this raid was supposed to be going on.

I was about to ask what in the hell they had wanted with us but Matatu gave me the answer first. They had seen us and assumed that we were just the advance party for a moving Calak. They intended to kill our Zakat and then take over the Calak if they could.

If Kaglao wasn't able to defeat the next man in line to become Zakat, his minions were going to slip into the traveling camp at night, killing every man they could and stealing the women. They had pulled a big fuckup though. There was a moving Calak coming this way, but it was a day behind us.

We had done a good deed for someone else without even realizing it. The task at hand though was rescuing the women that were being held captive. As soon as we were able to construct a litter so that Zakat's new slaves could carry him in style, we left for their camp.

I kept questioning the men one at a time while we traveled. As one of them rotated out of the four carrying the litter, I had him come and walk by me and asked him for details, and then took the next to be relieved and asked for the same details. I located two that were trying to deceive me via this method and I wondered how stupid some men could be and still remember to breathe.

Approximately a mile and a half before we came to their camp we stopped while I tied the hands and hobbled the legs of all our captives, except for those carrying the litter. I left their hands free.

I took the time and spent some of my limited bankroll of duct tape, giving each of our captives a shiny gray gag, wrapped tightly all the way around their head and covering their mouths completely. They weren't going to shout a warning, or anything else until it was removed.

Matatu and I, with Zakat's input, planned to spread our men out around the camp and try to take the guards alive. It would have worked easily and should have saved a lot of wear and tear on the guards, but it was not to be.

Jagbac and I had approached the camp, staying hidden as best we could, and were within fifty yards. The women were cooking on open fires and all the younger girls were helping except for the girl child. She was still too small to help and she was playing quietly not far from the others.

She was, that is, until one of the guards walked by and took some fun by giving her a butt stroke to the abdomen with his spear. Of course the child cried out, and of course her mother came to see what the trouble was. When she saw what must have happened she threw the flint knife she'd been working with at the offending guard and hit him squarely in one eye.

He dropped his spear of course and yelled for help. The other three guards hadn't been paying attention until after the child cried out, but they turned to see what the cause was and were just in time to see the woman throw her knife.

One of them raised his spear to cast it and I barely got off a shot in time to make an entrance wound in one ear and presumably and exit wound out the other. The two uninjured, so far, guards turned to see what the hellacious noise had been cause by and it gave me a nice center of mass opportunity on both of them. I nearly took it, but realized at the last second that they were too shocked to do anything.

"Lay down your spears or die. That is your choice," I said.

I'd been expecting that they would not do it, but they surprised me. I guess the loud noise or the sudden demise of their companion had put the fear into them. They stood still while Jastal came up to tie their hands and hobble their feet.

By now the noise had even caused the little one to stop crying, though it hadn't taken the first offenders mind off his ruined eye, he was still wailing. Now that the excitement was over I just walked into the camp and approached the mother that was now seeing to her bruised baby.

"Excuse me, but I am Carl and we've come to see if you women are being held here against your will?" I said to the mother. She had turned to face me as soon as I spoke.

She seemed doubly surprised. First, no doubt by my announcement of my name, especially since there were obvious enemies present - even if one was still sobbing. Second by what I'd said about them being held against their will.

"Yes, we are, but you must leave, there are others and they will be back soon," she said.

"The ones that can come back are back, but they are our captives. Kaglao and many of the others are dead," I said.

That was it for her, she was overwhelmed and couldn't think of anything else to say. The other women and girls had been listening though and some of them thought of a few questions, or a few hundred.

"Please, let me ask my Matatu and Zakat to come into camp and help me explain," I said, and then turned to Matatu and motioned for them all to come in.

Of course the women had never seen duct tape before, no one had except the ones with me and those that were now wearing it. I'll have to say that it was a big surprise to them, especially after I explained what it was doing wrapped around the mouths of the tied and hobbled men.

After I explained, one of them asked fairly innocently, "But how will they eat and drink with that covering their mouth?"

"I don't really know," I said, "If they can think of a way, it's fine with me and if they can't, that's even better."

"Indeed," said the girl child's mother, "The beasts killed every man in our small Calak, and even all the boy children, down to the smallest. Since then they've kept us as slaves, fucking us at their whim and I've even seen them eyeing the young girls."

"She's right," said a different woman, "The only ones that acted like humans were the two that only fuck each other."

Now that was something I hadn't heard about in my time here, and from the gasps of the other women, I thought that it might be knowledge I probably wasn't supposed to have.

"Well, if those two are still alive, we will spare their lives if you all agree. The others we have are working on earning their next breath with every one they take, or they had better be. I hope that one crying on the ground doesn't mean anything pleasant to any of you."

"He doesn't, least of all him," the mother of the small child said, and the others agreed at once.