“Fuck! Thanks, man. Good shot”
“Always got your six, man,” Roadblock says, slapping me on the back of the shoulder.
“Damn, you were almost a bear snack,” Blade says with wild eyes and blowing out a huge breath as he braces a hand on the tree.
I start walking slowly toward the body with my rifle trained on the bear, ready to fire again if he's only stunned. Fuck it! I fire one more time. I ain't taking any chances of getting mauled today. I make sure he's dead and look over at the body. I move quickly toward it and crouch down for a better look. A gasp escapes my lips when I discover it’s the body of a naked girl on her side with her back facing me, covered in blood and bruises and what looks like boot prints. I see four bleeding gouges on her hip from the bear’s claws. “Get over here now!” I yell, feeling slightly panicked. I know this bear didn’t undress this girl and leave muddy boot prints on her body. I pull her matted hair away from her face and neck and feel for a pulse – it's there, but it's weak. I turn her over gently, and when I do, I'm horrified at what I find. Blade and Roadblock rush to her other side, and I look up to see the same expressions of horror on their faces. Then their features contort into the rage that matches mine. This girl’s face is unrecognizable. Her wrists look like they've been shackled or tied tight for a long time, considering they have deep ligature marks that are festering and red. As I scan her body, I feel my own tense up, and I set my rifle down. She has what looks like human bite marks on her breasts, and her nipples are crusted with dried blood. She has blood all down the insides of her thighs. She has cuts covering her skin, and her ankles have matching ligature marks from rope or shackles on each one. I feel sick at the thought, knowing most likely she was tied with legs spread open. This is bad… really fucking bad.
“What the fuck do we do with her? We’re miles away from anywhere. Where did she come from? How the fuck did she get out here?” Blade asks, looking around anxiously.
"Grab my rifle. I'm carrying her to the logging road. Your fastest, Blade. Run ahead and get the jeep. Cut the fucking barbed wire if you can’t find a gate. Meet me on the logging road. Roadblock, keep a lookout for bears and other large predators. Her blood will draw them in."
“I got your six. Don’t worry.”
“I’m out. Stay frosty,” Blade says then takes off running at top speed.
I lift her up and start walking toward the logging road.
"Whoa, what the fuck is this?" Roadblock takes a knee in front of me and looks closely at something I can't see.
“What do you see, man?”
“It looks like a fucking burn from a cattle brand on her hip.”
“Are you fucking serious? What kind of sick fuck did this?”
“I don’t know, man, but this poor girl has been through hell.” He looks up at me with worry and concern on his face, and it’s a new look for him, that’s for sure. He’s our cold mother fucker, and half the time, I wonder if he has any feelings at all. I look down at this poor girl, and my gut twists in knots as I study her. There’s so much blood and dirt in her matted hair it’s hard to even tell what color it is. She has a huge boot print across her stomach like someone stomped on her hard, and the skin over her ribs is black and blue. Her knees have deep abrasions and are coated in dried blood. I can’t find a spot on her body that isn’t covered in blood, scrapes, and bruises.
I grit my teeth, and the words kill, kill, kill are on repeat in my mind for the man or men who did this to her. I know she needs help like now, but my adrenaline is kicking in, and a part of me wants to hand her off to Roadblock and hunt down, torture, and kill the men responsible for hurting this girl.
I look down as I hear a soft moan escape her lips.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You're safe now. I’ve got you. Gonna get you some help.”
“No,” She breathes out so soft I almost don’t catch it.
“Sweetheart, you need medical attention. You need a hospital. That’s where we’re taking you.”
“No. No hospital. Please…they’ll find me. Please, let me die. Just let me die. I can't take anymore."
Chills slide over my body, and I look over my shoulder at Roadblock. He must see the panic on my face because he rushes up to walk next to me.
“What’s wrong, man? Did she die?” He looks at her and then to me.
“No, she fucking begged me to let her die, pleaded with me not to take her to the hospital. She said ‘they’ would find her.”
“Fuck!” I yell, feeling totally helpless.
“What are we going to do… if she survives the ride back and if we can’t take her to the hospital? She needs fucking medical attention, man!”
“I know,” I grit out.
“I’m taking her back to the house. We have a good amount of first aid, but she needs IV fluids and antibiotics, which we don’t have.” Think, man, think. The clinic!
“All right, man, I’ve got a plan. After dark, you and Blade break into the clinic once it closes. We can have Checkmate kill the security, and I’ll make a list of what to get. If she makes it through the night, we’ll figure out a plan tomorrow.”
“Okay, you’ve got it.” He nods his head and bites on his lip as he glances at the girl again.
I look up when I hear the jeep bouncing up the road and sigh with relief. I look down to make sure she’s still breathing, but I can’t tell. She’s gone totally limp, and I can’t see her chest move. “Fuck, I can’t tell if she’s breathing. Check her pulse.”
Roadblock nods and slides his two massive fingers to her neck. “It’s there, but it’s weak.”
I pick up my pace and run toward the Jeep. When I get close enough, Blade stops the Jeep and hops out. I run to the back, and Roadblock opens the hatch where I carefully lay her down inside and then crawl in next to her. Blade hands me a jacket, which I place over her, then I pull her to me so my body can help warm her. I’m pretty sure she has hypothermia since her skin feels like ice. That alone can weaken her pulse.
“Let’s roll. We need to move now.”
Blade turns the jeep around and guns it down the bumpy logging road.
I just pray we made it in time to help this poor girl. I can’t even begin to imagine the hell she’s been through. I softly pet her head as it rests on my chest, and I wrap my arms around her, trying to offer her some warmth and comfort, let her know she’s safe. She’s been out for the last thirty minutes since she whispered those terrifying words, “Let me die. Please, let me die.” From someone who has tortured and interrogated men before, it takes a lot to push someone to start begging for death, and I can’t get out of my head the fact that she’s at that point. She was begging me to let her die. I can’t do that though. No fucking way.
“How’s she doing," Blade asks from the driver's seat.
“She's hanging on," I tell him.
“She was begging him to let her die. Said ‘no hospitals’ because they'd find her," Roadblock says to Blade.
I look over the seat from where I’m propped up against the side of the cargo area, catching his eyes in the rearview. He looks back at me for a second as his eyes go wide, and I see the horror on his face. My brothers know, same as me, what it takes to push someone to beg for death.