“You are so funny, old lady,” Kathy replied.
“Just kidding, kid. No, really, it’s great. Too bad, Desi and John got the room next to it.”
Meanwhile in the dining hall, Star went running up to her mother. “Can I sleep in the Lodge with Kylie, and Paige, and Gabby, please? They’re going to have a slumber party by the fireplace.”
Mary was noncommittal. “Uncle Mike is going to let us stay in Chief’s Headquarters tonight. You are still a little young to be sleeping with the big girls,” she responded.
“Please, please?” Star begged.
“Go, ask Ralph,” was Mary’s dithering answer. At that moment Ralph appeared, having coaxed the kitchen staff out of a second piece of cake.
“What’s up?” he asked, as he use his fingers to pick up the dessert.
“Dad, can I go to a slumber party tonight with Kylie, Paige, and Gabby?” Star asked.
“Sure, why not,” replied Ralph.
“Yaaaay! Thanks, Dad,” said Star, and she gave him a hug. Then she ran off to find her friends, so she could tell them the good news.
Mary gave Ralph a critical look. “She always calls you, Dad, when she wants something,” she said. “Sooner or later, you’ll have to put your foot down and say, ‘no’.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ralph admitted.
That night, the four girls lay on mattresses by the fireplace, giggling, chatting, and generally just enjoying a girlish night. The only person close to them was an older girl, who was sitting on one of the bus seats that had been placed in the open area of the Lodge. At one point, some boys with mischief on their minds approached.
Suddenly the older girl stood.
“Can I help you?” she asked in a sweet but goose bump raising tone.
Her face could hardly be seen by the light of the flickering fire behind her. Her yellow eyes seemed to gleam with wicked intent. She appeared to appraise them as if she wondered how long they would take to bake. There was an aura of danger about her.
“N..n..no,” the leader stammered, and they fled to the safety of their small grotto.
Satisfied, the young woman sat down and glanced at the four younger girls, who had not been disturbed.
In the safety of their cave, the boys shuddered.
“Did you ever notice how much Desi looks like a witch?” a young man asked.
“Don’t ever say that to John,” Tyler warned him.
Chapter Eleven
RESCUE
The next morning, Jean and Jacob told their story at the Council meeting.
Jean began. “We hustled our butts, and we made it to the Retreat in thirteen days. It took Jacob one day to find a sheep, kill it, prepare it, and hang it where they would see it from their front door. So we were actually finished with the mission in about two weeks. That got us thinking. Maybe we should scout around for a week, and then head back. “We found the road leading away from the Retreat, and it seemed to be heading southeast, so we took that road. About five hundred feet below the Retreat, we found a sheep barn. I never saw it the first time that I was there. There’s a lot of pasture close by and a lot more sheep. I guess those at the retreat just wandered up there, but it looks like the sheep barn belonged to the owners of the Retreat.”
“I thought that the road down the mountain might lead to another road running east and west,” Jacob added. “I thought it might lead back to our area. I remembered that the firebreak road to Mrs. Brown’s farm turned east beyond the farm. I thought that we might find that road.”
Jean continued. “We went southeast along the road for another two days, and then the road forked. We debated about which fork to take, and since we hadn’t seen evidence that either one was a road leading back to our neck of the woods, we decided we would take the east fork. We thought we would hike along that road for a day or two and then backtrack. You did say that you wouldn’t be worried until six weeks had passed, right, Chief,” she said, looking hopefully at Mike.
“True,” said Mike. “Although I don’t remember telling you that you could take off by yourselves. Howard, do you remember me saying that Jean and Jacob could go hiking off by themselves into the wilderness, if they completed their mission faster than we expected them to?”
“Don’t get me started, Chief,” Howard growled.
Hastily, Jean continued. “Yeah, well, we hiked two more days, and then things got interesting.”
“At the end of the second day, we found the remains of two bodies,” said Jacob. “They had been shot. There were two motorcycles nearby. They were the same kind of bikes that we have. We found a jacket next to one of the bodies. It had a patch on it. Remember those guys we killed? Remember their jackets? The jackets from these bodies had the same patch.”
“Oh, shit,” Yuie said “Our bad guys and these dead guys were from the same group?”
“You sure about that, Jacob?” Mike asked grimly.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure,” Jacob answered. “But it’s a good bet.”
Jean continued the tale. “Anyway, the next day, we found a dirt track leading up a hill. It was rough, but we could tell that motorcycles had been on it, and we thought we could see car tire marks, so we followed the track. It went up the hill, then it turned east and went around the hill and veered to the north. At the end of that track we found them. We found the bikers’ camp.”
“I don’t believe this,” Mike said. “What the hell were you thinking, Jacob?”
“I asked myself, ‘where were they taking Jackie and Maria’?” Jacob replied.
“What?” Mike said.
“Where were they taking Jackie and Maria? That guy killed Jackie, and he said that he was going to kill Maria, but what if he hadn’t? They couldn’t have been living at the place where we killed them. There weren’t enough supplies. So, where was their real place? Who else did they have? I know now. They have a bunch of kids at their camp.”
“Dammit,” John exclaimed angrily.
“No, oh, no,” moaned Desi.
“I snuck up close,” said Jacob. “First I came across a gully. I found about twelve bodies. Three little ones.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Howard vehemently.
Yuie sniffed, and then a sob escaped her lips. Mike felt sick to his stomach.
“I got closer to their camp. They were living in a big dugout, and they have it covered with all kinds of stuff. At night, they keep the kids in an RV with the door chained. I saw three cars, two pickups with camper shells, and two RV’s. They hunt. I saw a lot of deer bones.
“I circled their camp. From the south side, I could see a road down below. I think that’s the road I was looking for. It runs northeast and southwest. On the east side of their camp, there’s a paved road leading down to the other road. I think after the fog came, after those guys realized what happened, they were watching the road for traffic. When they spotted someone, they went down and attacked.”
“Bandits,” Mike murmured.
“Yes,” said Jacob.
“We saw ten kids,” Jean added. “They ranged in age from about six to sixteen. Seven girls and three boys. We saw six bikers. They were all wearing the same jackets.”
“I didn’t know what to do.” Jacob shook his head. “I thought about making contact with the kids. They let them run around free during the day. They put them in the RV at night. We didn’t have enough food for them. I couldn’t bring them with us. I decided to come back and report.”
“So we hiked to the paved road, and we made our way down,” said Jean. “We came to the road running northeast and southwest. And that’s when we found a campsite. It was not fresh, but it wasn’t old either. We found some empty food cans. The markings on the cans said, ‘Property of the United States Army’.”