James Hunt - Broken Roads

Garret stumbled into the counter and pulled out his piece. Ulysses squeezed his trigger and shot Garrett in the leg and stomach. He squeezed the trigger again sending a bullet through Garret’s chest, dropping him to the floor.

Ulysses could hear the shouts and the sound of boots coming in his direction. He hobbled around Garrett’s body and made his way to the back of the store. Each step sent a knife digging into his knee and then ran all the way up to his hip. He pushed himself as fast as he could go. He swung the back door open and stepped outside, the sun shining bright in the blue sky. He glanced around for any place he could hide. He looked to his left. Nothing. He looked right. Nothing. The tall grass in front of him was the only place that offered any cover.

Ulysses limped through the grass for twenty feet, then dropped to the ground. He crawled, spreading the grass apart, trying to see in front of him when he found himself looking into the eyes of a young girl, frozen in shock, lying hidden in the grass.

“Spread out! I want the head of whatever prick did this on a steak before lunch!” Frankie said.

“Alright, Frankie.”

Ulysses brought his finger to his lips. The girl nodded. Ulysses saw some other movement behind her and then Nancy’s and Erin’s eyes stared back at him, through the grass.

The bikers swept through the tall grass, searching for them.

“Frankie, this shit is thick. It could take a while before we find them.”

“Then you can be the one to tell Jake why you let someone get away with killing one of our brothers.”

It was an hour before the bikers gave up their search. The bikers disappeared and Ulysses finally let his body relax. He let his head rest on the ground for a moment. He felt the cool Earth, with its rocks and pebbles under his belly. He rolled onto his back, wincing from the pain in his knee.

“Are you girls okay?” Ulysses asked.

“We’re not hurt,” Mary said.

“If we can get to the edge of town we can follow the highway to my cabin. You three can come with me,” Ulysses said.

He saw her hesitation as she stared at the pistol in his hand. He holstered it.

“My family is there. It’s safe. I promise.”

“Mary, I don’t know if we should go. What about mom?” Nancy asked.

“We can come back for your mom, but we’ll need help,” Ulysses said.

“You promise we can come back for her?” Mary asked.

“Promise.”

Ulysses noticed the dirt smeared on their faces, the scratches and cuts from the rocks and grass around them, the dark circles under their eyes, their sunburnt faces. These girls had been here for a while.

“Okay,” Mary said.

“Stay low and follow me,” Ulysses said.

Each time Ulysses’ knee hit the ground while he crawled, a shot of pain shot through his entire leg. After thirty yards he collapsed on his side. It felt like a pad of spikes was sticking into knee.

“Are you all right?” Mary asked.

Ulysses nodded. He led the girls through the grass, Ulysses having to stop every now and then to rest.

“How much longer?” Mary asked.

“Shouldn’t be much further,” Ulysses answered. He poked his head over the grass and saw they were even with the end of the stores on Main Street.

“The highway is just another twenty yards. We’ll want to stay in the grass for a little ways before we start walking on the road in case they have people keeping watch,” he said.

They traveled up the side of the highway a little further, crawling along the grass, avoiding rocks, and on the watch for snakes. Ulysses checked behind them one more time to see how far they were from the town. It was over a hundred yards behind them, so Ulysses motioned for them to get on the road and the three of them moved as fast as they could. Ulysses hobbled trying to keep up and Mary went back and she put his arm around her shoulder to help steady him.

Jake slammed the knife onto the table. The men around him had their heads down, not daring to look him in the face.

“You’re telling me three girls did this?” Jake asked.

“Maybe they thought they could get their mom back,” Frankie answered.

Jake stared Frankie down. He motioned for the other two bikers to leave the room and they shut the door behind them. Jake walked over to Frankie, looking behind him at the closed door. The room was hot and stuffy. Jake put his hand on Frankie’s shoulder.

“You’re getting sloppy, Frankie,” Jake said.

“Jake, I’m sorry.”

Jake patted Frankie’s cheeks softly and then turned his back to him.

“I know you are,” Jake said.

Jake sent his fist to the side of Frankie’s jaw, sending him to the ground with a thud. Jake picked him up by his cut and threw him into the mirror above the dresser, shattering it to pieces. Jake picked Frankie up by his hair and yanked his head back.

“You’re letting a group of girls get the better of you? I want you to find them and bring them to me, do you understand?”

Frankie nodded. Jake let go of his hair and pushed him backwards.

“Tell the boys we’ll have Garrett’s wake tonight,” Jake said.

Kalen sat on the end of her bed, staring out the cabin window. The sun was breaking through the trees, sending beams of light into her room. Her fingers rubbed the bruises around her neck. The flesh was still tender. Whenever she moved she could feel the strain of her muscles and tendons. Her lip was still slightly swollen on the bottom corner.

She fell back on the bed, a faint memory of the day before, of the woods and being dragged into them by a strange man. She didn’t feel like moving. She hadn’t felt like talking. Every time her mom came in the room to speak with her she shut down. She knew her mom was trying to help, but there wasn’t anything that she could tell her that would make her feel better.

She hadn’t slept for more than a few hours a night since they arrived at the cabin, and the hours she did rest were distressing. When she closed her eyes all she could see was him on top of her. She could feel his hands gripping her neck, the weight of his body forcing himself on her, the feel of his unwanted hands.

Then, she would wake. Her heart would be pounding, her hands trying to free a grip that wasn’t there. The attack replayed in her mind over and over. She tried to remember everything, but pieces were missing. Her last visible thought was of the man on top of her, his hands around her neck and the screams of her mother in the distance. After that she could only remember waking up in the Jeep with the blanket over her.

Kalen reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to her and pulled out a bottle of pills. Her hands were shaky as she opened the top of the bottle. The label on the side read “Oxycodone.” The once full bottle was already half empty.

She popped three of the pills in her mouth letting her body go numb. Her heart rate started to come back down; the rolling weight of dullness fell upon her. Her thoughts started to scramble. She couldn’t remember what she was thinking about anymore. She could only feel herself sinking into the bed beneath her and the warm sun beating on her legs through the window.

The crash of the front door swinging open snapped her out of her daze. She could hear the shuffling of feet and the sliding of furniture. There were voices she couldn’t recognize.

Her legs felt heavy when she moved them. Her whole body was heavy. She moved toward the door of her room, slightly swaying back and forth. When she reached for the doorknob everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Kalen’s hands padded along the walls of the hallway, as she tried to steady herself. She could see people moving in the living room. She saw two young girls staring back at her, their faces smudged in dirt and their nightgowns covered in grass and mud.