Univited Guests

Uninvited Guests

Shari heard it first, long before the others.  “Mr. W, I hear the sound of a motor.  No, not a motor, more like two or three.”

I couldn’t hear a thing, and neither could anyone else.  We sometimes wondered if maybe Shari was possessed, or something worse, a little crazy.

“They’re motorcycles and I’m pretty sure that there are three of them.  They’re not on the highway.  They’re coming this way,” she went on.

“Are you positive that’s what you hear, Shari?”  I didn’t want to go into protection mode, unless it was absolutely necessary.

“I’m sure.” 

The expression – Better Safe than Sorry – came to mind.  “Okay everyone.  Now’s the time to put our preparation to the test.  Remember, this is to protect us.  Don't be afraid to use lethal force if necessary.”  I emphasized the word necessary.  “I also don't want you to forget that these could be friendlies.  Now go.  Do what you’ve prepared to do.”  Doctor Manning and Tammy stayed with me while the other three headed for their stash of weapons.  Meanwhile we prayed that this wouldn't turn into anything more serious than a brief get-together with some strangers, and possibly an opportunity to expand our current population.  It occurred to me that we could be meeting with some future friends and allies and equally, that we could be facing our first mortal enemies.  I would not be naïve and taken off guard.

There was the sound of motorcycles, just like she had said.  They would shortly come around the twist in the escarpment and become visible.  Sure enough, there were exactly three of them, one with a side car.  I hadn’t seen one of those for a while.  As they dismounted their bikes, I took note of their long leather coats.  They headed our way.  It reminded me of a scene from The Matrix. 

“Hello strangers.  Welcome to our camp.  It’s really good to see some more human faces.”  Although I maintained a friendly appearance, inwardly I was less so.

The one in the front appeared to be their leader as the other two flanked him lagging just slightly behind and off to either side.  It reminded me of an air show where the jets would fly in formation nearly wingtip to wingtip.  “Hi.  How ya doin,” the leader shot back. 

“Not bad, fellas.  What can we do for you?”  I couldn’t get my eyes off the coats.  They were oversize for the riders.  They were nearly on us by now and I was getting a uneasy feeling about those coats.  The leader stopped about three feet in front of me while his cohorts circled around behind, a bad sign.  He spoke to me again, “We just came to pick somethin up.”

I ignored his remark as my radar began to pay more attention.  How could he have something to pick up, unless he'd been here before?  “Wouldn’t you like to stay and have something to eat?” I asked and then questioned, “Pick something up? And what would that be?”

One of the two others grabbed Tammy as the coats opened, suddenly revealing two shotguns and a rifle, the latter pointed directly at my face.  This was the worst case scenario that we had planned for; hoping that it would never take place, but now we were in the middle of the dance and the music would just have to play out.  I just hoped that these three were not entirely stupid.

“We don’t need anything to eat.  We’re just taking this.” He used his head to indicate Tammy, without taking his eyes off of me.  “And we’ll be gone.”  He began to step back just a little.

I was incensed that he would have the gall to refer to Tammy as “this,” as if she were a commodity for sale.  “Tammy.  Are you interested in going anywhere with these fellows?” I asked calmly. 

“No,” was her quick, adamant reply.

“Now you see, she doesn’t want to go anywhere with you.  Now why don’t you just let her go and stick around for something to eat?  There is no reason for us to be hostile to each other.  After all, this world is really short on people.  We need each other.

He ignored me, continuing to point his weapon at my chest.

Since that had no impact, I attempted to inform the three of them of their situation.  “I don’t think you understand the danger you’re in right now,” I hoped that this would lead to a bit of negotiation. 

“Danger?  Mister, I’m not the one looking down the business end of this here rifle.”  He wasn’t smiling and I knew that he couldn’t be trusted.  I was sure he felt powerful as long as he held the rifle.  The others also kept their weapons trained on the three of us.  Because they were quiet, I wasn’t sure about them, but I did respect the guns.

“I’m just trying to warn you.  In a second or two, you’ll receive a more…how shall I put it…a more pointed message.  I had hardly finished speaking when an arrow suddenly appeared in front of his feet.  I suspected that it was Bruce who was doing the shooting, it was so accurate.

“Is that the best you’ve got?  You playing cowboys and Indians out here are ya?  Let me tell you a thing or two.  This gun will blow your head off.  Tell your people to back off.”

“No, my friend.  It is you who needs to back off.  Your life is in great danger right now.  Let the girl go and you might live.  All of you,” I said, turning briefly to the other two, “need to lower your weapons or at least aim them away from our people here, or you are going to experience what it is like to be on the receiving end of an arrow.”  One of the three at least dropped the muzzle of his shot gun so that no one was in danger from his gun, but the leader and the other young man, who had Tammy now by the neck, was keeping his up and swinging it around.  “You don’t have much time,” I reminded.  “This is your last warning.”

“Come on.  Bring the girl,” he ordered.  He took another step backward and as he did, two arrows struck him, one in the neck and the other in the chest.  He momentarily lowered his rifle, but realizing that he might be mortally wounded decided to take me out with him.  But suddenly a small hole appeared in the side of his head, followed by the immediate crack of a gunshot.  He fell to the ground, dead.  I felt sick.  This was the first time I had been responsible for taking someone’s life.  It was not something that I felt proud of and I desperately hoped that we could avoid a repeat performance.

I turned to the other two.  The one, who had lowered his gun, dropped it onto the ground.  “Don’t shoot,” he begged.

His friend shouted at him.  “Pick it up, you idiot.  It’s our only defense again these people.  Don’t you see that they’re going to pick us off one by one?  Pick it up.”

The more sensible of the two moved away from his weapon in the direction of Dr. Manning.  Fear was written all over their faces, but more so, on the one who still held Tammy.  “You know, that girl’s friend is out in the woods.  He’s an expert marksman with both the bow and the rifle as you have already seen.  We don’t want to hurt anyone.  We are just defending ourselves.  If I were you, I would put that shotgun down on the ground and let the girl go, because I would guess that right now, he has you in his sights and is ready to take a shot.”  My words had the opposite effect that I had hoped.  He seemed to try to hide behind her, putting her between himself and the woods.  But knowing Bruce, this would not be a problem.  Suddenly, the young man let out a howl.  Another arrow had appeared on the scene, this time protruding through the captor’s calf.  He dropped the gun, slumped to the ground, rolled on his back, and grasped his leg, crying in pain.

Now free, Tammy did the sensible thing and moved the guns out of their reach, then added a well placed kick to his good leg, and a second to his now vulnerable crotch, presumably to let him know how she thoroughly detested him.  With the two subdued, the rest of our family returned from the woods and Dr. Manning tended to the wounded man’s leg.  Our visitors were quickly tied up, à la Bruce, who was none too kind when it came to how tight the knots should be.  We had to loosen them off later, for fear of gangrene setting in. 

With our human invaders secure, it was time for an interview.  The wiser of the two men decided to cooperate and answer a few questions. 

“What’s your name?” was the first obvious question to ask.

“Daniel.”  He was careful at first, not wanting to say anything to get himself into any further trouble.  I figured that we'd have to ask many questions to find out the whole story, but as we proceeded, he began to realize that he wasn't going to be tortured, have a bullet fired into his brain and then have his body dropped into a pit.

“What did you expect to do with this girl, Daniel?”

“We needed someone to look after us.  To cook.”

“Oh, you poor thing.  You couldn’t look after yourselves?”  Tammy was about ready to give him a boot as well.

“It was Frank’s idea.  He said that we needed someone and that it wouldn’t be hard to get one.”

“Interesting!  And just how did you know about us.  About our being here, Daniel?”

“We saw the girl and that guy,” he was pointing to Bruce, “in town one evening at a Karate Domo.”

“What did I tell you?” interjected Tammy.

“Not necessary, Tammy.  We already believed you.”  I smiled as I looked at Dr. Manning, whom I knew did not completely share my confidence in the pair.  Then, turning to the fellow before us, “Continue Daniel,” I ordered.

“Frank followed them back here.”

“That trip into town was a long time ago.  What took you so long?”

“Frank was a little afraid at first.  We didn’t just happen to see the two of them at the karate place, but we sneaked up on them and watched through the window.  He was afraid of Bruce.”  I glanced at Bruce who was smiling at that remark.

“And well he should have been afraid.  So you took your time and planned this out carefully.”

“Yeah, but I was never comfortable with the idea, but I felt obligated to help.”

“And why should you feel that way?”

  “Frank saved our lives.  He got us into the sewer, under the ground when the invasion started.  We almost got caught, but we killed one of them and got away.  We lived down there until we thought it was safe to live up top.   Look!  I wouldn’t have hurt anyone.”

“Right!”  Bruce’s tone dripped with contempt.  “You came here with guns.  Just what do you think guns are for?  You weren’t out hunting for food.  And you had the gall to put them in our faces.  My Daddy taught me never to aim a gun at anything I didn’t intend to kill.”

Daniel squirmed a bit and looked at me for some evidence of protection.  I changed the subject back to my previous topic.

“What else was the girl supposed to do for you?”

He didn’t answer, but just lowered his head in shame. 

“Come on, Mr. W.  Just let me shoot him and be done with it.”  Bruce was getting really angry, so I motioned to Dr. Manning, who took both him and Tammy by the hand and led them away from the interrogation.

“Didn’t your mother and father teach you better than that?”

“Please sir.  It’s as I told ya.  I wouldn’t have harmed her.  I didn’t want to do it in the first place.  It was Frank’s idea from the start.  I never held a gun before in my life.  I don’t know no gun rules, and my father never taught me anything like that guy.  I hardly knew my father.”

“What about your friend?  What did he think of the idea, Daniel?”

 “I’m not sure about him.  He seemed to get a little excited when Frank suggested that we do this, and it wasn’t for the cooking, either.  That worried me a lot, but I was afraid that if I said anything, Frank, might take out his frustrations on me.”

“Well,” I said, “your friend, Frank, is no longer with us.  I don’t like what you guys were up to.  If I didn’t believe in giving people a chance, I would've turned you both over to Bruce and let him take care of you.  As it is, I have an aversion to seeing people killed, especially in this God forsaken world where I suspect that we may need as much of the world’s genes as possible to keep the race going.”   I studied the young man a little longer.  “How old are you Daniel?”

“Twenty-two,” he said matter-of-factly.

“All right, twenty-two year old Daniel, here are your choices as I see them.  One, you leave this place and never show you face here again.  Two, I turn you over to Bruce.  Or three, you stay here, locked up behind bars until we decide what we can do with you.”

Daniel started to say something, then closed his mouth and sat in deep thought.  “I guess I have to leave,” he said at last.

I left Daniel and proceeded to the second captive.  His name was Gary.  He was a little younger than Daniel at twenty, but very aggressive.  I had to do a lot of reading between the lines with Gary, as he was not forthright with his answers.  Again, my experience and instinct as a principal came into play.   He came from a gang background, had been in and out of trouble through his school years and as a result, never finished high school. 

He would probably fit the profile of a dangerous offender, if he had a record, something I doubted that I could research with all the communications systems down.  I didn’t like the idea of his staying around, so I made a mental note to leave out that option when we were finished.  Yet, at the same time, I knew that if we just let him waltz out of our camp, that he might be the type to come back armed to the teeth and make more trouble.  But at the same time, we couldn’t keep him locked up forever.  Another mental note: take this to a council meeting.  We would convene in the morning.

It was getting late in the day, so we decided to keep the two of them over night.  We still had rooms available.  At last count, we had located about five more openings.  Some were shallow with little extension under the escarpment.  We put the two of them in one of these and barricaded the entrance.  It seemed secure enough.  Later that night I was awakened by a ruckus outside.  At first, I wasn’t sure what was going on, but it soon became clear that Gary and Daniel had broken free.  Gary had somehow removed Shari from her bed without waking the other two girls and now had her outside.  He might have been able to get away with it, but someone had sounded an alarm. 

When I determined that Gary was armed, (we later figured that he must've had more weapons at his bike for the gun he had didn’t belong to any of us.), I slipped back into my room and retrieved a hand gun of my own.  Bruce had told me that this weapon was much more accurate than the revolvers that I'd used years ago and this had proven to be true.  I slipped it behind my back and proceeded to get as close to Gary as possible.  Seeing Daniel, I ordered someone to hold him.  Gary made no objection to this, although he pressed the barrel of the hand gun into Shari’s neck just a little harder.  Here we were going at it again, a repeat of earlier.  I wondered if Gary’s brains had been fried or something.

If there'd not been a full moon overhead, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do what I would do next, for Gary would've been nearly invisible.  “Drop the gun.  Let the girl go,” I ordered.  “I'm not even slightly inclined to play any games with you right now,” I added.  “Let her go or face the consequences.”

“I came for a woman; I’m leavin with a woman.  Now get out of my way.”  He waved his gun towards us.  He was given a wide berth by everyone but Bruce and me.  Bruce was not armed, but he stood his ground anyway, between Gary and the bikes. 

“Bruce, step aside,” I said, hoping to avoid getting him hurt.

“Over my dead body will I let any piece of trash take my friends away.” 

I realized that he was not going to move, but Gary was also not going to back down.  He didn’t know I had a weapon of my own, so he became more emboldened.  That meant that I had no choice.  It was Gary, or Bruce and Shari.  I reached behind me, pulled the gun from my belt, simultaneously raised it and turned off the safety and took careful aim. 

“Mr. W, you shouldn’t really aim that gun like that.  You might hit Shari.”

“That’s a chance I am going to take.  Last chance, Gary.  Drop the gun, let the girl go.”  He began to make his way forward towards both Bruce and me.  I leveled the gun, and squeezed the trigger.  I was surprised at how little recoil there was.  It was an automatic and much of the recoil was used to cock and reload the gun.  I wasn’t surprised by the expression on Gary’s face.  His mouth was partially open, his eyes much more so.  A small dark spot graced his forehead where a dark substance now ran down to his eyes.  He slumped to his knees and fell over on his face.  The back of his head showed the deadly work of the bullet that had penetrated the front and exited the back taking most of the interior with it.

“Are you all right, Shari? 

"I'm okay, sir."

"Lock him up,” I said, referring to Daniel.  Bruce quickly and roughly grabbed him to drag him back to his cave.

“Mr. W.  He’s the one who made all the noise and called everyone to help me.  He didn’t do anything wrong.  He even tried to free me, but that other guy aimed the gun at him and told him to get away or he was going to kill him, too.”

“All right, we’ll talk about this tomorrow.  Bruce, take him to the cave, block it and please watch him.  Okay?”

“I’ll keep an eye on him, sir.  You can count on that.”  Bruce did just that, staying up the entire night, feeding a little fire to occupy his time.  But Daniel made no other attempt to escape.

***

I hadn’t moved since pulling the trigger.  I was still holding the gun in both hands, safety off.  Dr. Manning noticed my shaking.  Before I pulled the trigger, I had been calm and steady.  Looking down at the mess of the dead young man near my feet brought feelings that I had never experienced before.  I knew before I did it that I would protect my family, no matter what, but the aftershock was more that I imagined it would be.  I felt her hand on my arm as she led me away from the scene to a quiet spot away from the clearing.  She took the gun while I took a couple of steps further and emptied my stomach.  Dr. Manning didn’t leave, but directed me to another location where we sat together against a tree while she put her arm around me and just held me until my sobbing and shakes ended and I regained a level of self control and speech returned.

“That was messy business wasn’t it?” she asked.

“Doc, I can’t believe I shot him. He was just a kid.  I’ve never hurt anyone before.  It’s just not me.”

“You did what you had to.  You protected our girls.  And Warren, he was not a kid.  If you hadn't stood your ground, we might never have seen Shari again.  I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks for the words of encouragement, but pray to God I don’t have to do this again.  I don’t think I could handle it.”

“Where our family is concerned, a father or a mother will protect the nest no matter the cost.  I do wish the boy hadn’t been so stupid though.  Things could have turned out differently.  If only they'd been reasonable.  We could've adopted them into our family.”

“I was hoping all the while I was speaking to 'im that he wasn’t a moron.  To think he thought he was going to take Shari away.”

“We’ve still got Daniel to deal with.”

“I guess I'd better clean up the mess.”

“I’ll give you a hand.”