Behind the barn, we found an open box trailer and an enclosed trailer similar to ours. Ed commandeered one of the kidnapper's trucks and took Junior and three others with him. He was taking Junior to his bike and would drop the others where our trucks were parked. All four trucks returned, and we hitched the confiscated trailers to our trucks to haul everything we could use from the kidnappers’ buildings. Dusk was imminent. We judged we'd barely be able to reload the supplies that had been unloaded from our truck and trailer before dark.
Most of us loaded the trailer while Andrea and Maria prepared supper with the supplies they'd packed. Two others dragged the ten dead bodies behind a shed. They were given head shots and then left without the honor of a proper burial.
Before the doors on our trailer were closed and locked, we'd agreed to stay the night. The other two trucks and trailers would be loaded in the morning when we were rested. One of our last acts would be to transfer fuel supplies to our trucks. At midmorning, we'd start the drive back home.
When our plates were full of roast beef, green beans and boiled potatoes, we found places to sit in the main room of the stone building; some sat on chairs, others on the grimy floor with the cool stone walls against their backs. As we ate, Albert started on how they'd been captured and then turned the tables on their abductors. I guessed Maria had cleaned him up because his full black hair was shiny and combed.
"We were about an hour from the compound," Albert gestured as he spoke, "when we saw an older model Chevy pickup off the road in the left side ditch. It looked liked the same one that passed us about twenty minutes earlier. Two men stood there, and both walked to the middle of the road when they saw us coming. They appeared unarmed. It was obvious they weren't zombies, so I stopped to see if we could help. When one was on each side of the cab they pulled handguns. They yelled and two more men got out of their truck and came at us with rifles. We stepped out with our arms up and they cuffed us with cable ties. Me and Tony were thrown in the back of their pickup, and our feet were fastened to the D rings. It was four-wheel drive, and they just backed it up out of the ditch." Albert stopped and looked at Kira with sorrow. "I knew it was going to be bad for Kira when they kept her separated from us and put her in the back seat of the cab. You could read in their expressions what they had in mind to do." Albert shifted uncomfortably at the last revelation. "A fella got in our truck and followed us here. He was here the second day, but then we didn't see him again until this afternoon when the shooting started."
Albert looked at Tony and nodded for him to carry the story. "When we got here, they beat the hell out of me and Albert, and a couple of guys knocked Kira around when she tried to stop them. They wanted to know how much ammunition, guns and food was stashed at the compound, but we kept saying just enough to get by. They laughed, and said we were lying because they'd watched us for over a month and saw our trailers going in and out. Then they really kicked the crap out of us. They broke Albert's leg when they stomped on us. We were all three put in that small room over there. They locked chains around our necks. It's set up with a dozen chains secured to the walls to hold twelve captives. From the joking and smart-assed remarks they made, I'm sure they'd held people here before." Sheepishly he said, "Last night they took Kira away for a couple hours. . . and you know. . . . Two guys came in to feed us and one told the other that Rance was getting what he'd been waiting a month for. It sounded as if he'd seen Kira and she was mainly what our kidnapping was about."
Shane wanted to cut to the chase, "If the three of you were chained, how did you get free to attack them?"
In spite of his facial cuts and bruises, Tony grinned at Kira. "You're the hero, so why don't you tell them how you did it?" He added, "This gal is something. If there's trouble, I want her on my side."
Kira had sat quiet and sullen and had eaten little. She pushed her plate aside. Anxiously her hands fidgeted in her lap. "Thank you, Tony, for what I'm sure you intended as a compliment. But I'm no hero. I reacted because I was terrified of what those men were going to do to me. While Rance raped me the final time, he gloated about how the rest of his crew was going to have turns at me, even two and three at a time. He said one of his men liked to hear women scream as he abused them while they were raped. When they were done with me, the three of us were to be striped naked and thrown outside when zombies were close by. He laughed like a maniac as he whispered that in my ear from behind me as he finished with me."
Tears ran down her cheeks as she faced us straight on. "Before today, I never killed a human. I never dreamed there
