“Well, son of a biscuit eater, this bitch is a woman.”
He unfastened her helmet and saw a cute pixie-like face with short black hair. She was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. Her hair was raven black and shimmered blue-green in the sunlight. Tom shocked himself by the attraction he felt for this strange woman. Then her eyes popped open. Tom saw pure hate in her stare. This froze him for a second when suddenly her arm flew up, and she lashed out with her blade.
“You bitch! I’m trying to help you!” Tom said while wrenching the knife from her grasp. He then rolled her over and sat on her back.
“You killed my uncle, bastard.”
Tom pulled his backpack from his back and saw where the knife had pierced a plastic water bottle. He then opened a flap and dug deep where he found the zip ties and bound her feet and hands. “Now that you can’t try to kill me, I’ll patch you up.”
“Keep your filthy hands off me.”
Tom cut her jacket and T-shirt away to expose the wound on her upper arm. The bullet didn’t go through, and he was surprised the bullet was just under the skin. “Hey, this is a .22, and you were shot in the back. We don’t have any .22s with us. I think your uncle accidentally shot you.”
“That’s BS.”
Tom poured alcohol on the wound, which resulted in him receiving a good cussing from the girl. “Do you kiss your mom with that mouth?” Tom asked as he pulled the bullet out with a pair of tweezers. He then used the rest of his Wound Seal to clot the wound.
“You’ll live. Now, why did you attack us?”
“Asshole, you know why!”
“Maybe you should treat me like I don’t know, so we can get to the bottom of this,” Tom pleaded.
“The gang you belong to burned down my friend’s ranch and killed a dozen of my friends and family,” the girl said with tears forming in her eyes.
Tom was confused. “Where is this ranch?”
“It’s the old Clark ranch. Jack told us the Clarks were dead or stuck in Hawaii. We moved in and had a good life if you can have a good life in an apocalypse.”
“Oh,” was all Tom replied and then stuffed a pill into her mouth to help with the pain. “Drink this to wash the pill down.”
She continued to resist. “Screw you.”
“Ok, but the pill is very bitter.”
Tom returned to Jackie and Rick. Jackie sat on the ground, trying to console Rick. “We need to get Jackie and Brenda back to the ranch. I’m also taking the bitch with us. She was one of Jack’s friends at the ranch. She thought we were the gang members searching for them.”
Rick glared with fierce red eyes. “Give me five minutes with her.”
Jackie held Rick close. “No, Rick. That won’t bring Brenda back. We need to break the news to Greta and bury your sister. Killing the woman won’t help a bit.”
*
Chapter 24
Southern Oregon –the Clark ranch.
“Land sakes alive! What happened? Is Brenda wounded?” Granny B asked when they drove up with Brenda’s body in the trailer with Rick sitting beside her.
The emotion had drained from Tom, and he’d been quiet all the way back to the ranch. He helped carry Brenda’s body to a place under one of the many shade trees and slumped down beside her. He tried his best to console Rick.
Jackie hobbled to Greta to tell her what had happened. Greta was speechless and then screamed and knocked Jackie to the ground on her way to her mom’s body. “Mom! It can’t be so!”
Rick joined Jackie, and he held the poor girl close as she sobbed while holding her mom’s hand. Jackie stood behind Rick with a hand on his shoulder as he cried with his niece. Rick reached over his shoulder and held Jackie’s hand. “Darling, you’re wounded. Please go sit down. I couldn’t stand losing you, too.”
A few minutes later, Granny B saw Tom sliding a blindfolded and bound woman out of the truck. At first, the small lady resisted until Tom grabbed the collar of her tattered jacket and dragged her from the truck crying out in pain. Tom pulled the woman to his grandma. “This girl and her uncle attacked us. She’s one of Jack and June’s friends who took over the Clark place.”
Tom saw Jack walking toward them and motioned for him to be silent. Jack walked up and was surprised to see his friend bound and blindfolded. He frantically pulled Tom off to the side. “Why is my friend tied up, and who shot her?”
“She and her uncle attacked us. She says they thought we were part of the gang who attacked and killed your friends at the ranch. She won’t listen to me. I thought your only friends were James and Alice.”
“Kate Walker, her uncle, and her aunt showed up after our meeting. I tried to get them to go with us, but they stayed. Kate wanted to come with us, but her uncle liked the security of the ranch but just didn’t like how it was being run.”
“She tried to kill me twice, so I want to get rid of her ASAP. I don’t want her to know who we are. Are you sure you didn’t tell them about us?”
“Tom, I swear June and I didn’t mention any of the Clarks. We just told her uncle that we knew a safe place where
