The Tribes, Chaapter 5

The Tribes, Chapter 5

Pine Ridge had been founded in 1845, according to the sign on the outskirts of the town. It had survived World Wars, boom times and bust, drought and flood. Even the new flu pandemic hadn’t been able to totally eliminate the sleepy little town. The Leader and his followers had managed to do what over a century and a half of events hadn’t – in one fell swoop every living soul in the town had either joined the Brotherhood of the Phoenix or suffered the appropriate consequences. There had been twenty-five residents in Pine Ridge, a loose gathering of farmers who had been too stubborn or stupid move on to the cities after the flu had ravaged the little town. Instead, they had banded together and begun growing their own food.

The Leader and his followers had found all twenty five of them working an abundant vegetable patch – pulling weeds and carrying water from a hand cranked well. The one hundred soldiers of the Phoenix stealthily crawled through the high grass and weeds surrounding the garden plot, waiting for a signal from The Leader who stepped into the clearing and announced his presence.

A tall, gangly youth of about seventeen, with a mop of shaggy sun-bleached curls moved forward to welcome the newcomer. Noah Duncan had managed to hold together the few remaining survivors of Pine Ridge and teach them to be self sufficient by growing their own crops. Three of their group had been strangers who found themselves welcomed warmly. Now, he was confronted by a new stranger dressed in robes. From what Noah could see, the robed stranger was used to hard work – he’d be a welcome asset to the growing farm commune. His welcome died on his lips as The Leader announced that he would grant mercy to all willing to join The Brotherhood of the Phoenix. Those who refused his generous offer of redemption in the New Order would suffer castration and a lifetime of servitude.

Noah stopped in his tracks, his extended hand dropping. The smile vanished from his face as he firmly told The Leader that no one in Pine Ridge was interested in joining a nut case. The Leader’s benign smile remained on his face as he raised his right hand as if in benediction and repeated his offer one last time. Noah, pointed to the dirt road leading to the two lane blacktop running out of town and suggested the stranger follow the road now. The Leader was still smiling as his right hand slashed downward.

The tall grass surrounding the garden patch erupted as The Leader’s followers sprang from their hiding places savagely screaming. The battle was over before it really began. The Leader’s army swarmed over the farmers before any of really understood the danger they were. Only one of them, a girl named Tina, had the sense to raise her hoe as a weapon. She managed to swing it once, bringing down one of the attackers by splitting his skull open. Before she could raise the hoe for a second blow, she was overpowered by a dozen of The Leader’s soldiers swinging ax handles.

Watching his girlfriend savagely clubbed brought a cry of rage from Noah. He lunged at the robed stranger, his fists swinging wildly. Noah was so intent on snapping the neck of The Leader that he never saw Alpha coming at him from the side. Alpha lowered his shoulder and plowed into Noah’s side, cracking several of the farmer’s ribs with the merciless tackle. The next thing Noah knew, his arms had been pinioned to his sides and he was being dragged towards the barn.

Noah found himself forced into a kneeling position with his wrists tied to his ankles as The Leader and his red-robed Elite followed him into the barn. Twisting around, Noah saw his friends standing huddled together as they were surrounded by at least fifty white-robed thugs. His heart sank when he saw Tina wasn’t with them. Moments later, The Leader appeared in the hay loft doors calling for everyone’s attention.

Silence immediately filled the barnyard as the Followers looked up towards The Leader expectantly. He ordered the green-robed searchers to divide into two groups – the first was ordered to search the farm buildings for supplies and equipment. The second group was ordered to select ten of the white-robed soldiers and return to the town where they were expected to search for additional supplies. Noah watched incredulously as they sprang to obey the orders without question. He couldn’t believe everything he and his friends had worked so hard for was about to be stolen from them.

Looking down, The Leader ordered that the eight girls in Noah’s group be separated and brought into the barn – they would be taken along with the Brotherhood as servants, he announced. Noah watched helplessly as the girls were dragged crying and kicking into the dim recesses of the barn.

In the garden patch, Tina groaned and twisted her head to the side. She had never felt so much pain before – not even when she had broken her leg skiing. Blood was still running down her face. Tina gritted her teeth in agony as she reached up to explore the long gash in her head. Just moving her arm sent fresh waves of pain through her entire body. Her trembling fingers ran along the gash, she figured it must be at least five inches long. Rolling onto her stomach, Tina slowly gathered her legs under her and tried to get up on her hands and knees to crawl away. Trying to put weight on her left arm brought so much pain that she found herself vomiting. Each time she retched she felt another stab of pain on the left side of her ribs. She didn’t have to be a doctor to tell that at least two of her ribs were broken, as was her left arm. Easing herself back down onto her right side, Tina pulled her legs up and began crawling along on her right side. She lost count of the number of times she felt close to passing out from the pain each movement brought her.

Reaching the row of pole beans, Tina was able to use one of the thick wooden poles to aid her in standing up. She took a deep breath and jerked the pole out of the ground to use as a staff for support. She knew she needed to put as much distance between herself and their attackers, but she had to know what was happening. Without consciously deciding, Tina made her way towards the barnyard. She instinctively entered the woods and circled around to the side of the barnyard where was able to crawl under the porch and get as close to the barnyard as possible without being seen through the latticework on the far side of the porch. She had thought the shock of watching her loved ones die from the flu had made her immune to anything.

She was wrong. Nothing could prepare her for what she saw in the barnyard.

The big wagon with rubber tires that Noah’s father used to pull behind the tractor, had been rolled out into the barnyard. Twelve boys, shaven-headed and naked except for heavy work boots were standing hitched to the wagon with crude rope harnesses. There was something strange about the boys. At first Tina couldn’t figure out what it was and then one of them turned more in her direction. Tina shoved her fist into her mouth in shock – all twelve of the boys had been castrated. The other eight girls from the farm commune were tied in the bed of the wagon, sobbing hysterically as one of the attackers in a red robe crudely chopped their hair off. Tina kept her fist wedged tightly in her mouth as she watched the spectacle of her companions being humiliated. When the robed figure was finished with the last girl, the naked slaves were urged to pull the wagon into the dirt lane. As the wagon slowly moved forward, Tina saw Noah and the others in the barnyard.

The guy in the golden robes appeared in the hay loft doors and all of the other robes figures instantly broke into a chant, ‘Lea-der, Lea-der!’ Tina watched as the one called Leader smiled down on his followers, accepting their chants like some god. It was so pathetic. He let the chanting go on for at least five minutes before raising his hands over his head, wrists crossed. The chanting stopped instantly.

The discovery of the wagon in the barn had been a boon to The Leader. Unable to figure a way to get fuel from the underground tanks without any power, The Leader had announced that he had had a divine revelation. The use of combustion engines had made the pre-flu population lazy and weak – the Brotherhood would lead the New World in cleansing themselves body and soul from dependence on the old harmful technology. Since leaving the monastery, the Brotherhood had carried their supplies in backpacks. With the slaves harnessed to the wagon, they now had a way to carry more supplies and keep the slaves under control at the same time. In due course, the female slaves they now had would be added to the human draft team.

Returning to the loft doors, The Leader had basked in the chant sent up by his Followers. The chanting never failed to invigorate The Leader, filling him with a sense of power he’d never known before. Finally, he raised his arms to put an end to the chant and looked down on the remaining prisoners.

“I am in a generous mood today,” The Leader intoned. “Therefore, I am willing to give all of the prisoners a second chance to offer their allegiance as Neophytes in the Brotherhood of the Phoenix. Swear your obedience to me now and you will be accepted with open arms. All your sins forgiven.”

Noah glared up at the loft and said clearly, “Fuck you.”

The Leader sighed theatrically, like a father figure facing an unruly son. He glanced over the prisoners – he was going to give them an example they’d remember for the rest of their lives. Of course, he reminded himself, the rest of their lives might not extend to sundown. When they had searched the barn earlier, Gull had been elated to find a huge machete, the blade honed razor sharp. As soon as The Leader saw it, he knew he’d see it put to use today and took Gull to one side to outline his plan. Hearing The Leader’s plans for Noah, actually gave Gull an erection. Hiding the machete in the folds of his robe, Gull had taken up his place in the barnyard where he could see the signal from The Leader.

The Leader sighed again, “I gave you your chance.” He shook his head sadly. “I can see now that your head is filled with the wrong ideas.” He glanced down at Gull and nodded his head once sharply.

Gull pulled the blade from the folds in his robes, holding it like he would a baseball bat. Taking three steps forward, he swung the machete, keeping the blade parallel to the ground from behind the farmer. Noah never saw the blade approaching, but the others did. Their collective scream of horror reached Noah’s ears just as the blade struck the back of his neck and continued right through. Noah’s head spun twice in the air before striking the ground with an audible thud. His body sank back before toppling to the side, blood still spurting as his heart continued to beat.

Under the porch, Tina buried her face in the dirt and squeezed her eyes shut. Her mind replayed the last few moments over and over like some instant replay from a football game on television. She could still see how Noah’s body remained upright for the longest time before falling on its side. Tina burned every image and every word into her brain. No matter what happened, she would find a way to survive and warn others about this Leader jerk and his followers. Raising her hear, Tina saw a sight that made her want to cheer and wail at the same time. Tears streaming down his face, Richard stepped from the line of prisoners and stared defiantly at The Leader.

Tina couldn’t believe what she was seeing – Richard who was usually afraid of everything was standing up to The Leader. Ever since the flu, Richard had cried himself to sleep every night only to wake himself and everyone around him with the screams from his nightmares. Richard who flinched every time he heard a strange sound squared his shoulders and fearlessly stared up at The Leader.

Shaking his shaggy red hair from his eyes, squared his narrow shoulders and sank to his knees. “I’m next,” he said loudly, not a shred of fear in his voice tilting his chin upward.

Tina looked quickly up to The Leader. He had lost that cool, passive look – his lips were clenched tightly in a narrow line, white with pressure. Tina prayed he’d blow a blood vessel and save the world from the misery he would inflict. The Leader’s face flushed a deep red before he nodded savagely and slashed the air with his hand.

Gull didn’t need a second command – he came at Richard from the front, swinging the machete as he stepped closer. Instead of falling to the front, Richard’s head tumbled backwards. Then, his body tottered before falling straight forward, the gushing blood splattering Gull from head to toe. Incredibly, he didn’t jump back or show any sign of disgust.

The sobbing from the girls held captive in the wagon increased in volume to loud wailing as each of the remaining boys dropped to their knees – even the seven-year-old Watson twins. They all wore looks of grim determination on their tear-streaked faces.

Tina watched The Leader’s face bloom cherry red in rage. He tilted his head back, eyes closed for several minutes, and composed himself. When he looked down again, his face was calm and serene.

“Brothers,” The Leader intoned in a solemn voice full of sadness, “what you see before you is an pitiful example of the remaining contamination of the soul that plagues these unredeemable sinners. They reject the salvation we offer for this New World, preferring to cling to the old ways. Indeed, you can be sure they have been plotting to find a way to restore as many of the old, sinful habits as they could. They prefer to waste their lives rather than embrace the salvation we offer.” The Leader turned his baleful eyes down to the kneeling boys. “Take the two youngest and bind them with the women – they are too young to understand their actions and may still have a chance to gain salvation. As for the others, let them suffer the fires of damnation they richly deserve.”

The Leader disappeared from the loft, reappearing in the barnyard moments later. He spoke briefly to Gull, who nodded his understanding. Pointing quickly to three of the other young men in red robes, Gull ordered them to drag the remaining young men into the barn.

From her vantage point under the porch, Tina could just make out the shadows inside the dim barn. It looked like the guys were being tied together around two of the support beams. It wasn’t until the tallest of the red-robed attackers, the one who had beheaded Noah and Richard, began dowsing the barn and his victims with the meager store of kerosene used for the lamps at night that Tina realized what was about to happen.

Finishing their task, Gull directed his team to leave the barn as he began setting fire to the straw all around the barn. In minutes, the kerosene soaked straw around the boys was blazing. The interior of the barn glowed hellishly, illuminating the horror going on inside. The dry barn timbers quickly caught fire, sending clouds of black smoke up towards the loft. By the time Gull finally strode from the barn, the boys were screaming as the flames started to lick at their kerosene soaked clothes. The open barn doors created a chimney effect, drawing in air to feed the growing inferno. Gull stood in front of the barn for a few moments, watching his handiwork before striding over to the house.

Tina could hear his heavy footsteps above her head as he mounted the porch and entered the house. She could hear him clomping around the inside of the house smashing things. Tina knew those smashes were the kerosene lamps being dashed to the floor. The Leader had ordered the red-robed murderer to fire the house as well as the barn. Tina, teeth gritted against the pain, began inching her way backwards toward the opening of the porch crawlspace when she smelled the first faint whiffs of smoke. She knew she had to get away from the house before the propane tank Noah’s parents had used for their gas stove exploded. She hoped the tank exploded while the invader was still in the house. By the time she had crawled from under the porch, the smoke from the barn and the house was drifting across the barnyard. Leaning on her bean pole, Tina hobbled into the woods on the far side of the house and hid as The Leader ordered his army to move out. The red-robed executioner was long gone from the farm house when the propane tank exploded. By then, the screams from the barn had long stopped.

Huddled at the edge of the woods, Tina sobbed openly as the barn blazed away through the rest of the afternoon, finally collapsing in on itself and it ghastly contents. She waited until the moon rose before leaving her hiding place and picking around the barnyard. Except for Noah’s body, everything had been reduced to ash. It took Tina the rest of the night to drag Noah out to the tilled garden where the ground was soft enough for her to scrape out a shallow grave one-handed. Patting the dirt down over Noah, Tina mumbled what she could remember of the Twenty-third Psalm over her friend.

Tina finally stumbled into the little town of Pine Ridge late the next afternoon. The trip normally would have taken only about two hours from the farm, but she had needed to stop so many times that she had been afraid she’d never get to town. Tina looked around in despair. What those robed goons hadn’t taken away, they smashed. Every window of the shops along the little main street had been savagely smashed out, the shards of glass glinting in the afternoon sun. Numbly, Tina staggered down the street towards the square. Most visitors thought the covered wishing well was only decoration, but locals knew it was still fed by a spring. If only those Brotherhood thugs hadn’t smashed the bucket, Tina thought.

Entering the square, Tina experienced her first lucky break since the day before. The wooden bucket was still sitting on the edge of the stone well as if nothing untoward had happened the previous day. The water, when Tina finally got the bucket pulled back up, was deliciously cool and revitalizing. Tina alternately scooped the water into her mouth with her cupped hand and splashed the water over her face. She decided she’d sit by the well for a while before searching for a ladle or cup in one of the nearby shops, imagining how sweet it would feel to fill her mouth with the cool spring water. She knew she’d need to find a way to set her broken arm soon, but that could come after she found a cup to drink her fill of the sweet water.

Opening her eyes, Tina looked across the square to the War Memorial Park. It was just a little plot of grass with a marble marker with the names of all the men from the town who had died in foreign wars in front of a World War I canon. She stared at the canon for a few minutes thinking that it looked different somehow. Suddenly, she realized what the difference was – there was a body tied to the top of the canon’s barrel. Staggering to her feet, Tina hurried over to the canon. Somehow, she promised herself, she’d get the body off the big gun and bury it properly. In her mind, that would make up somehow for not being able to do right by the boys in the barn.

Reaching the small canon, Tina discovered the body of a young man about Noah’s age. Those robed monsters had stripped him naked and beaten him. His face was battered and bloody. His hands were pulled up over his head and wrapped to the gun’s barrel with barbed wire, the barbs had bitten into his flesh and sent trickles of blood down his forearms. Several loops of the barbed wire had been wrapped around the stranger’s chest to hold him in place. His legs had been brought under the barrel and wrapped with more barbed wire. Worst of all, those monsters had taken thin speaker wire and wrapped it around and around his testicles before pulling the wrappings tight around the gun barrel. The poor teen’s balls were black and swollen. Tina felt a little guilty thinking this stranger was better off dead. She reached out and tenderly laid her hand on his forehead.

That’s when it happened. His head lolled to the side and one sad brown eye opened to stare at her. Tina screamed in surprise as the boy opened his mouth to speak, but only an unintelligible croak made it past his swollen, bloody lips. The lips moved again.

“help me,” they whispered hoarsely.

“Shhh,” Tina comforted. “I’ll help you, just be still.” Tina kept talking to the stranger like she would a frightened animal. She wasn’t even sure what she was saying, concentrating on keeping her tone soothing and reassuring. Unwrapping the barbed wire around the young man’s wrists with only one hand was difficult and slow. Once they were free, she turned her attention to his ankles and eventually got the wire off of them. Tina knew she’d have to get the wire off of this young man’s testicles before she undid the wire around his chest. If she didn’t, she knew he’d slide off the barrel and probably rip his balls right away from his body. In the back of her mind she knew they’d have to come off anyway. She’d been around farms enough in her life to know that this teen’s testicles had been killed. The skin was already cold under her hand. But, this poor young man didn’t need to have his balls ripped from his body.

As she got more and more of the speaker wire unwrapped, Tina still hoped that the blood might begin flowing into the young man’s genitals and miraculously bring them back to life. She knew the very idea was silly, but couldn’t help thinking it anyway. At last the wire was off, and still the balls remained black and cold. Finally she could turn her attention to the barbed wire wrapped around the teen’s chest. As soon as it was loose, he began to slip from the gun barrel. Tina did her best to lower him to the ground gently, but only managed to have both of them fall heavily to the ground.

“I’ve got to leave you for just a few minutes,” Tina panted when she was finally able to climb to her knees. The young man began to wearily shake his head, his open eye fearful. “Listen, I’ll be right back … I promise. I’ve got to find something I can manage to bring you some water and see if I can find some bandages for you.” She tenderly stroked his blood-caked forehead. “I’m not going to leave you here alone, I swear it.”

Tina decided to try searching Bertram’s General Mercantile for the things she wanted. Mr. Bertram had turned the old failing family store into tourist attraction by renovating the building to look like it had in the late 1800’s. It had worked, tourists flocked to the quaint General Store to buy enamel coffee pots and camping gear, work the old-fashioned coffee grinder, and buy up the farm antiques that lined the walls. Digging through the debris left by those human locusts, Tina eventually found a metal mug and an old-timey night shirt that would serve to cover the stranger. A little more digging and she found another mug and a coffee pot. Headed out of the store, Tina stopped in her tracks – hanging next to the door was Mr. Bertram’s long white apron. Somehow, the thugs had missed it during their rampage the day before. Going out the door, Tina reverently pulled it down from the peg where it had last been placed so long ago by Mr. Bertram that last time.

Leaving the Mercantile, Tina rooted around the wreckage of the Drug Store. By picking through the debris on the floor, she managed to come up with Extra Strength Tylenol and several rolls of gauze bandage. The packages had been broken open, but Tina figured it was more important to wrap the stranger’s injured wrists to keep the wounds from opening up again.

Tina filled the coffee pot with water and soaked the apron in water before returning to the War Memorial Park. As she approached, the battered young man struggled wobbily to a sitting position. Tina handed him a mug of the cool water, cautioning him to take baby sips and not gulp it all down so he wouldn’t make himself sick. Before drinking herself, she dabbed at his blood-caked face, wiping the blood away from his swollen eye. The stranger drank three more mugs of the well water while Tina ministered to his injuries the best she could with a water soaked apron. It wasn’t until Tina produced the night shirt that either of them became self-conscious about his nakedness. Tina turned away prudishly as he struggled to pull the shirt over his head and cover his genitals.

Tina made some pressure pads from one roll of the gauze and bound each of the teen’s wrists, which had opened up again because of his movements. Tina was glad she had decided to bring the gauze along with her. When she finished tying the gauze bandages in place, she produced the Tylenol and insisted the boy take two of them right away. She hoped the tablets would ease the pain he must be feeling.

The two of them finally realized they hadn’t yet introduced themselves to each other and set about making awkward introductions. Tina discovered the stranger was named Ryan, that he was the last survivor in his home town that had been even smaller than Pine Ridge, and that he was headed for Los Angeles. He had wandered into Pine Ridge the previous afternoon and made the mistake of thinking the guys in robes were some kind of monks. He had walked right up to them before realizing how dangerous they were. He didn’t remember much after the initial blows. He only remembered bits and pieces of regaining consciousness already strapped to the canon and left to die there until Tina appeared.

After sharing three pots of water, Tina left Ryan again to search for some food. The Brotherhood searchers hadn’t been nearly as thorough in their wanton destruction as Tina had first thought. All the windows were smashed all right, and the interior of the shops had been crudely ransacked, but the raiders seemed to have forgotten to look in the basements of the stores. Tina knew most of the locals used to keep stashes of canned foods in basement cupboards for weather emergencies. Flash floods were fairly common in the spring, and the locals always liked to be prepared. Mr. and Mrs. Bertram were no exception.

It took a while, but Tina found their emergency stash, along with a small single burner propane stove. Actually, it wasn’t much more than a burner ring that attached directly to a small propane tank. Carrying the box back to the Park, Tina was happy to find some canned soup, tins of sardines, crackers, SPAM, and instant coffee. It took only a few minutes to get the soup open and the burner lit. They shared a can of soup and ate a can of sardines each along with generous helpings of crackers.

When the meal was finished and the utensils rinsed out, Ryan turned his attention to Tina’s broken arm. Between the two of them, they decided the break was a simple break which lessened the likelihood of severe disability later on. Ryan sent Tina off in search of bandages or anything that could be used as such and some wood they could use as a splint. Ryan made Tina sit on the ground as he explored her arm with his fingertips.

“The bone feels like it’s dislocated a little bit,” Ryan said. “I’m gonna have to try to get it back in place.” He looked apologetic. “It’s gonna hurt, you know.”

Tina nodded her head, “Just a little.”

“No,” Ryan corrected her. “It’s gonna hurt like hell.” He gripped her wrist in his strong hands. “I’ll try to be as quick as I can.”

“Get it right the first time,” Tina asked, nervously.

Nodding, Ryan took several deep breaths and suddenly jerked Tina’s wrist towards him. Tina wasn’t which one of them cried out the loudest – her from the pain, or Ryan’s cry in sympathy. Tina felt along her arm gingerly, and found Ryan had gotten the bone in place on the first try. She was thankful for that – she didn’t think she could take another jolt like that without passing out. Ryan wrapped the metal rods from towel holders around Tina’s forearm quickly, explaining that later on he’d help find better splint materials and fashion a more comfortable splint for her.

Ryan woke the following morning to the smell of fresh coffee and bacon. Tina had helped Ryan hobble to the Mercantile where they spent the night. Getting out of the bed, Ryan found a basin of water, wash cloth and bar of soap on the table by the window. Tina must have been up for quite a while he decided. Moving stiffly, he worked his way out of the nightshirt and began washing up. The area above his scrotum was sore and tender. Taking a deep breath, he leaned over and examined his balls. They were black and cold to the touch. He had grown up on a farm and knew from experience castrating calves what that meant. He also knew that without the tight band around his scrotum, he risked getting a serious infection that at the very least would make him horribly sick – it might even kill him.

Ryan hobbled back to the bed and sank down on it considering his options. His uncle had been castrated because of testicular cancer. Ryan remembered thinking how he’d rather die than be castrated. But, he didn’t feel that way now. No, he decided, he didn’t want to die. What he really wanted was to find those robed bastards and fuck them up – he didn’t know if he could bring himself to kill them, but he did know he wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep by fucking the up. Seriously and permanently fuck them up, he added.

“I thought I heard you moving around,” Tina said cheerfully, poking her head around the door. I found a can of bacon …” he voice trailed off when she saw Ryan sitting naked on the bed staring down at his groin. “Ryan?” Her voice was small and uncertain.

“They’re dead,” Ryan said in a surprisingly calm voice. “I think you knew that yesterday – I mean you grew up on a farm, right?”

Tina hurried to kneel by Ryan’s side, tears forming in her eyes, “Maybe there’s …”

“No, there isn’t,” Ryan said matter-of-factly, his brown eyes basset hound sad. “We’ll talk about what we need to do.” He smiled down and patted Tina’s cheek. “I have to admit that I really don’t feel like eating right now, but you’ve gone to so much effort that I’m going to force myself to eat.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Tina protested.

“Hey,” Ryan interrupted her. “I’ll be honest, I’m going to force myself to eat only partly to be nice – but, the real reason I’m going to make myself eat something is so I can get back some strength. Then, I’m going to find a way to find those creeps.” He smiled a cold, unfriendly smile, “They probably think I’m either dead or close to it. They don’t know they gave me a big reason to live – I don’t know how or when, but I’m gonna to find a way to get even with them.”

Suddenly, Tina began spilling out her experiences and what she witnessed at the farm to Ryan. She described how The Leader had had Noah and Richard beheaded, and then burned the others alive. Her chest was racked by sobs as she described how The Leader had kidnapped the other girls and the twins. She felt Ryan’s big hands tenderly patting her head. Looking up, she was frightened by the look on his face – his skin had turned a waxy white, the cords and veins in his neck stood out sharply as he ground his teeth. For the first time, she realized how big Ryan was. He wasn’t one of those with a muscular gym body like some of the jocks in school in the old days. Ryan was a slab-sided farm boy used to long hours of hard, heavy work. He was a lot like Noah – they were the kind who didn’t have the sculpted muscles, you never realized how strong they were until you saw those muscles in action.

Later that afternoon, the two of them were rooting around in the Feed and Grain on the edge of town. Ryan knew exactly what he was looking for – the E-Z Bander complete set had the banding tool, bands and a cutting tool. He didn’t know about Tina, but he didn’t think he could take a knife or scalpel to remove his dead balls. Both of them knew Tina would have to do the job – or at least most of it, even though they tried to avoid talking about it as much as possible. The spring operated cutting tool would be fast. Once Tina released pressure on the handles, the spring would snap the blades together for a clean, fast cut. The band would prevent bleeding and allow the skin to close up. It worked on the calves, and he didn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work the same way for a person.

Once he found the equipment, Ryan wandered around the aisles. The Feed and Grain had been left untouched by those robed goons. Ryan figured they were all either townies or city boys. They had to be, otherwise they would have known what a treasure trove a Feed and Grain store really was. There were whole shelves of antibiotics and medicines – of course, all of them were designed to be used on livestock, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t necessarily be safe for humans. Ryan was most interested in the veterinary quality antibiotic ointments. He wanted to be sure to have some kind of medical strength antibiotic and couldn’t guarantee that they would find any in the doctor’s office.

The other thing Ryan counted on city boys not knowing was that most Feed and Grain stores also carried things like beef jerky snacks. The jerky would fill their bellies and supplement their meager food stocks. Once he had the jerky they would need for the time being, Ryan wandered over to the clothing section to get some loose jeans and new boots. The canvas deck shoes he had found under the Bertram bed had been better than nothing, but they were still too tight on his feet. Suitably outfitted and provisioned, Ryan and Tina left the store and headed towards the doctor’s office in town.

Neither spoke much as they trudged along – Tina had suggested using the doctor’s office for ‘the deed’ as she called it. Ryan could lay back on the examination table and talk her though placing the band properly. She had seen castrations done on animals, but unlike Ryan had never done one herself. She was still frightened by the thought of what she was about to do, and could tell Ryan was nervous about having it done. But, he was right – they were faced with finishing the castration the Brotherhood had started, or risking Ryan getting deathly sick.

The doctor’s office had been trashed – mostly the drug cabinet and the waiting area. Behind the receptionist’s desk someone had kicked a hole in the computer monitor. The furniture in the waiting room had been overturned and scattered about. Tina shook her head in bewilderment – she could understand those thugs wanting drugs, but she couldn’t figure out the purpose in the rest of the destruction. There just wasn’t any sense to it.

Entering the examining room, they were amazed to see everything in perfect order – it was almost like those thugs had been afraid to enter the room. Remembering the twelve castrated slaves, Tina figured they might be afraid of giving that sadistic Leader any more equipment to play with. Together she and Ryan explored the room, opening the drawers and cabinets. One old-fashioned white enamel cabinet was locked and it took Ryan about a quarter of an hour to force the lock. As he fumbled with the lock, he began to wish he’d brought a crowbar along with him. Springing the lock, he and Tina discovered shelf upon shelf of the equipment and drug vials the town doctor had normally used for in-office procedures.

Sifting through the items in the cabinet, Tina found small vials of Novocaine and other anesthetics, sterile syringes, suture sets, surgical glue, surgical clamps that locked together, scalpel handles and disposable blades. There was everything in there the two of them needed for the procedure that lay ahead of them. As Tina began pulling out some of the items she thought she’d need, Ryan was searching the room on his own. He found the rolls of plaster bandage wrap the doctor had used to make casts in the office and the under the cast wrap he remembered from when he had broken his leg. Once his procedure was over, he promised himself to try to cast Tina’s arm properly.

Holding an open-backed examination gown up in front of her, Tina called Ryan over to the examination table and suggested he change in the other room. He returned a few minutes later, blushing furiously as he tried to hold the back of the gown closed. Tina helped him climb onto the exam table and raise his feet into the stirrups. His legs, as she guided them into the stirrups, were trembling violently.

“We don’t have to do this now,” she said timidly, knowing her words were a lie. Ryan was already slightly feverish. It wouldn’t be long before he developed blood poisoning.

“N-no, it’s best to get it over and done with,” Ryan said, his voice raspy with fear.

Nodding her agreement, Tina nervously folded back the examination gown to expose Ryan’s groin. She barely managed to hold back her gasp of horror. She’d seen his battered scrotum when she found him sadistically strapped to the canon and remembered the black and blue flesh just two days earlier. They hadn’t looked good then, now there was an even more unhealthy greenish tint and angry red lines beginning to extend deeper into the healthy flesh above his scrotum. Laying her hand on Ryan’s lower abdomen, Tina could feel the heat of the forming fever. Ryan was right – they didn’t have much more time before gangrene set in and it was too late. Tina couldn’t bear the thought of watching her new friend slowly die before her eyes and knowing she could have saved him.

“I guess before we start doing anything, I should shave you down there,” Tina said, her face flushing with embarrassment.

“Shave me?” Ryan almost shrieked in shock. “Why?”

“I dunno,” Tina shrugged. “When I had my appendix out, they shaved me. I think they do it so they can sterilize the skin better or something.”

Ryan mumbled and griped for a while, but ended up sulkily telling Tina to get it over with – but to be careful. It took her a few minutes to find some surgical prep razors and mix a lather up using Betadyne solution and soap. She wished they’d thought to bring more bottled water with them. The lather was an ugly shade of orange-brown, but it would get the job done. Donning a set of latex gloves, Tina covered all of Ryan’s lower belly and thighs with the lather and began gingerly scraping away the strange looking lather and his body hair. It didn’t help that Ryan was still trembling violently.

Tina shaved Ryan’s thighs and belly first, postponing shaving his pubic hair as long as she could. She was nervous about having to touch Ryan’s penis – even though she and Noah had fooled around, they had never reached the stage where the two of them were naked. She had felt the outline of Noah’s penis through his jeans, but until now, had never held a boy’s penis in her hand.

Ryan leaned his head back, squeezing his eyes closed as he tried to think of anything but the arousing feel of Tina’s hands down there. It helped that he was still scared about losing his balls, his dick had shrunk up – and that was an embarrassment in itself. But, he knew he’d be even more embarrassed if he suddenly got hard in front of a girl he barely knew. His dick did lengthen slightly, and twitched a couple of times – making Tina gasp in surprise, but Ryan was grateful he didn’t actually get an erection. Finally, Tina was wiping the remains of the later away and Ryan opened his eyes and peeked down at his groin. He groaned, with his dick still shrunken to about half of its normal size and no hair down there, he looked all of about ten or twelve years old.

Changing gloves, Tina filled a syringe with Novocaine and began injecting Ryan’s groin. She was surprised at how hard she had to push before the needle slid into his flesh. She wasn’t sure how much of the drug to use, so decided to push the syringe plunger down about a quarter of the way and inject him in four different areas. When she was finished, she took out the E-Z Bander and looked at Ryan questioningly.

“Okay, see those three prong things there on the end?” Ryan asked, pointing at the tool. “You need to put one of the bands over the end of those prongs.”

Tina looked at the small, thick band uncertainly. “Are you sure it’s big enough? I don’t think this will fit over you.”

Ryan almost laughed, “Don’t worry – it’ll fit all right. Just fit it over those prongs. That’s right … that’s it” Ryan said in encouragement as she got the band fitted properly. “Now, squeeze the handles and the band will stretch,” he watched as she used two hands to squeeze the handles open. “Okay, now you work the … um, you know – one at a time through the stretched band and get it as close to my body as possible.

Tina found she was able to keep the handles squeezed open with one hand. Reaching down to take Ryan’s right testicle in her hand so she could guide the band over it, she was surprised at how squishy and mushy his testicle felt. It reminded her of an over ripe banana. The left testicle didn’t feel any better. For a minute she considered asking Ryan if they were supposed to be that soft and mushy, but decided things were probably hard enough on him as it was. This had to be a first in the history of the world, she thought – a guy giving directions to the person who was about to castrate him. She managed to get the band close to his torso without much problem and work the band off the prongs with a little tool that reminded her of a bird’s claw.

Ryan could feel her tugging on him, but couldn’t actually feel her handling his balls. That was the last confirmation he needed that there was no turning back if he wanted to live. He tried to keep from choking up as he instructed her to place another band over his scrotum, this one lower than the first. He couldn’t help the catch in his voice as he instructed Tina on how to operate the cutting tool, he managed to get himself under control on seeing the look of sympathy on her face. Ryan watched Tina’s arms trembling with the exertion of opening the spring-loaded blades and sliding them between the bands.

Placing the wicked looking blades between the two bands, Tina looked up at Ryan and nodded to let him know she had them in place. He smiled weakly, and closed his eyes grimacing as he nodded for her to let the blades close. Releasing her grip, the blades snapped down neatly severing the blackened scrotum from Ryan’s body. A foul odor wafted up to her nose as soon as the scrotum separated from Ryan’s body. Instead of a small line of blood appearing, an ugly greenish-brown pus appeared.

Ryan expected to feel some kind of pain when he heard the blades snap closed – he didn’t. The lack of pain and the odor of decay said it all for him. Strangely, that final confirmation seemed to relieve his earlier fears. He knew without question that his balls were long dead and without this castration, it wouldn’t have been long before he was a dead as his balls. The bitter knowledge only made his resolution to find a way to fuck over those Brotherhood bastards firmer.

Tina opened some sterile gauze packs and set about cleaning the incision area, wiping away the pus before coating the site with antiseptic. She hesitated, debating on leaving the incision as it was or using the surgical glue to close the wound. Discussing the choices with Ryan, they both decided it was probably better to try the glue. They both reasoned a real doctor would use staples or stitches or something to close the wound, so they should as well. When she was finished with the glue, Tina bandaged the operation site and raised the lower part of the exam table, insisting Ryan rest. She found some Tylenol with codeine and insisted Ryan take two of them to help him relax and maybe even sleep.

Once her patient seemed groggy, Tina searched the basement for the stash of emergency food. She was sure there would be one since the doctor and his wife lived over the office. This time, she had no trouble finding the provisions – they were in a large double cabinet. Staring at the emergency supplies, Tina knew they’d be able to eat for a couple of weeks on things in the cabinet. The Doc sure didn’t plan to do without much of anything in case of an emergency. Another cabinet held a real camping stove, at least twelve bottles of propane, gallons and gallons of water. Seeing the wealth of provisions, Tina decided it was best for them to stay here while Ryan healed for at least a week or so.

Tina insisted Ryan stay off his feet as much as possible and actually managed to keep him down for two full days as she made him take antibiotic tablets and filled him with food to rebuild his strength. On the third day, he insisted he was able to get up and refused to hear any arguments over the matter. He led Tina back into the doctor’s office and announced he was going to cast her arm to make sure it healed properly. The process wasn’t hard at all – after pulling the mesh covering over her arm, he just soaked the plaster bandages in a plastic basin of water, and carefully wrapped them around Tina’s arm. He joked that she’d have to provide proof of insurance when he was done so he could collect a high fee for his services. The weak joke managed to make both of them giggle. Turning serious, Ryan asked if Tina really wanted to accompany him south.

She didn’t think twice – The Leader and his Brotherhood were evil and others had to be warned of how dangerous they were. She wasn’t sure she wanted to physically encounter them again like Ryan was eager to do, but she pointed out that the word of two people would carry more weight than just one. Ryan nodded, and then announced that his was his turn to make Tina take it easy for about a day. After that, they were going to move out. He refused to give Tina any details about how he planned to travel fast enough to get ahead of The Leader. All he would say was that he had to leave her alone for a couple of hours to check some things out and then he’d let her know.

It was dark when Ryan returned. The hours had passed nerve-wrackingly slow for Tina while he was gone. She imagined the Brotherhood had returned and captured her new friend, that he had fallen and injured himself, or some other tragedy had befallen him. The one thing that never crossed her mind was the possibility that he had abandoned her. She knew he’d be back for her unless something stopped him.

Two days later, Ryan led Tina back to the Feed and Grain store. He proudly showed her the two four-wheel All Terrain Vehicles he’d prepared while he was gone. Each of the bright yellow ATV’s had matching yellow covered carts hitched behind them. She protested that they couldn’t use the big wheeled off road vehicles because they didn’t have any gas.

“Wrong,” Ryan grinned. “Back home a couple of farmers kept above ground hundred gallon gas tanks so they didn’t have to haul loads of gas cans back and forth to fill up the tractors. I figured the same was true around here. It didn’t take long before I found one and was able to bring back five gallons of gas – that’ll be enough to get both of these out to the farm where we can fill the jerry cans in the carts.”

Ryan undid the latches on one of the carts to reveal six jerry cans wedged tightly into the storage area. A bright nylon duffel bag filled the rest of the small compartment. Ryan explained that the duffel contained a pop up tent. He pointed out that the second cart carried six more jerry cans as well as food, water and two sleeping bags.

“I dunno how far thirty gallons of gas will get us,” Ryan said apologetically. “We might be forced to abandon these things sometime down the road … can’t be sure we’ll be able to find more gas.”

“Why not just take a car or truck?”

“Thought about it,” Ryan admitted. “The thing is, some of the roads are blocked with abandoned cars. We might have to cut across some pretty rough ground – these things can go where most cars can’t. That’s why bigger farmers like having these ATV’s around. And, they’re pretty good on gas.”

Tina didn’t need to ask why some of the roads were blocked. She had almost forgotten how the residents of Pine Ridge had made barricades across the road about five miles outside town at the height of the epidemic. Nobody wanted to let strangers who might already be infected to even just pass through town. Noah had used all the gas in his father’s tractor getting those road blocks pulled apart.

“Well, if we’re going to ride these things, we should add ponchos to our supplies,” Tina said, brightly. “We wouldn’t want to get totally soaked if it rains.”

Tina was surprised at how easy it was to operate the ATV, and at how comfortable the ride was. She supposed she wouldn’t feel quite the same way after eight or more hours astride the vehicle. Pulling up the farm lane where Ryan said he’d found the above ground gas tank, Tina recognized it as the Gunderson farm. She remembered Mr. Gunderson as a bear-like man with massive hands and cheery blue eyes. She remembered him as always smiling and cheery. He must not have been smiling the day he put a shotgun in his mouth after burying his whole family in less than a week. Being around the farm made her feel strangely sad – she couldn’t wait to get the gas cans filled and be away from the place.

At the crossroads outside town, they stopped. They could follow the old state highway or move onto the Interstate. Ryan pointed out The Leader would probably follow the old state highway since it passed through towns more often and his army would be able to find provisions more often taking that route. Tina had to agree with Ryan’s assessment.

“Look, I know you want to catch up with them and make them pay for what they did,” Tina began. “But, it doesn’t have to be right away, right?”

“I guess,” Ryan said, not sure what Tina was leading up to.

“Well, I figure we’d be better off getting ahead of them,” Tina said. “Maybe we can warn another Tribe about the Brotherhood and we could all be ready for them when they arrive. I remember The Leader guy mentioning Los Angeles.”

“Makes sense,” Ryan nodded. “Settling accounts with those creeps wouldn’t make much sense if they outnumbered us and got us first,” Ryan revved the engine of his ATV. “We can take the Interstate and cross over to the Pacific Coast Highway,” he brightened. “I’ve never been to Los Angeles – I wonder if the Hollywood Wax Museum is still there?”

To be continued …