Looking Back Through Ash - Wade Ebeling Page 0,162

to see her there. He let the child go; his rouse had already worked.

Leslie fell to her knees, sucking for breath and gingerly touching at the sides of her neck, where a large bruise was already forming. With breath back in her lungs, she began sobbing again, and trying to crawl closer to Daniel. The sight was breaking Daniel’s heart, so he took two steps toward Leslie, intent on picking her up lovingly. But a rifle butt smashed into Daniel’s lower back, causing him to join the girls on the parking lot’s cracked surface.

Daniel was forced to watch as Leslie slowly crawled her way over to him. Terry reached out reflexively to comfort the girl, but Leslie stayed well out of her arm’s length. Several of the men laughed, but some of the others seemed to get bored and started walking away, continuing to stack supplies into the back of the dump truck. Slowly, painfully scuffing her knees, Leslie finally made it to Daniel, where he pulled her up to his chest, holding her close.

They both cried.

“You her uncle, fo’ real?” Mack drawled.

“Yes,” Daniel said, wiping a tear away. He stood back up with defiance in his eyes and Leslie cradled in his arms. He could care less whether or not this monster called him on the bluff, Daniel would go to the grave saying that the girl was his family now. The scratchy canvas pouch pressed into his hip as he straightened, putting Leslie’s weight on it, and Daniel was soon starting to thinking of different ways he could use it as a weapon. He would give his life to try and save the girl.

“You bet’sa be right, bitch,” Mack warned Terry; the jumpsuits had returned from the house. One of the men walked up to Mack, speaking in a low tone. Daniel was quite sure that he heard ‘…some sick shit…’ and ‘…no keys…’ in the man’s explanation of what had been found down in the basement.

Terry had found the will to get away from the giant man now that his attention was diverted. Everyone was silent for a moment as she crawled on all fours, useless foot dragging behind her. Someone whistled out a cat call, but the laughs ended swiftly when Mack raised his hand for silence. Looking curiously at the terrified woman crawling away from him, he then shot a glance at Daniel holding Leslie, then back to Terry, before saying, “She your wife, or sumfin’?”

Daniel’s voice quivered, but he managed to quickly say, “Yes…That…that monster had her,” paying no attention to the goon behind him saying, “Oh, boo-fuckin’-hoo!”, or the laughs he got.

Mack turned to talk to a man standing next to him, still guarding against people overhearing. Daniel didn’t care what was being said, his attention was still on Terry, who he had just helped to stand up beside him. He held the two girls tightly. Leslie had stopped crying, and her head was bobbing with exhaustion; Daniel felt safe and warm to her. The workers started dispersing as Mack told them to head back to ‘that big building’ for a while.

Daniel’s legs had grown tired of supporting all the extra weight and, as a result, had started to shake uncontrollably. This was noticed and openly mocked by a few of those walking past. Daniel paid them no heed, the giant was in charge, and the jackals wouldn’t do anything excessive without his say so. After all the crates and boxes had been stored in the orange dump truck, men started climbing in back or walking off, heading back down to the Warehouse.

A few minutes later, Mack approached Daniel and his new responsibilities, carrying his rifle loosely. He was walking right up to the huddled group, already towering over them.

“I…I…,” Daniel stammered.

“Just shut yo’ mouth, ya skinny-ass fool!” Mack said, shooing away his few remaining cronies. “I ought ‘a bust your head open right here and now!”

Terry took to whimpering again, sagging further down Daniel’s leg as he struggled to hold everybody upright. Leslie, thankfully, had fallen asleep, and was breathing foggily on his neck.

Daniel did not want to die here like this. His brain counted the amount of workers still in range to react when he made his move. There were still too many, but he had little choice now. He prepared himself to drop Leslie and bring the heavy bag into play. If he could smash this monster on the head, hopefully knocking him to the ground, he might have enough