Smoky Mountains – Chapter 23

Smoky Mountains
by
Jason Crow

Chapter 23 – Busted
Day 6.

I woke up with a shock. Joel and I were still lying the same way as we fell asleep last night. I guessed because we were both so tired from yesterday’s events outside and our long sex session in the evening. I knew something had woke me up, but I didn’t know what it was.

“RINGGG!”

There it was again! The phone downstairs was ringing. Joel moved beside me too and quickly sat up straight.

“RINGGG!”

Again? Joel’s sleepy eyes looked at me, and as he did, I saw the sleep vanish from his eyes.

“What’s that?” he whispered. “The landline?”

“Yeah,” I whispered back, reaching for my phone.

I looked at my phone and noticed the time. It was 6:34 a.m.

“That can only be Ellie and Adam, don’t you think?” Joel whispered as he got up.

That’s when I noticed the ‘No Service’ text in the top right corner. My heart almost stopped when I read it. What was going on? Was the power out? Were we being sabotaged? Who was calling us?

“I don’t have service anymore.”

“RINGGG!”

The ringing had stopped for a minute or so, and here it was again. Joel looked at me wide-eyed and quickly picked up his phone. The look on his face already told me what he was looking at.

“We must get dressed quickly,” he whispered with an urgency in his voice I hadn’t heard before.

“RINGGG!”

“Fuck!” I whispered. “Do we need to get that?”

Joel looked at me as he was pulling up his boxers. I had to look at his dick before he hid it from view and adjusted it in his boxers. The moment he started pulling up his pants, I started with my panties, tearing my eyes away from his crotch.

“RINGGG!”

We didn’t stop this time, and both started dressing as quickly as we could. As I was tying my shoes, I glanced over at Joel, who was tying the knife sheath to his leg. He was still shoeless and shirtless, and the tip of his tongue stuck out of his mouth as he was concentrating on tying the cords. I put on my shirt and hurried over to help Joel. We needed to be dressed comfortably, and this was one of these things that needed to be done correctly.

“The phone stopped ringing,” Joel said softly.

“You’re right. I think it’s ringing three times and then stops for a few moments,” I said, tying the last knot. “There! All set.”

“Thanks,” Joel said and started fiddling with two smaller knives that were supposed to sit parallel on his belt above his butt.

I tried the light switch and noticed we still had power.

“What do we do, Joel?” I asked, feeling the panic sweep over me.

“We stay calm. We’re safe in here, and after we get dressed…”

“RINGGG!”

“After we get dressed, we’ll carefully try and go downstairs.”

“I guess you’re right. We need to get dressed and be completely…”

“RINGGG!”

“Fuck! Completely ready before we get out of this room.”

“It’s an S.O.S. signal…” Joel said as if he was struck by lightning.

“RINGGG!”

“Oh my god… You’re right…”

I started gathering my things and regretted leaving our guns by our bikes. The shotgun and rifle weren’t a problem, but I’d feel a lot safer with my handgun in my hand, despite my aversion for guns. A knife suddenly just didn’t seem enough.

I noticed a loud click downstairs but couldn’t quite place the sound. Joel apparently didn’t hear it, as he was still working on these knives. This was starting to annoy me. He needed to put his shoes and shirt on and worry about these knives later. The moment I wanted to open my mouth, we both froze.

“Told ya that nigger was the owner,” a familiar voice downstairs said.

“Fuck, fuck fuck…” Joel whispered, moving around frantically.

There was no way we could hide from anyone inside this room. We needed to do something, but I couldn’t figure out what to do.

“Good thing we checked these apartments, right?” the voice continued.

“There’s some great shit in here. Don’t we need to call it in?” another voice said.

“Nah. Let’s check for ourselves first…”

Joel reached for his shoes to pick them up. The moment he did this, his shoulder bumped against a stack of staples and paperclips, causing them to fall over. It wasn’t that loud, but it was almost like a pile of glasses fell over and shattered on the floor in our ears.

“First…”

Joel and I didn’t move an inch. We both just stood there, afraid to make any more noise. I was feeling terrified, and my heart was trying to beat out of my chest. The voices had stopped, and everything was quiet now. Maybe they didn’t hear us?

“Did they hear us?” I whispered as softly as I could.

Joel shrugged his shoulders but looked just as petrified as I felt. I slowly stepped over toward the door to put my ear against it. I didn’t hear the voices anymore, but there were still footsteps. I just couldn’t figure out if they were close, downstairs, or somewhere in between that.

“Can you hear them?” Joel whispered just as softly.

“No. I think…”

With a loud bang, the door cracked as it was kicked open. It hit me hard on my head, causing me to fall back. I felt a sting in my head and saw white flashes before my eyes. I saw a familiar face appear in the door opening between these flashes, immediately pointing a gun at Joel, who quickly raised his hands.

“Well, well. What do we have here, Ben?”

“The two fuckers that tricked us!” Ben said as he came into view and pointed his gun toward me.

“You two got a cozy place in here,” Curtis said as he glanced around. “Too bad for you we found the keys to this place on the body of that nigger who owns this place. We just had to take the keys out of his pockets.”

“Yeah… Too bad, fuckers!” Ben added with a sly smile.

“What do you want from us?” Joel asked, still bare-chested and far from being as diplomatic as yesterday.

“What do we want? HAH!” Curtis said. “We want to know how you tricked us and then come with us to City Hall. That’s what we want.”

“What do you mean? Tricked you? We were scared shitless when the shooting inside that building started,” Joel said with a straight face.

“Right… Scared, huh?” Ben said sarcastically.

“Listen up. I know you were behind it one way or the other. That’s why I let my friends shut down the cellphone towers in this region.”

“Why? Did you run out of your prepaid phonecard and didn’t want anyone else to know?” Joel smiled.

Curtis moved quickly and punched Joel in his stomach with the back of his rifle. Joel let out a moan and hunched over, grabbing his stomach.

“Don’t get cocky with me, BOY. We were out all night looking for you two. I didn’t think we’d find you anymore, but yet here we are.”

“I’m sorry,” Joel groaned. “But how on earth could we do what we did? We were just on our way to our Uncle!”

“I don’t know how you did it! But Ben noticed you were both wearing an earbud. I just put two and two together…” Curtis trailed off.

I could only hope Joel would keep his mouth shut and not try to be funny about adding up numbers. So I decided to beat him to it.

“We were just leaving this place to head out to our Uncle. All the stuff in here is yours if you want. We won’t tell,” I said with the friendliest smile I could.

Curtis looked over at me and got a weird look on his face.

“And you know what else?” Curtis continued while he kept looking at me, “That pretty mouth can be used for a whole lot of interesting things…”

The moment he said this, Joel stepped forward angrily. He was pressed back immediately by the barrel of the gun being pressed against his chest.

“Oh yeah! Please! Give me a reason… BOY…” Curtis said.

I could see Joel trying to hold back, but his eyes looked… different. The last time he met Joe, his eyes shot fire. Right now, I could see utter violence in them. Something I never figured I’d see in my brother’s eyes.

“Maybe we should try her out for ourselves first, Curtis,” Ben chipped in and laughed loudly after he said it.

“Yeah… Maybe we should… She’ll need to be doing it a lot anyway. Might as well teach her the ropes,” Curtis smiled. “And you, BOY… You’ll help us hauling in all the stuff our foraging teams bring in. You think you can…”

“RINGGG!”

Curtis and Ben looked back at the door, a bit surprised. It was only a tenth of a second, but enough for my brother to spring into action. Joel quickly grabbed the gun by its barrel and pointed it toward the ceiling. With his other hand, he punched Curtis hard on his nose, causing blood to spurt out all over his face and his clothes. Moments later, Joel grabbed the knife on his belt’s back and moved it quickly toward Curtis’s throat.

This all happened in a split second. I noticed Ben looking wide-eyed at the scene in front of him, not moving a muscle. But after the initial shock went away and Joel grabbed his knife, Ben sprang into action. With the back of his rifle, he punched Joel on his shoulder. He aimed for my brother’s face, but since they were all moving fast, he missed. In the meantime, I tried to get up, but the air mattress slowed me down too much. It only delayed me for seconds, but it was enough to make me unable to help my brother.

Curtis grabbed Joel by his bare shoulders and quickly swung him around. Joel fell backward out of the room onto the balcony. Curtis jumped out too, and was pointing his rifle at Joel. The moment he fired, Joel kicked against the underside of the gun, causing it to miss my brother by mere inches. Curtis lost his grip, and the rifle flew out of his hands and landed in the door opening.

Ben looked at the scene unfolding in front of his eyes, which gave me the opportunity to grab him from behind. I jumped on his back and wrapped my arms around his neck. I could see Joel quickly got on his feet, swinging a punch at Curtis’s bloody face. But despite his bulky build, Curtis was light on his feet and dodged Joel’s swing. The moment Joel’s fist passed Curtis’s face, he took a punch at Joel’s side, causing him to groan loudly.

I was gripping Ben’s neck as tightly as I could, but he threw himself back against the wall, trapping me in between. Ben was a skinny guy, but this blow still punched all the air out of my lungs, which caused me to loosen my grip slightly. This was enough for Ben to wrestle himself free and slap my face hard. The sting of it was incredible. I’d never imagined such a skinny guy being able to punch someone this hard. Maybe him using a flat hand instead of a fist added to the effect and sting of it. Before I could duck, he slapped me again, and I fell down on the air mattress.

The way I was lying now, I could clearly see the fight between Joel and Curtis. Joel’s back was against the railing as he tried punching Curtis again. I wanted to shout at them to stop, but time itself seemed to slow down. Joel missed Curtis by a hair, and Curtis punched against my brother’s chest with a lot of force. Joel’s head flew back, and so did his torso. I could see his feet trying to get a grip on the floor, but gravity was winning. Curtis’s second blow did it. Joel tumbled back over the railing, his arms desperately trying to grab something. Anything. The gravitational pull was relentless. His eyes caught mine, and I’ll never forget the look of desperation in them. And then he went over.

“JOELLLL!!!!” I screamed as time got back to its regular speed.

Curtis stepped against the railing and looked down. In the meantime, Ben had picked me up and grabbed me firmly by my wrist. Curtis turned around and had a big grin on his blood-covered face. I didn’t care, and I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks.

“That’s one coon less,” Curtis said proudly.

“Is he dead?” Ben asked.

“Looks a lot like it,” Curtis chuckled. “He dropped two stories, and I didn’t see him move. He did have a mean right fist, though.”

Curtis took the hem of his shirt to wipe the blood from his face. Dead? Is my brother dead? I didn’t seem to register in my mind. How could Joel be dead? My sweet and strong brother… He had always looked out for me, and now… Why didn’t I help him? What now? Oh no… Joel’s dead. DEAD!

Nothing registered. Only “Joel is dead” was inside my head. Until a big sting took me back to reality. I saw Curtis smiling at me, and his hand raised. Ready to slap me again.

“I said… What will you do now without your precious boyfriend, princess?”

I couldn’t think. I just looked blankly at Curtis through my tears, feeling completely helpless. I wouldn’t care if they threw me down too. Joel was dead.

“On your knees, princess,” Curtis shouted. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Ben kicked me back at my legs, causing me to drop to my knees. He let go of my wrist but pointed his rifle at my head. I didn’t care. It didn’t even hurt me. Joel was the only thought in my head. My eyes were open, but I didn’t see anything. Joel…

“Ever suck a grown man’s cock, princess?” Curtis asked, gripping his dick through his pants.

I didn’t move. I didn’t nod, didn’t talk. I just looked at the ground. This obviously irritated Curtis a lot. So he grabbed me by my chin, forcing me to look up at him. At that moment, my vision returned, and I saw the face of my brother’s murderer. I never felt more intense hate for another person than at that moment.

“You killed him,” I whispered.

“You’re damn right. I killed him. And I’ll do the same to you if you don’t open your mouth and do what we tell you.”

“You killed him,” I whispered again.

SLAP! Another sting on my cheeks, but I practically didn’t feel it. It hardly registered. Curtis started unzipping his trousers, reaching inside. Before he took it out, he looked at Ben.

“What are you doing?” Curtis said.

“Making sure she doesn’t do anything funny,” Ben responded, moving the gun to make his point.

“Get behind me, you fool. Or do you like looking at my dick?”

“Jeez…” Ben said. ”Is it that small?”

“Fuck you! Get over there and stop looking at my dick, or you’ll get jealous.”

Ben moved a bit, so he couldn’t see his brother’s groin. But he still kept pointing his gun at me. I was starting to feel sick in my stomach from the idea of having to suck off the guy that killed my brother. I was trying to think of a way out of this, but my thoughts were too clouded with Joel’s image falling to his death. I couldn’t think of anything.

The moment the hairy little dick came out of the fly of Curtis’s pants, I realized I had to do this. My mind was in survival mode and was witty enough to know I had to get this done. I would seek a way out later when I was able to think straight. Curtis’s dick looked smaller than my brothers. It was still soft-ish but slowly rising. The uncut glans looked pointy, which made it look even smaller. Pubic hairs were peeking out of the sides of his shaft, and as he stepped closer, I could smell the stale stench of someone with bad personal hygiene. I could suppress a gag, but I immediately felt another one coming.

“What’s the matter, princess? Impressed? Just mind the teeth, or you’re leaving here without them. Got that?” Curtis smiled.

“And if you try anything funny, I’ll shoot you. And don’t worry. I won’t kill you, but you’ll wish I did,” Ben said from behind his brother.

Curtis took his dick in his hand and pointed it toward my lips. The moment the tip of his glans hit my lips, I felt something warm spray over me.

“Did he cum already?” I thought.

But when I heard a gurgling sound above me, I looked up and was shocked at what I saw. Curtis’s throat had a big red line over it, and blood poured and spurted out of it. I could see the end of two knives at the sides of his throat disappear from view as Curtis slowly sank to his knees.

“What the…” was all Ben could say before his words were cut off.

It all happened in a flash, and it took me a moment to realize what I was looking at. Joel jumped against Ben with two bloody knives in his hands. The moment Ben tried to speak, both knives landed in his chest. As soon as they were entirely inside his chest and the blades weren’t visible anymore, Joel pulled them back, only long enough to push both of them back in. And again, and again. I didn’t count, but I was sure Joel stabbed Ben over twenty times before he stopped.

Joel sat there panting heavily, and his face and chest were covered in blood. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Joel was alive! And he saved me! I jumped over to him and hugged him tighter than I ever hugged him before. My forward motion caused both of us to tumble over. Joel groaned the moment we hit the floor.

“Oh, Joel! I thought you were dead! And that evil fucker wanted me to…” I started.

“Shh… It’s okay now. We’re safe,” He moaned.

“But… How?” I couldn’t help but ask. “You fell down. I saw it with my own eyes!”

“I did. But I landed on a stack of boxes containing the new fleece vest collection. It hurt like fuck, and it still does. But the moment I landed, I knew I lived. I figured I’d lay still for a few moments to let these fuckers think I was dead. The moment he disappeared from view and started talking to you, I grabbed two knives from the shelf and crept upstairs to surprise them. ”

“Fuck! You saved us!” I exclaimed and hugged him again, kissing him on his mouth.

“Mpfh!” he groaned again.

“Can you move? Do we need to stay another night? Do I need to find a medkit?” I blabbered.

“No. No, I’m fine. I’ll be sore for a few days, but we can go. We NEED to go. These morons probably bragged about finding the keys to this place over the radio. So the moment they don’t respond, this place will be crowded with more of these fuckers.”

I looked at the dead bodies on the ground, realizing Joel was right. My face burnt from the slaps I received, but other than that, I was fine. And I guess Joel was okay too. He got up and was starting to clean himself with his t-shirt. There would be plenty of time to rest when we reached the shelter.

“Let’s go to the locker room. There’s a sink in there so we can wash off the blood,” I said softly.

We got ourselves cleaned up in no time. Joel was still shirtless, and mine was covered with drops of Curtis’s blood. So I took it off and glanced at Joel, looking at my bra-covered breasts.

“This is a fucked-up world, Joel,” I said seriously. “Thank you for saving me!”

I took his face in my hands and kissed him passionately on his lips. He returned my kiss but pulled back way sooner than I wanted him to.

“We must get going, Mia! I don’t want to waste any more time.”

We grabbed our backpacks, knives, and shoes and went downstairs. Just before we hit the bottom step, the phone rang again. We looked at each other, and I shrugged.

“It’s probably Adam and Ellie. Worst case, it’s someone from the A.W.A. But now we’re out of here in seconds if we need to,” I said, looking at Joel.

He just nodded. I walked over, got behind the counter, and picked up the phone.

“Hello?” I said, not knowing what to expect.

“Thank, god! Mia?” I heard Adam’s voice asking.

The relief in his voice was unmistakable. I nodded at Joel, who started smiling, and it seemed like a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

“Are you two okay? We saw these two guys enter the shop, but we couldn’t reach you. They sabotaged the cell phone towers. At least according to SHIVR.”

“We’re fine,” I said calmly. “And these two guys are… dealt with.”

“Oh… I… I see,” Adam said after a long silence.

“Put them on speaker,” I heard Ellie say in the background.

“Mia?” Ellie’s voice came on after a small beep.

“Hi, Ellie. Yeah. We’re fine. We need to get to you now, though. We want to leave NOW.” I said with great urgency in my voice.

“We already checked everything,” Adam said. “The area is clear, and SHIVR calculated that there will be a cellphone signal the moment you’re leaving town. The road is just one straight line.”

“Which way do we go?” I asked.

Adam explained the first part of the trip. After we went left and right a few times, it was a straight shot toward them. After what Joel did today, I was confident we could make it, but I had to ask Joel. The moment he knew it was Adam, he stepped closer so he could listen in.

“You’re okay with it, Joel?” I asked.

“Of course I am. We need to get the fuck out of here as quickly as we can. If they checked the area, plotted the course, and say it’s safe, then we go.”

“It’s safe, Joel. I promise. The road is clear, and as far as we can see it, every A.W.A. member is either at City hall or at the rendezvous point at the other side of town.”

“Then it’s settled,” Joel said. “We’ll be wearing our earbuds, so you can call us when the signal comes back. Can you watch us on cameras all the way?”

“In the town, we can see you all the way. But the moment you leave town, there are a few gaps. SHIVR is working on another satellite feed, just no promises there. But we’ll be in touch over the phone by the time you leave town. We didn’t see any movement outside the town last night, so we’re assuming the back roads are clear. At least clear from A.W.A. people.”

“They’re not people,” Joel said grimly.

“Well… You know what I mean. If you go now, you probably won’t have to sleep outside, or maybe just one night,” Adam said, carefully avoiding Joel’s comment.

“We’re ready,” I said. “We’ll grab our coats, guns, and bikes, and we’re off. Talk to you later,” I chirped.

“Later. Be careful, alright?” Adam said.

I hung up the phone and smiled at Joel.

“With a bit of luck, we’ll be having a nice, warm shower tonight,” I said.

“Oh yeah… Can’t wait to have a shower. Maybe we need to preserve water and have to shower together,” Joel said and smiled mischievously.
At the idea of showering with my brother, my vagina moistened considerably.

“It’s also better for the environment, so maybe we need to do it anyway,” I smiled back.

After we put in our earbuds, zipped up our new coats, and holstered our guns, we grabbed our bikes.

“Let’s go,” Joel said as he opened the door.

End of Chapter twenty-three

Copyright 2021 – Jason Crow
All rights reserved

quia caritas quae agis