Foreign Body Reaction
Alan McNeill
Chapter 6 Scene 2
“Ouch, damn,” Mark cursed as he caught the inside of his forearm on the frame of the solar panel. He looked at the scratch, watching the blood begin to peak up through the abrasion.
The muscles of his right arm were burning from holding the Makita up so long. The panels were much more difficult to remove than he had expected. Getting all four of the 120 watt Kyocera solar panels off and loaded into the truck was taking much longer than he had planned.
The solar panels were rectangles about four feet long and a little less than that wide. Each was held by two screws on each side of the steel frame. The screws were anti tamper, theft resistant, stainless steel. They could be screwed in, were designed with a ramp that made it impossible to unscrew them.
That had not been a surprise, Mark had spotted that on his first exploration of the abandoned microwave site. He was drilling every single screw out, using his Mikita cordless. He had gone through two batteries so far, throwing the exhausted ones down off the roof of the microwave shack. Jasper had the battery charger plugged into an old inverter in the truck bed, and was recharging them as Mark worked.
'That poor truck battery!” thought Mark. But he knew their dying truck battery problem was nearly solved. The microwave tower site was remote enough that it had been designed with deep cycle battery bank to backup the grid supplied power. They were large batteries, six volts each, that required all of Mark's strength to lift into the back of the truck. They and the solar panels were crucial to keeping their little tribes small level of technology alive. Mark still hated doing this, this stealing, not from the social consciousness perspective, but only because it was taking too long, and it was making noise. He just knew that you could hear the Makita miles away from the hill top.
He disregarded his burning arm and got back to work.
“Should I go inside and see what else we could use?” asked Jasper from below.
“No, this is bad enough, the longer we are here the more likely we are to have company. We need to get out of here quick.”
“It would just take me a moment.”
“No. The more we do here, the more traces of us we leave, and the greater the danger of us being followed. No, the panels are enough.”
Jasper looked at him on the roof of the small hut, reaching up the pole, arms extended, holding the Makita as it drilled down to free yet another screw head.
Jasper was delighted by the cool drizzle that had enveloped the mountain top. It cut visibility and sound, which was a good idea while they stole the panels and batteries, but it also reduced what she could hear.
“I'm going to check around for a minute,” she called up to Mark, and with that,Jasper melted back through the cut steel woven wire fence into the forest that fringed the hill top.
Mark got the third panel released and carefully lifted it from the frame. He reached under the panel and used side cutters from his tool belt to clip the wires that exited out of the weather proof box. He was careful to save as much as the copper wire as he could. They would need that to wire later when they put the panels into service.
Mark looked at the remaining panel as he climbed down and swapped out the Mikita battery for another more charged one. He rubbed his shoulder and realized that he no longer worried too much about Jasper when she disappeared into the forest. She seemed natural and at peace when she moved between the boundaries of the two worlds, the one of the forest and the one of the tribe.
Jasper moved through the wet brush and debris and into the second growth fir that sheathed the lower mountain. She moved in a spiral down, checking the logging trails and skid roads, seeing how they rent through the top soil, exposing the red orange flesh of the mountain. It had been many years since the mountain was logged, and the second growth fir was a full young forest, but those orange scars still ran rust colored blood in the February rain. She saw the rabbit tracks, coyotes scat with it's telltale hair, owl droppings but no signs of tires or feet, other than their own.
Mark exhaled in relief as the last screw head snapped off. He just needed to get them loaded and start the truck and get out of here.
A click, a ratching snick, broke the silence.
Mark froze and turned slowly to see three men standing just outside the fence, next to the truck, grinning up at him.
“We'll help you load those panels for you, wouldn't want you to drop 'em with all the hard work you did in stealin 'em.”
"Thats OK, but thanks, I'm done and just leaving."
The three men were dressed in camouflage hunting gear, and all had machine pistols over their shoulders. The one doing the talking had a revolver pointed at Mark, casually almost, comfortable with the gun. Mark knew the man was comfortable with the weapon.
Fuck! he thought to himself, Jasper? Where is she? Shit.
“Sorry partner, we're going to have to take those panels and confiscate your truck. Hope you don't mind?” asked the one with the revolver. “See we all were thinking the same thing I guess. Great minds think alike right? But we had couldn't figure out a way to get them panels off of there without breakin' em. You coming along with good tools, well damn, that was plain fortuitous, wasn't it boys."
The other two men had moved out in an arc around Mark's position on the roof, each with their right hands resting on the machine pistols, still slung from their shoulders. Mark could see that they weren't to concerned with resistance from him, but still, they stood with their feet slightly apart, weight on the balls of their feet, ready to move a foot in any direction as they would bring their guns up. Ex-military, Mark bet. Trained. Fuck!.
The leader, the talker, leaned back against the truck as Mark handed the panels down, lit a cigarette and exhaled into the damp morning air.
He pointed to one of the two men. “Break that door open and lets see what we got.”
There was no mistaking it, thought Mark, these are trained soldiers. National Guard, Army, didn't matter Mark thought, the question now was how Ben and the others and Jasper would survive without the truck and all the equipment in it. It was their lifeline. But Mark understood of course, that they would find tools and panels, maybe, but they could only do that if they stayed alive. That was first. The only important thing now was to get them out of here before Jasper came back. That and stay alive himself if possible.
Mark was thinking calmly but he was sweating and his pulse was racing. He didn't fight the fear, just greeted it as an old friend. Fear always made him faster, and he doubted that these men could keep up with him in the woods if he could only get to outside the fence.
Mark heard the crash of the door as it gave up under a hard kick. The man was directly beneath him. The leader was still outside the fence leaning against the truck, but an easy shot from there would kill Mark as well as a closer shot. It wasn't more that fifteen yards away. The man who had taken the panels was carrying them now one at a time to the fence and pushing them through the hole.
Third soldier came out of the microwave hut and shook his head towards the leader.
He stood from the truck and holstered his weapon. Mark moved to the edge of the roof to get down, the slick corrugated metal made it hard to stay balanced.
“No, you just stay up there. You know I can't leave you to yap about seeing us right?”
Mark's head swiveled to the edge of the roof closer to the fence on the north side of the little compound.
“You won't make that jump. Besides, I can hit you running, or jumping or hell, even flying, as easy as just standing there. But maybe we can make a deal?
“What sort of deal?” answered Mark cautiously.
“Well,” drawled the man, “you weren't getting all this stuff just for you, right?”
Mark didn't answer.
“So I'm thinking you've been collecting stuff for a group of your people hiding up here in the mountains. Hell, its getting kind of crowded up here ain't it?” and he laughed.
“So why don't you bring us back to your place and we can join up. Me and the boys don't got the virus, and I'm guessing your group don't either, right? We can make a better team you see, we got the guns and the systems, you got food, maybe women?" he said unable to keep the learing tone from his voice.
Mark realized the man would take what he wanted if he found the others. Probably kill everyone, or worse, just kill Ben and him and take the women.
“Mark, I'm back!” shouted Jasper as she looping up the logging road, swinging her arms, laughing and bright, completely oblivious to the situation unfolding before her. Even stranger, she had stripped off her work clothes down to the leather short skirt she had sewed as her underwear and had only a small rabbit fur bra she had sewed tied around her breasts.
All three of the men spun at the sound of her voice, their hands on their weapons.
“Oh, jeez”, she said as she finally noticed the men. They all started towards her.
“Run Jasper, run!” screamed Mark.
Jasper screamed and ran off the road onto a deer trail, screaming the whole way. Mark jumped down between the north fence and the wall of the shed as bullets from the third man sprayed the roof where he had been standing moments before.
The leader and the other man were in hot and hard pursuit of the fleeing girl. They wasted no time racing behind her down the deer trail.
Mark cautiously peered around the corner of the building. The man who had shot at him was edging backwards towards the trail, but unwilling to leave the truck and Mark. He was pissed. He knew he wasn't going to get his share, again. His frustration and indecision kept his focus split and when he turned back to look at the trail again, hoping the other men would drag the girl back here for all of them to share, Mark rushed him.
He spun back, feeling the rush of Mark's attack, the machine pistol already sputtering, spraying, the dirt stitched as it worked up in an arc towards Mark. Mark slammed into the man before the arc could complete and bowled him over. Both men hit the ground hard with Mark grasping the man's right wrist, trying to keep the machine pistol away.
The man was well trained and broke Mark's hold on his arm slowly pushed the machine pistol up against Marks left side. Mark scramble to pull himself away, but inexorably the pistol moved and the man's finger tightened on the trigger.
In the woods the chase lasted only a few moments. They had cornered her easily. Jasper was pressed against a large black oak, spread with her arms clutching at the bark behind her, tears running down her face, chest heaving. The men advanced.
The leader motioned the other to hold back and he advanced slowly towards Jasper.
“Now, now little girl. You needn't cry. We're not going to hurt you. We just haven't seen many girls up here ya know and we wanted to look at you. We won't hurt you. Your safe now.”
Jasper sobbed louder, her eyes dialated with fear.
Quickly he stepped right into her space and kicked her feet out wider, so she couldn't take off on him. He grinned, reached out, and ripped off her fur top.
“My my, aren't these little titties sure pretty. Hey Roy, look here.”
Jasper slapped at his face with her left hand.
“Now now, we're just going to have a little fun, no reason to be hitting. What's your name?” he asked as he laid his weapon on the ground and began unbuckling his pants.”
Jasper didn't respond, but she stopped shaking, and she smiled tentatively at the man, and whispered something.
The leader leaned in, happy that she was going to make this easy. He sighed a long drawn out sigh and they fell to the ground together, her legs laid open under him.
Roy smiled, both embarassed and excited. He was hard as a rock and waited for his turn. The sound of gun fire echoed down the mountain. He turned and his last thought was that this was turning out to be a really good day with unexpected benefits.
A burning cramp, a deep pain, started at his right kidney and arced through him in a burst of pain, it hurt so bad and hard and fast it was like lightning and then, just nothing. He collapsed to the ground, his diaphragm and heart released from any further toil.
Jasper set off at a dead run. The knife dripping, she reached the clearing in just a few moments. She could see Mark rolling on the ground with the last soldier. The soldier was trying to bring his pistol around into Mark's side.
She slid through the fence like water through a hole, and flew to the man's back. She snapped his head back, and her blade, still not dry, but razor sharp severed the ligaments and arteries of his neck, from left to right, the arterial blood spraying out to paint Mark's face and clothing. She pulled back hard and felt the weakened vertebra part. For a moment she thought of taking his head off completely, because, well, he had almost hurt Mark. She growled and let the almost severed head remain on the body.
Mark felt the man tense as his head was snapped back, and the man's warm spray over him.
Jasper rolled the man off of Mark and smiled at him. Mark stared at her, blood spattered and half naked. Her skin glowed and she smiled at him with concern.
“Sorry they got in. They were already up the trail towards you before I found them. They were very quiet, I'm sorry I wasn't quicker. You alright? Are you hurt?”
Mark shook his head in disbelief. "I think I'm OK, but I want to wash this blood off. Where are the other men?"
"They won't hurt anyone now."
“Go get your clothes. Lets collect their weapons and ammunition and anything we can use. We'll take them with us in the back of the truck and throw them down a ravine. We have to make sure they were alone before we get to the rendezvous with Ben's group.
Mark didn't want her to see how shocked he was. Almost being shot was one thing, but Jasper, well, he didn't know what to think, except one this one thing.
Good thing she is on our side.
