Dear Diary, It’s Me, Jessica: Chapter 9 (Book 2)

By the Author of Dear Diary: It’s Me, Jessica

Find the previous chapter here.

Dear Diary,

It’s me, Jessica.

Mom, Rae, and I were on our way to Four Corners to trade when they took us.  I don’t know how long they had been waiting for us.  Hours?  A day?  Two?  They ambushed us before we even knew they were there.  Before I could even unsling my rifle, a closed fist hit me upside my head, and that was the last I remembered.  

When I woke up, my hands and feet were bound, I was gagged and a sack was over my head, lying on my side on the cold ground.  

I stirred and tried to sit up.  Someone roughly helped me up by the neck.  The sack was removed, and I blinked in the sunlight.  I looked up to see the man holding me by my neck.  He had a tattoo of a skull on half his face.  He smiled down at me in a way that made my blood run cold.

It was the leader of the “Gang.”

Entry two

I quickly looked around.  

Rae was several feet away from me, bound and gagged like me, sitting upright on the ground.  The look on her face, her eyes screamed rage.  Behind her was Mom, laying on her side a sack over her head.  I could not tell her condition.  

“Jessica,” the gang leader said as he pulled my neck back and brought his face closer to mine.  “I know your name is Jessica.  And behind me, is Rae.  The other one, I do not know her name.  What is her name?”

I could not help it, but I panicked.  It was my mother.  

“Ah!” he said and stood more upright.  “So, someone you truly care about.  More so than even Rae.  All the better!  You will tell me what I want.  You will give me what I want.”  He leaned down again, close to my face, and whispered, “I.  Want.  Jack.  And you are going to be the one who will give him to me.”

Rae gave me a slight, almost imperceptible shake of the head, indicating not to give him anything.  No information.  Not to cooperate whatsoever.  

But this is my own mother we are talking about.  

Without a doubt, he would hurt me and Rae.  But he had so much leverage over me with my own Mother.  And he knew it.    

One of his men said they needed to go, to get off the road and away from Four Corners.

The gang leader looked annoyed but nodded in agreement.  They hauled us all up on our feet.  Mom was awake now and looked scared.  I did my best to tell her with a look that everything was okay, but she still looked scared.  

I glanced around to see we were on the side of the road, at about the halfway point to Four Corners.  Including the gang leader, there where six of them.  All armed, wearing body armor, helmets with those radio headsets they wore in the Battle of Four Corners.

One of the men kept repeating something into his radio a few times.  He looked to the leader and shook his head, nodding toward the hills to the North of us.  

They formed up with three of them in the front, Rae, Mom, and me in the middle, the gang leader behind me, and the other two bringing up the rear.  They led us into the woods.  They meant to avoid the road and hump it to wherever we were going cross country using what looked like a game trail.  It was going to be slow going.

After an hour of humping, we topped the first hill.  It was not easy for us going uphill, but it was even harder for the gang with their gear and body armor.  They stopped for a rest break, a few of them were winded from the effort and openly sweating.  They forced us to sit on the ground while they drank water.  They did not offer us any water.

After a few moments to catch their breath, they tried the radios again.  This time, they got a response.  The gang leader walked several yards away while he spoke to someone else on the radio for a few minutes.  

When he returned, he told his men that everything was “okay,” but they would have to move faster if they were to make it before nightfall.  He said he did not want to have to spend the night in the woods and suggested monsters would be lurking about with a grin.  His men chuckled at the idea.  

We set out again, but I did not feel the pace was any faster than before.  I noticed Rae was slightly limping, dragging her foot as if she had hurt her leg.  Going down the hill was just as bad as going up it.  I could feel my shins on fire as we climbed down.  One of the gang slipped and fell, rolling down the hill before a tree stopped his momentum.  By the time we reached him, he was slowly getting up.  The gang leader scolded him to be careful.  If he had broken something, he would have left him there for the monsters.  This time, no one laughed.  The gang leader really would have left him there, and they knew it.

In the lowlands between hills, the woods canopy made it seem later in the day than it was.  Only when we were halfway up a hill or at the top could we see the sky and the sun, as the trees thinned out.  I guessed we were to the East, parallel to North Old River Road, past Four Corners Northern barrier, but still a ways from the homes the gang used as a base before the Battle of Four Corners.

We had just topped another hill. Everyone was breathing heavily from the exertion.  Even I was sweating heavily.  This time, they did not have to tell us to sit down on the ground as Rae, Mom, and I all but fell down.  They took off their helmets and began to drink water in gulps.  

That is when the monster appeared.  

Entry three

I was sitting up, looking around for a possible way to escape.  Both Mom and Rae lay back in some of the grass on the ground, resting as some of the gang sat on logs or old tree stumps as they drank water.  

I made eye contact with the gang leader and tried to say “water” through the gag without much success.  Still, he understood what I had said,

“You will get some water when we get there.  If you are lucky, maybe even something to eat,” he grunted.  He turned and walked away to use the radio again.

I looked back at Rae when I heard one of the gang swear softly.  His eyes were wide in fear.  I looked in the direction he was looking in to see it standing there.  The monster.  It was not there a moment ago and suddenly there it was.  Covered in long green, black, and dark brown hair, it was vaguely human-shaped, but there was no face.  Just a black void.  Sunlight could not penetrate the void.  Except the gang leader who was on the radio and did not hear the one swear, all the others looked to see the monster.  

For a moment, no one moved.  Then the monster did.  In a fluid, almost graceful movement, it pointed one arm at the nearest of the gang.  And shot him in the face.  

Nearly as one, three more shots rang out and four of the gang were down.  I turned in time to see the gang leader and one other disappear down the hill.

Entry four

Mom, Rae, and I did not move.  We watched in fear as the monster walked around the dead bodies and walked up to us.  It seemed to regard us with a slight tilt of the head, then the other arm reached up and pulled off its own head.  

It was Jack.

Mom fell back into the grass in relief.  Rae was talking through the gag, and I just stared.  

Jack pulled out a knife from beneath the “hair,” and cut the gags from us, then the rope tying our hands.

Rae rubbed her wrists and choked out,

“How?”

Jack grinned.

“HAM guy.  He has this passive scanner-like thing attached to his radios.  He picked up on their transmissions from them back to their base.  Their radios are not encrypted.  They gave away their position and I was able to get a general idea of what path they were taking.  Me and three others ran the entire way to get here and set up an ambush.  It was no picnic, but we did it.  I was to be the distraction in the ghillie suit while the others targeted the gang as they sat in confusion.”

Without a word, Rae gave Jack a big hug.  

“Whoa, Rae!  You might crack a rib!”

Mom and I then hugged him and Rae, too.  

Entry four

Jack and his team took us back on the path they had come in on.  At the bottom of the hill, they lead us west through a winding lowland path to North Old River Road.  It was a lot easier and once on Old River Road, we hump it South to Four Corners.  

I told Jack what the gang leader said to me about giving him Jack.  Jack just nodded and stared into the distance as the Four Corners Northern barrier appeared, his eyes thinking.  

“This time, things are going to be different,” he said.  “He is out there,” Jack nodded behind him to the North.  “He knows more about me and Four Corners.  He is going to be waiting for us.  You, Rae, and your Mom were supposed to be the bait to draw me out.  That failed.  But he is still there.”

“Can’t we just avoid or ignore him?”

“No.  He would just launch hit and run attacks on the Northern barrier.  Maybe even attacks from the East if he comes across the hills.  We don’t have the manpower to guard both.  Especially the hills.  It is a logistical issue for both him and us.  From what I have seen, they are not nearly as adapted to living off the land as we are.  We need to take the fight to him.  Will he have the defensive lines like we did in the Battle of Four Corners?  I don’t know.  I would expect him to learn, though.  He will be on the defensive.  We will be on the offensive.  It may cost us lives.  Lives we cannot afford to lose if we are to survive as a community.  I am going to need some real recon, real intelligence, and to come up with a plan to mitigate their defensive lines.  But he wants me.  We can use that to our advantage.”

Diary, I do not know how I feel about that.  

About 1stMarineJarHead

1^stMarineJarHead is not only a former Marine, but also a former EMT-B, Wilderness EMT (courtesy of NOLS), and volunteer firefighter.

He currently resides in the great white (i.e. snowy) Northeast with his wife and dogs. He raises chickens, rabbits, goats, occasionally hogs, cows and sometimes ducks. He grows various veggies and has a weird fondness for rutabagas. He enjoys reading, writing, cooking from scratch, making charcuterie, target shooting, and is currently expanding his woodworking skills.