Red Rock

Chapter 20: Together, Alone (Part 2)

Daire returned to the original cabin with an irremovable smile on his face, enjoying his walk through the dry red soil. His development as a leader had just taken another large leap forward. He had an official agreement in place with a foreign entity, and it was executed as smoothly as butter on toast. Daire had come with his guns loaded and had already calculated the value for his sambu in different circumstances so he wouldn't look like a fool in a counter proposal. He was showing that he had learned more than just ethics from the brilliant mind of Doctor O'Connor. "Just finished negotiations," Daire said to get Jacob's attention.

"Is that right?" he asked, clearly not interested.

Daire told Jacob the details of the transaction, feeling very proud for holding the weekly asking price at one-hundred coins. "Are you OK?" he asked, seeing that Jacob's mind was elsewhere.

"We have eight people missing from camp."

"Do we actually know they're missing? People come and leave here all the time," Daire said, questioning Jacob's reasoning.

Jacob shook his head. "They've been disappearing consistently over the past three days and their belongings are still in place."

Daire was slightly more concerned. "Do you think we have a murderer here?"

"There's only been one intentional murder here, and he has life behind bars."

Daire could remember the delusional man hacking another man to death for accidently spilling his rations. Daire's set laws of an altered version of the Ten Commandments had served him well thus far. "It doesn't mean there can't be another one."

"I don't think so," Jacob said.

"Then what?"

Jacob woke from his daze and looked up at Daire with a look of disappointment. "Cannibals."

Daire's heart skipped a beat. He had completely forgotten about the possibility of the cannibals returning and felt a heavy hand push down on his internal organs. He was sure he would never see them again. "We don't know that," he said, swallowing his bliss. "I say we wait and see if they come back."

"Eight people in three days, Daire. You know as well as I do that those people aren't coming back. The cannibals are back and we don't know what they want. We're in danger."

Daire's heart sank even deeper. The thought of dealing with Blud again made him feel like vomiting. "What should we do?"

"We need a military. We got sixteen-hundred people here and close to nine-hundred of them are males. If we sharpen some sticks and carve some knives, we could wipe them out."

Daire knew Blud was too smart for that, he would never face a fully armed military head on. "Who says we'll find him? He obviously doesn't want to be seen, even if he did, there's no way that he would face us head on."

"He'll eventually show his face again. If not, we'll find him. But when he does show up or when we do find him, we better have a military waiting. Or else we will be the victims."

Daire pondered the thought for a moment. "If we do this, who will be in charge of the operation?"

"You know the head of the police here?"

Daire remembered the bald stocky officer who protected the sambu sweater wagon. "Yeah, I remember him."

"He's an ex-military man. More experience than Sasha too. We can have him lead the whole procedure."

Sam exited the cabin and gasped. "Daire!" she screamed of excitement hugging him as tightly as she could.

Jacob rolled his eyes. "We'll continue this conversation some other time."