Dog Days of Summer (Damned of the 2/19th Book Four) - Finished

Losing Pieces of Myself

Independence Valley, Washington

United States of America

10 August, 1986

0112 Hours

We were heading into Independence Valley when it happened. It was a backwoods area mostly full of hard working decent people, but with pits of nastiness and brutality like the Doutree Boys hiding here and there, wearing masks of respectability to outsiders while terrorizing their neighbors.

One minute I was fine, sitting quietly next to Nancy, my head on her shoulder, holding her hand, just being next to her. The next everything was garbled as the little lizard's control station shorted out. Sounds tore at my ears, my limbs shook, I felt my back arc and my head hit the gunrack behind my head, my skin tearing as I beat my head against the rack and made gobbling noises in my throat.

I was aware of the truck stopping, then I was laying on the soft dirt, my head pounding and my muscles aching. Nancy was rubbing my chest telling me that I'd be all right while Bomber was climbing into the back of the truck growling curses.

"Think it's funny, you Herman Munster looking fuck?" Bomber growled, standing in the truck bed.

"Little Orphan Annie having a seizure by the side of the road?" Papa Doutree laughed. "Please don't die. Please don't die." He mocked in a high pitched voice. "Soon as I get loose, I'm gonna finish off that spaz Annie, rape and kill your ugly bitch, then take my time with you."

Bomber kneeled down and punched three times, each time there was the heavy sound of flesh hitting bone. "Think so, you Frankenstein fuck?"

Papa Doutree laughed, spit a few times. "Gonna do to that ugly scar faced bitch what I did to Annie's sister, see if she cries for her daddy when I cornhole her."

Rage swept aside the lingering after-effects of the grand-mal seizure I'd just suffered. I pushed Nancy away and stood up, the weakness and trembling in my muscles and the off-kilter feeling in my sore brain swept aside by sheer rage. I brushed away Nancy's attempt to hold me back and threw myself against the side of the truck as Papa Doutree kept laughing.

When he saw me he laughed harder. "That's right, me and my boys would core that sister of yours out, and she screamed for her daddy to save her every time I cornholed her little ass."

"No, Ant, no!" Nancy said, grabbing the back of my flannel shirt and pulling me back from where I had almost climbed over the side of the truck bed.

"Daddy, help! Daddy, help me! Make them stop, please Daddy!" Papa Doutree mimicked in a high pitched voice. "It hurts! Make it stop, Daddy!"

Nancy wrestled me back, putting me in a half-Nelson as her feet slipped on the dirt. Bomber punched again, and again.

"Shut. Your. Mouth." Bomber snarled. "You. Shut. your. Mouth."

Papa Doutree's laughter turned to gurgles and I knew Bomber was breaking his teeth, splitting his lips, mangling the older man's face with his fists.

"You gonna behave, Ant?" Nancy asked me as bomber kicked the older man twice and jumped out of the back of the truck, rubbing knuckles.

"Yeah." I growled. "I oughta kill that fat sack of crap."

"Stick to the plan, don't lose your head." She told me.

"He's out again. Maybe he'll stay out." Bomber told me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the truck. "Come on, let's stick with the plan."

Being inside the truck calmed me down, same with the cigarette Nancy passed me. The shakiness in my limbs returned as I took a long drag off the cigarette and Bomber threw the truck in gear and pulled back onto the road. Nancy checked my eyes real quick, griping about how they looked bad and I was probably concussed.