Tempest of Tennessee (Episode 1): Tempest of Tennessee Read online

  The tractor set the pace. The woman driving the pickup wanted to talk,

  “My name is Annette.”

  Annette was pretty in that yuppie, well taken care of sort of pretty; Perfectly cut brown hair, perfect teeth, dressed in clean expensive jeans and flannel shirt. Her jacket cost more than all of my clothing added together. I noticed she had beautiful green eyes with perfect white around the Iris.

  I jiggled the pistol pointed at her. “Shut up.”

  Ten miles in a vehicle passes fast, but not fast enough to prevent her from speaking again.

  “I know you’ll kill us when we get to where you’re making us go. We’ll know your location.”

  “I hadn’t planned to kill you all, but now that you pointed that out, I reckon I’ll have to.”

  She took her eyes from the road to glance at me. “I hope that was a joke. If it was, it wasn’t funny.”

  I used a fingernail to scrape an itching patch of blood from my bullet grazed neck, I didn’t say if it was a joke or not, but did ask, “Why were you with that gang of scum?”

  “I came with my father. I didn’t know they were meeting with those—.”

  “You knew your daddy, didn’t you? He had to be their type to be with them.”

  Without taking her eyes from the road, she said, “Yes, he was their type, sorry to his core.”

  I saw that she was crying. “I hope you’re not crying for him.”

  She threw another glance at me. “I’m crying for what’s become of our world; So many dead for no good reason. I’m crying for you too.”

  “You don’t need to cry for me.”

  “Yes I do. There’s something wrong with you. How can you kill without thought? The men, yeah, they stole from you, but the woman… you shot her in cold blood. You’re either traumatized or insane.”

  “The woman wanted to defend her sorry-ass man. She should’ve kept her mouth shut.”

  “Jane, that’s the woman’s name. Jane wouldn’t hurt anyone. Now you’ve orphaned three children.”

  I thought about where the bullet hit the woman and knew it was a mortal wound. “She was breathing when we left.”

  The girl shook her head. “No, she’s dead. From the way she was bleeding she probably died before they brought her to the back wall.”

  I was tired of talking about the woman. “She was there, I was mad and she should’ve kept quiet.”

  “Tell me your name… Please.”

  My name flowed by itself. “Tempest.”

  “Tempest… Your name is Tempest. Jesus, you’re kidding… right?”

  “That’s my name. Now shut up, we’re almost there.”

  She didn’t shut up. “Tempest, I’d ask you not to kill the other three women. They are all mothers.”

  I noticed she hadn’t asked for her life. “I can kill you though, right?”

  “I will pray that you don’t.”

  “That’s a good idea.” A minute later, though it wasn’t yet in sight, we were approaching the turn for my road. I had no thought of killing the women, but I didn’t want them to know exactly where the turn off was.

  To the girl, I said, “Drive around and get in front of the tractor and slow to a stop.”

  After we stopped, I called the women from the vehicles.

  “This is as far as you go. Men will be along to take the vehicles the rest of the way. You know your way back to your hellhole. Get moving.”

  The tractor driver, Debra, said, “We have to walk back?”

  Pointing my pistol at her, I said, “No, you don’t have to. I can shoot you and you’ll lay right there.”

  Annette said, “Go Debra. You all go. She’s crazy.”

  Debra and two other women began walking. Debra turned to say to Annette, “Why are you standing there?”

  I added the same thing. “Yeah, why are you standing there?”

  “I’ll go somewhere else. I don’t want to be with them.”

  I fired a bullet into the dirt close to the women. “You heard her. She’s divorcing from you. Get on up the road.”

  They left. That left Annette and I standing in the road.

  To her I said, “They’re gone,” nodding down the road. “There’s a community that way, ten miles or so. They’re leery of strangers, but as young and pretty as you are, you might talk your way in.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going my way.” Waving my pistol, I said, “Get moving.”

  “Nope, I was planning on running away from my father and those losers at the camp, but now I’m staying right here.”

  “You just told them I’m crazy. Why would you want to hang around ‘crazy’? Get on out of here.”

  “An insane girl may be exactly what I need. Do you like to shoot people?”

  “Of course not, but I’ll shoot those who are a threat.”

  “Am I a threat, Tempest?”

  “I shot your daddy, didn’t I? You’d leave your mother?”

  “My mother died four years ago. Perhaps I don’t care that you shot my Father. Maybe he was a molester. Maybe I know he was riding with the thieves and murderers on their scavenging trips. Could be I overheard him brag about killing?”

  I shook my head. “So what? Maybe I have a maybe of my own. Maybe I don’t need another burden to watch over.”

  Annette smiled and said, “I’m glad we’re talking. Perhaps you read me wrong. I’m not anyone’s burden. I bet I can outshoot you and beat you in unarmed combat. I’ve spent hours at the range and years in martial arts.”

  She caught me flatfooted. From fifteen feet away, she ran two steps, hit the ground in a roll, rose in front of me and twisted the pistol from my hand.

  Stepping away, she reached to hand my pistol back. “Can I stay with you?”

  A voice called my name. Vikas and family were running our way. John and Bella followed at their own slow pace.

  “Are those your burdens?” Annette asked.

  “You’ll find out.”

  As simply as that, Annette became one of us.

  *************************

  END

  Episode one

  Thank you for reading. I do hope you enjoyed this story. Episode 2 is written and in editing.

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