Heller’s Decision (21 page)

I clamped my hand to my mouth to cut off
my cry of dismay when I spotted what was happening.

Roger and Barb were
both tied to chairs, Roger up against a
wall on the far side of the room, his mouth gagged, blood running
down his face from a large gash in his forehead. Barb was situated
in the middle of the room in a semi-circle of strong lighting, also
gagged. She didn’t look as though they’d treated her kindly so far,
her pretty jacket ripped and her hair unkempt. A camera sat in
front of her, filming every frightened blink of her eye.

That accounted for two of them,
b
ut where was Bick? The
strong lighting made it difficult to see the rest of the room, but
I noticed a prone, pale shape in a far shadowy corner. A person
laid face down, arms and legs flung out randomly, only his face and
arms visible, his black uniform and black hair blending in with the
darkness. Positive it was Bick, I couldn’t tell if he was alive or
not. My first instinct was to rush over to him, but I couldn’t do
that. There were – I counted quickly – at least six
balaclava-wearing PRON men, not including the guy behind the camera
who seemed to be in charge.

A
burst of laughter echoed around the room. One of the men
stood behind Barb, and while they filmed her, he drew back her
transparent red jacket to expose her black bra-clad breasts. From
the angle of the camera, it wouldn’t be possible to see his face at
all, only his hands. He ran them over her breasts, cupping them,
cruelly squeezing them, pinching her nipples and laughing as she
struggled uselessly in her chair against him. My stomach heaved
when I realised what they were doing. They were going to make an
adult movie with Barb as an unwilling participant to humiliate her
and teach Roger and her a lesson. Or maybe something even worse.
Knowing PRON Productions, they would probably sell it online
through one of their many distribution companies. There were
probably enough sick people in the world to buy it.

The man untied her halter neck top and
flung it over his shoulder, revealing her naked breasts to the
camera. He rubbed, pinched and squeezed them again, hurting Barb
and leaving angry red marks on her smooth tanned skin. A second man
came into shot then and he stood on one side of Barb, the first man
on the other side and they both dropped their pants. Roger thrashed
against his restraints, wanting desperately to help his wife. One
of the men ran over to him and viciously punched him in the face,
toppling the chair over. He cracked his head on the concrete ground
when he fell and lay motionless. Despite the brightness of the
lights, Barb witnessed the assault, tears streaming down her
face.

“
Wonderful!” said the guy behind the
camera. “I’m getting an excellent close-up of the bitch
crying.”

How many bullets
were in the gun I
had?
I thought, a sudden
desire to shoot every PRON thug in this room flaming up inside me.
But I knew I couldn’t – if I ran out of bullets before I ran out of
men, Benjy and I were screwed. And that assumed I even had a good
enough aim to hit them in the first place, which I highly doubted,
considering my lack of experience with firearms.

Somehow
I needed to distract them before they went any
further with Barb. Unfortunately for me, I made that wish and it
immediately came true.

M
y mobile rang.

I
fumbled for it, my mouth dry, and hurriedly switched it
off.
Dumbarse!
I
berated myself. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t turned if off earlier.
It sounded so loud, echoing around the room. Benjy and I stood
frozen, staring at each other in fear. The men stopped what they
were doing and looked in our general direction.

“
Mike?” one of them called out, perhaps
thinking it was the grinning man in the kitchen. Of course there
was no response from him – he was out cold.

“
Go check,” ordered the guy behind the
camera, returning to his task. “Let’s do a couple of oral shots.”
With six men in the room they could keep going with poor Barb for a
very long time. I felt so useless and helpless.
Hurry up, Heller! Where are
you?

The man ordered to check out the noise
poked around the crates near us without much interest, walking
right past our little grotto without even looking sideways. I
wasn’t complaining, but it was a pretty half-arsed job at looking
for something by anyone’s measure.

Benjy and I
crouched, huddling together on the ground,
watching him stalk past, the gun slippery in my hand. I didn’t know
about Benjy, but I virtually held my breath until he returned to
the others, shrugging at the camera guy.

“Didn’t see anything.”

“
Did you find Mike?”

“Nope.”

“Where the fuck is he?”

“Fucked if I know. Probably in the bathroom
taking a dump.”

“
He should take his dumps in his own time.
Lazy arsehole,” the camera guy muttered. “A couple of you get over
near the bitch. I want to get this oral shot finished.”

It must be dark by now, I reasoned.
Perhaps Heller was waiting for the cover of darkness to make his
move. But if he didn’t hurry up, Barb was going to be molested, and
possibly even worse. I couldn’t get the thought that these people
made snuff porn out of my mind. I could never let that happen to
her, but I had Benjy here to think about as well. Not to mention
Bick and Roger. There was no possible way I could deal with six
gun-wielding men and assist four people escape, two who were
unconscious, by myself. Or could I?
Think, think, think
, I urged myself.

Night time. Lights. Everything thrown into
confusion with no lights. Where were the mains? At the very least
that might hopefully stop them from hurting anyone for a while
until Heller turned up. But before I could formulate a plan, one of
the windows broke and a number of projectiles landed in the room.
As they dropped, thick choking smoke billowed from them, enveloping
everything. There must have been a dozen of them. Chaos in the room
followed, the thugs yelling out at each other.

“
Put your shirt over your nose and mouth
and get down low,” I urged Benjy. “Heller’s thrown in some smoke
grenades or something. The men will be here in seconds.”

We weren’t affected yet, but it wouldn’t
take long, judging by how quickly the smoke spread. I couldn’t
leave Barb helpless, topless, in the centre of the room when a mass
of angry men
was about
to storm the building. They might not notice her in all the
smoke.

“
Stay here until I come back, or one of
Heller’s men comes to get you. Don’t make a peep!” I ordered Benjy,
and cautiously crept my way around the crates until I had a clear
run to the centre of the room.

The lights went out, plunging the room
into total darkness. It seemed then as if all the windows and doors
in the room exploded and a swarm of aliens invaded. Later, I
realised it was the
Heller’s
men,
wearing gas masks and night vision goggles.

I took advantage of the anarchy to sprint
to the approximate place I thought Barb was
situated
. I ran smack
bang into a man, and not knowing if it was a
Heller’s
or a PRON man, I dodged his grasping
hands. I literally stumbled over Barb’s chair, lucky not to knock
her flying. The smoke killed my eyes, and they streamed with tears,
my nose running with snot. I had trouble breathing. I grabbed the
back of Barb’s chair and dragged her, still tied to it, to the edge
of the room, near Roger. I had to push my way through fighting men,
ducking and weaving, trying to avoid fists and boots. She panicked
and struggled against her restraints until I held her face in both
of my hands and whispered in her ear.

“
Barb, it’s Tilly. I’m going to untie you,
then we’ll untie Roger and try to get out of here.
Okay?”

She
nodded her understanding and I blindly fumbled at the
knots, somehow eventually freeing her. Confusion and bedlam reigned
around us, grunting, shouting and the hard crunching thud of
punching all obscured by the drifting smoke. We groped our way to
Roger and untied him, rousing him to a half-conscious state. Barb
and I half-dragged, half-carried him outside through the splintered
door. We all coughed and spluttered in the fresh air. I left them
both propped up safely at the side of the building, unbuttoning and
removing Roger’s shirt to drape around Barb’s shoulders to cover
her nakedness.

I didn’t want to go back inside, but I was
sure that n
o one on
Heller’s team would spot poor Bick lying at the rear of the room. I
kept to the far side, pressed up against the wall, barely missing
being crushed by a flying body. I felt my way to the back of the
room where I thought I’d seen Bick. On my hands and knees I groped
around in the dark in front of me, touching something that was
thankfully still warm. Bick was alive! I could have wept with
joy.

I
shook him, hoping he would rouse like Roger, but he
remained out cold. I hooked my arms under his armpits and,
centimetre by centimetre, dragged him across the floor. It was hard
work. He was a complete dead weight and a big muscled man, bulky
and heavy. My lower back screamed halfway to the doorway. Someone
stumbled against us, falling on me, flattening me to the
ground.

“
Shit!
” I shrieked in pain, attempting to get up. The
man launched off me, back into the melee. I didn’t think he’d even
noticed me, but I hurt big time. I clutched Bick again and
continued my slow, painful way to escape, finally reaching the
doorway. I managed to drag him to where Barb and Roger hunched up
against the external wall, hugging each other. I slid down the
wall, falling heavily on the ground, wiping my nose on my
sleeve.

Thank God we’d all escaped from the madness.
When we recovered a little I’d ask Barb and Roger to help me carry
Bick to the 4WD I’d been forced to abandon.

And that’s when I remembered Benjy.

I couldn’t go back
in
, I thought,
exhausted. But I couldn’t leave him there either, particularly as
he’d stayed by my side when he could have ditched me for
safety.

Barb
promised me they’d look after Bick, while I went back in
for Benjy. After that, I would leave it to the
Heller’s
men to sort out the PRON suits. I’d done
my fair share.

I hugged the far wall again as far as
possible, until I needed to cross over the room to reach the crate
stacks on the other side. I decided to just make a run for it
through the thrashing bodies, head down, shoulders hunched. My
mistake. I was battered from all sides, men colliding into me and
pushing me.

A PRON man grabbed me around the waist,
twisting me around, shouting triumphantly, “I have one of your
women!”

No, you
haven’t
, I thought
savagely, biting him hard on the arm. He released me in pain, and I
stumbled away from him, disoriented in the chaotic dark. I wasn’t
the best at navigation and I became lost, staggering around in the
battlefield for a while until I saw the vague outline of the crates
looming in the dark. I corrected my direction and headed over there
with determined single-mindedness. I felt my way to where Benjy
was, taking a few misturns on the way. If you’ve ever wondered, one
crate stack looked like another in the dark.

Sweet little Benjy obediently lay on the
floor still, waiting for someone to come and rescue him. I took his
hand, and decided instead of going back through the men with him,
to escape via the entrance we’d come through. It just seemed less
complicated and wouldn’t subject Benjy to the violent
fray.

We ran through the inner door, back
d
own the hallway to the
kitchen.

Another mistake.

I
’d forgotten about the man we’d left knocked out in the
kitchen. Somewhat recovered, he’d had plenty of time to pick apart
my pathetic knots.

And although I was personally pleased to
see him alive and breathing, for some reason he wasn’t too happy to
see me again.

This time, he didn’t grin at
me.

Chapter 14

“
That fucking hurt what you did to me
earlier,” he snarled. “You’re going to pay for that, you stupid
bitch.”

“
Aw, you might like me better if you got to
know me some more,” I pouted.

“I wouldn’t like you if you were the last
bitch on earth.”

“
What if I was the last bitch on earth with
a gun?” I asked, pulling out his gun from my waistband and pointing
it at him.

He wasn’t happy
about that either. I guess some people are just
hard to please.

“Give me my gun back.”

“
Come and make me,” I bluffed, trying to
sound badass.

But there must have been something
hesitant in my face or stance holding the gun that suddenly
restored his confidence. He grinned at me again, and I knew I was
in trouble.

“
Stay back,” I threatened, aiming it at him
in what I considered to be a very intimidating manner.