Broken Birds, Part 3, Bonding

Part 3
Bonding

They huddled together. Four frightened women squeezed into the back seat of an armored Escalade, watching the sunrise. Their second move in two weeks. None knew why. They knew not to ask.

The Escalade was one of five cars in the convoy. Another car scouted ahead and one lagged behind, taking no chances along a pre-planned route that had few traffic cameras. Tim suspected that it had been an ATM camera that had led to the discovery of their first hideout and a traffic camera that led to the discovery of the second. The hunters were very good.

A light haired, fragile looking young girl sat behind the passenger “shot gun” seat, her head resting on the window, a sad, faraway look on her face. A ball cap hid most of her hair and remained ready to be pulled forward to obscure her features. Rule number one: Never draw attention to yourself. Dressed as the others in a nondescript “hoodie”, she had a delicate beauty with straight nose, wide expressive hazel eyes that seemingly changed color and a sensuous mouth with puffy lips. Her jeans were suitably tight and growing uncomfortable as the drive continued. Her name was Lynne.

Beside her was her mother, a striking raven haired beauty named Rachael. Though they had been roused from sleep with only minutes before leaving, her makeup was impeccable, her hair flowing out the back of the cap she wore. She was tired but showed no outward sign of fear. She had developed an almost childlike trust in the architect of their flight, Beth’s father. She remembered an old line from a movie, “He doesn’t know how to fail.” It had sustained her through the hideous nine months of planning. Their escape had been managed with military precision. Her confidence in him had grown immensely over the past two weeks as Beth began to share her secrets about Michael and his friends.

Susan, her second daughter, sat on the other side. Susan’s features were near duplicates of her mother, though she had a slightly larger mouth and larger breasts. Beneath their similar clothing, however, the women were very different. Susan had been the victim of forced mutilations that haunted her dreams and had damaged her soul. Whereas her mother had resisted, Susan had been broken. She knew she would never have a normal life. Damn that doctor and damn her brother and father.

Beth had the outside window. In many ways, she was the strongest. It had been her gang rape and brutal sodomy that started this journey. For many months she had given in to self pity and the constant physical pain as the doctors tried to repair the physical damage. Her attackers had taken her ability to create life. She had wallowed in a very dark place until her father had torn down the walls of her self-pity. In one night he had taught her about love and the future. It was a memory that kept her warm inside. Michael would find them and be with her again.

Feeling silent sobs beside her, Beth hugged Susan close, gently stroking her cheek. “We’ll be OK. Tim is my Dad’s friend and he knows what he is doing.”

Susan was both fragile and confused. Beth knew her dad, Michael Shannon, would protect them and come for them when it was safe. She had a daughter’s confidence and belief in her father … and a lover’s certainty.

Finally, with the sun at its zenith, they arrived at several small cabins in the woods. A very large man named Jake pointed the ladies to a cabin in the middle.

“I’ve gotta go!” Susan blurted with urgency and ran to the cabin, followed closely by the other three. Jake and the security detail followed, making sure the vehicles were out of sight and covered with thermal blankets. The first detail set up perimeter sensors.

None knew it, but this was to be home for several months.

Michael Shannon and his friends had set a plan of retribution in motion. Now the plan was becoming real, with frightening consequences. Originally intended to destroy those who had raped and mutilated his Beth, it had set catastrophic forces in motion.

Catastrophic for some very powerful people.

Senators, congressmen, agency heads, corporate presidents, international businessmen and even clergy, their children and their families now were exposed. For these four, though, only one man was a direct threat. David Walsh, Rachael’s husband and Lynne and Susan’s father.

They had been in the cabin for a week and had settled into a routine. Dr. Alice Chalmars had accompanied them on their journey in another of the convoy cars. She looked young, but had trained and practiced as a trauma specialist for fifteen years. Her face was plain, almost non-descript, her brown hair cut short, barely touching her shoulders. Her stark makeup applied seemingly to discourage any interest. Her pale blue eyes seemed to glow with empathy. She enjoyed exercise and the slender body it gave her, but she was far from an athlete. Rachael had hired her after an extensive background check by Tim’s organization. Rachael had told her the dangers as well. After learning that all four had been raped and sodomized, one mutilated and two had lost their ability to conceive children, Alice could not refuse. And the money was spectacular.

She had been seeing Beth for several weeks before their flight and marveled at her recovery. Until the beginning of their flight, Beth had wallowed in every negative emotion God had planted in women. The morning they met to begin hiding, Beth had changed radically. Gone were the self-loathing, the hatred of men, the crippling fear of intimacy and most of all the terror of sex. While far from fully recovered, Beth was healing and dreaming of tomorrows.

Alice knew what had happened, of course. She also knew who had helped Beth to begin to live again. Beth had an almost absolute faith and trust in only one man. Alice knew Michael had made love to his daughter. While unconventional to say the least, Alice began to wonder about the “treatment”.

As she came to know Rachael, Susan and Lynne, she began to consider if such “treatment” would also help them.

During their first group session at the cabins, Alice asked Beth about her hopes for the future.