10 Pound Bag Ch. 041-045

Matilda frightened me.

Holder boy fainted dead away.

**** ****

Holder came around eventually and I left him sitting in the dirt while I smoked a cigarette and shared a whiskey with Matilda. Matilda even took a drag off of my cigarette, killing is never as easy as it looks on TV. Sonya was pissed at me again and I supposed next Sunday's sermon would be on "Thou shalt not kill."

I figured there would be time for that later, I still had one man to deal with and my cigarette would only last so long.

I help Holder to his feet and called everyone back around.

I stepped forward and announced in a somber voice, "I find you guilty of all charges. After arguments and your own testimony I have to decided to punish you in kind for your crimes. For the crime of torturing my man you shall be tortured in kind with two lashes of the whip. The punishment for attacking and trying to kidnap to send him to slavery the punishment is slavery for you. The whipping sentence is suspended and the slavery sentence is to be carried out immediately."

I threw him his clothes and shoes and told him to follow me. I had him load the corpse of chubby whipper into the dog cart and took them over to our new Potters Field where we dumped them in a pile. The women had already stripped them and took all their possessions back to camp for later perusal. I walked Holder back to the camp and locked him in an empty stall; Matilda stood guard duty while she continued to work on her sewing.

I went out and buried the bodies with the backhoe and headed back to break a man's spirit completely.

**** ****

I brought out my drone and set it on the table. Dusk was upon us and I called everyone around again and then went and got Holder from his stall; it was time for introductions. I fixed a dog collar around his neck and connected a lead to it like he was livestock of some sort, the message wasn't lost on him. I then led him out to the campfire, the shame and despair on his face was cringeworthy.

Sonya seemed about to object but Michelle shushed her. I started my introductions with Michelle to remind Sonya of the pecking order around here.

"Michelle this is Holder. Holder you may call her ma'am or Miss Michelle." Holder nodded but Sonya interrupted, "His name is not Holder, it's...", I cut her off.

"He belongs to me now, I can name him whatever I like. I'm quite sure he's willing to give up his name to keep his life and his balls."

Holder nodded energetically. Poor guy, he had just watched us ruthlessly cutdown three men, he would have claimed the grass to be purple if that was what I wanted.

I continued, "Matilda this is Holder. Holder I suggest you call her Matilda and do whatever she wants as soon as she wants you to."

This time it was a panic'd nod.

Back to business, "Sonya this is Holder. Holder you may address her as ma'am or Miss Sonya.

"Amos, this is Holder, I believe you two have met", Amos glared at him, "Holder you will call him young sir or Mister Amos, do you understand?"

No response, so I repeated loudly and strongly, "Do you understand?"

Nervous nod in response this time, Amos for his part kept his cool but I could see his eyes dancing.

"Esther, this is Holder. Holder you may call her young miss or Miss Esther, do you understand?"

Holder had the drift of things now and responded, "Yessir".

"Good," I said, "We're going to have dessert and then I have something to show you."

Michelle and Sonya commenced showing the kids the joy of S'mores over at the campfire and I had Matilda offer Holder an apple, lines were still being drawn.

I sat down at the table and Matilda brought me a whiskey and then joined me, I beckoned for Holder to sit down also. On the table between us was the drone.

He was nervous and he was confused by this device sitting in front of him.

"Holder", I said, "this is one of the reasons you can't run, this can see you even at night." I got the response I expected: simple confusion.

I powered the drone up and lifted it off the table and spun it around just above our heads. I then flew it out from under the awning and into the open air.

"Go watch it", I told him.

He got up and walked out staring at it hovered ten feet above the ground in the night air, he was fascinated. After half a minute I sent the drone climbing into the night sky, up to surveillance altitude where you simply can't see or hear it at all. Holder stood staring at the night sky.

"Come, sit and see", I told him; he did.

I cast the drone view onto the big screen, you could see the sun disappearing over the distant western horizon, rotating the view and below us was nothing but black.

"I don't understand." Holder said.

"That", I replied, "is the forest below the drone. But watch, I can see in the dark."

I flipped on the FLIR and suddenly the night came alive with heat signatures. I zoomed in on a couple of coyotes working our tree line, it was obvious what they were but I spelled it out for him anyway. "Those are some coyotes hoping we didn't put the chickens away tonight."

As we watched one of the coyotes took a crap in the bushes near the fields. I said, "When we go out there in the morning you'll find fresh coyote scat right there."

I called the drone home and he watched our camp come into view, every person glowing in the IR. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "If you try to run we'll find you and you will be punished. If you misbehave I'll sell you to one of the tribes, they are always looking for slaves. This is your life until I decide otherwise and don't forget that it's better than the alternative."

With that I led him back to his stall with its strawpile and blankets, I gave him a bucket for nightly needs and then put Brin in with him telling Brin to watch. Brin wouldn't let anyone past him until I released him in the morning. Brin might sleep but he'll still be on watch. I locked them in.

We closed up camp and went to bed, tonight there would be nightmares for sure.

Fucking Mondays.

**** Chapter Forty-five -- A New Day ****

That next morning came far too early.

There is never enough sleep after stress and adreneline shocks like the day before. We had done what needed to be done but frankly everyone, Holder included, were walking zombies. Sonya was the only one who seemed to be full of fire and brimstone and to tell you the truth she was starting to like the biblical fire a bit to much for my taste.

It was truly strange to lead a man around on a leash and then sit and have a morning coffee with him. But that's what I did, I had to make sure he was fully out of his previous world and stuck deep into ours. I decided that Shock and Awe was the way to go; overwhelming exposure to technical and engineering might. I'd show him everything and if he did eventually run to tell stories they'd all call him delusional.

I started with throwing him on the shitter in the camper. I pulled him through the camper so fast he didn't get a chance to get a good look at it, then I put him in the small toilet room and told him to shit there. He manage to shit on command which very much impressed me, there must have been quite a load built up inside of that poor guy. Pushing the button that flushed the toilet actually made him take a stumbling step backwards, his shit disappeared and the room was clean again.

The shower was even more fun, I made the water decently hot and told him to strip and get in; you woulda thought the Easter Bunny had just given him a blow job when you saw the look of delight on his face. I let him enjoy his first shower in peace and smoked a cigarette while I reflected on how I had zero understanding of his or Amos's views on reality, I was the outsider here and I needed their help.

So we ended up sitting in chairs at the camp fire having a coffee while we watched Matilda make us breakfast and Michelle and Amos took care of the morning chores.

We drank that coffee together while I tried to organize my thoughts. I needed to break this young man down and pull him away from his old world and then build him up again in ours. It was either that or put a bullet in his head while he slept. Frankly, the bullet option didn't really appeal to me but it would have been a hell of a lot easier.

Shock and Awe combined with plenty of hard work seemed to be my only option; we had to push him until everything from before seemed like a distant memory to him and then bring him into his new manhood. This was really not something I had asked for or was looking forward to. Truth be told it was just supposed to be me with a few dogs and horses breaking in our new Wyoming home on this day of my life.

Breakfast came and it was a feast, still no eggs but we had everything else Matilda could think of, truly a delight. I made Holder sit on the ground with the dogs while he ate, the rest of us luxuriated at the table or in chairs listening to Amos tell his story as the recital of the day. Amos as speaker had THE egg with his breakfast and he made sure we all got to watch him eat every yolky bite. Fucking teenagers.

Amos told it well that day, it simply sounded like he was recounting everything that had happened to him so far, he didn't include any fantastical side stories either. Holder was very absorbed in the story and fascinated by some of the little details Amos threw in. Sonya almost blew it but a sharp elbow from Matilda forced her to keep her silence; Sonya was turning into a problem. It might be time to turn her out of the camper and into the reality the rest of us faced; I really wasn't looking forward to hearing that constant whine.

I had slowly begun using the Miller's eating protocols and everyone waited until I said, "That was a delightful breakfast Matilda", before the after breakfast discussion began in earnest. Michelle surprised me by telling Holder to getup and clear the plates, verbally guiding him through collecting and cleaning the plates and then the cooking utensils. Matilda simply had another cup of her tea and smiled while she worked on another of her projects, Esther mimicked her. Sonya smoldered on in her own world of personal misery.

Amos surprised me by pulling out the drone for me and carefully setting the base station up. We went through the pre-flight checks together and I quizzed him as we went, he knew more of the answers then I expected. Young folk learn fast.

He sat close to me and watched my every move as I ran a manual scouting mission around the perimeter, he even saw a few things that I missed. I showed him how I recorded each and every run and while he still couldn't read my logs he understood the idea. I called the drone home and supervised him as he swapped out the batteries and then we launched one of my preplanned survey flights, we sat and supervised the flight together.

Michelle was handling Holder for me; she had him hand washing all the clothes we had recovered from his old compatriats and their packs. It was pretty miserable stuff and in pretty bad shape but I was sure Matilda would make something out of it for him. It was pretty obvious he wasn't new to this meaning that at least the women in his family at least tried during his upbringing. Once he had it all decently cleaned and hung to dry I took back over again.

I gave him my woodsmans axe and Amos brought a hatchet as we went out to harvest saplings for fence posts, roof poles and anything else we'd need them for. I was simply going to stand guard and give orders, Brin was going to help me.

For once the morning went as planned.