Chapter V

Henry found himself in Podunk, Texas, right near the boarder of Louisiana. He had no idea what the town’s actual name was. It was a fruit of some sort, apple or orange. He pulled his truck off the interstate when he spotted a rest area to his left. He pulled into the area, shut off his truck and stepped out into the relative darkness.
Henry stretched his back and took a look around.
“What the fuck kind of hillbilly lives in a place like this?” Henry asked aloud.
He saw a soda machine still lit up, which surprised him immensely, and it was located right next to a restroom.
“Good, two birds with one stone,” he thought.
He walked up to the vending machine and pulled out his wallet. As he drew forth a single from it, he stopped short. With a wry grin he replaced his wallet to his back pocket. “I got to piss something fierce, but when I get back, me and you are going to have a little chat about all those times you took my money,” he said to the machine, which, to his chagrin, didn’t show any fear.
Henry finished washing his hands in the filthy sink, dried them and began to walk outside. A noise caught his attention before he could break the barrier that led into to open air. It was a woman, screaming it seemed. He stopped short from fully walking outside and opted to peek his head out in the direction of the noise.
“Shit,” he thought. “I can’t see … it’s too dark.”
He looked towards the areas where there still were lights, but they were each about forty yards apart. Suddenly, like a moth to a flame, the woman he’d heard rushed under one of the lights, revealing herself briefly. The first thing that crossed Henry’s mind was how stunning she was, even if part of her blouse was torn and both knees were bloodied.
“Damn it, there goes my ADD again… And I’m a sick bastard.” He inwardly smiled.
A matter of seconds later, a man with a feral look to his face came bursting into the light. Maybe it was the beard he wore, or the fact that he was a hairy son of a bitch and didn’t have on a shirt, but he looked like a coyote hunting after a sheep.
Henry thought for a second about whether to help the woman, because the feral man seemed rather large to him. After all, he hadn’t seen another person in a couple of days, and he really had no idea what was going on.
At that moment, the woman eyed the restrooms and darted for them.
“Shit, guess I don’t have much choice now,” he thought.
Henry realized the woman’s intention as he stared. She was trying to barricade herself. He froze for only a moment and then blended into the shadow that was cast near the opening.
The woman came rushing in at full speed, missing Henry in the process, but crashing hard into the divider that was right on the other side of the entrance. She was out; there was no second guessing the sound of that impact.
As Feral came rushing toward the door, Henry knew he had to act swiftly. At the moment the man crossed the threshold, Henry was waiting. He shaped his right hand into a backwards L with his thumb and first finger perpendicular. As the man charged toward the entrance, Henry shot toward him with horrible speed, turned his own head to the left side of the man’s body. and let momentum do the rest. The feral man’s jugular came into contact with the angle created by Henry’s hand, and his wind pipe was crushed as he flipped backwards.
Henry stood over both bodies, now lying on the floor of the revolting restroom, the man gasping for air that would only trickle in. He admired his handy work.
With a smug smile, he looked at the man and said, “Henry Burns, nice to meet you.”
Henry pulled out a forgotten pocket knife that was clamped on his pocket, walked to the vending machine and unplugged it. “You’re getting off easy this time, but I’ll be back… Promise.”
He reached for the unplugged cord, cut it and went back to the prone man who was slowly beginning to catch his breath. With a swift kick in the face from Henry’s heel he, too, was unconscious.
Henry rolled the man on his stomach and hog-tied him. He figured that, of course, he could have just tied the man’s hands behind his back, but where was the fun in that? At least this was humiliating.
He walked to the unconscious woman next and searched her body, but found no form of identification on her. He figured she must have dropped her purse in the pursuit. Henry paused a moment and took stock of the woman, lying helpless at his feet. An evil thought passed through his mind, bolstered by the fact that there weren’t any more authority figures. He reached down, looking at the tear in her blouse where it exposed part of her breast. He moved it aside and could see that they were beautiful, firm-looking. He reached for her left breast, then withdrew his had immediately.
He looked at the man laying unconscious and hog-tied not six feet from where he stood. “After the same thing, weren’t you?” he asked the man. His question went unanswered by the man on the floor, but the question brought many more into the mind of Henry Burns.
“Okay, I know I’m a piece of shit, but God help me if I’m going to get that low,” he thought.
Henry recovered his wits and lifted the woman in his arms. Her head slumped against his shoulder as he carried her to his truck. He laid her inside and removed the keys. One could never be too careful.
Turning back toward the restroom, Henry felt his mind racing. There were so many questions … none of them with answers. He returned to the man and noticed a bulge in his back pocket. “There we go,” Henry said in surprise. He removed the man’s wallet and flipped through it. No money, of course, but who needed it now?
The wallet was pretty much empty … a couple of tattered business cards … an expired condom that was about four years old. Henry couldn’t help but laugh when he thought about just how horny this poor bastard must have been.
“There it is.” he thought, identification.
Harry Long of Osceola, Wisconsin was a very long way from home. Henry shoved the ID into his pocket and proceeded to do the difficult task of dragging the heavy man next to his truck.
“When the girl wakes up, it’s time for some answers.”