TRIGGER WARNING! Dos'/Two

“Cheryl!”

I leap out the door and run up to her. She limps towards me.

“Dakota.”

I rap my arms around her and she winces.

The crew gangs us, and we walk her slowly back to the Blazer. Everyone crams back in and I help her up to the waiting hands of her best friend.

Chapter 33 — The Lesson

I thought Olivia was bad. Then I saw Cheryl.

We put her in the Lazy Boy and I run to the bathroom for a washcloth and towels. When I return Steve already has a roll of paper towels and is cleaning the blood off her face.

“How? How did.. this... happen?”

Cheryl is in a daze and just looks at me as I tend to the cuts and blood on her face with a warm damp wash cloth.

Olivia struggles to answer, “We were just out.. for a walk... and talking. Walked the shoulder up the bypass... and then we were just gonna cut back through town and go down the boardwalk.”

“Why? Why so far?”

“We were talking, Dakota. We had a lot to talk about.”

Cheryl looks at Olivia and slightly shakes her head back and forth.

“Okay. What happened. How did those assholes get ahold of you?”

“Walking along the gravel road, they came whipping down the road behind us, in their truck. Damn near ran us over. Put the truck in a skidded turn to hit the trail to their trailer house. Skidded right around us and stopped.

"They popped out of the truck, and Cheryl and I started bitching them out. Told 'em they almost killed us. Told 'em they were dick-heads and assholes.

"They...they asked us if that's what we wanted to see.

"We started backing up, but they were... coming... coming at us. We turned and ran, but they... they ran us down... grabbed us, they tackled us. Grinded me into the gravel. Cheryl too.”

“Son Of A ...Itches!” I feel the sun burning the flesh on my face. “Then what?”

Tears are streaking through the caked blood on Olivia's face. Joe gets her a paper towel.

“They tried dragging us... dragging us back to their trailer. We fought 'em, we did. They started smacking us and ripping at my clothes... our clothes. You could smell that... that sour stench... in their breath."

From 'REZ's EDGE' by author Brad Jensen <--- Check out my bitchin' website and get more dirt on the Rez's Edge!