The Elusive Prey

Chapter Two-1

Chapter Two

A few miles further on, they came across something had not been expecting at all. The path went straight through a narrow break in a high chain-link fence. The fence stretched as far as she could see, which wasn’t really all that far into the woods in either direction.

“What the hell is this?” she asked nobody in particular.

“Oh, hey!” Cat piped up. “A fence! This must mark the boundary line.”

“What boundary line?” Barbara huffed as she caught up to them. realized that she’d been unconsciously walking faster to try to get out of range of Cat’s constant stream of chatter. Cat had kept up easily. She seemed to have an endless supply of high, crackling energy. Barbara had tried to keep up, but always lagged a pace or two or ten behind.

“Easy.” Cat smiled, nodding towards the fence. “I can guess: This side…no hunting. The other side…hunting.”

“Uh-huh.” regarded the fence warily. “So how do we get to Gordburg then?”

“I guess we should be okay as long as we stay on the trail,” Cat said. “The town can’t be much further.”

“I sure hope so.” Barbara wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “I can’t keep up with you two for much longer.”

“We could take a rest here for a little while,” Cat suggested.

“Uh…no.” objected. Barbara would want to stretch out any rest, and Cat would not stop talking while they rested. It wasn’t as if she disliked Cat…except that she never seemed to shut up. Kimberley had thought at first that it was just due to all that energy she seemed to have, but after a while had concluded that Cat was on a talking jag, at least partly, because she was nervous. That made sense; was nervous too…but couldn’t Cat just bite her fingernails or something? “If the town is close by, I think we should just push on until we get there. Then we can rest in civilized surroundings.”

“Fine by me!” Cat nodded vigorously. Barbara just looked at as if she couldn’t believe her very best friend could say such a thing.

Gordburg was not at all far from the fence. Another twenty minutes of hiking and they were out of the woods, and there it was.

“Hey, wow!” Cat exclaimed as they all stopped at the end of a wide, dirt street. “Look at that!”

It looked something like a big town from an old Western; rows of wooden buildings, mostly one or two stories high with painted wooden signs, wide, plank, covered walkways instead of sidewalks…all it was missing, Kimberley thought, was a stagecoach rolling into town and maybe a gunfight. She could see a few people, but none of them were dressed as cowboys, and all of them seemed to be lounging in the shade of the walkways.

“This…is…!” Cat almost squealed.

“I just hope they have indoor plumbing.” was less enthusiastic. Still, the street and buildings looked pretty clean…

“Of course they do!” Cat laughed. “But the hotel’s at the other end of town. C’mon, let’s go!” She set off down the middle of the street. watched her for a moment.

“I want a bath.” Barbara spoke up. “I want a long, hot bubble bath, fresh clothes and a hot meal...a BIG hot meal! Steak, salad, and a baked potato. I want a nice, fattening dessert with lots of chocolate and whipped cream.”

had to laugh. “I want all those nice things too,” she replied without turning. “But they won’t come to us. We have to go to them. Come on, my friend. It’s not much further now.”

Barbara gave a mock groan of despair. watched Cat for a moment longer. She was walking right up the middle of the wide street, looking neither right nor left. noticed that there were more people on those raised plank sidewalks. There were men and a few women, some walking, some just standing in the shade, but all of them paused to watch Cat as she strode past.

“Want to follow her?” asked Barbara.

“Well, she says she knows where the hotel is.”

“That’s not what I mean.” pointed at the small, receding figure. “I think we should do what she’s doing.”

Barbara looked dubious. “I don’t know. We’d attract an awful lot of attention.”

“What’s wrong with that?” laughed. “Isn’t that what we try to do when we go to a singles bar?”

Barbara grinned. “I see your point.” She shrugged her backpack into a more comfortable position. “Well, let’s go.”

Okay, it wasn’t quite like going to a singles bar, realized quickly. For one thing, the town was very quiet. There were no sounds of traffic, no horn honking, no radios being played too loudly somewhere. In fact, she could hear no radios at all. She could hear birds, she could hear a light wind ruffling through the trees just outside of the town, she heard a dog bark once. She and Barbara walked side-by-side down the street, trailing some distance behind Cat. Kimberley made a point of not turning her head, but her eyes kept swiveling left and right as she tried to take in as much of the town as she could. There were streetlights, but they looked like gas lamps, not electric. Most of the buildings at this end of the town seemed to be small stores or residences. Signs read: “General Store”, “Feed and Grain”, “Jackson Marlow, M.D.”. There were smaller signs in some of the curtained windows…too small for her to read. As they came abreast of a two-story building with a very simple “Tavern” sign above it, she noticed three men come out onto the shaded walkway to watch them go by. They seemed to take a more than passing interest.

“This is not at all like a singles bar…” Barbara muttered out of the side of her mouth. fought back an urge to laugh. “You’re right…” she whispered back... “No music!”

“Hey! You guys!” Cat came trotting back to them. “C’mon…we gotta see this!”

“See what?” Barbara asked, looking around.

“Just around the corner here…” Cat slid between them and took each by an arm. “This way.”

It had only looked like a gap between the buildings on the left side of the street, but as Cat towed them along, got a better look and realized it was actually a side street. Only about a third as wide as the main street, it looked as if it could still handle two-way car traffic. They rounded the corner together, and Cat stopped, letting go of their arms to point. “There!” she said excitedly. “There! See?”

“There” was what looked like an oversized barn. The sides were weathered, unpainted planks, the roof shingled in dark red. The side street ran straight up to it and seemed to crawl between the big opened doors at the near end. A sign hung over the entrance: “Slave Market”. It looked dark inside.

“What d’ya think?” Cat turned to grin at them. “Let’s go have a look, hey?”

“Ah…” gulped. She’d been getting used to the Wild West Town motif, but this was something she’d never seen in any Western. It looked badly out of place at first, but after Cat’s suggestion that they go have a closer look at it, it suddenly looked menacing as well. “I don’t know…” she began to protest. “Maybe it isn’t allowed…”

“Maybe and maybe not. Let’s go find out.” Cat grabbed their arms again and began pulling them towards it.

It was a bit further away than it had looked, which meant it was also bigger than had first thought. The closer they got to those opened barn doors, the less wanted to go through them. She shot a pleading glance at Barbara, who only grinned crookedly in response. sighed, shrugged and resigned herself.

“Afternoon, ladies.” The old man emerged from what looked like a one-room shack tacked onto the back of one of the buildings that fronted the main street. He was lean, wrinkled and smiling, dressed in faded jeans, a work shirt and an old dark brown cowboy hat. “Can I help you?”

“Hey, yeah, maybe!” Cat let go of their arms again and turned to face him. “We were kinda wondering if we could have a look inside?” A jerk of her head indicated the slave market.

“Well, I don’t know…” He doffed his hat to scratch absently at his short, grey hair. “You ladies aren’t just vacationers, are you?”

“Oh, hell, no!” Cat laughed. “We’re all three of us hard-core! My friends are here for the hunting, and I’m putting myself on the block right here tomorrow morning!”

“All registered at the hotel and everything?” he asked, eying their backpacks.

“Ah, well, no, not yet,” Cat admitted. “We were on our way there just now…”

“Gotta be registered first, Miss.”

“But we’ve been walking all day so far…please, isn’t there something you could do?” Cat’s smile was flirtatious and pleading at the same time.

“Well…” he looked at the three of them. “You do all look a bit worn at that. Tell you what, come on back to my office for a minute and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you!” Cat almost squealed. “Mr…?”

“Mr. Brown will do.”

“Thank you, Mr. Brown!”

The tacked-on shack was the office. Inside he had a desk, several chairs and a computer. “Have a seat,” He offered as he sat down himself behind his desk. He tapped at the keyboard. “Now…what are your names?”

The computer was a little too much for . Okay, it might be a very useful tool here, but it certainly didn’t belong in the Wild West…even a Wild West with a slave market. She wondered what other anachronistic surprises this place might have. She shed her backpack as had Barbara and Cat and settled wearily onto an old chair.

“Miss? Ma’am? I need your registration name please.”

“Oh! Sorry!” realized she had been wondering instead of listening. “I should be listed as ‘Elf-Girl’.”

Mr. Brown’s shaggy left eyebrow rose a fraction at her reply, but he typed it in. A few keystrokes later, he was done with whatever he was doing.

“All right, ladies…” he smiled as he logged back out. “You’re cleared for a short tour here. I’ll have to accompany you, though, and there are a few rules.”

“What are they?” Cat asked immediately.

“Well, basically you can look, but no touching or trying to talk to any of the slaves. If you have any questions, you can ask me. You can leave your backpacks here, if you like.”

Even Cat seemed subdued as they followed Mr. Brown into the huge barn-like building. It was indeed very dimly lit inside, and the sunlight coming in through the opened doors didn’t seem to penetrate very far in. They stood for a moment, blinking, letting their eyes adjust. It seemed very much like a barn indeed. The floor was packed earth, thickly strewn with straw and sawdust, and the place had the same sweet smell had encountered in other barns. Massive wooden posts rose from the floor at regular intervals, supporting the beams and timbers of a second floor overhead. Except for those posts, the whole ground floor seemed to be one vast room…and there were cages…rows of cages…

Most of the cages seemed to be of the same size, about six feet by eight and six feet high, built out of steel pipe and chain-link fence. At the far end of the building, there were two much larger cages, built of the same materials, flanking some sort of raised stage. If this was a slave market, that was probably where they were sold, thought. Cat and Barbara were looking around as silently and thoughtfully as she was.

“Ladies?” Mr. Brown broke into the silence. “This way, please.” He led them over towards the nearest row of cages. “Remember the rules.”

The first two cages were empty, but there was a woman asleep in the third, lying on her side atop a thick blanket, facing towards them. She was naked. Long pale-blonde hair spilled over her face, hiding it from them. had to stare. Whoever she was, she looked young and very fit. Put her in a bikini and it was easy to picture her playing a strenuous game of volleyball with her friends at the beach. Yet, she was here, a captive, waiting…for what?

“Ah…” had to clear her throat before she could speak. “You…uh…hold auctions here?”

“Yes, ma’am, every evening at sundown.” Mr. Brown smiled. It was a kindly smile. “ You ladies are all welcome to come see the one tonight, if you like. The hotel will provide escorts for you.”

The woman in the cage stirred and murmured something in her sleep.

“Escorts?”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s another rule. No unaccompanied women are allowed in here. Ever.”

“Why not?” Cat wanted to know.

Mr. Brown smiled warmly down at her. “Little lady,” he chuckled, “it helps to keep the bidders focused on the auction. And I do believe any one of you would be a powerful distraction to them. Also, this whole town only works because we have some rules that have to be followed, if anybody wants to stay here. And those rules have to be followed because there are so many rules that apply on the outside that we just don’t follow at all here.”

“Oh.” Cat nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense...I guess…”