So here it was, three weeks later and I was bringing back double the meals. That had always made the beast happier, especially since lovely Greg would be the more important one.
Until we had the van, I’d used Charley’s old pickup truck to haul guys back to the cave. It had a cover over the bed that lifted up on struts, so it worked fine. But as noted, its front end was getting clunky. I know a little about repairing cars and trucks, but not enough for that. And I found that if I just kept feeding the radiator on that van coolant and water, it would go fine. So that’s what I’d used for the last few weeks.
I’d buried the police cruiser and the bikes, including my own, in an arroyo that was close by. Thanks to the drought, there hadn’t been rain enough to wash the dirt away. But there had been a good downpour the other night, so that might be ending. Next time there was one, they could get exposed, but for now it was good enough.
So I was zipping along the downhill side of the 190. The motel and then the turn to the cave were about twenty-odd miles farther on when I heard a plane pass overhead. I watched it continue in front of me then do a slow turn and come back.
It looked like a highway patrol plane, the kind they use to speed-check cars racing down the 15 between Vegas and LA. Why would it be out here? I was miles from that.
It passed on by and I figured I was just being paranoid...when it circled over me, again.
Fuck...I’d been found. And it was zeroing in, even. How?
The only thing I could do was keep driving as the goddamned plane kept me in its sights. It would see me pull off the road and head into the cave...unless...
Unless I stopped at the hotel and...and...and what? Take Tom and Greg into one of the rooms? The Beast couldn’t come out to get them. It’d be seen, and that was a strict no-no.
So I slowed down a little. Timed my distance to the turn-off and managed to get to the side road as the plane was headed away, behind me, about to circle back. Using some rocks to help hide me, I rushed down the road to the cave. I know I left a trail of dust for it to see, but by the time it came back to find me, I was inside the cave.
Nothing to see, anymore. Because the cave was not easily visible from above, it would think I’d just vanished. Yeah, it would call in the troops, but by the time they showed up, the beast would have been fed.
And then there would be plenty more to eat.
I drove the van in as far as I could then parked it by a side cave. I jumped out and rolled open the side door to find...
Greg was waking, but Tom was still out. I cut the tape holding them to the van’s frame then rolled my runner guy off him, so he wound up face down. I pulled Greg away and was about to lift him over one should when I noticed Tom had a watch in his right hand. I would have sworn it wasn’t there when I tied him. Then I went cold.
It was an Apple watch.
And he was pressing an emergency button on it!
That’s how they’d found me! They were tracking him!
I looked at his face and caught him closing his eyes. He was conscious and had been looking at me!
Oh, that little son-of-a-bitch. He was so going to hurt when I had my fun with him.
Greg started to struggle and howl, so I lifted him up and carried him back to...
...to...
Oh, fuck. The craft was gone. The Beast was gone. All that was left in the space where it had been was a massive pile of men’s bones. Skulls. Spines. Rib cages. Everything.
The motherfuckers had abandoned me!
The ungrateful bastards! After all I did for them!
Greg saw the bones and really began to fight me and howl. Kicking and twisting in those ways that drove me crazy with lust. But I wasn’t as strong as I’d been and he almost broke free. When that fucking Beast had left me, it had taken away my extra strength. I was close to losing him.
Suddenly, the monster within me roared. I was not going to have my needs denied. I would not be taken before being fed. I punched Greg in the gut, over and over, carried him to my pallet, slammed him face down upon it and tore the back of his boxer briefs open. He still tried to squirm, but I punched his sides and shoved his head into the shreds of clothing and found his hole and pressed my dick against it and--
“He’s here!” cut into my trance and Tom slammed into me, strips of tape still around his wrists, kicking and howling, “He’s here! He’s here!” as cops spilled into the cave and pounced on me and someone smashed my head against a rock and then came darkness.
