Doc looked at Shaw, “We will have to blow it off.”
Shaw nodded and then banged on the side of the truck. “You inside, back away from the back door, we are blowing the lock off.” They met his command with a couple screams from inside. Doc leveled his M4, shot the lock off and lifted the roll-up door. A powerful smell of urine and feces smell came wafting out to accost their noses. They could see movement coming toward the opened end of the truck box.
“Come on out with your hands up,” Shaw yelled. They heard some shuffling coming toward them and slowly, three females staggered toward the open door. They had one hand shielding their eyes from the daylight.
The girl in the front spoke in a whispered tone, “P-p-please don’t hurt us, we just want to go home. Let us go, please. There were tears streaming down all three of their faces.
Shaw reached out his hand to them, “US Army Ma’am, we will not hurt you. We’re here to get you out of there, you are safe now.” The girls broke into wailing and repeated thank you’s. Doc and Shaw helped them down off the truck and the girls hugged each of them as they continued to cry.
The three girls looked like college students, based on the sweat shirts they were wearing. All three were dirty and looked like they hadn’t had a shower in a week. They were trembling with wide eyes, and they huddled together for comfort.
“What happened here?” Doc asked.
One girl who introduced herself as Kim, who was the first one to speak while on the truck. She told the story, “We were heading to Louisville to visit my friend Dana’s parents. With all the craziness going on, we figured they were the closest to us and the best place to go. We came up to this roadblock and stopped because the men had guns. They asked for money to allow us through their roadblock, but we didn’t have much. They changed their mind and didn’t want the money anymore.” She stopped and her body started to shake and tears were streaming down her face. “T-T-They took other things instead.” She started sobbing and Doc gave her a hug, which she held onto to him for some time.
“Mother fuckers!” Shaw spat.
Kim composed herself and thanked Doc.
“How long have you been in that truck?” Doc asked.
“I don’t know, but it has to be three or four days, maybe.”
“Ok, let’s get you guys out of here.” They trudged out of the woods and onto the highway.
Doc led them to their truck, but Kim stopped, “We have some suitcases somewhere around here and would like to get out of these nasty clothes. Could we please change?”
“Sure,” Doc said. By this time, Allison and Doug saw the girls and climbed out of the truck. They ran down to offer help.
“We’ll take care of them,” Allison told Doc.
“Ok, the truck has water in its tanks if they want to wash off. We all have soap in our rucks so just grab anyone’s.” Allison nodded her head and looked at Shaw. He gave her a sympathetic look, and she went with them to find their clothes.
Doc and Shaw formed up as Shaw whispered in Priest’s ear about what they found out.
“Son of a bitch,” Priest yelled. He looked at Shaw. “You’re not serious?”
“Yeah Sarge, we are.” Rage boiled up in Priest and he knew he would blow. He turned back to the man lying on the ground, “You fucking little piece of shit! All this fucking shit going on and you cock suckers are preying on innocent girls? What the hell is wrong with you fucking scum bags.”
The man was squirming some, “It wasn’t my idea. I swear.”
“Well, did you stop it?”
“It was one against four. What was I supposed to do?”
“Yeah, you are such an innocent. How about we go ask the girls how you were involved.”
“No-no, they will say anything. They want to get back at all of us.”
Priest walked over and kicked him in his teeth, knocking out two them. “Can’t feel your legs, but I bet you felt that shit,” Priest spat.
Doc walked over to where the women were on the other side of the truck, but Doug stopped him and called for Allison. She came over, “They are taking showers over there and trying to wash away the filth. I’m not talking about dirt either.”
Doc looked at her, “Oh, sorry.” He stopped, “Washing away filth, all three of them?” Allison nodded. “Shit, could you ask them if it involved a guy with a buzz cut and a neck tattoo of a spider?” Doc asked.
Allison disappeared behind the truck and came back a couple minutes later, “Yes, he was the leader of these assholes and apparently liked it roug
h. All the girls have bruises all over their bodies.” Doc just shook his head. He walked back over to Priest and relayed the information.