It then came time to convene our Kangaroo Court, basically it was a Summary Trial. We’d all been there and seen what was done, we were now simply listening now to closing arguments and passing sentence. The best our intruders could hope for was that Sonya would think of something mitigating to say that might save their lives.

It didn’t take long. I listed the charges again and had Amos tell his side of the story. He recited a pretty simple story, he was walking along inspecting the tomatoes when he was grabbed from behind. He was held, yelled at and whipped when he wouldn’t speak.

It was Michelle’s turn next, she spoke plainly of the crimes of kidnapping and torture. She became more insistent when spelling out the danger that they would be to us if we let them go free. It was pretty compelling.

Sonya got her turn, she spoke mainly of young holder guy and how he was repentant and sorry. She spoke of his manners, how he had fallen in with a bad crowd and even his upbringing. I was dubious but open.

Finally our intruders had their moment. Chubby Whipper went first and doomed himself from the moment he opened his mouth, it seemed he couldn’t help himself and just had to explain that Amos was just a runaway nigger and that what he had been doing was completely legal in Missouri. He wound himself up pretty good and even spoke of revenge. I let him talk just to make his fate easier to carry out. Sonya simply shook her head, apparently he’d just done everything she told him not to do.

Holder got his chance eventually and he threw himself on the mercy of the court and begged for forgiveness. He saved himself.

It was finally my turn and time to end this all.

I called Chubby Whipper forward and announced in a somber voice, “I find you guilty of all charges. After arguments and your own testimony I have to decided to punish you with torture in return for the torture you inflicted. The punishment for attacking and trying to kidnap one of my people is death. Sentence is to be carried out immediately.”

He tried to say something but Matilda stepped forward quickly and sliced off his genitals with her straight razor, she had acted even faster than I expected. He didn’t even realize what had happened yet or felt any pain when she held them up for him to see. A half-heartbeat later the pain hit him and he doubled over, Matilda calmly and smoothly reached down and slit his throat from ear to ear. He died quickly lying in the dirt with his dismembered genitals lying in front of his face.

Matilda frightened me.

Holder boy fainted dead away.

**** ****

Holder came around eventually and I left him sitting in the dirt while I smoked a cigarette and shared a whiskey with Matilda. Matilda even took a drag off of my cigarette, killing is never as easy as it looks on TV. Sonya was pissed at me again and I supposed next Sunday’s sermon would be on “Thou shalt not kill.”

I figured there would be time for that later, I still had one man to deal with and my cigarette would only last so long.

I help Holder to his feet and called everyone back around.

I stepped forward and announced in a somber voice, “I find you guilty of all charges. After arguments and your own testimony I have to decided to punish you in kind for your crimes. For the crime of torturing my man you shall be tortured in kind with two lashes of the whip. The punishment for attacking and trying to kidnap to send him to slavery the punishment is slavery for you. The whipping sentence is suspended and the slavery sentence is to be carried out immediately.”

I threw him his clothes and shoes and told him to follow me. I had him load the corpse of chubby whipper into the dog cart and took them over to our new Potters Field where we dumped them in a pile. The women had already stripped them and took all their possessions back to camp for later perusal. I walked Holder back to the camp and locked him in an empty stall; Matilda stood guard duty while she continued to work on her sewing.

I went out and buried the bodies with the backhoe and headed back to break a man’s spirit completely.

**** ****

I brought out my drone and set it on the table. Dusk was upon us and I called everyone around again and then went and got Holder from his stall; it was time for introductions. I fixed a dog collar around his neck and connected a lead to it like he was livestock of some sort, the message wasn’t lost on him. I then led him out to the campfire, the shame and despair on his face was cringeworthy.

Sonya seemed about to object but Michelle shushed her. I started my introductions with Michelle to remind Sonya of the pecking order around here.

“Michelle this is Holder. Holder you may call her ma’am or Miss Michelle.” Holder nodded but Sonya interrupted, “His name is not Holder, it’s…”, I cut her off.

“He belongs to me now, I can name him whatever I like. I’m quite sure he’s willing to give up his name to keep his life and his balls.”

Holder nodded energetically. Poor guy, he had just watched us ruthlessly cutdown three men, he would have claimed the grass to be purple if that was what I wanted.

I continued, “Matilda this is Holder. Holder I suggest you call her Matilda and do whatever she wants as soon as she wants you to.”

This time it was a panic’d nod.

Back to business, “Sonya this is Holder. Holder you may address her as ma’am or Miss Sonya.

“Amos, this is Holder, I believe you two have met”, Amos glared at him, “Holder you will call him young sir or Mister Amos, do you understand?”

No response.

I repeated loudly and strongly, “Do you understand?”

Nervous nod in response this time, Amos for his part kept his cool but I could see his eyes dancing.

“Esther, this is Holder. Holder you may call her young miss or Miss Esther, do you understand?”

Holder had the drift of things now and responded, “Yessir”.

“Good,” I said, “We’re going to have dessert and then I have something to show you.”

Michelle and Sonya commenced showing the kids the joy of S’mores over at the campfire and I had Matilda offer Holder an apple, lines were still being drawn.

I sat down at the table and Matilda brought me a whiskey and then joined me, I beckoned for Holder to sit down also. On the table between us was the drone.

He was nervous and he was confused by this device sitting in front of him.

“Holder”, I said, “this is one of the reasons you can’t run, this can see you even at night.”

I got the response I expected: simple confusion.

I powered the drone up and lifted it off the table and spun it around just above our heads. I then flew it out from under the awning and into the open air.

“Go watch it”, I told him.

He got up and walked out staring at it hovered ten feet above the ground in the night air, he was fascinated. After half a minute I sent the drone climbing into the night sky, up to surveillance altitude where you simply can’t see or hear it at all.

Holder stood staring at the night sky.

“Come, sit and see”, I told him; he did.

I cast the drone view onto the big screen, you could see the sun disappearing over the distant western horizon, rotating the view and below us was nothing but black.

“I don’t understand.” Holder said.

“That”, I replied, “is the forest below the drone. But watch, I can see in the dark.”

I flipped on the FLIR and suddenly the night came alive with heat signatures. I zoomed in on a couple of coyotes working our tree line, it was obvious what they were but I spelled it out for him anyway. “Those are some coyotes hoping we didn’t put the chickens away tonight.”

As we watched one of the coyotes took a crap in the bushes near the fields. I said, “When we go out there in the morning you’ll find fresh coyote scat right there.”

I called the drone home and he watched our camp come into view, every person glowing in the IR. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, “If you try to run we’ll find you and you will be punished. If you misbehave I’ll sell you to one of the tribes, they are always looking for slaves. This is your life until I decide otherwise and don’t forget that it’s better than the alternative.”

With that I led him back to his stall with it’s strawpile and blankets, I gave him a bucket for nightly needs and then put Brin in with him telling Brin to watch. Brin wouldn’t let anyone past him until I released him in the morning. Brin might sleep but he’ll still be on watch. I locked them in.

We closed up camp and went to bed, tonight there would be nightmares for sure.

Fucking Mondays.