Child of God

by bhogg

Strong Character Contest Winner

Dax walked fast, head down scrunched toward his shoulders. As he approached the railroad track, he looked to his right. The sun was low in the sky. Many people would have stopped and enjoyed the beautiful sunset. It was the time of day when the horizon created a split in the sky; the bottom reflective of the sun, in umber tones of orange and reddish brown. The sky above was near ending its day, darkness creeping in. Dax didn't see beauty. He hadn't seen beauty in a long, long time.

As he stopped, he had a fleeting thought that the tracks were a lot like his life. He could walk to the right, toward something, if only a setting sun. With light, there was hope. He could walk to the left, away from new hope, new beginnings. He didn't much care one way or the other. Several hundred yards to the left, there was an old deserted structure with a roof; probably an old tending station. The temperature was dropping, and this could possibly be a place to get out of the cold and spend the night.

As Dax walked to the old station, he felt the fool. The easiest way to walk was to step on each railroad tie. If he tried walking on the gravel, it tended to telegraph right through his thin soles and hurt his feet. For some reason, as he walked with staggered gait, he was reminded of something from his childhood, walking down a sidewalk, avoiding each crack. Step on a crack, break your momma's back ...

A sound brought him back to the here and now. It was coming from the old tending station and was unmistakable. It was a muffled scream, definitely female, followed by a male voice hollering, "Shut up bitch!" Dax dropped his pack and ran to the structure. He could see a beat up, muddy, pick-up truck parked behind. Through the doorway, he saw two men standing over a woman. To the 60 year old Dax, they looked young, mid-twenties to thirty. They were big old boys, long greasy hair, jeans and tee-shirts. They had wide shoulders and chests, but starting to look like much of the muscle was turning to fat. One of them was holding down a young female, possibly 20 years old. Her blouse was ripped from the right shoulder, down to her waist. The other man was in the process of unbuckling his pants.

They both looked up startled as Dax walked through the door. "Hey, boys, it ain't really a party until the lady says so. It looks to me like she would just like to go her own way." As Dax looked at her, the eyes told the story. He would later see that they were beautiful blue, but now all he could see was white, with a look of sheer terror.

The one man stopped unbuckling his pants and said to his partner, "Hey, Donny, it looks like we got us an old man who might want his turn. What do you think? Should he get him a little too?"

"No Jake - I don't think so. Why don't we just kick his ass? There's plenty of time to 'party' with the bitch. Old man, you should have never stuck your nose into something that's none of your business. We're going to mess you up now. Maybe you should just turn around and run."

You would think that running would have made sense. Dax was 5'11" and weighed about 180. The same weight as when he was twenty. And then there was his age. Donny and Jake almost looked like twins. Both were about 6'2" and each weighed at least 250.

Dax slowly stepped back. Lightly standing on the balls of his feet, his stance was about shoulder width. He flexed slightly at the knees and started twisting and bending his torso from left to right. His hands came up in open fists, to about face level. It would be hard to ignore the obvious scar tissue and calluses. These were not the hands of a computer specialist.

Donny took one look and said, "What are doing old man? Are you going to pull some Billy Jack shit on us or something?"

"Well, well, it's a surprise that you remember Billy Jack. That was a bit before your time. No, I'm not Billy Jack. He was a pussy; a pacifist who was interested in helping people. Helping you is out of the question. I'm going to hurt you. Billy Jack did a couple of fancy moves and kicked a guy in the side of the head. I'm going to break your knees. That hurts worse then anything else I can think of. It will hurt you right now and you'll remember this moment for the rest of your life, because that's how long your knees will hurt. If you two just turn around and run, maybe we'll just forget about this."

Whether they should have run or not, was a moot point. Jake reached behind his back and started approaching Dax. In a sudden move, his hand came from behind his back with a knife, and with a downward strike, he was trying to stab Dax in the face. Dax's left arm met the strike, wrist to wrist. His arm and elbow formed a 90 degree angle. Simultaneously, his right hand punched Jake in the forehead. Now moving forward, Dax grabbed the knife hand with his left hand and pushed and twisted in down behind Jake's back. His knee, moving at the same time, hit Jake's crotch hard enough to lift him off the ground. Then, stepping back, he pulled the knife hand forward with him. When the arm was fully extended, he pushed Jake's fingers and wrist back until they snapped. It was easy now to rake the knife out of his hand. Dax then moved back toward Jake and delivered a straight kick to his knee. Jake went down holding his knee and screaming.

Dax took care of Jake in about five seconds. It was understandable that Donny was approaching almost hesitantly. "You know, Donny, you can still walk away from this and haul your sorry ass friend with you?"

"You know, old man, I'd like too, but I can't. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yea, I do, so give it your best shot. Jake's not going to help you."

A knife had also appeared in Donny's hand. It was a nasty looking skinning knife, the blade half serrated. His thrust was low, toward Dax's gut. The block was about the same as before, only downward. This time Dax swung with his hips from right to left, and delivered an elbow to Donny's solar plexus, followed with a quick elbow to his nose. The knife was no longer an issue. Donny dropped it as his hand moved to his nose. Dax then slapped an empty hand hard across Donny's left ear, most likely perforating his eardrum. As his other hand covered the ear, Dax performed a quick straight kick to Donny's groin. As he doubled over, Dax moved slightly to his right and delivered a round kick to Donny's left knee. As promised, he broke it.

With both men down, Dax went to check on the girl. She was shivering, still in shock. "Don't worry - it's all over from those two. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help. Just take a few deep breaths, and pull yourself together. I'm going to tie those two up."

The two goons had a coil of para-cord 550 with them, probably to use on the girl. Dax was well familiar with the cord and also how to tie them so that if they even moved, it would choke them. He may not have even needed it. They were just laying there moaning.

Dax walked back over to the girl. She had managed to pull the blouse back up over her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

She looked up at him and he saw for the first time that she had beautiful blue eyes. Even with all the stress she had just gone through, he could tell that she was a striking young woman.

"Sir, I don't know who you are, but you are a God send! Those two were going to rape me for sure, and since they didn't seem to care that I would recognize them, it could have ended a lot worse. I've never seen anyone move like you did. You put those two big guys down in about twenty seconds. Were you in the army or something?"

Dax looked at her for a moment and replied, "Yea, or something." It didn't seem necessary to tell her that most of his career was with the secret service. The moves that she had seen were Krav Maga moves, taught to him by the Israeli Mossad years ago. As he told the two punks, Krav Maga is not taught for fancy moves. At best, it is taught for defense, but mostly to hurt and even kill.

Dax helped the girl to her feet. He noticed that she was just slightly shorter than he.

With almost a smile, she exclaimed, "I don't know who you are, or why you showed up, but in the biggest time of need in my life, you were there. I don't know how to thank you!"

With a sad, withdrawn look, Dax replied, "You don't have to thank me at all. I'm just sorry that ten years ago, I wasn't there for my own daughter. She was about your age."

"What happened to her?"

"She was a model and was on a photo shoot in Washington, D.C. Just as her life was beginning, she was kidnapped and killed. Some very bad people wanted me dead, so tried to get to me through her.

"I am so sorry! What was her name?"

"Her name was Lael. It's an old Hebrew name that means child of God."

The girl blinked rapidly and with tears in her eyes, looked at Dax and said, "My name is Lael too."

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