Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:38:49 -0800
From: The Good Pen <thegoodpen@inbox.com>
Subject: Survival Part 3 (Gay Male Adult/Youth)

Survival

By Mark The Good Pen

The following story is a work of fiction, the characters described in it
are not meant to resemble any person living or dead.  This is my story and
my own words, if you want to post or make a profit on a story create your
own.

All feedback welcomed at thegoodpen@inbox.com just please put "Survival" in
the subject of the e-mail.

My Completed Work on Nifty:
Sierra Inn (Gay Male Adult/Youth) April 20, 2010
Wanting Perfection (Gay Male Adult/Youth) May 7, 2010

Survival
Chapter 3

It was as though everything was moving in slow motion.  From the time Karen
announced that the house was empty through the time the phone rang my brain
just couldn't seem to process all that was going on around me.  I watched
Al pick up the phone, I heard the anxiousness in his voice as he said
hello.  I saw the expression of anger when he heard the voice on the other
end.  I saw and heard it all but it all seemed to be happening so slowly.
Then suddenly everything sped up when Al turned towards me his hand with
the phone receiver extended out.

"Jackson he wants to talk to you," Al said, looking up at me as though I
were some type of monster.

I couldn't begin to imagine what all of this was causing Al and his family
to think.  At the time I was really not much more than a stranger to them.
Sure they had gotten to know me some through what Tyler had told them about
me, but there had to be some weariness on their part.  And then to have
Neal ask to speak to me twice, my stomach still turns thinking about what
suspicions Al and Lisa must have had.

"What do you want?" I asked angrily.

"Didn't your Daddy teach you manners boy?" Neal asked, with a chuckle.

"What do you want?"

"Me?  I don't want anything," Neal said.  "No see, I have exactly what I
want.  Now I don't know if the cops I just saw speeding the other way, with
a SWAT team van hot on their asses were headed to my house or not.  But I
thought you would want to know that Tyler is resting comfortably in the
back seat of my car."

"What do you want from him? He's just a kid."

"You just answered your own question there buddy," Neal said.  "No, see
Jackson it's simple.  Boys like Tyler have a certain window of opportunity
to guys like me.  See there are guys, well like you will be in a few years,
that will pay an awful lot of money for the opportunity to touch boys like
Tyler in their special places.  And well then there are guys like me, that
are smart enough to take in the air while the window's open, if you get my
drift."

"Where are you taking him?" I asked, as what Neal was telling me slowly
started to sink in.

"Yeah, like I'd tell you that," Neal said with a chuckle.  "Tell the Ward's
they might, if he cooperates, get their son back in oh let's see he's a
fresh 12, so give it about five years."

Before I could say anything in response the connection was cut off.  I
looked at Glenn who had been listening on an extension, he was just shaking
his head.  I believe that we were both thinking the same thing.  No matter
how much nobody wanted to admit it, Neal was in control.

***

After what seemed like days, but in reality was only probably a few hours
the van came to a stop.  I could not tell if it was day or night, in fact I
had already lost track of how long it had been since I had been kidnapped.
I heard both front doors of the van open and then shut, and a few seconds
later the side door opened.  The breeze that hit me in the face actually
felt good after hours spent in the back of the stuffy van.  The van shifted
as somebody stepped up into it, before I heard the door shut again.

"How's my little whore doing?" I heard Neal ask in a whisper.  Apparently
he was leaning directly over my face because I could feel his breath on my
face.  "I don't know why I have tape over your eyes.  It's not like you'll
have a chance to identify me.  I ain't getting caught anyway."

The tape was pulled off my eyes, pulling some hair from my eyebrows along
with it.  I winced in pain but did not say a word as my eyes struggled to
focus in the poorly lit back portion of the van.  Slowly Neal's face came
into as he hovered directly over my face.  It was the closest look I had
had at him in sometime.  His face was weathered, his black hair was
starting to turn gray.  The smirk on his face revealed a gap where his
front tooth used to be.

"There are those eyes," Neal said, the smirk on his face growing into a
full smile.  "Those eyes are going to make me a shit load of money.  Fuck I
guess they already have," he added with a chuckle.  "Now, seriously my
little slut, you need to listen to me.  You see I've found this job for
you, and it's perfect because it's exactly what you were supposed to be.
So now what I need you to do, should come natural, but just incase it don't
listen to me.  When I leave you with a guy you do what he says, no matter
what it is.  You do not so much as say a word without the guys permission.
If I hear you ever not do what you were told, I'll replace you.  And I
really don't think you want that to happen.  Am I clear?"

I understood exactly what Neal was telling me and there was no way that I
was going to do anything to cross him, I knew better than that.  Maybe it
was at that moment that I just gave in, I can't say for sure.  But I do
know that at some point, hope for being found left me.  I had, somewhere on
the road we were traveling, conceded to the fact that I was never going to
see my home again.  And yes I had cried about it but by the time Neal had
started talking to me I had run out of tears.

***

I wasn't comfortable inside the Ward's house not after how that
conversation with Neal had gone so I went outside to smoke a cigarette.
The last person I would have thought would come out with me was Lisa.  I
assumed that she would be suspicious of me, I would have been if I were
her.  But she stood there, in the driveway of her house after hearing
everything Neal had to say, and the woman with everything going on gave me
a hug.

"I don't deserve that," I said, as I felt a lump of tears form in my
throat.

"Yes you do," Lisa said as she released me from the hug.  "You care enough
about Tyler to have been here all of this time.  You cared enough to go
down to the prison today that means a lot to me and to my family.  Tyler is
lucky to have found a mentor like you."

"No, Mrs. Ward I really don't think you know everything," I said, as I felt
a tear start to run down my cheek.

"What don't I know?" Lisa asked.

"You don't really need to be hearing my problems right now," I said.  "Not
with everything that must be going on in your head."

"Jackson, those things in my head are exactly what I need a break from,"
Lisa said.  "I keep seeing that video and I... Well I need to think of
something else for a while.  So if you could please just humor me and
distract me with your problems I would really appreciate it."

"No you don't want to hear this," I said as I looked down at the ground and
kicked a pebble down the length of the driveway.  "I'm sure of that."

"If it helps any, I think I already know," Lisa said without any emotion in
her voice.

"You do?" I asked, convinced that there was no possible way Lisa could know
what I was thinking.

"You feel guilty," Lisa said.  "Because of your uncle.  Am I right?"

Up until that night I hadn't really known the Wards too well.  Tyler had a
typical view of his parents so most of what I heard about them from him
were complaints.  But that night, standing in the driveway I got a small
glimpse of how incredible, Lisa in particularly, really was.  She had me
pegged, and she barely knew me.

"Yeah, I do," I said, before putting the cigarette back to my lips and
taking a prolonged huff.  "I just keep thinking that Neal knows Tyler
because of my uncle, and I don't know maybe I could have done something to
prevent all of this."

"Did you know what Neal was planning?" Lisa asked.

"No," I said, shaking my head quickly.

"Then you have nothing to feel guilty about," Lisa said, a small smile
coming to her face.  "Look, Jackson, we don't choose the people we're
related to, and we definitely can't control what decisions they make.  And
trust me as a mother of three I have definitely tried the latter.  But,
that's life.  People make their own decisions, sometimes bad ones, and some
don't think about how others close to them will be effected.  So believe me
when I tell you that you have nothing to feel guilty about."

There was nothing, at that moment, that I would have liked better than to
have been able to believe Lisa.  But I knew things she didn't.  There were
things, that had she known about would have left her singing a different
tune.  And there was no question in my mind about that.

***

I don't know how long it had been, but somehow I had managed to fall asleep
for a while.  When I woke up the van was still moving, with tape no longer
around my eyes I could daylight coming in though a crack near the rear door
of the van.  I could hear Neal and Lou talking from the front.  For the
first time it sounded like they were actually getting along and that, for
some reason, scared me.

"We should be there by the end of the day," Neal said, with a little cough.
"The good thing is this guy's a doctor so he can look at the kid's knee."

"That wasn't my fault," Lou said, defensively.

"I never said it was," Neal said.  "But I still want to get it checked.
Can't be selling a cripple."

"Can I ask you something man?" Lou asked.

"Has anything stopped you before?" Neal asked.

"I guess not," Lou chuckled.  "But seriously, how did you get wrapped up in
this shit?"

"I want money," Neal said.  "And there's a shit load of money in this if
you know where to look."

"But the living on the run?"

"Shit, man I've been sayin' this for close to twenty years now," Neal said.
"If you have a brain between your ears it ain't that hard to out-smart a
bunch of donut munching, know-it-alls."

"I don't know," Lou said.  "I've been shitting bricks ever since we first
planned this.  I don't know how you do it."

"You're new to this," Neal said.  "But trust me man, as long as you stick
with me you're safe."

"I'm trusting you, I'll probably die for it but I'm trusting you," Lou
said.  "Why are we stopping?"

"I have a itch, if you get my drift," Neal said.

***

I hadn't gone to the Ward's house to play detective.  In fact the thought
had never even crossed my mind on the car ride over there.  But it seemed
the longer I stayed the more the police wanted my help.  First it was going
to the prison to talk to my Uncle and Blair.  I wanted to help in any way I
could, but all I felt I really had to offer was more speculation which was
something the police already had plenty of.  So when Karen came to me early
the morning after my conversation with Lisa I didn't really think there was
anything more I could do to help.

"Jackson, I wouldn't be asking you to do any of this but you're the closest
person to Neal we have right now," Karen told me as we stood in the Ward's
kitchen.

"Honestly, I don't know much about Neal," I said.  "I mean before the other
day I hadn't even heard from him in a few years."

"Even so, you know more about him than any other person we have access to
right now," Karen said.  "That's why I have to ask you this.  Did he ever
try to get you involved in any of his deals?"

"Karen I can't..."

"Jackson, I'm not interrogating you," Karen said.  "If he did try you
didn't do anything wrong.  If he tried and you accepted, well right now
that's not what I'm asking you about.  What I am asking is for you to tell
me every thing you know about who Neal Sherman is and what his motives
are."

"His motive?" I asked, rhetorically.  "His motive I know.  It's money,
always has been."

"And how would he make money off of Tyler?" Karen asked.

"He used to do it by selling pictures and videos," I said.  "Did the same
thing to me.  Let me tell you that is not the way you want to get your
fifteen minutes of fame."

"That doesn't make sense," Karen said.

"What doesn't make sense?" I asked.

"He could have kept doing that without taking Tyler," Karen said.  "And if
money was all he was after why would he have specifically come back to
Tyler in the first place?"

"I don't know," I said slowly.

"See sometimes as a detective you have to think like the perp," Karen said.
"So if you were Neal, why after three years would you come back to Tyler?
I mean if you were going to kidnap him anyway why not do it when you had
easy access to him?"

"Maybe the access got cut off before he could," I suggested, hesitantly as
I was still not sure that I was following Karen.

"That's possible," Karen said.  "But you said that Neal would sell pictures
and videos.  There were ones of Tyler?"

"I would guess," I said.

"Do you know any of the people Neal would sell to?" Karen asked.

"Only one guy," I said.  "There was this guy that lived in Italy, I think
Caresky was his last name.  Neal couldn't go ten minutes without mentioning
the guy's name.  You would think he was some type of god or something.  But
I really don't know much about him."

"Did you say Caresky?" Glenn, who I had not seen walk into the room, asked
as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"Yeah," I said.

"Do you know somebody by that name?" Karen asked.

"When I used to work for the Feds, I was tracking a guy named Caresky,"
Glenn said.  "He was an American guy who moved to Italy back in the
eighties.  He had one of the longest wrap sheets I have ever seen.  Sherman
actually reminds me of him, the guy was smart and shifty.  We knew he was
making deals here in the U.S but just could never nail him."

"What kind of deals?" Karen asked.

"He'd get smut from people all over the world," Glenn said.  "And if he
really liked what he saw he would..."

Suddenly Glenn paused, his face turned the whitest color I had ever seen on
a human's face as his eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"He would what?" Karen asked.

"Damn it, I can't believe I haven't thought of this before," Glenn said as
he looked up at Karen.

***

The burning pain had only stopped when I passed out.  I don't remember much
from right before I lost consciousness I just know that Neal was being his
usual rough self.  When I finally came to the van was moving again and I
was alone in the back.  The only sound coming from the front was the sound
of the radio playing.  I had lost all concept of time by that point, and I
didn't even know where we were headed so I had no clue if we were getting
close to whatever destination we were headed to or not.  All I knew was
that I needed to find some way out.  But laying on the cold floor of the
large van, hog tied and naked I didn't know how any kind of escape would be
remotely possible.  I was so weak that I couldn't even try to free my hands
from the binding rope.  So I just laid there staring at the side wall of
the van, waiting for whatever was going to happen to me next.

"He's a good fuck isn't he?" I heard Neal ask suddenly.

"One of the best," Lou said.

"I didn't think it was possible for him to be any better than when he was
younger," Neal said.  "But he's damn close.  Shit, man, you should have had
him six years ago.  I don't know how many times I popped one off in that
ass.  His brother wasn't half bad either.  But a little too whiny for my
liking.  Shit, maybe money isn't the only reason I do this."

"I didn't think it was," Lou said.

"Well it started out being that way," Neal said.  "But I guess for guys
like us the means to the end ain't so bad either."

"I'll tell you one thing," Lou said.  "A fuck like the one I just had
certainly helps take the guilt a way."

"Guilt?" Neal asked, the shock evident in his voice.  "Man, guilt is for
pussy's.  Look a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to survive.  There
ain't nothin' to feel guilty for."

"I guess," Lou said.  "So how long do you think before we get there?"

"Probably about another ten hours," Neal said.  "But trust me the payoff
will be well worth it, well worth it.  And after we get paid we dump this
clunker and get something more comfortable.  This seat is fucking killing
my back."

"You know this guy?" Lou asked.

"Kind of," Neal said.  "He's been a client for a long time.  He's a
pediatrician, and one of the most fucked up people I know."

"What do you mean?"

"Well let's just say I'm sure he'll have his dog ready when we get there."

***

The activity at the Ward's house that morning was unbelievable.  It was
like a constant tornado of motion.  Glenn was hacking away at a computer
all morning while other members of the police force were on telephones and
by Noon there were FBI agents at the door.  I came to realize that morning
that both Glenn and Karen had some serious connections in law enforcement,
and they were using every single one of them.  In the meantime I sat in the
living room of the Wards house just waiting for something to happen,
praying that I remembered right about the guy Neal had talked about so many
times in the past.  Hoping that the name was the lead Glenn and Karen
needed to break the case open and find Tyler.  But the more time passed
without any real breaks the more my hope waned.

I remembered a lot of things about Neal, and what he did.  Not only to me
but to Tyler as well.  And as I sat in the living room watching and
listening to everything going on around me I couldn't help thinking about
everything Neal had told me, made me do.  Some of it made my stomach turn,
while others just made me angry.  The worst part was a cold day in December
some six years prior to Tyler being kidnapped.  I was on winter break from
my senior year of high school.  My Uncle and Neal had lost interest in me a
long time before that but that didn't stop Neal from wanting to torture me.
I guess I was old enough to just ignore him, but for some reason I couldn't
do that.  So that particular December day when he invited me over to a
Motel 6 in north Phoenix I went even though I knew better.

When I pulled into the motel parking lot Neal was standing outside the door
to the lobby, smoking a cigarette.  I got out of my beat up car and walked
over to him, my stomach turning the whole way.  He just smiled at me and
told me to follow him.  We walked down the length of the motel with out
saying a word.  When we finally got to the very last room farthest away
from the lobby Neal put the key in and opened the door.  Knowing I
shouldn't, I followed him into the dark room.  There was nobody in the
bedroom but I heard the shower running, and a familiar voice talking even
though I couldn't make out what it was saying.  The bed was a mess, the
covers laying on the floor and the sheets all wrinkled like there had been
an orgy on it the entire night before.  Neal, without looking at me told me
to strip.  My nostrils flared in anger, but I listened to him.  As I
started taking off my clothes Neal set up a video camera on a tripod and
aimed it at the bed.

Just as I was taking off the last of my clothes the bathroom door opened
and Blair came out, he too was naked.  When he saw me he smiled, then to my
surprise another figure appeared in the doorway of the bathroom.  Only this
one was small.  I took him for no older than six or seven years old.  He
was also naked, and his face I'll never forget the look on his face.  It
was a look of desperation and sadness, just seeing that look made me want
to vomit.  Blair, for the first time spoke as he introduced me to the boy
named Tyler.

I remember every detail of that afternoon.  And when it was over I was the
last one left in the motel room puking my guts out into the toilet.  I had
become what Neal had always said I would be.  Even though six years had
passed when I sat on that couch in the Wards living room I could still
smell that motel room.  And the guilt that I had felt that December
afternoon came rushing back to me in one powerful wave.

***

"Looks cute don't he?" Neal asked Lou.

The van was parked in the parking lot of some empty rest stop.  Neal had
just finished dressing me in what looked like some type of school uniform,
a white collared shirt with navy blue dress pants that were a size too
small.  I was sitting on the floor, leaning up against the side of the van,
with my hands still tied together and tape over my mouth.

"He certainly does," Lou said, as he grabbed at his crotch with the hand
that wasn't holding the flashlight.

"Stop that!" Neal said.  "We can't have this guy thinking he's getting
sloppy seconds.  "Now get up front and drive.  I don't want to be late for
our first appointment."

"Yes boss," Lou said, as he opened the side door of the van just enough to
allow himself out.

"So are you ready for your first client?" Neal asked me as Lou started the
van.  "He can't wait to meet you, he's a big fan of yours, has been for a
long time.  Hell he might even want your autograph," Neal chuckled as he
pointed the flashlight in my face.  "Hell who am I kidding?  He's just
gonna want your cunt.  And who could blame him for that?"

I stared blankly at Neal as he spoke.  At that point he might as well have
been talking to himself because I wasn't really listening.  The words were
just kind of bouncing off of me without truly sinking in.  Yes, I was aware
of what was going on.  But at the same time I was numb to it.  Maybe
because it wouldn't have been the first time Neal had passed me around,
maybe because I was too scared to feel.  I don't know why exactly, but for
whatever reason what Neal was saying just didn't affect me.

***

"I got something!" Pete yelled from the kitchen.

The shrill of his voice waking me from the late night slumber I had been in
on the Ward's couch.  Immediately I leapt off the couch and ran into the
kitchen to see what was going on.  Pete was sitting at the kitchen table
with a laptop planted in front of him.  On either side of him were FBI
agents and Karen and Glenn were standing behind him.

"What is it?" Glenn asked.

"I found Caresky," Pete said.  "Or at least his website.  These new fed
programs are amazing!"

"Don't get too comfortable with it," the muscular agent sitting to Pete's
right said.

"Anyway," Pete said, as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  "I was able
to hack into his site.  But now what do we want to do?"

"Time to go undercover boys!" Karen said, a mischievous tone coming to her
voice.

"I want to do this," Glenn said.  "I need another shot at this bastard!  If
that's okay with you two?" Glenn asked the two FBI Agents.

"It's your investigation detective," the muscular agent said, nodding his
head towards the computer.

***

"Let's get a couple of things straight," Neal told me as the van started to
slow down.  I was still sitting against the wall of the van, Neal was
sitting on the floor facing me as he pointed the flashlight in my face.
"When we get to the house you walk out like everything is normal.  I have a
gun in my pocket, and if you try to yell out I will use it before the word
help fully gets out of your mouth.  When you're done and we pick you up,
same thing goes.  So basically no funny business.  Am I making myself
clear?"

I nodded my head fully realizing I was in no position to argue.

"We're here," Lou called from the front of the van.

"Show time!" Neal said as a smirk crossed his face.

To Be Continued...

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Chapter 4 Coming Soon!