Winnebago

Every Last One of Them

Chapter Six

Bat Shit Kaylie, she hated the nickname.  Of course, what the kids meant when they called her this was that she was bat shit crazy.  And, in most regards, she truly was.  Her birth was a traumatic one.  Her mother, Vicki Roldano, gave birth to Kaylie when Vicki herself was but a young teen.  Kaylie's umbilical cord had wrapped around her neck in the womb.  She had been deprived of normal oxygen the last week before being born.  The Dr. said she would have a slight chance of brain deformity, but that the percentages were very low.   Vicki tried raising Kaylie for the sum of five years but was ultimately unable to do so.  Vicki was not the mother type.  When she could no longer handle raising a child, Vicki abandoned Kaylie on the doorstep of the local Orphanage in the town of Bowling Greene.  She would tie Kaylie to a post of the front porch and walk away.  Kaylie was able to keep memories of her mother locked away in her brain.  Even though she was only five years old when her mother gave her away, she would never forget her face or her voice.  Her hate would begin to fester one year after being abandoned.  At the age of eight, Kaylie was adopted by a family that lived in a small town in California called Orian.  Kaylie would live there up to her senior year and would graduate from the only Highschool in town.  Being a small school, there was no place for Kaylie to hide.  Many of the kids in her class would make fun of her.  She was different, and kids are typically mean in Highschool.  Kaylie would not be spared from the regular torment and heckling.  Three particular kids were the worst.  Sean, Brianna, and Mckenna were three people that Kaylie hated to the point she would imagine them no longer breathing the air on this planet.  Infact, she fantasized about it.  Her fantasizing turned into planning.  Those plans would be carried out her senior year, those plans extended far beyond just Sean, Brianna, and Mckenna!

Because of the lack of oxygen, Kaylie had a large dark spot over her left eyebrow.  To others it looked like a bruise.  This mark never went away however, and Sean would consistently remind Kaylie that she was defective.  Kaylie, nor Sean, knew that the two of them were related.  Sean's mom Rebecca left the Roldano's household soon after graduating from Highschool in Bowling Greene.  She never liked her family and wanted to move as far away from them as possible.  The little town of Orian seemed like the perfect spot.  It was simply coincidence that Kaylie was adopted in Pennsylvania and brought back to the very same town of Orian by her new foster parents.  Even then, nobody knew that Vicki had given birth to a child anyways.  Kaylie's new last name was Peak.  Mr. and Mrs. Peak loved Kaylie dearly.  Even though she had obvious mental problems.  They struggled to control Kaylie throughout her childhood.  Kaylie would disappear overnight sometimes, and she wouldn't tell anyone where she had gone.  Her parents would not alert the authorities in fear that they would take Kaylie away from them.  Sean, Brianna and Mckenna all hung out together at school.  They all three enjoyed picking on Kaylie because she would never defend herself.  She was easy to pick on.  They'd call her names.  They'd steal her lunch that her mother would make for her every day.  They thought she was harmless.  But all these harsh actions were seeded in Kaylie's brain.  She locked them away next to the hatred for her mother who had abandoned her.  Kaylie was not at fault for any of this.  She was dealt a lousy hand at birth.  Soon, she would be the one doing the tormenting.  She was crazy enough to turn her thoughts into actions.

Even at the young age of ten, Kaylie had both a love, and a special connection with animals.  This went far beyond domesticated animals.  When she'd disappear for a night, and her parents were uncertain of her where abouts, often times she'd escape to the mountains.  She'd found a special place off of one of the local trails.  This spot had sandstone caves and was protected by a wall of buckthorn.  There was a special pine tree that marked the spot.  It forked in to two points near the top.  Kaylie would hike to this spot regularly.  She found shelter inside the caves.  She also found certain plants that she knew she could make into hallucinogens.  She'd read plenty of books on the matter and had already made a few powders.  She hadn't tested these on any humans yet, but the time to use them was drawing near.  For reasons unbeknownst to Kaylie, wild animals seemed to form a bond with her.  Kaylie could walk right up to a racoon and pet it.  She'd even walked next to a pack of coyotes as if she belonged to the pack.  The animals could sense that Kaylie was not there to harm them.  The day that she descended upon two baby mountain lions that had been orphaned by their mother, was the day she realized that she was not normal.  The two cub lions took to Kaylie immediately, and she became in reality, their new mother.  She would feed them.  She would train them to hunt.  After months of interaction, the Mountain Lions had learned commands prompted by Kaylie's voice.  With a sharp whistle and a clicking noise made deep down in her throat, the lions would dart out and incircle a deer.  One more click of her teeth and they'd attack, killing the deer then devouring the carcass.  Kaylie was certain she could get them to hunt whatever, or whomever she pleased.  

The used car salesman scratched his head.  Young people like Kaylie had no interest in buying RV's.  When Kaylie told him she'd take it, he was at a loss.  "You sure you have enough money to buy this young lady"?  The car salesman was leery.  "Yessir".  Kaylie handed over the roll of money from her pocket. "Here's eight thousand seven hundred", she said.  "What do you want this huge vehicle for little lady"?  "To drive around, sir!"  "Isn't it obvious"?  She needed something of good size to be able to move her mountain lion kids around.  Plus, she could turn on the AC and keep them cool on warm summer days.  She could also cook food on the stove and store sixty gallons of water in the tanks.  Mountain Lions were thirsty all the time.  Kaylie had overheard Sean talking about his plans for the upcoming weekend.  She would park the Winnebago in a turn out a couple of miles before the trailhead of Pine Tar Trail.  She'd sit and wait for Sean to ride past her.  Once he rode past, she'd put it in drive, and move to just beyond the trailhead.  Sean would never have guessed he'd find Kaylie inside a motorhome.  He rode by without even giving the Winnebago a second glance.  Once parked, she left the RV.  She and the two animals headed up to the spot she knew Sean would camp for the night.  Her plan was to hide inside the cave she had spent so many nights in.  It would also conceal the two mountain lions out of sight.  Sean made good time up the trail.  He set up camp, he then began cooking his instant dinner in a pouch.  Kaylie sat and watched with great patience.  Sean poured the boiling water into the pouch of dried food.  He then got up and walked off into the bushes to go to the bathroom.  This was Kaylie's chance.  Giving the command to the two lions to stay put, she scrambled over to Seans's meal with her bag of mind dust as she called it.  She picked up the pouch, poured in what she thought would be a good dosage of the hallucinogen, and stirred it with a stick.  She quickly placed the bag back down and ran back to the cave where she had been hiding.  Once back to the opening, she cursed herself.  She had taken the pouch of food off of a flat rock where Sean had set it.  When she set it back down in her haste to get back to concealment, she had forgotten to put it back on the flat rock.  Oh well, it was too late, Sean was on his way back!  She'd just have to hope he didn't realize the different placement.

No one ever knew Kaylie was behind the one-way window.  She could see and hear everything happening inside the room where Vicki would sit in front of an appeals panel and plead her case as to why she had spent enough time in prison.  Where she would try to convince the panel that she was a new person who regretted her past mistakes.  Vicki had no clue that Kaylie was there.  She didn't even know that Kaylie had been adopted and taken to California.  Kaylie would talk to the panel just prior to the meetings.  She'd explain how her mother had abandoned her and given her to the orphanage at such a young age.  She would explain to them how her mother was an expert at making bad decisions and that Vicki would continue to make poor decisions, such as blowing up the Winnebago, for the rest of her life as far as Kaylie was concerned.  She all but sealed the fate of Vicki's denial for parole.  This would occur twice.  Kaylie was unable to attend the third hearing.  She had other matters to attend to in the small town of Orian.  Sitting in the protection of the hidden room, Kaylie was also able to surmise that Vicki had a brother and a sister.  They were the only two family members to actually attend the parole hearings.  She would remember their names, and their faces.  Kaylie had gotten away with murdering Sean at the top of Pine Tar Trail.  Five years had passed and there were no leads implicating her to the crime.  Her Mountain Lion pets had made easy work of Sean.  He didn't even know what was happening as the two cats pounced on him and ended his life.  The mind powder had done its job and Kaylie could only imagine what was swimming around in Seans brain as the two cats jumped on him and snapped his neck.  Inside the Winnebago she kept a nicely sanded pine box.  Inside the box she kept Seans ears as a memento to the meanness he had directed towards Kaylie for so many years.  She hoped that in a short period of time, she'd have four more ears to add to the box.  The scratches and claw marks all over Seans body were attributed to that of a bear attack.  The legend of Pine Tar Trail would bring many hikers to the area.  People were fascinated by the story.  Kaylie hoped this would lure two certain people there as well.  So far, she had not seen Brianna or Mckenna on the trail.  She had seen them in town however and knew that they both still lived in Orian.  Their time would come.  She just had to be patient.

Two lions had turned in to seven over the span of years since dispatching Sean.  They were indeed Kaylie's new family.  They loved Kaylie and Kaylie loved them in return.  Slinking down in the driver's seat, Kaylie watched the two girls remove their bikes from the bike rack on their vehicle.  Brianna and Mckenna had remained good friends, and they both had grown a passion for riding bikes in the mountains above Orian.  Brianna had become a teacher, while Mckenna was the towns attorney.  Neither of them knew that Kaylie Peak still resided in the area.  Nor did they remember the harsh punishment they had doled out towards Kaylie back in Highschool.  Kaylie remembered it like it was yesterday.  She knew where the two girls lived, what kind of car they drove, and that they had picked up an interest in riding bikes.  Kaylie watched Brianna and Mckenna ride off downhill.  This was her chance.  She couldn't have her lions attack the girls on their bikes.  The possibility of witnesses was too great.  She'd have to wait for them to return.  When a second car pulled into the trailhead parking lot, Kaylie thought once again, that she'd have to postpone ending Brianna and Mckenna's lives.  She did not recognize the female driver of this second car, but she was absolutely certain she knew the male passenger!  What were the odds Kaylie thought to herself.  As Grace and Jonathan headed up Pine Tar Trail, Kaylie came up with a plan.  Pulling on the door handle, much to Kaylie's surprise, Grace hadn't locked her door.  Not only had she not locked her doors, but she also left her keys in the ash tray.  Kaylie turned the keys to the power accessories position and slipped the car into neutral.  She had chalked the rear drivers side tire prior to doing so and now, all she had left to do was remove the chalk and hope the car stayed put.  Now, she would wait.  An hour had passed when the two bike riders returned from their ride.  They were very tired; the return trip was all up hill.  As they placed their bikes back onto the bike rack, and put their gear away, Kaylie silently snuck to the front of Grace's car and gave it a push.  She made zero noise.  By the time the car had picked up speed, Kaylie was halfway back to her Winnebago.  Brianna and Mckenna never knew what hit them.  The car rolled silently, mowing over the two of them and crushing their legs and pelvises.  Kaylie waited forty-five minutes.  She had to check to make sure the girls were dead, and she needed to cut off their ears to add to the pine box.  Just as she reached for the lever of her driver's side door, a Forest Ranger pulled into the lot.  She was doomed.  This Ranger would find the bodies, he'd radio for help and for an investigation.  She couldn't let that happen.  Just knowing that Brianna and Mckenna were dead was not enough.  She needed those ears.  Kaylie pulled on the lever easing her RV into drive.  She gave the signal to her lions in the back.  As she revved her Winnebago up the rode and into the lot, she slowed the vehicle abruptly.  The sun was setting, and the Ranger would never see the attacking pack of lions in time to do anything about it.  One more set of clicking sounds and the lions bolted out of the Winnebago.  They reached their target in seconds.  The Ranger couldn't even scream.  While the lions feasted on their catch, Kaylie crawled under the car and cut off all four ears.  This is what she had planned so many years ago.  She was lucky to have found the other two cubs that had been abandoned after their mother was put down for viscously attacking a woman at a private school and leaving her half-eaten body hanging in a tree.  A cry from deep in her throat brought all seven lions back to the RV.  Once all were inside, Kaylie pushed down on the accelerator, sending fuel into all eight cylinders of the Winnebago's motor.  A flip of a switch and the headlights came on.  Kaylie had no idea that Jonathan and Grace would meet their fate with an actual bear on top of the mountain.  She would read an article online a week later about the incident which would put a smile on her face.  Kaylie looked at the road map.  Bowling Greene was a long journey.  If she was to add her mother's ears to the pine box before winter, she'd have to get a move on it.  Rebecca had contracted Covid a month prior.  She would not survive the summer. There was no way for Kaylie to know that her entire family was dead.  Every last one of them.  Ant Death Circle poured out of the speakers of the Winnebago.  'Plastic Lovers' was one of her favorite songs.  She sipped on her bottle of cream soda, one hand on the steering wheel.  The sound of the Winnebago's slugging motor soon disappeared.  Only the vultures circling the twin forked pine tree at the top of Pine Tar Trail, and the mess she left behind in the trailhead parking lot, remained.