Survival -Guardians of Vesturon [1] by A.M. Hargrove Read Free Book Online

father.
    Darryl’s military career ended abruptly when he was dishonorably discharged sometime during the war in Afghanistan. There was a skirmish in a mountain village, and some of his fellow soldiers witnessed him executing an entire group of women and children. The men claimed he did it dispassionately and without remorse. The Army could never prove anything but they wanted it hushed up. So, in lieu of pressing any charges, they discharged him and sent him home. Unfortunately that would turn out to be a grave and costly error.
    Darryl returned to the States, but he never again set foot in West Virginia. He had nothing to go back to, since he never kept in touch with his parents. As far as they were concerned, he was as good as dead, and that was just fine with him.
    Darryl first wound up in Alabama. His social skills were all but nonexistent due to his psychopathic nature, so getting a job of any sort wasn’t likely. He thought about the mountains in the northern part of the state. He had heard several soldiers from that region talk about the area. He took to the woods and stayed there for a while, but then, he moved on to Northern Georgia. It was there the killing began.
    He was out on a “mission.” Somewhere over the past several years, living in the forest without any real contact with humanity, his true psychosis took root and fully developed, and he imagined himself on missions in which he had orders to kill the enemy. The enemy would be any kind of young woman he would find alone. He would hear his superiors telling him these young women were dangerous, and they wanted to kill his comrades. His mission was to take out the “targets.” So began his serial killings of innocent young victims, completely unaware of the monster he was.
    He would usually find them hiking or running alone on trails that were devoid of most crowds. He would render them unconscious and hold them captive until he deemed it was time to terminate them. It was never an easy death for the young victims. Torture was usually part of his plan, because he imagined he needed to get information from them, needed them to “talk.” They, of course, would have no idea what he wanted from them. They would beg and plead to no avail. The whole process would take several days, when finally, they would be begging for death. He was quite gruesome with them at times, taking the opportunity to explain to them exactly what he intended to do.
    The authorities could not find him because his Special Forces training made him an expert on covering his tracks. He was also highly proficient at tracking the authorities. He could discern their every move, so it was quite simple for him to evade them. It was as if he had been born to do this very thing.
    The killings continued, escalating in numbers. He would stalk his “prey” and attack when they least expected it.
    He stayed mainly in the Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee area, but he was on the move constantly. Sometimes, he would venture down into Mississippi or even Louisiana, but his favorite was Tennessee. He felt more at home there. He would oftentimes find farms where he could steal small animals for food.
    It was only a matter of time before he decided to roam into the mountains of North Carolina. He imagined the many opportunities in this unchartered territory. Darryl recognized the need to be covert, and his missions in Tennessee had been attracting the attention of others. Thus, he deemed it necessary to find somewhere else to continue his duties.
    He was thrilled with the prospect of exploring the Smoky Mountain National Park. Most of his time was spent surveying the trails and familiarizing himself with the area. His travels took him all over the park, from Lake Fontana to Forney Creek, Hazel Creek to Oconoluftee, and out to I-40. He often found himself up around Mt. LeConte and took a strong liking to that area. It was fairly close to the Appalachian Trail, so he would have a good in and out access