Without law 11, p.11
Without Law 11, page 11
I kept an extra careful eye on the shoreline as we sailed along. If Ken had in fact heard some gunshots recently, then these assholes could be anywhere along the lake. We were less likely to be spotted on the water, but still, if those assholes were nearby, then I wanted to know about it.
“So, this old man that lives up here,” Karen said. “How do you know him?”
“He’s a friend of a friend,” Paige explained.
“Rolly, who lives with us,” Bailey continued, “Henry is his friend, and he sent us up there to get this boat originally.”
“Is he alright up there alone?” Catelyn asked, her eyebrows pulled together with concern.
“He’s a pretty resourceful man,” I said with a smile. “But strong willed, which is why we’re bringing him the supplies. We’ll offer him the same deal we offered you, but I’m not sure he’ll take it, so we figured we’d bring him some stuff to tide him over.”
“That’s really nice,” Karen said.
“He’s taking care of his grandkids,” I said. “He deserves all the help he can get.”
“I always wanted kids,” Karen said, and she looked out to the water. “But with the way the world is now… well, that seems like a lost dream.”
“No way,” Paige said. “We have a registered nurse, and I bet she could deliver a baby.”
“Wow,” Karen said. “Nurses aren’t easy to come by.”
“Paige was pre-med,” I bragged. “So she’s pretty good with that stuff as well.”
“Well that’s good to know,” Karen said with a soft smile. “Maybe it’s not such a lost dream after all.”
“Plus, we have a chick at the campus who has a baby,” Tara said with a shrug.
“Yeah,” Bailey agreed. “And those women we were telling you about, they have a couple babies as well.”
“Besides,” Anna said, “if you want kids, you should totally have them. We have to continue the human race somehow.”
“That’s true,” Karen laughed.
Anna’s comment about the human race stuck with me for a moment. What if it hadn’t just been America who had been hit by the EMP? What if the rest of the world was just as bad off as we were. I shook the thought away and focused on moving the rudder to steer us along the water.
“Oh,” Anna said, “since we were talking about Henry, I just thought that you guys should probably let us get out and stay in the boat at first.”
“He did threaten us with a shotgun last time,” I laughed.
“Yeah, we’ll stay on the boat, then,” John chuckled.
“He’s a sweet old man,” Bailey said with a smile. “But he’s got to protect his family.”
“Totally understandable,” Ken said. “We’ll wait until you introduce us. No point in getting him riled up for no reason.”
“Thanks,” Paige said. “We should be there in the early afternoon or so. It’s a decent way, and this wind is pretty minimal.”
“We brought some cards if anybody wants to play a game,” Karen offered. “I’ve sailed a bit so I can take over for someone.”
“We don’t need to do much right now,” Paige said with a smile. “A game sounds nice.”
“Great,” Karen agreed.
The group moved to the middle of the boat and started to deal cards while I steered and kept an eye on the sides of the lake.
“You sure you don’t want to play, Tav?” Tara asked.
“I’m sure,” I agreed. “Thank you, though.”
“Alright,” Anna said, “but let us know if you want to switch.”
“Will do,” I chuckled.
The lake was quiet, and I found the sound of the water, birds, and my girls chatting to be strangely comforting. I had always liked boats, but I hadn’t spent too much time on them, especially not being the one in charge of the steering. It was a nice feeling, and I was able to meditate my way into a relaxed, but alert state as we floated along peacefully.
Suddenly, the sound of an engine came out of nowhere, and I scanned the sides of the lake but saw nothing. I felt my heart rate accelerate as the engine noise became louder.
I turned around to see two speedboats about half a mile behind us, but heading toward us quickly. The sound of the engines was still minimal, but there they were nonetheless, and there were definitely people on them, and the fact that it was a motorized vehicle meant only one thing, these guys had fuel. They had to be more druggie goons, and they were not happy that we were on the water with them.
Where the fuck were these assholes coming from?
“We’ve got company,” I shouted as I pulled my pistol out.
“What the fuck,” Anna said, and suddenly I felt her next to me. “Where the hell did they come from?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “They were just coming up behind us all of a sudden.”
“What should we do?” the redhead asked.
“They’re armed and after us with speedboats,” I said through gritted teeth, “I’m not taking any chances. We need to take them out.”
“Bailey,” Anna said. “Think you can handle one of the boats?”
“I want one of them alive,” I said.
“What?” Tara asked, and I turned and realized that all the girls were behind me.
“We need to know where they’re coming from,” I said. “We need one of them alive.”
“I’m on it,” Bailey said.
The speedboats were racing toward us, and they were only a quarter mile away or so by that point. The men had M16s raised and ready to shoot, but they were yelling something that I couldn’t hear. There were five guys on each boat, one of which was at the back with the motor.
I ignored their shouts and raised my rifle up to take aim. I had a good shot on one of the guys in the front, so I let out a breath and pulled the trigger. Next to me I heard Bailey’s rifle crack at the same time.
The guy in the front toppled over and fell into the water, and a guy on the other boat went down as well, but he fell forward into the boat. The men were pissed, then, and they all raised their weapons except for the guys in the back who were in charge of the motor.
“Anna, Paige, Tara,” I said, “take out the guys in the boats. Bailey, go for the ones at the back with the motor.”
“On it,” Bailey answered.
“Make sure we leave one alive, though,” I said.
“We might want to pick who that’s gonna be,” Tara said, then she let off a shot that took out another one of the men who had just taken aim at our boat.
One of the guys got a few shots off, and we crouched down to avoid them. I was concerned about our boat, but at that moment we had more pressing matters to attend to.
Once the guy’s magazine was empty, I took the opportunity and popped up to let out a few shots of my own. Bailey was right next to me, and we got both the men at the back of the boats within seconds. Their engines sputtered and stopped as the bodies fell out into the water, and the men left on the boat scrambled to get back to the motor.
There were three guys left on one boat, and two on the other then, but they weren’t messing around, and we were quickly berated with an onslaught of bullets. We crouched down to avoid them, but I didn’t have faith that the boat would hold out much longer.
I turned to see the civilians that were with us were crouched down, too. I made eye contact with Karen, and she looked terrified, so I mouthed the words ‘it’s alright,’ and she laid her head back down on the floor of the boat.
We needed to take out these guys, and quickly, before they did serious damage to our boat.
“Right boat, the guy at the motor,” I shouted over the bullets. “Nobody shoot him!”
“Okay!” Paige hollered back.
“Get ready,” I said, “as soon as their mags are up it’s our turn.”
I quickly changed out the mag in my rifle, loaded one into the chamber, and waited for the firing to stop. I was sure that they only had twenty or thirty round magazines, but there were still three of them shooting, and they were probably trying to keep the firing going, though I didn’t know what their end goal with that was. Maybe they were just scared and weren’t used to coming up against adversaries that actually had weapons, or maybe they were just idiots, but if they were intelligent they would save their bullets and wait for their opponent to jump up. Lucky for us these guys obviously didn’t have any formal training, so they had no idea what to do in a situation like this. They probably were used to being able to bully most of the people who had survived in the area, like the civilians we had on board. If they had encountered these assholes out on the water alone I could only imagine what would have happened.
The firing stopped for a second, and Paige tried to jump up right away, but I put my hand out to stop her, and instead I grabbed one of our oars and held it up quickly. Even if I thought these guys were idiots, I wouldn’t count on that, there was far too much at stake here.
A shot pulsed through the wood, and I brought the oar down to show the hole in it to the girls.
“Shit,” Anna breathed.
“What do we do?” Tara asked.
The back of our boat had a few bullet holes in it at that point, and I was honestly a bit stuck as far as what to do. If I were in combat I would’ve tossed a grenade, but I didn’t have any handy, and they had us pinned. The motors had stopped on the boats, though, I realized, and that probably meant that all of them were ready and aimed at the boat.
“Aw, come on,” a male voice shouted, “you’re not done so soon, are you?”
His taunting did nothing but piss me off, and I set my jaw and looked around once more for anything we could use to distract them for a second so we could get up and get some shots off. As I scanned the boat I realized that my answer had been right there. The holes above us were what would save us.
“Anna,” I said, “I need you to talk to these guys.”
“Okay,” she said, but her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “What do you want me to say?”
“Anything to keep them distracted,” I said, “but not super pissed off, I don’t want them shooting us up again before we have a chance for this plan to work.”
“Alright,” Anna agreed with a determined nod.
“Bailey, Tara, and Paige,” I said, “you’re with me.”
“Where are we going?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” Tara agreed, “we’re kind of stuck here.”
“Come out, come out,” the man taunted once more. “We don’t want to hurt that boat of yours any more than we already have.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” I said to my team. “We’re going to use the damage they’ve caused against them.”
I pointed up to the holes in the boat above us, and I saw Bailey’s eyes light up with understanding.
“Cool,” the blonde said with a smile. “Let’s do it.”
“We’ll each take a target,” I said. “That will leave one of them alive.”
“I can injure him if you want,” Bailey said. “We don’t have to kill him.”
“Perfect,” I told her, “but let’s get our targets first. Be careful not to sit up too much, and pick the hole first, then place your weapon.”
“Just give it up already,” the guy hollered, and it sounded like he was getting impatient with us.
I nodded to Anna, who nodded back at me, then the other girls and I lifted up to peer through the holes at the back of the boat.
“What do you want with us?” Anna called out, and I gave her a reassuring nod. That was exactly what we needed, to get them talking and distracted.
“Oooh,” the guy hollered, “which of you girls am I talking to?”
“Why does that matter?” Anna asked, her voice harsh.
“I just want to know,” the guy said. “So which one are you? The brunette? Maybe the redhead?”
Was this guy seriously trying to flirt right now? I shook my head, and went back to my own mission.
The holes were small, but you could definitely see through them. The two boats were stopped at least ten meters away, with two guys in the boat on the right, and three in the boat on the left. All of the men had their rifles in their arms, but they weren’t aiming, especially not the one that tried to chat up Anna, he had one leg on the edge of the boat and his gun pointed down as he leaned forward with a creepy smile on his face.
I scanned the men for the weakest looking one, and found him in the boat of three. He was a small guy, and he looked almost uncomfortable with his M16 in his arms. He wore a wife beater, baggy shorts, and a hat, and he reminded me of the wangsters that Anna had identified back several months ago before winter hit.
“The one with the wife beater and the baggy shorts,” I whispered. “That’s the one we’ll keep alive.”
“The wangster looking guy?” Tara asked.
“Yeah,” I agreed, and it seemed that was a term that only I was unfamiliar with.
“Alright,” Bailey agreed.
“Is everyone ready?” I asked. “Got your targets?”
“Got ‘em,” Paige confirmed.
“Yup,” Tara said.
“Mhm,” Bailey agreed.
“You still haven’t told me what you want from us,” Anna called out. She had been going back and forth with the guy while we lined up our shots.
“Why don’t you and your girlfriends come on out, then we’ll talk about what I want,” the guy said. “I think you owe me a little something after you killed half my men here.”
“Yeaaah,” Anna drew out, “sorry about that.”
I had my rifle in the hole and ready. I had to hold the weapon up to one hole and look through another, which made aiming a total bitch, but if I could hit the target then it didn’t really matter where, that would give us enough opportunity to get up and get some shots off.
I nodded to the girls, took a deep breath, then released it as I pulled the trigger.
My guy took a shot to the throat, and blood spurted out of his esophagus as his hands instinctively shot up to try to stop the bleeding.
Another guy got a shot to the groin, and he doubled over as he clutched his junk, but he overcompensated and fell forward into the water.
The guy who had been talking to Anna was Bailey’s target, and he got slammed in the face and fell backward with a loud thud that made their small boat bounce and make ripples in the water.
The last was Paige’s guy, and the brunette managed to get him in the leg, so he screamed and grabbed his thigh.
“Bailey, cover me,” I shouted as I jumped up. There were only two guys left standing, and one was the guy who still clutched his leg. I took aim quickly and let off a round that went right through his eye. His scream was cut short, and he fell forward into the water.
I had expected to hear Bailey’s rifle go off, but it hadn’t yet, so I turned to see the wangster guy standing in the boat with his arms up in surrender.
“I was going to injure him,” Bailey said with a shrug. “But he just kind of gave up.”
“Hm,” I said, “let’s get over there. Paige, can you steer us over to this guy?”
“On it,” the brunette said.
“Bailey, if he so much as reaches for that motor, you shoot him,” I told the blonde.
“Okay,” she agreed, and her eyes never wavered from her target.
“You giving up?” I called out to the guy.
“Hell yeah I’m giving up,” he called back. “You all killed my whole fuckin’ team.”
“Yup,” I chuckled. “Stay right there, if you try to reach for the motor, then my sniper here is going to take your arm off.”
“Is it over?” Ken asked.
“Almost,” I said, “but you guys can sit up now. There’s only one guy left, but we need to talk to him.”
“Alright,” the dark haired man replied.
It only took a couple of minutes to reach the small boat where the guy stood with his arms still up.
I raised my pistol right to his face, and he backed up.
“Whoa, whoa,” he said, “I gave up!”
“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to kill you still,” I told him.
“What do you want, man?” he asked and he was nearly in tears. “You can take the boats, just don’t fuckin’ kill me, please.”
“Where is your home base?” I asked.
“We’re staying in a house over there,” he said with a point to the coast.
“I didn’t ask where you were staying,” I said. “I asked where your home base is.”
“I don’t know, man,” the guy said, so I lifted my pistol and let off a round into the air, “okay, okay, shit. We have a place in Lebanon.”
“How many men?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” the guy said, “a lot, there’s a lot of ‘em. I’ve only been a couple of times. My crew mostly stayed out here on patrol.”
“What about the drugs?” I asked.
“I don’t know what drugs you’re talkin’ about,” he said, so I cocked the hammer on my pistol and moved it closer to his face. “Okay, okay! Fuck! We get a supply for keeping patrol, and they give us food and weapons and shit, but that’s all I know.”
“Your group is the only one patrolling this lake?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, “as far as I know. I’ve never seen anybody else out here.”
“Why are you patrolling here?” I asked.
“I don’t fuckin’ know, man,” he said, and real tears came down then. “I just did what I was told.”
“Who’s in charge?” I asked. This guy had no loyalty whatsoever, which was good for us, but bad for him. I would’ve respected him a bit more if I actually had to work to get information out of him. As it was, he gave up the ghost with very little effort on my part.
“Jay was,” he said, and he pointed out to the body floating in the water.
“Not this group,” I growled. “Who’s in charge of the whole operation?”
“I really don’t know, man,” he said, and I eyed him cooly. “I swear to god, I don’t. Jay was the only one that knew the guy. I don’t even have a name, I fuckin’ swear.”
“I believe you,” I said.
“Thank you,” the guy sighed, but I let off a round into his face, and he fell backward out of the boat and into the water.
“Let’s grab these boats,” I said after I’d killed the man. “And the weapons.”
