Without law 16, p.2
Without Law 16, page 2
Paige and I quickly gathered up most of the toys in the room before we headed back downstairs.
We got out to the jeep, and Bailey turned around with a confused look before she glanced down and saw the bin full of toys and a smile spread across her face.
“I was wondering where you two were,” she said with a wide grin.
“I was in a little boy’s room,” I said with a shrug. “I figured you were right, there wasn’t any point in leaving the toys behind. It only took a couple of minutes.”
“Thanks,” the blonde said, and she lifted up onto her tiptoes and kissed my cheek.
“Hey,” Anna said as she and the rest her group came over to us.
“Good job just now,” I told her with a nod.
“Thanks,” the redhead said. “Tara told me that she got someone in the back, too.”
“Yeah,” Bailey agreed. “They’re right over there.”
The blonde pointed further into the backyard where the two corpses of the soldiers were. They were only ten feet or so apart, and they each had matching burn wounds right where their faces once were.
“Good call on splitting up your group,” I told Anna.
“Thanks,” the redhead replied with a grin.
“Let’s grab their plasma guns,” I said. “We can’t have too many of those.”
“Good idea,” Paige said. “We should check their vehicle, too, they might have more of the power pods.”
“We’ll check it as we leave,” I agreed. “We should make this quick, though. I’m pretty sure that the troops sent out several patrol units to try and find us. There could be more in the area.”
“Alright, let’s go,” Anna said with a clap.
The redhead and the Cadets went over to the bodies to collect the weapons while Tara and I headed around to the front of the houses to do the same.
The yard was incredibly overgrown, and the weeds came up to my knees as we walked. The brushing sound of my legs colliding with the plants threw me off guard for a second, but I could have sworn I heard something else, so I stopped and listened.
“Tav?” Tara asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Do you hear that?” I whispered.
“Um, no,” the platinum-blonde said. “Are you sure you hear something?”
“Be quiet and stay by me,” I said as I took careful steps between the houses until I could just peek my head out to look at the road.
“Do you see something?” Tara whispered as she leaned against my back to get a better look.
I didn’t see anything at first, but I could hear something, and as we stood there the sound got louder.
“Shit,” I whispered as another NK patrol unit rounded the corner and came into view.
Chapter 2
“Where the fuck did they come from?” Tara whispered fervently.
“The first crew must have called for backup,” I explained. I knew that there were more than likely more patrols in the area looking for us, but I didn’t expect any to get there that fast. Honestly, I didn’t think that the unit we had run into had time to call for backup before they came after us.
Apparently I was wrong, because backup was here, and they had come prepared.
This wasn’t a typical patrol unit like the one we’d just encountered. This was a specialized one similar to the ones that the NK Troops had sent after us earlier. We’d managed to take them out, but it was far more difficult than taking out a typical patrol group.
The vehicle that this new group had was just like the other one except that strapped to the top were two large plasma weapons that could take out a small building with one blast.
They’d fired at us with them earlier, and the impact from the blast alone was enough to nearly knock me off my feet.
The vehicle turned down the street we were looking at, and we were able to get a better look at the men inside. There were five of them. Two in the front and three in the back, and they all had their windows down as they scanned the area. They had to have seen the other patrol’s vehicle, so they knew they were in the right place.
I watched as the man in the passenger seat pointed forward and hollered something that I couldn’t understand.
“Fuck,” I said when I realized that he was pointing at the dead bodies on the ground.
They knew we were there ,and immediately the men in the vehicle started looking around at the houses. A couple of them let off some shots, I guess to try and scare us out.
I grabbed Tara by the elbow and led her back to the jeeps where the rest of the group was.
“Tav, there you are--” Anna started to say, but I quickly cut her off.
“Anna, Missy,” I said quietly.
“What’s wrong?” the redhead asked, suddenly serious.
“Head to the far side of the house,” I continued as I ignored her question. “We’ve got company.”
Anna nodded, and she and Missy went around to the other side of the house and started to make their way toward the street.
“Tara, Paige, Michael,” I said. “I want you on the near side of the house.”
“On it,” Tara agreed, and she led the other two through the tall grass and weeds we’d just come from back toward the road.
“Bailey, you’re with me,” I said. “Let’s go.”
The blonde nodded, and I quickly reached into the jeep and grabbed her Barrett that I’d set down earlier with the toys.
“Where are we going?” the blonde asked as I turned back to face her.
“We’re heading back upstairs,” I told her before I headed back toward the house we’d just come out of moments before.
I knew right where to head this time, and I led Bailey up the stairs and into the little boy’s room that I’d shot from earlier. We crouched down and made our way over to the window so we could see outside. I knew that the rest of the group wouldn’t shoot until I did, so it was crucial that I lined up the perfect shot.
The vehicle was still a ways down the street, which was good because I didn’t want it to get anywhere near as close as the previous soldiers had gotten.
This vehicle was far more dangerous than those soldiers had been, and I wasn’t going to take any chances with my team. We needed to take these assholes out from a distance in case they tried to shoot at us at all. That was another reason I’d left so many of my group on the ground. If things got bad, then they could easily run away. There were a lot of houses around, and I had faith that they could find somewhere to hide.
I’d never known the girls to hide from anything, but I also wanted to give them the option in case they needed it. Bailey was stuck with me for the moment, but I wouldn’t let anything happen to the blonde. Besides, she was the best shot we had, and she could handle herself.
“What’s the plan?” Bailey asked, but before I could answer the men in the back of the NK vehicle began to fire randomly at the houses around them.
“We need to take them out quickly,” I said. These dumbasses could wind up actually hitting someone if they kept this up.
“I’m ready when you are,” the blonde said with a nod as she adjusted herself.
“We need to stop their vehicle,” I whispered as I checked the chamber of the Barrett.
“What do you want me to do?” Bailey asked.
“Take out the men inside,” I said. “I’m going to take out the vehicle first, just be ready to shoot.”
“You know I always am,” the blonde told me with a smile.
I smiled back before I quickly set up the shot with the Barrett. I hadn’t shot one of these in a long time. I normally left it to Bailey, but the feel of it in my hands was nice, and I was excited to pull the trigger.
The men inside the vehicle were still shooting at the houses around, taking out the windows of them in an attempt to reveal that we were there.
I shook my head slightly at their stupidity before I leveled my sight at the front end of their vehicle.
My heart rate was high with the adrenaline that coursed through me, but I steadied myself and made sure my shot was perfectly aligned before I pulled the trigger.
The powerful rifle kicked back against me and a second later there was a loud boom as the bullet made contact with the front end of the NK military vehicle. The thing came to a screeching halt as the men inside began to yell and shoot wildly around them.
The first guy went down three seconds after the vehicle came to a stop. Bailey landed a shot right to the dome of the man in the passenger seat.
A spray of blue came from just below us then, and I knew that the rest of our group was on board.
The man in the passenger seat that Bailey had got fell forward in his seat while the two that hung out of the back windows were scorched from the plasma fire. One of them tumbled out and down to the ground face first, his feet still hooked onto the window frame by his toes. It would have been almost comical if I wasn’t concerned that even more patrols were on their way to us.
Before I even had the opportunity to switch over to my plasma gun the girls had burned holes through every soldier that was inside the vehicle.
“That was quick,” I chuckled.
“I mean, they were pretty well outnumbered,” Bailey pointed out.
“True,” I said with a smile. “And out skilled.”
“That, too,” the blonde agreed, and she flashed a quick grin at me before she stood up. “We should go. I feel like it’s my fault we had to deal with these guys as it is. We were only here because I wanted to grab the toys for the kids.”
“Hey, hey,” I said as I stood up and looked the blonde in the eyes. “You didn’t do anything wrong. These guys were after us regardless, and it was better that we ran into them here where we could control the situation. We’re fine, everything is fine.”
“Thanks,” she said, but she still bit her lip.
“They could call in another airstrike against this neighborhood at any time, though,” I said. “We should go.”
My sweet hippie girl was always incredibly concerned with doing the right thing and taking care of everyone else. It was one of the many reasons I loved her so much, but it also caused her to be hard on herself, which was something I often had to nip in the bud. She was a beautiful, capable woman, and it was difficult to see her get down on herself because she felt like something was her fault. Shit happened, and I had meant what I had said. It was better that we dealt with these assholes now versus stumbling into them somewhere else, or worse, having them follow us home.
I wasn’t sure if the NK soldiers were smart enough to think to do that, but either way, I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Come on,” I said, and I kissed her forehead. “Let’s go find everyone else.”
I grabbed the Barrett and headed back down the stairs with Bailey right behind me. This time I came out the front door and found the rest of the group headed toward the vehicle.
“We were going to grab their plasma guns,” Anna explained.
“Good call,” I agreed. “We may as well check their vehicles, too, to see if there’s anything useful. Let’s make this quick, though, there could be others in the area.”
I followed Anna over to the vehicle down the road, and the girls started to pick up plasma guns and go through the men’s pockets while I pushed the man in the passenger’s seat out and climbed in to search the glove box and center console. Once I was in the vehicle I looked around, it was strange to not see any blood.
Usually if someone was shot in a vehicle there would be blood splatter from the wound, but these plasma guns didn’t leave anything like that. The wound was virtually made and cauterized all in one.
I sighed and opened the small glove compartment. Inside there were some packs of Korean cigarettes and matches, but not much else.
A loud gasp drew my attention to the man next to me in the driver's seat. I instinctively grabbed the tanto blade that I kept on my hip and turned toward him.
Anna was in the doorway, and she locked confused eyes with me.
“Was that you?” I asked, my eyes narrowed with confusion and suspicion.
“No,” she breathed. “I was hoping it was you.”
I looked at the man in the seat. He had a burn in his chest, but it was on the right side so it could have missed his heart. Even still, it had definitely affected his lungs, and he wouldn’t have long without proper medical care if he did happen to still be alive.
I flipped my knife in my hand and got ready to shake the man to see if he was still alive, but before I got the opportunity he began to cough up blood.
The red sticky substance dribbled down his chin, and he pulled in ragged breaths as his barely open eyes scanned the area around him dreamily.
“What the fuck,” Anna said. “I can’t believe he’s still alive.”
“Someone’s still alive?” Tara asked as she came up behind Anna.
“This dude,” the redhead said with a point.
The soldier pulled in another ragged breath and tried to reach for his plasma gun, but Anna had already grabbed it.
“Damn, still trying to get us,” Tara tsked.
“We should kill him,” Paige said with a frown. “We can’t leave him like this.”
“Okay, I’m all for mercy killing and being nice and stuff,” Tara said. “But this asshole just invaded our fucking country and killed a bunch of people. I really don’t care if he suffers.”
“I meant that we can’t leave him alive because he might call for backup,” Paige said dryly.
“Oh,” the platinum-blonde said, and she blushed a little. “Oops.”
“Paige is right,” I agreed, but I thought for a second about our options. There was no guarantee that the guy spoke English, and he could always pretend like he didn’t even if he did, but it might be worth a shot to try and get some information out of him.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked.
“Yeah,” Tara pushed. “What are you waiting for?”
“I think we should try to ask him some questions,” I said.
“You think he’ll answer them?” Bailey piped up from behind the other girls.
“There’s no guarantee,” I said. “But we should at least try.”
“I agree,” Paige said. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”
The guy looked like he was barely conscious, but I grabbed his face and smacked his cheek a few times until he opened his eyes a little bit.
“Tell me your orders,” I demanded.
The man stared at me for a second before a bloody smile came across his face. My blood boiled as he stared at me with a clear understanding of what was going on. That smile was to let me know that he wasn’t about to talk, but all it served to do was piss me off more than I already was.
I grabbed onto the man’s hair and yanked it back before I brought my tanto blade up for him to see.
“I said,” I breathed right into his face. “Tell me your fucking orders.”
The guy spat something that gave me the impression it translated very closely to ‘fuck you’, so I flipped the tanto blade in my hand so it was pointed down, and I stabbed him in the thigh.
The man let out a ragged gasp, and his ragged breaths grew even louder and faster. He gritted his teeth against the pain as he looked me in the eye, but all I did was smile in return.
“Tara,” Bailey said. “Don’t you know a little bit of Korean?”
“Yeah,” Paige said with a nod. “You’re the one who knew that it was Korean when we heard it on the radio.”
“I mean, I guess I know a little bit,” the platinum-blonde said with a shrug. “I can try, maybe I’ll remember more as I go.”
Tara stepped up to the man and asked him something in broken sounding Korean. When the man just stared at her blankly she repeated herself a bit louder and with more anger.
I watched as understanding dawned on the man’s face, but it quickly turned to confusion, and he turned to look at me questioningly. It became very clear that whatever Tara had just said had nothing to do with what was going on at the moment.
“What did you ask him?” Anna inquired.
“I think I asked what color he wanted his nails,” Tara answered.
“Why would you ask him that?” Paige asked with narrowed eyes.
“You wanted me to try,” Tara said with a shrug. “That was all I could remember.”
“Okay,” the brunette replied. “Well, that was no help.”
“Um, you’re welcome,” the platinum-blonde scoffed. “Geez, you could at least thank me for trying.”
Paige looked at Tara with narrowed, confused eyes before she shook her head, sighed, and turned back to me.
“I don’t know if we’ll get anything out of him,” she said with a frown.
“Let me try once more,” I said, and I ripped my tanto blade out of the guy’s leg.
He let out another gasp, and when he was done I held the knife up for him to see.
“What are your orders?” I asked slowly.
The guy looked at me with fear in his eyes, and he started to shake his head which made him cough up even more blood.
I held the knife up a little higher and raised an eyebrow, but he just shook his head more and started to whimper. Though whether it was out of pain or fear I wasn’t sure.
“What are your orders?” I asked.
This time he tried to answer, but it was all in Korean, and I had no idea what he was saying. It was disappointing, too, because I felt like he was being honest. He would have told me whatever I wanted to know at that point, but because of the language barrier I couldn’t understand him. At the moment he was most likely trying to explain that he would tell me whatever I wanted to know and begging me to spare his life.
I sighed and flipped the tanto to face upward in my hand before I quickly pushed it up under the guy’s chin.
His eyes were wide open as I yanked my knife out and wiped the blood off on his pants.
“Damn,” Tara said. “You would think they would at least know English if they were going to invade us.”
“What the hell does knowing English have to do with invading somewhere?” Anna asked condescendingly.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Tara replied sarcastically, “maybe it would be helpful to be able to communicate with the people you were trying to rule over? Like, duh.”
