Without law 20, p.21
Without Law 20, page 21
“It doesn’t sound good,” I said. “That’s for sure.”
“So, what’s our plan, Captain Ranger?” he asked. “We got the nuke, but something tells me you don’t want to drop it. I know I don’t.”
“I don’t, either,” I assured him. “Our only point in this mission was to get it away from the NK troops.”
“Right,” Ben agreed. “But you wouldn’t ask for me specifically if you didn’t have a job for me. So spill it, what do you got?”
“We think you can set off a chain reaction of the plasma blowing up,” I said.
“I like the sound of that,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“But I guess the two pilots we left with the General haven’t had any luck as far as using the MiGs,” I said. “They’ve--”
“Got anti-aircraft guns,” Ben said. “I heard. But if we all go in, we might be able to confuse them enough to get a shot off.”
“That’s what we were thinking, too,” I agreed.
“Don’t the NK troops think their guys were successful last night anyway?” Paige asked. “They probably won’t think twice about seeing the Apaches at first.”
“We can have Minji radio in and say she’s sending the Apaches as reinforcements,” Anna added.
“Good idea,” I told the girls, then I turned back to the radio. “The Apache has those plasma missiles. If you can hit one of their large tankers, it should have a large enough impact to break the glass and explode the tanker, which will then explode the smaller ones and so on and so forth.”
“We’re talking about a huge fucking explosion here, Tav,” he said. “I think it’s the best way to take down all the NK soldiers at once, but I can’t, in good conscience, go through with it with our boys anywhere nearby.”
“You told the soldier to make the NK troops think they were winning,” Paige said, and she swatted my arm with excitement. “We can tell our guys to retreat, and the NK troops will think we’re giving in. they’ll never see it coming.”
“Fuck, that’s brilliant,” Ben said.
“So, you think you and the other pilots can do it?” I asked.
“I’m sure we can,” he told me. “If they can distract them long enough for me to get a shot off, we’ve got this.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” I chuckled.
“Ready when you are,” he told me.
“Jerry,” I called out. “What’s our ETA?”
“Three minutes maybe,” the young soldier yelled back. “We’re nearly there.”
“We need to set this in motion,” I said. “We have to make sure our troops are out of there before we attack.”
“We we have our pilots and gunners ready, right?” Bailey asked.
“Yep, we’ll light them up before they know what hit ‘em,” I said.
“Hey, they’ll think we’re on their side anyway, right?” he chuckled.
“Right,” I agreed.
“Then let’s get this going,” Paige said with a small clap.
“Oh, my god,” Bailey breathed, and she stared past me with wide eyes as she covered her mouth with her hand.
“What is it?” I asked, and I spun around.
Through the window, I could see black smoke in the distance. The NK troops must have been firing their plasma weapons and nearly burning the place down with them trying to win.
“Minji,” I said. “Radio in that you’re sending the Apaches.”
“I’m on it,” the Korean woman said, and she rushed to the conductor’s cabin.
I held my own radio up to my mouth again so I could try and reach the soldiers with the General.
“General Lopez, come in,” I said. “General Lopez, come in.”
There was no response, and everything got so quiet I could hear my own breathing.
Just then the brakes of the train screeched, and we all lurched slightly with the force of the heavy cars coming to a stop.
“Tav, come in,” the General’s voice came over the radio.
“General,” I said. “We see the smoke, we’re coming.”
“We’re under heavy fire,” he said, and it sounded like he was running. “I don’t know how much longer we can hold these assholes off. They’ve got huge plasma tankers, and they’re giving us all they’ve got.”
“Don’t worry about holding them off,” I told him. “Get everyone out of there right now! We’ve got a plan, but we need you clear of the area.”
“They’re gonna think we’re retreating,” the General said.
“Let them,” I told him. “They’re all gonna be gone soon, sir. Get your men out of the area, now. Trust me.”
“Alright,” the General said through ragged breaths. “You better be right about this, Tavish.”
“At the risk of sounding cocky,” I said. “I always am, sir.”
“Fall back!” the general yelled to his men, then his voice became clear again as he spoke into the radio. “I’ll radio when we’re clear. Over and out.”
“He didn’t sound happy about them thinking we’re retreating,” Paige noted.
“He didn’t get to be the General of the Army by giving up,” I said with a half-smile.
“I guess that’s true.” The brunette nodded.
“This is perfect,” Tara said. “We’ve got them all in one place. This is exactly what they wanted to do to us, right?”
“Right,” I agreed. “The General said he thought they were trying to get all of us to come out in one area so they could just blast us all at once.”
“And now that’s what we’re going to do to them,” the platinum-blonde laughed.
“You know, sometimes I worry about you.” Paige shook her head.
“Yeah, you get pleasure from the most twisted shit,” Anna chuckled.
“You watch scary movies for fun.” Tara glared at the redhead.
“Yeah, but I don’t laugh about thousands of people dying,” Anna pointed out.
“Ehhh, they’re assholes.” Tara shrugged.
“Fair point.” Anna nodded.
“I worry about you, too,” Paige said as she raised an eyebrow at the redhead.
“It’s a good point.” Anna shrugged. “They are assholes.”
The train lurched once more, and the squeal of the brakes filled the air as the cars finally came to a full stop.
As soon as the train came to a halt, I opened the door to the back platform and stepped out.
Hammer and the rest of the SEALs were there with the jeeps, and they’d clearly been waiting on us for a little bit. The Lieutenant leaned against the hood of the jeep and flashed us a wide grin.
“Took ya long enough,” he joked.
“No time to fuck with you,” I chuckled. “We’ve gotta go save the country.”
“That right?” he asked.
“We good?” Ben asked as he came out of the train car with the other pilots and gunners behind him.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I grinned.
I had to admit, I wanted to get up in the sky and see what was going on with our boys, but there wasn’t much room in the Apaches and I was neither a pilot nor a trained gunner so I there wasn’t a reason to go. But as long as our ground forces retreated like I’d instructed, this plan should go off without a hitch.
“Let’s take these assholes down once and for all.” Ben grinned and his pilot flipped some switches so the chopper whirred to life.
I knew Minji had taken care of her part of this, and the General was taking care of his part. Everyone else just had to hang tight. I didn’t want them anywhere near this mess.
Once they were in the air, I looked around at the girls. They cheered and waved, and I shook my head and smiled at them. Their support made me remember just what I’d been fighting for all this time.
Before the EMP had hit and the world turned to some strange chaotic place filled with monsters, I hadn’t felt like I had much left to fight for. I’d fought for my country in Afghanistan and Iraq, but I didn’t have much outside of that. I had my military buddies, but most of them had stayed in the service when I’d gotten out, so for a while, I'd felt so alone. That was why I’d decided to go to the woods by myself in the first place. I wanted to understand myself more, to figure out what I wanted to fight for in my own life.
I’d fought for my country, and I’d do it again and again if I needed to, but I didn’t have anything to personally fight for. Not until I met the girls, at least.
I hadn’t even felt the need to fight for myself up until that point. I’d long ago come to terms with the fact that I could be killed in the service, and that I’d die with honor defending my country. The thought barely registered to me anymore.
After I met the four of them, though, that had all changed. I cared if I lived or died. I wanted to live for them, and to live with them. I wanted us to be together and to be comfortable and in love like we were.
It was a love I’d never felt about anyone else before. I’d had girlfriends, sure, but nothing like them. This was different, and I knew it from the moment I’d met them. They were fierce, complicated, and beautiful women, and I was so incredibly lucky to have found them.
I had an innate need to protect them, and that was exactly what I would do, today, and every other day. I’d make sure our children would grow up in a country that was still our own, and that they would have every opportunity to become kind, loving human beings.
The chopper flew off over the disheveled city of Atlanta, and I took in the sight of the collapsed buildings and the dirt and dust that littered the entire area.
The NK troops had done a number on the city, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as Birmingham.
Just seeing it made my blood boil, though, and I grew even more excited about what we were about to do.
“General, come in,” I said as I pulled my walkie up to my mouth to speak into it.
“Tav!” the General yelled over the roar of battle. “We’re clear!”
“You’re sure?” I asked. “All the troops are out of the area?”
“I’m positive,” he assured me. “We’re all cleared out. We’re making our way back to base camp now.”
“We’ll meet you there,” I told him. “And whatever you do, keep going. Don’t look back.”
“Roger that, Ranger,” he said.
“Ready?” I asked as I spoke to ben through the walkie talkie.
“We are ready,” he replied back.
I’d served in the military, and I’d fought overseas, but I’d never seen anything like this except in a movie. These assholes had grossly underestimated us, and they were going to pay for it now. They’d believed Minji when she’d pretended to be one of them and told them their operation to take back the train had been successful, and they’d believed her again when she’d told them she was sending Apaches to assist in the battle. They clearly didn’t think very much of us Americans if they were so willing to believe we’d be that easy to overthrow.
Around the world, we had a reputation for being loud and obnoxious, but we also had a reputation for being tough as nails and ready to lay down our lives for our country.
“I’m ready whenever you are,” Ben told me through the speaker.
“Let’s do it, fire at will.” I smiled and took my binoculars out. I put them up to my eyes and just as I did I was able to see the detonation of the big plasma tank that Ben had gunned for.
The explosion was huge, like a new giant blue star was suddenly born right here on Earth, and I hoped that they were able to get far enough away to avoid being caught in it.
I stared at the scene near the horizon through my binoculars and watched as a huge chain of explosions was set off as the plasma fireball daisy-chained into the next plasma source.
I could barely see the ant-like forms of some soldiers attempting to flee further down the line, but it was only a matter of seconds until the next tanker exploded, and they were vaporized like the rest of their team.
Blue fire filled the air before us, followed directly by huge, billowing clouds of black smoke.
The entire area was one massive smoke bomb, and I smiled to myself as I took in the fact that there was no way the enemy soldiers were going to survive an explosion like that.
If any did manage to make it out alive, which I highly doubted, they’d be few and far between, and certainly nothing for us to worry about.
We still had a little bit of work to do, but we’d just taken out the majority of the NK troops.
I turned to my girls and looked into each of their smiling faces as they cried tears of happiness, and the enormity of the scene nearly brought me to tears as well.
We’d officially won this war.
Chapter 14
I stepped onto the train platform and breathed in the sweet California air.
It had been a month since we’d taken out the NK troops in Atlanta, and during the interim, we’d sought out any small groups of enemy soldiers that had tried to flee before the big battle and taken them out.
We’d also gone along their supply route and taken out any troops posted at pit stops between Atlanta and Los Angeles.
There hadn’t been many, but we’d made sure to take no prisoners. The North Koreans were in full retreat, but I knew there still had to be some soldiers left in Los Angeles, and I was determined to exterminate every last one of these assholes. I’d joined this war, and I was going to finish it.
Between Atlanta and Los Angeles had been some of the worst destruction I’d ever seen.
Entire cities were leveled, with nothing left standing except maybe a streetlight or two, but usually there was nothing. The entire western side of the country was a desolate wasteland, and I couldn’t imagine how long it was going to take us to rebuild our country after this. We’d probably lost ninety percent of our citizens, and while I was sure a few had survived here and there, they’d never be the same.
Once we got rid of any remaining NK troops, that was when we could actually start to rebuild, which was why the girls and I were here with the rest of our team.
The General was in Atlanta holding down the fort there with some of his men to begin humanitarian operations, but we’d hooked up several more trains to ours, so we had a much larger convoy to take on any threats we found here.
I didn’t expect it to be much, but I knew there had to be a small force remaining over here.
The NK soldiers’ supplies were coming from somewhere, and it was most likely here.
The girls and I had also managed to find some orders that talked about a supply shipment from Los Angeles, so we knew those bastards were here somewhere.
Now, we just had to find them.
“Look out!” Tara yelled, and she rushed past me to the edge of the platform and threw her head over the edge of it.
I grimaced and looked away as the platinum-blonde tossed her cookies.
Her morning sickness still hadn’t let up, but otherwise her pregnancy had been progressing well. Now, she even had a small swell starting to show on her belly.
It was tiny, of course, since she wasn’t a large girl, and she wasn’t very far along yet, either, but it was there.
“Sorry,” she said, and she wiped her face and turned to me.
Even after just vomiting, she looked like a supermodel, and while the pregnancy hadn’t let up with her sickness, she had certainly developed the pregnancy glow so many people talk about.
Her skin was beautifully flushed, and her hair and nails were growing like crazy.
“Are you alright?” I asked as I pulled her to me and rested my chin on the top of her head.
“Yeah,” she sighed against my chest. “Stupid baby always making me throw up all the time.” She glared down at her stomach. “I’m giving you life, you know, the least you could do is be nice.”
“Hey,” I said, and I got down on one knee so I was face to face with her tiny baby bump. “Be nice to your mommy, she loves you.”
“Awww, oh, my god, stop,” Tara said, and she pulled on my arms to lift me up. “You’re gonna make me cry.”
“You cry at everything,” Anna said as she, Paige, Bailey, and Minji walked out onto the platform.
“No, I don’t!” Tara protested, but she turned away to try and hide the fact that she was wiping away her tears.
“Oh, my god,” Anna laughed and rolled her eyes. “What did you do this time?”
“Yeah, wasn’t last time because you told her she was pretty?” Paige snickered.
“The word he used was ‘gorgeous,’ thank you very much,” Tara scoffed as she finished wiping away her tears.
“Aww, I think it’s sweet.” Bailey smiled. “It’s okay to cry, you’re pregnant.”
“Yeah, it’s starting to show finally, too,” Anna said with a point at Tara’s belly.
“You’re just jealous because you don’t have a cute little baby bump,” the platinum-blonde sniffed.
“It is pretty cute,” Anna said with a smile. “But I’ll have one soon enough.”
“Wait, you’re pregnant, too?” Tara asked, and her light-brown eyes grew wide with excitement and emotion.
“Noooo.” Anna held her hands up and shook her head. “Not yet. But I want a baby, too. They’ll be so cute.”
“Ohhhh, little redheaded Tav baby,” Paige cooed. “So precious.”
“I don’t know.” Minji pursed her lips. “Tav has dark hair, they might not have red hair, it is a recessive gene.”
“So is blonde.” Bailey nodded.
“Wait, are you saying my baby might have brown hair?” Tara asked.
“It’s possible,” Paige agreed.
“Your dad’s hair is really white like yours, too, though,” Minji said. “So that recessive gene is obviously kind of strong, but still, there’s no guarantee it’ll beat out the dominant gene.”
“Sooooo, you’re telling me that I’m gonna do all this work and my baby’s just gonna come out looking exactly like Tav?” Tara asked. “I don’t get anything here?”
“Isn’t that always the complaint?” Minji laughed.
“That’s what my mom always said,” Bailey chuckled. “She did all the work, and we had the audacity to come out looking like our father.”
“So, your dominant genes are just going to overpower all of ours.” Tara glared at me.
