Without law 16, p.4
Without Law 16, page 4
“I bet we could find some freaky stuff,” she said with a grin. “I’m pretty sure that storage units are where serial killers keep all their trophies and stuff.”
“Somehow I think you might be right about that,” I chuckled.
“Hey!” Anna’s voice called out, and Tara and I headed out to the road.
“You find something?” I hollered when I didn’t see Anna waiting for us.
“Over here!” Paige said, and she appeared out from a garage across the street a couple of houses down. “We found something.”
Tara and I headed over to the house and into the garage where the girls were.
“We found a trailer,” Paige said. “But it’s not very big.”
I looked at the small ten foot hauling trailer. So far it was the only one we’d found, and though it was much smaller than I’d have preferred, I thought that we could make it work if we tried hard enough. We had plenty of ratchet straps, and if we were strategic with how we placed things then it shouldn’t be an issue.
We could keep looking for a larger one, but this one was ready and available, and if we continued to search the neighborhood then that would just take up extra time and there was no guarantee that it would pay off. This could potentially be the only trailer around the area, like I had told Tara, a lot of people probably put their trailers and things away during the winter time. This small trailer didn’t take up much room, though, so I could see why the homeowners would just leave it inside the garage all year round.
“Do you think we can fit everything in it?” Tara asked as she walked around the trailer and checked it out.
“I think we should try,” I said. “We don’t need to waste more time looking when there’s no guarantee we’ll find something better.”
“Fair enough,” the platinum-blonde said with a nod. “Let’s get this baby back over to the jeeps.”
The trailer was light, so I grabbed the hitch end and led it out of the garage.
The girls moved to help, but when they realized that I was perfectly capable of carrying it myself, they just fell into line with me instead.
It was already afternoon at that point, and the sun hung low in the sky. Summer was coming to an end, and the days were ever so slowly getting shorter and shorter. Once winter hit, it wouldn’t be light out past three in the afternoon.
At the moment we still had several hours of daylight left, and if we were quick, then we could get the supplies loaded and be on the road in no time. We still had to swing by the arsenal, but I really didn’t want to end up staying the night there. We’d been away from home for over a week, and I was itching to get back to the comfort of our campus and the people there. I missed Kimmy and baby Anthony as well as Rolly and Betty and the rest of the crew.
If we hurried, then we could get home just as it got dark. That wasn’t ideal since I didn’t like to drive with my headlights on, but I knew the roads back home well enough that I was confident we wouldn’t have any run-ins while we were on our way back. The NK soldiers and patrol units weren’t likely to head that far north, and it had been a while since we’d seen anyone new in our area. Most people had headed south a long time ago, and those that remained tended to keep to themselves as a sort of unspoken rule. Hell, we hadn’t even known that the women’s compound was near us until we had a common enemy with them.
We got the trailer hitched up to the jeep quickly, and once that was done we started to strategically stack all of our weapons and supplies into the trailer, including the other two plasma guns that wouldn’t fit on the top of my jeep. We were even able to fit in the toys that Bailey and I had picked up for the kids.
All the trailer really had to do was get us to the arsenal. We had a large trailer there waiting for us. It was already piled high with weapons, and it was much larger than this small ten footer we currently had. It wouldn’t be any problem to add the supplies from the small trailer to the larger one. Then all we had to do was hook it up to the jeep and haul it home.
After the trailer was fully stacked with supplies, I headed out to the road and called for Bailey. I wasn’t sure where she and the Cadets were since I hadn’t stopped to watch her find a good vantage point, but I knew they had to be somewhere close.
“Bailey,” I called again. “We’re ready to go!”
“Be right there,” her voice called back, and I could tell that she was down the road a ways.
I waited and watched as she and the two Cadets came out of a large house at the end of the block. I glanced over the house and saw that it had windows on both of the sides of the top floor that were visible to me. That must have been why she chose it. A lot of the other houses with second floors only had windows at their front ends, and probably the back ends, too, though I couldn’t see those. But most of them didn’t have windows on the sides, so that would have been a large area that was out of view for her and the Cadets.
I was constantly amazed and impressed by the girls and how far they’d come since I had first found them. Sniping skills had come easily for Bailey, though it was ironic that the pacifist of the group was the best shot. Still, her instincts never ceased to amaze me. She always knew the best place to be and exactly how to get the right view. And having the Cadets around made her job a little easier at times. She didn’t have to make sure that she was keeping an eye out 360 degrees, instead she could focus on her designated area and let the Cadets focus on theirs. And if anything happened that the Cadets couldn’t handle, she could easily step in and take control.
Also, I loved my second in command, but Anna tended to have a hard way about her when it came to training. I think it came from so many years being the captain of athletic teams. She was pushy, though encouraging. But Bailey had a softer touch with the Cadets, and Missy in particular responded well to that.
I hadn’t often thought of Bailey as a leader, she was more of a lone wolf when it came to the pack. Being the sniper meant being unintentionally ostracized from the rest of the group. It came with the territory. Because of that, I’d never really thought of Bailey as someone who would help me lead. Of course, Anna was still my second in command, but I’d already decided that the blonde deadeye would have a large part in helping to train the Cadets.
“How was it?” I asked Bailey when she and the Cadets were close enough that I didn’t have to shout. “Did you see anything?”
“We saw one patrol,” she said. “But it was closer to the city.”
“Is it still in the area?” I asked, and my eyes narrowed with intensity and concern.
“No,” Bailey assured me. “It surveyed a few streets then headed back into town. They must have figured we’d be out of the area by now.”
“Okay,” I agreed with a nod, but I still wanted to get out of the city limits as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to have another run-in with any patrols. We’d had enough action for the day. All I wanted to do was get all of us home so we could breathe for a second before we had to rush off to the next battle, whenever that might be.
“Alright,” I said with a clap once we were all standing around the jeep. “Let’s get going.”
“Uh, alright,” Tara said. “So how are we doing this?”
“The back seats will sit three,” Paige said. “And we can probably fit two into the hatchback area as well. Plus the driver and passenger seat. That should be all of us.”
“Cadets ride in the back!” Tara exclaimed, and she crawled into the back seat.
“Hey!” Missy chuckled.
“Get in the back, newbie,” Tara teased.
“I don’t mind,” Michael said with a shrug. “This is how my friends and I used to ride around.”
“Really?” Anna laughed. “How many of you were there?”
“We fit ten of us into a station wagon one time,” the young man said with a grin, as if he was proud of that strange feat.
“I’m guessing only one of you had a license at the time?” Paige chuckled.
“You’d be guessing correctly,” he laughed.
I shook my head and hopped into the driver’s seat while Anna crawled in next to me.
Soon enough we were all squeezed in and seated. I did a quick check in my rearview mirror to make sure that everything on the trailer seemed stable before I turned the key over and pulled out onto the road. The materials on the trailer bounced along behind us, and I kept a good eye on them for the first few minutes, but after a while I figured they were okay. Besides, the Cadets were facing out the back window, so if anything fell off they’d see it and let me know.
The sun shone through the windshield, and I stared out at the empty road ahead of us as we drove along. My mind was racing with everything that had just happened and everything that was going to happen next. The girls and I had been through a lot together, but this was something else. This was real war, not just handling some crazy assholes who had taken over a college campus or decided to take some citizens hostage. This was a real battle now, and I was both proud and terrified for my girls.
They were strong, fierce women, and as much as I didn’t want them to have to fight, I knew that they wanted to defend everything that they’d built. Our community had become large and self sustaining, but it had gotten that way through our hard work and dedication. There was no way that any of us were about to let it get taken away.
We were nearly halfway to the arsenal when I looked back into the rearview and realized that nobody had talked since we’d left Boston. The Cadets leaned against the back walls of the jeep and stared out behind us. Tara stared out the window in the backseat, and Bailey leaned her head on Paige’s shoulder as they both stared straight out the windshield. Anna popped her knuckles and stretched before she crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat.
“How is everyone feeling?” I asked.
I didn’t like when the girls were quiet. It made me feel the need to check in with them. Most of the time they were talking about some silly thing or another, so to have them be so silent and contemplative was almost scary.
A minute went by, and nobody answered my question so I caught their eyes in the rearview mirror and raised an eyebrow.
“Is nobody going to talk?” I asked. “Come on, you guys are freaking me out being so quiet.”
“I think I’m just tired,” Bailey said softly.
“That’s more than understandable,” I said. “We’ve been through a lot over the past few days.”
“That’s an understatement,” Tara chuckled.
“It is,” I agreed. “That’s why I wanted to check on you all and make sure you’re doing okay. I know it’s been stressful.”
“I’m ready to be home,” Paige said. “This is the longest that we’ve been away from our people since we all found each other.”
“You’re right,” I said with a soft smile. “I miss them, too.”
“I can’t wait to see baby Anthony,” Bailey added with a smile of her own. “I bet he’s grown just since we’ve been gone.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I chuckled.
“You guys have a baby at camp?” Missy gasped.
“Yeah,” Anna said. “He’s just over a year old now, but he was maybe five or six months old when he and his mom came to live with us.”
“That’s so cool,” Missy said with a smile. “I can’t believe she had a baby after everything with the EMP. That must have been so hard.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t easy,” I agreed.
“I can’t wait to meet him,” the Cadet said. “I love babies. I worked at a daycare when I was in high school.”
“They let high school kids work in daycares?” Tara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I wasn’t one of the actual caretakers,” Missy chuckled. “My job was to clean up and organize, but the caretakers let me help with craft times and stuff. All the kids loved me. They were so cute.”
“Hm,” Anna mused. “That’s not the job I would have pegged for you.”
“What do you mean?” Missy asked with a frown.
“Nothing bad,” the redhead said. “You just seem like you were probably kind of a badass military babe in high school. I’m surprised to hear that you worked with kids is all.”
“I wasn’t really a badass,” she chuckled. “Pretty much everyone where I was from knew how to shoot. It was a small town, that’s just how it goes.”
“I guess that’s fair,” Anna said with a nod. “I didn’t know anything about guns until Tav taught us, but I was more of an athletic girl. It’s always interesting to see how everyone else grew up, especially when we all eventually wound up in the same place.”
I smiled as the girls chatted. They were somewhat back to normal now, which was how I liked it. Their talking was a constant in my life that I could depend on, and I didn’t like when it wasn’t there anymore.
“So, what does everyone think the orders are going to say?” Michael asked when there was a lag in the conversation.
“Hm,” Anna said. “I hadn’t thought about it, but if I had to guess I’d bet that it says they need to wait for the other troops to arrive by boat, then they’ll all head inland to try and meet up with the troops that originally landed in California.”
“That’s not a bad guess,” I told the redhead with a smile.
“That’s what I would do if I was them,” she said with a shrug.
“I don’t know,” Paige mused. “I think it might tell them to meet up with more troops somewhere else along the eastern shore. We’ve already theorized that there’s other small armies littered up and down the coastline. If so, then wouldn’t it make sense for them to all get together?”
“That’s a good point, too,” I said with a nod.
“What if it just says something super dumb?” Tara asked.
“What do you mean?” Paige asked. “These are clearly official orders.”
“Maybe,” the platinum-blonde said with a shrug. “Or maybe it’s the lunch schedule for the week.”
“What the fuck,” Anna laughed.
“Yeah,” Paige chuckled. “I don’t think that’s right.”
“You don’t know,” Tara said. “You won’t know for sure until the orders are translated. It could totally be something stupid like that.”
“Somehow I kind of doubt that armies send out lunch schedules,” the brunette replied with a raised eyebrow.
“It doesn’t have to be the lunch schedule,” Tara said with an eye roll. “But it could be something stupid like that.”
“Tara’s right,” Bailey said, and she bit her lip.
“Really, Bails?” Paige chuckled.
“Not about the lunch thing,” the blonde laughed. “But I mean, she does have a point. We can’t say for sure what the orders say until we translate them. They could be something mundane that doesn’t help us at all.”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “There’s always that potential, but it’s better to try and have it be something mundane than to not try and have it be something important.”
“How long will it take you to translate it?” Micheal asked.
“I’m not sure,” Paige said. “It shouldn’t take too long, but I also don’t know very much about Korean, so we’ll see.”
“Give her an hour, she’ll get it done,” Anna said, and she turned around to wink at Paige.
“Yeah, right,” the brunette laughed. “It might take me that long to find the reference book.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” the redhead chuckled.
“Maybe not,” Paige said. “But if I don’t make promises, then nobody can be mad if I don’t deliver on them.”
“Yeah, but you always do deliver,” Bailey said.
“And now you guys expect it,” Paige teased. “What have I done?”
“It’s not our fault you’re smart,” Tara said with a shrug. “Shouldn’t have studied so much.”
“I’m sure that’s exactly what did it,” Paige laughed. “All that studying.”
“It couldn’t have helped,” Tara said seriously, then she looked at Paige, and they both busted out laughing.
I smiled to myself as I stared out the windshield and hit the gas pedal harder. I wanted to get us home, and the fastest way to do that was to get us to the arsenal quickly. If it got too dark before we arrived, then we’d probably have to stay the night, and I didn’t want to do that. It had been a long week, and I wanted nothing more than to curl up into bed with all my girls around me and enjoy a nice glass of bourbon.
As we drove the sky got darker, but it wasn’t just because of the time of day, it looked like a storm was headed our way. The clouds in front of us were dark gray, and I rolled my window up because the air outside got to be too cold for comfort.
We hadn’t had much rain since summer began, so a little bit would be a welcome relief. Plus, if it was raining on our way home, then I knew for sure that nobody would be out and about. Anybody with any sort of sense would find somewhere warm to shelter until the storm passed. Vermont rain was nothing to mess around with, especially this late in the day. If someone stayed out in it too long they would no doubt get hypothermia, or at the very least they’d get sick and be out of commission for a while. If they were on their own that could be the end of them. In this kind of world it was important to get out and gather supplies and food, and if that couldn’t be done, then death was inevitable. It wasn’t a matter of if but rather when.
I pulled into the wooded area by the arsenal where we had hidden the supplies and hoped that they were still there.
“We’re in the correct spot, right?” Anna asked after we drove through the woods for a moment.
“I believe so,” I said with a nod as I scanned the area.
“Over there!” Bailey exclaimed, and she pointed to the left.
I turned my head to see that she was right, through a grove of trees I could just barely see the metal of the trailer and the blue tarp we had put over the weapons on top of it. I must have turned a little bit too early, but the woods tended to all look fairly similar, especially since they were woods that I wasn’t particularly familiar with.
