by Eric Vall
“Will do,” Rolly nodded and finished off his coffee.
“Yup,” Paige gave me a thumbs up.
I headed to the dorm room to gather supplies for my day trip with Anna. I put on my vest, grabbed two magazines for my pistol, and a spare magazine for my rifle as well. Then I filled my bag with a couple canned goods, but I realized then that I had forgotten to make breakfast for the team, so I grabbed a couple granola bars for Anna and me and threw them in my pack along with two water bottles.
Anna was standing by the trucks when I made my way to the courtyard. She had on a black athletic tank top, a pair of dark skinny jeans, and she had her vest on, but unclasped.
“Finish doing up your vest,” I told her.
“Alright,” she nodded. “This thing just gets so annoying.”
“It does,” I laughed. “But it just might save your life.”
“Well let’s hope I don’t get shot again,” she chuckled and held up her still wrapped wound.
“Battle scars are sexy,” I grinned. “You ready?”
“Ready,” she grinned back, then she tossed her bag in the truck.
“We’re going to bring the trailer too,” I told her, and I moved to hook up the trailer to the military truck.
“Okay,” she nodded, then she helped me position the trailer and put it in place. “We should grab the gas cans too.”
“Good thinking,” I told her. “I know a few are empty. We’ll see if we can fill them up while we’re out.”
Anna loaded the gas cans in the back of the truck, then she hopped in, and I fired up the vehicle.
“I’m happy to get out of the campus for a bit,” Anna smiled once we hit the highway.
“You weren’t too happy about being left behind then?” I chuckled.
“I always like to be where the action is,” she said.
“Well you are my second in command,” I reminded her. “Sometimes you have to watch over the troops while I go on missions.”
“I know,” she smiled. “But I wouldn’t mind a few missions of my own from time to time.”
“I’m sure we can work something out.” I smiled back at her.
“I can offer you sexual favors if that would help?” Anna said with a raised brow.
“That might just do the trick,” I chuckled. It had been awhile since I’d made love to one of my women, and her comment stirred my erection a bit.
“So, what do you think of our plan so far, Major?” I asked with a wry smile to keep myself from staring at her toned body.
“Major?” Anna asked, and she cocked her head at me.
“Second in command,” I smiled.
“I’ll take it,” she grinned. “And I think our plan is good so far. Any plan that doesn’t include us freezing our butts off like last year is good with me.”
“Glad to hear it,” I laughed.
“I think Briar will come around too,” she said and she looked out the window.
“What makes you so sure?” I asked.
“He’s a stubborn old man,” she chuckled. “But he’s not stupid. He reminds me of my grandpa some.”
“How so?” I smiled.
“Strong willed,” she shook her head. “My grandpa never wanted to be a burden either. And he always had to do things on his own.”
“Not wanting to be a burden doesn’t seem like a bad thing,” I commented.
“It’s not,” she said. “But it can become a bad thing when you won’t allow people to help you who want to.”
“That’s true,” I said.
“But I think that’s why he’ll come around,” she smiled. “He’s been staying with Marla and Justin, and I don’t think he’d ever admit it, but I can see that he likes being around them.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked. “I didn’t notice anything.”
“He loves those boys,” Anna said. “He was watching them play with Winchester last night.”
“I didn’t notice,” I said, but I smiled at the thought of the gruff old farmer watching the boys play.
“That’s why you have a second in command,” Anna grinned. “Somebody has to pick up your slack.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call that slack,” I laughed.
“Close enough.” Anna shrugged, and she flashed me a grin.
We drove in silence for a few minutes, then a sign on our right told us we had arrived in Brownsville.
“It doesn’t look like much here,” Anna commented. “Somehow it seemed bigger on the map.”
“It is small,” I chuckled, and I drove past the sign and down the highway further until we came to some buildings.
“It looks like there’s a junkyard over there,” Anna said, and she pointed to our right. “You think we can find some gas?”
“Maybe,” I said, and I pursed my lips. “But let’s see if we can find a gas station first.”
“Good call,” she said.
“There’s a farm supply store,” I said, and I pointed further up the road.
“Let’s see what we can find,” Anna grinned at me.
I pulled the truck over a little way down from the store, then I made sure my pistol was loaded and hopped out of the truck.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s around,” I said. “But we don’t want to take any chances.”
“Right,” Anna nodded, and she chambered a round in her pistol.
“I’ll go left, you go right,” I told her as we walked up to the storefront.
“Got it,” she said, then I pushed open the heavy wooden door and flanked left.
“Holy shit!” a man’s voice yelled, and it was followed by the sound of tools hitting the floor.
“It’s okay,” I said, and I took in the sight of four terrified men. It seemed Anna and I had startled them when we came in, but I didn’t see any firearms on them, so I didn’t want to attack them for no reason.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” one of the guys asked, and I could hear that his breathing was heavy.
“We’re out looting,” I told him, but I didn’t lower my pistol. “Same as you, I reckon. We can just divide up the things here and call it even.”
“No way,” one of the guys said with a thick French Canadian accent. “We were here first. It’d be even if you just left and let us have our score.”
“I’m sorry,” I scoffed. “I’m the one with the gun here, so I figured offering you half was more than fair given your position.”
“Fuck this, man!” a small yellow haired man yelled, and he took off toward the back of the store. “I’m not going to die today!”
I stared in disbelief at the coward who had run to the back, I hadn’t even really threatened them yet. I heard one of the other men move and looked over to see a brown-haired man leap at me with a pathetic pocketknife that he clutched incorrectly. I took him down with a single shot, then turned to see Anna’s face go into battle mode, her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed to slits.
“Okay,” I called out to the others. “Anyone else want to try that?”
I waited a moment, but there was no answer. The general store was fairly large, and it seemed the guys thought hiding was the best way to get out of this. Since their buddy attacked me, I had no way of knowing if the others had weapons as well, but I figured I would give them one chance to leave.
“If you leave now, I’ll let you go peacefully,” I hollered. “If you choose not to leave, you’re going to wind up like your friend.”
“Let’s do a sweep,” I whispered to Anna after I had waited for a moment and received no response.
“Got it,” the redhead nodded to me.
“You good to sweep the right side alone?” I asked.
“I think I can handle it,” Anna grinned.
“Meet me at the back of the store when you’re done,” I told her and I pointed ahead.
“See you on the other side,” Anna smiled and gave me a sloppy salute before she raised her pistol and moved swiftly up the right side of the store.
> I headed up the left side and paused to sweep each aisle before moving forward.
“Clear so far over here,” I hollered. “How’s your side?”
“Good so far,” Anna called back, but it was followed with, “Oh shit.”
I heard a scuffle, and I whipped around and headed toward the redhead, but I didn’t see her anymore, so I figured she must be on the ground. That was good, it meant that these guys didn’t have firearms, but it was also bad because he probably had a knife. Anna knew how to defend herself, but if the guy had caught her off guard, I didn’t want him to overpower her.
“Where are you?” I called out as I ran through the aisles. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I prayed that she’d answer.
“Down here!” Anna yelled with a strained voice, and I followed the sound and found her on the ground fighting with one of the men.
The guy did have a knife, but his technique was poor, and he was attempting to push it into Anna’s chest, but she had a hold on his hands and was keeping it at bay.
I wasn’t going to give him the option of defeat, this asshole had attacked one of my girls, and he was about to pay. I raised my pistol, but he was moving too much, and I didn’t want Anna caught in the crossfire, so I reached for my knife instead and I grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back. Then I slid my knife across his throat, and he half gurgled a scream before his body went limp, then I looked down to see Anna covered in blood.
“You could’ve warned me,” she said and she grabbed a roll of paper towels off the shelf next to her and ripped them open.
“Sorry,” I chuckled. “Let me help you.”
I grabbed the paper towels from her and used water from my pack to wet one and wipe her face off.
“Great,” she said, “now I’m going to get a disease.”
“You aren’t going to get a disease,” I laughed. “None got in your eyes or mouth. You’ll be fine. Besides, you’ve had plenty of blood on you before.”
“I guess that’s true,” she chuckled.
“Sorry I didn’t warn you,” I smiled at the redhead.
“It’s okay,” she smiled back. “I wouldn’t have said anything either. If somebody on my team was attacked, I would’ve done exactly what you did.”
“That’s why you’re the major,” I grinned and I finished wiping the blood from her neck.
“If I’m the major then what does that make you?” she asked. “The captain?”
“More like a general,” I laughed.
“I don’t like that,” she said, and her face twisted like she had smelled something foul. “I like captain better.”
“Captain it is,” I grinned, and I let her keep the name, I figured there was no point in telling her that a Major outranks a Captain.
“Aye aye captain,” she said, and she gave me a salute.
“That’s why you wanted captain, isn’t it?” I chuckled.
“Yup,” she grinned, and the movement reminded me of how hardened my women had become. I’d just murdered a man and sprayed his blood all over her, but she was still making jokes and ready to kill again.
Capable warrior women were so hot.
“Alright,” I smiled, and I stood up, then stretched out a hand to Anna. “I think there’s a couple more guys in here.”
“We’re gone,” I heard a male voice call out, and I turned to see him and another man trying to sneak to the door.
“Yeah,” the other guy said, and he held his arms up in a show of surrender. “We’re leaving, please don’t shoot.”
“Go then,” I growled and I lifted my pistol.
The two men scurried out the door, and I turned to see Anna looking at me with a raised brow.
“That attack got you all fired up huh?” she said with a wry smile.
“I don’t like my team being in danger,” I shrugged.
“I didn’t like it very much either,” she laughed, then she reached out and touched my shoulder. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” I said. “It’s my job to protect you.”
“I think it’s more my job to protect myself,” she said with a lopsided smile. “But I can only do that thanks to you.”
“You were doing well on your own,” I smiled. “I just wasn’t going to take any chances.”
“The idiot was trying to push it through my vest,” she said with an eye roll.
“Nobody said people would be smart in the end of the world,” I shrugged.
“No,” she chuckled. “But you would think the smart ones would survive.”
“They do,” I smiled. “But the idiots are often not above doing things that a smart person does.”
“Ah, so they only survive until their stupidity gets them killed,” she laughed.
“Pretty much,” I chuckled. “I mean they can’t all just drop dead as soon as shit starts to go down.”
“I suppose not,” she smiled. “But it would be nice if they did.”
“Yes, it would,” I laughed, and I walked toward the front door. “Come on, let’s lock this door, then we’ll look through this place.”
“Oh my god, does that door lock?” she asked, and her eyes widened incredulously when I clicked the lock in place.
“Why didn’t they lock it?” she asked, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well, as you said before, they’re idiots,” I laughed.
“This is a whole new level of idiot,” she chuckled.
“It won’t necessarily keep anyone out,” I told her. “But it will alert us if anyone tries to come in.”
“Shouldn’t we move their bodies out?” she asked.
“Not right now,” I shrugged. “They aren’t in our way yet.”
“Good enough for me,” the redhead replied, and she started to look through the shelves.
“Looks like there’s some good stuff in here,” I said as I looked at the shelves.
“They have saddles,” Anna called out. “And other horse stuff.”
“Horse stuff?” I laughed as I walked to where the redhead stood.
“Well I don’t know what it’s called,” she shrugged.
“Saddles would be nice,” I said. “But they aren’t necessary. More harnesses and rope are always a good thing though.”
“Why aren’t the saddles necessary?” Anna asked with a raised brow.
“Well riding bareback will teach you all to ride very carefully,” I told her. “When you don’t have a saddle, the horse feels everything so you’re more aware of your movements.”
“Oh,” she nodded. “Does it hurt more though?”
“No,” I laughed. “I mean saddles are more comfortable I suppose, but I prefer bareback.”
“Oh, I know,” the redhead said, and she gave me a wink. “Me too.”
“Will the bareback jokes ever end?” I chuckled.
“Yes,” she grinned. “When they stop being funny, but that might take a while.”
“You might have to warn Tara when the time comes,” I laughed.
“Oh, she’ll be the first to know,” Anna smiled.
“If they have harnesses and rope, I bet they have some feed,” I said, and I moved through the aisles to look for horse feed.
“I don’t think they have hay here,” Anna said with a raised brow.
“No,” I chuckled. “But they might have some sweet feed.”
“What is sweet feed?” Anna asked.
“That is,” I smiled and pointed at the shelf full of bags.
“That’s a lot of horse feed,” Anna said, and she whistled low.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “But it won’t be enough to last the winter.”
“Really?” Anna asked. “It seems like a lot.”
“It is,” I said. “But we’ll have the farmers’ livestock as well. We can feed them this throughout the winter, but we’ll still need hay to feed them too.”
“So, we’ll take all these bags though?” the redhead asked.
“Yeah,” I nod
ded. “But let’s look around a bit more and see what else is in here.”
“I’ll leave the horse stuff up to you,” Anna smiled.
“I can do that,” I laughed, then I headed back to the bridles and leads.
I picked out four bridles and eight more leads, then I made my way to the register and grabbed a bag to put them in. I checked out the rest of the aisles and found some salt blocks for the horses, and in the back of the store I also found a couple large feeding and watering troughs.
“I found a bunch of canning jars,” Anna called, and I made my way over to her.
“Perfect,” I said. “We’ll take those. I also found some troughs and some salt blocks that we’ll take.”
“I’m not even going to ask what a salt block is,” Anna said, and she shook her head. “Just tell me what to load.”
“Let’s start with the feed,” I laughed.
Anna and I made quick work of the bags of sweet feed, we loaded them into the trailer, and threw in all the salt blocks that would fit, then we put the feeding troughs in the back of the truck and loaded the mason jars next to them. I was happy I had chosen her to go on the run with me, she was strong, and she didn’t get tired as quickly as the other girls, not that they complained most of the time, but it was nice to have a partner that could match my speed.
“You don’t think they’ll break on the drive back, do you?” Anna asked.
“I think they’ll be okay,” I said. “But we’ll be careful.”
“Okay,” she nodded. “Is there anything else we need from here?”
“I want to see if they have another spigot,” I said. “And some hose.”
“I know I saw hose in there,” Anna nodded, and I followed her back into the building.
“This is great,” I said as I looked at the hoses Anna had led me to. “Let’s fit as many as we can in the truck.”
“You got it, captain,” Anna smiled, and she grabbed some hoses.
By the time there was no more room in the truck we had packed in almost all the hoses in the store, along with a spigot I had found. Getting water to the animals wouldn’t be nearly as difficult if we didn’t have to waste gas taking it down there, or worse, lug it on foot once the gas was gone.
“Alright,” I grinned once our truck and trailer were stuffed. “Let’s get back.”
“Sounds good,” Anna said, and she hopped in the passenger seat. “This was a good score.”