Without Law 6

by Eric Vall

  “Alright,” the platinum blonde said, then she downed her coffee, stood up, and headed toward the dorms.

  I followed Tara inside and grabbed my vest, rifle, sidearm, spare magazines, knife, and my backpack that still had food in it from Anna and mine’s run the day before, then I headed outside to check out the trailer and truck. I had forgotten that the sweet feed didn’t get offloaded yesterday.

  “Shit,” I muttered as I looked at the full trailer.

  “What’s wrong?” I heard Tara say behind me.

  “We didn’t offload the sweet feed yesterday,” I said. “Looks like we’ll have to stop by the barn on our way out of town.”

  “Okay,” Tara said. “I’m just happy to get a day with you.”

  “We’ll have a good run,” I smiled.

  “Where are we going?” the platinum blonde asked.

  “We’re heading just one town below where Anna and I went yesterday,” I told her, then I looked her up and down. “You ready?”

  “Totally,” she grinned, and then she hopped onto the passenger’s seat.

  “Let’s go,” I grinned back and climbed into the driver’s side.

  Tara and I stopped at the barn and made quick work of the sweet feed, I was surprised how quickly the work went, Tara seemed to be in a particularly cheery mood.

  “We have one quick stop to make,” I said when we climbed back in the car.

  “Okay,” Tara nodded. “Where are we going?”

  “We need to go to the Miller’s,” I said.

  “What for?” Tara asked, and her blonde eyebrows pulled together.

  “Marla made a list of medication,” I started, “but I want to see if she knows any generic brands or replacements for Rolly’s medication so we can stock up.”

  “Smart,” Tara smiled.

  “I try,” I laughed.

  We made the short drive to the Miller’s home, and Justin greeted us outside after we waved out the window.

  “Wasn’t expecting you all today,” the black-haired man said. “Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is fine,” I answered. “I just had a quick question for Marla.”

  “Okay,” Justin nodded. “She’s around back in the garden, follow me.”

  He led us around the back of the house, and we found Marla tending to some tomato plants while the boys played nearby. The tomatoes looked almost ready to be picked, and I found myself salivating at the thought of a BLT with these tomatoes and Betty’s bread.

  “Hey honey,” Justin said as we approached. “Tav has a question for you.”

  “Sure,” she said and then looked up from the plant. “What do you need?”

  “First of all, I want to thank you for the list,” I smiled. “I really appreciate it.”

  “Of course,” the woman nodded.

  “I have a prescription here,” I told her, and I handed her the piece of paper with Rolly’s prescription name on it. “I’m not sure how to pronounce it, but I was wondering if you could tell me about some replacement meds or what the generic brand is called.”

  “Is this for Rolly?” she asked, and her eyes narrowed as she read the prescription.

  “Yeah,” Tara said. “He has a heart condition.”

  “Let me go grab a pen,” she said, and she headed inside.

  “Does he have meds right now?” Justin asked, and he looked concerned.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I found some a while back, but I want to make sure he has enough for the winter.”

  “Right,” Justin nodded.

  “Here you go,” Marla called as she came down the back steps and handed me back the piece of paper. “These should work if you can’t find the prescribed medicine.”

  “Thank you,” I nodded.

  “Is there any way you can do some checkups for him?” Tara asked. “I mean, just now and then.”

  “Of course,” Marla replied. “We should probably be doing that with everyone. And over the winter we need to weigh everybody to make sure nobody is losing weight.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” I agreed.

  “Are you all heading out on a run then?” Justin asked.

  “Yeah,” Tara nodded. “We’ll be back later today, but the others are at the college if you need anything.”

  “Oh, we’re okay,” Marla said with a wave of her hand. “Just be safe out there.”

  “Will do,” I smiled, and I led Tara back to the truck.

  “It was nice of you to ask Marla to check up on Rolly,” I told the blonde once we were back on the main road.

  “Yeah, well, he wouldn’t do it himself,” she chuckled.

  “No,” I laughed. “He wouldn’t.”

  “He’s pretty stubborn,” Tara smiled. “But I never really had grandparents around, so having him around is really nice, and I want to keep it that way.”

  “I didn’t really have grandparents around either,” I mused. “There is something comforting about having Rolly around though.”

  “He’s just always so nice,” Tara said.

  “And you give him such a hard time,” I chuckled.

  “Well, isn’t that what grandkids are supposed to do?” she laughed.

  “I suppose you’re right,” I grinned.

  “Besides,” she said. “I think he secretly loves it.”

  “Whatever you need to tell yourself,” I said, and Tara scoffed and hit me on the arm, so we both laughed.

  We drove in silence for a few minutes, and occasionally I looked over at the gorgeous blonde to see her staring out the window. It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves had begun to change from green to orange.

  “I hate fall,” Tara said, and her face pulled into a grimace.

  “What?” I laughed. “I was just thinking about what a beautiful fall day it is.”

  “Fall means winter is coming,” the pretty blonde sneered. “And I hate winter.”

  “Oh, come on,” I said. “You might hate it now, but I’m sure you didn’t always hate it.”

  “Oh yeah I did,” she said. “Ever since I was a kid. I just hate being cold.”

  “I don’t think anyone likes to be cold,” I chuckled. “The snow is gorgeous, don’t you at least like how it looks?”

  “Snow is only pretty for, like, five minutes,” Tara said, and she rolled her eyes. “After that it gets driven on or walked on and it turns gray and nasty.”

  “That’s true,” I conceded. “But we don’t really have to worry about it being driven on this year.”

  “Yeah,” she nodded, and I thought maybe she was coming around, but then she turned to me again. “Still hate it though.”

  “As long as we make it through it,” I said. “That’s all that matters.”

  We continued straight through the small town Anna and I had gone to the day before, and shortly after we arrived in Green Valley.

  “This looks like it could be promising,” Tara said with a smile.

  “Could be,” I smiled back, but I wasn’t as sure. It looked like some of the windows in the shops were broken, so it was likely that looters had come this way already, or maybe the town had gotten out of hand after the EMP hit but before everyone made their way to the camps.

  I parked the truck on the side of the road, and Tara and I hopped out and walked toward the nearest store, it was a pharmacy, but the windows were busted out like the others on the street.

  “Maybe I was wrong,” Tara said, and she pursed her lips as she looked at the disheveled storefront.

  “We’ll give it a go,” I said, but I was not hopeful.

  We made our way inside the pharmacy and found that the shelves had been picked through, there wasn’t much left in the way of medicine, but we did find some gauze and band aids, so we put those in our packs and headed outside.

  “Well, that was a bust,” Tara said.

  “It wasn’t great,” I nodded. “But we were able to get a few things.”

  “Hey,” Tara pointed across the street, and a little way down. “That’s a
lumber store.”

  “I think you’re right,” I smiled, and I thought maybe the trip wouldn’t be a total lost cause after all.

  “We should pull the truck over there,” Tara said.

  “Let’s check it out first,” I told her. “We don’t want to drive the truck over only to find there’s nothing left.”

  “Good point,” the platinum blonde nodded. “Though I’m not sure why anyone would be looting a lumber store.”

  “People do strange things when they’re desperate,” I said as we walked.

  “Do you think the bikers were the ones who did this?” she asked.

  “No,” I shook my head. “It’s more likely that it was the people who lived here.”

  “You think they did this to their own town?” Tara asked, and her eyes widened.

  “I think it’s possible,” I nodded.

  “But why?” she asked. “I mean... I know they’re desperate and all, but who would go to looting that fast?”

  “We don’t know how long people were here before they got moved to the camps,” I shrugged. “I’m sure you did some looting yourself.”

  “That’s true,” she blushed. “But there was nobody left in our town.”

  “Maybe not,” I said. “But desperation is still desperation, and we can’t judge people solely by their actions when they’re near to starving.”

  “Yeah,” Tara nodded. “I guess it doesn’t matter what they did if they were doing it to stay alive. That’s something I get.”

  We had reached the front of the store, and I didn’t see any windows busted out, so I thought that was a good sign.

  “Let’s try the door,” I said and I walked to the front of the building and pulled on the handle.

  “Of course, it can’t be easy,” Tara groaned when my pull didn’t yield the desired result.

  “Let’s see if they have an entrance around back,” I said, and I walked toward the back of the store.

  “We can just bust a window,” Tara suggested with a shrug.

  “We could,” I laughed. “But let’s try the door first.”

  “Fine,” she said, and she reached for the handle, then she grinned at me when it pulled open.

  “At least you don’t have to break a window,” I smiled.

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “I really didn’t want to have to crawl through.”

  “Let’s see what we have in here,” I said as we entered the building.

  “It looks good,” Tara said, and she turned to smile at me.

  “It does,” I said, and I looked around at the shelves. Most of the wood appeared untouched, but I noticed that the shelves of tools appeared quite bare.

  “How much wood does Rolly need?” Tara asked as she scanned the store.

  “Let me see,” I said, and I pulled out the paper from my pocket. “Looks like quite a few two by fours.”

  “You’ll have to remind me what those are again,” Tara laughed.

  “It’s these right over here,” I said as I walked through the aisle and stopped in front of a row of two by fours.

  “Okay,” Tara nodded. “It might take a bit to load them all.”

  “We’ll make it fast,” I said with a wink.

  “Not too fast I hope,” Tara said, and she licked her lips.

  “I’m going to get the truck,” I laughed, and I headed back toward the door.

  “You sure you didn’t want a quicky?” the platinum blonde asked, and she shimmied her chest at me. “All this talk of wood is getting me all hot and bothered.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” I called, and I shook my head as I walked out.

  I made my way to the truck and pulled it around to the back of the building where there was a garage type door to allow larger items to be taken out of the store easily, then I hopped out and made my way back to Tara.

  “Took you long enough,” she joked.

  “I was gone for two minutes,” I chuckled.

  “Any time without you is a long time,” she pouted.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I laughed, and I opened the garage style door before I grabbed some two by fours and headed toward the trailer.

  It took Tara and I about half an hour to load all the two by fours the store had in stock, along with some chicken wire and a couple boxes of nails.

  “Where to now?” Tara asked.

  “Let’s see if we can find a store that hasn’t been picked through,” I said.

  “We found this one,” Tara grinned.

  “You did,” I smiled at the platinum blonde.

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “I am pretty crafty like that.”

  “Don’t get too big of a head now,” I laughed.

  “Do you think the towns up north are more well-stocked?” she asked, and it took me back to the gravity of our situation.

  “Hard to say,” I shook my head. “The guard could have already picked it over. And it definitely would be more dangerous with the guard and the Canadians nearby.”

  “Yeah, but if we can get everything sooner rather than later that gives us more time to set up our defenses,” the blonde said.

  “Look at you,” I smiled. “You’re really getting the hang of planning for this stuff.”

  “Well, I had a good teacher,” she winked.

  “Now I’m going to get a big head,” I chuckled.

  We walked along for a moment more, then Tara pointed ahead once more.

  “A liquor store,” she squealed, and started to jog toward the storefront.

  “I’m not sure what all you’ll find in there,” I laughed. “It’s probably picked pretty clean.”

  “You can always find something,” the blonde said, and she crawled through the broken window.

  “So, you’ll climb through a busted window for booze, but not for wood?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well, not for that kind of wood,” Tara grinned. “But also, yes.”

  I laughed at the platinum blonde’s antics but climbed in the window behind her.

  “Looks pretty ransacked,” I commented as I looked around at the mostly bare shelves.

  “Yeah,” Tara nodded, and she reached for what was left on the shelf and looked at the label. “Schnapps?”

  “Have you ever had Schnapps?” I asked.

  “No,” Tara shook her head. “Is it good?”

  “It’s the only thing left on the shelf,” I commented with a laugh. “What do you think?”

  “That bad, huh?” she asked with a raised brow.

  “I’m afraid so,” I nodded.

  “Well shit,” the platinum blonde put the Schnapps back on the shelf and continued down the aisle.

  “I’m betting that the liquor store was probably the first thing to go,” I said, but I walked down the aisle after the blonde. There was no harm in her looking, and though I hadn’t looked at the list, I was sure that liquor was on the top of her comfort items.

  “You’re probably right,” Tara sighed. “I guess we should head out.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “Let’s see what the other stores have to offer.”

  We made our back out through the window, and I watched Tara’s perfect ass as she raised it up to lift herself over the windowsill.

  We walked further down the road until we saw a gas station.

  “Should we give it a go?” my blonde companion asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” I smiled and headed toward the gas pumps and found the manhole cover that housed the fuel underneath the station.

  “Do we just open it up?” Tara asked. “How do we get it out?”

  “We’ll need a hose,” I told her. “And the gas cans from the truck.”

  “How do know there’s anything in it?” the blonde asked.

  “We don’t yet,” I smiled at her. “We need the hose for that.”

  “There’s a few houses across the street,” she said, and she pointed to the right. “Should we see if they have one?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, and I stood up and headed tow
ard the houses with my blonde companion in tow.

  From further away the houses didn’t appear to be in too bad of shape, but the closer we got the more I could see just how much they’d gone through. There were some busted windows, and the grass in the front yards was long, but dying with the fall. We made our way to the back of the house and found a small shed that housed two garden hoses, an old lawn mower, and some various tools.

  “Anything in here we could use?” Tara asked after she had grabbed one of the hoses.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “Rolly is pretty well stocked on tools, and most of these look like they were in bad shape even before the world went to hell.”

  “Yeah, they’re like, more rust than tool at this point,” Tara laughed.

  “The last thing we need is for someone to get tetanus,” I chuckled, and I started toward the truck to get the gas cans.

  “Seeing these houses is kind of eerie,” Tara commented as we walked.

  “Eerier than the other towns we’ve been to?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Tara nodded. “I don’t know what it is, but something about this place gives me the creeps.”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “These people couldn’t have been too bad off if they left the Schnapps behind.”

  “I thought you said it was bad,” Tara laughed.

  “It is,” I agreed, and I grabbed the gas cans out of the truck and headed back toward the gas station. “But if you’re that desperate you’d take anything.”

  “I don’t know,” Tara said, and she pursed her lips. “Maybe nobody is ever desperate enough for Schnapps.”

  “Oh, trust me,” I laughed. “You can be desperate enough for Schnapps.”

  “Yeah,” Tara said, and she side eyed me. “How do you know how bad it is anyway?”

  “I was a teenager once,” I said.

  “Underage drinking?” Tara asked, then she tsked at me a few times, and feigned a look of disappointment. “I expected more from you, Tav.”

  “I’m sure I’m not the only one here who didn’t wait until they were twenty-one,” I chuckled.

  “True,” Tara laughed, and we had reached the manhole, so I pulled the cover off and released the hose into it.

  I waited until the hose was as far down as it could get, then put my mouth to the end I held and sucked.