Without Law 6

by Eric Vall

  “What?” Tara pouted. “You still have coffee?”

  “Mhm,” Anna said from behind her travel cup.

  “Can I have some?” Tara gave her puppy dog eyes. “Please?”

  “Okay,” Anna laughed. “But don’t drink it all.”

  “You’re the best,” Tara smiled, and she took a swig of the dark liquid and moaned at the taste. “God that’s good.”

  “Let’s grab some lunch,” I told the girls. “And drink some water. Coffee is great, but it can be dehydrating.”

  “I feel like I never drank water before all this happened,” Paige commented. “I basically lived off of coffee.”

  “All I drank was water before this,” Anna chuckled. “I was so focused on being in shape.”

  “I lived for diet Coke,” Tara sighed. “I’d kill for a cold diet Coke right about now.”

  “Diet Coke?” Anna asked. “Why diet?”

  “You weren’t the only one worried about their shape,” Tara chuckled. “Besides, it’s so much better than normal Coke.”

  “Ew,” Paige said, and she wrinkled her nose. “No way.”

  “Yes way,” Tara said, and she ate some crackers she had taken out from her pack.

  “I’ve seen diet Coke,” Anna told the pretty blonde. “Why didn’t you say anything? We could’ve grabbed you some.”

  “It’s only good cold,” Tara shook her head.

  “Have you even tried it warm?” Paige asked.

  “Yes,” Tara nodded. “Gross.”

  “Well, it will be snowing soon,” Paige chuckled. “You could always put it out in the snow.”

  “I did always like diet Coke,” I chimed in as I ate some wolf jerky.

  “See?” Tara said, and she gave Anna an ‘I-told-you-so’ look.

  “Tav also likes to eat wolves, and he lived in the forest for a year,” Anna said with a wry smile before she turned to me with a grin. “No offense, Tav.”

  “None taken,” I chuckled and chewed my jerky.

  “Has anybody found any comfort items for anyone?” Paige asked as she ate a spoonful of canned corn.

  “I found some toys for Marla’s boys,” Tara nodded.

  “I found some board games,” Anna said. “Somebody had a closet full of them, so I grabbed the ones on the list plus a couple more.”

  “That’s perfect,” I smiled at the girls. “Paige and I found some Oreos and cookies.”

  “Oh, and some pajamas,” Paige grinned.

  “It’s going to be a long winter,” I nodded. “Whatever small comfort we can bring people will be worth it.”

  “Should we move the truck up further after lunch?” Anna asked.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “We’ll hit the other side of town next.”

  “Let’s hurry up and eat then,” Tara said. “I’m on the hunt for my own comfort items.”

  “Of course you are,” Anna rolled her eyes.

  “What?” Tara raised her perfect, blonde brow at her redheaded companion. “I’m getting everyone else’s too.”

  “It’s fine to think about yourself as well,” I chuckled. “After all, you’re doing the work of gathering it.”

  “See?” Tara stuck out her tongue at Anna.

  “Everyone done?” I laughed, and I put away the rest of my jerky and my water bottle.

  “Yeah,” Tara nodded, and she stood up.

  “Me too,” Anna said, and she did the same.

  “I’ll finish while we drive,” Paige said through a bite of corn, and all the girls got into the truck.

  I drove us down the road a ways until we were on the other side of town, then I hopped out and Paige and I went right again and cleared the first place on our side, it was a small gas station, with a bar on the door, so we broke a window to get through.

  “This place is a jackpot,” Paige said, and she looked around at the dusty but well-stocked store.

  “Let’s see if they’re some boxes in the back,” I said.

  “I saw some when we cleared,” Paige told me, and she went into a back office and returned a moment later with some broken down boxes.

  “We’ll grab whatever is nonperishable,” I said as I took a couple boxes from her.

  “It’s a gas station,” she said with a wry smile. “Do they even sell anything perishable?”

  “Good point,” I laughed. “This stuff won’t be the most nutritious, but it will still be good to have.”

  Paige and I filled our boxes with candies, potato chips, and whatever canned goods were on the shelf, along with crackers, cleaning supplies, lighters, and booze. We were even able to find some lighter fluid and fire starter logs.

  “I think we’ve pretty much cleaned this place out,” Paige said after the last box was full.

  “Yeah,” I grinned. “This was a good score. Let’s get these boxes to the truck and head to the next one.”

  When we arrived at the truck, we realized that Anna and Tara had beat us back once more, there were more jackets, canned goods, and shoes piled in the trailer.

  Paige and I continued to scavenge until there was no room left in the trailer and we had hit most of the stores and houses on our side of town, then we waited for Anna and Tara to get back.

  “Any more room?” Anna called out as she walked over to us with a large box in her arms.

  “Not much,” I chuckled, and I headed to help her with the box. “But we’ll make it work.”

  “It seems pretty late,” Tara commented as we moved things around in the trailer to make room for Anna’s box.

  “Yeah,” Paige nodded. “It’s probably almost five o'clock by now.”

  “We should head back to campus and drop this off,” Anna said.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “But I don’t want to be driving in the dark, it’s too risky.”

  “What do you mean?” Tara asked.

  “Somebody could see our headlights,” I said. “We leave ourselves too open for an attack.”

  “We should stay here for the night, then,” Paige nodded.

  “I think so,” I confirmed.

  “I saw a fire house up the road,” Anna said. “We could park the truck in there for the night.”

  “Good idea,” I smiled and hopped in the truck, and the girls followed suit.

  “Can we make a fire?” Tara asked.

  “A small one would be okay,” I nodded as I fired up the truck.

  “A hot dinner would be nice right about now,” Paige sighed.

  “It’s been a long day,” I told the girls. “But you did good work, I’m proud of you.”

  “We know,” Tara grinned.

  “Well, good,” I laughed.

  “Not like that,” Tara rolled her eyes. “You’re just always proud of us.”

  “I am,” I smiled. “You ladies are strong and beautiful, what’s not to be proud of?”

  “You think we can sneak some of those potato chips we grabbed?” Paige asked, and she bit her lip.

  “I think that would be okay,” I chuckled and pulled up to the firehouse.

  Anna hopped out and Tara followed to help her clear the place before they opened the garage door for me to pull in. Once the truck was parked, we closed the door once more and headed to a nearby patch of grass behind the station.

  “Are we good here for the night?” Tara asked.

  “We should be,” I said. “But we’ll still sleep in shifts just in case.”

  “Okay,” the platinum blonde nodded, but she frowned too.

  “I’ll take first shift,” I smiled.

  “You’re the best,” she grinned. “I’ll make dinner. What did everyone bring?”

  We all pulled out our canned goods and laid them out for Tara to see, then she went to the truck and grabbed a pot we had scavenged and began pouring the different cans into the pot.

  “What is it going to be?” Anna asked as she watched Tara.

  “Chili,” Tara smiled. “Well, chili of sorts.”

  “Yum,” Paige grinned. “I’ll grab some fir
ewood.”

  “I’ll make a pit,” Anna added.

  I was proud to see my girls working together so well.

  I sat back and kept watch while the girls got the fire going and cooked dinner, we talked about our scores for the day, and I noted that about half of our list was taken care of. We had managed to find a few bottles of activated charcoal for the water filtration system, some canned goods, comfort items, and clothes, along with a few other things.

  “We got activated charcoal,” I said after everyone had eaten, and I turned to Paige. “We still need gravel and sand right?”

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “The sand is what I’m most concerned about. Where do we get clean sand?”

  “We could try a pet store,” Anna suggested with a smile.

  “Pet stores carry sand?” Tara asked with a look of skepticism. “Don’t most people just get sand from, like, the beach or something?”

  “Not for your fish and reptiles,” Anna shook her head. “They have bags of clean sand you can put in their cages for them.”

  “That would be perfect,” Paige grinned.

  “Oh dang,” Anna frowned. “I wonder how dreary a pet store would be right now.”

  “It could be bad if nobody let the animals out,” I nodded.

  “Oh,” Paige said, and her eyes widened. “You think they just left the animals to die?”

  “It’s a possibility,” I frowned. “Let’s hope they released them.”

  “Is that what you’d do?” Anna asked. “Just let them go?”

  “It’s better than letting them starve to death,” Paige muttered.

  “There’s a pet store in the mall in Burlington,” Tara informed the group. “I bet they would have sand.”

  “We’ll check it out,” I smiled. “You guys get some rest in the truck, I’ll take first shift.”

  “Should we leave the fire going?” Paige asked. “I mean, it’s dark out here.”

  “I think I’ll put it out,” I said. “If anybody is here or comes through, we don’t want to alert them to our presence.”

  “Okay,” Anna nodded, and she started to kick dirt on the fire.

  Once the fire was out, the girls gave me kisses and headed inside the fire station to get some sleep, so I stayed outside with my rifle and kept a lookout. While I was on guard, I thought about what we still needed for the coming winter, we had found some birth control, tampons, and antibiotics in this town, but we still needed Rolly’s medication. Once the roadblocks were up, nobody would be leaving during the winter, and I needed to make sure that we had all we would need to not only feed ourselves but protect ourselves as well. We would need to try to find some pawn shops to get more weapons, but I figured that might prove difficult, the liquor store and pawn shops were probably the first places to get broken into.

  Just then I heard a noise through the darkness, and I felt my body tense as my eyes scanned the area. It could just be an animal, I thought, but then I saw light coming from a house down the street. If there were other people here, I needed to go check it out and figure out the best course of action, so I readied my rifle and made my way down to the house. There was the barest glimpse of yellow light shining through a break in the window curtain, so I sat below the window and listened for a moment.

  “Hey Viv, is there any more corn?” I heard a male voice ask, and I thought I recognized that name.

  “Not much,” a female voice answered.

  “We’ll need more food before we head south,” another male voice said.

  “We need a truck,” the female voice answered.

  “Yeah,” a third male voice said. “We should’ve taken one from the camp.”

  “And then how would we have gotten out, genius?” the female voice snapped.

  “I’m just saying,” the third male voice said, “that we’re gonna be walking forever.”

  “Yeah, well that’s better than dying in that camp,” the first male voice said.

  I recognized the voices I heard, but I wasn’t sure from where until one of them mentioned the camp, then I realized that these must be the prisoners that Paige and I helped before, and I decided I should talk to them, they seemed like they might need more help.

  “Hello?” I called out from my position under the window, and I heard the room go quiet. “I’m Tav.”

  “I think someone is outside,” the female voice whispered.

  “No shit,” one of the men responded, then he called out louder. “What do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything,” I said. “I helped you before, after you got out of the Burlington camp.”

  “How do we know you’re not lying?” the female called out.

  “How else would I know that?” I asked.

  “He’s got a point,” one of the men whispered.

  “There were two of you,” the female called out. “What did the other one look like?”

  “Her name is Paige,” I said. “She has brown hair and glasses, and she gave a girl her backpack that day.”

  “Okay,” the female voice called out. “Come to the front door and put your hands up.”

  “Okay,” I said, and I moved to the front door. Normally I wouldn’t take a risk like that, but I knew there was no risk here, these people were hungry, and I was sure they weren’t armed. Even if they were, I doubted they would know how to shoot.

  I stood in front of the door for a moment, then the woman opened the door, and I recognized her honey blonde hair.

  “Hurry and come in,” she told me.

  “Thank you,” I nodded and stepped into the house. The escapees sat on the living room floor, and two cans of food sat between them all, I sat next to the woman after she took a seat in the small circle.

  “I’m afraid we don’t have any food to offer you,” a man with shaggy blonde hair told me after I sat down.

  “That’s okay,” I smiled. “Your name is Thomas, right?”

  “Yeah,” the man nodded.

  “I’m afraid I don’t remember your names,” I said, and I looked at the other three people.

  “Viv,” the blonde-haired girl said.

  “Corey,” the man with curly blonde hair said.

  “I’m Rick,” the guy with short black hair told me.

  “How long have you all been here?” I asked.

  “We just got here tonight,” Corey told me.

  “We’ve been walking, trying to gather some stuff before we head down south,” Viv said.

  “What are you doing here?” Rick asked, and he eyed me with skepticism.

  “I’m here with my team,” I told him. “We’re doing the same as you, gathering supplies for winter.”

  “You’re heading south too?” Thomas asked.

  “No,” I shook my head. “We’re going to make a go of it here.”

  “Where’s your team?” Viv asked.

  “They’re nearby,” I said. “Is it okay if I go get them?”

  “What for?” Rick asked, and his eyes narrowed once more.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” I said. “We have some food and water, I’ll bring you some.”

  “That would be awesome,” Corey grinned at me.

  “Thank you,” Thomas said.

  “I’ll be right back,” I nodded, and I stood up and walked out of the house and back toward the fire station.

  I gently nudged the girls to wake them up, and Anna shot up once she realized it was still dark outside.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, and her eyes were wide.

  “Nothing,” I chuckled. “Everything’s fine.”

  “Oh good,” the redhead sighed. “I got worried there for a second.”

  “Is it my shift now?” Paige asked with a yawn, and she put her glasses on.

  “No,” I shook my head. “But I do need your help with something.”

  “What is it?” Tara asked, and she stretched her thin arms above her head.

  “The prisoners Paige and I helped are here,” I informed the girls.


  “Where?” Paige asked, and her brown eyebrows pulled together. “Are they okay?”

  “They’re fine,” I said. “But it looks like they’re out of food and water.”

  “Okay,” Anna nodded. “Should we make them a box?”

  “A small one,” I said. “Let’s get some canned goods for them, and some water.”

  “Where are they?” Paige asked as she stood up and moved to the truck.

  “They’re in a house just down the road,” I said.

  “Did you already talk to them?” Tara asked, and she put some canned goods in the box Paige had.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “It seems they got here after you all headed to bed.”

  “They must’ve been pretty sneaky to get past you,” Tara grinned.

  “I’m sure they were,” I chuckled, and I grabbed the now full box from Paige. “Let’s go spread the wealth.”

  I led the girls back to the house where the escapees were, and I called out once we were at the front door, then Viv came and opened the door for us, and her eyes widened when she saw the box that we carried.

  “Is that for us?” she asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “There should be more stuff in the houses around here, but this will give you some food for tonight and in the morning.”

  “Wow,” Corey said. “That’s so generous of you.”

  “No problem,” Paige said, and she sat down in the circle. “How have you guys been holding up?”

  “Better than in that camp,” Viv frowned.

  “Not great though,” Corey said, and he reached for one of the cans in the box. “This helps a lot, thank you.”

  I looked at the escapees, they wore different clothes, but I could still see how scrawny they were, and I frowned at the sight of their gaunt faces.

  “So where are all of you headed?” Anna asked the group, and she sat down next to Paige.

  “South,” Viv answered.

  “South where?” Paige frowned.

  “We don’t know,” Thomas said. “We’re just going to head south until it’s warm.”

  “Do you have a map?” Paige inquired.

  “No,” Corey said. “We had one for a little bit, but we lost it somewhere.”

  “I bet there’s some in the library,” Anna commented.

  “Yeah,” Paige nodded. “I’m sure we can find you a map tomorrow.”