Without Law 6

by Eric Vall

  “I’ll give you that credit when you’re here on time,” I smiled.

  “Maybe you can give us more than that.” Tara winked at me.

  “Oh my God,” Anna groaned, and she rolled her eyes at the blonde and grabbed her by the arm to pull her away. “Let’s go.”

  “What?” Tara said in feigned surprise. “You know I’m funny.”

  “I know you’re ridiculous,” Anna chuckled.

  The two continued to bicker as they walked off, and Paige turned to wave at Bailey and I as she followed the platinum blonde and redhead across the parking lot.

  “Those two fight like sisters,” Bailey laughed, and she turned to head back to the pharmacy.

  “They do,” I chuckled. “It’s pretty cute.”

  “Makes me miss my sisters,” Bailey said in a longing tone, but she had a slight smile on her lips.

  “How many sisters did you have?” I asked, and I was surprised I didn’t know about this before.

  “Two,” she said. “And two brothers, too.”

  “Wow,” I chuckled. “That’s a big family.”

  “Yeah,” she laughed. “That’s why I went to Piper College, to get away from them.”

  “Are they older or younger?” I asked.

  “I’m the middle kid,” she smiled. “My sister is the oldest, then my brother, then me, then my little brother, then my little sister.”

  “I’ve heard it’s hard being the middle kid,” I said.

  “It wasn’t always easy,” the blonde laughed. “But it wasn’t all bad either. I got a lot of time to myself.”

  “You liked that, didn’t you?” I smiled.

  “I did,” she chuckled. “I spent a lot of time outside. I’ve always loved the outdoors.”

  “I’m sorry you haven’t been able to see your family,” I told her softly.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she smiled at me. “I mean, I miss them, of course, but you all are my family too.”

  “Yes,” I grinned. “We are.”

  The girls and I spent the rest of the day gathering supplies, and though I wasn’t happy about the length of time that we had been in the area, I had yet to see anyone from the guard around, and we had a full truck and trailer of goods, so I couldn’t complain.

  “I don’t think we can fit anymore,” Tara said as she stacked a box on the trailer.

  “No,” I chuckled as I watched her try to steady the box. “I don’t think we can.”

  “Let me do it,” Anna said, and she attempted to take the box from Tara.

  “I got it,” Tara snapped, and she held onto the box, and tried to rearrange where it sat.

  “Okay,” Anna said, and she stepped back and crossed her arms. “Whatever you say.”

  It took Tara a minute more to get the box to stay put, and we all watched her and shook our heads at each other, but finally she got it and she spun around to Anna.

  “Ha!” she said, and she stuck her tongue out at the redhead.

  “Good job,” Anna said with a wry smile. “Only took you ten years.”

  “Whatev,” Tara said, and she narrowed her eyes at the athletic redhead, then they both laughed.

  “Anyways,” Paige chuckled, and she turned to me. “Time to head home?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, and I looked to the horizon to see that the sun had begun to set. “I think we should stay here for the night.”

  “What about the guard?” Bailey asked, and her blonde brows pulled together.

  “Yeah,” Paige nodded. “Don’t you think they’ve noticed stuff is missing by now?”

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “It looked like a lot of their canning was done already, but I don’t think they would send the whole cavalry out to search for a couple canning machines.”

  “Probably true,” Anna agreed. “Still though, I think we should find somewhere to lie low.”

  “Did you think I meant we would stay here in the parking lot?” I laughed.

  “Well, you didn’t specify,” Tara said, and she cocked her hip out at me.

  “I guess I didn’t,” I chuckled. “We’ll go back to the firehouse for the night, come on.”

  We all hopped in the truck, and I pulled us around to the old firehouse. It wasn’t quite fully dark yet, so I opted to leave my lights off in case there happened to be anyone around who could see them.

  “We can’t have a fire tonight,” I told the girls as I hopped out of the truck and moved to close the large garage-like door.

  “I think we’ll live,” Anna laughed.

  “We can always cuddle for warmth,” Tara said, and I turned around to see she was eyeing me up and down.

  “I think you mean huddle for warmth,” Paige corrected with a laugh.

  “This isn’t football, Paige,” Tara said.

  “Wow,” Paige’s eyes grew big. “I’m surprised you even knew that was a football term.”

  “I was a cheerleader in high school,” the platinum blonde shrugged.

  “Of course you were,” Anna laughed.

  “I think I still have my uniform in my dorm room,” Tara said, and she licked her lips at me.

  “We’ll come back to that,” I chuckled as I sat down on the concrete floor. “For now, let’s grab something to eat,”

  “Yes,” Paige groaned. “I’m starved.”

  “How are you always hungry?” Anna laughed, and then she turned to Bailey and gasped. “Wait one second!”

  “What’s going on?” Bailey chuckled as she watched Anna run toward the truck.

  “You forgot, didn’t you?” Anna smiled, and she walked toward us with her hands behind her back.

  “What did we forget?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Tara questioned, and her eyes narrowed on the redhead. “What’s behind your back?”

  “Ta-da!” Anna exclaimed, and she pulled two cans of cheese wiz and a box of crackers from behind her back.

  The girls all rushed toward her with happy gasps and thanked her.

  “I had forgotten all about the spray cheese,” Bailey grinned as she inspected the bottle.

  “Oh man,” Tara sighed. “I missed this stuff so bad.”

  “Me too,” Paige nodded.

  “Well,” Anna grinned. “What are we waiting for? Let’s bust it open.”

  “Don’t you think we should eat some protein?” I asked with a raised brow, and the girls all gave me death glares, so I put my hands up in surrender. “Nevermind.”

  We all sat down on the floor in a circle, and Anna opened the crackers and spray cheese for us. She made us each a cracker and refused to let us eat until everyone had one.

  “Okay now,” she said, and she put the whole cracker in her mouth and immediately moaned in a very sexual way. “Oh my God, it’s so good.”

  “Oh fuck,” Tara said, and she leaned her head back as she chewed.

  I watched as Paige swallowed her cracker and sighed, she left her mouth parted, and her eyes were closed in pure ecstasy.

  “I didn’t realize food brought out your orgasm faces,” I laughed, and I looked around at all the girls’ pleasured faces.

  Bailey had been sucking cheese off her finger, but when I made eye contact with her she quickly pulled it from her mouth and went red.

  “Oh, you love it,” Tara said, and she reached for the cheese wiz.

  “I do,” I grinned. “Remind me to get you spray cheese more often.”

  The girls finished off the first can of spray cheese quickly, along with a sleeve and a half of crackers, I could tell they wanted more, but they were quite full at that point, and they all laid on the ground and held their bellies.

  “Not used to eating so much junk anymore, huh?” I chuckled.

  “It was sooooo good,” Bailey smiled, and she closed her eyes.

  “I’m glad it made you all happy,” I grinned, and I truly meant it. The girls had worked hard not just that day, but for so many days, and they deserved some extra special treats now and then.

  Just then I he
ard the sound of glass shattering, and I quickly moved into a crouched position and put my hand on my rifle.

  “What was that?” Paige whispered, and I looked to see that all my girls had moved into crouched positions as well.

  “I don’t know,” I shook my head, but then I heard the sound of another bottle shattering followed by laughter outside.

  “Stay low,” I said, and I moved to the window of the firehouse to look outside, but I didn’t see anything.

  “Pssst,” Tara said, and I turned to see that she was on the other side of the firehouse looking through another window.

  “It’s soldiers,” Anna whispered after we made it to Tara’s window and spotted the figures that walked down the street.

  We watched for another moment as the men laughed and staggered down the middle of the road, one threw a beer bottle, and it landed in front of them with that familiar shatter.

  “Are they drunk?” Paige asked, and she looked at me with wide eyes.

  “Yes,” I nodded.

  “What do we do?” Tara asked.

  “We let them pass by,” I said. “We only attack if they become a threat.”

  “Okay,” Anna said.

  We watched the men drunkenly make their way toward the firehouse, and soon they were close enough for us to hear their conversation.

  “--yeah, fuck him,” the first guy said, he had a white T-shirt on, and his camo jacket was tied around his waist.

  “He’s such a diiiiiiiick,” the second groaned, and I noticed that he had kept his full uniform on, but his vest was undone.

  “At first I liked our CO,” the first guy said, and he downed the rest of his beer and then threw the bottle. “But now I’m just fucking done with this place.”

  “No shit,” the second guy sneered. “Fuck all of this. This is not what I signed up for.”

  “Do you need another beer?” the first guy asked and then pulled two more beers from a backpack.

  “Hang on,” the second guy said, and he downed his beer and threw it at the fire station, it hit the side of the building and both men laughed. “Now I do.”

  “Do you think if we had a match this firetruck place would just like whoosh,” the first guy asked the second, and he made a motion with his hands that I assumed was supposed to signify the place going up in flames.

  “Ah fuck,” the second guy laughed. “I bet it would, but let’s throw a couple more on there.”

  These two drunk idiots were getting on my last nerve.

  “No, no, wait,” the first guy snickered, and he held onto his buddy when he almost fell from laughing too hard. “Let’s go get some gas from the compound.”

  “Don’t we, like, need that for the drive?” the second guy asked, and he took a large pull from his beer.

  “These two are gonna have to die,” Tara whispered, and she shrugged like there was nothing she could do about it.

  “They’ll probably forget about the gasoline in like ten seconds,” Anna said.

  “They’re gonna blow it up anyway,” the first soldier said after he chugged his beer and threw the bottle at the firehouse.

  “What?” the second guy said, and he looked utterly astounded.

  “Dude,” the first guy said. “You fuckin knew that. The gas, like, whatever we don’t take, they’re gonna blow it up.”

  “Oh shit,” the second guy said, and then he laughed. “Yeah, I did know that.”

  “Let’s go get some,” the first guy said, and he slung on his backpack.

  “Wait,” the second soldier said, and he finished his beer and threw yet another bottle at the firehouse.

  “Called it,” Tara said smugly.

  “Tav?” Anna asked, and she looked at me.

  “Yeah,” I shook my head. “She called it.”

  “Well shit,” Anna said. “We gotta catch them before they make it back to camp.”

  “Yes,” I nodded, and pointed. “There should be roof access in the loft up there.”

  “I got it,” Bailey smiled, and she grabbed her rifle and headed for the stairs.

  “Wait,” I said. “We need to be quiet.”

  “Shit,” Bailey frowned.

  “Tara, where’s your silenced Rugar?” I asked.

  “Right here,” the platinum blonde said, and she pulled the gun from its holster and handed it to Bailey.

  “This is yours,” Bailey said, and then she offered it back to Tara.

  “Yeah,” Tara grinned. “But I want to see what you can do with it.”

  “Should I go to the roof?” Bailey asked me with a grin.

  “I don’t see why not,” I shrugged, and Bailey headed for the stairs once more, then I turned to the other girls. “Let’s watch the show.”

  I had confidence in Bailey, but I still readied my rifle and watched out the window just down from the one the girls were at, and I waited for Bailey to take the shot.

  The two men were half falling over their feet they were so drunk, but I knew it wouldn’t be an easy shot with them moving so sporadically.

  I watched one of the men leaned far to the left then dropped suddenly as blood splattered from his head.

  Bailey had taken the shot, and she didn’t hesitate to take the second, just as the other guy spun around and reached for his pistol she took him out with a shot square between the eyes, and I watched him fall backwards almost in slow motion.

  “Damn,” Anna said.

  “Damn is right,” I grinned, and I lowered my rifle.

  “Got ‘em,” Bailey breathed as she rushed down the stairs toward us.

  “Good shot,” Paige smiled at the blonde.

  “Thanks,” Bailey said, and she handed Tara the Rugar. “And thanks for letting me borrow it.”

  “My pleasure,” the platinum blonde grinned.

  “Let’s clean up these bodies,” I said, and I headed toward the door with the girls following me.

  “Damn, Bailey,” Tara said once we approached the bodies, and she checked out the dead men. “I don’t even think I’m that accurate with that thing, and it’s my gun.”

  “It’s pretty nice,” Bailey grinned. “But I’m used to shooting more from a long distance than you are.”

  “No,” Anna laughed and shook her head. “You’re just a better shot than all of us. You should be proud.”

  “I am,” the blonde said. “I never thought I would love shooting, but it's kinda my favorite thing now.”

  “A little help here?” I chuckled as I picked up the arms of one of the dead guys.

  “Oh shoot,” Paige said, and all the girls moved to help me.

  “Where are we taking them?” Anna asked after we lifted the bodies.

  “Let’s move them to the building across the street,” I said. “If anyone comes looking for them, at least they won’t find them until we’re long gone.”

  “Haven’t we had enough excitement for one night?” Tara asked with a raised brow.

  “I hope so,” I chuckled. “But we do need to leave soon.”

  “Yeah,” Anna nodded. “Who knows when more drunk douchebags will come out.”

  “Discipline is breaking down,” I said after we dropped the bodies behind the building and started back toward the firehouse.

  “What does that mean?” Paige asked, and she took a seat on the concrete floor once more.

  “It means this is probably our last trip to Burlington,” I said as I sat next to the brunette.

  “Shit,” Anna muttered. “But at least we got a bunch of supplies today.”

  “We did,” I nodded.

  “There are still other towns to scout too,” Paige offered.

  “We’ll be doing that,” I smiled at the brunette.

  “Is anyone else concerned about this potential explosion?” Tara asked.

  “What?” Bailey asked.

  “That the guy was talking about,” Tara said, and she gestured outside.

  “Oh yeah,” Paige frowned. “He said they’re going to blow up their gasoline.”<
br />
  “Right,” Anna frowned too. “Is that going to reach us?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “If anything it will alert us that they’re leaving.”

  “We’ll be able to see it from home?” Bailey asked with wide eyes.

  “It will be small,” I said. “But yes, we should if there’s enough. At the very least we’ll see a big cloud of black smoke coming from Burlington.”

  “Damn,” Tara said. “Why would they just blow it up?”

  “Well, they can’t take it with them,” Anna said.

  “Right,” I nodded. “And they probably want to destroy it in case the Canadians have working military vehicles.”

  “Can’t get far without gas,” Anna said.

  “Jesus,” Tara said. “That’s pretty fucked up.”

  “It is,” I agreed. “But desperate times call for desperate measures.”

  “I’m just glad we have you,” Paige chuckled. “We are so much better off than we would’ve been.”

  “Yeah,” Anna laughed. “We’d probably already have been killed by Canadians.”

  “I don’t know if I would’ve lasted the bikers out,” Bailey snickered.

  “You guys were doing well,” I smiled. “But I’m happy to be here too.”

  “Do we need to leave right now?” Anna asked, back to business.

  “No,” I said. “But we’ll leave as early as possible.”

  “Okay,” the redhead nodded.

  “You have to drive,” Paige said, and she frowned at me. “I’ll take first watch so you guys can get some sleep.”

  “I would appreciate that,” I smiled and I suddenly realized how sore I was from lifting and moving all day. “But for now I think I’d like some more spray cheese.”

  “You got it,” Anna grinned, and she reached for the cheese wiz and the crackers, then she handed me a heavily cheesed cracker. “Here you are captain.”

  “Why thank you, Major,” I joked, and I took the cracker.

  “Oh,” Tara exclaimed with a mouthful of cracker, and she turned to Bailey and me. “Did you two find any mascara?”

  “Yes,” Bailey chuckled. “Now please swallow.”

  “Oops,” Tara said, and she swallowed. “What kind is it?”

  “Um,” Bailey thought for a moment. “I think I grabbed you the maybelline stuff, I got a few tubes for you, and it says it’s waterproof.”

  “You’re a saint,” Tara said, and she leaned over to hug the other blonde.