Without Law 7

by Eric Vall

  “You know I will,” I said, and I flashed him a quick grin.

  I started to head toward the stairs, but before I got far the girls all surrounded me with a group hug, so I took a moment to wrap my arms around them and breathe in the scents of their hair. Even without regular showers they smelled earthy and floral, like a rare flower you would find growing in the wilderness. I inhaled a little bit longer before I finally let them go.

  “I’ll be fine,” I told them with a smile. “This is what I do best.”

  “Just come back to us safe,” Paige said.

  “Yeah,” Bailey added. “We need you here.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’ll come back, I promise.”

  “Okay,” Tara pouted, and she hugged me once more, and all the girls joined in again, and even Winchester jumped up to be part of the group.

  “Girls,” I chuckled. “I really have to go.”

  “Okay, okay,” Anna said, and she pried the others off of me. “Like Rolly said, give ‘em hell.”

  “I’m on it,” I said, and I headed for the stairs.

  I made my way down to the front door of the building that faced the courtyard, and I was happy to see that light had not struck yet, so I slowly opened the door and slipped out, shutting it softly behind me.

  The morning was chilly with the autumn air, the ground was muddy from the previous night’s storm, and the smell of rain hung in the surrounding air.

  I took a deep breath, then I darted into the woods to the side of the dorm building. From where we had seen the tracks, I knew that they typically watched us from the back of the building, so my plan was to sneak around from the side so nobody would see me.

  Once I hit the tree line, the smell of rain became even more prominent, and the trees dripped water on me carelessly as I stood below them. I waited a moment and listened to see if I could hear anybody moving in the woods, but I heard nothing so I continued on my path and made my way around to the back of the school.

  I found a large tree that was still to the side of the building, but it had a clear line to the back, and I scanned the area.

  Come on, you fuckers, I know you’re here.

  Just then, I saw him. It was a guy I had not previously seen at the hillbilly compound, and I figured it must be JoGene or whatever the hell his name was. He had long brown hair in a curly wet mess, and his camouflage clothes were drenched, but they were well made. He had a large hat with leaves attached to it, and I saw some leaves pinned to his clothes as well. They had done a good job of hiding this asshole, but he was moving around too much for it to work as well as it should. I watched as he shivered slightly, and I figured he must have been out in the storm all night. It was unlucky for him that he hadn’t got struck by lightning, because the things I would do to him would be much worse.

  I held back the urge to attack, it was almost dawn and I wanted to see if there was a shift change soon, so I waited and watched as JoGene bit his discolored fingernails and spit them out on the ground next to him.

  I wrinkled my nose as I watched him clean under his nails with his teeth, even from where I stood I could see that he was generally filthy, and his hands were two shades darker than his face from dirt.

  I crouched down further behind the trees when I saw a figure approaching from the woods behind the school. Once he got closer, I realized it was Tattoo, but he had the same camouflage on that JoGene did, so I scanned the trees and plotted a course toward the two men. The dawn had just cracked the horizon, so I still had shadows for cover, and I kept low as I silently made my way to a small group of trees closer to the men.

  “I couldn’t,” I heard JoGene whisper as I took my spot behind the trees.

  “You’re saying they didn’t come out the whole time?” Tattoo whispered fervently. “Nobody on the roof?”

  “No,” JoGene said, and he talked with that same slow pace that Blondie did.

  “Well go check on the scouts at the farms and then get back home,” Tattoo said. “Leave this to the professionals.”

  Professionals my ass.

  “Okay,” JoGene agreed, and he started to creep back into the woods toward Betty’s house as the crow flies.

  I wouldn’t follow him yet, I needed to take out Tattoo first. Anna would be mad that I had eliminated her target, but there wasn’t a choice.

  I watched the man for a moment to get to know his method. He was carrying a hunting knife on one hip and a Glock on his other. I watched him keep a close eye on the girls as they came out of the dorm building and made their way to the fire pit to start coffee. Winchester followed behind Rolly happily, but Tattoo narrowed his eyes on the dog.

  As dumb as Tattoo might seem, he knew Winchester was a threat.

  My target licked his lips as his eyes followed Tara, and I felt my jaw clench at the thought of what was happening in his head at that moment.

  Time to end this.

  I took out my karambit and crouched low. I was too close to him to move without him hearing the leaves crunch under my feet, so I would need to wait for him to make a move to mask the sound. Once again the thought of this douchebag touching my girls floated through my mind, and I had to control my breathing before I went into full rage mode and cut this asshole’s balls off to set on Tara’s piano as a trophy.

  Bailey and Tara left the others at the fire pit and walked toward the horse pen, but Tara stopped to fill up a water bucket, and she stood alone by the faucet near the tree line. That’s when I saw my opportunity. Tattoo was focused on Tara and his own task, and he had stopped paying attention to his surroundings. I crept behind him slowly, not making a single sound, then just as he lifted up like he was about to run toward the platinum blonde, I made my move.

  I snatched the arm that was closest to his knife and twisted it around his back while I put my other hand over his mouth. He tried to scream and he struggled against me, but he was a small inbred man, and I had enough adrenaline pumping to hold him in place for days.

  I pressed him down to the dirt face first but kept my hand over his mouth, and I pinned him to the ground easily with one knee, then I grabbed the glock on his hip and tossed it away from us.

  “I’m going to skin you alive,” I whispered in his ear, and he shook his head fervently and struggled harder to break free.

  I lifted my karambit in front of his face and felt his muffled screams vibrate my palm, it was a good feeling, and for a moment I relished in his fear.

  As much as I wanted to torture the hell out of this asshole, I needed to follow JoGene back to the other scouts and eliminate them, so I settled for a small bit of torture instead.

  I brought my legs off from him a bit so he would try to lift himself up, and he fell into my trap readily, so I put my karambit near his dick and he struggled and tried to kick, but I held him in place with my thighs and made one swift stab in his private area. I could feel his tears making my hand wet, and his screams reverberated against my palm once more.

  Then I brought the knife up to his throat and made one long slice across. The karambit was sharp as hell, and it slid through his skin like butter. Blood spilled down his chest and splashed the pine needles on the ground in front of us, and after only a few seconds his attempt at screaming died down, and I was left with a wet hand and a small amount of satisfaction in my kill.

  I still had work to do, so I followed the way JoGene had gone and made the long walk toward the farm houses. As I walked, I kept myself on edge, and I followed JoGene’s tracks carefully. The rain from the night before had made the ground muddy, so it was primed for footprints and tracking was incredibly easy.

  JoGene must have been the second set of prints we had seen, his feet weren’t very large, but he walked with a heavy gait, and the indents he left were deep and defined. I noticed that one footprint was significantly larger than the other, and it made me wonder what other genetic defects these people might have. I moved swiftly down the path that he laid out ahead of me until I spotted him up ahead, then I slid behi
nd a tree and moved to another so as not to be seen.

  During the walk to Betty’s house I saw the brown-haired young man continue to bite his nails and spit them around him, pick not one, but three wedgies and sniff his fingers afterwards, and at one point he dug his pinky into his ear and licked it afterwards.

  I understood doing strange things when you thought you were alone, but this guy had taken it to a whole nother level of disgusting, and I found myself wrinkling my nose almost constantly as I watched him.

  I began to recognize the woods around me more and more, and I realized that we were very close to Betty’s house. This was the way I had gone with Rolly a while ago, so I hung back and watched JoGene proceed forward.

  The scrawny man made his way over to a large tree and crouched down behind it, then he appeared to start talking, but I was too far away to hear what he said, and I didn’t see anybody else near him.

  This guy was off his damn rocker.

  Just then another man crawled out of a hole in the side of the tree, and I wondered what kind of demented you had to be to stake out innocent people from literally inside a tree trunk.

  I had to admit, though, these assholes were crafty.

  I watched the two men talk for a moment, then JoGene stood up and continued on his way towards the Miller’s farm. I waited a few minutes for JoGene to get far enough away that he wouldn’t hear the struggle that was about to occur, and I watched the other man as I waited.

  He was a bit older, maybe my age, and he had a scruffy blonde beard that connected to his unkempt hair. He looked stockier than the other men, and a bit taller as well, but still not up to my height.

  The man lit up a rolly cigarette and puffed on it for a moment, then he left it in his mouth while he stretched. I decided my bowie would do well for him, I just had to wait for an opportunity.

  Blonde Beard puffed on his cigarette for a minute more while he leaned up against the tree, then he walked a few steps away, and his back was turned to me. I realized he was about to relieve himself.

  Bingo.

  I crept up behind the man as I heard the sound of his stream take off. He had both hands on his dick, and his cigarette was stuck in his mouth as he leaned his head back with his eyes closed.

  This man was armed with a small knife on his hip, but he had left his AK sitting by the tree, so not only did I have the element of surprise, but this guy was a dumbass who had left himself wide open.

  I lifted my bowie knife slightly, as the man hummed to himself, then I shoved the blade through his back and lifted him off the ground with it in one smooth motion. He didn’t have time to scream before I maneuvered the knife and slammed him face first onto the ground. The wound through his stomach would be enough to kill him, but I couldn’t risk another scout hearing him, so I put my boot on his face to keep his whimpering quiet and took one more stab through his back directly where his heart was.

  The man twitched a few times, then his body went limp, so I lifted my boot off of his face to see that his cigarette was still lit on the ground next to his mouth. I let the blood drip from my knife to extinguish the cig, wiped the bowie knife on his pants, and placed it back in its sheath on my hip.

  The sun had fully risen now, though a canopy of trees still covered the top of me, and they occasionally continued to drip rainwater down to splash me on my face and shoulders.

  I followed JoGene’s perfectly indented footprints and shook my head at the idiocy of trying to sneak around after a rainfall that left the ground primed for soaking up the exact bottom sole print of your shoes. These guys may be crafty, but they definitely weren’t the brightest crayons in the box.

  The walk to the Miller’s was slow, JoGene didn’t seem worried about rushing, so I caught up with him easily and once again hung back and waited for him to meet up with another scout.

  It didn’t take long for JoGene to arrive at another scout’s territory, and from my vantage point I could see the small figures of those at the farm, including Marla and her little boys walking in the garden. I grew heated as I thought about how long these assholes had been spying on these people, but I clenched my jaw and waited for JoGene to move on once more.

  JoGene crouched next to the man, and they talked for a moment, but all I could see of the other man was his back. He had wispy blonde hair that was almost white, and like most of the others in the family, he was small in stature, and his arms were so thin it made me think he was sickly. I wasn’t surprised by this, I had read years ago that inbreeding often resulted in small and sick children, but still, it was almost repulsive to look at.

  JoGene stood up and lit a rolly cigarette, and the other man stood up as well, and when he turned around, I almost gasped at what I saw.

  This had to be the ugliest sonofabitch I had ever seen. He had a long protruding jaw that was much too large for his face, his eyes were disproportionate in not only size but also location, and it looked like he had part of a cleft palate, not fully exposed, but with a large gash in the top of his lip that split open when he smiled at JoGene.

  Jesus, that inbreeding takes a toll after a while. I wondered if this was one of the kids that Betty had thought was taken years ago, did a few of them manage to slip by, or did they just have more and more?

  The wispy haired man laughed at something JoGene said, and it revealed his yellow and black stained teeth. I almost felt bad having to kill the sorry asshole, but he was born into the wrong family, and they taught him all the wrong shit.

  I grimaced as I continued to watch JoGene and Wispy Hair laugh, and I only felt my face go back to normal after JoGene had headed further into the woods and Wispy Hair turned back around to tend to his post.

  I reached for my karambit then thought better of it, I had used it once today, and my bowie once too, it was time for my tanto blade to shine. I unsheathed the black knife and examined the angle of the tip for a moment as I considered how I would take out my prey.

  The man sat cross legged on the ground as he watched the Miller’s farm, and unlike the other scout, he had been smart enough to leave his AK strapped to his back. I guess in this family you either got some brains or some looks, but you couldn’t have both.

  I prowled toward my target, barely breathing as I moved, and only once I was right behind him did he turn around to look at me.

  But it was too late.

  I grabbed his head in my left hand and shoved the tanto blade into the soft spot behind his ear in one quick movement. The man went limp, his cold blue eyes stared at me, and his rotten mouth fell open to reveal the nastiest stench I had ever smelled.

  I thrust him away from me and cringed as I took a deep breath to remove the imprint of his dead face from my mind.

  That was three scouts down, but I wanted to follow JoGene awhile longer to see if there were any others that needed taking care of. The girls wouldn’t be happy about how long this task was taking, but I couldn’t risk there being a scout to tip off the family of our arrival, so once more I set off behind JoGene and followed his ridiculously deep footprints through the woods.

  I caught up with him easily, and I took in the fresh forest air as I walked stealthily behind him and slipped from tree to tree. I could feel that my adrenaline was still up, but I slowed my heartrate with my breath so I wouldn’t overdo it before the big show.

  After some time I realized that JoGene was leading me to the hillbilly camp, so I made my way around to where the girls, and I had hid the day before to see if I could hear anything of value.

  “JoGene!” Daddy yelled as the thin man walked back into camp. “You get your rounds done?”

  “Yes sir,” the brown haired man said proudly.

  “And?” Daddy pushed, and he threw his arms out.

  “And it went good,” JoGene replied with a smile.

  “Oh, that’s great,” Daddy said with sarcasm, then he slapped JoGene upside the head. “I don’t care how it went dummy, what information do you have?”

  “Well they stayed inside
last night on account of the storm,” JoGene said. “But Ricky took over this morning, and I’m sure he’s gonna bag one of them girls for us.”

  “He better,” Daddy huffed. “What about Marcus and Damien?”

  “They’re fine,” JoGene said. “We don’t gotta worry about them, they’re just out there watchin’.”

  “Well, alright then,” Daddy told him with a smile. “I think you’ve earned yourself some breakfast, now get you inside. I’ll stand watch.”

  These backwoods disasters had no idea what was about to hit them, and that was the way I would keep it.

  I slipped back out into the woods unnoticed and maneuvered around the booby traps until I was far enough away from their camp to take off jogging. I didn’t want to wait any longer than I had to to take out these dicks, so I needed to go get the girls pronto.

  As I raced through the forest, I breathed in the smell of rain and listened as the birds fluttered from the trees as I darted past them. Once I passed the stream by the campus, I kicked it into high gear and sprinted the rest of the way.

  “Tav?” Anna called out just before I hit the tree line.

  “It’s me,” I yelled.

  “Jesus!” Tara shouted, but then I broke the tree line, and she lowered her voice. “We were about to fucking shoot you.”

  “Well, thank God you didn’t,” I chuckled.

  “We weren’t literally about to shoot you,” Anna said with an eye roll. “But we were ready in case you were somebody else.”

  “You did awesome,” I told the girls, and I bent down to pet Winchester as he ran over to me to say hello.

  “So are you done?” Bailey asked.

  “Yeah,” Rolly added. “Let’s hear the good news.”

  “Well, there’s good news and bad news,” I said, and I turned to Anna.

  “What’s the bad news?” the redhead asked warily.

  “No, good news first!” Paige said excitedly.

  “The good news is that the scouts are dead,” I said and then I turned back to the redhead. “The bad news is that I had to eliminate your target.”

  “What the fuck?” she scoffed. “What happened?”