Without Law 12

by Eric Vall

“We were going to head over to the farm,” Betty said.

  “Alright,” I agreed. “What needs to be done over there?”

  “Just watering and making sure everything is running smoothly,” Betty said. “Plus, we’ve been picking up around the place some while we’re there.”

  “Okay,” I said. “If you’d like or need our help, we’ll come as well, but I’d also like some time today to go over our plan for the morning.”

  “No problem,” Betty said with a wave of her hand. “You all stay, we’ll be alright.”

  “Actually, that would be nice,” Marla said, “do you think you all could keep an eye on Sophia so I could go as well?”

  “Oh, of course,” Paige said.

  “She shouldn’t require too much attention,” Marla said. “You might bring her some more books, though. She’s gone through a couple of the ones Betty brought her already.”

  “A girl after my own heart,” Paige chuckled. “I’ll pick out some good stuff for her.”

  “Thanks,” Marla told her.

  “We’ll also make sure to let the cows and horses out,” I said.

  “That’d be great,” Rolly said. “They could probably use some grazing time.”

  “Is there anything else that needs to be done around campus since we’ll be here?” I asked.

  “Not that I can think of,” Betty said.

  “What time will you all be back?” Tara asked. “I can make dinner since you made everyone breakfast.”

  “We’ll be back mid afternoon,” Betty said. “No sense in stayin’ til dark.”

  “Good call,” I told her. “And be careful on the roads. We haven’t seen any of the druggie guys on our highway, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”

  “I’m sure y’all will have that handled soon enough,” Rolly said.

  “That we will,” I told him with a grin, and then I stood up and took my dishes over to the table with a bucket of water so they could soak.

  “Oh, sorry,” Kimmy said as she bumped my elbow, and I turned around to see her with dishes in one hand and baby Anthony on her hip.

  “That’s alright,” I said, and I grabbed her plate and cup. “Here, let me take those for you.”

  “Thank you,” she said, and she gave me a small smile, but something didn’t seem right about it.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, but she looked down and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t seem fine,” I said. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “I’m not sick,” she said. “Really, I’m alright.”

  “You don’t have to tell me what’s bothering you,” I said, “but you can if you’d like. I’m not here to judge, I’m only here to help.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and baby Anthony reached out to me, so I let him wrap his small fingers around my thumb.

  “He’s growing so fast,” I said.

  “He is,” she said and then she looked at me and sighed. “I’m just a bit frazzled because I heard you all talking last night about the women in Lebanon.”

  “I’m sorry that upset you,” I told her. “It was their choice, though. We offered to let them stay with us.”

  “No, no, I know that,” she said. “It’s just… It made me realize that I rely on all of you to protect me. If I was on my own and got captured, I wouldn’t stand a chance, just like they didn’t.”

  “I see,” I said, and I studied the anguish on her face. The idea that she couldn’t protect herself was really eating her up, she looked like she was on the verge of tears, but I knew part of it was that she felt that if she couldn’t protect herself then that meant she couldn’t protect Anthony, either. I didn’t blame her for being upset, she just wanted to be a good mom and a self-sufficient individual.

  “I’ll be alright,” she said, and she took a deep, steadying breath. “But it was just a lot to think about.”

  “You know that we’re always here to protect you,” I said.

  “I know,” she started, but I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

  “But,” I added, “I also know what it’s like to want to protect yourself. If you want, I can give you some knife lessons, and once we’re back from Burlington we can practice shooting, too.”

  “I am a terrible shot,” she halfway chuckled. “But I don’t know about the knife lessons… I’m kind of scared of blades.”

  “I’ll teach you,” I told her with a smile. “We can do a small one tonight.”

  Kimmy looked down, then back up at me through her thick, black lashes, and I suddenly realized how aware I was of her soft, floral scent.

  “Alright,” she said with a nod. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” I chuckled.

  “I appreciate your willingness to teach me,” she said, and she reached out to grab my arm and give it a squeeze. “It means a lot.”

  “Of course,” I said.

  She flashed me a small smile, turned, and then walked back to the table she had been seated at. I couldn’t stop myself from watching her ample hips sway as she walked, so I quickly turned my attention to the table in front of me but realized that it was just dishes in water and there was nothing to occupy my hands with, so I hurried back to my own table instead.

  After breakfast was over, we got everything cleaned up and put away, and Betty, Rolly, and the rest of the civilians headed to the farm to get some work done.

  “Alright,” I said after everyone was gone, “Paige, why don’t you go check on Sophia, and Tara and Bailey can go get the horses and put them out in the field. Anna and I will get the cows and bring them up here to graze.”

  “Okay,” Paige said. “I’m going to grab some books from the library real quick.”

  “No worries,” I told her. “We’ll all meet back here in twenty minutes or so. Sounds good?”

  “Any excuse to ride Buttercup,” Tara said.

  “He said to bring them out to the field,” Bailey said.

  “We’ll ride them to the field,” Tara told her. “Duh.”

  I chuckled at the platinum blonde, then we all dispersed and I headed down our old driveway with Anna.

  The sun was up high in the sky, and the day seemed to grow warmer with each passing minute, but with only shorts and a T-shirt on, it was a welcome feeling.

  Anna’s long red hair swayed back and forth as she watched, and I was mesmerized by it. Usually, it was in a long braid that hung down her back. I don’t think I’d ever seen it down for an extended period of time before, but it complemented her well. It really was like a mane of red that took up half of her frame and made her look that much smaller.

  “What?” Anna asked as we walked.

  “Oh,” I said and I shook my head. “Sorry, I was just admiring your hair.”

  “Thanks,” she said with a smile. “I guess I don’t leave it down very often, huh.”

  “No,” I agreed. “It looks really nice.”

  “Honestly, I just didn’t feel like dealing with it this morning,” she chuckled.

  “I think spring is helping,” I said. “Paige had her hair down today, too.”

  “That’s true,” Anna agreed. “I always did like to have my hair down, it just became a habit to put it in my running braid after everything popped off.”

  “Running braid?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I used to only put my hair in a braid when I ran or exercised, the rest of the time I’d have it down. But after the EMP hit it was easier to just keep it in the braid all the time.”

  “Hm,” I said. “Well, I’m glad you’re breaking the habit. I like your hair down.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and she blushed slightly.

  We reached the barn where the cows were, and I opened the door to let them out.

  “They don’t seem too excited about this,” Anna said when the cows slowly trickled out of the barn.

  “Come on,” I laughed. “We’ll lead them up to th
e grass, they’ll be more excited, then.”

  I clucked to the large animals and got the attention of a couple of moms who started to follow us, the babies tagged along as well, and soon the whole herd was behind us. Every now and then one or two would stop by the side of the road to grab a mouthful of grass, but they caught up quickly and we got them to the field behind campus in no time.

  We stood and watched them for a minute. The babies had grown some, but they still nursed on their mothers and ran and jumped around with each other. I didn’t have much experience with baby cows before these, but I quickly realized how someone could get too attached to the large beasts. They were cute as hell when they were babies. And even the adults were kind of cute, their long eyelashes gave them an innocent look that made you think twice about cutting them up for beef.

  I’d still do it, of course, but after seeing the babies and moms interact, I understood more of why Bailey had chosen not to eat meat when she had the luxury of the choice.

  Tara and Bailey arrived soon after we did, and they hopped off Gray Lady and Buttercup and made their way over to us. Winchester ran out into the herd and did a quick lap to make sure that none of the livestock was too far out. In the past couple of months, he had proven himself to be quite the herding dog.

  “You have a good ride?” I asked the girls as they came over to us.

  “Short, but good,” Bailey told me with a smile.

  “I’m glad,” I said.

  “It’s like they actually like the cows or something,” Tara said as we watched the calves run up to the horses and try to play.

  “I mean, they don’t seem to mind them at least,” Anna said with a shrug.

  “Come on,” I said. “They’ll be fine here, we’ll keep an eye on them from the courtyard.”

  Paige was already in the courtyard when we arrived, and she had pulled out a table and some chairs so that we had a good view of the field behind the campus. The chickens still roamed around, and one of them stood on the table by Paige and she tried to shoo it off, but the bird just walked in the other direction.

  “Having trouble here?” Bailey laughed.

  “This one won’t get off the table,” Paige said with an exasperated sigh.

  “Come here,” Bailey said, and she picked up the chicken and walked it a few feet away before setting it down among the others.

  “I didn’t think of that,” Paige admitted.

  “Sometimes the smartest people can’t see the simplest solution,” Bailey said.

  “Or they don’t want to get their eyes pecked out,” Tara said.

  “Oh my god,” Anna laughed. “You’ve been around these things for how long now? You don’t really think they’d attack you, do you?”

  “How should I know?” Tara asked. “I keep my distance except when I’m getting eggs.”

  “You are so weird,” Paige said. “You’ll climb on top of an animal that almost weighs a tonne, but you won’t pick up a chicken.”

  “We all have our limits, Paige,” the platinum blonde sniffed.

  “Whatever,” Paige chuckled, and she turned to Bailey. “Thanks, Bail.”

  “No problem,” the blonde hippie said, and she took a seat at the table. “So what are we going over today? I thought that we already made our plan.”

  “We did,” I said. “But there’s one thing that we didn’t discuss because Brody was there.”

  “What’s that?” Bailey asked.

  “What to do if he tries anything stupid for one,” I said. “And for two, I have a theory that I want to run by you guys.”

  “Theory, huh?” Paige asked.

  “What’s the theory?” Anna pushed.

  “I have a feeling that Brody knows more about the camps than he’s led us to believe,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Anna said. “I can definitely see that.”

  “I think whoever is in charge of the outposts offered him a position as the new fuel guy,” I said.

  “Why do you think that?” Paige asked. “Do you have any evidence?”

  “Not exactly,” I said. “But his behavior is strange, and his remark about doing things our way on the Vermont side was a red flag.”

  “I did think that was weird,” Paige agreed. “Burlington and Lebanon are both in Vermont. We have no reason to believe that there’s anything going on in New York.”

  “We don’t,” Anna said, “but he does.”

  “Do you think it’s another outpost?” Bailey asked, and she looked around quickly at each of us.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But there’s something in New York, and that’s not information that he would have gathered from watching the outposts.”

  “You’re right,” Tara said. “He found that out some other way.”

  “That’s why I think he was offered to be the new fuel guy,” I said.

  “So he used us to get the refinery,” Anna said, “then he refused to become their new fuel guy. Why would he do that?”

  “Do you think he was trying to start a war between us?” Bailey asked.

  “I’m not sure what his endgame is here,” I said. “But something odd is definitely going on, and I think we’re going to find out more about it in Burlington.”

  “Speaking of,” Paige sighed. “It’s clear that Brody knows that we don’t live in Burlington.”

  “Yeah,” Tara said with an eye roll. “He keeps making stupid little remarks about how we should already know stuff because we live there.”

  “We’ll head out early tomorrow,” I said. “Before dawn. We know that he knows, but he has no proof, and we won’t give him any.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Anna said.

  “Good,” I agreed. “And we need to all remember to be particularly careful tomorrow. We not only have to keep an eye out for enemies, but we have to keep an eye on Brody as well.”

  “It was bad enough yesterday,” Tara grumbled.

  “Yeah,” Paige said, “it sucks working with someone that you don’t trust.”

  “It does,” I agreed. “Just keep your wits about you, and if he tries anything stupid don’t hesitate to take him down.”

  “Alright,” Anna said.

  “He still has information we need, though,” I said, “and his men will be there, so only take him down if he’s a significant threat.”

  The girls agreed, then we plotted out our attack once more and how we would set off the small explosion. We’d have Jeff rig us up something that would cause a small explosion and a fire when we set it off. He was more comfortable with the C4 and I trusted him to make something stable enough for us to travel with.

  We’d solidify all the details of our plan once we did some reconnaissance, but for the time being, that was as good as it got.

  I worried about Brody and his involvement in the mission, but there wasn’t much I could do about it right then, and he had been somewhat helpful in Lebanon. I only hoped he was helpful in Burlington, too.

  The girls were right, he definitely knew that we didn’t live there, but I thought if we got up there early enough we could beat him to the meeting spot. At least that way he wouldn’t have any reason to call us out for being late when we supposedly lived right down the road.

  After we had finished with our plan it was late morning and we contemplated heading over to the farm, but we decided to do some work around campus instead. Bailey got a start on the small garden we had from last year. Some of the plants had begun to sprout again, and she cleared away any weeds and watered the soil properly.

  Paige and Tara went to the library to do some research on how to make cheese from nuts, and Anna cleaned the rifles and pistols while I used some old wood from behind Rolly’s shed to build a few more picnic benches. Soon, I hoped to make some tables to go with them so that we didn’t have to bring tables in and out of the gym. The chairs we had had a cloth seat on them, so we couldn’t leave them out in the rain or harsh weather, but if we made some benches and tables then they could be left out year-round.
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br />   I had three benches complete when everyone arrived back home from the farm.

  “Hey,” Rolly laughed as he looked at my handiwork. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We finished our planning a while ago, so I figured I’d get something done around here.”

  “Looks good,” he said. “I’ve been meanin’ to make a few more benches.”

  “Tables, too,” Betty said.

  “That’s next on the list,” I agreed. It was hot out, and I had taken off my shirt well over an hour ago, though I could still feel the sweat on my chest and forehead. Now that everyone was back, though, I grabbed my shirt and tossed it back on.

  I left the others to go to the library and check on Tara and Paige, but I found Anna and Bailey in there as well. Bailey wanted a gardening book, and Anna had finished up with all the weapons so she went to see if anybody needed help.

  “Is everyone back?” Paige asked.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Winchester was whining at the door,” Bailey chuckled. “We figured that was why.”

  “I let him out on my way in,” I told her. “But I just wanted to check on you all and let you know that you can have the evening to relax after we put the animals away. I have some stuff I need to do.”

  “You mean your top-secret lesson with Kimmy?” Tara asked, and she wriggled her eyebrows at me.

  “How do you even know about that?” I asked.

  “I overheard,” the platinum blonde said with a shrug.

  “So, you were eavesdropping,” Paige corrected.

  “No,” Tara insisted. “I just happened to be walking by and I heard what they were talking about. It’s not like it was on purpose.”

  “Uh-huh,” I chuckled.

  “Don’t worry about the cows,” Anna said, “we’ll put them up, you go see Kimmy.”

  “Thanks,” I told her.

  I headed back outside and saw Kimmy with a group of women by the jeeps. She wore a pair of blue shorts and a white tank top that contrasted beautifully with the deep color of her skin.

  “Hey,” I said as I walked over. “Are you ready for our lesson?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said and then she turned to Cathy. “Are you still okay to watch Anthony?”

  “Of course,” the woman said, and she took the infant from her.