by Eric Vall
“Did you see?” Bailey asked, and she looked up at me with panic in her eyes.
“I did,” I agreed. “We’re under attack.”
“Why the hell do you seem so calm about this?” Tara asked.
“Because this is how we level the playing field,” I chuckled. Even though I was sure some of the men in the woods were only here under the threat of what Brody might do to them if they didn’t comply, it still allowed us to make a statement, and that statement was that we were not to be fucked with.
“What do you mean?” Bailey asked.
“Brody knows what we’re capable of,” I said. “He has to be desperate to get rid of us if he was willing to send men over here to try to take us out.”
“He was probably hoping that they’d have the surprise factor,” Anna said.
“No doubt,” I agreed. “But, he should have known better. He must want us taken care of quickly.” Brody never could wait for anything.
“How do you know he’s not out there?” Tara asked.
“There’s a possibility that he is,” I said, “but knowing Brody I highly doubt it. He likes to send others in to do his dirty work for him.”
“Narcissist,” Paige mumbled.
“Right,” I agreed.
“Everyone is outside,” Bailey said with a panicked voice. “They could get hurt.”
“Anna, go down to the courtyard and calmly tell everyone to get inside and away from the windows,” I instructed.
“What are we going to do?” Paige asked. “We can’t just sit up here and fire down at them.”
“They think they’ve got the drop on us right now,” I said. “They don’t know that we know they’re here. These are our woods, and we’re going to use them.”
“Right,” Tara said, and she instinctively took a wider stance as she got into fight mode. “Let’s kick some ass.”
“You all remember where our tree stands are out in the woods?” I asked, referring to the small towers we had built some time ago when the biker gang attacked the campus.
“Yeah,” Paige answered.
“Good,” I said. “Anna, go get everyone inside, now. Bailey, stay on the roof, but stay low so you’re not seen. Tara, Paige, get your things and meet me downstairs in two. Everyone understand?”
“On it,” Anna agreed.
“Don’t worry,” I told the redhead, “just get the civilians inside, I’ll grab everything you need.”
“Thanks,” she said, and she ran to the roof door and headed downstairs.
I felt a sly smile come to my face as I followed Anna, Tara, and Paige. I had warned them not to underestimate Brody, but it seemed he had just underestimated us.
He was an idiot to think that he could get the jump on us, and as much as I wanted him to be out there in those woods so that I could take him out myself, I knew he wasn’t.
Brody knew better than to mess with another Ranger on his home turf.
His men didn’t know that, though, and he had just sent them to the slaughter.
Chapter 17
While Ann went outside to get everyone, Paige, Tara, and I stopped by the front door and grabbed our vests, helmets, and rifles. I also grabbed gear for Anna and a few spare magazines.
“Paige,” I said, “run a vest and helmet up to Bailey.”
“I’m on it,” the brunette said, and she took off back up the stairs.
I knew Brody didn’t have many guys that he trusted enough to take with him to Burlington, but the amount that he would willingly send to their demise was probably much greater. Right then, I had no idea how many men were in the woods, but it didn’t matter, I’d take all of them down, except for one. Someone had to deliver the news to Brody.
As much as I hoped that Brody would be out there so I could put a bullet between his eyes, I knew he wouldn’t be. He had seen my crew, there was no way he’d walk into my territory, not when he had a giant fort to hide behind.
Quickly, but quietly, people started to pile into the dorm building as Anna held the door open. Children came in first, and Kimmy and I locked eyes as she passed with baby Anthony clung tightly to her chest. Her eyes told me that she was scared, but I gave her a nod that I hoped helped to calm her down and let her know that it would all be alright.
We’d all been through worse than this before, though many of our people hadn’t really experienced an assault on the campus itself, but still, they knew generally what to expect. I knew that everyone trusted the girls and I to get shit done, and we’d deliver on that promise again today.
Rolly and Betty came in last, and I grabbed the old man by his shoulder to stop him for a second.
“Bailey’s on the roof,” I told him.
“I saw,” he said.
“Keep everyone quiet and away from the windows,” I instructed.
“I’m on it,” he said with a curt nod, then his eyes hardened and he looked at me with a flash of anger before he spoke again in a low, hard voice. “Give ‘em hell.”
I nodded and clapped him on the shoulder to send him on his way, then I turned to Paige and Tara.
“Let’s go,” I said, and I turned to Anna who stood in the doorway and tossed her her helmet and vest, which she put on in a matter of seconds before she snatched her rifle out of my hand.
“Come on,” the redhead said in her best second in command voice.
“Anna and I to the right,” I said. “Paige and Tara to the left.”
The girls took off into the woods with their pistols raised, but before I followed I looked up at the roof to check in on Bailey. I couldn’t see her, though, which I figured was because she was at the back of the building.
No shots had been fired yet, though, so we had time to get into position. And if anyone got close enough to one of us without us seeing, I knew Bailey had our backs. That girl was nothing if not a damn fine shot.
I threw my rifle on my shoulder, pulled out my pistol and rushed into the woods behind Anna. The tree stands we had made in the woods were originally designed to give us a good view of the courtyard, but they were large enough that we had a decent view of the woods as well.
As we ran, Anna veered off to the right, and I kept going straight, further into the trees toward the post that was closest to the back of the dorm building.
If there was one thing I’d found out during my time in the Rangers, it was that people tended to get cockier the closer that they got to their goal. We’d let these assholes get right up on the college before we took them down.
The tree stand hadn’t been used in some time, so when I arrived it was covered in foliage, but we had run the drill so many times before that I knew exactly where I was headed, even with it being more well hidden than it had been before. I quickly hopped up onto the small wooden platform and pulled my rifle around.
My heart beat loudly in my chest as I scanned the area around me, so I took a couple of deep breaths to slow down my heart rate and to help me focus.
I knew the girls would all be in position at that moment, and from where I’d seen Brody’s men from the roof, it wouldn’t be long before they ran right into us.
The sound of footsteps caught my attention, and I waited for the man to appear. I could hear the crunch of leaves under his shoes, so I knew he was close.
I saw the barrel of his M16 before I saw him. I should have put it together before that of course Brody’s men would have M16s, Brody had worked with the druggies in Lebanon and Burlington. That was where he had gotten all of his military issued weapons. They were the same ones the druggies always had.
I shook my head to clear it and focused on the man that emerged from the trees. He was fairly young, maybe in his thirties, and I knew I had seen him around the fort before. He had dark brown hair that was grown out to his shoulders, and he was quite thin under his tight black shirt. He had on a pair of camo cargo pants and boots, but his footsteps were unsure, and when I looked more closely at his weapon I realized that his hands were shaking.
The gu
y was obviously scared as all hell. He was probably only here under Brody’s orders because he felt like he couldn’t refuse. When we had talked to the people at the refinery after we took it over for them, they had made it clear that they didn’t like the way Brody ran things, but they still felt like they owed him.
Still, this was war, and as much as I didn’t want to take out any innocents, everyone had a choice. These guys could have fled, but they chose to follow orders, and at that moment I had to do what needed to be done to protect my family.
The guy looked behind him every couple of steps, so I knew there were more men coming. I wanted to see how many there were, so I waited and watched him take careful, slow steps toward the campus until a minute or so had passed.
Finally, another guy broke the tree line, and I focused on taking deep breaths.
This guy had dark brown hair as well, but it was cut short and where the first guy was thin, this guy had some girth to him. It wasn’t all muscle, that was clear, he was a stocky fellow, probably naturally a bit thicker than others. Unlike his counterpart, this guy was sure in his steps, and when the first guy turned to look at him he just pointed forward and kept walking.
The second man didn’t look behind him, which led me to believe that there weren’t any others in this particular spot. The second guy seemed much more sure of the mission than the first, though, and I had to wonder if he had some sort of loyalty to Brody that the first guy didn’t.
Bailey’s rifle cracked, and it was followed by a burst of M16 fire that had to have come from one of Brody’s guys.
The first man in front of me ducked down when he heard it, but the second lifted his weapon and used it to scan the area.
I quickly adjusted my rifle and took aim at the back of the guy’s head. He had his weapon raised as if he was going to try to fire at the roof of the building where Bailey was. I pulled the trigger, and my bullet connected with his chest. However, when the guy fell forward, his muscles tensed on the trigger and caused a spray of bullets to fire from his automatic rifle.
“Fuck!” the first guy cursed, and he ducked down and covered his ears right where he was as if that would help him in any way.
Bailey’s rifle cracked again, and the guy was smart enough to run, but it didn’t matter. Anna’s rifle sounded, and the guy flew forward mid stride and tumbled to the ground in a heap.
The sound of automatic firing rang in the air, and I knew it was Brody’s men, but either they were laying cover fire or they didn’t know how to shoot, because it was far too much for any situation.
Someone was yelling, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. A million sounds hit me all at once, but the firing was too much to make out much else.
The shots came from the opposite side from where I was, but it sounded like it was getting further away, and I wondered if they were actually retreating or just trying to get to cover.
After a moment the firing stopped and the sound of tires squealed a second later.
I heard Bailey call something from the roof, but I couldn’t quite make it out, so I threw my rifle back over my shoulder, pulled out my pistol, and ran toward the dorm building.
“What?” I called once I was a hundred feet or so closer.
“They retreated!” the blonde hippie yelled. “I saw a jeep take off!”
Part of me was disappointed that they didn’t stick around long enough for a true battle, since I was itching to take out my frustrations on anybody who dared to attack us. The other part of me realized that half of these guys didn’t even want to be there, so their retreat came as no surprise. I wouldn’t sacrifice my life for some asshole I didn’t even respect, either. I couldn’t blame them for doing what any self preserving individual would.
“Everyone meet in the courtyard,” I hollered. “Scan the area as you go!”
I didn’t figure anyone was left, not anyone alive at least, but it was better to be safe than sorry. None of those guys would have stayed behind voluntarily, but I wouldn’t put it past one of them to get left because they just weren’t quick enough, and I really didn’t want to deal with a scared dude with a gun.
Fear was one hell of an adrenaline rush, and people did a lot of stupid things when they were afraid.
I made my way back to the courtyard with Anna right behind me. A couple seconds later Tara and Paige broke the tree line and ran over to us.
“Bailey?” I called up to the roof, but a second later the door to the dorm building opened and the blonde stepped out.
“You’re sure they’re gone?” Anna asked.
“Yeah,” Bailey confirmed. “They retreated into the trees where I couldn’t see them anymore, but then I saw a flash of brake lights in the woods.”
“How many were there total?” I asked.
“If there was only one vehicle then there couldn’t have been more than six or seven,” Paige said. “And that’s on the high side.”
“I only saw one set of brake lights,” Bailey said.
“I took out one,” I stated.
“Me, too,” Anna added.
“I got one,” Bailey said.
“So did I,” Tara said.
“Not me,” Paige said with a shake of her head.
“So that’s four total,” I said. “Bailey, did you see how many guys got into the vehicle?”
“No,” she said. “All I saw was the flash of lights, I didn’t see how many guys there were.”
“That’s fine,” I told her. “Not many could have survived, and the ones that did will have to tell Brody what happened.”
“How the hell did they get up here without being seen?” Anna asked.
“I don’t know,” Bailey said, and she threw her arms out in exasperation. It looked like the blonde was about to cry. “I saw them in the woods, and I was scanning the area when I saw the brake lights, but I didn’t see anything before that.”
“Brody’s pretty decent with maps,” Paige said. “They probably found a way to get over here unseen.”
“Then why would they just peel out?” Anna pushed. “They could have retreated and regrouped if their vehicle was that well hidden.”
“Uh, because they were scared shitless,” Tara said with a shrug.
“That checks out,” the redhead agreed after a second.
“They definitely weren’t going to stick around after that,” Tara said.
“You’re right,” I agreed. “You have to remember that these guys don’t have the training that you all do. You’d know to regroup and change your plan of attack, but they wouldn’t.”
“Their vehicle was on the opposite side of the road,” Bailey said. “Like across the street from campus. I didn’t get a good look, I just saw the brake lights, then they were gone. They must have driven through the woods.”
“You couldn’t have seen them, then,” I told her, and I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her.“You did everything right.”
I didn’t want her to feel like she’d missed something. Brody’s men weren’t well trained, but they’d followed a plan, and that plan had them well hidden until it was time to attack. If there was one thing Brody knew how to do, it was how to be a sneaky sonofabitch.
“Yeah,” Anna agreed. “You saw them in the woods before they were able to reach us, that’s the important part.”
“I just wish I would’ve seen them earlier,” Bailey sighed.
“Brody’s an asshole, but he’s not stupid,” Paige said. “At least not when it comes to maps, he must have found an old road for them to use that went through the woods or something. I’ll check the maps we have around here and see if I can figure out how they came this way.”
“Good idea,” I said. “We have a few bodies to clean up in the meantime.”
“It seemed like the guy I got didn’t even want to be there,” Anna said. “He was shaky as hell.”
“I noticed that, too,” I agreed.
“Yeaaaah,” Tara said, and her face pulled into a grimace, “I think I sho
t that guy that got injured in Lebanon.”
“Roman?” Paige asked. It made sense that she would remember his name better than the rest of us since she had treated him for his forearm injury.
“I think so,” Tara said. “It looked like him at least.”
“Show us,” I said. “We need to clean up these bodies anyways.”
“What are we going to do with them?” Anna asked. “We’re pretty close to home.”
“We’ll find somewhere to take them and set them on fire,” I said. “We can’t leave them out for the animals.”
“Yeah, we don’t want another wolf situation,” Tara scoffed. She was referring to earlier in the year when we had to take out a pack of wolves that had become hooked on human meat.
“That was sad,” Bailey said with a pitiful little frown.
She was the best sniper I’d ever seen, and she wouldn’t hesitate to take out any man or woman that threatened herself or another, but even when wild animals wanted to eat her she felt bad about killing them. It was kind of cute, actually.
We followed Tara into the woods until we came to a body lying face down on the ground.
I knelt down and flipped the guy over, and immediately I knew Tara was right. This was the kid that Brody had brought with him to Lebanon and Burlington. I remembered the day we had met him, he had introduced himself with a small voice, and I realized then how shy he was and how much he didn’t want to be part of the crew. He had long dark hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail, and there was still a bandage on his forearm from where he’d gotten cut just a week prior. He was the youngest guy that Brody had on his team when we took out the outposts, there was no way that he was older than the girls, and I knew from his previous behavior that he really didn’t want anything to do with the fighting.
I shook my head and closed his green eyes so they’d stop staring at me.
“That’s definitely him,” Paige said as she knelt beside me.
“I didn’t realize until I had already fired,” Tara said.