Without Law 4

by Eric Vall

  “About a minute, maybe two,” Rolly said.

  “What’s going on?” Anna asked as the girls rushed out onto the roof behind us.

  “There’s a small group of people at the bridge,” I said.

  “Are they bad guys?” Tara asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” I said.

  “Well, what are they doing?” Paige asked.

  “They are just sort of standing there,” I said with a shrug.

  A moment later two of them got off their bikes and walked onto the bridge. They pulled guns from their backpacks and stopped to check the bodies. After they checked the first biker the two scouts waved the others onto the bridge. The ten of them spread out and looked to pick through the corpses.

  “Looks like scavengers,” I said.

  “Should we be worried?” Anna asked.

  “I don’t know yet, we have to wait and see which way they go,” I said.

  “If they come this way we’ll be ready,” Paige said.

  “Maybe, but we aren’t setup like we were with the bikers,” I said. “Things could be a lot more dangerous.”

  “We have the sniper nests on campus though,” Tara said.

  “Yeah, and we could easily shoot from these rooftops,” Bailey added.

  “I’m just saying, let’s not underestimate our possible enemies.” I said.

  I continued to watch the group of the bridge. All of them seemed to be armed but none of them did anything to make me think that they were ready to use them. In fact the whole lot seemed to be a little skittish. A couple times they would all stop suddenly and aim their weapons in the forest around them. They seemed afraid and that fear could make them unpredictable and thus dangerous.

  “So what are they doing now?” Rolly asked.

  “They are just picking over the guys on the bridge,” I said.

  “Good thing we cleared those guys out yesterday,” Paige said.

  “Yeah, they aren’t going to find anything good down there,” I said.

  “Not unless they're cannibals,” Tara said.

  “You’re joking right?” Bailey asked.

  “Of course she is,” Rolly assured the blonde.

  “I wasn’t though,” Tara said. “When things go to shit, you always hear about some people going cannibal.”

  “Ugh, just thinking about that makes my skin crawl,” Bailey muttered.

  “Yeah, I don’t really want to think about that either,” Anna said.

  “They aren’t cannibals,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think we will ever have to worry about cannibals either.”

  “Thank god for that,” Bailey said

  A minute later the group on the bridge got back on their bikes and rode off down the rode back the way they came.

  I let out a sigh as I handed the binoculars back to Rolly. Then I rubbed my weary eyes and blinked a couple times. The entire ordeal had only been a few minutes long, but it felt like an eternity.

  “So did they leave?” Paige asked.

  “Yep, they’re riding off now,” Rolly said.

  “They’re heading away from us too,” I added.

  “That was tense,” Tara said. “For a minute I thought we were going to have to prepare for another fight.”

  “Me too,” Anna said.

  “Don’t relax too much,” I said. “I think what we saw today is the first of many travelers.”

  “Why can’t people just leave us alone?” Paige moaned.

  “It’s because we took out those fucking bikers,” I started. “I figure what we did is kinda like a double-edged sword. Those guys had this entire area under their control and anyone who wanted to get up here would have had to go right by them.”

  “Oh shit, so now that the bikers are gone anyone can wander out this way,” Bailey muttered.

  “They aren’t all going to be bad people though, are they?” Anna asked.

  “No, probably not,” I said as I shook my head. “But even good people can be dangerous if they’re afraid.”

  “This could be good for us though, right?” Rolly asked. “We can probably trade with some of these people if they are good natured enough.”

  “Hey maybe we could help out some of those people,” Bailey said. “I’m sure not everyone who is walking the roads right now is doing real well.”

  “That’s a nice thought, but we need to be careful about who we trust,” I cautioned. “I’m not saying we can’t help people, but if that’s the route we go we have to be smart about how we do it.”

  “That makes sense,” Paige said. “We can’t actually know if these people need help or not. Someone could easily pretend to be a scavenger or a traveler to get in close to survivor groups just to take all their best shit.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that,” Bailey said.

  “Man, why does the world have to be so complicated,” Tara whined.

  “It’s actually kind of funny how complicated things are now,” Anna said. “I guess people are wrong when they talk about simpler times.”

  “Depends on the situation, but yeah, you have to work a hell of a lot harder when you don’t have stuff like electricity and running water,” Rolly said.

  “Things would be a little easier if the world was not full of people like the bikers all of a sudden though,” Paige said. “I would say that there is an above average amount of assholes in the world at the moment.”

  “That’s not unusual in situations like ours,” I said. “When things go to shit, it’s always those assholes that try to take advantage of the chaos.”

  “Well I wish they’d cut it out,” Bailey said with a small smile.

  “Until they do, we will just have to keep watch,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. “Now come on, let’s see if we can finish this greenhouse before it gets too much later.”

  The girls all nodded and made their way back towards the mostly complete structure in the courtyard.

  “You good watching here till dinner?” I asked Rolly.

  “Yeah, I’m good here,” he said as he took a seat. He looked through the binoculars and scanned the area. “Just let me know when it’s time for food.”

  “Will do, old timer,” I said with a smile. “Nice job spotting those scavengers.”

  “Just doing my job,” the handyman said. “Now get going, you still have plenty to do if you want to finish that thing before dark.”

  “Yes sir,” I chuckled. Then I headed down.

  The girls were already trying to figure out how to build the roof by the time I arrived, but it was clear as I watched them that none of them really knew what to do.

  “Want some help?” I asked with a smile.

  “Yes please,” Bailey said.

  I went to work teaching the girls how to frame in an angled roof. It took a couple of them a minute to understand the slightly more complicated planning that went into choosing and maintaining the correct angle of the roof joists. A couple hours later though, we had a shallow angled roof on top of the greenhouse. Everything except for the door was built and ready to be wrapped in plastic.

  The group took a step back and admired their handiwork.

  “Holy shit, we built that,” Anna said as she stood there with her hands on her hips.

  “You sure did,” I said with a nod. “It looks nice too.”

  “Do you think we’ll have time to finish it tonight?” Paige asked as she glanced up at the dull orange sky.

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “Well I guess we know what we’re doing tomorrow afternoon,” Bailey said.

  “Yeah, but coating it in plastic shouldn’t take us long,” Anna said.

  “It’ll still take us a while,” I said. “Especially if we do both interior and exterior like Bailey suggested.”

  “That’s right, I forgot about that,” Anna said.

  “It needs a door, too,” Tara pointed out.

  “We will make one of those tomorrow, too,” I said. “We will just make a simple fra
me for the door, add some rubber seal around the edges, and coat it in plastic too.”

  “Once that’s done I’ll put some tables in it and starting growing some plants,” Bailey said. She grinned and clapped her hands together as she looked at the building. “I’m so excited.”

  “Won’t you need some pots to grow shit in?” Tara asked.

  “We can find plenty of pots in town,” Bailey said. “I’m not worried about that.”

  “All that’s a job for another day,” I said. “Come on.” I took off towards the firepit and nodded for them to follow.

  That night I cooked for the group. I knew I was not the best cook among us, but the others did more than their fair share of the cooking and every now and again I liked to take my turn.

  I made us a meal of wolf seasoned with garlic and basil, canned corn, green beans, and some old stale crackers we still had left from our first trip to town.

  “Man, I really can’t wait until we have fresh vegetables,” Anna said as she watched me cook.

  “Yeah, we’ve been doing just fine, but I am getting really tired of meat plus whatever canned thing we decide to heat up,” Paige agreed.

  “I would kill for some bread,” Tara said. “Even just plain old white bread would be so good right now.”

  “Rice sounds good too,” Bailey muttered.

  “Oh man, I lived off of white rice covered in butter for a while,” Tara said.

  “That’s really not good for you,” Anna said as she looked at Tara and raised an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t do it because it was good for me,” the platinum blonde replied as she rolled her eyes. “It was easy to make, and it tasted good.

  “Butter sounds pretty amazing right now,” I said.

  “You said Betty had cows right?” Paige asked. “Maybe she could give us some butter.”

  “Man, good thing we have so much shit to trade, because we want a lot from that woman,” Anna laughed.

  “We’ll just have to see what we can get,” I said. “It’s not impossible for us to make some bread though. I mean we would need to build a little over, but I doubt flour would be hard to find.”

  “Hey, yeah, I bet the kitchen even has some flour,” Tara said.

  “We need yeast to make bread though,” Bailey said.

  “We’re missing a lot of ingredients for real bread,” Paige said. “It’s a little more than flour and water mixed together.”

  “Well if we can find some flour we can start experimenting,” I said. “If we can get a hold of some butter and some eggs we might be able to come up with something that at least resembles bread.”

  “I’m down to try it,” Anna said.

  “Maybe I can find some books in the library that could get us started,” Paige said. “There’s gotta be some really basic biscuits or something that we could make.”

  “Wait, we still need an oven though, right?” Tara asked.

  “True…” Paige said.

  “Some of those houses in town are made of brick right?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but I don’t know what that has to do with ovens,” Tara said.

  “Maybe we could bust some of those bricks out of the house and build a small little wood oven,” I suggested.

  “That would be pretty cool,” Bailey said.

  “Right, kinda like those wood-fired ovens that were popular with pizza places,” Bailey said. “That’d be sweet. We could also roast some vegetables in it.”

  “Ugh, now I want pizza,” Paige said as she put a hand on her stomach and frowned.

  “Me too,” Anna sighed.

  “Anyone have any ideas on how to score us some pizza?” Bailey asked with a chuckle.

  “I wish,” Tara said.

  My stomach rumbled as we talked about pizza. It was dumb stuff like that which I missed. I was already used to being without electricity, but there were days, like today, when a hot supreme pizza and a cold beer sounded amazing.

  “Maybe we will get pizza again someday,” I said. “Once we have a brick oven and a way to make bread, it doesn’t seem like a big leap to making pizza.”

  “Man, I wish,” Anna said as she rested her head on her hands.

  “We’re about ready to eat,” I said. “Can someone go grab Rolly?”

  “I’ll do it,” Bailey volunteered. Then she ran off while the others started to load up their plates with food.

  Rolly and Bailey joined us a few minutes later and then we all spent the evening laughing and enjoying the small meal I had cooked up. Once it got good and dark, we snuffed out the fire, picked up our garbage, and headed for bed.

  “Goodnight everyone,” Rolly said with a wave before he disappeared into his room.

  I waved and wished him a good evening. Then I stripped down to nothing but some sleeping shorts and met up with the girls once more.

  We all snuggled together in a pile on our pit of a bed on the floor, and it was not long before I heard the steady breathing of the girls sleeping around me.

  I smiled and let out a small contented sigh. There were a few things I still missed about the old world, but things like this made it all worth it. I could think of far worse situations I could be in, so I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  I woke up the next morning when one of the girls started to stir. I forced my eyes opened and stifled a yawn as Anna untangled herself from the sleeping pit.

  “We running again?” She whispered to me.

  “Yeah,” I said with a nod as I freed myself from the others.

  “Cool, meet you downstairs in five then,” the athletic redhead said with a smile as she started to pull on a sports bra.

  I gave her a thumbs up and stumbled down the hall towards my room. There I got dressed in a pair of olive green cargo pants, a grey T-shirt, and my vest. I loaded up with my pistol and knife before I pulled a plain black cap off the pile of clean clothes. I put it on backwards so the cap would cover my neck and headed for the stairs.

  As I got into the common room I was surprised to find Paige awake and getting dressed.

  “Morning,” I said quietly.

  “Hey,” she replied as she pulled on a tight purple sport shirt. “You think I can join you guys this morning?”

  “Definitely,” I said. “Just meet us downstairs when you’re ready.”

  She flashed me a grin, nodded, and hurried to finish getting dressed.

  I left her there and joined Anna in the courtyard. The redhead was bent over as she worked to stretch out her muscles before the morning run.

  “Good morning to me.” I grinned at the view.

  “Enjoying yourself?” she asked.

  “Hard not to enjoy a view this good,” I said.

  “Maybe you should do something about it,” she said as she shook her ass at me.

  “I’d love too, but Paige will be down shortly,” I said. “Apparently she decided to join us.”

  “Damnit, I knew I should have made a move yesterday,” Anna grumbled.

  “It’s okay,” I said as I walked over to her. I grabbed her hips and pulled her into me. “There will be plenty of other opportunities.”

  “Yeah, but I want it now,” the redhead whispered as her green eyes met mine.

  I laughed and smacked her ass. “We’ll have to do it soon then.”

  “We better,” Anna said.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Paige asked.

  I turned around and saw her standing there with a smirk on her face.

  “No, but if you had been any slower you might have,” I teased.

  “Well remind me to take my time next time,” the brunette said.

  “Enough talk, let’s run,” I ordered.

  The three of us spent the morning working out, and after we got done, we made our way to the library.

  “What made you decide to join us?” I asked Paige as we walked.

  “Yesterday, when we had that scare with those people on the bridge, I realized I wanted to be ready,” The brunette explained as sh
e pushed a stray strand of hair from her face. “Part of that means being in shape. I would hate to find out I can’t run as far as I thought while in the middle of a life or death situation.”

  “I’ve been thinking about the same thing,” I said. “I have actually been toying around with the idea of making a daily run mandatory, but we do so much physical labor right now that I don’t think it’s necessary.”

  “Could you imagine how much Tara would complain if she had to join us,” Anna chuckled.

  “She’s actually a pretty good runner,” Paige said.

  “Huh, I guess that ass had to come from somewhere,” Anna said with a shrug.

  The three of us entered the library and found the others already waiting for us. We took our seats, got some tea, and settled in.

  “How was your morning run?” Rolly asked us.

  “It was good,” Paige said. “Really refreshing.”

  “The weather has been great for running lately,” Anna said.

  “I hope it stays that way for a while,” I said. “Anyone who wants to start their day out with some cardio is always welcome to join us.”

  “Hard pass,” Tara said. “I barely have enough time to get ready in the morning as it is.”

  “I might join you guys,” Bailey said. “I’m not a fast runner though.”

  “It’s okay, one of us will keep pace,” Anna said with a smile.

  “Alright, let’s get this day started,” I said in an attempt to shift the conversation back to our chores.

  “Tara and Anna, you two get to use the showers this morning,” I said. “After that, I want Tara to work in the garden while Anna takes care of the morning watch.”

  “Bailey and I are on trap duty then?” Paige asked.

  “Yes, and once you are done with that boil some water. It’s starting to get pretty hot out there, and I want to be sure we have a good supply of it ready for drinking. This afternoon Tara will take Anna’s place on the roof and then we will finish the greenhouse. It shouldn’t take us more than a few hours, so after that we will put together a package of guns and ammo to trade with Betty and her family.”

  “Does this mean we will be heading that way soon?” Rolly asked with a grin.

  “Yeah, I am thinking about heading that way the day after tomorrow,” I said.

  “Well I’ll make sure I am ready to go,” he said.