Without Law 3

by Eric Vall

  “You girls are sweet,” Rolly said. “I got away today though. Spent it down in town. Was nice to have some alone time.”

  “Yeah, but I have a feeling you still would have rather been spending time with Betty,” Anna said with a grin.

  Rolly chuckled, grinned, and took a swig of whiskey.

  “How’d things in town go today anyway?” I asked.

  “Went good,” the handyman said. “It was nice and quiet. I just got to keep my head down and get it done. I think I have most of the houses boarded up like you wanted them.”

  “Nice,” I said. “Tomorrow I think all of us are going to head down and work on making our little barricade maze. We can finish up then if we need to.”

  “That sounds like a long day,” Tara said.

  “From here on out, every day is going to be a long day,” I said.

  “Good thing there is always good food and better company waiting for us at the end of the day,” Anna said.

  “Don’t forget about the shower,” Tara added.

  “Oh yeah,” Bailey said. “I actually did forget. Can I use it before bed?”

  “Go for it,” I chuckled

  We continued to chat until dinner was ready. Then we all feasted on fish, salad, and alcohol. Once we finished our food Bailey slipped off for a shower while the rest of us started to clean up the area.

  “I think I am going to sleep well tonight,” Paige said as she gathered the dirty plates.

  “I know I will,” Rolly agreed.

  “Enjoy the rest,” I said. “You all earned it. I appreciate how hard you guys have been working.”

  “We appreciate all you are doing to ensure we stay safe,” Anna replied. I saw her grin, her face lit by the dying flames.

  We put out the fire, and one by one people started to head off to the dorm for bed.

  “You heading in?” Paige asked. She was the last one to head in for the night.

  “Go on without me,” I said. “I am going to make a trip down the hill real quick.”

  “Everything okay?” She asked as she looked at me, cocked her head to the side, and frowned.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “I just want to make sure the spike strip is set up. There is no reason leaving the route to our home open while we sleep.”

  “Want some company?” the brunette asked.

  “I’ll be okay,” I said. “Go get some rest.”

  “Alright, Tav,” the girl said. “See you soon then.”

  She gave me a wave and headed inside.

  I walked down the hill, enjoyed the cool evening temperatures, and spread out the spikestrip at the bottom. For a moment I stood there with my hands on my hips and looked out over the town. It was quiet, but I knew that soon enough it would be a place of gunfire, bloodshed, and flame. I looked back at where my home and my girls waited and smiled.

  When it came, we would be ready.

  I’d make sure of it.

  Chapter 10

  The next morning we skipped the library. Instead, we met in the courtyard and made a large breakfast of meat, the last of our eggs, some coffee, and canned fruit.

  Everyone except Rolly had chosen shorts and a tank top since we knew we would be outside most of the day. The handyman had on a pair of work slacks, his toolbelt, and a button up Carhartt. On his head he wore his favorite brown newsboys cap again.

  “You sure you don’t want to change into something a little more comfortable?” I asked Rolly before I shoved a spoonful of eggs into my face.

  “I was never one for shorts, and I don’t think that t-shirts are very comfortable,” he explained with a shrug.

  “Don’t you get hot though?” Bailey asked.

  “Oh sure,” Rolly replied. “But it shouldn’t get really hot around here for another month or two.”

  “What will you wear then?” Anna asked.

  “Same thing I am wearing now,” he said. “Can’t beat the feeling of a breeze washing over you and cooling you damp clothes.”

  “I think you can,” Tara said as she cringed.

  “As long as you stay hydrated I don’t care what you wear,” I said.

  “Thankfully that isn’t an issue anymore,” Paige said. “I actually hadn’t thought about how bad it would be if we didn’t have a steady supply of water by summer.”

  “I wouldn’t dwell on it,” I said. “That’s not a problem we have to worry about. Eat up, I want to go down there and get to work.”

  We finished up a few minutes later, piled into the Jeep, and drove down the hill. I stopped on the way down to collect the spike strip and tossed it into the vehicle. Then I parked in front of the general store and hopped out.

  “So, what is the first order of business?” Anna asked as she stepped onto the blacktop.

  “We need to move these cars,” I said as I pointed to the vehicles in the street. “They won’t run, but if we put them in neutral, we should be able to push them into position. We need to use the cars to make a wall that will force anyone on a bike into the neighborhood.”

  “You weren’t kidding when you said today was going to be a long day,” Tara muttered.

  “Can we at least take a moment to stretch out?” Bailey asked.

  “That’s probably a good idea,” I said. “Take five, stretch out, and warm up. Rolly, you can continue where you left off yesterday if you want.”

  “You sure you don’t need me here?” he asked.

  “Yeah, the trucks might be a bit tough, but I think the five of us can handle it,” I said.

  “Well then I am gonna get to work,” Rolly said before he adjusted how his toolbelt hung and headed off into the neighborhood.

  I followed the girls’ example and took a couple minutes to stretch. It was a bright and sunny day, and I had thrown a dozen bottles of water into the jeep just in case. This was one of the first real days of hard labor, and I didn’t need anyone to pass out.

  After we all limbered up, I led the girls to the first car, put it in neutral, and had Bailey hop in.

  “Alright, we are going to push the car, but I am going to need you to steer it,” I instructed the blonde hippie. “There won’t be any power steering so you are going to have to put your back into it.”

  “Don’t worry, this is something I actually know how to do,” she said. “I helped my dad move a dead car a couple times growing up.”

  “Good, that will make this a bit simpler,” I said.

  Then I went to the others who leaned against the back of the white sedan.

  “Alright ladies, you ready to push?” I asked.

  Anna, and Paige nodded, and put their hands on the truck and shifted to find solid footing as they waited for my signal. Tara frowned and looked to her friends, and then at me.

  “Don’t worry, this is easy,” I said to the platinum blonde as I took up a position between the brunette and the redhead. “Just plant your hands on the vehicle and be prepared to push.”

  “I’m not great at dealing with heavy stuff,” Tara said.

  “It will only be heavy for a few seconds,” Paige said. “Once we get this thing rolling, we will almost have to run to keep up.”

  “Really?” Tara said with a raised eyebrow as she looked at me.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed as I nodded at her. “Just help us get it moving, and we can do the rest.”

  She nodded, looked at the others, and tried to copy their pose at the back of the vehicle with us.

  “Alright, we’re ready to go,” I shouted up to our driver.

  Bailey stuck her arm out the window and gave a thumbs up. “Foot's off the brake, and I’m ready.”

  “On my count then,” I said as I smiled at my pushing team. Then I counted down from three and let out a deep grunt as I dropped my shoulder into the car and pushed hard with my legs.

  For a moment nothing happened. The sedan rocked forward, but gained no momentum.

  “Keep going!” Anna shouted. “I can feel it starting to move.” As she pushed, her face turned a red almost
as bright as her hair.

  All of us grunted and dug our feet in as we put our weight into it and nudged the car forward. We began to build momentum as the tires slowly turned, and a half a minute later we were all sprinting behind the steadily moving hunk of metal.

  Bailey let out a cheer from the driver's seat and pointed us towards where I wanted to start the barricade.

  As the tires crunched over the pavement I let go of the car and watched it roll on without me. Tara, Anna, and Paige dropped off a moment later and staggered back to where I stood as the vehicle made its way lazily down the road. It turned towards the general store and stopped just inches from the front of the building.

  Bailey stepped out and looked at how she had parked the car.

  “Nice job,” I called out to her.

  “I could have taken up a bit more of the road,” she replied as she looked up at me.

  “No, it’s perfect,” Paige said as she gave her friend a thumbs up and a smile.

  Tara leaned forward, put her hands on her knees, and breathed heavily.

  “You okay?” Anna asked as she nudged her platinum blonde teammate.

  “Yeah,” Tara wheezed. “I told ya I was bad at stuff like this.”

  “You’ll get better,” I said.

  “Not today,” she replied after she stood back up and pushed the hair out of her face. She took a black hair tie from her pocket and pulled her wavy hair back into a ponytail. Somehow Tara’s hair still looked perfect while tied back.

  “We can start working out together,” Anna offered.

  “Hard pass,” Tara said.

  “Is that offer open to anyone?” Paige asked.

  “Sure,” Anna replied with a shrug.

  “I’ve started to workout recently too,” I said. “If you guys want, I could start getting you up so you can join me on my morning run.”

  “Again, I think I’ll pass,” Tara said after she finally caught her breath.

  Bailey had wandered back over to us with her hands tucked into the pockets of her shorts.

  “Ready to do another one?” I asked as I turned to her.

  “Yeah,” she nodded.

  “Could I please be the driver?” Tara begged.

  “I don’t mind pushing,” Bailey said.

  Tara looked at me with big pouty eyes and pushed out her bottom lip in an exaggerated frown.

  “Alright, Tara’s on driver duty,” I said. “Do you need me to go over what to do?” As I spoke I headed for the next car. It was an old blue station wagon with wood paneling along both sides.

  Like almost every vehicle I had come across in this small town the station wagon was unlocked. As I opened the door, the stench of stale fast food wafted from the outdated car. I waved the smell away and chuckled as I looked over at Tara. “You sure you don’t want to push?”

  “Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad,” the platinum blonde said.

  “I’ve certainly seen worse, but it’s not pleasant,” I warned.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” She said as she rolled her eyes and pushed past me only to gag audibly as she took a seat.

  “Alright, we’ll get in place,” I said with a grin as I smacked the roof of the cab.

  “Just hurry,” Tara insisted. “I can’t believe someone would keep their car this dirty.”

  I turned back to the others to find them trying to hide their giggles.

  “That’s enough,” I said as shook my head and tried not to laugh. Then I headed for the back of the car again and got into position.

  We got the next two cars moved into position and found ourselves with a very solid barricade. Due to the angle of the cars there were a couple gaps that would need to be filled with junk to keep the enemy from slipping through, but it already looked like it would be effective as a wall to slow down our opponents.

  After our main barricade was made, we went into town. We used the cards that were around there to cap a couple of the streets and create a sort of S shaped pathway through the houses of the town towards the hill of the campus.

  As we moved the last cars in place Rolly came from a nearby building, sat down on the front stairs, and pulled out a bottle of water.

  “This place is starting to look good,” I said to him.

  “Lots of places to hide and shoot, that’s for sure,” he agreed.

  I looked around at all of the boarded-up windows. The handyman had done a good job of making sure that there were enough gaps to see and shoot through while ensuring that the shooter was hidden.

  “So do we like, just pick a building when we fall back to town?” Bailey asked as she looked between all of the different houses.

  “Not all of these places are useful,” I said as I shook my head. “You don’t want to take up a spot in a house that doesn't have a backdoor, and you don’t want to be in a house with only one window facing the street.”

  “Is marking suitable buildings out of the question?” Anna asked.

  “That would just let the enemy know where we are wouldn’t it?” Paige asked.

  “Not necessarily, but I don’t think marking the houses up is the right call,” I said.

  “What are we going to do then?” Bailey asked.

  “Let’s take a look around and see which houses can be used and go from there,” I said.

  I took the group and started to scout out the area. There were nine houses in particular that met all of my requirements. A couple of them were large enough to house two shooters if it came to that, and the houses were spaced out enough so that we could cover the whole area if we planned it correctly.

  “We have some really good options,” I said. “When the time comes, we will want to spread out all through the little maze so that there is no safe place.”

  “Makes sense,” Bailey said.

  “If we start shooting too early though won’t they just drive off?” Tara asked.

  “Probably, and that’s why we won’t start shooting until they come around the last corner. By this point their numbers will already be thinned, and if we catch them in the streets, we might be able to end the fight here.”

  “That would be sweet,” Anna said.

  “So what’s the plan for making sure we chose the correct buildings?” Paige asked.

  “We’re going to name them,” I said.

  “Um… what?” Tara asked as she raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, I'm confused too,” Anna said, “How is naming them going to help us?”

  I walked over to the closest suitable house. It was an orange two-story townhouse with an enclosed front porch, and a front yard full of dying flowers.

  “When you look at this house what stands out to you?” I asked as I turned back to the group.

  “The yard,” Bailey said.

  “Yeah, whoever lived there must have loved to garden,” Rolly agreed.

  “So then we could call this place garden house,” I said.

  “Oh, I get it,” Paige said, “We use the names to help us memorize which houses we can use.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “If we can name all nine of these houses based on something unique about them, then it will be easy to remember where to go.”

  “Cool, this should work,” Bailey said.

  “Yeah, I was going to try to just memorize the houses, but this makes that a bit easier,” Anna said.

  “Let’s go name some houses then,” Tara said.

  We traveled to the other eight houses as a group and settled on a simple name for each of them. It didn’t take long for us to come out with a list of simple titles that everyone agreed were easy to remember. The nine houses were garden house, blue house, white picket house, windchime, porch swing, doghouse, iron gate, and ornate door.

  “So do we have anything else we need to do in town?” Anna asked.

  “We will probably end up setting up traps,” I said. “Though I think we are going to spend the rest of the morning figuring out the best way up the hill through the forest.”

  �
�Right, we need to know how to fall back,” Bailey said.

  “Being mobile is just another great way to keep us out of danger,” I said. “If we can pull back before they realize exactly where we are then it means they can’t shoot at us.”

  “I am starting to see a theme here,” Paige said with a smile.

  “Yeah, funny how I am trying so hard to make sure we aren’t getting shot at,” I said with a grin.

  “I can appreciate that,” Rolly said.

  I let the group rest for a couple minutes. Our last task had hardly been difficult, but they had worked hard today, and I didn’t want to burn them out.

  After that we all headed out into the woods behind and made our way up the hill towards campus. The trees were not terribly dense, but we found some nice, easy to follow, routes that we could run with very little issue. The big thing was that we become familiar with the area so that if one of us got followed they could easily shake their pursuer. Having a knowledge of the surrounding woods would give us just another advantage. We might not have had the numbers, but that wasn’t going to stop us from putting up one hell of a fight. In fact, with every new step of preparation I became more and more confident in our ability to repel the coming assault.

  Once our escape routes were chosen, we went back into town and started to drill. I would have them all post up in a building, run out the backdoor, head into the woods, and march up the hill using the path we had chosen together. Then, after I was sure they knew how to get up the hill I had them fall back to one of the hidden shooting spots in the trees around the campus, get in place, and then fall back from there to the college buildings like we had practiced the day before.

  We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon running these drills over and over again. I ran with them half the time, and the other half I sat back and watched to ensure they completed the journey safely and quickly. I was proud to see them work as a unit. Once, when Bailey stumbled while they headed up the hill, Anna pulled her to her feet and ran alongside her to ensure they all made it. On another run Paige slipped and twisted her ankle, but Tara and Bailey were there to help pick her up and keep her going. I made them run the route probably twenty times, but not once did any of the girls whine, complain, or roll their eyes as I told them to go again.