by Eric Vall
We reached the library, and I held the door open for her, watched her walk inside, and followed her in.
I took a seat at the table, and Rolly passed me a plate of food and a cup of hot coffee.
“How was the run?” Paige asked.
“It was nice,” I said.
“Maybe next time I can convince more of you to join me,” Anna added.
“Hey, if we hadn’t worked so hard yesterday I would be down,” Bailey said.
“I just didn’t want to do it,” Tara said with a smirk.
“No surprise there,” Paige teased.
“I’m not against working out, but I got all the exercise I needed last night,” the platinum blonde said as she locked eyes with me and smiled.
“Yeah, I heard,” Anna chuckled.
“We all did,” Paige said. “You two weren’t exactly subtle.”
“Sorry,” I said with a shrug. “You were all so tired that I thought maybe you had fallen asleep before we started.”
“Even if we had, I think it might have been hard to sleep through Tara’s noises,” Bailey said.
“Don’t worry, none of us were actually bothered by it,” Anna said. “It didn’t actually keep me awake at all.”
“Good, because we have lots more work to do today,” I said before I took a minute to eat some breakfast. After I had stuffed my face for a couple minutes I continued. “I want all of you girls to head out and check the traps this morning. We don’t really need to food, but I don’t want to leave an animal out there suffering. Split into two groups to cover more ground so we can get going quicker. Once you get back, we’ll ride down to the bridge and start getting that set up.”
“Will we be running anymore drills today?” Paige asked.
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “We will plan out how we want to get from the bridge back to town so we will have to run that through at least four or five times.”
“I’m glad I have a couple decent pairs of shoes,” Anna said.
“I do too, but my feet are still gonna hate me,” Tara added.
“Well, as long as the forest is thin enough we are going to make use of our ATVs to get from the bridge to the town,” I explained. “We might still be able to outpace the bikers on foot by using the forest as a direct route, but they won’t have a chance of getting ahead of us if we have wheels.”
“Oh, well that will make today a little easier,” Bailey said.
“Unless we can’t find a path that fits the ATVs,” Paige pointed out.
“Let’s hope that isn’t the case,” Tara said.
“We won’t know until we get down there and check it out,” I said as I cleared my throat.
“Are you trying to tell us that we should get out there and get our chores done?” Anna laughed.
“We have a ticking clock,” I said. “I know I hurt the bikers bad when I attacked them, but they will be here in the next week, maybe even a bit sooner. Hell, even tomorrow. We need to train our ambush strategy and maybe get some target practice in this afternoon.”
The idea of getting to shoot got all of the girls excited, so they finished their food and coffee quickly and headed out to check the traps and lines.
“I want you to stay around here,” I told Rolly once we were alone. “Go through the dorm rooms and make sure the ones that have a view of the courtyard are cleared out enough to move through.”
“I can do that,” the handyman said with a nod. “I will boil up some more water and take care of the meat in the smoker after that.”
“That would be appreciated,” I said. “Yesterday was tough, and I want you to take it easy for a day. I know you’re capable but I want you ready when the fighting comes.”
“Alright,” he replied with a nod. “Don’t worry about me though. I can handle more than you think.”
“I know, but I don’t want to burn you out,” I said.
“Just don’t hesitate to call on me if you guys need an extra pair of hands,” he replied.
“Don’t worry, I’ll come get you if we need ya,” I assured him before I stood up, stretched, and headed for the front door.
I knew that the girls wouldn’t be back for a half hour, so I prepared both ATVs, and the motorcycle in their absence. I loaded up the small ATV trailer with some wood, a few propane tanks, the spike strip, and all of the tools necessary to build. Then I loaded up a couple gas cans so that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting the four wheelers stuck, packed some food for us, and threw some rope into the trailer.
The girls still hadn’t come back by the time I finished packing. I looked around the courtyard for something to do, but I didn’t see anything that wasn’t an all-day job. However, I did notice the small black shower that was already basking in the morning sun.
After I made a stop inside to grab soap and shampoo I jogged over to the shower, stripped off my clothes, and jumped inside. The black plastic made the whole thing feel a bit smaller than I had intended, but the top was open enough to keep it from feeling truly claustrophobic. I toggled the valve and was rewarded with a gentle shower of warm water. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the feeling for a moment. I didn’t want to be selfish and use all the water, so I quickly washed and stopped the flow. I had used a little under five gallons, but it would have been real easy to just stand there and drain it all.
I stepped back into the sun and shook myself off before I got dressed once more. Then I added fresh water to the shower and went to the firepit to wait for the girls.
They emerged from the woods less than five minutes later. They all looked to be in a good mood, and they carried three fish with them.
“Seems our trotlines are doing good,” I called out to them.
“Yeah but we didn’t have any luck with the rabbits,” Anna replied.
“I had the same issue the other day,” I said. “Seems like it’s time for us to find new spots to put our traps.”
“Want us to do that today?” Bailey asked.
“Nope, we need to get to the bridge,” I said. “Throw those fish in the smoker and grab what you want to bring with you. I already have the vehicles ready to go.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tara said.
The girls then took care of the fish and disappeared into the dorm to pack their bags. Fifteen minutes later we all met in the parking lot. I hopped on the motorcycle, and the girls doubled up on the ATVs.
“Meet you guys there,” I said as I turned on my motorcycle and revved the engine.
“We won’t be far behind you,” Anna said.
I nodded and headed off down the hill with my team close behind me. We had to make a quick stop to remove the spike strip from our path, but we were able to slip through our town maze and onto the forested mountain roads.
The engine roared as I took off down the road leaving the girls behind me. Five minutes later I pulled to a stop a few yards away from the bridge, parked the bike, and waited with a smirk for my companions to catch up.
“You didn’t tell us it was a race,” Paige said as she rolled up.
“If it was, it wasn’t a fair one,” Anna said. “There was no way our four wheelers could have kept up.”
“I just felt the need to go fast,” I said with a shrug. “No my fault you guys couldn’t keep up.”
Tara hopped off and stuck her tongue out at me.
“Come on,” I said as I laughed and waved for the girls to follow while I made my way towards the bridge.
I took a moment and really mapped out where I wanted everything to go in my head. I decided to put the bottleneck closer to our end of the bridge so that they would be closer to shoot at after they hit the spikes. That also meant they had to drive back up the bridge to retreat, and that gave us more chances to take a shot before they could take cover in the trees.
“Alright, Paige, Bailey check the cars sitting around here to see if they have keys in them,” I said. “We need to get them pushed up onto the bridge.”
“What if they don’t have k
eys?” Paige asked.
“Then we will search further out until we find some that do,” I said. “Don’t worry, I have a feeling it won’t be an issue though. You don’t exactly need your keys if the car isn’t working.”
“Good point,” Bailey agreed.
“What about us?” Tara asked.
“You two,” I said as I turned to face her and Anna, “Are going to help me pick out the spots to shoot from. We want to check in the trees alongside the road here. Again we want to focus on finding a spot that can see the whole area but is pretty well hidden from the road.”
“Got it, so just like at the campus,” Anna said.
“Pretty much,” I confirmed with a nod. “Though let’s keep these on the ground. We will use the slope of the hill to gain a height advantage here.”
“How come we always want to be up high?” Tara asked.
“The high ground is always advantageous,” I said. “It’s easier to line up a solid shot on those below, and they will have a harder time shooting up at you.”
“Oh, cool,” the platinum blonde said.
“We’ll check the woods on the right side if you want to check the left,” Anna said.
“Sounds good to me,” I said before I headed into the forest and up the slope.
I found two good spots that we could build out give us support and cover. They were high enough up to overlook both sides of the bridge, and there was enough nature around it to help camouflage the shooter.
“This will work,” I said to myself, and then I headed back down the hill to grab some supplies and saw Paige and Anna return.
“We found five vehicles close by with keys im them,” Bailey said.
“Nice job,” I said. “I had only planned on using two, but maybe we can roll the extra off to the side of the bridge to make sure it isn’t easy for someone to get up that way.”
“Doesn’t seem like a bad idea,” Paige said.
“Yeah, it will be a little more work, but it’s worth it if it helps us win,” Bailey agreed.
“How far out is the furthest vehicle?” I asked.
Paige looked down the road, pursed her lips and seemed to think about it for a moment before she replied. “Quarter mile maybe?”
“That’s going to be a trip,” I said.
“Think we can do it?” Bailey asked.
“The road's straight enough, and we have enough manpower,” I said. “So yeah, I think we can do it.”
Tara and Anna came down the right slope and joined us on the road.
“Everything go good with the cars?” Tara asked.
“Seems so,” Paige said with a nod.
“We found a few good spots on our side of the road,” Anna said as she used her thumb to point at the forest behind her.
“Good, do you think you will remember them if we switch tasks for a while?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Anna said before she looked to Tara. “How bout you?”
“Yep, not a problem,” the platinum blonde said. “What are we doing?”
“Time to push some more cars,” I said with a grin.
We spent the better part of the next hour moving three cars and an SUV down the road and into place. A larger red sedan, and the big green SUV were placed on the bridge to create a fairly narrow bottleneck. The last two cars, a black hatchback and a silver sedan, were set up to block anyone trying to climb the banks of the stream on our side of the bridge. The side vehicles were not perfect barricades but they would still slow down anyone who managed to make it through the rapid water. Then we set up the spike strip right in front of the bottleneck on the bridge and used fallen leaves and debris to conceal it.
“That’s a good start,” I said as I wiped the sweat from my brow. “Just this is going to mess up their front line pretty good.” I kicked the metal strip for emphasis.
“We’re still going to use the propane tanks though right?” Tara asked.
“Oh yeah,” I said with a nod. “You and Anna should go back to what you were doing though. Build a simple barricade, camouflage it, and then make a mental note of its location so you can show us where they are when you are done. Do both sides of the road too. I’m going to help out here.”
“Alright,” Tara said.
“Give us a shout if you need anything,” Anna said.
I nodded and gave her a thumbs up as she and Tara slipped away to do as I asked.
“So then, time to set traps?” Paige asked with a wide grin.
“Seems like it,” I said as I returned her grin.
“Won’t they be expecting these though?” Paige asked. “They are going to find the traps on the cars we placed farther up the road by Lanceton?”
“Yep,” I said with a shrug, “that’s fine. If they spend time searching for traps, we’ll have more time to shoot them, and if they are in a hurry, they’ll get blown the fuck up. Win-win for us either way. Let’s get going.”
Bailey, Paige, and I grabbed what we needed from the trailer and started to set up our most destructive traps, the propane bombs. We took the small tanks used for camping, packed nails, screws, and other sharp junk around them, and then set them up in places where the blast was most likely to hurt the enemy while not filling us with random shrapnel. We were able to place them so that the vehicles acted as a shield for us. That meant that they would be less effective once the bikers crossed the road, but at least we wouldn’t need to worry about getting a face full of nails or metal scrap.
Next we took the rope I had brought with me, a good length of olive green paracord, and stretched it between some trees on our side just off the bridge. We set it so that the rope was about waist high. Between the color and thickness of the rope, it was fairly difficult to make out with all of the green around it, and even if the bikers did see it, they would have to stop for a second so someone could cut it down.
About the time we were finishing up with our traps Anna and Tara emerged once more from the forest.
“All done,” Tara said with a bright smile.
“Yeah, they are good spots,” Anna added with a nod. “We have full line of sight on everything you guys did down here.”
“Perfect,” I said. “Show me.”
They showed us the small spots they had built into the hillside. Each little nest had great visibility, plenty of ambient cover, and was well hidden.
“Looks like all we need to do now is plan our way back to the town,” I said as I stood on the hillside with my hands on my hips and looked down at our deadly first stop.
One quick look around the area, and I could tell that our escape plan was going to work. The forest looked fairly thick, but there was more than enough space for us to fit both the motorcycle, and ATVs through. So, with the help of the map, we planned a route, walked it once, and then returned to where our vehicles waited on the bridge. Then we unhooked the trailer and loaded up for our first practice run.
The first time through was sloppy. We lost the route a couple times and that led to us running into dead ends were the trees got too close to pass through. Eventually though we made it to the town.
“That was way too slow,” I yelled over the engines as I looked back at the girls.
“We running it again then?” Anna yelled back.
I nodded, spun the motorcycle around, and used the road to get back to the bridge. Even with how sloppy the first run was the trip back to the bridge using the road was longer. Once we had this down there would be no way the bikers could outpace us.
We ran the route three more times. Each time I changed who was in the lead. Anna had been at the front for the first attempt, so Paige led us up for the second, Bailey took the point on the third, and Tara led us up for the final attempt.
It took us roughly two-and-a-half minutes total to get from the bridge to the town using our shortcut through the woods. That was half the time it took us to use the road. That meant we had room for error if we needed it.
By the fourth run we knew the path really well, bu
t I noticed that our machines had left a slight but noticeable path through the woods. They marked out a very clear trail that, if they spotted it, the bikers could use to follow us straight into town.
“We need to cover our tracks,” I said to the girls.
“You mean, like, throw some leaves over the path or something?” Tara asked.
“Not quite what I meant,” I said as I shook my head.
“Well, when we stumbled around that first time we ran into a few dead ends,” Paige said, “What if we make some really obvious paths that lead off into nowhere.”
“That could work,” I said with a nod, “If we tear up the ground enough the route we just made could easily be passed over as some sort of old animal trail.”
“Well then let’s head back to the bridge,” Anna said.
We circled back around to the bridge again, but this time we used the motorcycle and the four wheelers to create deep and obvious paths that led into the woods and ran into dead ends.
“Alright, it’s starting to get dark, but there is a little more we need to do,” I said. “We are going to each take a spot and run this route from start to finish. We won’t use the vehicles this time though. We need to preserve the work we just did and we’ve used more than enough fuel for one day. I’ll give a whistle, and we will all move from our defensive positions through the woods, take up a spot in town, fall back to the campus, grab a sniper's nest, and then fall back to the buildings. Any questions?”
“Yeah, when do we start?” Anna asked with a smirk.
“Everyone get into position,” I chuckled as I shook my head. There was no denying the fact that the girls had really risen to the occasion. All day they had been upbeat, determined, and maybe even a little excited.
They were proving to be a dependable and hardworking team, and those traits would serve them well in the days and months to come. I felt that Anna played a large role in all of that. She was setting a good example of how to act, and the others had clearly taken notice.
It was well past dark by the time we finished the last run, and all of us were clearly tired. Tara and Bailey in particular looked like they might fall asleep on their feet.