by Eric Vall
I went over and peeked out through one of the windows. I could see several of them gathered around the firebit, and the faint smell of roasting meat hung in the air. It was strange to be one of the last people up, but I shrugged and headed for my room to grab some clothes
I grabbed a dingy pair of jeans and a dirty t-shirt. There was no point in putting on clean clothes until after we had moved all of the bodies. Once I was dressed, I went down the hall to Rolly’s room. I hadn’t seen him yet this morning and wanted to make sure he was okay. I knocked on the door and then leaned against the wall as I waited for an answer.
“Just a moment,” I heard a muffled voice call out.
A second later the door swung open, and Rolly stood there half dressed.
“Good morning,” I said with a smile.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep in,” Rolly said.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said as I patted him on the shoulder. “I think the girls are downstairs making breakfast and coffee. Just thought you might like to know.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” he said. “I’ll be down soon enough.”
“Take your time,” I said. “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
“Oh yeah,” Rolly said. “Just a little worn out after yesterday.”
“We all are,” I said. “We are going to clean up the town after breakfast, but that is all I have planned for today.”
“That’s mighty kind of ya, Tav,” Rolly replied.
“It’s not all for you guys,” I chuckled “I’m tired too.”
“Then go get some coffee,” Rolly said as he nodded down the hall. “Just make sure you save some for me.”
“Of course, old man,” I said with a smile. Then I gave him a nod, turned, and headed downstairs.
The smell of cooking rabbit greeted me as I stepped out into the courtyard. Paige, Bailey, and Tara sat around the firepit preparing food while Anna did a lap around the property.
I waved at the redhead and joined the others by the fire. It seemed the girls were still a little excited about their victory. I stood there with a grin on my face as I listened to them talk. They were so wrapped up in their conversation that they didn’t even notice me at first.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it was as awesome as when you blew up that first propane tank!” Tara said to Bailey.
“That was pretty sweet,” Paige agreed.
“The tracer rounds are cool for sure,” Bailey said with a nod. “Still, it wouldn’t have worked so well if you guys hadn’t pulled their attention away from me.”
“We had your back,” Tara grinned.
“Still having fun?” I asked as I took a seat.
“I mean, you were there for all of it, but yeah it’s fun to hear about how it went for everyone else,” Paige said.
“Did you girls even sleep last night?” I asked.
“Nope!” Tara laughed. “We just kept talking.”
“Reminds me of my first sleepover,” Bailey said.
“Only then we talked about kissing boys and not about how many of them we killed!” Tara laughed.
“Don’t worry, we didn’t let our excitement distract us from making breakfast,” Bailey said.
“It smells good,” I said.
“It always does,” Paige said.
“Unless we are cooking wolf,” Tara pointed out.
“True, but today is supposed to be a good day, so I decided to use some of our tastier meat options,” Paige explained.
“Good call,” I said as I took a seat.
“Have you seen Rolly this morning?” Bailey asked.
“I checked in on him before I came down here,” I said.
“How’s he doing?” The blonde hippie asked.
“He’s good,” I said. “Just tired like the rest of us.”
“Can’t blame him for that,” Paige said.
“Yeah, yesterday was super intense,” Tara added.
“We got through it though,” I pointed out.
“We didn’t even get that hurt,” Bailey said.
“That’s because we had a good plan,” Paige grinned.
“It wouldn’t have worked if you guys didn’t stick to it,” I said. “You all really impressed me yesterday. It would have been easy, or almost expected, to crack under the pressure.”
“Turns out fighting is easy when you have something worth fighting for,” Bailey said.
“Yeah, I just kept thinking about all of you and how, if I freaked out, you could all get hurt or killed,” Tara said.
“I don’t know, I kinda thought it was fun,” Paige said with a shrug.
“It sorta was,” Tara said.
“I don’t think I would ever do it again if I had the choice,” Bailey said. “Though, I am more okay with what happened yesterday than I thought I would be.”
“What are we talking about?” Rolly asked as he walked up to us. The grey haired man was fully dressed in a fresh set of clothes, and he had on his newsboy cap.
“Just what happened yesterday,” Tara said.
“How’d it all go?” Rolly asked. “Obviously everyone is okay, and we won, but I don’t know much beyond what happened up here.”
“Our setup at the bridge worked perfectly, and once we used our traps and emptied our magazines, the fire of the molotovs kept the bikers back long enough to give us a breather once we reached the town.”
“Heard lots of gunfire coming from the town,” Rolly said. “For a while there I was worried things weren’t going well.”
“It was intense,” Bailey said. “Once the bikers realized they were in a trap, they started to raid and burn the houses.”
“Shit, that explains the smoke,” Rolly muttered as he let his gaze drift back towards town.
“We were spread out nicely, and that helped to keep us hidden,” Paige said. “They never even got to the house I was in.”
“They did a good job of covering each other,” I said. “I saw a couple small groups that were gunned down before they made it into one of our marked houses. I assumed it was you guys protecting each other.”
“Yeah, I just wish I could have kept them out of Anna’s building,” Paige said.
“We took care of it,” I said.
“So they got inside where Anna was hiding?” Rolly asked.
“Yeah, but Tav was quick to respond,” Bailey said. “We covered him as he moved to where she was hiding and helped her take down the guys inside.”
“Nicely done,” Rolly said. “It all sounds pretty impressive.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Did anything happen here while we were at the bridge?”
“Oh no, nothing like that,” Rolly said as he shook his head. “Two guys found their way up the hill while you guys were fighting in town, but they weren’t expecting anyone to be here.”
“I’m sorry we let any of them slip by,” Anna said as she joined us.
“Yeah, you’re alright, aren’t you?” Bailey asked.
“I’m fine,” Rolly said. “Like I said, the guys didn’t think anyone was here, so they went down before they could do much of anything.”
“Nice job,” I said.
“Coffee’s ready, who wants some?” Paige asked as she wrapped her hand and used it to pull the pot off the fire. As she held it, the steam rose and fogged up her thick black framed glasses.
“I think we all do today,” Tara said.
“Yeah, just pour a round for everyone,” Rolly said.
The brunette nodded, waited for her glasses to clear up, and poured each of us a cup of hot coffee.
We all sipped and slurped at the steaming liquid.
“Somehow coffee taste better today,” Tara said.
“I think that’s because we are still alive,” Paige said.
“Yeah, everything seems a little nicer after our fight last night,” Bailey said.
“If it makes coffee taste better, maybe we should get in fights more often,” Tara said.
“If you don’t like the stuff,
just let me drink it for you,” Rolly chuckled.
“No way, I need the caffeine,” Tara smirked.
“Food’s ready,” Bailey said before she started to get a plate ready for each of us.
The food was amazing. It wasn’t anything special, but as I took that first bite of seared rabbit I realized just how long it had been since the last time I had a proper meal.
By the time we were done eating there was nothing left of the food Paige and Bailey had prepared for us. All of us ate with ravenous hunger, and Anna even went in search of some extra meat to sustain her.
I sat there for a moment with my empty plate and patted my full stomach. “I probably shouldn’t have eaten that much.”
“Tell me about it,” Rolly said.
“Are you sure we have to go move bodies now?” Tara asked.
“Yep, can’t get out of that just because we ate too much,” I chuckled.
I grunted as I pushed myself to my feet. It had been a really long time since I had stuffed myself like I did this morning. Sometimes it was worth it though, even if it would make the work afterwards that much harder. “Come on, let’s grab the truck and head down the hill.”
I waved for the girls to follow and headed for the parking lot. Everyone piled into the mangled blue pickup, I started the engine, and all six of us headed off down the hill.
Once we were in town, I avoided the bodies and drove the truck into the middle of our kill zone. Then I hopped out, stretched, and let out another groan. If we didn’t need the truck to move the bodies, I would have suggested walking to work off some of my food and tense muscles, but I supposed that moving the bodies would give me a workout.
“Alright, strip the bikers of any gear then haul them back here and toss them into the truck,” I said.
“What do we do with the guns and stuff we take off them?” Bailey asked.
“Just stack them in a pile for now,” I instructed. “Once we have removed all the bodies we can toss that all in the truck, take it back up to campus, and sort it out.”
“Um, I hate to ask but, like, what exactly are we going to do with the bodies?” Tara asked.
“We are going to take them a couple miles outside of town, make a big pile, and burn them,” I said. “If we keep them too close, then they’ll spread disease and attract more predators.”
“We don’t have to sit there and watch it or anything do we?” Bailey asked.
“No, once we start the fire we can get the fuck outta there,” I said. “And the faster we can get away from that smell the better.”
“We won’t be able to smell it from up here will we?” Tara asked as she wrinkled her nose.
“I doubt it,” Rolly said. “It’s not windy enough for that stench to travel this far.”
“I hope that’s true,” Bailey said.
“Well, we won’t know until we get that far,” I said.
“Yeah, we better get to work,” Anna said as she looked around the street.
“I wish we had gloves,” Tara muttered as her gaze wandered to the closest body.
“You should’ve said something earlier,” Rolly said. “I have a few pair of work gloves in the shed.
Tara looked at him and pouted.
“Run up the hill and grab them,” I chuckled as I shook my head.
“Yay, thanks, Tav!” Tara exclaimed before she ran over and gave me a hug.
“Of course, just hurry back,” I said.
“I will,” the platinum blonde assured me.
“Bring back any gloves you find,” Anna said.
“Well, unlike the rest of you, I came prepared.” Paige pulled a pair of blue latex gloves from her pocket and snapped them on.
“Mmkay, I’ll be back shortly then,” Tara said before she gave us a wave and walked off.
“Well, shall we?” I asked as I walked over to a body.
“I suppose so,” Rolly said before he joined me.
I took a second to go through the bikers pockets, and then I grabbed his gun from where it sat beside him, and tossed it to an empty spot in the street. The cheap AR-15 marked the start of our loot pile. I tossed the spare magazines, extra ammo, and other small personal effects next to the gun before I grabbed the man’s feet.
Rolly quickly grabbed his hands, and we carried the body into the truck and tossed it in the back.
The girls all spread out and started to follow my lead. Some bodies were worse than others, and I tried to take the goriest of the corpses myself. That didn’t mean that I was the only one to get dirty though. All of us quickly found ourselves stained with a fair amount of blood.
Ten minutes later Tara returned with half a dozen pairs of ill-fitting work gloves.
“You guys have done pretty good,” the platinum blonde said as she peeked at the mounting pile of bodies in the back of the truck.
“Yeah, I am thinking we might need to go drop off this first lot soon,” I said as I walked over and took a pair of gloves.
“You think we won’t be able to fit them all in there?” Anna asked.
I looked at the truck bed. It wasn’t overly large to begin with, and the eight bodies already piled on top of each other made it look pretty full.
“There are at least this many guys still out there,” I said as I nodded to the load. “I don’t really want any of them to roll off during transit.”
“That sounds gross,” Bailey said as she and Paige approached with another stiff. They tossed it onto the others where it landed with a wet thud.
“I don’t think it could really get that much worse,” Paige said as she leaned against the truck.
“Trust me when I say that you’re wrong,” I grinned.
“Yeah… I don’t even wanna know,” Tara said as she shook her head. “Here, everyone take some gloves. Looks like you need them.”
Rolly and the girls quickly took a pair of gloves, used some water to wash off their hands, and threw them on.
“Now that you have some gloves go help search and move some corpses,” I said to Tara.
“Right away, Boss,” She replied with a grin. Then she gave me a sloppy salute, rushed off into the street, and started to loot the closest body.
“How many more do you want in here before we go drop them off?” Anna asked.
“Let’s do three more,” I said as I inspected the load.
“Cool, we’ll have it done soon,” the redhead said. Then she turned to Paige. “You go help Tara. I’ll take Bailey and grab a second.”
“Tav and I can grab the third,” Rolly said.
“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed with a nod.
All of us spread out again and picked over a few more dead men. The pile of guns and gear had started to grow fairly large, and we hadn’t even gone through the motorcycle bags. Every guy had at least one gun on them, and most carried a sidearm as well. There was also no shortage of ammo. Sorting the pile and counting the ammo was going to be a job all its own.
It didn’t take us long to get three more bodies piled into the rusting bed of our beat up truck.
“I’m going to run the bodies up the road a ways, and drop them off,” I said. “I need a volunteer to help me push them out the back.”
“I’ll do it,” Anna said.
“Thank god,” Tara said. “That sounds less fun than just carrying them.”
“It won’t be too bad,” I shrugged.
“We will keep stripping gear off these guys while you’re gone,” Paige said, “and then we’ll drag them into a pile so it will be easier to load.”
“Much appreciated. We shouldn’t be gone more than ten minutes.” I turned to Anna. “Ready to go?”
“Yep,” she said as she hopped into the passenger seat.
I nodded, took my position behind the wheel, started the truck, and looked back at my team. “Don’t enjoy yourselves too much.” Then I took off and headed out of town.
Anna and I headed off in the opposite direction of the bridge. Dense forest rose on either side of the road
, obscuring the bright sunlight above. We drove for a few minutes before I pulled off onto a wide section of shoulder.
“We’re just going to dump them here?” Anna asked as she inspected the area.
“Yeah, it’s far enough away,” I said. “I take it it’s not what you expected?”
“Not really, but I guess I don’t know what I expected,” she said as she hopped out.
“If this area was more populated, we probably would have found a more private area,” I said as I got out. “Really all I care about is not starting a forest fire accidentally.”
We made our way around to the back of the truck, and I pulled open the tailgate.
“I don’t have to do anything special here, do I?” Anna asked.
“Nope, just toss them into a pile on the dirt,” I replied as I grabbed one by the ankle and pulled until they tumbled out the truck bed.
Anna’s face wrinkled into a mask of disgust as the body hit the ground with one arm out at an unnatural angle. She shook her head, then grabbed the next corpse and pulled it free of the truck.
It didn’t take us long to transfer all of the dead into a messy heap at the back of the truck. There was plenty of blood still in the truck bed, but that would be a problem for later. Thankfully we had an easy source of water to actually clean our vehicles and tools with.
“Alright, let’s get back to the others,” I said.
Anna stood there, her eyes fixed on the mangled mass of bloody corpses.
“Come on,” I said as I frowned and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Sorry,” she muttered as she rushed to the truck.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” I said as I joined her. “This is ugly work, and it can get to you now and again.”
“I guess,” she said. “I mean, I know they are bad guys, but that doesn’t make a pile of bodies any less disturbing.”
“It won’t be a problem much longer,” I said.
“Yeah,” Anna said with a nod. “I’ll get over it.”
“I know, you’re strong,” I said as I looked at her and smiled.
“I’m glad you still think so,” she said.
“You proved it yesterday,” I replied. “You all did.”
“Yeah,” she laughed as she smiled at me. “I guess we did.”
Then we started back down towards town. It made sense that the girls would feel a little strange as they looked at the aftermath of yesterday’s fight. I knew they would get over it though. They only did what was necessary to keep themselves and each other alive and that would help to comfort them.