by Eric Vall
“I’ve changed my mind too,” he said.
“About what?” I asked.
“I think you’d be a good big brother,” he said with a smile.
“Coming from you,” I said with a grin. “That means a lot.”
“Thank you,” Kimmy said, and she led Mitch downstairs.
I sighed, pushed my hair back, and then I continued on up the stairs to the roof.
When I stepped outside I saw that Dan was on guard duty.
“Hey,” he called when he saw me.
“I came to relieve you.” I smiled.
“Oh, cool,” he said. “I’m freezing up here.”
“You look like it,” I chuckled. The young man was soaked from being out in the rain so long, though it wasn’t coming down hard at all.
“Is there anything else you want me to do?” he asked. “All the chores are done.”
“Just go sit in the room with the stoves,” I told him. “Get warm for a bit. I don’t need anybody else getting sick.”
“Alright.” He nodded.
Dan headed back downstairs and soon I was alone on the roof with only my rifle and the rain to keep me company.
I scanned the area as small droplets of rain splattered on my face. I couldn’t see my sentries, so I figured they were back in the trees where they should be. I didn’t like being so far away from them, and I was on edge from our encounter with the Guard and Canadians earlier that day.
The road was quiet for a while, and I thought about how Jeff would set up the explosives. We needed to get it done soon. Paige had predicted about three days before most of the Canadians arrived, but it seemed that some had gotten a head start.
Just then on the road below I saw a large group of maybe twenty people heading toward the bridge. The sentries wouldn’t have a sight on them yet, but I didn’t like those numbers. I picked up the binoculars we kept on the roof for whoever was on guard duty, cleaned them off with my shirt, and looked out to the group of people on the road.
Just as I had thought, there were twenty-three people I could see, so I scanned to check if they were armed. I found nothing on the first three, but the fourth had a rifle on his back, the fifth had what looked like a 1911 holstered on his hip, and the sixth had another rifle.
I decided it was time to go.
I ran down the stairs, and I was almost to the main floor when I ran into Mike coming up the stairs.
“I need you to take over roof duty,” I said quickly.
“Okay,” he said with a nod. “What’s wrong?”
“People on the road,” I called as I kept going down the stairs. “I’m going to help the sentries.”
“I’m on it!” Mike yelled, and I heard his footsteps race up the stairs as I reached the bottom and ran past the civilians playing games and out the door.
I sprinted through the courtyard, down the driveway, and to the woods by the bridge, all the while the rain stung my face with each drop. My lungs burned from running in the cold air, but I couldn’t think about discomfort.
“Tav!” Tara called out from the trees, and I finally stopped running.
“What’s wrong?” Paige asked with concern.
“People coming up the road!” I called. “Just over twenty of them.”
“Shit,” Paige said. “Get in here!”
I hurried through the trees until I saw the girls and Justin, then I found my own place and readied my rifle.
My breathing was heavy from the run, but I was focused and ready for the group that was coming.
The rain let up, but I could feel the temperature drop as the sun slid deeper behind the clouds. The road was flooded with the gray overcast of the sky, and everything was tinged a strange color like the filter they put on indie movies.
I looked over to see that Paige, Tara, and Justin were all set up and ready to fire, then I looked back to the road just as I heard the sounds of the group approaching.
They were all quiet as they walked until the guy in front noticed our signs ahead and the bodies.
“Holy shit,” he said and he pointed ahead to show the rest of the group.
“What the fuck?” a woman in a large red jacket asked.
“Fuck that,” another woman said, and she shook her head.
“I don’t know about you guys,” the first guy said with a grin. “But I’m going up there.”
“No way,” red jacket woman said.
“She’s right,” the other woman agreed. “It’s not worth it.”
Good call, ladies.
“Whatever they have up there has gotta be worth it,” the first guy said. He looked incredibly thin, and his clothes hung off from him like they were three sizes too large, but he had a rifle on his back, and I set my scope on him.
I almost felt bad for him, but there were other ways to survive than trying to take what didn’t belong to you.
“Well, I’m not going up there,” red jacket said firmly. “Anybody with me, let’s keep going.”
Several other group members nodded and moved to follow her as she kept going past the bridge.
The thin man proved to be more stubborn, he turned to the remainder of the group, most of which were the ones with weapons.
“And anybody with me,” he said with a wide, missing teeth grin. “Follow me.”
The others rallied behind him, and I did a quick head count. There were sixteen people including the front man. That meant four for each of us thereabouts.
“Shot on sight my ass,” missing teeth said, and he gestured around. “I don’t see anybody.”
The frontman pulled his rifle from behind his back, and the others did the same. They took a step onto the bridge, and I realigned my shot, took a deep breath, and exhaled as I pulled the trigger.
Missing teeth went down with a spray of blood from my headshot, and without missing a beat I lined up my next shot.
Those behind him began to curse and panic. They tried to fire off, but were much too slow. I took down another one, and I heard Tara fire to my right and another guy went down with a shot to the neck.
Justin’s rifle sounded and one of the men screamed as he got hit in the shoulder. He pulled a shotgun up with his good arm, and I lined up the shot and took him down, but his finger pulled the trigger out of reflex, and the shotgun went off with a loud bang.
I saw Paige take down one of the women with a shot to the chest, so that was five, which left us eleven more to deal with.
I lined up another shot and took down a tall, thin man with a bullet to the eye.
Tara got another with a shot to the head, and Justin managed to take down one of the guys with a pistol with a chest shot.
I saw three men trying to retreat, but I was focused, and I sniped them one after the other as they ran.
“Fuck!” one of the men screamed, and he went down to his knees. “I surrender!”
The warning was clear. These people had trespassed onto our property with the intention of robbing us, probably even killing us. I felt no remorse as I lined up a shot to the chest and took it. The guy coughed blood once, and then fell forward onto the body of another one of his buddies.
Tara, Paige, and Justin had taken out the last four while I took out the surrender guy, but I did another quick scan to make sure everyone was taken care of.
When I was satisfied that the mission was complete, I lowered my rifle and turned to my crew.
“Good job,” I said, and I stood up.
“Fuck,” Justin said, and his breath was heavy as he approached me. “That was really intense.”
“You did good,” I said with a smile.
“Thanks for taking out that one guy,” he said with a frown. “I thought I had the shot, but I caught him in the arm instead.”
“It’s alright,” I assured him. “You still did a great job. I saw that chest shot you got.”
“Thanks,” he said with a small smile, and he looked out at the fresh corpses.
Justin’s face went pale as he saw the mayhem
that surrounded us, and he doubled over and hurled into the bushes.
Tara and Paige made their way over to us, and I looked at them all seriously.
“Whoa,” Paige said as she approached, and she looked around me to Justin who was crouched down gagging. “Is he alright?”
“He’ll be fine,” I assured the pretty brunette.
“Probably the first time he’s seen a dead body,” Tara said with a shrug.
“Not everyone is meant for combat,” I said. “Unfortunately, sometimes it’s necessary.”
“At least this wave of people are taken care of,” Paige said.
“You did a good job,” I said. “But we need more people on duty at all times.”
“Right,” Tara agreed. “That was a pretty large group.”
“Paige,” I said. “I’d like six people on sentry duty from now on.”
“Okay,” the brunette said. “I can make a rotating schedule.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Can you go do that now?”
“Of course,” Paige replied. “Will you be okay here, or do you want me to send somebody else down here to take my spot?”
“We’ll be alright for now,” I said.
“Okay,” the brunette said, and she started to run back up toward the campus.
“I have a job for the rest of us,” I said.
“What are we doing?” Tara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Hanging bodies,” I chuckled.
“Gross,” the platinum blonde said, and her nose wrinkled.
“I know,” I said. “But I want to put up some more of these assholes.”
“Alright,” Justin said. “I’ll help.”
“Thanks,” I told him. “Can you go grab some rope?”
“Actually,” Tara said, and she reached for her backpack. “I have some in here.”
“Perfect,” I said, and I took the rope from the platinum blonde and headed toward the growing mound of bodies at the bridge.
Jeff needed to finish those explosives soon. If people kept coming in droves like that, it was only a matter of time before we were overpowered, even with our advantages.
“Where do you want to hang them?” Tara asked as she followed me to the bridge.
“Hm,” I said, and I looked around and thought for a moment. “I’d like to string them up across the bridge, but that would impede our line of sight.”
“Why don’t we just sharpen some sticks and put their heads on them?” the blonde asked sarcastically.
“You kid,” I laughed. “But that’s not too bad of an idea.”
“We could put a couple of them leaning against the pillars on the other side of the bridge,” Justin suggested.
“Good idea,” I said with a nod. “Let’s do that, and we’ll string some more up next to the others.”
“We look like a group of crazy people,” Tara chuckled.
“That’s the idea,” I said.
We moved a few of the bodies so they were sat up at the front of the bridge and easily visible to anybody passing through. Then we used the rope from Tara’s bag to string up the others by the neck and hang them next to the already decomposing corpses that had been there for a while. I left a few of the freshest bodies littered on the ground and spread the blood around with my shoes to show that we meant business.
Just as we finished tying up the bodies, I heard voices coming from down the road.
“Looks like our next visitors are here already,” Justin said.
“Appears so,” I replied. “Let’s get into the trees.”
The next group was even larger than the one before, probably closer to thirty people, mostly men, and each of them was carrying some sort of weapon, though half of them had knives instead of guns.
I watched from the trees as they approached the bridge and stopped for a moment to check out our handiwork.
“Must be some crazy ass hillbillies living up there,” one of the men in a dark sweater said.
“Looks like it,” another in motorcycle boots replied.
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” dark sweater said with a crazed smile.
“Those bodies look fresh,” motorcycle boots said, and he pointed at the men we had just taken out a few minutes earlier.
“You think they’re still around here?” a third guy in a red hoodie asked.
“Most likely,” motorcycle boots said, and he scanned the area.
I didn’t like that this guy seemed to know a thing or two, so I set my scope on him and waited.
“Yoo-hoo,” motorcycle boots called out, and he took a few steps forward toward the bridge. “Anybody home?”
I looked over to Justin and Tara and shook my head at both of them. We wouldn’t give away our position.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” red hoodie taunted.
These assholes were getting on my last nerve. I needed them to make a decision. They had some sense to see that the bodies were fresh, and I hoped that they would use that sense and walk away. That would mean less ammunition wasted on dicks like them, but something told me that they weren’t quite that smart.
“Let’s see if we can scare ‘em out,” another guy in a yellow rain coat said, and he took a step forward, pulled his shotgun from behind his back, and fired a round off toward the trees on the opposite side of us.
I heard Justin jump slightly, but he didn’t make a sound other than that, and when I looked over to Tara, she just looked pissed. Her jaw was set, her eyes were narrowed, and her rifle was aimed at motorcycle boots, who was laughing at his buddy’s blatant waste of ammunition.
Idiots.
“Boys,” motorcycle boots called. “Get ready.”
The men started to pull out their weapons, and that was the end of it for me, I didn’t care whether they had taken a step onto that bridge, they had pissed off the wrong Ranger today.
Since Tara had motorcycle boots locked, I turned my scope to dark sweater. I lined up a headshot, but just as I pulled the trigger they started to rush forward.
“Fuck,” I cursed low to myself.
The men ran at a full sprint, and they were already halfway across the bridge.
I took aim at motorcycle boots once more, but he moved around too much, dodging and weaving back and forth. I decided to take out the guy behind him first, and just as I pulled my trigger I heard Tara pull hers as well, and two of the men went down and got trampled by the others as they continued to run.
Justin got a guy with a blow to the knee, and I quickly saw that he had a rifle on him, so I lined up a headshot as he screamed in pain.
Tara took out another and Justin got one in the chest.
I took out four in a row, but the guy in front was still managing to avoid my scope.
We focused on the others, and by the time they were all down, motorcycle boots had made it to within a hundred feet of us.
I lined up my shot. I could tell he was scared at that point, he had stopped weaving, and he was open to my aim.
Just as I pulled the trigger I heard a rifle crack off, and motorcycle boots went down with two shots to the dome.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Not me,” Tara said, and she shook her head.
“Me neither,” Justin said.
“It sounded like Bailey’s gun,” I mused.
“It’s me and Jeff!” Bailey called out, and I saw them come around by the trees.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“The explosives are ready,” Jeff said.
“Oh, hell yeah.” I grinned and headed toward the two.
“Jeff was headed down here alone,” Bailey said as I approached them. “So I figured I would accompany him.”
“Good thing,” Jeff chuckled. “I saw that guy coming up here and I knew I was ill prepared.”
“Always bring your weapon with you,” I told him.
“I definitely won’t forget again,” he said.
“I pulled us into the trees when I saw what was going on,”
Bailey said.
“Good job,” I told her. “And good shot.”
“You got him too,” the blonde hippie chuckled.
“Yeah,” I said. “But he was becoming a pain in my ass.”
“He was weaving around,” Tara explained as she joined us. “I couldn’t get a shot on him.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “I couldn’t either for a moment.”
“We got him, though,” Bailey said. “That’s all that matters.”
“Yes it is,” I said with a smile.
Just then the wind picked up, and small white flecks started to fall from the sky.
“It’s snowing,” Bailey sighed as she looked up at the clouds.
“Gross,” Tara sniffed.
“It’s not gross,” Bailey laughed.
“It will help slow these assholes down,” I said, and I gestured to the bodies in the road.
“I guess that’s true,” Tara said.
“And if the snow doesn’t,” Jeff said. “I know what will.”
“Let’s get these explosives set up,” I said.
Blowing up the bridge was only going to be a last resort, but I was impressed that Jeff had gotten the stuff rigged up so quickly. These groups of Canadians seemed to be getting larger and larger, and I was already exhausted from not getting any sleep the past couple nights. The cold was keeping me awake and alert, but I knew I couldn’t keep up trying to keep an eye on everyone forever.
“I’m ready whenever you are,” Jeff said.
“Bailey, can you stay down here?” I asked.
“Of course,” the pretty blonde replied.
“Let’s get this bridge ready to blow,” I said with a grin.
Chapter 8
I started back up the driveway with Jeff, but as we jogged up the hill, the snow began to come down in large, fat flakes that stuck to the ground and built up quickly. The wind blew a terrible cold over us, and I couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering.
“I got it all in here!” Jeff said, and he pointed to the science building.
Even the cold inside the building was a welcome relief compared to what was outside of it.
“It looks like it’s sticking out there,” Jeff breathed.
“Yeah,” I said. “We need to do this quickly.”
“Alright.” He nodded. “I have four of them made.”