Without Law 2

by Eric Vall

  “On your left,” Anna yelled.

  I chanced a glance behind me and saw her rocketing up the hill. I grinned and went to run faster but as my front foot hit the round, I felt a rock slip out from under me. I stumbled forward, fell onto my knees, and my redheaded companion cheered as she passed me.

  “You should have kept your eyes on the prize!” Anna exclaimed.

  I chuckled, pushed myself upright, and brushed off my pants. There was no recovering from that little fall, not against Anna anyway. So I went for a casual sprint to finish out this race.

  “What’s the matter old man?” Anna yelled down to me as she reached the summit. “Can’t keep up?”

  “You know, I am pretty sure I would have hit the top first if you had not caused me to fall,” I replied.

  “Guess you shoulda been more careful,” Anna laughed. She threw her hands into the air and cheered as I joined her at the top.

  “So how long am I going to have to hear about this defeat?” I asked with a grin.

  “We’ll see,” Anna said with a shrug. “I won’t gloat nearly as long if you can manage to beat me next time.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know there was going to be a next time,” I said as I pulled out my water bottle and took a drink.

  “You just unleashed a monster, Tav,” she said. “I got a taste of competition and I want more.”

  “I clearly should have thought about this more before I challenged you,” I joked.

  Anna grinned and crouched to catch her breath.

  “Well, the first place location should be just up ahead,” I said as I pointed into the trees. “Let’s go see if there is anything there.” I put away my water and headed through the trees.

  “I’m right behind you,” Anna said.

  It quickly became clear that something was wrong, because the closer we got to whatever waited us the worse the trees looked. At first I didn’t think anything of how few leaves clung to the branches of the surrounding trees, but a couple minutes later the trees around me were almost bare. The trees had also taken on a sickly grey color, and the branches were thin and frail.

  “What the fuck is this,” Anna whispered.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “It can’t be good though.” I pulled my pistol and chambered a round. “Keep your eyes open.”

  Up ahead I could make out what looked to be a cabin. I approached carefully and took cover behind a large, sick, tree at the edge of the clearing the building sat in.

  It looked like a traditional old hunting cabin complete with a deer skull hanging over the front door. The whole place was in disrepair, and it appeared like a stiff breeze might collapse the entire thing. Every window was covered by rotting boards, and every so often the cabin creaked for seemingly no reason. Despite all of that, it seemed like the building could be occupied. The ground the building sat on looked as dead and blighted as the trees that surrounded the place, and there was a foul stink in the air.

  “I think we found a meth house,” I hissed.

  “If that's true I don’t want to meet whoever might be inside,” Anna whispered.

  “Agreed,” I replied.

  “So what do we do?” she asked.

  “Well, there is a chance that no one is home,” I said. “I’m going to go see if I can peek inside. You stay put.”

  “Gladly,” Anna said. “I’ll cover you from here,”

  “Alright, but no guns,” I said with a sigh. “If it is a meth house any misplaced shots could cause this whole place to go up.”

  “Shit,” Anna muttered. “I don’t like this, Tav.”

  “Me neither, but this could be a good place to find guns,” I whispered before I peeked around the tree at the cabin again. Then, once I felt safe that no one was out there, I pulled jogged to one of the boarded up cabin windows to sneak a peek inside.

  Chapter 9

  I pressed myself against the cabin and listened for a minute, but I heard no indication of someone inside. Then I looked back at Anna, gave her a thumbs up, and leaned up to look in through one of the windows. All of what I could see was covered in a thick layer of dust, and there was an acrid shrap smell that lingered in the air.

  “Is anyone in there?” Anna hissed at me from her place in the trees.

  “Doesn’t look like it,” I said as I stood up and waved her over. “Let’s go have a look inside.”

  The redhead scanned the area one last time before charging out of the trees and over to my position. Her nose wrinkled as soon as she got next to me and she shook her head to try to clear away the smell.

  “What is that?” She asked.

  “Smells like some sort of chemical cocktail. I think I was right about this being a meth house.” I walked over to the door and pulled it slowly open. I leaned in and peered inside before I took a step inside.

  The main room was musty and covered in thick layers of dust. Some old trash sat discarded in the corners of the room, and empty beer cans were sprinkled randomly across the hardwood floors. There was a single dirty couch sitting in front of a cold stone fireplace, and several animal skulls hung on the thin walls. A single deer bust hung crooked over the fire’s hearth, but it too was covered in thick dust, and a cheap trucker hat had been tucked between its antlers.

  “This place looks like every cabin in every horror movie I have ever seen,” Anna said as she peeked in too.

  “Afraid?” I asked with a grin as I looked over to her.

  “Unnerved maybe, but I know you’ll keep me safe,” she said with a chuckle.

  “Well then follow me and stick close,” I said. “It looks pretty long abandoned, so I think we should be fine.”

  “Alright, but if someone in a mask holding a knife runs after us you better shoot him,” she joked.

  “Let’s just hope that I can kill it with bullets,” I replied before I took my first step onto the spongy wooden floor. It creaked under my weight and barely felt like it would support me as I tried to move gently forward.

  “Please tell me we don’t need to search through the trash and shit,” Anna said as she gingerly stepped in behind me.

  “Oh, hell no,” I said. “I don’t think there is any situation where I would think that was a good idea.”

  “Thank god,” Anna while she batted away a fly buzzing past her beautiful face. “Just being in here is bad enough.”

  “Move slow,” I instructed. “There could be traps anywhere.”

  “Traps?” Anna replied “Why am I not surprised.”

  “Meth heads go to crazy lengths to keep people away from their stuff,” Every step we took stirred up more dust as we crept through the first room.

  “You know, I think this place is actually scarier than anything I have experienced up to this point,” Anna said. “Like I legitimately feel like I just stepped into a horror movie.”

  “Trust me when I tell you that this is nothing,” I said. “I have been in college dorms more disgusting than this place. Places like this usually have a nice stash of guns in them, and we can use the extra weapons.”

  “I think it’s an atmosphere thing,” she said. “I just feel like we are going to get to a basement and find some horrible creature or cannibal man chained up.”

  “Don’t let your imagination get the better of you,” I said. “This really is just an old dusty cabin, and there is no such thing as monsters.”

  “I don’t know, I think we could safely call the bikers monsters,” Anna said. “I mean, they took off a man’s head, and burned down a police station.”

  “They are animals, calling them monsters gives them too much credit,” I said.

  The far side of the main room ended in a threshold that led into what looked to be a kitchen and a dark hallway. I clicked on my flashlight and checked down the hallway to see a partially open door that led into a bathroom. The hallway itself was littered with more empty beer bottles and a couple of magazines. There was a second door on the right side of the hall, but it had been boarded up.

  “
Anything good down there?” Anna asked.

  “Not really,” I said as I shook my head. “Not unless you want to check out some drug addicts’ bathroom.”

  “Oh god no,” Anna groaned. “I have a feeling it would be worse in there than it is here.”

  “You’re probably right,” I said. “Come on, let’s check out this kitchen.”

  “Lead on, Boss,” Anna said.

  I turned away from the hallway and stepped into a sizable kitchen. Everything in here had once been white, but now seemed to be stained a sickly yellow color. The sink was piled high with used dishes, and even more beer cans covered the countertops.

  “God, whoever lived here liked to drink,” Anna muttered.

  “Too bad they didn’t save any for us,” I joked.

  “Please, as if I would drink anything we found in a dusty old cabin like this,” Anna replied.

  There was an old school fridge sitting in one corner with a small brown sludge dripping out of the bottom, and there was another opening at the back of the room.

  “What do you think happened to whoever lived here?” Anna asked.

  “Based on what we have seen so far I would guess whoever owned this place got hungry after the EMP and went out in search of food,” I said.

  Some cans on the counter top shifted, and a couple of them rolled off and bounced across the dirty linoleum floor.

  “What was that?” Anna gasped as she pressed up against me.

  “I don’t know,” I said as I aimed my pistol at the countertop.

  A couple more cans dropped onto the floor as a large rat scurried over the countertop and ran out the broken window behind the sink.

  I let out a breath and chuckled as I lowered my gun.

  “Looks like we are not the only ones looking for scraps,” Anna said.

  “Yeah, I’m surprised we haven't seen more of them.”

  It was hard to sneak through the kitchen due to the flooring. It was somehow both sticky and slick and every time I pulled my foot up there was an audible sucking noise. As I passed the fridge I was hit by the smell of whatever was rotting inside it. I grimaced and kept going, but I heard Anna gag a moment later.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I was just not prepared for the smell.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” I agreed. “Just resist the urge to open the fridge and find out what’s inside.”

  “Aw man, I really wanted to see what could cause such a smell,” Anna replied in mock disappointment.

  I chuckled and shook my head.

  “You know, I could see how this might have once been a pretty cool place to come chill,” Anna said. “Like, if everything was clean I could see the appeal of coming to this place with my friends and a case of beer to escape for a weekend.”

  “What about that horror movie vibe?” I asked.

  “Well, I think that would sort of be part of the appeal,” she said. “I used to think it was fun to be afraid.”

  “You don’t now though?” I asked

  “Nah, there are more than enough scary moments in real life now,” she explained.

  I stepped through the opening on the far side of the kitchen and found myself standing at the top of a set of stairs that led into complete darkness. An acrid stench floated up from whatever waited in the darkness below.

  Anna joined me at the top of the stairs and shook her head. “I hope whatever is down there is worth all this.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  I pulled out my flashlight, clicked it on, and shined it down the stairs. The wooden stairs were dotted with dead flies and there looked to be a yellow haze in the air at the bottom.

  “Well this must be where they made the meth,” Anna said with a sigh.

  “Yeah, I would try not to breathe when we’re down there,” I suggested.

  “Oh yeah, good idea,” Anna said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

  “Alright, same rules, stay close and watch your step,” I said. “Who knows what else we might find down here.”

  “Right behind you,” my redheaded companion said before she nudged me forward.

  I moved slowly down the stairs with my flashlight in one hand and knife in the other. As I reached the bottom, the harsh smell of the yellow burned my nose and made my eyes water. I took shallow breaths in an attempt to take in as little of whatever this stuff was as possible.

  I scanned the room with my light as Anna made her way down the stairs behind me.

  The basement was made up of a large central room, but there were three more closed doors set into the rotting wood plank walls. A full set of equipment needed to make meth sat dormant on several large tables in the middle of the room. All the ingredients one might need for the drug were scattered throughout the room, and a filthy, well-worn cot was pushed into the corner under the stairs. A jug half full of yellow liquid, and a water bottle sat beside it. Compared to the cabin above this main room was almost clean except for the large number of dead flies that decorated the place.

  “How is this room just as creepy as the others even though it doesn’t have any of the old skulls?” Anna asked.

  “I think it’s all the dead flies,” I said.

  “Yeah, what’s up with that?” she followed up.

  “I think it’s the air,” I replied. “I think we should finish this fast, I don’t want to breathe this stuff any longer than I have to.”

  I headed left, around the tables, towards the first door, but felt Anna grab my shoulder.

  “Wait,” she whispered and pointed up at the ceiling above me.

  My eyes went wide as I shined the flashlight on several, rust eaten, kitchen knives attached to some sort of swinging pole tucked up between the floor joists.

  I shined the light around and found another tripwire setup in front of me. If Anna had not said anything I might have ended up with a chest full of stab wounds. This was why it paid to bring backup.

  “Nice spot,” I said. A quick inspection of the trap showed me that it was easily disabled, so I reached up, held the pole in place, and cut the wire that triggered it. Then I guided the pole down and let it hang there.

  “Well I hope you remember to be careful,” she chided.

  “I think you might have mentioned it, yeah,” I said with a small smile. Then I went to the first door and pulled it open only to be greeted by a fresh wave of stench. The interior of the first room was covered in plastic bags full of shit, and plastic bottles of piss.

  “Don’t look in there,” I said before I slammed the door shut, hunched over, and gagged as I tried to fight the urge to vomit.

  “Yeah, I could smell it from here,” Anna said with a frown.

  I moved to the second door and thankfully no new smells escaped as I threw it open. Instead the interior was cleaner than any of the other places in the cabin so far, and several boxes of shotgun shells, .45, and 7.62x39mm ammo sat against the far wall on a folding table along with a cheap looking pistol. Three rifle cases, one open, sat on the floor, along with a small selection of knives.

  “I found something,” I called out and stepped into the room. I set the flashlight on the table and pulled one of the duffle bags out of my backpack as Anna entered the room.

  “Looks like you called it,” Anna said after she knelt down and popped open a rifle case to reveal a black, semi auto, 12-gauge shotgun.

  “I haven’t been around a lot of places like this, but the few I have been in all had guns,” I said while I loaded the duffle bag full of ammo. There were four hundred rounds of .45, half of which were hollow point, seven hundred rounds of surplus 7.62x39mm, and two hundred and fifty 12 gauge shells. The boxes the ammo came in was yellow and soft, and I almost thought about just dumping all the ammo loose into the bag so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. However, I decided that, for the time being, the boxes were useful, and I could get rid of them once we reached the campus.

  “I like this,” Anna said.

  I turne
d to see her holding a somewhat rusty SKS rifle with curved twenty round detachable magazine.

  “Awesome,” I said with a grin. “Any extra magazines in the case?”

  “Doesn’t look like it,” she said after she checked.

  “That’s a shame,” I said. “Still, it’s a decent looking gun. Make sure it’s not loaded and toss it in the bag.

  The magazine was full, and Anna popped it out before she cleared the chamber. Then she loaded the single round back in the magazine before tossing it and the gun into the duffle bag. Her movements were really smooth and well-practiced, even with the unfamiliar gun, and I felt a bit of pride swell in my chest.

  I tossed the shotgun in on top before I picked up the pistol, a cheap, dirty, .45 caliber Hi Point, cleared it, and added it to the bag as well.

  “What sorta gun is that rifle?” Anna asked.

  “It’s an SKS, basically a semi-automatic civilian model AK-47,” I explained. “They were made to be tough, cheap, and easy to use. I’ve shot them a few times, and while they are a bit slower and heavier than the AR platform, the recoil is nice and smooth and it won’t quit.”

  “Sounds sweet,” she said as her grin widened.

  “It needs to be cleaned up, but once it is, it should make for a nice reliable gun,” I said with a nod of agreement before I tossed the duffle over my shoulder, picked up my flashlight, and headed back out into the main room.

  “Almost done,” Anna said as she followed me out.

  “Yeah, just one more room,” I said as I headed for door number three. As I pulled the door open, it came off its rusty hinges and fell forward into the main room.

  “Wow, is there anything in here that is not falling apart?” Anna asked.

  “Meth is nasty stuff,” I said. “It doesn’t spare anything from its destructive potential. Even if we destroyed everything here, the land would never be the same again.”

  “No thank you,” she said.

  Then I stepped into the last room. Based on the couch, porno mags, meth and needles, I guessed this was a recreational room of sorts. I shined the flashlight around, and then, after seeing nothing immediately useful, turned back to Anna.